Daily Dose of Disney: 2011

Daily Dose of Disney #26 ~~ EPCOT Museum

I would never have known this museum was there if not accidentally stumbling upon it one day looking for a bathroom near the Free Drink Station in EPCOT.

It has all kinds of EPCOT memorabilia in it and a great place to cool off when its hotter than blazes outside.

Daily Dose of Disney #25 ~~ Tokyo Dining

Since we are big Japanese food fans, Tokyo Dining in EPCOT is one of our favorites.

Here the chefs prepare food:

Alex enjoys some beef teriyaki:

The kids meals come in bullet train dishes:

Some of the interior decor:

Daily Dose of Disney #24 ~~ Soarin' Over California (In California)

Eventually I will run out of pictures for Disney World (though probably not anytime soon) but I figured I would throw in the occasional Disneyland group from time to time to shake things up a little.

Personally I love Soarin' and could ride it over and over again.

I'm a big fan of the smells!

And when ever they fly over the golf course I get a secret thrill knowing they filmed that only a few miles from where we live.

But I digress!

Out here the ride has a building all to itself in California Adventure and you enter directly from the park.

Inside there is a long hallway, much like the one in Florida.
They have lots of memorabilia and photos to look at:

Outside there is a giant engine model:

Then there are themed buildings in the area:

And you can eat in the Taste Pilots Grill:

Inside:

Daily Dose of Disney #23 ~~ Tropical Storm Faye

Back in August 2008 we had the good fortune to be at the World during Tropical Storm Faye who got stuck right over central Florida.

Even though it kept the temperatures down (but not the humidity) trudging through the parks in a torrential downpour got old after a while.

We spent several afternoons in the room watching the Olympics until the worse was over.

One day at EPCOT we were trapped inside "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" while this was going on outside:

Here are two shots from DHS as we were leaving for the day when the rain and the wind got just too much:

And once we got to Old Key West it was coming down so hard it was hard to get to the room:

From our balcony:

And still going the next day:

I thought I would be budget conscious and brought ponchos from the dollar store... might as well have brought saran wrap!

Here Alex and our family friend Bri trying to stay dry at the Animal Kingdom in the saran wrap.

Here Erin & Katherine are wearing the ponchos we ended up with after forking out a small fortune at the parks.
On the upside when the kids each tore their ponchos at least once, they replaced them for free.

So I have to make sure I can find the ones I bought on that trip and take them with us in case something like this happens again.

I have a "travel trunk" that belonged to my mom which is an antique steamer trunk that I keep all the stuff for my trips in that I dont use at other times. I think I may have stuffed the ponchos in there but I'm not sure. The trunk is currently stored in the garage so I have to dig it out and bring it in so I can start loading it up with Disney vacation items to look through as the year goes on.

I LOVE looking through things I have set aside for the trip.

Daily Dose of Disney #22 ~~ Pilot your own Jungle Cruise Boat

Of all the paid for extras, this was by far one of the kids favorites.
They have begged to do it before but we always put it off, but this trip we let them and they had a real blast.