Our Latest Trip to WDW

We took another trip to Disney World this week. We stayed at the Pop Century again this trip. It is one of the value resorts and even though the rooms are smaller, they are big enough for us. It is so great being a Florida Passholder. This means we can just go into a park for dinner then head somewhere else if we want. We often end up going to the same restaurants in Epcot so we tried something different. I didn't even know this restaurant existed until I was looking for places in a book. We went to the Coral Reef. Got there at 5:00. Had a 5 minute wait. Got premium seating!! This restaurant is amazing. One entire wall is a fish tank. Not just any tank. It is 200 feet in diameter and 27 feet deep! Anyway, our table was right next to the window! Boy did we luck out!Epcot was having the Flower and Garden Festival. I fell in love with the topiaries. No way could I post them all but here are a few. The highlight of the trip was the Backstage tour that we took on Monday. It was a 7 1/2 hour tour of behind the scenes in all 4 parks. We were only allowed to take pictures when we were "onstage" so obviously I don't have too many pictures of what we saw. Some of the things we saw were the costume shop, the shop where they make the cars for the rides, the paint shop, backstage at the American Adventure and the Tower of Terror, the place where they keep and maintain the floats for the Animal Kingdom parade, the plant nursery where they grow the hanging baskets and make the topiaries and much, much more. We had lunch at the Wilderness Lodge. I was able to get a few shots when we were "onstage".

Our transportation for the day.Amazing!! No crowds. We had two groups and two guides. Our group had Mark who had worked with Disney for over 20 years. Boy did he know his stuff!!Lunch was included at the Whispering Canyon Cafe in Wilderness Lodge. I felt like I was back in Yellowstone!Behind the scenes in the Plant Nursery. We were allowed to take pictures here.

As I said, we got to see the floats for the Animal Kingdom parade up close and personal and as a reward, our last thing of the day was to see the whole parade. We had a great viewing area and didn't have to fight the crowds to get there!
It was an amazing tour and I hope to take more of their shorter tours next time we go. On Tuesday we went to Hollywood studios where we took the Backlot ride, the Indiana Jones show and the American Idol show. Then the CROWDS got to us. I thought spring break was over!! So, we decided to head back to Epcot (boy the park hopper ticket is nice) where it was much more laid back, much less crowded, and much more enjoyable. We had a great trip, and as always can't wait to go back.