Update on Ultimate Disney Challenge project

Hey readers,

Lu here. I am sorry I haven't posted in a little while. I was treated to a last minute trip to Orlando, Florida a place I hadn't been since I was eleven years old. Which was almost sixteen years ago and it's famously the home of Disney World.

I was going to make this post while I was still in Florida, unfortunately my hotel, all though they claimed to be five stars... did not have the best internet. So I didn't feel like it would be able to translate or upload the post very well. But back to the rest of the trip: I was able to go to Disney World my second day in Florida, I will include pictures in this post.

It was an interesting day to say the least. We arrived and there was a parade starting so they were clearing the streets. My friend and I decided to go around the parade so we popped in to the stores to go around it. I had some gifts I needed to scope out prices for anyways.

My niece had requested Marie the female kitten from the Aristocats movie (stuffed animal version) I only found one . This stuffed animal was huge and almost a hundred dollars. I love my niece but that was too pricey for a stuffed animal and wouldn't fit in their suitcases to go back home. So I had to pass. I ended up just getting my eldest niece and nephew; Mickey and Minnie Mouse stuffed animals that I knew would fit in their suitcases yet not so small they couldn't play with them.

After they opened the streets back up we got some ice cream at one of the ice cream parlors there. I wish I could say it was amazing and it was the best ice cream I had every had considering the price. However, I cannot. It was mediocre ice cream and they added cookies to make the Mickey Mouse ears. I was very disappointed in the ice cream.

Then we went to take pictures in front of the Walt Disney statue. The man who started and created this iconic and very impressive company/brand. The back drop was Cinderella's castle and it was so beautiful. I was very excited to see and experience Disney World decorated for Christmas.

After we took our pictures we headed towards a specific ride. Any guessers on which ride? ....... If you guess the Pirates of the Caribbean ride you would be right. I wore my Black Pearl shirt which not only had the ship on it and a actual quote from the movie franchise, but wore shorts so I could show off my PotC tattoo.

I was super excited.

We had to wait 40 minutes before we could even see the boats, but I was just trying to stay calm. The kids infront of us kept messing with the metal chains and making a lot of noise and almost broke one of them. Their mother/the adult with them, did not tell them to stop she just let them. They touched over ten of these heavy chains and my friend was getting a migraine and it was making us upset that their mother did not care. As a former teacher I was boiling in my skin, but had to let it go.

We finally get on the ride and it was nice, but I did get wet. I was very disappointed on how the 3 Captain Jack Sparrow's in the ride, did not even resemble Captain Jack from the movies. They have altered his apperance so much. When we got to the store I was down right flabbergasted. Nothing and I will repeat NOTHING was authentically Pirates of the Caribbean merchindise from the movie.

As someone who has been obessed with the movies since the first one came out in 2003, I was apalled that the Walt Disney World's store for Pirates of the Caribbean a Disney Franchise did not have anything from the movies. I was in that store almost an hour trying to find something that was actually a movie thing. I even complained to the people behind the cash register. I showed them my shirt and tattoo. I even shared my history with the movies. She (the cashier woman) said I was the most authentic Pirates of the Caribbean thing there.

The man sitting next to her suggested I complain about it to the parks, but I had a better idea. I would write about here on my website. They also suggested since I was such a huge fan to have my picture taken with their live action (meaning human) version of Captain Jack Sparrow. My friend and I thought yeah that's an amazing idea.

We went to look for Captain Jack Sparrow. We waited forty minutes at where they told us he would be. We asked several workers if he was going to show up. Little did we know he had left for the day because of the impending storm. We noticed that storm clouds had come in, but we were very disapointed that no one told us there was no point in waiting for a man not there, and we asked several different workers. Not only did we waste 40 minutes that could have been spent doing something fun, like going on other rides and exploring.

When we finally realized the man was not going to show up, we started to try to walk around and look at other rides. We were going to do the Jungle Crusie ride, but from what we could see it was an outdoor ride and it was beginning to rain. So we decided to leave the park because according to the weather app it was going to rain and storm for at least the next 2 hours.

Unfortunately, we were not the only people who decided to leave because of the rain. Hundreds of people were trying to leave too and another parade was happening when all these people were trying to leave with rain changing from a mist to droplets that stung. So all and all an interesting day.

The rest of the trip went well. I didn't get to write and work as much as I should have, but I needed a break. I will be posting almost every day for a while now. I have a lot of catching up to do before January 1, 2023 since thats when the movie watching part commenses.

Happy Holidays my readers. May the rest of year 2022 be filled with love, joy, and laughter. Also good food.

Lu out!