After 10 years it was finally time to visit our friends in Orlando again! The ocassion was a TMBG concert, which provided a good excuse to finally make it over there again! Henrieke was lamenting that she didn't have a chance to see them in a long time, so I checked all the flights and found some 400€ flights to Orlando, so I made this trip a big birthday present for Henrieke!
Henrieke and I got up at 8, did some last errands and went to Schiphol. We had a nice flight to Dublin, even though the air pressure difference made things a bit unpleasant as I still had a sinus infection. At Dublin airport we had to wait a while until we could go through the US CBP, so we grabbed a coffee at Starbucks and I got some work stuff done. We had some Burger King for lunch and then did the usual US customs check, only this time on Irish soil. When we arrived, it took about an hour for our luggage to make it on the belt.
Chorca let us know that there was a SpaceX launch happening, and by pure coincidence the outside of the terminal building faces east. We didn't know how much you'd see from there, but we were blown away by how bright and loud the launch was from so far away. We saw the entire launch and even the re-entry burn of the Falcon 9 rocket!
Eventually we got our luggage, and Chorca picked us up and gave us a ride to his and Kanu's place. At his place, a huge pile of packages awaited us. They were mostly books and music for Henrieke, though I also splurged and bought a WebTV box, SGI Ram and a SCSI floppy drive. After unpacking all the stuff, I went to bed. Henrieke, Chorca and Kanu stayed up longer.
Chorca, Henrieke and headed to Disney at 10:00 after a quick stop for breakfast at Wawa. We first went to Animal Kingdom. I was delighted to see that they had grey and red kangaroos right in front of the tree of life.
We also got to see a bit of the macaw bird show, then we went on the Safari ride. Then we walked around a bit, and were lucky enough to see the collared lemurs outside. Henrieke was especially excited as she had never seen this species in the wild. We talked to the zookeepers a bit, then we checked out the gift shop near the tree of life. After that we had some lunch at Flame Tree Barbecue and got visited by birds and squirrels.
After that we went to Dinoland and I finally got to see the amazing Darrel statue, designed by Herbie! What a great character.
Chorca arranged some fastpasses for Expedition Everest, so we got through the line really fast. We got some coffee, took some polaroids and then checked out Pandora, the Avatar-themed area. Sadly the wait for the ride there was way too long, but seeing the area was great!
Around 16:00 we went to EPCOT, my favorite park in Disneyworld.
Chorca and Henrieke were looking at pins a bit at the camera store (which did not sell anything camera related anymore, not even instax film, boo!), then Chorca left. We went to the Mexico pavilion, which somehow felt a lot smaller than last time.
Then we walked towards the German area where I got a reservation for dinner. Since we had about 1.5 hours until dinner, we went to the USA pavilion to rest a bit. Sadly we couldn't see the show there as the next one was during our dinner reservation.
We also went to the Japanese pavilion, I got some drinks there. Then we went to have dinner at the German Pavilion. I absolutely love the theming there, it's cheesy but authentic at the same time, essentially what people from Bavaria would want people to see. They had a fantastic live musical performance as well. The food was nice, and by the time we were done, Firr was already waiting outside to meet up with us.
We ended up watching the Harmonious fireworks show together, it turned out that Firr worked on large parts of it. He gave us lots of interesting background info while we watched one of the last few shows before it would be decommissioned. After that we still checked out the merch store, then Firr gave us a ride back to Chorca's place.
We got up at 10:00, sadly going to Universal today didn't work out. Wolfbound and Robin came by, and we went to the Yellow Dog Eatery to get some lunch.
We went back to Chorca's house, then Robin, Henrieke and I went to the Polynesian Resort, finally checking that place out! We got a Dole Whip and sat on the beach for a while, then we got a spot at Trader Sams, which I've heard so much about but never had the chance to visit. Of course Robin knew all the cues for the small animatronic interludes!
We went to the Contemporary Resort after, we saw the fireworks on the way there from the monorail.
We walked around there a bit, then went back to the car, picked up some dinner at Wawa and went to hang out at Firr's legendary dome house! We got a tour of his workshop, I did some doodles and we chatted until 1:00.
We got up at 10:00, Ras came over and on my request we went to get some orange chicken at Panda Express. We had a lot of catching up to do, as we haven't been to Orlando for a long time.
I swung by Best Buy to pick up a big hard drive to copy some things from Chorca, also got some pseudoephedrine from Walgreens. That stuff is a lifesaver for my allergies. Also apparently stricly regulated thanks to Breaking Bad.
We drove over to Disney Springs, which looked a whole lot different than last time we've been there. We checked out the Coke store and we got a Disneyland castle at the Lego store. Of course we got some more Dole Whips!
At 16:30 we headed to downtown Orlando to queue for the TMBG concert, which was busy with people getting drunk for St. Patrick's day. Henrieke and Ras met some friends in the queue.
The show was great, everyone had a lot of fun and by the time we got out, downtown Orlando was full of trashed party-goers. Henrieke still hung out with people a bit after the concert, then Ras, Henrieke and I went to pick up some Taco Bell for dinner and went back to Chorca's.
We got up somewhat early, then Chorca, Henrieke and I went to pick up Trigger. We went to Magic Kingdom after a little backstage tour by Chorca. We waited to meet Herbie and Toxxie at the entrance and chatted for a few minutes until they both had to leave. Then we stood in line for the Seven Dwarves Mine Train ride. We had lunch at the Pinocchio house, then walked around more.
We were very tempted to get the Figment figurine at the Art of Disney store, but resisted. We browsed some more shops and I picked up a tasty latte at Starbucks. Then we went to the Tiki Room to get some Dole Whip floats and watch the show.
Trigger and Chorca left to see a soccer game, and Henrieke and I continued to Tomorrowland. We did the best ride there, Carousel of Progress. Also the Peoplemover. We checked out the shops, and I got to see Sonny Eclipse playing the keyboard.
I took some photos of the castles, then we did the Haunted Mansion, which was out of order earlier. We also went to see the Hall of Presidents, but the next show would take a while to start, so we watched the fireworks in the meanwhile.
We went back to see the Hall of Presidents, then called Ras, who met up with us at the Contemporary and gave us a ride back to Chorca.
Kanu made some delicious tacos, and Carwyn and Kody were ver from Atlanta. We watched Hackers, my favorite movie! Then we went to bed at 3:00.
We slept in a bit today! Kuddlepup came by, as well as Firr. We hung out for a while and chatted, and we gave Kuddlepup a whole bunch of tea that we brought for him. Later Firr gave us a ride to the Funday Pawpet Show. Herbie and Yappy were at the show in person, and Atkelar, Kuddlepup and Poink were remotely joining. We got interviewed, made Yappy and Herbie try Dutch snacks, and Baseball did an old-fashioned subservient bit. It was really fun to be on the show again after 10 years!
We chatted a bit with Yappy and Herbie after the show, then we headed back to Chorca's house.
Got up at 8:00. Robin came by and picked us up and we drove to the Disney Imagineering office. Herbie gave us a nice tour and introduced us to a bunch of nice people and showed us his work. Of course no photos were allowed.
Then we went to get a burrito and headed to Universal Studios.
Robin dropped us off and went to pick up Wolfbound. We checked out Diagon Alley, which was amazingly themed.
We took some photos and told Firr that we were there. He joined us, and we went to see the Jimmy Fallon ride. Firr pointed out all the things he had worked on on that ride. The ride system was really impressive!
After that we headed to Islands of Adventure to meet with Robin and Wolfbound.
We went straight to Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure and were able to skip most of the line. The ride was amazing, and I'm happy I didn't know too much about it beforehand. Then we went to get some butterbeer and Firr, Henrieke and I went to get on Velocicoaster. It was amazing, loads of inversions and a super fast ride!
We checked out some gift shops, and then still went on Spiderman. Henrieke got some merch from the big shop near the entrance, and we sat together for a bit since Chorca was stuck in a traffic jam. Henrieke and I drew a quick sketch for Robin, then we headed to the pickup point where we met up with Chorca, who was nice enough to give us a ride to the airport.
We arrived well in time, but spent a lot of time in security. Thanks to a delay we were able to get shake shack burgers and some snacks. We got some nice window seats again, and this time we had in-flight entertainment out of this century, as well as working Wi-Fi!
It was absolutely wonderful to be back in Orlando and meet our friends there again! Thanks to Chorca and Kanu for being fantastic hosts, thanks to Ras, Robin, Wolfbound, Firr and Trigger for hanging out, driving us around and going to the parks with us! Thanks to Herbie for giving us a great tour, and Herbie and Yappy for having us over at FPS after such a long time. We sure hope to be back in Orlando again soon!