Festival of the Arts

Thursday afternoon we rode the Friendship Boat up to Epcot to check out the Festival of the Arts and try for a 1 pm VQ for Guardians. We walked around the showcase checking out the art and sampling some food from the booths.

The park was pretty crowded for a Thursday in January. Waits for rides were long, because Test Track and the Mexico ride are both under refurbishment. Eventually we rode Guardians and headed home.

This morning Susan got the kids into Animal Kingdom to ride Dinosaur and a few other things. In the afternoon they headed back to Epcot for a chance at another ride on Guardians.

I joined them for a while after work, and although Susan and I left after dinner, by the time the kids rode Guardians it was after dark.

Rock N Roller Coaster

This month, Jenn released her tenth novel. She continues to work at Barnes & Noble on occasion, especially for special events like author signings. 

Over on Bay Lake, Disney continues to work on the new resort at the old River Country site. They have brought several more cranes onsite, and announced the new resort will be called Lakeshore Lodge. 

Two of the kids UP friends came into town last night. The kids picked them up at the airport and went to dinner at Disney Springs, then by Gideon’s for cookies.

 

This morning we took them to the parks. They wanted to ride Guardians of the Galaxy, but I couldn't get a virtual que for it so instead we went to Hollywood Studios to ride Rock n Roller coaster. Disney has announced it will be rethemed to the Muppets soon.

Animal Kingdom

This week Susan and I celebrated our anniversary, and used up more of Susan’s birthday coupons. Tuesday we spent time at Animal Kingdom. We were surprised that Christmas decorations were still up, and holiday music was playing as we entered. 

After checking out the shops in Discovery Island, we walked through Dinoland. Disney had put up walls around the Dino-Rama area in preparation for its replacement with an Encanto attraction.

We headed into Asia, and had lunch at Yak & Yeti, where Susan used her birthday coupon from Landry’s restaurants. After lunch the wait for the African Safari ride had dropped to only 15 minutes, so we rode that. 

After that we walked through Pandora. The wait for Flight of Passage was only 20 minutes, so we rode that as well. We then headed out, and stopped by Cast Connection, where Susan picked up some kids t-shirts to send to LA fire victims. 

Wednesday we ran errands and worked around the house.This afternoon I drove Susan to a Masonic Lodge east of downtown Orlando so she could transfer her Nile membership to Florida. This evening we went out to dinner.

Birthday Week

This week is Susan’s birthday, so she got several coupons for free dinners and snacks. We started Monday night after work with dinner at Ford’s Garage. We’ve gone to this auto-themed restaurant several times since they opened one near us a few years ago.  The food is pretty good.

When we went to the Tampa Bay Lightning match last month, Susan and I ended up talking to someone with group sales. He offered to give us a tour of the arena the next time we came and Tuesday we drove out to Tampa to take him up on it.  

We were hoping he would show us a bit more behind the scenes stuff than he did, but it was still a pretty cool tour. I especially liked getting to go up where the organ is, high above the arena. After the tour we had a late lunch at the Yardhouse next to the arena, and then watched the Lightning defeat the Carolina Hurricanes 3 to 2. 

Last night we went to Benihana on International Drive for dinner. Earlier today Susan and I redeemed several birthday coupons as we ran errands, and used another this evening to eat dinner at Red Robin.