The Magic Trip: Disney World (Be Our Guest Restaurant)

August 6, 2014 by ·

I feel like Be Our Guest Restaurant needed its own post.  That’s how awesome it was.

One of the challenges in being an actor is it’s very hard to plan vacations in advance.  You never know what your schedule is going to be.  That’s why we ended up driving down to Disney World and Universal in the first place–it could be booked very last minute and not cost an absolute fortune like it would if I booked a flight somewhere.  However, this posed a problem when I wanted to grab a reservation at Be Our Guest Restaurant in Magic Kingdom.  Reservations could be made up to 180 days in advance!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Be Our Guest, it’s the restaurant in the new section of the Magic Kingdom that is modeled after the Beast’s castle in Beauty and the Beast.  You know being the Belle fanatic I am, I just had to eat there.

We got our tickets for Disney about two weeks before we left, so I knew that getting a reservation was slim to none.  I consoled myself with the fact that they offer a lunch counter service, so even though it wouldn’t be the same, I knew I would at least get in.  I was determined though to get a dinner reservation.

This girl was on a mission!

I literally checked every single morning to see if there were any cancellations during our stay.  Low and behold, three days before we left I got one! And for our last night in Disney! It was a great end to our Disney portion of the trip.

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The Magic Trip: Disney World (Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios)

August 4, 2014 by ·

I remember when Animal Kingdom first opened (I know I’m aging myself here).  Is that nuts?

I hate to say it, but it’s probably my least favorite of the parks.  Don’t get me wrong, there are some great attractions, but Robby and I usually go through it in a couple of hours and then head out.

We started off with the Kilimanjaro Rapids and proceeded to get SOAKED.  (see evidence below)

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The Magic Trip: Disney World (Epcot)

August 2, 2014 by ·

Ahhh Epcot.

The only place you can eat and shop your way around the world in one spot. 😉

One of our first stops was to see our friend Karen who sings with The Voices of Liberty in America Square.  Karen, Robby and I did a reading a few years ago in NYC.  It was our first New York gig and Karen’s last! She decided to move down to FL after booking Disney.  She’s such a sweet and lovely person and the group was fantastic!

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The Magic Trip: St. Augustine, FL

August 1, 2014 by ·

We left Charleston in the afternoon and headed down to St. Augustine, FL–our last stop before we hit Orlando!

St. Augustine is a bit of a tradition in our family.  We accidentally stumbled upon it the first time we were heading down to Disney and now we hit it up every time we’re in Florida.  It’s a small little town by the beach, home to Flagler College, and the supposed Fountain of Youth.

It’s also the home of Florida’s oldest school house.

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The Magic Trip: Disney World (Magic Kingdom)

July 31, 2014 by ·

We spent 5 days in Disney World and had the park hopper plus waterpark option.  I highly reccommend this to anyone who goes, especially in the summer.  The park hopper is great because you can bounce from park to park and with the water park option, you’re able to cool off during the hottest part of the day.

Of course it’s impossible to cover every aspect of Disney in one post, so I thought I would split each post into different parks.

Magic Kingdom is probably my favorite park.  It’s home to a bunch of my favorite rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, Thunder Mountain Railroad, Small World, and Peter Pan (I might have ridden this one 3 times…shhh).  Here are some of the best moments at Magic Kingdom.

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Remembering Uncle Marc

July 28, 2014 by ·

I know I was supposed to be posting about Disney and Universal the past few days, but Friday morning we received the worst possible call.  My mom’s cousin’s husband, my Uncle Marc, suddenly passed away that morning.

I was debating whether or not to post anything for a while, but I wanted to take a moment to remember him.

He was truly the best of the best.  Always joking, always taking an interest in whatever you were doing, always supportive.  He would come and see my brother and me in whatever show we were doing.  In fact, one of the last conversations we had with him was about On the Air.  His mother was a playwright and he knew a lot about the process we were going through.

I can’t tell you the void he left in the world.  My heart goes out to my Aunt Madelyn and cousins, Joanna and Nicole.

I hope you can take a moment to think about your loved ones; how special they are and how lucky to have them in your life.

 

It’s truly a gift.

 

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♥

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The Magic Trip: Charleston, SC

July 24, 2014 by ·

After we left Ben in Richmond, we headed down to Charleston, SC–or at least we tried to.

About halfway there, I lost any and all of my pickup.  I could barely get the car to go 30 mph.  I pulled off at the nearest exit and stopped at a gas station.  Robby and I had no idea where we were.  Two southern gentlemen saw that we were having car trouble and offered to take a look for us.  They thought it could be the converter and recommended a shop down the road.  We putted along down the road to the shop as fast as we could.  When we finally arrived, the mechanic took it around the block and indeed it seemed like the converter.  We ended up spending the whole afternoon in St. Paul, SC waiting for our car to get fixed.  I asked the mechanic if there was any place we could wait while he worked.

“There’s a McDonald’s down the road, ma’am.”

So we walked down the road to McDonald’s where we waited.  All afternoon.

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The Magic Trip: Richmond, VA

July 23, 2014 by ·

So Robby and I had a pretty hectic year.

What with writing a musical, directing/musical directing shows, prepping for festivals and industry readings, we thought we needed a vacation.  The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Diagon Alley was opening this summer and the Potter fans we are, we obviously had to go.  And ok, twist my arm, we’ll go to Disney World as well.  ::jeez::

We drove down (which was an adventure since our car broke down–story to come!) and stopped along the way.  Obviously, we had to have entertainment for the drive down!

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I’m Back!

July 21, 2014 by ·

Hello All!

Did you miss me?

I’m happy to say that I have returned from a truly magical vacation at Disney World and The Magical World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios…just in time to get back to work :-/

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Another Grad Party!

June 30, 2014 by ·

‘Tis the Season!

Of graduation parties, I mean.

Our cousin Matt graduated from HS this year (crazy!).  My Aunt and Uncle threw him a fantastic party where we all ate too much and played with bubbles.

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