Animal Kingdom

This week Susan and I are celebrating our anniversary, and using up more of Susan’s birthday coupons. Today 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. 

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. 

Christmas at Magic Kingdom

Thursday morning Susan and I went to Magic Kingdom to check out the decorations there. Christmas decorations go up as soon as Halloween is over, and Very Merry Christmas parties begin. The parties at Hollywood Studios, called Jollywood Nights, also returned.

We made a loop around the park, rode the peoplemover, ate some lunch, and watched the new Country Bear show. We also looked through some shops and Susan visited with some of her former coworkers. I would have liked to ride the Jingle Cruise, but the park was fairly busy for early December, so we headed out.

On the way into the park, we stopped at the Grand Floridian to see the decorations there and the gingerbread house.

Over at the Polynesian Resort, crews were putting the final touches on the Island Tower. It opened today.

Last evening Susan, Jenn, and I returned to Amalie Arena to watch the Lightning defeat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 5-3.

Festival of Holidays

Yesterday afternoon Susan and I went into Epcot to check out the Festival of Holiday booths as well as the holiday decorations. We parked at Hollywood Studios and took the Friendship Boat up so I could visit some of my old co-workers, then made a lap around the World Showcase. We took the Skyliner back to the Studios.

We didn’t try a lot of snacks from the festival booths because we knew we were going to Chef Mickey’s at the Contemporary for dinner. The kids joined us. Chef Mickey’s is an all you can eat character buffet. The food and decor aren’t great but we hadn’t been there in over a decade. 

After dinner we wandered through the shops at the Contemporary and admired their gingerbread house.

Universal Christmas

I've been wanting to get into the parks to see the Christmas decorations since the start of November, but we've been too busy. This week we finally had some time. Yesterday Susan and I went to Universal for a few hours. On our way through CitiWalk, we stopped at Margaritaville for a late lunch/early dinner. 

We started in Islands of Adventure. The entry area had decorations up, but Marvel Superhero Island, Toon Lagoon, and Jurassic Park didn’t. I stopped for a ride on Spider-Man, my favorite ride in the park, and would have like to try Velociocoaster but the line was too long. The parks were pretty crowded for a weekday in early December. 

The Harry Potter area had lots of decorations and I’m sure Seuss Landing did as well, but we took the train from Hogsmeade over to the Studio park. 

We walked through the New York area to see the decorations there, then watched the Christmas parade in front of Mel’s Diner. The balloons were fairly impressive. 

On our way out we looked through several stores, including the new Wicked store. Besides merchandise it had some props and costumes from the new movie. I'm hoping Universal will add a family style Wicked ride some day.

Magic Kingdom Cruisers

Last week, I started training to drive cruisers at Magic Kingdom Watercraft. I finished my training on Sunday. Monday night Jenn and Bryan attended a concert at Kia Center in Orlando.

Tuesday night we went to see ICE! at the Gaylord Palms. Gaylord’s are large resorts with big convention centers. There are a handful of the, around the country, and each one holds an ICE! event each year, which displays ice sculptures with a Christmas or winter theme. 

This year at the Gaylord Palms the sculptures were themed to the movie Elf. Besides the ice sculptures, there were several other Christmas themed events. After checking them out we had dinner at the steakhouse there. It was good, but pretty expensive. Yesterday morning we all went to see Wicked Part 1.

Food & Wine

Jenn continues to attend Tampa Bay Lightning matches. Two weeks ago she went to Amalie Arena to watch them play the Philadelphia Flyers. Last week she watched their matches against the Winnipeg Jets and the New Jersey Devils. She also released her ninth book, a Christmas romance. 

The Food & Wine Festival at Epcot started at the end of August, but Susan and I have been too busy to make it into the park to check it until yesterday afternoon.

But we didn’t see much of the Festival. My plan was to stop at some of the booths for dinner, but after riding Listen to the Land we saw that Garden Grill was practically empty and decided to have dinner there. We enjoyed the food and seeing Mickey and friends, but by the time we were done it was fairly late and we were too full to want to sample anything from the booths.