When Bo and I decided to head down south to visit Derek and Meghann in Orlando, I was excited but apprehensive. He hadn’t been to Disney World in years. What if he didn’t enjoy the parks and magic as much as I did? What if he thought it wasn’t worth the money?
Well, needless to say, by the end of day 2 he was couldn’t stop singing the “ Carousel of Progress ” theme song and his excitement for the “extra magic hours” couldn’t be contained!
Needless to say, our spur of the moment trip down to Walt Disney World was the best choice, not only for our skin’s vitamin D needs but also our mental state!
After yesterday’s breakfast, we were excited to embark on Day 2 of our Walt Disney World adventures with Meghann and Derek.
We started our day at the Animal Kingdom as it is often recommended to get to this park early due to Expedition Everest’s long lines and the animal activity. 
After entering the gate, we headed towards Expedition Everest , the park’s high speed roller coaster, which features more than a mile of track! The line normally ranges from 60-120 minutes so we were ecstatic to jump in line when it said it was only 20 minutes long!
It was awesome. But, unfortunately, I couldn’t say the same for the rest of Animal Kingdom. Our entire group agreed that it doesn’t have the same magic and charm that the rest of the parks have. Therefore, after a few other rides, we posted in front of The Tree of Life, and then high tailed it to MGM for lunch and an afternoon of rides!
Once we arrived at MGM, lunch was the only thing on our mind as Derek has a bad habit of not eating breakfast. 
Don’t worry, we have done our best to educate him on the benefits of starting your day with energy!
Finding lunch wasn’t as easy at MGM (Hollywood Studios) as it was the day before. But, after careful deliberation Meghann and I found salads and fruit that fueled us for an afternoon of screams, laughter, and park hopping. 
Derek and Bo were even able to find their lunch of choice from the same stand. While we munched away on our salads, filled to the brim with lettuce and topped with chili, they split one order of chili dog and barbecue pork sandwich. Needless to say, they were very happy guys.
After that, we spent the rest of the afternoon hopping around from ride to ride. We started with the stunt show, per the guys’ request, and then spent the rest of the afternoon taking in every attraction we wanted. I even ran into a friend from Savannah who I hadn’t seen since college! Hi Stephanie!
We even saw a famous face heading into the top attraction, Toy Story 3!
I saw a vaguely familiar woman walk buy, flanked on either side by two men with whom she was laughing. I saw that she had braids, no eyebrows, and then heard her laugh. There was no question that I’d just spotted WHOOPI! I grabbed Meghann and dragged her ahead of where I saw Whoopi, hoping we could grab a good picture or maybe even an autograph. Unfortunately, she went in the secret Toy Story entrance before we could reach her.
Since the lines at MGM kept growing, we decided to head over to Epcot for a dinner break. Luckily, our dinner spot was an easy choice as Meghann had heard great things from theDisney Food Blog about the new Via Napoli . 
Open for lunch and dinner, Via Napoli features mouth watering pasta dishes, fresh wood fire pizzas, and fresh ingredients. In fact, it is even the sister restaurant to Naples 45 in New York City! Bo figured this out due to the similar logo!
We started with a few appetizers, split among the group.
We were all starving, therefore these appetizers only whet our appetite for dinner versus satiating our hunger. Luckily, within a few minutes we had this gorgeous entree adorning our table.
Delicious.
Surprisingly, we were all able to agree on one pizza, the Quattro Stagioni (eggplant, artichokes onions, prosciutto, mushrooms). We were surprised to see that the toppings weren’t mixed but instead quartered atop the pizza. Regardless, we each loved the pizza’s perfect crust which was doughy on the edges but thin and crisp on the inside. The thin crust towards the center allowed for each topping to stand out against the fresh tomato and cheese versus overpowering it like basic pizzas where the crust ends up being the center of attention. What is your favorite type of pizza? Sicilian? Thin crust? Authentic? Domino’s?
This carbo load left us ready for a few more rides in Epcot and MGM. In fact, we were lucky enough to use our fast passes to the RocknRoller coaster and then receive a pair of fast passes for the Tower of Terror a few seconds later. Two awesome rides back to back? Yes please! Can you spot us in the below pictures? 
Around 8:30, we bid Meghann and Derek adieu as they both had to work today which meant Derek had a long drive to Tampa and Meghann had to prepare for her first day on the job! But, Bo and I had other ideas.
Magic Kingdom was open until 2am!
We spent the next few hours enjoying a few of our childhood favorite rides, skipping down Main Street USA, and singing along to the tunes at Disney’s Dueling Piano bar. I can’t imagine a better end to our vacation.
Everyone arrived safely last night during a two hour period. Within minutes of arriving, the wine and beer bottles were quickly opened. Three bottles of wine and a case of beer later, we all slept very well!
The views are gorgeous this morning but we’re a little scared of the snow and cold!
The bloggers are in action this morning in our breakfast nook as everyone else makes breakfast. This morning is fend for yourself morning using the bagels, bread, granola, Puffins, yogurt, and fruit we all brought!
I’ll give you all a quick tour of the home and then I’m off to layer up for skiing!
