Converting the Disney Skeptics - January 2013 trip report

[shalom]

The Hermit and I drifted down toward Liberty Square.

I think we were going to ride the Riverboat, but it was too early, so we stopped for slushies in the Liberty Square Market we had the place to ourselves.

Early as it was, the heat was getting to the Hermit a bit, so I sent her off to the air conditioned stores while I took pics of this and that.

Then, for reasons which escape me at the moment, I decided not to wait for the riverboat, and not to do Hall of the Presidents (which would have been the sensible approach, since then the riverboat would have been running by the time we were done), but instead went over to do take pictures in the rose garden. Which I enjoyed considerable, actually.

I really like the little pavilion there.

The Hermit was happy to sit and watch the waterfall over by Cosmic Rays.

While I took eight gazillion more flower pics.

Then we wandered over to the Tomorrowland Terrace, taking pictures all the way.

I got a Blackberry Jasmine Iced Green Tea, which was okay. We got a cream cheese pretzel at the Lunching Pad to go with it. We took a couple of rides on the TTA.

Then headed to the Fantasyland Railroad station because we were meeting everyone at the Main Street Station.

 

[librarygeek]

I love that the stepsisters were riding the carousel! And it sounds like your meet and greet with them was a lot of fun. I've heard they're very interactive and fun to meet, though I've never had the chance to do it myself.

And wow, it looks so empty in all of your pictures! I guess January is another good time to consider going, even if some rides are closed for refurb. And your pics are really great as always. I love how you find so many lesser seen things to take pictures of!

 

[shalom]

I've heard they're very interactive and fun to meet, though I've never had the chance to do it myself.

One cool thing about the stepsisters is that there wasn't much of a line for them, however I'd looked them up beforehand so we knew when and where they'd be showing up, which probably gave us an edge. The stepmother and Drusilla were pretty quiet, actually, maybe because Anastasia was rattling on so!

And wow, it looks so empty in all of your pictures!

Part of that is where we were (that time of day, Fantasyland and Adventureland are much more crowded than Liberty Square), but crowds were definitely lighter in January than May. I took some crowd shots as were were walking from the rose garden over to Tomorrowland; this was at about 11:00 a.m.:

Mr. Cool took some crowd pics as well -- Adventureland at 1:50:

And Frontierland about 2:00

It was unusually warm for January when we were there, which according to some may have actually kicked the crowds up a bit. But even if the crowds were larger than usual for January, they were pretty moderate I thought.

Glad you're enjoying the pics, and thanks for the kind words.

 

[eeyoresnr]

knock knock, anybody home? just popped in to catch up

 

[shalom]

So! We are still on Wednesday, January 16th, 2013! I was going to consult with Ballet Girl, which I finally did. Then I had to fight with the computer to get my photos to show up (hubby finally had to intervene). Then I spent some time sulking, because it’s clear we’re not going to get to Florida in 2015. Hadn’t even finished sulking when summer chaos hit.

To be honest, I’m still sulking a little bit about no Florida in 2015, however I’m thinking we’ll go in 2016 AND 2017 to make up for it. So that helps… a little. OTOH, part of the reason it’s getting harder to schedule is that hubby has more responsibilities at work – if we go twice in a year or so, he probably won’t be there the whole time. Decisions, decisions…

Anyhow. Wednesday at the Magic Kingdom. After futzing around at the train station a bit, most of us went home to the condo for a break and lunch. Eldest was tired and hot and the two of us didn’t do much when we got back – watched some live performances, rode the TTA, wandered back to Gaston’s Tavern for LeFou’s Brew, watched Gaston interact with guests. I tried to get a shot of Space Mountain from near where Gaston was signing autographs, but, alas, it was too dark for my camera.

Have to try for that shot again when we get back -- and with the Mine Train in it!

I'd only had a couple things on my "Must Do" list for this second day at the MK, and one of them was to get some pics of the carousel, but by the time we'd gotten there I'd lost my light.

Gonna have to try again during the daytime, I think.

Another thing on my "Must Do" list was Philharmagic:

Had I known about all the bad puns in the lobby, I would have dragged Geek Dad along:

And SeaWorld Son would have liked to have seen Donald:

But you just can't do everything, and, best I can tell, he managed to keep busy...

 

[shalom]

I have no idea who did what after we got back, except that it’s clear that Geek Dad and Ballet Girl were not doing the same things at the same time.

At some point, Geek Dad wandered around taking pictures of random architectural details:

And non-architectural details:

And sights from the train:

And watched the show in front of the castle again:

Then he wandered New Fantasyland:

And enjoyed a performance by the Royal Majesty Makers:

I suspect he was with Warrior Girl much of that time; she generally won't meet the characters but likes to watch some of them from a distance, and Geek Dad got some pics of Mr. Cool with Gaston:

This Gaston is GOOD – has the look and has the moves:

Then Geek Dad got together with Ballet Girl, and they went to do the Move It, Shake It Parade; Geek Dad took some pics of the castle while they waited.

And lots of the parade with Ballet Girl:

Then he hauled her back to have her picture with Gaston, as well. It was drizzling a bit (this is when the Hermit and I were in Philharmagic – we’re geniuses, that’s what), so Ballet Girl took her glasses off. Gaston was still in top form.

Ballet Girl rode the Little Mermaid ride while Geek Dad took pictures.

Ballet Girl has listed the Haunted Mansion, People Mover, Ice Cream, and Carousel of Progress after Gaston and before the fireworks – either they were really moving, or she’s got things out of order! Anyhow, we all got together in front of the castle for the fireworks.

After the fireworks show, most of us sat in the pavilion by the rose garden talking while Geek Dad took Ballet Girl up front for more pictures.

We are going to miss that pavilion next time out.

So that was my last full day at Disney – Thursday I decided to just do a half day, because I knew the Hermit wasn’t going to last a whole day, and I was fine with spending half the day kind of decompressing while I packed and got organized and stuff. Geek Dad and the other kids were going to make a full day of it.

And, although he admitted he liked Gaston, and although he hasn't followed up on his threat to spend only half days at Disney, Mr. Cool still wouldn't admit that WDW was as good as, or in any sense better than, Sea World, or even that he thought Disney World was pretty cool. "It's okay, I guess."

 

[shalom]

I’d initially planned to do Epcot for two full days – one doing the right side of World Showcase, the other doing the left side. But in the end I decided to do a second full day at the Magic Kingdom, and only a partial second day at Epcot. I like to have a few hours our last day in the unit doing laundry and packing, rather than trying to do everything before check out the last morning. I do really enjoy Epcot, and heaven knows there were a lot of things I wanted to do there but didn’t get to, and even more I would have liked to have taken pictures of there, but when it gets right down to it, the Magic Kingdom still has a bigger piece of my heart.

We parked practically under the monorail track, then followed the track in, which made me happy. Epcot and the MK will always be the “coolest” parks for me, because they both have the monorail.

It was as warm as ever that morning, but these guys may have known something we didn’t…

The Hermit and I had breakfast at Sunshine Seasons, splitting a Breakfast Platter and Breakfast pudding. The breakfast platter was okay, although I could not eat the eggs. I tend to hate restaurant eggs as a rule, so that wasn’t unexpected.

(photo from the DisBoards Food Pics thread: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2284684&page=137)

The Breakfast Pudding was pretty good, but I think that, for the calories, I’d just as soon have a chocolate croissant.

(photo from this DisBoards review: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=46940712)


Then I spent a long time in the Land again, because I wanted to get better pictures of the four seasons “balloons” there.

Didn’t get any shots I was real happy with, but I have a suspicion my camera really isn’t capable of doing what I wanted. Have to drag Geek Dad in there sometime, I guess. Or get a lot more serious about photography!

We watched the kids with Chip and Dale for a while, then wandered over to Club Cool on our way to Mexico. I have no idea why we didn’t wait to watch a fountain show – that’s something I totally intended to do this trip, and didn’t!

Mexico wasn’t open yet, so the Hermit stood in the shade while I took pictures of flowers...

...architecture...

...and flowers and architecture.

Eventually they let us in. We looked over all the museum-ish stuff near the entrance, watched someone doing a bit of an Agent P Adventure, then spent considerable time looking at the Oaxacan Wood Carving – well, squinting at it, and taking pictures of pieces I thought looked interesting, because it’s dark in there!

Then we took the Gran Fiesta boat ride, which the Hermit may or may not have thought justified sitting through The Three Caballeros before we went. We also spent a good while in the glass shop there, although the only picture I took was of the permanently installed stained glass.

Took a few more detail pics outside, then it was on to Norway!

Wandered around taking pictures, did the museum, then it started raining a bit and we decided Kringla was our best next move. Which didn't mean I stopped taking pictures, just that I added a more definite direction to things.

The Hermit got a regular pretzel, while I got an almond pretzel, which was fine.

It was still quite overcast, but the slight rain had stopped by the time we moved on to China. Yay!

 

[shalom]

Soon as we got to China, I saw that I had to take some duck photos for SeaWorld Son (he is a big fan of waterfowl).

And some pictures of "shop windows," including a dragon for Warrior Girl – not that there was any lack of those!

And a few sort-detail pics:

This painting in the back of one of the shops cracked me up:

Because the waves are so clearly based on this famous Hokusai painting:

Which of course is Japanese, not Chinese (that's Mount Fuji in the background.

The carp, however, reminds me of this painting by contemporary Chinese artist Zhou Wen Xi:

(from this post: http://www.stevesnedeker.com/4565/sensational-artwork-using-water.html)

So that's okay.

I was seriously tempted by the little bubbling fountains in the back, but while I liked the concept all kinda lots, no one of them really stood out, so I resisted that impulse pretty easily.

Spent a lot of time in the garden area taking pictures.

Also got to see a statue rise out of the water in response to someone doing a Perry Adventure, which we thought was cool; the way it’s positioned, most people in the pavilion won’t even notice it.

On to Germany, where I had to take pictures of some of the Nutcrackers – SeaWorld Son has been collecting them ever since he performed in the Nutcracker one year. I’m not dead sure these guys are functional nutcrackers, but the one in the middle is clearly the Mouse King.

I'm glad they left the train set up permanently, since I'm pretty sure we spent more time looking over the train area than we did in Germany proper!

What is it about train set miniatures that always draws people?

Spent a long time in Italy, not getting square on to things I was photographing.

Then we wandered on to the American Pavilion, where I got an American Dream – strawberry and blueberry slush to either side of vanilla ice cream.

Photo from this Disboard thread (boy, can I relate to that title!): http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3062681&page=4

The American Dream may be my favorite Disney treat this trip – and the only serious contender is the Mint Chocolate Cupcake at the Contempo Café. Aside from a few outright disappointments, most of the Disney food I had was in the “tasty, but nothing special” category, in that I’d had something similar somewhere else that I’d liked just as well. I enjoy soft serve once in a while, it’s something I don’t make at home, and the combination of the soft serve with slushy flavors really worked for me and is something I hadn’t run across before. So definitely something I’ll be trying again.

OTOH, by the time I was eating it, it was clearly getting cooler, and looking like it might start raining again, which is not the weather that treat is designed for. Once I finished we headed inside to see the American Adventure. Not something I feel a great need to see again anytime soon, but we enjoyed it. When we came back outside, it was COLD. “Yes, it really is January” kind of cold. “Time to head back home for some long pants” kind of cold. “Why did I suggest meeting outside?” kind of cold. So we hurried down to the Morocco boat dock to find somewhere sheltered to wait in until everyone else to showed up. Which they quickly did.

 

[shalom]

When we got to Epcot that morning, hubby and the younger ones had headed straight for Test Track, which is Warrior Girl’s favorite ride at Epcot. Geek Dad and the girls got the free pics they’ll e-mail to you.

I gotta say, I think Geek Dad does a better job as photographer. OTOH, not bad, for free.

Then they did Mission Space (hubby’s favorite Epcot ride), and the Seas with Nemo and Friends, where they goofed around for a bit. Ballet Girl does not look too distressed:

While Warrior Girl looks resigned to her fate (and possibly amused by it):

They had ice cream at Fountain View, did Mission Space one last time, then wandered into World Showcase, where Geek Dad took some Warrior Girl pics.

Eventually Ballet Girl hauled Warrior Girl off to do a Perry Adventure in Mexico. Warrior Girl abandoned her after that, but Ballet Girl did two more Perry adventures, one in the UK with SeaWorld Son and one in France by herself. All three younger ones liked the Perry Adventures, but for Ballet Girl they were the best part of Epcot.

Ballet Girl particularly remembers hiding from the rain doing the France Perry Adventure, when she looked up from her gadget to get her bearings and “felt like a real spy” because she was lying low – earlier adventures she’d always been with her siblings and they were just running around solving clues and talking, so while she enjoyed those too, doing one on her own was enjoyable in a different way it seems.

Geek Dad, meanwhile, enjoyed some of the live entertainment:

And took a lot of pictures…

… including this one that I had particularly requested, which came out pretty well I thought:

Then we all got together in Morocco and took our last Disney boat ride. Then our last Disney monorail ride. On our way home we picked up dinner at Walmart and spent the evening packing.

That night I commented on my disappointment that Mr. Cool hadn’t enjoyed the Disney parks as much as I’d hoped, and Geek Dad pointed out that everyone else had had a great time and wanted to come back, and that Mr. Cool could go to SeaWorld and do his thing while we did the Disney parks. Four out of five of the skeptics had had a great time, which wasn’t bad odds. I sighed but had to agree.

NOT THE END.

 

[shalom]

We usually stop a few places on our drive back from Florida, do a museum or two, but I had correctly assumed we would be too tired on this trip to really want to do that, so I had nothing definitely planned, and we definitely weren't doing anything. As a matter of fact, the first day of the drive home was pretty quiet.

Right up until the early afternoon, that is, when Mr. Cool suddenly said, "I'm thinking about going to Disney World by myself this spring. Think it'd be okay if I took two weeks off in May?"

There was a long moment of silence, then Geek Dad and I yelped, "WHAT?!?"

"Well, I've traveled on my own before," Mr. Cool said, somewhat bewildered by our response.

"I thought you didn't like the Disney parks," I said.

"I never said that," Mr. Cool protested.

"And you never said you liked them, either," pointed out the Hermit.

"I liked them, I totally liked them, why would you think I didn't like them?"

Poor guy -- just about everyone then ganged up on him giving him evidence on why we just might think he didn't like them.

Anyhow, he actually went back about the time our original trip had been planned -- late April, early May -- and wandered the resorts and did the parks and had a great time. Meaning ALL the Disney skeptics in my family are now Disney fans. I know it doesn't always work out like that, so I was really happy.



Disney Skeptic No More:

And THAT is the end of my story.

 

[librarygeek]

I'm glad you decided to keep going with your TR! Sorry you don't get a 2015 trip, but I know it will make 2016 even more special

I'm loving all of your pictures!

This is the second time I've ever seen that American Dream. I saw it in someone else's TR a couple of months ago and had never heard of it! Definitely something I want to check out.

And yay!! You converted all of the skeptics! What a surprise ending!

 

[shalom]

Sorry you don't get a 2015 trip, but I know it will make 2016 even more special

Good to see you! I am still in the middle of your Velkommen trip report, which I was enjoying, been thinking I need to get back to it, and then do your February one. Mr. Cool's boss offered him a dollar an hour raise if he gets a high school diploma, so now he suddenly want to go back and fill in the gaps (he's pretty much up to speed on the stuff he needs for work -- math, science, and writing -- but abandoned history entirely when he got the job at 16, and replied to my every complaint with, "I got a job without it, didn't I?" ), so between adding his coursework to the usual stuff, and doing a classics course with the Hermit (which is taking more time than expected), I seem to have a lot less time for my favorite boards anymore.

I hope you're right about the wait making it more special. Right now we're not all planning to do the Disney parks 2016, except for one MNSSHP, because I really missed doing the resorts last time. I suspect Mr. Cool will go a few days -- and some of the rest of us might as well, but I'm trying to resist -- and then do the parks again in 2017. We're thinking about doing the Universal Parks in 2016 -- really want to see the Harry Potter stuff, plus we're unlikely to spend more than a day or two with those.

This is the second time I've ever seen that American Dream. I saw it in someone else's TR a couple of months ago and had never heard of it! Definitely something I want to check out.

I think Disney does decadence really well, but sometimes Disney food is just wrong (I'm looking at you, Sunshine Seasons ), and often it's just okay or fine. It's generally good for park food, and in that sense the American Dream is one of their best. Park food with an interesting twist.

And yay!! You converted all of the skeptics! What a surprise ending!

That guy. My mom does this thing where she introduces a new idea to my dad, he immediately hates it, and then she backs off but periodically exposes him to it, and eventually he will embrace the idea to the point of forgetting he ever disliked it. He's convinced he never changes his mind, and insists he was all for it from the beginning. Drives me nuts (mom's just happy he changes his mind), and Mr. Cool clearly takes after his grandfather in that department. I guess he got that from my side, because Geek Dad and his brothers have a better grasp on reality. Sorry about that, Mr. Cool's future wife... should there ever be one.

 

[eeyoresnr]

so glad you came back and finished your TR. I want to do one from our 2 trips with Jaxon but just can't seem to find the time...