Saturday, March 2, 2019

WDW February 2019 Bucket List Results

It's been a few days since our return from Walt Disney World.  Unfortunately, I'm still really sick with this head cold.  In fact, I think I've gotten worse instead of better.  Rest and medicine all weekend it is!  Hopefully that'll put me on the mend!  Now that we're settling back in, I thought I'd re-visit my trip Bucket Lists.  We got a lot of it done this time around, even though we were bouncing around all over the place most of our trip.

Here's how it turned out:

°o°  1.) Meet Mickey and Minnie in their Celebration Outfits

This was the last thing Eliot and I did before we left.  Even though I felt like crap, I forced myself to go into the Magic Kingdom to catch our Fastpass.  We're not sure if we'll both be back to WDW before the 90th Celebration ends so I needed at least one photo of us with Mickey and Minnie in their outfits.  And it was worth it!



°o°  2.) Figment's Brush with the Masters Scavenger Hunt

This ended up being a disaster.  Eliot and I found one of the paintings last trip by accident, so I had this thought that the scavenger hunt would be easy.  After looking through Canada and the UK, we gave up in order to enjoy our time in the World Showcase, and to save our feet for our races.  Maybe we'll try it another time when we don't have to worry about how our feet will be affected!


°o°  3.) Paint a Square at the Festival of the Arts Wall Mural


I absolutely hate that this event is only from 11:00-5:00 daily.  We were at the Festival of the Arts so much this year, yet we were never there when it was open.  It was either too late in the day, or they were switching the canvases out.  All in all, it's not a big deal, but I was a little bit disappointed.  At least I got to see many different murals!



°o°  4.) Finally go on one of the Avatar Rides in Pandora

We did finally go on one of the Avatar rides.  Eliot and I had Fastpasses for Na'vi River Journey for this past Monday but we ended up getting in line Saturday night about 30 minutes before Animal Kingdom closed.  We waited maybe 20-25 minutes in line with his parents and sister Elissa before enjoying the ride.  The lighting and special effects were so cool!  Definitely worth the wait!  And I'm glad his family got to see it too!

°o°  5.) Animation Academy at Festival of the Arts


This was a hard one when we were trying to do so many other things.  I would have loved the chance to go draw more, but I can still do it at Disneyland.  I can also follow some Youtube tutorials Disney has posted.  All in all, not a huge loss.



°o°  6.) Attend the Princess Half Marathon Expo

This was a lot of fun.  I love checking out the merchandise at the runDisney events- although my wallet would disagree!  This year did not disappoint.  Eliot, his parents and I all waited in line for probably 45 minutes or so, and then we went wild.  I'm so glad we went the first day.  The princess spirit jerseys were sold out around noon.  (But I got mine!)  We also got a few t-shirts, jackets, magnets, pins, and other mementos.


°o°  7.) Make a Silk Scarf at the Festival of the Arts


This was kind of like the Animation Academy.  You could do it anytime, but you had to make time to do it.  I'm a little bit disappointed that I didn't get to do it, but I did a little research after our trip to see if they had it at the festival last year.  They did- so I'm hoping it'll be back again next year.  Moreover, I found that you can make marbled silk scarves at a new art store in Disney Springs!  And, after seeing how they did it, Eliot wants to see if he can make me a bath to dye silk scarves at home.  (I already have a silk scarf painting kit... I just need the rack which he'll also make me.)  So, I'm a lot less disappointed knowing that I could be doing this all the time at home!  Yay!


°o°  8.) See Pandora at Night for the First Time


Elissa wanted to do this too so we went to Pandora Saturday evening.  We got there at dusk and stayed the rest of the night so we could see the lights, take pictures and even ride the Na'vi River Journey.  Definitely worth it!  The lighting and effects are awesome!



°o°  9.) Do the Festival of the Arts Photo Ops


We did a few of these while strolling around the World Showcase.  They ended up being really awkward so I was ok doing only a few.  Next time, I'll probably skip them.


°o°  10.) Do my best in the Princess Half Marathon Events


I definitely did this.  I finished the 5K and the 10K, even though it was hot, humid and pretty miserable for this Maine girl.  I'm so proud of that 10K medal.  It was really humid and sticky that morning, but I told myself I could do it, and I did!  I did suit up for the half even though I had no intentions of finishing it.  I debated even going to the start line, but I did it, even though I pulled myself out of the race very early.  I realized that it wasn't worth hurting myself and that I'd rather see Eliot finish the race.  No regrets at all!  I'm definitely proud of my accomplishments this past weekend!




As you know, I also had some goals for the Festival of the Arts treats:

°o°  1.) Pop Art Tart (various festival booths)

This was the first treat I checked off my list.  It was available at a few different booths and we got ours outside of Mexico.  While I enjoyed it, Eliot got the Pop-Artsicle slush drink.  We shared a little of each.  The Pop Art Tart was delicious and I'm hoping they bring it back next year.  It was like a cookie pop tart.  Yum.



°o°  2.) Festival of the Arts Cupcake (at Sunshine Seasons)

I got this another day we were at the festival.  I was quite surprised that the inside of the cake was a rainbow.  The frosting tasted like peanut butter and it was so good.  By far the best part was the hidden Mickey on the plate though.  Super cute!



°o°  3.) Lobster Bacon Macaroni and Cheese in a Cone (at Taste Track)

I had really high hopes for this.  Eliot and I had Lobster Macaroni and Cheese as one of the dishes at our wedding buffet.  Since this was also at Epcot, I had hoped it would be the same recipe.  Sadly, it wasn't and I was left highly disappointed.  Honestly, I thought it was gross.  The bacon and seasoning on top was good, but the mac and cheese wasn't very cheesy... or maybe the cheese was so fancy it was gross.  And the bread cone didn't do it for me.  In fact, I was so disappointed that I'm taking the cone off my list of things to try at Disneyland.  (They have tons of foods served in a cone at the Cozy Cone in Carsland.)  Just thinking of it makes me sick.  I'm from Maine; I know lobster.  I know how to make Mac and Cheese.  From here on in, I'll just make my own.



°o°  4.) Paint Brush Churros (at Taste Track)

These were also disappointing.  After taking a few photos for this post, I grabbed the pink churro and ate it while waiting for my mac and cheese to be done.  Eliot promptly ate the rest and declared that they weren't that tasty.  I concurred.  I guess we're both just suckers for lots of cinnamon and sugar on churros.  Oh well, can't win them all.



°o°  5.) White Chocolate Painting w/Chocolate Easel (in Canada)

We didn't get a chance to try this.  First of all, I couldn't find it on the menu.  (Maybe I was at the wrong booth?)  When we were running out of time our last night, we opted to go for the Taste Track items... now I'm wishing I'd found this instead.



°o°  6.) Musical Float (at Fife and Drum)

This float was delicious.  Eliot grabbed it for me while we were waiting in line to watch the Disney on Broadway performance the last day of the festival.  It was basically a red, white and blue multi-flavored slush drink with vanilla soft serve ice cream.  The ice cream melted and it was so good.  Sweet, but delicious.  Eliot enjoyed it too.  Yum.


°o°  7.) Frosé (at L’Art de la Cuisine Française)

I had this one of the nights we went to the festival and it was so good that I drank it way to fast.  (And I was feeling no pain at all the following 30 minutes or so!)  It was sweet and easy to forget that it had alcohol in it.  It had Ros
é Wine, Grey Goose Vodka and Peach Purée in it.  I hope they bring this back too!  At over $12 it was pricey but totally worth it!  There was quite a bit of drink in it too!  Yummy!

In addition to these, we also did a few other things we weren't expecting:

°o° Hall of Presidents on President's Day

This was just a happy coincidence that our trip lined up with President's Day.  While at the Magic Kingdom, I told Eliot we should see it since we don't know if it'll line up again.  It was worth it.  I never knew how passionate people were about our audio-animatronic presidents.  I've been there since the recent changes, but it was no were near as controversial as this time.  There were cheers and boos for both sides.  Eliot and I watched the charade from the back row.  It's definitely something we won't forget!


°o° One Day at the Park with All Six of Us

This probably sounds silly, but originally Sara wasn't planning to go into the parks at all this trip.  She's got a ton of tests at vet school and she thought she'd be spending the trip at the timeshare studying if she wasn't at a race event.  However, she decided she needed to keep walking after the 10K, so we convinced her to join us.  We only got a few hours in the park, but it was still a lot of fun!  We made sure to show the girls things they couldn't see at Disneyland like PeopleMover, Carousel of Progress, Country Bears, PhilharMagic and Happily Ever After.  I think they enjoyed it!  We certainly did!


°o° Disney on Broadway

Ok, so we knew this was going on at Epcot since we caught it last trip.  But what we didn't know was that we'd be able to catch the show on the final day when they had four performers singing together in one show.  The line was so long, but we did make it into the theater for the second show.  I'm so glad we did.  It was incredible.


°o° Goodbye to IllumiNations

This was another thing that we knew was coming, but weren't quite sure exactly when it would happen.  There's a chance that we'll be back to see IllumiNations one more time, but nothing is set in stone and I'm not sure if Eliot will be with me.  So... this was it.  The last time we were positive that we'd see it together.  I know that change is good.  I was upset to see Wishes go, but Happily Ever After is amazing and it's now my favorite.  But Illuminations was the show we watched with our guests on our wedding night.  Plus, Promise, the song they play immediately after the show ends, was our first dance song.  So, this one hurt a little.  I made it through most of the show before dissolving into a puddle of tears though.  Then, they struck again when Promise came on.  Eliot promised me that we'll bring it on our phones and that we can play it after the new show, but it'll never be the same.


°o° Got Stuck on Frozen Ever After

So this isn't normally something people would get excited about, but I had to admit that this was one of the coolest moments of the entire trip.  (I think it was our first full day there too!)  Eliot and I got stuck on Frozen Ever After at the part where Anna and Kristoff are singing to you.  The ice palace with Elsa is my favorite part, so of course we just missed that.  The lights turned on, the audio-animatronics got turned off, and we sat there for a long time.  They tried to re-start the ride but it wasn't working correctly, so they turned the water off.  We were eventually escorted out of the ride by two cast members.  We got to walk past the entire beginning of the ride.  To an engineer and designer, this was heaven- to see the sets and details up close was incredible.  Eliot even got to see into the Olaf mechanics on the way by.  Obviously, we weren't allowed to take behind the scenes photos, but trust me, it was awesome!

And there you have it!  It was a good trip despite me getting my butt handed to me by the end of it.  I'm still pretty tired, but it was worth it!  
°o°

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