• David Sallee
  • Brenda Sallee
  • David Sallee
  • Brenda Sallee

David's Disney 50 Adventure

Turing 50 this year and spending it at the happiest place on earth. :-) En savoir plus
  • Dinner at Tony's

    28 janvier 2020, États Unis ⋅ 🌙 61 °F

    Home of Lady and the Tramp
    Their paw prints are in the cement outside of restaurant.
    David had Italian Trio with fettuccine Alfredo, chicken Parmesan, and spaghetti with meatballs. I had grilled salmon with a pesto sauce, over a garlic polenta with broccoli. (There was bread as well.)
    Both were delicious.
    They gave us gelato to share as a birthday congrats too.
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  • End of an Amazing Day

    28 janvier 2020, États Unis ⋅ 🌙 55 °F

    Well, I did it, I turned 50, and felt like I did it in style.

    We had our VIP day and honestly, I really didn't know what to expect.

    Before even starting our day, I had given Robbie (our guide) an impossible task. He had mentioned that they could do anything and get anything, so I said that I wanted a can of New Coke for my birthday!

    It took a lot of effort, but Magic Robbie (also known as "cousin Robbie" during the day, came through!!!

    Total shocker when he presented the can, and I knew this was going to be a perfect day!!!

    We got into the park early and got a lot of pictures taken both by Robbie and by some of the Pros in the park.

    Our first ride was the Little Merrmaid Ride, which basically we had to ourselves.

    With Robbie's expert guidance we breezed through the morning knocking out all sort of rides.

    He vast knowledge of the park was awesome as well.

    One of my goals (as stated before the trip) which was told to him was to get the Max score on the Buzz Lightyear ride. I knew all the high point targets, but it's another thing to actually get them.

    We started that ride, and while my gun wasn't always firing, we lined up on the first two high point targets on the ride. Just as we were leaving that first area, the ride stopped for a bit. Brenda had a perfect view of one of the targets and I worked on chasing down the other before switching to the one Brenda was hitting.

    Brenda reached the max before finishing the first room. I still had a ways to go, and was actually concerned that I wasn't going to make it. I was in the 900,000+ range when I thought the ride was over. Turned out there was one more room, and I remembered which target to get. I hit it and boom, BOTH of us were Max Score. The picture part of the ride came as we were congratulating each other and just enjoying the rest of the ride.

    I took my phone out and snapped some pictures of our score to show to the ride operators. They were impressed and Robbie was super impressed.

    He has never had anyone get it on their first try, and certainly hasn't ever had a time when BOTH people in the cart got it.

    We both got Galactic Hero buttons / stickers and because we did it our first go, there was no reason to ride it again :-)

    We also had a victory churro with Chocolate Dipping sauce waiting for us as we exited the ride.

    So much fun!!

    Here's a list of the rides we went on all before 2pm.

    Mermaid
    Main Street Car to the Castle
    Peter Pan
    7 Dwarves Mine Train
    Big Thunder Mountain
    Haunted Mansion x2 (where we learned to ask the cast members what their Bat's names were)
    Pirates
    It's a Small World
    Winne the Pooh
    Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor
    Mickey Mouse Personal Meet and Greet
    Buzz Lightyear
    Dumbo Picture Opt
    Jungle Cruise
    Mickey's Philoharmonic

    And . . . After Lunch

    Space Mountain (Alpha track)
    Mermaid
    Country Bears
    Tiki Birds
    Pirates

    The morning pace was pretty brisk, but we never really had a line. Was fun, and relaxing and everything we could hope for it to be.

    Tomorrow is another day at the Magic Kingdom and we're on our own this time. We just have a few rides to check off our list and we will probably be doing some park hopping to finish off some loose ends.

    Could not have asked for a better 50th Birthday!! So fun and such an amazing experience!

    Will probably go back through and populate some of the ride info, but for now, I'm off to bed!!
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  • Back at the Magic Kingdom

    29 janvier 2020, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 57 °F

    First ride of the day, 7 Dwarfs

    This ride is probably the most gentle roller coaster you're ever going to find. The "carts" are actually on a pivot so they can sway a bit. The effect smooths out all the turns. There is a cute mining scene during the ride as well. It's short, and the line gets super long quick and stays that way (as does Slinky Dash) it's also the only ride I know that has two pictures taken during it.En savoir plus

  • Snacks and the People Mover

    29 janvier 2020, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F

    Brenda got a Pepperjack Pretzel and I got two special spring rolls. One Cheeseburger the other Pepperoni Pizza. Both were amazing and they sold out of the Spring Rolls in about 15 minutes.

    Gotta be quick!

    I had heard about this from a video and about how great it was, so when we spotted the cart yesterday, it was added to my list for today.

    We just happened to go by that area at the right time. They had finished setting up, but the spring rolls weren't ready yet.

    I was maybe 4th in line (yes, there was a line) and got one of each. The cheeseburger one was the best, a great mix of seasoned ground beef, smooth gooey yummy cheese, nice grilled onions and just a hint of mustard, all wrapped in a delicately crisp egg roll wrapper. Oh it so totally works!!!

    The pizza one had some pizza sauce to dip in, and while quite tasty, the nature of the Pepperoni makes it a bit greasy. Worth it though!!

    I both can and can't believe it sold out as quick as it did. So lucky to be in the right place at the right time for that!!

    The People Mover was to kill a bit of time, but it's a nice relaxing way to check out the Tomorrowland park from above. We went through Space Mountain, but didn't see any of the ride going, which felt a bit strange. Just a super dark blank void as we went in.
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  • Tower of Terror Trifecta

    29 janvier 2020, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 73 °F

    Through the use of fast passes, we're riding it 3 times in a row. Gooooo us!!!

    Is three times in a row too much??? Well . . . perhaps, but we did experience something that I was totally craving.

    We finally had a totally different drop sequence!!!

    One of the cool differences between Orlando's version and California's version is that Orlando is supposed to have 6 different ride drop sequences, so you might not know what's coming.

    As the ride got older, more and more of those drop sequences dropped off. Until recently, it was actually down to 1.

    A few months ago, they refurbished the ride. The theory was that along with the refurbishment came the reinstation of the additional sequences.

    We rode it three times before today, and there might have been a slightly different one thrown into the mix, but it didn't feel like it.

    Today, the first ride was the best and completely different than any of the previous, even stopping on a floor that had lights that we've never seen before.

    The second ride was totally different than the first and different than the previous ones we rode.

    The third was identical to the second, but still a lot of fun!!

    So, if there are 6 drop sequences, we have managed to ride half of them!! So much fun, and we had a great time coming up with "poses" for the picture sequence. I have a fun project to work on when we get home and I feel like I have a lot of source material to work with!

    Oh, and the scary pro photo was fun too!
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  • Snacks and Toy Story Mania

    29 janvier 2020, États Unis ⋅ 🌙 46 °F

    Delicious snack before last ride in Hollywood. Key lime pie on a stick and Num num (warm) choc chip cookie/tart.

    The Key Lime Pie on a Stick was on my list of food to get. Took a bit to track down, but worth it.

    The chocolate coating is a bit thick, and honestly, it's more like a cheesecake with a hint of lime rather than an honest to goodness key lime pie, but if you think of it more as lime cheesecake on a stick, then it's awesome.

    I did get a few bites of Brenda's cookie. Wow. Awesome choice there!!!

    Toy Story Mania was great!!

    Brenda and I worked really well together and got some great scores. It's a fun ride, but your arm gets a bit of a workout from all the pulls to get the cannon to fire.
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  • Chilling in Galaxy's Edge

    29 janvier 2020, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 72 °F

    Checking out all the cool details.

    This area has a lot of potential and hopefully it will eventually live up to its expectations.

    When it first opened, the idea was that the various "Cast Members" would interact with the people in the park, and be fed information like how people did on the Falcon ride, giving them kudos or razzing them depending on how they did (the ride gives you a score). I think they got lulled a bit thinking that the area wasn't super popular.

    What happened was, they have two rides there. They opened the Falcon ride first, and it was a fair amount of time before they opened their most ambitious ride yet, "Rise of the Resistance".

    It appears most people were waiting for BOTH rides to be opened before swarming the area, so now it's super crowded, and very difficult to get a boarding group for the ride.

    Thus, it's also difficult for Cast Members to really do a whole lot as there's an overpopulation in their space port.

    It is a really neat place to people watch, and sometimes guests are dressed so elaborate, that it's tough to tell them apart from the Cast Members :-)
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  • End of Day Recap

    29 janvier 2020, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F

    Today was pretty busy wrapping up odds and ends. Today was also the first day we did a lot of park hopping. Hitting different rides in 3 different parks.

    Magic Kingdom was our start, followed by Hollywood and finishing with dinner and one more ride in Epcot.

    Tomorrow is our last park day, and we're finishing where we started, Animal Kingdom.

    Hopefully the rides we didn't get a chance to do will be operational for us so we can get them done. We already have some fast passes that are awesome, so we are pretty set there. We don't have to rush to do Avatar like we did on Saturday.

    We did get our "Trip Momento" today.

    Oddly enough, it's a Bellhop Bell from the Tower of Terror.

    As some might know, our cat Zazzy has been trained to ring a bell for her food. We're going to see if we can get her to ring this one instead. That way it will get a ton of use and we will be constantly remembering the trip and the good times we have had!!!
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  • Back @ Pop Century

    30 janvier 2020, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F

    We are here for the rest of the night. Will get dinner here tonight as well. Need to be boarding the bus to the airport at 3am tomorrow.

    Going to be a long travel day. Nice thing is, we have the weekend to recover as best we can!

    I'll do a write up sometime after dinner.

    Salad for Brenda, lasagna for me!
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  • End of Day Recap

    30 janvier 2020, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F

    It might be a bit before I get to the actual end of trip stuff, so might as well just recap today.

    Today was another odds and ends day.

    We had a few goals, and knocked them out really well.

    The only "Big" ride that we had yet to do that we wanted to do, was Dinosaur. It was broken the last time we were at the Animal park (waaaaaay back on Saturday . . . heh heh). So, that's the first thing we did, leaving the vast crowd and going straight for that ride.

    Because we had a fast pass already for Brenda's favorite ride, we could afford the luxury of waiting to do Avatar until the last minute.

    So, did the Dino ride (not as good as Indy in Disneyland) then go straight to the Navi River Ride (a 20 minute wait when we got in, a 70 minute wait when we got out) and then do Avatar.

    I was on one of the ends, which wasn't as much fun, and while I got the smells from the ride (they blast scents every once in a while) my water jets weren't working, so no spray of water :-(

    I did squeeze the mount more, so I could feel it "breathing" and the effects for that were much stronger (which was a blast!).

    Once again we asked politely to ride in the front (and here you probably thought we were just getting lucky all the time) for the Everest ride (which was closed at the earliest portion of the day) and planned out our picture.

    Doing something silly for the picture is a lot of fun, but it can take a bit of prep, and you typically have to "hold the pose" for an uncomfortable period of time, through some of the toughest sections of the ride, but such was our dedication :-)

    Brenda scoring the Magic Kingdom pass was super cool!!! Not only is it a great ride that usually has crazy long lines, but we could also make up for the fact that we got slighted on one of our pictures from the Haunted Mansion. We made up for that big time today, being able to get on the ride in standby in 20 minutes, then seeing the ride spike to 70 minutes after we got a fast pass that got us on in 10 minutes.

    A great way to end our times at the park.

    Dinner was nice, and it looks like we are clearing out at just the right time, as there are a ton of cheer / dance young ladies taking over the resort. They got in some good practice just a little while ago, and they are certainly passionate about making a ton of noise :-)

    We have such an early flight tomorrow that we are going to be departing the resort at 3am . . . ugh!

    Don't look forward to the long day, but I do look forward to seeing my new car, then catching up with the girls!!! We have the weekend to recover, and no alarms (other than fuzzy ones) will be set for Saturday.

    I do have to go into work at some time Saturday, but it will most likely be late in the afternoon!

    Brenda and I are going to try and get some sleep early tonight. It's been an amazing trip and I look forward to recapping the top 10 and sifting through all the pictures.

    Thanks to everyone that helped make this the best birthday ever!!!

    David
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