DAY 3
Sea World Day
This morning when DH woke me up, the weather was not as nice, but it wasnt raining or snowing, so I was happy. We had already begun a tradition of Mike and I enjoying a quiet moment on the porch sipping coffee and discussing the day, before we wake the family. Today was our third day, and it was also THURSDAY
and you know what that means, right? Christmas! Well to us, this was a huge deal. Wed been talking all week about Christmas. First of all, who doesnt want to celebrate Christmas twice in one year, but our real excitement was in the fact that this would actually be our do-over Christmas. James became very sick mid December, and the morning of my birthday Dec 21, he was admitted into the hospital in our town. His health was getting worse, and we were flown down to Seattle Childrens Hospital on Christmas day. While everyone else was opening gifts and eating turkey, we had hospital food and IVs. For some reason, James tends to go downhill in December. This was his 4th Christmas in the hospital! Even though the other kids got to do Christmas without us, it never feels like a real Christmas if were not together. So we were all very happy about getting another chance to enjoy Christmas.
We started the day as usual, breakfast at the Gingerbread House, a carousel ride, a little wandering through the village, then out the gate and on our way. The first two days of our trip I had been anxious to just get going, but by now I realized we would see everything we wanted during the day, and have time to come back to the village to eat and play. Instead of hurrying everyone out I decided to just relax and go with the flow. Im so glad I adopted this attitude because this was the morning that Mickey mouse himself was at GKTW. We were fed and ready to leave, but made time for one picture with the mouse. One thing you will notice about the village is that it never seems full of people. Even though they operate near capacity all year, the village itself has the feeling of a small lazy town, just waking up. Waiting for Mickey was our first glimpse of a line, and even though everyone wanted their picture with the big cheese, the wait was less than 15 minutes. When we got close to the front, one angel asked if we had our own camera, and another took our video camera. They both took pictures and filmed while we were up onstage with Mickey and Minnie.
I love this picture because the kids are just happy
The village photographers took lots of time with the picture and let us do one family shot
and one of just the kids.
Then he asked James if he wanted one alone with Mickey and James did.
After the pictures we ran into Pluto, so of course we stopped for another picture.
And Mackenzie with Pluto and James
We were told during orientation to always let the photographer take your picture. At the end of the trip we were presented with a disk of all the pictures taken of us, and this is worth its weight in gold. Id like to add that anytime you see a WDW photographer with a photo pass option, stop and take pictures. You will get the disk of al the pictures free when you return home. The pictures are beautiful and since I was usually the one taking pictures with our camera, the photo pass pics are some of the only pictures we are all in together.
We had been having so much fun, and letting time slip away, we thought it would be a good idea to grab lunch before going to Sea World. We went again to Katie Kitchen and had some sandwiches and sides made to go. The kids ate in the car, on the way. As a side note
this was the first trip we made where I did not get us lost! I was finally figuring out this whole driving in Orlando thing
Since we had originally planned on having the shuttle do the driving, we left James disabled parking pass at home in Alaska. Now we had a rental and wished we would have brought it with us. When we got to the parking booth, we told them we did have a wheelchair but no pass, and they told us to just park in the disabled parking anyway. The day was turning out to be rather cloudy and windy, but not cold. We started off doing some looking around, when we passed a show about to start. The show was, with dolphins, birds acrobats. It was fantastic and I would say a must see. The only roller coaster we all went on together was Journey to Atlantis. Mackenzie by this time was figuring out she hated roller coasters, and hated getting wet even more. The ride attendants told us that James and family could ride back to back as many times as he wanted on all the Sea World rides. He ended up doing the Journey to Atlantis ride 4 separate times, and rode back to back each time. The older kids rode the Kraken and Manta Ray, and thoroughly enjoyed both. James has very bad pain in his chest and his feeding tube is painful when pressed, so he couldnt do any upside down rides. The bars pressed against his chest or tube. The ride attendants told us we could all go up together and wait for those who did go on. This way, we got the advantage of the button, but James didnt have to ride anything he didnt want to ride. We were never sure how we felt about doing this, since it was James trip, and his button, but we were assured it was perfectly fine, and ended up using this tactic on about 5 different rides in the various parks. Everyone was getting a little hungry, and James had begun craving cotton candy. DH thought this was the perfect time to indulge his craving and we stopped for some cotton candy. The older boys wanted chips instead, but the younger ones were in heaven, now that daddy had finally given in on the one last thing he had denied them. We watched the Believe show, and while I think it is a must, I mean you gotta see Orcas at Sea World, I thought it was also kind of hokey, and not nearly as good as the first one.
Mike, Macylea, James and Caelan thought theyd be brave and sit in the splash zone. Now of course there is no wheelchair accessibility to the front row of the splash zone, so DH and Caelan carried James down about 15 rows to the front.
But Dakota, Elijah, Mackenzie and I were not as brave and sat in the back
The worst ride we did was the Arctic Wild simulator ride, which got us all so ill we decided to just forgo the rest of the park and go back to GKTW. There is an option to do the ride without the movement. I would highly recommend this to everyone, even adventure seekers. The trail back from the ride is very cool for anyone who has never been to the arctic; there is real snow in the form of an ice wall, and polar bears, walrus, and other arctic wildlife. In the end the kids favorite part of the day was feeding the manta rays.
Mike helping James feed the Manta Rays
Mackenzie feeding them
Dakota helping Macylea, who was freaked out, and Elijah
Caelan, who had been filming the adventure
We went to the window and showed them our button and each kid was given a tray of fish. Everyone had so much fun with this we hated to leave. We had wanted to feed the dolphins too, but they were full when we got there, and chose not to wait until the next feeding time. The only regret I have about Sea World was not feeding the Dolphins, and not going to the kiddy park, though I think the only one of our party who would have enjoyed it was Mackenzie, and she was just as happy to go back to the village.
We left Sea World about 6:30 and were hoping to be back at the village in time for all the Christmas festivities. We arrived just in time for Christmas dinner at the Gingerbread House. Since we were cutting it close we hurried and changed at the villa, then we went straight to dinner. I had brought Mackenzies Christmas dress, but everyone else was happy in there summer clothes. The dinner was wonderful. We had turkey, stuffing, yams, carrots, mashed potatos, gravy, rolls
Im sure there was more but thats what I remember. During dinner Miss Mary came in
Macylea and Mackenzie with Miss Mary
and so did the Mayor.
The family with Mayor Clayton
After dinner we headed to the theater to see Santa. It was just as magical as being a child and seeing Santa.
All of us with Santa
And just the kids
All the kids got to pick out a gift, even the teen-agers. The gifts were not really their age, but they each picked one anyway and gave it to James. We came out of the theater and decorated some cookies, had some more cotton candy. Mike and I laughed that the one day we picked to buy them spun sugar in the parks; it was given away at the village. Then we walked the town square a little, enjoying the warm night air. All our kids were born and raised in Alaska, and this was the first time they had ever had Christmas in shorts, outside. It was just about time for the parade to come to an end in front of the main hall/theater/Amberville area, so we found a comfortable place to sit and watched the parade. No scurrying for a spot, no hour long wait, just a wonderful parade that ended with everyone dancing. We danced, and watched the kids dance until the parade leader announced it was time to countdown for the tree lighting ceremony. Once the tree was lit, the snow began to fall (from a snow maker). My kids were impressed by it, but only because it was fake snow
to them this fake stuff was very cool. James found some streamers and his brother Elijah was pushing James at running speed while James held the streamers.
My kids had what they all described as their favorite Christmas ever. When you have kids of such varying ages its a miracle when everyone is enjoying themselves, but we all were.
Dakota and Caelan
We had so much fun at the Christmas party I will tell you it was my number one favorite part of the trip, hands down.
Dancing with the prince and princess
Mackenzie dancing with a Christmas tree
James and Elijah with Father Christmas
After awhile we all had the idea that it would be so cool to swim on Christmas, so we dashed over to the pool and swam until about 9:25, just short of when the ice cream palace closes, so we could have Christmas sundaes.
That night we went back to the villa and watched one of the movies the gift fairy had left us on the table that day. I hated to go to bed because this had been one of the best days of my life, and I didnt want it to end. I had my children, all snuggled up, my dear hubby, and a memory we will never ever forget of the best Christmas wed ever had.
Playing with Christmas toys
Thank goodness too, because we were getting ready for a big surprise, and unfortunately, not the good kind!
DAY 4- What do you mean the Village is closed?!!!!!
