Girls Rule! May 2-9th, 2009 Trip!! – Wow, it was HOT! (Day 4 Part 2 is Up!)

[DexLabDeeDee]

Hello everyone! Welcome back from the holiday weekend. I hope it was fun and relaxing! On with the show…

Day 3 – Universal – Where is everyone?

Monday was our Universal day. It was part of Maggie’s requirements for this trip. I was a little on the fence about going but I am glad that we went. I have been to Islands of Adventure (IOA) but I haven’t been to Universal itself.

We got free Mears transfers to and from US as part of our tickets through Dreams Unlimited travel. The tickets cost a little extra but waaay less than a two way taxi ride. I called the night before for our pick-up at 8:30am. The park hours were 9am to 5pm. I had looked up the park hours online a few weeks ago. The bus picked us up just outside of the main lobby. A few other families were waiting and there were already some other people when we got on the bus. We were given a transfer ticket back when we got on. I left our departure time open so we would have to call the number on the back of the ticket at least two hours before we wanted to be picked up.

The bus ride there was really nice. The driver was really knowledgeable and he was point out things on I-drive and showing us alligators in the water next to the roads. Yikes. There is one that is in the “pond” across from the entrance to POP. We saw him several times during our stay once we knew what to look for. The bus first stopped at Discovery Cove and then Sea World. It would have also stopped at Aquatica if there was anyone going there. Then it dropped us off at US around 9:00am. For those who don’t know, you get dropped in the bus and taxi area. You then take an escalator up to the walkway. You join the crowd coming from the resorts and the JURASSIC PARKing lot. You get on the moving walkway (nothing in my hands this time! ) and it takes you to CityWalk. Which is Universal’s version of DTD. When you get to the end of CityWalk, you come to a lake and you can take a right or a left. The left takes you to IOA and the right takes you to US. So off we were!

We used a kiosk to get our tickets that I bought several weeks before.

I was completely unfamiliar with US. I should have spent more time on the US boards, I know. I did sneak a peek at the touring plans in the 2009 Unofficial Guide Book. I have the 2008 early version (I didn’t realize that the revised one comes out in February) and it didn’t have the new Simpsons ride. I also have a subscription to touringplans.com but they didn’t have online touring plans to US. So I had a rough idea of what I wanted but I felt really bereft without FP assistance. I wasn’t about to pay more money for their Express Pass. I knew that we for sure had to do Simpsons first. It was, of course, at the very end of the park.

The park was EMPTY. We would turn a corner and we would be the only ones on the street. Then we would turn another corner and see two people up ahead. I was a little confused. Where was everyone? We got to the Simpsons ride and I wasn’t sure exactly what it was. I read the blog on the podcast website and I had heard a few other things that it was a rollercoaster type ride. So I started to look for the lockers to put our stuff. I remembered from IOA that you had to get a locker for your stuff when you rode a rollercoaster. I couldn’t find them so I walked up to the Universal..um..CM (?) and asked her if I could take my stuff on the ride. She gave me an extremely bored look and said, “Yeah” like I was the stupidest person ever. Okaaaay. Wow. It was very rude. (I should note that all the other CMs we ran into at Universal were very helpful.)

We walked through most of the queue because there wasn’t really anyone there. You enter the queue area through Krusty’s mouth and it looks very carnival-ish. There are TVs with Simpsons cartoons about them being in Krustyland to occupy you while you wait. The back and forth queue line stops at a hallway and a door. They let a group of people in and you stand on numbers on the floor. There are “booths” all around you with Simpsons characters on the screens in the “booths” they randomly talk as you wait. Then you watch a short cartoon about Krustyland and how the Simpsons are the first family to ride the new rollercoaster and then you are interrupted by a news flash that Sideshow Bob has escaped prison. Krusty comes on to tell you that Sideshow Bob hasn’t been spotted in the area so we're safe. Suuure we are.

**Note: If you want to be surprised by the Simpsons Ride, skip to after the starred section**

Then they take your numbered group and tell you to wait in a little room. I think there were about six of us. I felt like the CM was abandoning us. The room is tiny. It felt really weird and a bit claustrophobic. You watch another cartoon that gives you more backstory and then gives you safety information and tells you to set your things against the wall next to your car. This struck me as odd because usually the boarding area isn’t a safe place to put personal items. But whatever. It takes awhile to get through each room. No wonder the queue moved so slow with only a few people in line.

Soooo. We moved to a slightly larger room with a cartoonish rollercoaster car and put our stuff against the wall. It still was a pretty small room. I don’t remember what the restraints were like but I remember that I felt comfortable and safe in them. A CM came and checked on us and gave us the all clear. A roof partially came over our heads. I prepared to move forward but instead we were lifted up. Into a HUGE room. There was a screen covering your whole vision. Click. Motion simulator ride. Gotcha. That is why it is a rollercoaster type ride because you aren’t actually on the rollercoaster. When you get all the way into the room you are at the top of the “rollercoaster”; right behind the Simpsons family who are, if you remember, the first family to ride the ride. Oh and Sideshow Bob has a big wrecking ball and is destroying the rollercoaster as you and the Simpsons try to ride it. Complete and utter mayhem ensues.

You end up flying violently through all of Krustyland. It felt very real. (The flying through the air part.) So much so that I had to watch my feet towards the end to keep my croissant from making a second appearance. I was miserable. It was the longest ride ever. I DID NOT like it. Maggie, who does not get motion sick, was feeling queasy towards the end as well. She didn’t care for it much, either.

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For those of you joining us from the other side of the stars, Maggie and I didn’t like the Simpsons ride. If you get motion sick easily, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Revenge of the Mummy was next on our list.

It was all the way on the other side of the park. I needed the walk in the fresh air to recover, though. Still very empty. I was a little apprehensive about this ride after the Simpsons. I thought that this was a ride on a track but people have talked about it as being a rollercoaster but not. How can it be a rollercoaster but not without being like the Simpsons? I was cheered by the sight of the lockers where you had to put your stuff. (It’s free for the first 45 minutes) This was definitely something on a track.

I’m not exactly sure about the premise of the ride. The queue was super short so we didn’t get to see the video about what was going on. You go through several rooms. The first set of rooms are all in a museum. There is something about a curse and this guy (tourist) is trying to find out if the curse is real. Brendan Frasier is being interviewed (and wants coffee but doesn’t get it) about the Mummy movies, I think. Then the second set of rooms is a movie prop area. The third set of rooms are “on set” in an archeological dig. That part of the queue was really neat. My sister and I are big fans of the first two Mummy movies. (The third one is awful. Ugh.) I wish she could have been there!

We waited about 15 minutes in the queue and we boarded a roller coaster car that had two cars, each seated eight people – four in front and four in back.

**Note: Again, if you want to be surprised by the Mummy Ride, skip to the end of the starred section. (If you are ever going to ride it, I recommend skipping this section. It was neat not to know what was going on.)**

You start slowly on the track going through what feels like a pyramid-type structure. The “tourist” in the videos has been wrapped like a mummy and is telling you to go back because it is a trap and the curse is real. The cursed mummy stops you in a temple area and fire shoots up from the temple floor and you are now scrambling to escape him. You are on a rollercoaster ride in the dark (basically). You climb up and then the mummy pushes you backwards. You start and stop. He sends scarab beetles after you. They stop you at the ride “end” where a CM in the control room tells you to disembark but she gets sucked up by the mummy and he lights the ceiling on fire. It was HOT. And you go through another ride in the dark and then you really stop when you see Brendan Frasier talking to you on a screen. He finally gets his coffee but it is delivered by the mummy and the screen abruptly goes black as the mummy attacks him.

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We really enjoyed this ride! I don’t know why they said it was like a rollercoaster but not. It is definitely a rollercoaster. It starts and stops which is the only reason that I could think of as to why they would say “but not.”

I didn’t really feel sick. I had a slight twinge at the end but I experience worse while riding in a car. It’s all about proper breathing. I time my breathing really carefully. I exhale on any curves, dips and on any sudden stops. I inhale on hills or right as the ride launches forward. It’s second nature to me now. It doesn’t detract from the ride experience. I do it in the car, too. It took me awhile to figure out what worked for me. You can launch me up and down all day long – it’s the twists and turns that do me in. If there is a ride that makes you a little queasy, try a long, slow exhale on the parts that make you queasy and long, slow inhale on the parts that you feel fine. Do not hold your breath. That does not help.

Okay, back to the trip report. Love the Mummy! We decided to chuck our touring plans at this point because it was so uncrowded. We decided that we would do the rides as we walked through the park and as we felt like it. We did Twister next.

As described from the Universal website – “Step into one of the most action-packed movies of all time, and feel what it's like to be a storm chaser, looking a tornado right in the eye.” Tornadoes scare the heck out of me. We’re from Minnesota and Maggie and I have both experienced our share of tornadoes. Luckily, we have never been directly under one but we have watched them form and watched them go by. We have watched the sky turn green, the air go dead and the sirens wail. Then the sky goes black and the wind whips and clouds start moving strangely overhead. We’ve sat in the basement with our families and waited, not knowing if this time our house will be hit. It is very frightening. Twister wasn’t anything like that.

It was very bizarre to tell the truth. They kept cautioning about how pregnant women should not ride, there was going to be extremely high winds, you WILL get wet, etc.

Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt come and talk about how conditions filming were extreme and tornadoes are huge, frightening forces of nature. You then stand at some railings facing a drive-in movie screen and parking lot (like the Twister movie) and you hear the sirens (that was the most chilling part) and then see the Twister coming in the background. Then it is in front of you and it’s tiny and white/gray. Things start “flying” around and then your platform shakes and then drops and that’s it. We didn’t get wet and we didn’t really feel super high winds. I don’t know why a pregnant woman would be in danger from a railing dropping six inches. It felt nothing like a real tornado. Not that I wanted to feel like that but they really hype it up.


After Twister we wondered down the street and saw the DeLorean and the train from the Back to the Future movies. Maggie was thrilled. Doc Brown was there and we took this picture:

It was fun!

We went next to ET. The wait said 10 minutes. It was more like 30 minutes. We got to sit right in the front, so that was fun. It reminded me a lot of Peter Pan, just a little longer and you get really close to the edges of the ride. It wasn’t an awesome ride but it wasn’t bad either. It just was.

We then moved on to MIB: Alien Attack. I knew this was going to be similar to Buzz Lightyear in that you were going to be lasering aliens. The wait again said 10 minutes. I figured that this wasn’t the case but I didn’t think it was going to take as long as it did. It seemed like a really long wait. We were stuck in the room with all the desks and the twin aliens for a long time. Which is strange because there is just one line going down the side of the room and it isn’t that long. At one point we half heard an announcement about a delay and 26 minutes. Since it was muffled, it sounded like it was coming from somewhere else and we didn’t know if it meant that we had to wait another 26 minutes or if somewhere else down the line it was 26 minutes. We eventually got to the loading area. Only one side of the track was going. The other side should have definitely been opened. One, because we waited a long time and you could move more people with two tracks opened and two, because at one point during the ride you can hit other people’s cars and make them spin out. It’s hard to do that when there isn’t anyone on the other side.

My score was 85,750. I don’t remember Maggie’s but I think I beat her. The guy next to Maggie was 299,000 and the guy in front of him was 549,000. It sounded like the two guys did it a lot and it was a competition between the two of them.

We were really hungry at this point so we back-tracked and ate at Mel’s Diner. Maggie had a cheeseburger with fries and I had chicken fingers with fries.

Maggie liked her cheeseburger okay. I did not like my chicken fingers. The breading was too greasy. The fries weren't really all that good either. We'll have to go somewhere else next time.

To be continued with Jaws….

 

[MEK]

I'm still here, but for some reason I got really far behind. I haven't read your Universal update yet, but the rest of your updates are really funny - especially the lady at AK.... "GET OFF THE FLOOR" "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" I can just picture her head spinning around - sort of like the Exorcist.

Your description of Rose at Cirque was hysterical! I can't wait to read more, but I may have to come back later and read universal!

 

[MEK]

Now you made me want to go back to Universal for a visit. Keep it coming. I am really enjoying your TR!

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

Thanks for posting, MEK! I wasn't sure if I had lost people after my long stories.

 

[MEK]

Thanks for posting, MEK! I wasn't sure if I had lost people after my long stories.

Na! Your stories are great and your pics are great! The readers will be back. It's a great TR! It's one of the more interesting TR's I'm linked to right now!

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

I forgot to mention earlier, the drinking word of the day is “Crazy!” Except you have to say it like this – “CRAY (small pause) zee”

So, on to Jaws…I mean Captain Jake’s Boat Tours. After eating, we made our way again to the back of the park and let me just say that San Francisco and Amity are about 10 degrees hotter than the rest of the park. WHEW! The wait for Jaws was about 30 minutes and since we could see the queue, we decided that they actually meant 30 minutes and got in line.

It did take about 30 minutes. Yay! They were actually right for once. It was a little warm under the boat house thing. It was so nice to get to the edge where the breeze would cool you off. There were monitors above the queue showing the “local” broadcast from Amity but I couldn’t hear anything. When we got into the boat, I made Maggie sit next to the edge. Sharks scare me. I appreciate the ocean and its teeming life but you would never be able to get me to scuba dive. I’m sure I would get eaten by a shark. Positive. So I threw Maggie to the wolves and had her sit on the edge. I must say that I was mostly okay for the ride. MY feet started to sweat when we were in the dark boat house but nothing really happened. That’s where they should really have it come out at you – when you are sitting quiet and it’s dark. <shudder>

That shark just kept coming at us again and again and again. Luckily, Captain Jake had a rocket launcher. (Note to self: Pack rocket launcher next time you are going on the ocean.) Whew! That was a close one. We even got to take a picture with our catch:

Unfortunately, Maggie seems to be having trouble with hers.

Oh, btw, Jaws is another expectant mothers no-no. I don’t know why. You get rocked around a little bit but nothing huge. The scare factor???

We wandered by through San Francisco on our way to Shrek 4-D. We got a little turned around and ended up at another building but Shrek and Donkey were there! Shrek was so gallant. He offered me his arm and kept patting my hand. Shrek didn’t talk but Donkey did! He said all three of us (Maggie, me and Donkey) were so good looking we had to get our picture taken:

After the picture, Shrek waved good-by to Maggie and Donkey and walked off with me on his arm. Unfortunately, Donkey called him back and said Fiona would be angry. True enough. And I should go back home to my husband. Next time, Shrek.

Kitty corner to the photo op was a Shrek gift shop so we headed there and then we figured out that around the corner was the actual attraction. Wow, we were really turned around. We didn’t have to wait long and we were given 3D glasses and ushered into a large room with a dungeon minion (a CM) and the three pigs and Pinocchio in boxes and Gingy lay out on a table on a screen. The dungeon minion walks you through a little backstory and was actually funny. Then you go through to the theater where expectant mothers have to sit on special seats. You find out why pretty quickly. The seats move. The show takes place right after Fiona and Shrek get married and are on their way in the carriage. Of course, things go wrong and mayhem ensues. You mostly spend your time in the carriage or on a horse and your seat bumps around as if you were actually on one of those things. So I totally get why expectant mothers should ride this. You really get bumped around. The seats are also really loud. All in all it was okay. Nothing spectacular but not bad either.

Since we were so close to the Mummy we decided to ride it again. Maggie bought a peanut butter Twix in the gift shop after and we wandered out to the street. We walked a little ways and she got really excited. The Blues Brothers were coming down the street and put on a performance.

I am ashamed to say that I have never seen Blues Brothers. Nor did I really know any of the songs they were performing. Maggie was in her element, though. It was extremely hot, though. I was fading FAST. I asked if we could go to the Kwik-E-Mart because I wanted to see if I could find anything for my DH.

The walk there was a bit shaded and it felt really nice. I found this T-shirt but it was a little expensive:

There was also a shirt in a can of Duff beer with Homer drooling and thinking: “Uhhh…beer.” Also really expensive. I ended up getting him and his friend shot glasses that had Homer skipping saying, “Uhhh…beer.” I don’t know why it says beer on the shot glasses but whatever. Drink shots of beer, I guess.

I needed something to jumpstart my system, so I wondered outside to a cart and got a blue raspberry Squishee. Yum. Apu wasn’t there to ask me to come again. Bummer.

Maggie and her mom love Lucy so we went in that direction. On the way, we got stopped in front of a shop by a CM calling everyone in to a magic show. Maggie and I thought, “What the heck?” so we went in to the nice air conditioned room. Maggie and I were thrilled once he got started. The show combined two of our favorite things – magic and infomercials. Yay! It was pretty neat magic and they were trying to sell us magic sets. It was hard to resist but we did it! Maggie and I both discovered that we both owned magic sets as a kid. We also both can’t resist infomercials. There is something completely cheesy and compelling about them. My favorite part of infomercials is when they show you someone struggling to do something but it’s really easy if they have product X. The person that is struggling with the task is usually going about it so completely wrong that no one would ever truly go about it that way. I find it funny.

We managed to extract ourselves without caving – go us! – and wander over to Lucy, A Tribute.

Also on the way was one of Maggie’s favorite cars:

Poor girl was born in the wrong decade.

It was pretty neat. Maggie has done several plays and was Miss Hannigan in Annie. She loves Carol Burnett. So she was thrilled to see a letter from Carol to Lucy and Carol’s star on the walkway outside:

We also had a good time in the gift shop:

We only had an hour left and we decided to ride the Mummy one last time. It was the best time yet. We were in the very back row. Awesome. A good way to end our day at Universal. Maggie wanted to eat at Hard Rock so we wandered over there. We wandered through the gift shop. I got DH a t-shirt. He has a few Hard Rock shirts from around the world. We decided not to eat because we weren’t really all that hungry. We wandered back to CityWalk and turn around and took a picture of Hard Rock:

We also wandered by a play fountain and, of course, Maggie couldn’t resist:

We decided to call for transportation and just use the two hours of waiting to wander around. In actuality they said that they could pick us up now if we wanted. We didn’t really want to go yet so we told them to pick us up in an hour and a half. I wanted to see the BK Whopper Bar so we went up to the second level to see it. You can order your burger with whatever you want on it. The Whopperistas are happy to serve you anything.

It was kind of neat but nothing super special. Just a Burger King with a different name.

I didn’t want a burger so we wandered back out and we decided to sit for a little bit. Of course, right then I got hungry. We ended up eating at Moe’s which was a Mexican fast-food place. We both got fajitas:

They were pretty good. It was a lot of food. I didn’t use all of my fixings in the tortillas. It was a nice change to burgers and fries. Though I do love my fries. Love love love love fries.

We sat and relaxed for awhile and watched the people walk below us. We walked back over the moving walkways – reversed now! – and back to the bus area. We sat next to the yellow curbs that said MEARS and waited. A few taxis came and called out names for people. We weren’t sure if we would be in a bus, van or taxi. We waited a long time. Apparently the bus that was sitting there had broken down so we watched a guy come and fix it. Very thrilling down at the bus stop. That bus driver then said that he could take us back to POP. So we handed him our ticket and got on the bus.

When we walked in and sat down, a family was already sitting in the front. As we sat down, the father asked us, “Did you know that Universal was going to close at 7 today?” He said it in a really irritated voice. Uh oh. I said that we did know because I looked it up online before we left. He said that they didn’t have any idea and were upset to leave Universal Studios before they really got to do anything. They did IOA first and then went to US. Which isn’t a bad plan unless you weren’t aware of the park hours. I don’t know why you wouldn’t at least check when you get there in the morning. Maggie asked them what time they got there in the morning and he said that he got here with us like it should have been completely obvious. Ohhhh. They must have been the family sitting with us waiting at POP. Oops. Apparently we were completely memorable. They weren’t to us because we were so focused on getting on the bus and going.

There wasn’t much more to say so Maggie and I sat down and chatted. I must say that I was feeling a little smug at that moment. I confessed as much to Maggie. This is why you plan. So you don’t get a nasty surprise like that. WE did everything we wanted to because WE knew what we were doing. Not exactly my best moment, I know, but I was really proud of all the work I had put in before the trip. I get the job done.

While we waited to go, Maggie decided she wanted a snack so she made out with the rest of her peanut butter Twix:

It had melted and she had to lick it off the wrapper.

Before long the bus driver came in and called my name and said that there was a taxi waiting for us. Okay. Whatever. We just want to go home. The family also had a van waiting. The van left before us. We waited a little bit while the taxi driver wrote some stuff down and chatted on his hands-free cell thing. Then we were off. The taxi driver was crazy. (Drink! ) He drove super fast and wove through traffic. When we were about to turn on to Disney property, he said, “See. There’s the van. Don’t worry. We’ll catch them and you’ll beat them to the front door.” And then he kicked it into high gear. Because he wasn’t going fast enough before. He zoomed past the van as it we both turned the corner to get to POP. Maggie later said that there was about half an inch to spare! He definitely got us there before the other van. Yikes. As we were leaving to go Maggie mentioned that it was her first taxi ride. He told us to get back in and he would give her a free ride. We both looked at each other in panic and I said that we had dinner reservations but thank you.

We stood stunned in front of the lobby doors for a little while. The family in the van got dropped off and immediately asked us if we survived our taxi ride. They were freaked out by how close our driver got to them, too. Wow. We had to laugh because we were trying to play it all cool in the taxi like our white-knuckle ride wasn’t a big deal. It was Maggie’s first ride and my fifth ever so we weren’t sure if we were just freaking out about a normal taxi ride. Happy 1st Cab Ride, Maggie!

We ended up going to the pool to swim. It was very nice and not too crowded. Maggie gave me a feet massage while we floated around. 4 days to go!

Tomorrow is Maggie’s birthday surprise at MK….

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

Sorry this is a little late! I have a lot of pictures, though!


Day 4 – Magic Kingdom – Hurray for Birthdays!

I still hadn’t told Maggie what her birthday surprise was going to be. I did tell her that she should wear something she really liked because we were probably going to take pictures. I think that made her think and got her a little nervous. I was already full blown nervous that morning because I was second guessing my decision of breakfast in the castle. I had asked her a few days ago what princess she liked best and she said that if she had to choose, it would be Belle but she really didn’t get into the princesses, she liked the other characters. It kind of threw me for a little bit. But I bolstered my thoughts by reminding myself that Maggie loves surprises and she loves anything that is an experience.

So Maggie picked and outfit and we were out the door. Now, our reservations were for 10:10am. I really didn’t want her to eat yet so I went on and on about the Main Street bakery and how good it was and how we should wait to eat until we get there. (The Main Street bakery is good, I do recommend going) Maggie, being Maggie, was quite easy to convince. (I don’t think she can resist when anyone uses the word, “Bakery”)

Off we were to MK! We got there about 8:40ish. We stood with the HUGE crowd outside the train station and watched the show. I’ve never seen it at MK. I have to admit that I got a little teary when they talked about how great it was to see us and dreams coming true and all that. I wish I could go to Disney more often. I need this pick-me-up!

Here’s Maggie waiting with her birthday button:

She was so excited to celebrate her birthday again. Her birthday ended up being a little of a downer for her this past year. A little family miscommunication led to arguing and hurt feelings. So this was a little bit of a do-over.

We ambled along Main Street with the crowd. I had a basic plan but I wasn’t too concerned with it. Space Mountain was closed and I knew that Splash and Big Thunder Mountain would be busy but I figured we’d use FP and just relax today. We got close to the bakery and I stalled Maggie again by saying that maybe we should get a few rides in before we ate. What a trooper. I completely dangled the tantalizing image of fresh bread in her face and then yanked it away. Later Maggie told me that she told herself that this was my “holy land” and that she just needed to let me do my thing. :lmao

So we took a few pictures in front of the castle with photopass photographers. Unfortunately, they didn’t really turn out that well. Here’s one that we took:

Then we wondered into Tomorrowland. It was a knife in my heart to see the TTA and SM and not be able to ride them. We hopped onto Buzz Lightyear and got off and immediately rode again. We both won once. Maggie loves games. I couldn’t wait to get to TSM the next day! She was going to flip!

After Buzz, we went to Fantasyland. I brought her through Columbia Harbor House. I love how the theme changes from England to Colonial style as you exit the old world and enter into the new. And it’s a good place to get some food that isn’t burgers and fries. We hopped onto Peter Pan and then immediately rode It’s a Small World. We tried to look for Aladdin and Jasmine but we couldn’t find them. It was 9:35am when we exited IASM. Four rides in a half hour plus stopping to take photopass pictures! Maggie was shocked. She kept taking pictures of the wait times as we passed the rides.

I knew that we didn’t have a lot of time left before we were supposed to be at the castle so we popped over to BTMRR and got a FP. At this point I am starting to feel nervous and sick to my stomach. What if she doesn’t like it? What if it is a huge letdown after all this waiting? Finally I couldn’t stand it anymore and here was our conversation:

Me: (heart pounding, palms sweating, shaking a little) “We are going to have breakfast now.”
Maggie: “Yeah, I could eat if that’s what you wanted to do.”
Me: “No. I’m telling you that’s what we’re going to do now. We are eating breakfast. In the castle. With the princesses. That’s your birthday surprise. Breakfast in the castle.”
Maggie: “Like the castle castle? The one that’s here.”
Me: “Yeah. Cinderella’s castle.”
Maggie: “Seriously? We are going to eat in the castle?!”
Me: “Yeah…”
Maggie: “Let’s go. Where? This way?”

She started off in the opposite direction of the castle, completely serious. I laughed a little to myself and grabbed her and steered her in the right direction. She grabbed my arm and started skipping and chatting excitedly about eating in the castle. I would have skipped with her but I was weak with relief. I tried to summon some energy to be excited but my whole body was limp. I had completely worked myself up; more than I thought I had. This is actually completely typical of me. Yeah, emotional much? For all of my analytical tendencies, I have strong emotional reactions. I am a wreck the night before and the day of a departure to Disney. I am terrified that somehow I won’t make it there. My family thinks I need to chill. Probably. Is it going to happen? Probably not.

Anyway, Maggie was skipping and I was stumbling to the castle. There was a long line just to check-in. And we were early. After we checked in, we had to get into another line to wait to get into the castle. That line was mixing with the check-in line so there was some confusion. We took some pictures while we waited:

There was a huge family in front of us. I don’t know how they got the reservation for so many people. I thought it was really hard to get. There were about six adults and six children. And their gear. Oy. Too much. The general mayhem ensued as we walked through the doors to the waiting room of the castle. There we continued to wait in line to get pictures with Cinderella. Here are some pictures from the waiting room area:

I don’t know how many times we got smacked by the bag the mom in front of us was carrying. She was trying to be everywhere at once. By the time we got up to Cinderella the mom and Maggie and I were exhausted. And hungry. Cinderella was very nice and very pretty.

We then took the red carpeted spiral staircase up to the top:

Here’s the spiral staircase going up to the dining room.

Here’s the view from the opening in the staircase shown above.

There are stained glass windows everywhere.

And we got this table!

(This was actually taken after we were done eating)

Window seats! Yay! Here was our view with Fantasyland off to the left a little:

We got wishing stars:

And great, delicious, nummy food:

Starting from the top was fried french toast, potatoes, sausage, bacon and eggs. The potatoes were my favorite, very flavorful. I didn’t really like the french toast. Too greasy. The eggs were really fluffy, the sausage was good. The bacon was a little too crispy for me. We also had some pastries that we got before our meal. And look who came to visit as we ate!

Jasmine wished Maggie a happy birthday and told her that a princess never reveals her age.

Maggie and I LOVE Belle!

Maggie got a birthday cake, too!

Here’s a picture of the dining room over my shoulder. There was more seating in the main area to the left but still not a lot of tables:

Near the end of the meal, we got our pictures. They came in this really nice booklet with some extra 4x6s. We were worried about carrying them around all day so we decided to rent a storage locker.

Sadly, we eventually had to leave. But not without Maggie finding her knight in shining armor!

We had a very very very nice time. It was relatively quiet in the dining room. The sun was shining on our table. We had good food and good company. Everyone called us “Princess”. We left with a great feeling inside. Pure Disney magic.

But wait! We saw that they were throwing us a celebration parade after our breakfast. We grabbed a streamer as we entered the hub and danced in the street behind the last float. “It’s the time of your life. You don’t wanna miss out on right here and now. There’s so many reasons why. You don’t wanna stop…here’s your chance, live it up. In everything you do…celebrate you.” The song went straight to my heart. Maggie and I were here to celebrate us!

Here is the Celebration Parade song from the Disney website if you want to download it.

When Maggie and I were standing in line for the castle we talked about how our dads never called us “Princess” when we were younger. And we were fine with that. We both said that we didn’t really feel the need to be called, “Princess.” (The implication being that we didn’t need such girly, silly stuff) Well, for the rest of the day, whenever anyone called someone “Princess” we both would turn and look thinking that they were talking to us! Apparently the castle went to our heads! Pride goeth before the fall and all that.

We were still in a very good mood after getting the locker so we danced right back up Main Street. We stopped on the way to Frontierland and rode PotC because there was no wait at all. We used our FP for BTMRR and then we got a FP for Splash. Maggie has really fond memories of the Country Bear Jamboree with her family so we went to that next. I had never seen the Country Bear Jamboree before. I really don’t need to see it again. It was nice to sit and be cool but it’s just not my thing. Maggie enjoyed it, though.

We grabbed a Jungle Cruise FP because the line wait was rather long. We used our FP at Splash. Here’s Maggie’s hair in the humidity:

Nice. I can relate in an opposite way. My hair goes completely flat in humidity if I have done anything to it. I have stick-straight, no curl hair. Not all that fun.

We then went to the Haunted Mansion. Always good. Then went back and used our FP for Jungle Cruise. We pulled out Flat Amy and had a good time.

We were starting to drag a little bit and needed a pick-me-up so we went to Aloha Isle to get some ice cream. We decided on the Pineapple Twist because we thought that the straight Pineapple ice cream might be too much. We were going to share but they gave Maggie an extra ice cream for her birthday! Love the birthday pin! We ate and walked across the hub on the way to Tomorrowland. When we got near the middle of the hub my ice cream hit critical and started melting all over the place. It was such a constant drip that it sounded like it was peeing!! And the ice cream is yellow!!! Maggie was having no problems with hers. She just stood and laughed during my ice cream crisis. It was completely bizarre. One minute I have nice solid ice cream – the next it’s a puddle.

What do you do after having peeing ice cream? Go to the Laugh Floor, of course. We didn’t have to wait long to sit, which was good. We were starting to melt ourselves out there. When Maggie saw the seats, she got a little nervous. She asked me if anything was going to poke her in the butt. (Completely traumatized from ITTAB) I had been to the Laugh Floor before but I looked at the benches anyway and I could see what she meant. They were the same rubbery material. I told her that nothing was going to get her and then looked up in time to see my face on the screen as “She has no idea where she is”. It definitely must have looked that way after inspecting the seats. It was a good crowd. The people that got called on really got into it. It makes a difference. We had a great time.

We were fine when we were sitting inside but wilted a little when we walked back outside. I thought that it would be a good idea to ride the monorail over to Epcot and then back and then go and see the Poly since we didn’t get to ride the monorail on the way over.

So that’s what we did….sort of….

 

[mickeystoontown]

Awww what a sweet friend you are. Breakfast in Cinderella's Castle. I can't think of a better way to celebrate a birthday.

 

[tinkerbells mum]

loving the report, breakfast in the castle sounds amazing can't wait to read more xx

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

Awww what a sweet friend you are. Breakfast in Cinderella's Castle. I can't think of a better way to celebrate a birthday.

loving the report, breakfast in the castle sounds amazing can't wait to read more xx

It was the best! Completely worth the $30 a person. Everyone should have one splurge on their trip!

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

On our way out of the Laugh Floor, this boy was absolutely thrilled with the joke, “How do you make a tissue move? Put a little boogie in it.” I think he said it 10 times over on the way out the door.

Maggie and I don’t know for sure how this next part happened. We both were walking from Tomorrowland to the hub and talking about how we needed something salty after our ice cream. Then, poof! Maggie disappears. I stopped immediately once I realized she was gone. There were tons of people going into and out of Tomorrowland because the castle show just ended. I just stood and looked and looked and looked. She was gone. I could not see her. I knew that it would be okay because we both had cell phones. I grabbed mine from the bag and started to walk back towards Tomorrowland. As I started walking, the phone rang. I had just answered it when there was a break in the crowd and I saw her. She was completely shaken. I think it was the abruptness of it all. We both were adults with phones, obviously we were going to be fine. It just happened in a blink.

Here’s what I think happened: We were talking and not looking at each other. She had to stop because of the crowd. I kept going for a few steps then stopped. It was so crazy with people that you couldn’t see anyone who wasn’t exactly next to you. It was very frightening. What if either of us was a child? I know that there are safety protocols in place at Disney and you should have your child approach a CM if lost but WOW. To be separated that quickly without warning is a scary concept. It took Maggie a long time to get over it.

On the way out of the Magic Kingdom to help rid us of the shakes, we got a bucket of popcorn. It was really nice to have the bucket so we could close the lid.

We took the express monorail to the TTC. Then we went over to the Epcot monorail. I asked the CM if we could sit in the front. I’ve never done this before. He nodded and waved us towards the very far gate. Another young couple joined us a few minutes later. She was a CM out to play for the day. She says that she likes to come in the front on her days off so that it doesn’t feel like work. I totally get that. I asked her if it was hard to keep the magic alive. She said that she’s definitely more jaded but Disney holds a special place in her childhood because her family used to live in Central Florida. I took that to mean that her family eventually moved away and she came back to live. We didn’t talk much as we approached Epcot. In addition to never riding in the front, I’ve never ridden the monorail to Epcot. Maggie took a few pictures:

It was neat. I think I heard somewhere that they put the monorail in backwards – that you were supposed to go through Epcot on your way out – but I like it better this way. It gives you a taste of park before you enter. Not that we were going in. We didn’t buy park hoppers. We got off, went through bag check and then waited for the monorail to take us back to Epcot. It was a pleasant ride. We had seen the boats on our way to the monorail. Maggie wanted to take a boat so I was trying to explain to her what we would have to do to get to the Poly by monorail/boat. She didn’t really understand what I was saying. I don’t think she thought that the TTC was MK. She was getting really frustrated and angry. Normally I don’t bother her with the details but I wanted her to know that it was going to take some extra travel time. We finally kind of worked it out but we needed a break so we rode the monorail to the TTC on opposite sides of the bench. I decided to take the express monorail back to MK to catch a boat back to the TTC so we could then take the resort monorail to the Poly. See, a little complicated.

Our silence lasted for awhile longer until we got to the Contemporary when Maggie jumped from the window and exclaimed, “We DO go through the Contemporary!” I had told her earlier that we would be going through the Contemporary. Apparently she didn’t realize that I meant it literally. All happy and excited, she chatted away and things were back to normal.

When we got off the monorail and headed to the boat, Maggie stopped us and pointed to a resort boat and asked, “Should we take the boat to the Poly?” Duh. Stupid me. I forgot about the resort boats. That works way better. And it’s a smaller boat so that you feel more like you are on the water.

The boat stops first at the Grand Floridian and then the Poly. It was a good ride. Maggie and I had to separate because it was so busy. She played with Flat Amy a bit.

This is her making Flat Amy bop me on the head. That’s my Maggie.

Maggie sat next to a family that had made a Flattie of their father who was in Iraq and took pictures of him at Disney on another trip. She was really touched by their story.

The boat driver was very enthusiastic and asked us a lot of Disney trivia questions about the parks and Walt. I got a few right. I’m reading Walt Disney by Neal Gabler so a lot of the information was fresh in my head.

The boat took us by the Wedding Pavilion, which was really neat to see. It looks much bigger up close and very very nice.

We docked at the Poly and took a picture of Amy in the sand:

Maggie’s mom called her at that point so we took a break outside on a patio. While Maggie was talking, a mama duck and her babies came wandering by. They were super cute and just wandered around all around us and over our feet. No fear what so ever.

After Maggie’s phone call we went into the main lobby and checked out the shop and the waterfall.

When we wandered over to the entrance to the hotel, we stopped because there was a woman talking and a man dressed in traditional island dress. She was saying that they were going to light the torches for the evening and we were all invited to kick off the evening’s celebrations. The man blew a huge shell to start the ceremony and then we walked out to the visitor drop-off area. The woman started playing some very large drums and the man started throwing fire around.

It was really neat. Apparently he was one of the chiefs for the Spirit of Aloha show at the Poly. After the performance, he ran and lit the torches leading up to the lobby entrance. Let the celebrations begin!

It’s these little things that make Disney so special. The unexpected treats that enrich your stay. Every trip is different and you never know what you are going to experience!

We decided that nothing was going to top that, so we took the monorail back to MK. It was nice to see the Kona Café and the sushi bar that people have been talking about.

We were hungry and it was getting late so we decided to eat right away. I can’t believe that we made it this long, even with our snacks. We ate at Cosmic Rays. Maggie had a bacon cheeseburger and fries. I had a half chicken, mashed potatoes and greens. Most of the chicken was good. A portion of it was dry. The potatoes were just the usual. Nothing exciting but completely edible. I hate green beans so I have no idea how they tasted.

We ate on the back terrace area. We had a great view of the castle as the sun was setting.

It was also quite noisy back here because you are next to a waterfall. I didn’t mind it, though. It was a nice background noise.

After dinner, we wandered over to ToonTown and walked through Minnie’s house. Maggie was trying to steal from Minnie’s fridge.

(She’s going for the ice cream)

My mom called me on the way to the Judge’s Tent so Maggie went in while I talked to her a little bit. She wanted to know how the birthday girl was doing. How great was that? My mom remembered what day we were going to celebrate Maggie’s birthday. While I was on the phone with my mom, Maggie found me an “I’m Celebrating!” button. Apparently I had been singing the “Celebrate” parade song under my breath. Haha. She also had been looking for a button all day and finally asked a CM at the register. Maggie’s great. Always doing those little things.

After ToonTown we went to Philharmagic. I was adamant that Maggie see this. She loved it, of course. This is one of Disney’s semi-hidden gems, I think. It’s such a great time but you don’t hear people talk about it a lot, like they do the big rides.

I hadn’t ever been on Snow White’s Scary Adventures so I thought that we should give it a try. There was no line so, why not? Ha! It was definitely something that I wouldn’t want to repeat. (For some reason, I thought that this was a water boat ride. I don’t know why, I just had that image in my head. It doesn’t really matter.) Maggie and I got in the front of the car with two parents and a small child behind us. We got through the part with Snow White on the steps and the Evil Queen at the mirror and then we get to the part where Snow White is running through the forest.

This is when the ride got scary. Now, keep in mind that Maggie and I have been completely immersed in the Disney magic all day long. When we got to the alligators in the swamp with their mouths open and their eyes gleaming, the ride stops. And the lights turn on. Ahhhhh! We can see EVERYTHING! Including: the ceiling of the building that now looks like a warehouse with lights and cords everywhere, the black curtain backdrops that are a bit torn and look like they are falling down and aren’t much higher than I am standing (I’m 5’4”), the paper cut-outs of the scenery that look cheap and the pitiful alligators that aren’t anything but a head attached to a flat strip of metal. The poor things were still jerking back and forth with their mouths flopping around. Everything looked like it was made for a school project. When the lights turned on a CM announced that we needed to stay in our seats because the ride would resume at any moment. After a few seconds of stunned silence the mom behind us says, “This is part of the ride, right?” I told her, in a choked voice, that I had never been on this ride before but I was sure that this wasn’t part of it. Maggie’s face reflected my shock and horror. Why would Disney want you to see this? We sat there for quite some time before the lights went back out and we finished the ride. At that point, I didn’t care anymore; I just wanted to get off.

We got out of the cars as fast as we could and stumbled our way deeper into Fantasyland.

Maggie turned to me and said, “That was awful.”

“I know.”

“Did you see the alligator’s heads?”

“Yes.”

“I was so embarrassed.”

That was it. That was what I was feeling. “I felt like I looked in a window and accidentally saw my neighbor naked.”

“It was like a train wreck. I just couldn’t look away.”

And so we will never ride Snow White’s Scary Adventures again.

It was 8:30pm at this point and we were just done. But we were so close to seeing Wishes that we just found a patch of pavement on the walkway between Liberty Square and the hub and just sat for awhile.

Time actually seemed to fly and before we knew it, Wishes was starting. We had to move down a little bit because of the trees but we had a decent view. I had never seen Wishes before. I just stood there with tears streaming down my face. It was such a good day. I had such a good time. Everyone should have such a magical day.

We stood with the anticipation electrifying the crowd at the beginning of the day. We ate breakfast in a castle with princesses. We danced behind a parade. We rode the monorail and a boat. We saw Epcot, the Grand Floridian and the Polynesian. We saw a fire dance. I finally got to walk through the castle! (It had always been blocked before because of the castle show or Wishes) Everyone wished Maggie a Happy Birthday! Everyone called us Princess. We went on exciting adventures to distant places! And at the end of the day, we stood together as Disney threw a little bit more magic our way. We were definitely covered in pixie dust as we left the park.

Little did we know that the next day was going to be even better...