After breakfast, I took a bus to the Animal Kingdom, where I was planning on attending a Photo Walk meet hosted by two of the fantastic All Ears photographers—Scott and Barrie. I met the rest of the group near the Animal Kingdom, and once again enjoyed mingling with everyone. Scott and Barrie had a lot of raffle prizes for the guests, including some 8 x 10 photos they took around Disney World. I didn’t win any of them, and too many people at the meet knew who I was so I couldn’t mug the winners for a photo either.
Someone suggested that we have a cheer in honor of the 15th Anniversary of All Ears. Scott asked John, our resident Towncrier, to lead us in the cheer. John stood up on the brick wall, said a few words about the wonderful community that lead us all to the Animal Kingdom, and led us in a cheer in honor of All Ears.
After the cheer, we all started to make our way in the park to take some photos on one of the trails and also go on the safari. I had plans to meet up with other friends, so I wound up leaving the rest of the group.
I made my way over to Expedition Everest. None of my friends had arrived yet, so I grabbed a fast pass and got in the standby line for Expedition Everest. By the time I got off the ride, Krista and Todd had arrived, so I got in line with them. When we got to the platform, a cast member tried to put me in a row with a single rider three rows in front of Krista and Todd, but I told him that I wanted to ride near my friends.
Skippy had arrived in the park by the time we got off the ride, and John showed up from the Photo Walk. Skippy, John, Todd, and I went on Expedition Everest again.
John and Todd on Expedition Everest
Skippy and I wanted to ride Expedition Everest again, so we said goodbye to the others. They gave us their fast passes before they left, so Skippy and I rode Expedition Everest two more times. Skippy had never ridden the ride in the front row, so we wound up requesting it both times.
After Expedition Everest, we were getting ready to leave the park. We had a late lunch planned for a Candlelight Processional Lunch Package, so we decided to get some egg rolls at the Anandupar Local Food Cafes before we left the park. I really love the egg rolls here. They are crisp, flaky, and bursting with flavor. These are the kind of egg rolls that Jesus loves and approves us, as Diane discovered last year on our December trip.
After our snack, Skippy and I made our way to the park exit. It looked like we were leaving just in time because a large pack of the scariest animals in the world was stampeding into the front gate. No, it wasn’t a group of lions or tigers or bears on the loose. It was much worse than that. It was a Brazilian tour group, all dressed in yellow shirts! There must have been 300 hundred of them! Grab the kids! Run for your life!
Yellow and Black Attack!
Skippy and I walked to the bus stop for the Ticket and Transportation Center. We were planning on making a brief stop at the Magic Kingdom to attend the Tomorrowland Transit Authority meet hosted by Len Testa, Matt Hochberg, and the rest of the WDW Today gang. Unfortunately, I had the wrong time on my itinerary—the meet was an hour later than I thought, and the time wouldn’t work for us. We did take a ride on the Tomorrowland Tranist Authority while we were there, though.
We headed out of the park and took a bus to the Boardwalk so I could drop some stuff off in my room, and then we walked to Via Napoli to meet Diane and Kate for lunch for the Candlelight Processional. There were already a bunch of people in the standby line for the Candlelight Processional three hours before show time! I guess everyone wanted to see Neil Patrick Harris!
I started my meal with the Beef Tortellini in Bordo (broth). The tortellini was excellent. It was tender, and had a nice chunk of meat in it. It was served in chicken broth, which seemed a bit odd to me. I figured it would be served in beef broth.
For my entrée, I ordered the Candele, which was candlestick pasta in a sausage ragu with cheese and meatballs. This dish was excellent. The pasta was very tender, and the sauce had a lot of flavor. It had a slight kick too it, but it wasn’t too spicy. The bite-sized meatballs were a bit stiffer than I usually like, but they were good.
For dessert, I ordered the vanilla gelato. It was good, but not as good as the vanilla gelato that I had at Mama Melrose’s the day before. The gelato at Mama Melrose’s was a lot smoother than the gelato at Via Napoli.
After lunch, we walked outside and saw that the standby line for the Candlelight Processional had grown considerably. It was already inching its way towards Germany about two hours before show time! We made our way towards the line for people who purchased the dinner package, and it was already back to Japan! We got in the line, and waited for them to start letting people in.
Kate and Diane
They started letting us in about 40 minutes before show time, and we grabbed seats about four rows back. I had been fighting a bit of a cough the past couple of days, and ran out of cough drops while we were waiting. The cough seemed to be getting worse the closer it got to show time. I was debating about going to get some water, but our row was full and I didn’t really want to climb over everyone. Diane had some gum, so that definitely helped.
When Neil Patrick Harris first started reading the story, I felt a huge cough coming on, and I did my best to stifle it so I wouldn’t disturb anyone else. I was holding it, and kind of gagging a bit. Diane looked at me, and started to giggle a bit as I was kind of gag coughing as I tried my hardest to hold the full blown cough in until the choir started singing so I could cough without disturbing everyone. Diane told me later that my face was as red as the maroon Gryffindor t-shirt I was wearing, and once she knew I was OK, she thought it was one of the funniest things she had seen. After that, I tried to cough when everyone was applauding, or the singing was loud so that I wouldn’t cough when Neil Patrick Harris was speaking.
Despite the cough, I really enjoyed Neil Patrick Harris as the narrator. He was definitely in my top five—right up there with Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Whoopi Goldberg. He seemed to take it very seriously, which I really liked. He stood stone faced during most songs, except for “Rejoice in Exceeding Great Joy” (when he moved his shoulders and bounced to the music) and “The Alleluia Chorus” (which he sang along to). Oh, and he was even more handsome in person than he is on TV. Good old Doogie.
After the Candlelight Processional, we started to walking to the International Gateway. The crowds were insane! We were like cattle moving between all of the people leaving the 5:15 show, the people waiting for the 6:45 show, and the people who were just trying to get from point A to point B! I don’t think I’ve ever been stuck in the middle of so many people! The dinner package line for the 6:45 line was insane—it was stretched out to France!
Diane, Kate, and I said goodbye to Skippy at the International Gateway, and walked to the Boardwalk. We were heading over to Universal Studios for the Disapalooza meet at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Diane rented a car for the night so we could drive over on our own rather than go on the DIS buses. We were picking Masayo up at the Animal Kingdom Lodge on our way there.
Even with a few short cuts like the one my dad used to take (i.e. wrong turns), we still made it to Universal in plenty of time for the meet. Diane parked the car in the garage, and we made the 15 minute walk to the front gate of Islands of Adventure. We ran into more of our friends there, including Mary Jo and Kathy!
Universal employees walked us back to a holding area just outside of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, where they were serving various soft drinks. We walked around and said hello to some more of our friends until they let us into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Shortly after they let us in, I ran into my friend Cristen from my “Rent” days. I hadn’t seen Cristen in about ten years, so it was great to see her again. It was weird to have my “Rent” world collide with my Disney world.
After a quick chat with Cristen, I headed over to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which I rode with Diane, Kate, and Masayo. I absolutely love this ride. It is just non-stop intensity from start to finish as you fly around all over the Hogwarts grounds, encountering gigantic spiders, dementors, and many of the characters that you know and love (or love to hate) in the book. My only disappointment was that they didn’t let us walk through the entire queue. The castle is an attraction in its own right, and it would have been nice to walk through the entire castle rather than just a small portion of it.
After our ride on the Forbidden Journey, we met up with a few more of our friends—Kathy, John, and Toby (SayHello)—and made our way over to the Dragon Challenge. Kathy didn’t want to go on it, but I told her that she had to join us on the ride. I told her that she would be fine, and she would enjoy the coaster. Unlike the Forbidden Journey, the sent us winding through the queue—which is at least a quarter mile long—instead of the much shorter Express Pass queue.
When we finally made it to the ride, we all climbed into our seats. I sat next to Kathy, who was now saying, “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you.” over, and over, and over again. She screamed loudly throughout the ride, including screaming, “I’m going to kill you” at me a few times. But Kathy survived the ride, and even admitted that it wasn’t that bad.
After our ride on the Dragon Challenge, our group separated, and I went to see who else I could find. I wound up running into Krista and Todd. I talked Todd into going on the Dragon Challenge with me. Todd enjoyed it so much that we got back in line and rode the other coaster.
After our ride, I grabbed a Butterbeer. I ran into Megan and Lori, and also Diane and Kate, so we stood against a short wall to drink our Butterbeers. Eventually, John and Kathy found their way to us too. I wanted to go on the Forbidden Journey one more time, so I talked Kate, John, and Kathy into joining me on the ride. I told Kate that she would have a blast riding the ride with John because he is loud and funny on rides.
After the ride, Kate and I met up with Diane. They were just starting one of the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons show, so we stopped to watch it. This was a fun little show to watch if you happen upon it, but I don’t think I’d go out of my way to see it. I thought the Frog Choir show, which I had seen on a previous trip, was more entertaining.
After the show, Diane, Masayo, Kate, and I made our way out of the park. On the way out, I showed Masayo the Hidden Mickey I found inside the gate of Islands of Adventure last year. An employee walked us over to see it because he had never noticed it before. A very grumpy security guard at Universal was telling Diane that it wasn’t a hidden Mickey, and Universal doesn’t have hidden Mickeys. But it is a clear and distinct hidden Mickey. I think that security guard pooped all of his pixie dust out long ago.
It looks like a Hidden Mickey to me!
Overall, I enjoyed the DISapalloza event, although I wish it was more than two and a half hours. The only other thing that was a bit annoying was they had a DJ playing loud music and making announcements throughout the night. It really took away from the atmosphere of the area, and made it difficult to talk if you were standing in the area where the DJ was set up.
Diane, Katie, and I made our way to the car, and Diane drove Masayo back to the Beach Club. We stopped to fill the rental car with gas and made our way back to the Boardwalk just about 12:30. It had been another fun day with my Disney family.
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