When I left off, we had just seen the still-under-construction Toy Story Mania attraction, and after that, we split up to walk around Hollywood Studios for a while. Cooper and I left the line at Pirates of the Caribbean (I rode it in California) to go shopping for souvenirs, which we found in the Pirates gift shop. From there we walked back to the beginning of Main Street to meet up with our group and go back to the hotel. We had just over an hour to freshen up and change our clothes for the next phase of our adventure.

We met in the lobby and walked outside to find that instead of our motorcoach bus, there were LIMOUSINES waiting for us, and the drivers were standing there holding bottles of champagne! We all squealed like high school girls, and I said it felt like we were going to the prom! I hadn’t rode in a limo since I went to my WEDDING. I climbed in with Tracey, Jo-Lynn, Stephanie, Lori, Mia, and Maria, and we drank a toast to Disney and to Maria, our wonderful host! The limo took us to the Contemporary Hotel, which was the first hotel built on the property, and now is the site of the amazing California Grill.

We walked into our private dining room to find an open bar (yay, Cosmos!), a waiter passing trays of deliciously fresh sushi rolls (ever had shrimp tempura sushi? delicious!), and we met Karen Hanes, head of Food and Beverage Marketing for the parks. Also dining with us were Christine Weissman, the first female Executive Chef who works at Epcot, and Joel Schaeffer, Master Chef and head of Special Diets and Childrens’ Dining. I heard there was another Disney person there, Julianne, but I didn’t meet her.

Our menu was chosen for us by Michelle and Leanne (the Disney P.R. ladies who hung out with us and got us where we needed to be all weekend and who are also beautiful and fun and should totally be bloggers if they had time for it). We started with goat cheese ravioli in broth with shitake mushrooms and sundried tomatoes, then a salad made from shredded hearts of palm, avocado, and oven-cured tomatoes. After a small, palate-cleansing scoop of Mango Passionfruit sorbet, we were served the main courses, which were delicious Snapper with julienne vegetables on beds of jasmine rice cake, slices of beef tenderloin with roasted potatoes, onions, and asparagus, and pork loin over cheesy polenta. All three were absolutely divine!

We were then served coffee and dessert, which was molten lava cakes with raspberry puree and blood orange sorbet, but we had to hurry up to get to our next destination, so there wasn’t much time for dessert. There were groans all around as we had to leave that beautiful chocolate cake! BUT, we got back in our limos, and were driven to Downtown Disney, to go to…

CIRQUE DE SOLEIL! I could not believe it! I have ALWAYS wanted to see a Cirque de Soleil show, and I was beyond excited about it. The show we saw is called “La Nouba” which means “the party”, and it was a dazzling spectacle of funny clowns, performers on tightropes, swinging from trapeze bars, men running on giant wheels and doing amazing stunts on bikes, and trampoline tricks that had us all gasping. Everyone’s favorite part of the show were these four tiny girls who were holding what looked like jump ropes, with big wooden spools in the middle, and they were tossing the spools back and forth and in the air, doing flips and somersaults and catching the spools, they got a huge ovation at the end.

When the show was over, we were treated to something very special-two of the performers came out and sat on the stage and talked to us about how they balance being Moms with working in the show! If you’ve seen “La Nouba”, the performers we met are Sassandra who is the Singer, and Natalya who is the Ballerina. They were both so sweet and friendly, and we had lots of questions about how they manage their jobs and their families. It was very kind of them to take the time to talk to us.

After that, we rode the limos back to the hotel, finishing up the champagne on the way. I know I went straight to bed when I got back, I assume everyone else did, too. I could hardly believe everything I had done in just one day! It was sad that it had to end, too. Every single person I met or encountered at Disney gave off this vibe of positive energy that left me feeling happier just for being in their presence. Disney truly does want every guest to have a “Magical” experience, and I know I certainly did!

Coming up next-Sunday’s character breakfast, hanging out at the hotel, heading for the airport, and the beginning of my “airport adventure”. Thanks for reading!

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Day Two at Disney started bright and early with a continental breakfast at Ariel’s in the hotel. While we sipped coffee and orange juice (tastes so much better in Florida!) and munched on bagels, fruit, and the delicious pastries that the Disney chefs make, we had a guest speaker, a Mom from the Disney World Moms Panel. She answered our questions about bringing families to the parks. We also had two other Moms from the panel in our group, Darcie and Kim. They were like walking maps everywhere we went, they knew every park and all the best places to go!

After breakfast, it was time to board our motorcoach bus and head to the Magic Kingdom! It was a beautiful warm day with a bright blue sky as you can see from the photo in my previous post. When we arrived we were taken through a cast-member entrance and then walked down Main Street to a grassy area near Cinderella’s Castle for a group photo. We had our own photographer take a big group shots and then smaller groups, I posed with my fellow Precious Moms bloggers Marybeth and Lori, but I haven’t seen the photo on Flickr yet.

We then had time to explore the park, and best of all, we got MEDIA FastPasses, which meant that instead of putting in the FastPass and then having to come back at a reserved time, we went RIGHT ON the rides! I still can’t believe it myself, but I actually rode Space Mountain, which scared the CRAP out of me! I screamed and screamed the whole ride! And my husband was bummed out because he’s been trying to get me to ride one with him for twenty years

I was a little shook up by Space Mountain, so I passed on Haunted Mansion, but after that we rode It’s A Small World, which I LOVE. After that it was time to start walking back, I ducked into a few gift shops to look for souvenirs for the kids, picking up some toy Flintlock pistols from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride for the boys, a Pirate Princess Minnie Mouse doll for Kaitlyn, plus I bought Kaitlyn a crown with jewels and a veil, which I loved, but she refuses to wear. Oh well!

From there, we took our motorcoach over to Hollywood Studios (which used to be called MGM Studios) and ate lunch at the Brown Derby restaurant! The Brown Derby in Hollywood, CA is where the famous Cobb salad was invented, so of course I had one, as did several others, and we all agreed it was fantastic! We also had bites of two appetizers-crusted shrimp in a lime ginger sauce and braised beef short ribs on celery root puree-both were divine. It was wonderful to be able to order food like that without worrying about the bill!! We were joined at lunch by Estafania from Disney Imagineering, and when I saw the badge she was wearing around her neck, I figured out our next surprise!

We were told to bring closed-toe shoes and long pants to wear on Saturday, and we couldn’t figure out why. It was because we were taken behind the Chinese Theater to a construction site, and we got an exclusive, as in, no one else who works anywhere at Disney besides the construction team has seen itsneak peek at the newest, most exciting Disney attraction coming soon…

TOY STORY MANIA!!!

Toy Story Mania is a 3D, interactive ride that simulates playing games at a carnival. The storyline is that Andy and his family have left the house, and the toys have pulled an old carnival game out from under the bed. The toys have each taken up a position on the game board and are encouraging you to play their carnival game. The dimensions of the attraction are such that you will feel like you are the size of one of the Army Men! The carnival Barker is a huge Mr. Potato Head!

You’ll walk under a sign that reads “Pixar” and into a building to stand in the queue. The queue area is decorated with familiar games-the ceiling has a Chutes and Ladders board, the booth that gives out the 3D glasses looks like a Lincoln Logs cabin. I really liked what Rex (yes really, just like the Toy Story dinosaur!) said, which was that they can’t eliminate lines, so they want to bring part of the ride out to the people waiting in line. Very cool! Once you come through the line and into the area where you get into the ride car, you’ll see a huge Tinker Toy sculpture on the ceiling, and the walls are painted with book spines and the edges of board games, Andy’s bed, just like you were on the floor of his room.

Each car has two people sitting side by side with two more people behind them, facing away. The lap bar in front of you has a controller shaped like a cannon, with a pull string. You use that to play each game. Your car stops in front of each carnival booth, characters pop up, tell you about the game, then you play. At the end, your car stops in front of a huge screen, all the characters come out, you see your score, then you get a virtual stuffed animal for a prize! It’s going to be HUGE when it’s ready.

I’ll end here, because there are still two more COMPLETELY AWESOME things to tell you about that happened on Saturday. So please stay tuned!

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