Keys to the Kingdom

To take full advantage of our adults only tour status, we also did the behind the scenes Keys to the Kingdom tour.  It's a 5 hour tour of all things Magic Kingdom, including a trip into the Utilidor underneath the parks.   No kids under 16 are allowed so that it doesn't ruin any of the magic. 

Our tour started on Main Street at 8 a.m. before the park officially opened.    Our guide, Justin, was so enthusiastic and full of great nuggets of information, as I think you would have to be for this type of job! 

 

For a Disney novice or a non-Disney lover, this tour would be overwhelming or tedious.  But we loved it!  We heard all about the history of the Florida Project - how the land was acquired, who ran the projects (their names are tributes in many of these Main Street windows), and the secrets and hidden gems to see and hear along Main Street that many of us plow right past to get to the castle (the piano lesson in the alley upper level shop and how the parade sound system works being just two examples).

 

 

 

After exploring Main Street, we went through Adventureland and Fantasyland before heading backstage to the parade storage and practice areas.   Of course no phones or cameras were allowed to be out backstage.  But it's interesting how close it is to certain rides and attractions and that your eyes don't notice it.  We rode the Jungle Tour with "how did they do this" commentary.   As someone who has spent dozens of days in the Magic Kingdom and read many articles with behind the scenes info, one of my favorite "I didn't knows" was a hidden restroom in Adventureland!  I thought I knew where all of those were!

 

Lunch was a Pecos Bill where we had never eaten before.  I asked Justin's recommendation at check in on what to preorder and he suggested the spicy fried cauliflower tacos.  They were excellent!  I will definitely get them if we eat at Pecos Bill's on a future trip.   They came with Indian food toppings (mango chutney and a yogurt sauce) but I ended up dressing them with the taco bar fixings and loved that even more.

After lunch we took the exit into Haunted Mansion for a ride.  This is many Disney fans' favorite attraction.  I've always been a bit indifferent to it, but loved this ride after our pre-ride briefing of all the hidden Mickeys.  I had never noticed all the details!  (Probably because I was always trying to comfort a semi-scared kid!)  I won't give the inside the ride secrets, but I will point out that the outside of the building has chess pieces all around it. 

 

Last up was entering the Utilidor near the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride.   This was what I was most looking forward to, and it was cool, but the entire tour was really amazing.  Plus, I didn't see any furry characters - just princesses, a prince and a lot of stage show dancers! 

On our way out there were several school bands playing which was really neat to see!

Disney Birthday

John is the more thoughtful and consistent gift giver in our family.    Because we often buy ourselves what we need when we need it, we never exchange lists for Christmas gifts and rarely get each other anniversary or birthday presents.   Over the years I've gifted John a few experiences for/near his birthday but this year I finally thought of something extraordinary:  an adults only trip to Disney World.   We have been to WDW alone one other time for a work conference, but this was specifically to dine at the adults only Victoria & Albert's, a reservation that required me to get up at 5 a.m. two weekend mornings in a row, six months before his birthday.   I was thankful I got the reservation on day two; not sure I wanted a third day up that early!    

Thanks to some very gracious grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, William got an extended Thanksgiving in Indianapolis while we spent two nights in Florida.   

Although the Food & Wine Festival had ended two weeks prior, EPCOT was having its Festival of the Holidays which also included tasting booths.   We had a lovely lunch as we ate and drank our way around the World Showcase and then returned in the evening for the Illuminations fireworks with its special Peace on Earth holiday ending that we had never seen.

Canada:  Seared salmon, traditional French Canadian tourtiere, maple buche de noel, frozen coffee with whisky.  We started with the best intentionally in case we got too full or ran out of time.

 Father Christmas telling his story

France:  Turkey and mushroom in a Veloutte cream sauce, Buche de Noel au Chocolat, some beer from somewhere, and Grand Marnier slushy (not pictured).   Quite good.

America:  Orange Blossom Brewing Cranberry Kringle Pilsner, Shipyard Eggnog White Porter, JDub's Season's Greetings Peppermint Milk Stout (these were all laughably horrible!)

Italy:  Cavatappi ai Quattro Formaggi and Moretti Amber Lager.  The pasta was very tasty, which may have been enhanced by my low expectations! 

We don't go to World Showcase often, so I was shocked to see that the Italy pavilion had this St. Mark's Square replicas.  Perhaps I've always noticed but it never sunk it since I hadn't been to Venice yet! 

Mexico:  Tamale stuffed with shrimp and cheese.    Not amazing.   I also got a margarita to drink during Illuminations.  Strangely I have no photos of it.  Probably because I tried to erase all memory of it after I realized the salt on the rim (of which I rarely get) had salt, chili power and black ants in a fancy mixture.  Apparently that's a thing.....

Starbucks:  had to swing by to get an iced coffee and my "You are Here" mug that I missed on our trip this summer.  Though when I got home I realized I actually already had it.

 Refreshment Port:  Beef brisket poutine.   Not bad tasting; not good for you in any way!

Ladies Night

One of my neighbor friends organized a fun ladies night out for DIY home signs and wine!  We had an entire table of Brookdale moms, and I loved seeing all of the creative projects!   We had to pick our design in advance, and when we got there our spot was ready with the stencil and materials ready.

The first step was to stain the plywood background with a quick drying stain - I chose a grayish color.  Then we pulled the backing off of the stencil and stuck the stencil onto the dried wood.   We received lots of tips along the way about color selection, how to not overdo on the paint, etc. 

One of the most time consuming parts was removing the stencil.   Tweezers had to come out to get the teeny pieces between my tree branches and around the details of friends' pieces.  Final step was to frame it.   From start to finish it was only about 2 hours of work, and we got to take our finished masterpieces home with us that night. 

Rome - Coliseum

We saved William's best for last.  Of course he wanted to see where the gladiators fought!  Funny enough there were no "gladiators" around there that day; I'm told during most of the year there are people dressed up for photos.  Either authorities are cracking down or we were there in the off season.   Here we had scheduled the underground tour, so we got to walk out on the arena floor, then go underground, and then walk on the main level (third level, I believe).  Our tickets also included the Forum, but it was closed for the day when we got out and we flew home the next morning.  We were able to see bits from the side as we walked back to the hotel though.

Over the years, the Coliseum has been used by whomever is in charge - including when the church added crosses throughout.   A lot of the missing stones were used in building other projects once the original uses of the Coliseum was out of favor.

With most of the arena floor missing, you can see down into the underground and the labyrinth where all of the "backstage" was occurring. 

With the arena floor mostly open, the sun helped light up the underground, but it was still a little shadowy.  You could get the feel for how claustrophobic and dark and loud it must have been when it was full of people and animals underneath and the screaming crowds up in the stands. 

We walked up to the third level for some additional commentary.  The views as the sun was setting were stunning.   I couldn't tell how the pictures were turning out when I was standing there.  I was glad once I saw them later in the evening that they turned out so beautifully. 

That half circle shaped "stage" is where we started the tour.  We felt big while we were standing there.   It looks tiny when you're seeing it from above!

On our walk home we saw a lot of interesting things:  the first was a flock of hundreds of black birds, which both of these pictures are attempting to show.   We also saw many street artists and performers  lining the sidewalks along the Forum.   It made the 20 minute walk go by quickly with so many distractions.  Another stop for gelato in the dark in the last few blocks also helped!  I'm shocked I didn't take any pictures of the gelato except the first one.  There were a dozen opportunities for photos!

Our hotel staff recommended a close by restaurant for dinner, and we had one last walk through the plazas around our hotel.    The next morning we started the long trip back home.  Since it was officially off season now, there were no more nonstop flights from Rome to O'Hare.   Our layover in Heathrow was uneventful, and we got home in time for bed and a normal night sleep so we could return to school and work on Thursday morning!  We did pretty well on Thursday but were sure ready for the weekend by the time Friday evening rolled around!