Fourth trip... but my first trip report ever. COMPLETE

[nanlou]

Okay, so I can't resist. I love reading all of these reports. And I can't resist adding my own. And now that my summer vacation has officially begun (yes, summer comes early here in South Georgia!) I've got the time. So here goes...

First off, the introductions. There are four of us. Seven years ago DH and I finished school and moved South to Georgia, where we were pleased to discover that we were only a 5 hour drive from Disney World! We have two boys -- a 6 year old (whom I'll call "Buzz" ... he's just now starting to outgrow his infatuation with Toy Story and all things Lightyear, but in my heart, he'll always be my little Buzz!) -- and a 2 year old (whom I'll call "Simba", since he's recently discovered his older brother's DVD of the Lion King and asks to watch it every chance he gets).

Buzz was three years old and Simba was in utero on our first family trip to the World (can you believe we'd been living here a couple of years before discovering that we were in such close driving range to Mickey's???), and we've been making return trips just about every year. We're mid-December visitors. DH and I both work for a university and our lives follow the academic calendar, which means final exams take up the first week of December, followed by winter graduation ceremonies, followed immediately by a short family trip to Orlando! The last couple of years we've even taken Buzz out of school to make our trek. "Crowd-averse" would be a really good way to describe us. In our minds, early/mid-December is the BEST time for hanging out in Disney, with the cooler temperatures, holiday decorations, and of course, SHORT LINES!

I know, I know ... this trip report is five months late. But here it is. On Saturday morning (12/9) we packed the car, went to "Breakfast with Santa" at our church, then buckled everyone back in the car and drove on to Orlando. Five hours later we arrived at our hotel, settled in, then drove to Downtown Disney for some shopping and sightseeing. We stay at a Sheraton off-site... I know lots of folks rave about all the wonderful on-site hotel experiences to be had (and I imagine that if we ever did try on-site we might just decide we like it), but as things are we "cash in" our credit card rebate points for free hotel stays at any Sheraton hotel. It's well worth it for us.

So we stroll through the marketplace at Downtown Disney, eat supper on the outside patio at "Earl of Sandwich," and as we're eating a juggler starts his show. The boys (DH, Buzz, and Simba) all nab "front row" seats for the show (on the pavement) while I get some Christmas shopping done. Apparently while I'm shopping the juggler recruits kids from the crowd to help him, and Simba got to be in charge of handing him the swords as they were needed. DH reports that Simba (remember, he's only 2!) was adorable and reveled in the attention. It was getting late (past 8 pm, which is the boys' usual bedtime), but we made a few phone calls to our internet savvy friends to ask if they could determine whether the space shuttle launch which had been re-scheduled for that evening was still on. It was!!! Orlando is a good hour's drive from Kennedy Space Center, but we'd been told that it still provides a good view of the shuttle launches. Shortly after 8:30 we scouted out a good viewing location in the parking place (not surrounded by so many buildings or trees that would obscure our view) and at 8:47:35 the eastern sector of the sky shone brightly (as if a large city had appeared out of nowhere), and then the orange fireball lifted above the treeline, into the sky. After a while the fireball turned into a bright white light and it veered left (northward) along the horizon before dipping back down toward earth (following the spherical arc of the earth, I suppose!). It was so COOL! As we were watching the launch, groups of people were getting out of their cars, backs turned toward the shuttle, casually walking toward the shops. It made me and at how "unaware" they were of what was happening *right there* so I (and then some other folks who were watching along with us nearby) yelled out to them "Turn around! It's the space shuttle! TURN AROUND AND LOOK!!!" They finally did realize what we were saying, turned around, and then thanked us for pointing it out.

And that was our first night. Tune in later for adventures from our first day.

 

[nanlou]

The next morning we were up bright and early for our first day at the parks. Given that our kiddos get us up bright and early pretty much every morning, it was relatively easy for us to get up and go this morning. First stop: Epcot. My Christmas present to DH was an opportunity to take part in a 2-hour "Around the World at Epcot" tour on a segway. He had to report in at guest relations by 8:15 am, and the park didn't open for the rest of us until 9:00, so Buzz, Simba, and I waited at the turnstiles until the "rope drop" ceremony was set to begin. This is where we met a pair of DISers ... sorry, I can't recall their names! But one was wearing a DIS shirt, so I started up a conversation. Simba passed the time stalking birds, until I called him back to his stroller because it was time for the show to begin. When the ropes finally dropped, we followed the Disney cast member over to the new "Nemo" ride. It seemed like the rest of the world was headed toward the "Soarin" ride... but we had to stick to the little-kid-friendly rides this morning since DH wasn't there to help tend to Simba. We rode Nemo (there's nothing quite like sitting in the clam shells!) -- I think Buzz liked the ride, though not enough to go again, and Simba was okay with it, but found it a bit too dark and scary to want a second ride. Then we walked to "Soarin" to pick up fast-passes for later, and while we were there we rode in the boats through the Land. Buzz was totally impressed by the Mickey Mouse shaped pumpkins. That boy has the two greenest thumbs I've ever seen, and I'm a bit afraid that this ride might have given him some ideas. After that we went to the Character Connection to meet, pose for pictures with, and collect autographs from Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Chip and Dale, and Belle. Buzz dutifully went through the lines (which, of course, were nice and short ) collecting autographs and posing for the photopass photographer. In previous years he'd been a real autograph hound, but this year he seemed to be doing it more for tradition than actual desire. Simba took one look at Pluto just after we got in line and started quaking in his diaper. Pluto, bless his doggy-soul, noticed that Simba was terrified and he backed off. Good dog! I hurried to scoop Simba out of his stroller and tried to pacify him. He was both fascinated by the characters and deathly afraid of them. Wanted to watch, but sure didn't want to be too close! Things changed a bit when we got to the end of the line, where Belle was the last character to greet. Since she was a real person with a real face and no fur, Simba decided that she was okay. We all sat on the ground and chatted with her. She admired the pins on Buzz's lanyard, we remembered that we had a Belle pin tucked in our backpack and pulled it out to show her, she asked Buzz which pin was his favorite and he pointed to the Pirates of the Caribbean pin that he had traded for earlier that day. I asked Belle if she'd read any good books lately, and she replied, "Yes... I just finished one about a beanstalk and an ogre. Do you know that one?" Buzz asked, "Do you mean Jack and the Beanstalk?" and Belle answered, "Yes! Have you read it?" Belle signed the boys' autograph books, "To Captain Buzz, Love Belle," and "To Prince Simba, Love Belle," and we were on our way. I'm not really much of a Princess person myself, but Belle was fantastic! By that time, Simba had decided that he *did* want to meet Mickey Mouse. Mickey was busy with another child by that time, but Minnie was free, and Simba didn't seem to know the difference rolleyes1 ), so we slowly and carefully walked over to see Minnie. Simba started trembling a little bit, but he still wanted to meet "Mickey," so I put the autograph book in his hands and he quickly walked it up to Minnie, gave it to her, and then ran away to hide. I handed Minnie the marker so she could sign the book, she blew a kiss to Scott, I thanked her, and then we left. By that time DH had finished his Epcot tour so we met up with him again.

 

[Katie Dawn]

Nanlou,
I'm enjoying your TR! Keep it coming!

Your description of Simba is so cute. Have you ever seen that America's Funniest Videos with the little guy sitting at the table and Eyeore is coming up behind him...the little guy is afraid, then really afraid, then SCREAMS....then says, "Hi Eyeore!", then looks terrified again! Too precious!

Looking forward to your next installment!

 

[nanlou]

Your description of Simba is so cute. Have you ever seen that America's Funniest Videos with the little guy sitting at the table and Eyeore is coming up behind him...the little guy is afraid, then really afraid, then SCREAMS....then says, "Hi Eyeore!", then looks terrified again! Too precious!

Thanks. I haven't seen that video.... but it does sound just like Simba!

I'll be adding more to the report sometime tomorrow. Too tired to type in the next installment now. I have to get my rest so that I'm ready for the wee hours of the morning when Buzz and Simba are sure to wake me.

In that last bit, I forgot to mention about Buzz's interaction with Chip & Dale. They were really interested in investigating his lanyard and carefully checked every pin.... only to be disappointed that Buzz didn't have any pins featuring them. You know how Chip & Dale are! Only, poor Buzz was totally flummoxed by the gesturing and non-verbal communication. He seemed to understand what they were trying to tell him, except I think perhaps he thought he had to gesture back to them, as if he also weren't supposed to speak. So they'd "ask" him a question about his pins, and he'd desperately turn around and look at me, gesturing and shrugging his shoulders, and I'd call over to Chip and Dale "He doesn't have any of your pins yet! He'll have to trade for one later!" Remember, I was holding Simba and couldn't dare get any closer to the furry critters to have a civil conversation with them. So I had to serve as Buzz's interpreter from a distance.

 

[nanlou]

I'd love to be able to regale you all with tales of the Segway tour, but my DH isn't really one for details. He had fun. At one point, he mentioned that perhaps next year he'd watch the kids while I took the tour, which suggests to me that he had A LOT of fun, and thought it was well worth the extra money. So there you have it. The Segway tour is fun.

After we reunited we hit the "big" rides... we all went back to Soarin' where Buzz and I used the fastpasses we'd secured earlier, and we were able to use a "child swap" so that once Buzz and I finished, I stayed with Simba while DH and Buzz went on the ride. We "child swapped" for all the big rides the whole trip, so Buzz got to double up on all the rides. From there we headed over to Test Track, which was high on Buzz's list, but it had a long wait so we veered left and went on Mission Space instead... Buzz and I took the green/wimpy ride, then we child-swapped again and Buzz and his dad gave the orange/intense ride a try. Buzz exited this ride with his dad saying that this was his favorite ride (even better than Space Mountain, which was his favorite ride from last year's trip). I should add, however, that later in the afternoon when we contemplated what we should try next, Buzz declared that he'd "never do the orange ride again in his life!" So much for that one being his favorite ride.

Our plan was to pick up fast passes for Test Track next and then head for a counter-service lunch in Japan. Buzz had been watching those travel channel shows about Disney for the several weeks leading up to this trip, and he REALLY wanted to go on Test Track, which he's never ridden before. To Buzz's utter disappointment, Test Track was experiencing technical difficulties by the time we got around to it. It was temporarily closed down with no known re-opening time, and they weren't even offering fastpasses for it anymore. We went to lunch, then park hopped over to MGM Studies where Buzz bravely endured "Tower of Terror." I should explain that Buzz (at 6 years old) loves thrill rides, but HATES the psycho-thriller type things. He will NOT get anywhere near Haunted Mansion, and he does NOT like ITTBAB. We'd watched a tv segment on this ride, and due to the "Twilight Zone" theming of it Buzz decided that he did NOT want to do this ride. But he was so intrigued by the idea of lifting off the seat and "floating" in the air as the elevator dropped faster than gravity, that he changed his mind. We went through the line together, and he stuck close to me as the CMs did their best to spook us. I kept having to lean over and reassure him that it was all pretend and just part of the story. Buzz did great on the ride.... but afterward he again declared that he would NEVER ride that again in his life. It turned out that despite my warnings and continual reminders that the "haunted hotel" part of the story was just pretend, he seemed to believe the bit about the elevator being struck by lightning. He swore that as the elevator fell he felt a jolt of electricity enter his brain, and to this day he thinks that he actually got electrocuted on that ride. Later that evening he was also very wary of entering the elevator at our hotel... it may take him a while to overcome this ride. (where's the guilty mommy emoticon?)

Since Buzz didn't want to ride TOT again, DH used the fast pass to ride alone, then DH took Buzz on the Aerosmith Rock'n'Roller Coaster, which was the next ride to earn the honor of being named Buzz's all-time favorite ride, better even than Space Mountain! I rode with Buzz next and following my advice sad2: ), DH took Simba to the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" playground. My mistake. I had forgotten that the playground closes at 5 pm. We were having so much fun, maybe I just lost track of the time? It was shortly after 5 when they got there. To make matters worse, I had also forgotten that the Osbourne light show is on the same street as the playground, and when Buzz and I went to meet up with DH and Simba we had to fight our way through a SERIOUS, jam-packed crowd. It took us forever to wind our way through the hordes of people, and I was truly scared that Buzz and I might get separated. We finally met up with the other 2, decided to stay just a bit and watch the light show, then fought the crowds again to cross the street and take in the Muppets 3-D show. Everyone but Simba had fun at that one... actually, Simba seemed to enjoy parts of it, and he even kept his glasses on , but everytime an object became 3-D and started flying toward the crowd he would jump and start shaking. Yet he wouldn't let me remove his glasses or turn him away from the show.... After that we decided to call it a day. We ended up having supper at Chili's (off-site, of course) and then collapsed into our beds. Tomorrow was sure to be another full day.

 

[Mr._The_King]

Great trip report

 

[IATink]

Great trip report so far! My daughter will by 6 and a half when we go this summer, and I'm still debating about the Tower of Terror. She says she might try it. After hearing how your son did, I know I'll let her make the decision if she wants to ride or not. I never thought about the whole electrocution thing, I was more concerned about the drop. It's good to hear he liked Rock n Roller Coaster. I'm not sure my daughter will be tall enough, but I think she'd love it.
Can't wait to read more!

 

[popcenturycp07]

so im stopping in to read your trip report. great so far....

being so close to the space shuttle launching area is awesome, but some floridians dont pay it any mind anymore. i personally love it. its awesome that yall got to see it while yall were visiting.

by the way, whats ITTBAB?

 

[nanlou]

Great trip report so far! My daughter will by 6 and a half when we go this summer, and I'm still debating about the Tower of Terror. She says she might try it. After hearing how your son did, I know I'll let her make the decision if she wants to ride or not. I never thought about the whole electrocution thing, I was more concerned about the drop. It's good to hear he liked Rock n Roller Coaster. I'm not sure my daughter will be tall enough, but I think she'd love it.
Can't wait to read more!

Buzz is such a thrill seeker. He's got lots of friends who wouldn't set foot on a roller coaster, but for him, the bigger and faster the better. He's also kind of big for his age, so height hasn't been an issue for him for a couple of years. It was two years ago when we discovered that he was tall enough (by several inches!) to ride Space Mountain. My jaw nearly hit the floor when I saw him standing next to the sign, with his head sticking up over the minimum height line. DH took him on that first ride (Space Mountain) when he was only 5 years old ... DH sat in front and Buzz behind. DH reports that when the ride was over he turned around to check on Buzz, whose face looked like this: . DH got worried that Buzz had been scarred for life, but then Buzz yelled out "THAT WAS GREAT!!!" And he's been seeking out roller coasters ever since.

But I'd intended to address your situation, not just tell more Buzz stories. I think it's best to let her decide, but if you can tell her as much about the ride as possible (including the pre-story), that would probably be better. And maybe you can even find a youtube video of it, so she can have an idea of what to expect?

 

[nanlou]

so im stopping in to read your trip report. great so far....

being so close to the space shuttle launching area is awesome, but some floridians dont pay it any mind anymore. i personally love it. its awesome that yall got to see it while yall were visiting.

by the way, whats ITTBAB?

The shuttle launch was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me. I'd love to be able to visit Kennedy Space Center for a launch ... or just get close enough to feel the ground shake. But I think the uncertainty of the launch days would seriously mess with any plans we might make to view a launch...

And I *think* that ITTBAB stands for the 3D movie at Animal Kingdom, "It's Tough To Be A Bug." I've been picking up all these acronyms from lurking on this site, and I find myself having to stop and make sure that I use the actual words when I'm talking to family or friends in person, but every now and then I realize I've got the wrong acronym or have mis-remembered the name of the show.

 

[nanlou]

So... Monday morning the alarm goes off at 6:05. No worry- we're already awake thanks to the 5:30 am wake-up call by Simba. Nothing unusual there, he's always up and at 'em early.

This morning we actually have some time to burn. We've got breakfast reservations at Donald's Breakfastosaurus for 8:00 am. Several months previously, when I'd made these reservations, I'd thought it would be perfect since the park doesn't open until 9. Only later did I realize that Monday was a morning EMH day at AK, so we were arriving at 8 along with the throngs of resort guests. Not that we had too many options... did I mention that this was only a 3 day trip? Alas, our Disney vacations are always on the short side. We've decided to take a short, budget-friendly vacation every year rather than one long (and much more expensive) trip far less frequently. On top of that, Sunday was the Segway tour for DH (I was lucky to get him on that tour, as there was only one slot left!), and I definitely wanted to spend Tuesday in Magic Kingdom, so Monday it was for breakfast at Donald's. Even though this is our family's 3rd trip to Disney (and my 4th trip), we'd never done a character meal before. (Waiting for the collective GASPS to subside. . There ... now the shock has worn off, so my story can continue.) While we were driving home from last year's trip Buzz asked us why we didn't have breakfast with the characters. That sealed the deal. This year we were making breakfast reservations. Buzz informed me that his favorite character was Pluto, so I did my homework and found a meal featuring Pluto and made our reservations. You can now add me to the group that thinks the Princess meals are overly-abundant, and wouldn't it be nice if Disney would only add a Toy Story meal, or a meal featuring all the heroes (Buzz, Woody, the Incredibles, etc.) or even a Lion King meal. Something more for the boys that's not just the traditional characters. I mean, they do enjoy Mickey, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald, but to be honest, they don't KNOW those characters the way they know the contemporary movie characters. And now I'll climb back down off my soapbox and resume the story....

We drive to Animal Kingdom and wait in line at the toll gate for the parking lot to open, which it finally does about 10 minutes later, at 7:30. We park and head to the turnstiles.There's a fairly large and quickly growing crowd of people already there ... resort guests who took Disney transportation. Darn them, they didn't have to wait for the parking lot to open the way we did! (Just kdiding ... even though we stay off-site, I'm not trying to chip away at the perks offered to on-site guests.) Since we do have breakfast ressies, we find the special line that's set aside for us, we notify the hostess that we have arrived, and after a short wait we walk through the turnstiles ahead of the non-breakfast guests, just as they're getting ready to start the rope-drop show. After we enter, the four of us actually stop to watch the rope-drop ceremonies from behind... we've got a great view of the jeep, carrying Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and probably some others, though we can only see their backsides. After a bit we continue on toward DinoLand ... our breakfast awaits.

The breakfast was fun... but we probably won't be doing it again any time soon. Remember Simba's character phobia? He hasn't quite conquered it yet. Plus Buzz hasn't been as keen on collecting character autographs-- he's more into riding the rides and trading pins this year. Plus I don't think the characters spent any more time interacting with us than they did at Epcot's Character Connection the other day. Breakfast was quite the whirlwind-- get in line for food, quickly eat food, get autograph books and cameras ready as the characters spring around the room hugging and posing with everyone at all the diferent tables, then get shooed out the door (well, not literally, but I felt the squeeze) as the restaurant prepares for the next round of reservations. I felt rushed. Buzz did enjoy seeing the characters, and I'd brought along a disposable camera for him to use during the breakfast, so he really enjoyed taking his own pictures of the event. And he really thought it was funny when Goofy picked up his autograph book, put it on top of Buzz's head, then signed the book. Buzz is still talking about that, and finds the pictures of it hilarious. But I still don't see what the big deal is about character meals. Maybe when the parks are really crowded and it's harder to meet and greet characters there because lines are so long and it's so hot outside.... Maybe then a meal would be worth it.... But at over $20 per person when you add in the tip (though Simba was free), we didn't get any more or better food than what our hotel has been providing to us for free each morning! Okay, so we got a great deal from the hotel, what with an essentially free room plus a free hot breakfast buffet, but still.... I guess character meals just aren't for everybody.

 

[nanlou]

Well, if you've forgiven me for thinking that the breakfast character meal wasn't worth the time and money, perhaps you're ready to read some more about our trip.... When we left breakfast DH pushed Simba's stroller over to Expedition Everest so that we could get our fastpasses to ride that attraction later in the morning, while Buzz and I stayed in DinoLand to ride Primeval Whirl... Remember how Buzz had previewed the TOT on the travel channel show about Disney? He'd seen the Primeval Whirl featured on teh same show and was dying to ride. So we rode it... and guess what? This was declared to be yet another new favorite ride for Buzz! ... so we rode it again, and then DH returned and he rode it again with Buzz while I took Simba on the flying dinoasaurs at least 3 times in a row (like the Dumbo ride, only dinosaurs instead of elephants, and not nearly as popular so the line wasn't at all long). DH and Buzz also managed to ride the Dinosaur attraction, we met Hester the Dinosaur (or was it Chester?) and posed for more pictures (Simba even blew kisses, but he stayed strapped in his stroller a safe distance away), and then we walked to "Asia" as our fastpass time had come. The park seemed pretty crowded to me (probably due to the extra magic hour), and the wait times in lines were a bit longer than I'd thought they would be, but we made great use of fastpasses and child swaps and managed to do a lot of things in relatively little time. While DH and Buzz rode Expedition Everest, I pushed Simba's stroller (by this time he was fast asleep) all the way to "Africa" (it seemed like the other side of the world!) to pick up fastpasses for the Safari ride. I then pushed the stroller back to Asia for my turn (and Buzz's second turn) on Everest. This is a GREAT ride! And you get a great veiw of the park from the top of the mountain.

Kali River Rapids (right next to Mount Everest) had NO wait time, so Buzz and I decided to give it a go. I guess there just aren't that many people who want to get wet on a December morning, even if it is Florida. They were selling $7 Mickey Mouse ponchos at the entrance to this ride, but thanks to advice from other DISers, Buzz and I donned our $1 Dollar General ponchos and climbed into our raft. I think the best part about this ride is the interaction with the other people in your raft! We had a hoot talking and joking and anticipating the next soaking. There was a Japanese man and his 9 year old son, a Latino man who ended up getting SOAKING wet, and another woman who planned to ride the Rapids over and over and over again (remember, no wait time, so they allowed this) because she figured that if she was going to get wet, she might as well go all out. When the ride ended, only the Japanese father decided to disembark (his son stayed) and the rest of us rode the river a second time. Anyway, most of the fun was in trying to figure out who in the raft was going to get drenched on the next fall, and at/with the one person who did get drenched (it was the Latino.... both times, even though he switched seats after the first ride hoping to have more luck the second time around! ).

DH keeps checking to see if he can use the computer, and this is a good stopping point, so I'll have to save more of the story for later. I'll have to tell you about Divine, the Safari Ride, Rafiki, and the talking trash can next time.....

 

[emh1129]

Enjoying your trip report! Can't wait to read more

 

[nanlou]

I first saw DeVine while I was walking to Africa to pick up the Safari fastpass tickets. Then the whole family had a chance to see her when we were all making our way over to Africa. WOW! She is magnificent. Truly amazing. For those of you who don't know about DeVine (though I'm guessing that more DISers know about DeVine than the non-DISers I've described her to) ... she's a performance artist whom I believe must also be some combination of dancer, acrobat, and gymnast. She wears four stilts, one on each limb, so that her arms and legs are of approximately equal length. Both the stilts and her whole body are covered in green leafy vines so that when she wants, she can almost perfectly blend in with the foliage surrounding the walkways at Animal Kingdom. Her face is painted green to aid in the camouflage, and her head is ringed with clusters of grapes, though these are also well covered by the ivy. And her movements... DH described them best with a single word: sensuous. She would wrap herself around a lamp post, and if you were simply walking by you wouldn't even notice her, though you would be puzzled by the crowd of people who were staring at the lamp post in amazement. Then she'd slowly (sensuously!) move, cling to a nearby wall, and then ooze over to the foliage and wrap herself around a tree. All the while she's doing funky things like "walking" on one leg and one arm, while holding the other limbs in the air. She's very hard to describe. Her name- Divine- perhaps describes her best? DH and I were both mesmerized.

We pulled ourselves away from DeVine to take our safari ride (Simba LOVED that! So many of his favorite animals to see! Including real lions!) and then we decided to take the wildlife train up to "Rafiki's Planet Watch." Simba has been infatuated with Rafiki these last few weeks, and even though he's been scared of the characters, I wanted him to have a chance to see Rafiki in full costume. It turned out that there were lots of Rafikis everywhere-- on all the signs, on statues, and of course, Rafiki himself in full costume. Simba got excited at every Rafiki spotting, and he was more than willing to have his picture taken next to the signs with pictures of Rafiki on them! He still didn't want to approach the costumed Rafiki, but stayed with DH while I took his autograph book and gave it to Rafiki and said "That little boy over there absolutely LOVES Simba and thinks you're really cool too, but he's afraid of big furry creatures so he doesn't want to come any closer. Will you sign his book and tell Simba hello for us, too?" Rafiki cradled his arms together (sign language for "baby"?) at every mention of Simba and nodded his head in agreement and signed the book. Simba was thrilled.

This is where we also stumbled upon Guitar Dan. He was an "improv" singer/guitarist who put on a great show for the kids, singing kid-favorite Christmas songs (remember, this was our December trip) while substituting words and working each of the kids' names and some sort of description of them into the songs (clothing, behavior, etc. -- Simba kept dancing and running around the benches, so he mentioned that). Finally, as we were leaving Rafiki's Planet Watch, we came across the talking trash can. It looked like a normal trash can (of course ), but it was out in the middle of the walkway, and a bunch of people were crowded around it gawking and even talking to it! And it must have been on wheels, because it could spin around and move. As we approached, some rain started to sprinkle down and the trash can said "I've got to get out of the rain!" and started to move toward a nearby building. The crowd followed it, but the trash can seemed to be intent on ignoring the crowd and leaving... until it passed a family with four kids, 3 of whom were wearing identical bright green shirts (hey, do you think they were DISers???!?) while the 4th child was wearing a plain white shirt. The trash can suddenly spun around and said to that little girl "Why aren't you wearing a green shirt too? Did you spill something on it? Did you have to change?" It was so ! We watched from a distance and I was finally able to figure out which person in the crowd was actually controlling (and speaking for) the trash can. (Yet another piece of info I learned from the DIS, or else I don't think I'd have realized how that thing worked.)

It was around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and we'd done everything at Animal Kingdom that we'd wanted to do and see. (Okay, I admit that we'd really liked to have seen some of the shows, but that just wasn't fitting into our schedule, and I'm not sure that the boys would have sat still through them, anyway). Well... remember how disappointed Buzz was the other day when Test Track broke down and he didn't get to ride it? Early this morning I'd mentioned that if we had time, we might be able to hop back over to Epcot to ride Test Track. So pretty much *all* day long Buzz had been asking, "Can we hop to Epcot now?" We were finally able to tell him that it was time to go back to Epcot. Buzz was . About half an hour later we were walking in to Epcot when we heard a voice call out "Hi there!" -- it was friends from home! I'd known they were traveling to Disney also, but never expected to actually bump into them there! They were leaving the park, but had a couple of fastpass tickets for Soarin' that they weren't planning to use, so we gladly took those tickets off their hands. After chatting for a bit (and joking about not wanting to say "It's a small world after all!" ), we walked to Test Track, were delighted to find only a 20 minute wait, got in line, used the child swap option so Buzz could ride twice, got fastpasses so we could return to Test Track later, went to Soarin' to use those fastpasses, returned to Test Track, rode that several more times, and then headed to the Olive Garden (off site) for dinner and then back to the hotel. I forgot to mention that Buzz has a new favorite ride-- Test Track. As he says, "it goes 675 miles per hour!!!" (No, it doesn't go quite that fast, but it does have a display that lets you know how fast your car is going, and I think that Buzz must have overlooked the decimal point-- his car probably was going 67.5 mph... )

So that's the end of day 2. Only one Disney World day left, and we've got grand plans to conquer the Magic Kingdom! Will Simba overcome his fear of furry-faced characters? Will Buzz discover yet another favorite ride? Tune in later for answers to these and many other pressing questions.....

 

[IATink]

Another great installment! I have never seen Divine, and I am really going to look for her next time. She sounds really cool!
Can't wait to read more!

 

[nanlou]

Another great installment! I have never seen Divine, and I am really going to look for her next time. She sounds really cool!
Can't wait to read more!

It's been fun re-living the trip!

And I definitely recommend looking for Divine on your next trip. She is spectacular. We'd never seen her before, and running across her this time was another highlight of the trip for me.

 

[nanlou]

I absolutely love the opening show at the Magic Kingdom. All the park guests are gathered just outside the gates, waiting anxiously, then you can hear the train approaching, then the train pulls into the station and the characters disembark, dancing and singing. And then with the help of some pixie dust the park is opened. I've been looking forward to this morning for so long, and it's finally here!

We didn't make it on time for the opening this year. Oh well... there's always next year! I'd given DH plenty of warning that I wanted to see the opening, and reminded him how long it takes to park the car, ride the tram or walk to ticketing, board the ferry or monorail, go through bag check, etc. We would have made it, if only we hadn't forgotten to download our photos from day 2 onto the computer and re-charge the camera battery the night before. Thankfully, DH realized that we'd neglected to do these things shortly after we woke on Tuesday morning ... otherwise we wouldn't have had any room on the camera's memory card to take photos of our time at the MK, and we would have had to choose between deleting the AK photos or not taking any MK photos. After realizing our mistake, DH plugged in the battery to give it as much time as possible to recharge, and then he stayed in the room to download the photos, while I took the boys downstairs to enjoy our free hot breakfast buffet (mmmm, Mickey waffles!). DH re-joined us right around the time that we finished eating, and then I took the boys out to the car while DH ran upstairs to retrieve the camera and battery.

We were *almost* there on time.... but not quite. Park opened at 9 am, and it was 8:55 when we boarded the ferry... but the ferry waited in the dock for a few moments, and it takes a while to cross the lake, and there you have it. Buzz, who had been trading pins (purchased from ebay) throughout our trip, was wearing his lanyard and set to go. I'd culled his favorite newly-acquired pins from the lanyard and packed them away so there'd be no confusion and he knew that all the pins that remained were tradeable. He was in search of a pin from the movie Cars... he'd seen a few in the stores, but not any on the trading lanyards he'd encountered in the parks. We stopped to check the lanyard worn by the woman who was helping to load the ferry, and she had some *great* pins... it was early in the morning, and I think everyone who'd arrived before us was more intent on getting to the park than stopping to trade pins, so she had a bunch of cast-member-only, "Hidden Mickey" pins left-- and they were cool-looking pins, IMHO. She very kindly pointed these out to Buzz and explained to him how he could tell the difference between these special pins and the regular "store-available" pins... and he looked them over and then politely declined to make a trade. None of her special pins featured the "Cars" so he wasn't interested. (To put this somewhat in perspective, perhaps I should have mentioned that while we were in Epcot the other afternoon, Buzz had traded a cast member for a grungy old diploma-shaped pin that used to have someone's name on it, but the name had been scratched off, I suppose to make it 'tradeable' ... It was an AWFUL pin, but Buzz treasured it and still considers it among his favorite pins. ) With his pin lanyard still intact, Buzz boarded the ferry and we all set sail for the Magic Kingdom.

 

[nanlou]

After disembarking from the ferry, getting the diaper bag through bag check, and walking down Main Street we decided to split up for the first two hours so I could take Simba to Fantasyland and ride the "tame" little-kid rides that Buzz wasn't interested in, while DH and Buzz headed straight for Space Mountain. I parked the stroller near It's a Small World, and ended up having a somewhat strange conversation with the CM in charge of strollers who pointed out that the strollers had to be neatly organized and out of the way because you never knew when a terrorist would strike the World and we'd have to quickly exit the park. Um, okay... have a magical day! In no time at all, Simba and I were able to ride Dumbo, Peter Pan, It's a Small World, Pooh, and the Teacups. Peter Pan -- one of my favorites-- was too dark for him, but he absolutely loved IASW rolleyes: ) and the Teacups. I decided to head over to the Buzz Lightyear ride and we gave that a quick spin. There was very little wait time on any of the rides, and much to our that held true throughout the day. In fact, they weren't even handing out fastpasses at most of the rides because the standby wait time was shorter than the usual fastpass line. (The two big roller coasters were the exceptions to this-- they did offer fastpasses for both Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain, but when we tried to use our fastpasses on Space Mountain later in the day they told us to keep them because the line was so short! ) We met up with Buzz and DH-- to learn that Space Mountain was once again Buzz's most favorite ride. All is right with the world again. (Now that we're back home, if you ask Buzz what his favore ride was he'll say that it's too hard to decide.) We took in Philharmagic-- my all-time favorite show. (As I write this report, I'm starting to realize that Buzz must take after me ... I've got a lot of favorites, too. ) Simba wasn't so sure about Philharmagic ... mostly due to the fact that DH had insisted on taking him to "Tough to be a Bug" at Animal Kingdom, which can be a truly terrifying show to a little kid, especially if he's one of mine . But Simba tolerated it. Buzz, meanwhile, sang along throughout the whole show. (My apologies if you happened to be sitting near us.) We had an early, quick lunch at Cosmic Rays, then split up again for a couple more rides. DH took Buzz on Pirates of the Caribbean while Simba and I went on Aladdin's magic carpet ride. I figured Simba would enjoy it, since he liked Dumbo and couldn't get enough of that flying-in-circles-dinosaur-ride at the Animal Kingdom. This ride, of course, is very similar, except that I'd forgotten about the camel that spits a stream of water onto the riders as they fly through the air. It is possible to maneuver the carpet to fly below the water... if you know it's coming. Somehow, even though I was sitting on the outside (and closer to the source of the water), only a few drops hit me, and when I turned to check on Simba, I realized that he'd gotten a face-full of water. His whole cheek and most of his face were just drenched, and water was dripping down onto his shirt and starting to soak through it. The poor little guy was just sitting there with a look of utter shock-- where the heck did that come from?!?!! I did my best to wipe him off, pointed out the spitting camel, called it a "naughty camel," and we were laughing about that "naughty camel that spit at us!" But when the ride ended Simba refused to go again. So we headed to the Jungle Cruise, then met up with Buzz and DH again. Later that afternoon we all went for another ride on Buzz Lightyear (DH is truly a champ at this one-- he scored something like 700,000+ points compared to my 170,000 and Buzz's 9,000. And he didn't even read the tips about where to find the really high point value targets!)When we exited the ride we saw that Buzz (the real deal, not my DS7!! ) was signing (stamping-- he uses a special stamping tool) autographs, so Simba agreed to get in line with me. He stayed in my arms the whole time, but we managed to get our picture taken with Buzz Lightyear, and I know that Simba will relish looking at that picture over and over again and remembering how he "met" Buzz. After that DH and Simba watched the parade while Buzz and I took several (3? maybe more?) spins on Splash Mountain followed by a turn on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The park crowd was so low all day-- we'd been able to ride everything we wanted to, and even went on our favorite rides several times in a row. As we were trying to decide what to do next, the train pulled up in the Frontierland station so we decided to hop on. We rode the train to Toontown. Along the way we saw 5 deer-- 3 were "fake" deer set up by Disney to make the ride more interesting to the passengers, but 2 of the deer (standing right next to the fake ones!) were real. Everyone on the train got a real out of that intermingling of animals. At Toontown we realized that Goofy's Barnstormer-- the roller coaster for little kids-- had a height requirement of only 35 inches. We stood Simba up against the measurement pole and everyone celebrated when we realized he was tall enough to ride! DH and Buzz sat in front, Simba and I sat behind them, and the ride started. Simba GIGGLED the whole way through! Then his big brother taught him how to lift his arms up into the air as they rode. Can you picture a giggling 2 year old with his arms lifted to the sky, not holding on to anything as he rides Barnstormer? Uh-oh, I've got another thrill seeker on my hands. Since Simba enjoyed it so much the first time, we all rode it again... and again, and again, and again and again. Actually, only Simba and his dad went on the ride 6 times. Buzz and I rode about 3 times and then decided to take one last ride on Big Thunder Mountain. It was dark by the time we exited BTMRR, so we watched the Wishes fireworks show from a spot near Big Thunder Mountain, met up with DH and Simba for the final time, and made our way out of the park and back to our hotel. On the way out, DH (he's a calculating sort of fellow ) tallied up all the rides we'd been on and the number of times we'd been on them (it came to more than 60 rides per person!), and figured that on a per-ride basis, Disney World was significantly less expensive than our county fair. I can also assure you that the overall Disney experience is of significantly higher quality than that of our county fair. We were going to stop at Pizza Hut for dinner, but both boys fell sound asleep before we'd even left the Magic Kingdom parking lot , so we just went straight back to the hotel. I tucked Simba into bed and roused Buzz just a bit while DH brought an order of pizza to our room. It was probably only 8 pm or so, but we were totally wiped out! And that's our trip... I'm finally finished! Three days isn't very long to spend in the world, but we packed plenty into it! And now I'm looking forward to our next trip....

 

[IATink]

Thanks for the great report! It sounds like the crowds were awesome when you were there! Unfortunately, since I'm a teacher the only time we ever go is during the summer, and the lines are extremely long.
Thanks for sharing your trip with us!

 

[nanlou]

Thanks. It really has been fun remembering the trip. And just yesterday I ordered another set of Disney pins for trading on our next trip. It may be more than 6 months away still, but we're getting ready...

Thanks for the great report! It sounds like the crowds were awesome when you were there! Unfortunately, since I'm a teacher the only time we ever go is during the summer, and the lines are extremely long.
Thanks for sharing your trip with us!