"I was three and now I'm four" mother/daughter birthday trip

[kathyell]

First day of trip, 11/28/2009

We told our daughter about the trip to WDW for her birthday (12/2) the night before she and I would board our plane for Orlando. We originally wanted to wake her up, tell her, and go to the airport, but since her dad couldn't get away from work to come with us, I wanted to give her a little time to adjust to the idea that he wouldn't be there too. Plus, with snow in the forecast here in Colorado, I wanted to wait until we were more than reasonably sure that the airport would be open for our flight before getting her so excited for the trip.

So then, on the morning of the 28th, we got up and headed for the airport around 8:15 am for our 10:15 am flight. Everything at the airport went without a hitch – no secondary screening at security, no problems getting our things onto the plane (not easy by myself with a preschooler in tow!) and no issues with being able to sit together on our Southwest open seating flight. The flight both took off and arrived on time, and we made our way to the Magical Express. I was very proud that my daughter was so helpful (she carried her own backpack for me and kept an eye on the two bags I had strapped together to make sure they weren't falling over as we walked.)

We reached the Magical Express desk and checked in, and as we walked into the queue that we'd been directed to and I saw that we were the only people in it, I figured we'd just missed a bus and we'd have a bit of a wait before there was another one ready to go. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised again! There was enough room left on the one they'd just loaded (which hadn't left yet) for us and our bags, so they directed us to it and we were headed for our resort! It probably took less than five minutes from the time that I flashed our DME tickets until the moment we were sitting on the bus. And even better, when our driver got on the bus and got us moving, he announced that our resort, Port Orleans Riverside, would be the first stop! I was convinced that we must have walked through a cloud of pixie dust in the airport to have such good luck.

I had checked in online a few days before our arrival and called the reservations line to make my room requests, so I went to the online check-in window in the front lobby of the resort. Check-in was quick, the lovely lady at the desk gave us my daughter's birthday celebration pin with her name written on it, and then we had our room paperwork and were on our way! We were put in Parterre Place at Riverside, which was one of the buildings I had asked for. It was fairly close (not VERY close, but close enough to be manageable) to the main building and the food court, and the walk to the bus stop for the resorts wasn't bad.

As we were heading for Parterre Place, a husband and wife wearing anniversary celebration buttons were walking behind us, and the woman jokingly said, “We're not following you, it's just our room is this way too.” We laughed a little, and I took that opportunity to wish them a happy anniversary. When we got closer to Parterre Place, the woman asked if we were checking in (I suspect the bags I was pulling behind me were a dead giveaway) and when I confirmed that we were, she asked if we could wait for a minute. After going inside her room, she came back out with a purple Mickey ear balloon and asked my daughter if she would like it. They were leaving the next day and couldn't take it on the plane.

What was strange about this was that, on our trip back in May, we'd bought a pink Mickey balloon and gave it away to a girl in the lobby at the Contemporary the day were were due to leave because we couldn't bring it on the plane. It was like our balloon came back to us somehow! I shared the story and we all had a laugh at how strange the world can be sometimes.

We proceeded back to our room in Parterre Place (standard view on the back of the building, but a perfectly fine room and served us very well for the duration of our trip) to drop our things off, change into fresh clothes, and headed for the bus stop to go to the Magic Kingdom. There must have been more pixie dust in the air, because with a little jogging, we walked right onto a bus for the Magic Kingdom at the south depot bus stop.

We walked into the Magic Kingdom (can anyone tell me why all the Riverside bus stops are so far out from the parks?) and got some pictures with a PhotoPass photographer waiting just past the turnstiles. He was the first of many of the photographers to comment on the customized PhotoPass card that came for free with my PhotoPass pre-order. I highly recommend you do it if you are pre-ordering and they are still offering the customized card for free. I would seriously consider spending the $4.95 on it, actually, as it was a very nice little souvenir. It is an instant signal to the photographer that you have pre-ordered and many of the photographers we went to over the course of our trip took a lot of extra pictures and extra time with us, and offered up magic shots before I could even ask them if there were any they could do.

Here is a PhotoPass shot of us on Main Street, just after we entered the park:

I should note that this was the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend and the crowds were still pretty heavy. They did seem to lighten up as the night went on (the Magic Kingdom didn't close that night until 11:00 p.m.) but when we headed straight for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to get fastpasses at around 5:00 p.m., they were for 10:30 – 11:00 p.m. Since this is my daughter's favorite ride, I was really glad at that point that we'd had all that good luck getting on the DME and the MK bus right away.

We strolled around a little and headed for the Haunted Mansion, since my daughter had been listening to Grim, Grinning Ghosts a lot at home prior to our trip. The queue was fairly long for the Haunted Mansion, but we waited while chatting with the people nearby. My daughter immediately started chanting to ride it again when we got out, but we were both pretty hungry by then and we opted to get some food at Columbia Harbor House. I had $175 on my Disney Rewards Card from using my Disney Visa card, and my aim was to try to pay for most of our dining using that money. (We brought breakfast foods with us on the plane to eat at the hotel room, which would make it a lot easier to stay within budget.) CHH only cost us about $13 for the two of us, and we sat and ate in the upstairs part of the building.

We ducked over to it's a small world after that and my original thought had been to ride some of the Fantasyland rides at this point, but my daughter asked about the Magic Carpets of Aladdin and seemed very excited to see the camels, so off we trekked to Adventureland. We also rode Jungle Cruise (I love to ride this at night) and then continued on to Pirates of the Caribbean while we were there.

At this point (with my daughter singing “Yo Ho Yo Ho, a Pirate's Life for Me” while I smiled about how she says, “Whee!” going down the hill on the PotC ride) we resumed our touring of Fantasyland. We got a fastpass for Pooh (still an hour and a half away, but the standby line was 30 minutes and the FP was a clearly better alternative) and then headed to the Carousel. Mad Hatter's Tea Party beckoned next, and I wished, as I always do, that I could turn that wheel faster.

Coming off of the tea party, I saw the now-functional Tomorrowland Transportation Authority in the background. It's been years since I've had the chance to ride it (we've been earlier this year when it was still closed) so we walked over to see if the neon was a good addition. There was a stage show going on that night in Tomorrowland, and we stopped to watch a few minutes of it on the way. We also stopped at Space Mountain to see how far short of the 44” height requirement my daughter was, and she was about an inch short. Next time, though, we'll be on Space Mountain, as she'll definitely be tall enough then. The TTA was fine (and the first thing we'd ridden to that point without any wait at all) and, though I fondly remember the older versions of the ride, I'm okay with them making changes. Therefore, the new soundtrack didn't really bother me.

When we came off of the TTA, there was still a little time to kill before our Pooh fastpasses were good, so we got in line at Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. I was very happily surprised that my daughter understood the ride a lot better this time and shot at the targets. She got what struck me at the time as a decent score for a nearly four year old (maybe in the 10k area if memory serves?) I only got about 300k after missing several of the high-value targets, but a good time was had by both of us regardless.

Then, huzzah! It was time to go see Pooh and his friends! We headed back to the border of Fantasyland and Tomorrowland and got a lovely surprise along the way! I'd heard about the paintings done on the pavement with water so many times but on my many trips to both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, I'd never seen any for myself. Coming around the corner into Fantasyland this time, though, there were dozens of drawings on the ground. We'd come along just as they finished! I stopped to take some pictures and we pointed all of the characters out to each other, and then we moved along.

This took us to the fastpass return line for Pooh. We had a lovely time there, and then we walked through the first gift store on the way out where I would have to remind my daughter that she would be getting a gift card on her birthday that she could buy anything (within reason) that she wanted after that and that we would be waiting until then to buy most of our souvenirs. I would have to do this many more times before the end of the trip. Ah, parenting. To her credit, it never led to a tantrum. She just seemed to need a reminder a few times.

With Toontown so close by, we decided to head to the Hall of Fame and the Barnstormer. On the way, we stopped by Donald's Christmas Tree Lot.

We peeked into the Hall of Fame and the wait for the fairies was posted at 20 minutes, much shorter than I'd feared, so we got in line. It was probably just about right on, and we saw Silvermist, Tinker Bell, and Rosetta. The princess line was fairly empty when we got out, so we went through there to see Aurora, Cinderella, and Belle. Each of the characters at both locations were really good and my daughter had a great time meeting them. The PhotoPass photographers were good at both locations as well. The one at Tink even made a point of showing our personalized PhotoPass card (a picture of Tink and my daughter from a previous trip) to Tinker Bell. I should also mention that my daughter was wearing her birthday celebration pin a little early, and all of the characters (the face characters who are allowed to speak, anyway) were great about telling her Happy Birthday. Most of the cast members we encountered throughout the parks made a point of doing it, too. It really made my daughter happy and made her feel special, and I'm very thankful for that.

Toontown was pretty empty at this point in the night (nearing 10:00 p.m. at this point.) We walked straight on to Goofy's Barnstormer and when we'd finished our ride, there was no one in line and waiting and the staff at the ride said that anyone who wanted to go again was welcome to do so, so we stayed on and went around again. It really is a nice little ride for the littler ones, and a little bit more exciting at night for my little thrill-seeking child.

Our barnstorming complete, it was time to begin the trek over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to use our fastpasses before heading out for the evening. We took our time on the walk since we'd had such a full day and then we took our ride. We were in the very back car and it definitely is a bit more bumpy back there. I say that as a good thing, although many people may feel the exact opposite. I'd lost some weight between this trip and the last one and I was proud to notice how much closer I was able to pull the safety bar down toward my daughter before it hit me. I was also able to watch a little more closely on the ride and I finally remembered to look in the windows of the building midway through the ride to see the shadows of the party they're having inside. (Only visible at night.)

We headed for the exit after BTMRR and caught most of Spectromagic on the way out. My daughter asked to watch the Ariel part when we got to Main Street, so we dawdled a little and then headed for the bus. We fell gratefully and exhausted onto our beds at the resort and fell asleep, hoping to wake up fresh and as early as possible (getting up early is tough when you have a toddler who is solidly on Mountain Standard Time) for more fun on our first full day of our mom & me trip.

I will add the next few days of our trip soon, and I'll put in some of my PhotoPass pictures as soon as I receive my CD!

 

[kathyell]

11/29/2009, first full day of our trip

We woke up and got ready, not rushing but not really taking our time, either, and we arrived at Epcot around 10:00 a.m. My daughter was already asking to ride Test Track, so instead of trying to fight my way into the Land pavilion and grab Soarin' fastpasses (she could take or leave Soarin', and since this was her birthday trip, it was her choice) we went to get Test Track fastpasses. We had a little time to kill before we could use them, so we headed for the Sea pavilion so she could ride The Seas with Nemo and Friends and talk to Crush at Turtle Talk.

On the way, we happened upon the JAMMitors, Epcot's performing group of drummers who use buckets and trash cans instead of conventional percussion instruments. We try to catch them on each trip and I was glad to see them. They'd just finished on the Test Track side and were letting the kids play a little with their drumsticks and one of the buckets, and then they headed over for another show on the Seas and Land side. We followed them and watched their next show for awhile.

Then it was time to head to the Seas pavilion to see Nemo and Crush. Those were pretty much walk-ons, and after she nearly gave me a heart attack heading out of the room with the crowd instead of finding me after Turtle Talk (she didn't leave the room, but was waiting by the door for me, behind all the people crowding their way out) we headed back to Test Track. Next time she sits on the carpet in front with the other kids, I will be sure to tell her to head straight to me when it's over instead of starting to walk out.

Test Track was great and she had a lot of fun, whoo-hooing all the way through the outside portion. She asked to ride it again as we were getting out of our car to exit the ride, so we got more fastpasses for it on our way out.

By this time, the granola and fruit bars we'd had at the room for breakfast were starting to wear off, so we decided it was time for a little lunch. My original plan had been to go to Sunshine Seasons, but when you are there with your child and no stroller (she doesn't like them and I like her to walk and see everything close up, so she walks the whole time) sometimes things seem further away than they actually are. This is the trade-off for not using a stroller, but I'm okay with that. Instead of crossing Future World to go to Sunshine Seasons, we opted for the nearby Electric Umbrella instead. As it happens, that worked out just fine. I got myself a fruit cup and a yogurt and got chicken nuggets for my girl. We were still just under the food budget I'd set, so I was feeling pretty good about that.

After finishing lunch, our Test Track fastpasses were still a ways off. We still, in her previous two visits, had only managed to meet Mulan in the World Showcase, so we headed up through the Mexico side to see if we could find some characters to meet there. Three Caballeros Donald wasn't out in Mexico just then, so we continued through. I ran into a PhotoPass photographer hanging around the African drums in the Outpost area, and I asked him if he was on duty and if he could take some pictures of my daughter if so. He was glad to oblige and offered us the Tinker Bell in the hands magic shot, too. (He took some great pictures, I must say, now that I have looked at them at my PhotoPass account.) He also said that he'd just come from Germany and that Snow White was out at the Wishing Well for awhile yet, so we thanked him and headed for Germany.

I managed to find the Wishing Well in Germany (I have a horrible sense of direction, so I always feel a little thrill of relief when I actually locate something) and there was a short line waiting for Snow White. We got in and waited our turn and this was a perfectly lovely character greeting. She took lots of time with my daughter and talked to her about Dopey, my daughter's favorite dwarf. (I'm so sad he's not out in Germany with Snow White anymore.)

After we finished there, we began to walk back toward Test Track. As we passed through Mexico, we saw a character wrangler cast member getting ready for Donald to come out in the little alley sort of area where he does his greetings, so we joined the family already waiting for him. Donald came out and was his usual charming self, my daughter was thrilled at his different outfit, and she quacked at him as we walked away after we'd had our turn.

Another Test Track ride was had and then it was past 1:30 p.m. and the Disney Visa Character Greetings were now going on in Innoventions West. We went and got in line, and then were happy to see that the characters doing the greeting when we were there were Minnie and Goofy. Actually, it was just Minnie alone when we walked in, but Goofy joined her a few moments later. It's always been Mickey and Pluto when we've gone before, so it was nice to have a little change of pace.

My B running for Minnie when she realized it was our turn, and pic of all three of them together after Goofy came in:

I then decided that it would be a good time to head back to the resort for my daughter to get a little rest before we braved the EMH crowds that night at Hollywood Studios. She had other ideas, though, and sweet-talked me into riding Spaceship Earth first. She, though, thinks the ride is called “Epcot” and she also believes that we have to ride it because it has a big number 1 on it on the Epcot pocket map. We went and listened to Dame Judi Dench and I thought, as I always do when riding Spaceship Earth, of the wonderful BBC sitcom “As Time Goes By”. My daughter's favorite part is getting to answer the questions on the screen at the end and watching the little cartoon, and she was still giggling about ours when we walked out of the ride to find our faces on the big screen. I don't know how they always manage to pick a still of me with the goofiest face imaginable, but that computer that does the face recognition sure has a funny sense of humor.

I figured that our pictures from the Disney Visa signing might have made it back to the servers by then, so we stopped by the Photo Center on our way out to pick up our complementary 5x7 before I lost the little voucher thingie they give you for it. They had indeed shown up and we selected one, added a birthday border to it, and we were on our way back to Riverside via bus.

She didn't want to actually sleep, but she did lay down for awhile and I put our DVD of “Up!” on our portable DVD player, and I soaked my feet in the tub for a bit. We decided to head on out to DHS after a bit of rest and a snack.

For our evening trip to DHS, my daughter wore the first of the items we'd brought that I'd sewn for her myself, a twirly tiered Christmas skirt. The middle tier has darker red Mickey heads on it, and the two Christmas-themed tiers have Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy inside the wreaths on the fabric.

We got to the bus and into the park and I checked my phone for the time (the most annoying thing about this trip was that I forgot to pack one and only one thing—my wristwatch—so I had to get out my phone every time I wasn't near a clock in the parks. There are just too many things you need to know the time of day for at WDW, and it was seriously annoying not to have the time on my wrist) and I thought we had a chance of catching the Up! characters in the animation building before they were done for the day. We got there just in time and waited through the line to see Carl and Dug, who were very fun to see again after we first met them back in August.

We headed over to see Muppetvision 3D and rode Star Tours afterward, a ride that I enjoy enough to visit on each trip, but which I will also be glad to see renovated. I really think they can do some exciting things there and I look forward to seeing the outcome on a future trip.

Then came one of the oddest things that happened on our trip. I began to look for a counter service location to grab a quick, non-budget-busting dinner, and every time I found a place, it was closed! It was just before 7:00 p.m. on an EMH night (park closing for EMH at 11:00 p.m.) and the whole park was rolling up and shutting off food service! Studio Co. Catering was closed, Pizza Planet was closed. I walked into Mama Melrose's in desperation, planning to see if there was any way they could fit us in and I would take the budget hit on the table service meal, and THEY were closing at 7:00! We walked so much trying to find someplace that was open, and I kept getting lost because of my extraordinarily poor sense of direction. The only good thing that happened was that we got to keep walking through the area with the Osborne lights and we caught one of the shows where they synchronize the lights with some music, which was neat to see.

I finally found ABC Commissary open, but everyone else had, too, and the lines there were 20 people deep. I have never in my life wanted the food at ABC Commissary bad enough to wait in lines like that, so I took a gamble and left.

There is a boat-lookin' restaurant right on Echo Lake that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of, and we struggled through the food there. It wasn't great. Their schtick is that they stuff food into bread of some kind. Blah. I got us a hot dog inside a pretzel (also in the pretzel is WAY more dijon mustard than anyone would ever want, or at least more than my daughter and I did) and an also-overdressed chicken caesar salad inside a roll. The food was greasy and heavy and had too much sauce and I think we were both just a little vaguely nauseous for a bit afterwards. Even more disappointing is that this was the most expensive meal for us thus far, and it was the one we disliked the most over the whole trip.

We then, at my daughter's request, rode Star Tours a second time and then went on the Great Movie Ride. I really wish they would vary the gangster and the cowboy more instead of just using the cowboy when the parks are closer to capacity.

Then I remembered about the Playhouse Disney Dance Party that happens during EMH hours, so we headed back and checked that out. That was a mayhem of loud music and dancing kids, but I mean that in a good way. They do seem to run it very well, switching the poor characters out in shifts, because I can't imagine out exhausting it must be to dance in those costumes in the stagnant air of the room with the deafening music overwhelming them, too. The Handy Manny, Quincy, and Pluto characters in particular were really great with spending a little time with all the kids and letting parents grab some quick pictures.

Things got kind of crazy in there when they started Goofy's dance contest, and my daughter started to look tired and a little overwhelmed. I asked her if she wanted to go and led her out when she nodded yes to me, and we browsed at the cart outside the building. She found a stuffed Handy Manny there and she asked me quite nicely about us coming back to get it after she had her birthday card, so I went ahead and got it for her right then as a little treat. We'd left behind the stuffed “guys” that she sleeps with at home because I'm always afraid we'll lose them while we're on the road and it will make her too sad, so I figured a new Handy Manny would be a good “guy” to let her snuggle with at night at the resort.

With our stuffed Handy Manny in tow, we headed for the exit. I had a bad parenting moment in that I forgot to ask her if she wanted to stop at the restrooms on the way out, and of course, she informed me about 15 minutes later that she needed to go to the bathroom...while we were in the middle of the long, long line waiting for a Riverside bus. I explained the situation, that we would have a long walk and a really long wait to get back to the resort if we left the line to find a restroom, but that it would probably be some time before we could get back to the resort and use the restroom there. I let her decide which she thought was better and she chose staying in the line, but she also knew that if things started to get bad, she could ask to bail out and we'd go back and find the nearest restroom at the front of DHS.

Through some miracle from the patron saint of parents who forget to ask their kids about going to the restroom before getting into long lines, they brought up two buses not too long after we discovered her predicament, we got on the second one, and as a bonus, actually had a seat to share. The driver stopped at the South depot first and we made it to the restroom near the registration desks before anything bad happened.

I felt so awful that I hadn't kept this from happening (she was a little sad and uncomfortable on the bus and she hung in there so well, the little trooper) that I took her into the gift shop and let her pick out another Koozy pen for her collection. Then she, her new Handy Manny doll, her new Snow White Koozy pen, and I walked over the bridge to our room, where she fell gratefully to sleep about fourteen seconds after I got her into her nightgown and under the covers of her bed. I wasn't far behind, which was good, because we had another big day ahead of us.

 

[Phillygrl23]

I look forward to the rest of your trip report! Your daughter is sooo cute!

 

[kathyell]

Thanks Phillygrl23!

 

[kathyell]

11/30/09 (morning and early afternoon)

Well, we originally were going to go to DHS this morning and had an 11:30 a.m. ADR for Hollywood & Vine. We'd just been to DHS the night before and I still felt kind of frustrated with the way most of the eateries closed early and we'd wasted a bunch of time running around looking for food, and the thought of going right back again the next morning wasn't that appealing. Not to mention, canceling a sit-down reservation in favor of eating counter service instead, considering how much our not-so-great counter service meal at DHS cost us, it was appealing to my food budget as well. I decided to switch our plans and go to Animal Kingdom instead.

On the dot of 7:00 a.m., I called the dining line to cancel our Hollywood & Vine ADR so that someone else could get it. I hope that someone called looking for a last-minute cancellation was pleasantly surprised. Hopefully four and a half hours was long enough for Disney to find someone else who wanted the table.

My daughter woke up much earlier than I thought she would, especially considering how tired she'd been the night before. I tried to get her to go back to sleep, but the Disney excitement was running a little too high and I decided just to go ahead and finish getting ready and head out a little earlier. We could always leave the park earlier than I'd originally planned and she could get a nap, so I wasn't too worried.

We arrived at AK, got our pictures taken with the Tree of Life in the background by one of the PhotoPass photographers (who also did a Stitch coming out of the ground magic shot for us)

and headed straight for Africa to get Kilimanjaro Safari fastpasses. My daughter's too short for Expedition Everest, and the listed wait for Dinosaur was only 15 minutes, so this was an easy choice. I also hate the standby queue for the safari, which is the three c's: cramped, claustrophobic, and crowded.

My daughter was anxiously looking forward to our safari because she has her own camera (the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Pix Jr., which isn't a bad little camera for a preschooler) and she loves to take pictures on the safari.

Fastpasses in hand, we stopped for a quick bite at Harambe Fruit Market, the cart-looking food location near the standby entrance for the safari. I was so, so pleasantly surprised to find really fresh looking fruit there, as well as a completely awesome fruit and cheese package that was only around $6. The fruit and cheese package had a strawberry, a bunch of grapes, crackers, cheese cubes, and a round, wax-covered piece of cheese. It was tasty and fresh and really hit the spot teamed with a couple of bananas for the two of us.

Then we headed to Dinoland, USA to see if the word on the queue length for Dinosaur was correct. It was posted at 15 minutes when we went in, and I'd be surprised if it was any more than ten minutes. We rode, I listened to my daughter roaring at the dinosaurs as they roared at us, we looked at our goofy picture and took a pass on it, and moved back into Dinoland proper.

We took a bit of a look around and noticed that the crowd at Triceratop Spin was pretty light as well and got into line for that. It was your standard Dumbo-style ride, which is to say, a delight to any preschooler. We spent most of our time as high up as our dino would go because my daughter was “driving”, and there's just something about listening to your kid say, “Look how high up we are!” with such delight that just makes all of the planning and work and cost of the trip worth it.

It was now about five minutes before our window for our safari fastpasses, so I started us back over to Africa. On previous trips I've felt oddly turned around at Animal Kingdom, but I guess I stared at the maps enough doing my planning that I actually felt like I knew where I was going. We even ran into Terk (from Tarzan) on the way and got a quick picture and autograph. It took much less time to get back to Africa, even with our autograph stop, than I'd anticipated and we strolled into the fastpass return line just a minute or two after our window opened.

We were loaded into a line that already had two people in it, putting us on the right side of the safari vehicle. I cannot stress enough that you don't realize just how much of the safari is better viewed from the left side until you have ridden on the right. It's not that it's a bad ride on the right side, but you are craning over the people on the left to see, in my off-the-cuff estimate, maybe 70% of the truly interesting stuff on the safari.

My daughter didn't notice this, however, as she eagerly set about capturing as many images as she could. I started to worry that she would fill up the SD card inside her camera, but luckily, it held out just fine.

One thing we did get a really good view of is the mechanical baby elephant that gets rescued near the end of the ride, and I finally got a good picture of it for myself.

Immediately upon leaving the safari, my daughter was asking to go again, and I decided to head over and get a second pair of fastpasses for it so we could ride it before we left to go back to the room for her nap. After that, I wanted to head for one of the things I've meant to do on both of our previous trips with my daughter but never managed to fit in, a ride out to Conservation Station aboard the Wildlife Express Train.

While entering the station, one of the most wonderful things that's ever happened to me at any Disney park happened. I have this (what might be annoying to the cast members) habit of saying hello to anyone working at the attractions we're entering. There was a lovely older gentleman manning the loading area of the Wildlife Express Train, and my daughter and I both said hello to him as we passed. I didn't think anything else of it as we found a space near a gate to wait for the next train, but he came up behind us and started to talk to my daughter.

She was wearing her favorite Tinker Bell shirt (purple, her favorite color, too) along with her birthday celebration button (yes, she was wearing it a little early, but she really loved her button and I didn't see the harm in letting her wear it on the days leading up to her actual birthday) and he asked her if she liked Tinker Bell. She said yes and told him about meeting her “in the big tent”, which is what she calls the Hall of Fame building in Toontown at the MK. He said that Tinker Bell had told him that she would be visiting that day and she gave him a special present to give to her when she got there.

He produced from his pocket this amazing Tinker Bell pin and handed it to my daughter, who was literally open-mouthed with shock at getting such an unexpected present. Here is the pin:

And here is the text if you can't read it:

“Just wanted to spread the magic by giving you this exclusive Pixie Dust pin. After all, this is the place Where dreams come true.”

I've been to so many Disney parks as a kid and as an adult and I've never had anything like this happen to me. I had to bite my cheek a little not to tear up and I hope I was able to sincerely thank the man, but I honestly can't remember what I said other than a generic “thank you so much”. I hope he knows just how great that was for both of us. I will remember that for a long, long time.

I put the pin away in my camera bag for safekeeping and we boarded the train, enjoying the ride out to Rafiki's Planet Watch. Make sure to enjoy the messages at either side of each train car!

We found a few sheep and goats to pat and brush at Affection Station upon our arrival.

Then we went inside the main building and found it just chock full of things to do! It made me wish that we could spend more time, but even if we skipped our second safari and stayed there until my daughter started to look tired enough that we needed to get back to the room, we still wouldn't have had time to completely explore the exhibits.

There are some neat darkrooms you can go into where you put on some headphones and sit on a bench and listen to the sounds of the rainforest. That was really great, as was the cast member who was working that area who explained to my daughter in terms that she could understand at almost four years old what the rainforest is and why we were talking about it. We also learned about lots of animals and saw what their skeletons looked like, which spurred a lot of questions out of my daughter that another great cast member was happy to answer.

After that, we noticed that the lines to see Jiminy Cricket and Pocahontas were pretty short and we went and met both of them, but then the time for our safari fastpasses was quickly approaching. We walked back to the train station and boarded the train back to Harambe.

I noticed my daughter looked a little spacey when we got to Africa and I asked her if we shouldn't maybe just head back to the room, but her little face just fell when she asked if that meant we couldn't have a second safari ride, so I figured since it was so close to where the train let us off, we'd ride the safari again and then head for the exit.

After going through the fastpass line, we were again on the right side of the vehicle (darn it) and as I was taking my daughter's camera out of my camera bag I felt her leaning sort of heavily against my shoulder. I peeked around at her face under her hat, and she had fallen asleep! She stayed asleep through the entire safari, bumps, noise, and all, until I woke her shortly before we reached the station. She didn't seem too sad that she'd missed the ride, oddly, and she did wake enough that she could walk out of the safari under her own steam.

I asked her if she wanted to rest for a minute or if she wanted me to carry her until I had to put her back down. She wanted to walk on her own, so we headed for the exit. We ran into another PhotoPass photographer on the way out of the park, right near Animal Kingdom's Christmas tree. I peeked at my daughter, who had oohed and ahhed at the tree on our way in, and asked her if she wanted to get a quick picture with the tree. My little trooper said yes, perking back up a little at the mention of the tree.

We took a couple of shots with different sides of the tree (the photographer let her pick, which was nice) and he also did a special Christmas gift magic shot where Stitch is breaking out of a wrapped box that he had us hold. This magic shot in particular, now that I'm back and I've been able to get a look at my PhotoPass shots, came out really well. (Still waiting for my PhotoPass CD and anxiously hoping it comes soon! I'm just being impatient, though, as I've only ordered it last Sunday.) ETA: CD is here now! Yay! Here's the Stitch Christmas magic shot:

We finished our quickie photo session, walked leisurely to the bus stop for POR, and went back to the resort. I laid my daughter down for a nap (around 2:00 p.m.) and then, to my surprise, ended up falling asleep myself, too! Even though it wasn't too hot that day, there's something about the amount of direct sun or something else about Animal Kingdom that always seems to wear me out. Totally worth it, though!

That was really long! I'll put our evening adventures from that night (went back to the Magic Kingdom) in the next post. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read!

 

[kathyell]

11/30/09 (evening):

After we both had a little more sleep, we got ready to go to the Magic Kingdom for the evening and set out for the park via bus. There were EMH hours for resort guests there that night, which was good for us since we didn't get to the park until 6:00 p.m.!

Before arriving at the park, my daughter saw a picture of Mickey and Minnie on a poster in the bus and she asked me when she was going to see them. I realized that we'd done a dinner at Chef Mickey's the other two times we have taken her to WDW, and that it must seem odd to her that we hadn't run into Mickey yet. (We could have met Sorcerer's Apprenice Mickey at DHS when we saw the Up! guys, but the line was ridiculous and I was hoping to pick that character greeting up another time, when it wasn't an hour long queue.)

I decided that we should head straight to Toontown to see Mickey and Minnie at the Judge's Tent when we got to the park, and it seemed like the best option would be to take the train around the Toontown station. It had been a long time since I had ridden any segment of the train ride other than Main Street station to Frontierland station, and I was glad to see the other portion of the ride again.

We didn't have a lot of wait for Mickey and Minnie, just one group ahead of us waiting when we joined the line. They were lovely, and my daughter looked very, very happy to see them.

I'm also proud to say that I sewed her that outfit, which you unfortunately can't see all that well in that picture.

Since we were right there, we rode the Barnstormer, and then got back into line and rode it again at my daughter's request.

Coming out of the Barnstormer the second time, we were peeking at the items in the gift shop just outside when the woman working at the store approached me and asked if there were two people in my party. I said yes (missing my husband a little when I answered) and she asked if we were interested in riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, producing two fastpasses for the ride that another guest had given her earlier in the day.

This was so nice, especially because I knew my daughter would want to ride, I was afraid the standby line would be long, but it is a long walk back to BTMRR to get those fastpasses and then another long walk back there later to use the fastpasses within their window. I thanked the cast member profusely and explained that the next thing I'd been planning to do was to go get those fastpasses and she'd just saved my daughter a lot of walking. I could almost smell the pixie dust again!

After peeking in on the fairy and princess lines (both of which were longer than I felt we wanted to commit ourselves to at the moment) we headed out to Fantasyland. The line for Pooh was pretty long, so we grabbed a couple of fastpasses for that and planned to come back later. Instead of going standby for Pooh, we took a spin on the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Though anyone who gets queasy on rides like the spinning tea cups might goggle at me for this, we both decided we were hungry for dinner in the middle of the ride and headed straight for Cosmic Ray's after we'd heard the saddest noise in WDW (that “boooo-whip” noise that signals that the Mad Hatter's ride is over.)

We got some food (back within my projected food budget, yay!) at Cosmic Ray's and found an open table in the room with Ray himself. We listened to his animatronic schtick and enjoyed the general atmosphere while having some chicken, plotting our next move as we ate.

My daughter surprised me by remembering the acronym “TTA” and asked specifically to ride it again while we were talking about things we could go and do next. I was also pretty surprised to realize that she knows the layout of the Magic Kingdom well enough to know that we were reasonably close to the TTA entrance and that it wasn't much of a walk from Cosmic Ray's. Since I took my first trip to Disneyland at three months old, it makes me proud that she's learning the layout at a young age too.

Our ride on the TTA revealed that Space Mountain was having mechanical issues and I got a little better look at the ride vehicles, some of which were stopped on the hill that runs right next to the TTA path. I can't wait to ride Space Mountain with my daughter on our next trip, after she has presumably had some time to grow another inch and a quarter.

We arrived back at the TTA station and went to the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor, an attraction my daughter absolutely loves. Her dad was “That Guy” one of the times we went to the Laugh Floor on her first trip, and I think she still remembers how funny it was to see her dad up on the screen so many times when he was “That Guy”, and she really does love Monsters, Inc., so a few trips to this attraction on each visit is kind of a no-brainer decision. I'm always happy to go to this attraction because it seems like a lot of people who would normally be pretty serious in regular life spend a few minutes being silly while they're there, and I think that's worth a lot.

We left Tomorrowland and walked in front of the castle on our way over to Adventureland/Frontierland, and saw that there was a PhotoPass photographer set up to take pictures in an area off to the side from the walkway with the beautifully lit castle in the background. We got in the line (four or five groups ahead of us, but they are really nice shots and I'm glad we waited) so that we could have some pictures with the nighttime view of the castle as it was decked out for the holidays.

Pictures done, we moved on to Adventureland. My daughter was pretty excited for Pirates of the Caribbean at this point, and she even waved off going on Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride on the way there. We continued to the back of Adventureland and saw the pirates again. Every time we go on the ride, I like hearing the things that my daughter notices. There are a few things she always seems to point at for me to look at, like the chickens (look for them in the scene with the brides chasing the pirates in a circle) and the dirty foot of the pirate who is sitting on the edge of one of the bridges you pass under. This ride on PotC was pretty neat, though, because we were in the middle of the boat and, overhearing a bit of the conversations from the parties behind and in front of us, it was pretty clear that we were in a boat full of people riding PotC for the very first time! Two separate parties who didn't know each other, randomly being shuffled into our boat, and my daughter and I were the only PotC veterans. It was neat to hear them reacting to the ride coming from the perspective of not knowing what to expect.

We then went to the back of Frontierland to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, once with our gifted fastpasses and then a second time through the not-too-bad standby line. It was posted at 20 minutes and I think it was probably a shade under that, maybe 15 minutes.

At this point, the window for our Pooh fastpasses was approaching. We started our walk toward Fantasyland. We reached Pooh and were about 10 minutes early, so we took another spin on the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Honestly, I think my daughter and I could ride this for about a half hour non-stop, we both love it so much. She especially likes to watch for the mouse to pop out of the teapot in the center. That mouse is one of the things I miss most when we're not at WDW, because it reminds me of the one ride that my daughter and I truly love to ride together, no matter how many times we've already ridden it.

Slightly dizzy and a little giggly, we were now within our window for our Pooh fastpasses and we walked onto the ride and into our honey pot. I'll be the first one to admit that I still miss Mr. Toad's Wild Ride a little, but the Pooh attraction really is cute. The standby line wasn't too bad here near the end of the night, maybe 5 minutes after we finished our first ride, and my daughter talked me into doing it a second time through the standby line. As you may have noticed, this happens a lot on our trips, but I'm so pleased that she's having a good enough time on the rides to want to do them again right away that it doesn't bother me to do a lot of them twice in a row.

We were nearing EMH closing time at this point and my plan upon leaving Pooh was to head to the bus stop, but as we passed by Snow White's Scary Adventures, there was literally no line. I'd gotten so used to seeing it packed all day long that I couldn't pass up a walk-on ride for it. My daughter has become very attached to Snow White (and Dopey in particular) since the Diamond Edition DVD came out, so I thought this was a good time to ride the attraction based on the movie. (I had prepared her that some of it is dark and from the scary part of the movie where Snow White is scared and running through the forest, and she said, “Mommy, it's okay. The forest wasn't so scary, it was just the animals. And it's just pretend.” She was so serious, like she was trying to keep me from being scared.)

We were stopped briefly just before the end of the ride, but it was right where Dopey is saying goodbye to you and wiggling his ears on the top of the bridge as Snow White is leaving with the Prince, probably the most interesting part of the ride to be stuck on if you're my Dopey-loving daughter.

I was tempted to ride it again before we left, but alas, the clock had struck 11:00 p.m. and the rides were being shut down. We may have been the last people to leave Snow White that day, in fact, and I'm glad we were able to sneak on before it was closed for the night.

Having waited until the absolute last moment before the parks closed (except for the shops and stuff that stay open a bit) there was, predictably, a really really long line at the Riverside bus stop. We waited through two buses being loaded to the brim before we were near the front, and then I waited past the third bus until the fourth arrived so that we could get a seat to share. After that, it was back to the room and to sleep again. We had a big day planned the next day to hit as many things as we could, spending the morning back at the Magic Kingdom and the evening at Epcot.

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Hi there, Subbing in!

 

[kathyell]

Hi wigd!

 

[stitchaholic]

great report,your daughter is adorable!

 

[kathyell]

12/1/2009

Due to our somewhat late night the evening before, we slept in a little on this morning. We had already decided to head back to the Magic Kingdom and enjoy a little daytime there, as we'd only been there after dark up to this point. My daughter wore her new Princess Tiana shirt and skirt, and I was secretly hoping to be picked to ride on the riverboat during Tiana's Riverboat Jubilee. (Which sadly didn't happen, but not every wish can come true.) Here is the outfit, though, which she will also be wearing when we go and see the movie tomorrow morning:

We got up and rather leisurely took the bus to the Magic Kingdom, which was just fine with me. I know you can get a lot done in the parks if you get there at rope drop, but with a younger child who really needs her sleep, I'd rather do less with both of us in good, well-slept moods than get more done with both of us cranky and overtired.

We saw Santa out for greetings and autographs on Main Street, just after you go under through the archway tunnel from the park entrance. We started to get into line but the cast member working there told us that there would be a twenty minute break coming up soon, so we decided to see him on our way out, instead.

We walked closer to the castle and saw a PhotoPass photographer set up in the same place where she had her picture taken the night before, so we got a daytime shot in the same position:

After that, my daughter asked to ride Aladdin's Magic Carpets first again, so we headed straight into Adventureland.

After flying on the carpets (and avoiding the spitting camels) we went down the stairs to the Jungle Cruise, which had a longer line than I'd anticipated. I was asking my daughter if she thought she could be patient and wait through the line to ride the “Jungle Boats” (which is what she calls this ride) and an older gentleman cast member working the end of the line offered her a thoroughly awesome “Official Guest Skipper” card.

He also asked if we were getting in line, and we decided to go ahead and wait standby for it. The wait was listed at 25 minutes, but we really love the Jungle Cruise and it seemed worth it. When we said we would be going through the line, he gave us a card on a red lanyard and asked if we would carry it through the line with us and give it to the last cast member we saw before boarding the boat. I read the card once we were in line (I wish I'd taken a picture of it, though!) and it said that they time how long it takes the card (and us) to go through the line and this is used to post more accurate wait times at the entrances to WDW attractions.

I hoped this meant that they thought the wait might have changed for the better, but it took us pretty much spot-on 25 minutes before we got into the boat. It was, however, interesting to find out what the cards were for. I'm surprised that I didn't know about it before because we've made our share of Disney trips, but it was interesting to learn something new about the parks and how they work.

This daylight ride on the Jungle Cruise is rare for us, as we usually wait until it's dark before we go on the particular attraction. This did afford me the opportunity to take a few non-flash pictures of the various scenes, and I even got a fairly good shot of my favorite part of the ride:

I would like to mention that it does seem, from the very small sample size of our two recent Jungle Cruise rides, that the spiels have been toned down/homogenized a bit as of late. I hope it was just pure chance that we got two skippers who gave extraordinarily similar, sorta bland spiels, but given the rumors we've seen on the DIS boards that there has been some sort of crackdown on unique jokes done by individual skippers, it seemed to me as though that rumor was true. Not something I'm happy about if so.

Considering how short the queue for Pirates of the Caribbean seems to be most of the time these days, it would seem like a crime to me if we didn't stop by and ride again as long as we were so close, so that was the next thing we did. Captain Jack Sparrow was out speaking to the people as we walked to the entrance, but it seemed that he was wrapping up and we got into line before the other 100-150 people or so who were there were suddenly free and ready to ride ahead of us.

Our pirate visit complete, we headed for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to get fastpasses, but when we got there, the standby line was only posted at 10 minutes. We grabbed some fastpasses for later (which, unfortunately, we didn't use, but we did give them away on the way out of the park to the first group of two people that we saw) and rode via the standby line. I missed seeing the shadows of the party in the building about halfway through the ride (not visible in the daytime) but we had our usual good time on the ride.

We then headed through Liberty Square on the way to Fantasyland and happened to catch a chunk of Tiana's Riverboat Jubilee. It is a fun little show, though it was kind of difficult to find anywhere to stand where my daughter could see since we were late arrivals. Not that it isn't fair that the people who waited got the good spots, but it did mean that we didn't stay for much more than one song before we moved on.

We hit it's a small world on the way into Fantasyland, and I finally remembered to take a picture of the opening backdrop for my daughter. She absolutely loves this ride and I think I will blow this picture up and put it up in her room for her to look at. I refuse to acknowledge the possibility that she will grow out of her love for the ride, so I anticipate it being up there for awhile to come. (Of course, if she wants it taken down when she grows up...sniff...I'll be a good mom and only argue with her for a minute or two before I help her take it down.)

From there, we took another ride on the Mad Hatter's Tea Party on the way into Toontown. Then, after two trips on the Barnstormer, we peeked again at the Fairy and Princess lines in the Hall of Fame building. The Fairy line was ridiculous, listed at 45 minutes and the cast member outside said it was probably more like an hour. (Honestly, the only time to see Tink without a huge wait is to get there at Toontown rope drop or luck out with your timing and then only wait 20 minutes or so. I know this, I just kept hoping to be lucky.)

We did wait for the Princesses for a bit as their wait was only listed at 15 minutes, but after we'd moved up about three places in line after a good 20 minute wait, I was ready to call BS on the wait that had been listed when we went in. Sure enough, when I told my daughter that we would be seeing lots of princesses at her birthday dinner the next night (Akershus at Epcot) and that we should just go ahead and leave the line, the wait was listed at 30 minutes. I should have told them that even 30 minutes had to be wrong, because I couldn't see how we would have suddenly moved up the other 20 or so spaces in line ahead of us in 10 minutes, but I'm sure they got the listed wait time right eventually.

My daughter was starting to look a little tired despite our sleeping in that morning, so we boarded the train at Toontown station (there was one there that we walked on, a very non-typical display of lucky timing for me!) to Main Street station. I was thinking of checking in on Santa Claus and then heading for the bus back to POR.

After getting off the train, there were about eight parties ahead of us in line for Santa Claus, but the cast member told me that they'd just started back up after a break and there shouldn't be another one before he was able to see us if we got in line right then. We waited through the line and my daughter befriended the kids ahead of us and then another one behind us, which really helped her to pass the time without getting bored.

The Santa there was just fabulous. There might be a picture of him next to “Santa Claus” in the dictionary. He was, if you'll pardon the stereotype, very jolly and gentle, and he really took his time. The photographer took lots of pictures and got several that I just LOVE. (Which is good, because mine were not so great.)

and the Santa gave my daughter some candy canes for us to share. She ended up bringing one home for her dad and it made it all the way back with us without breaking, though I have no idea how we managed that.

After waving goodbye to Santa we left the park, and I suddenly realized as I was going through the turnstile exit that this was probably my last visit to the Magic Kingdom until our trip in 2010, as we had other parks planned for our last day before we were due to fly home. I turned around one more time after going through the exit to get one last look and then we headed to the bus stop.

We were hungry when we got back to the resort and I decided to go to Riverside Mill and get some food to take back to the room. They also had the pin board out there when we were there and we made a few trades. We had a few trader pins with us but we hadn't been doing a lot of trading to that point. In fact, I think that was the only trade we ended up making. It wasn't that we don't enjoy pin trading, but it always seems simpler to manage the details when my husband is there too. I can't think of another reason why we didn't make more trades.

I would like to note here again that Riverside Mill is a great resort food court. Big, with lots of choices and plenty of seating. We grabbed some fruit and some fresh bread (and also got some not-quite-as-healthy chicken tenders to share) and headed back to the room to eat.

After our meal, my daughter slept for about an hour before she was ready to go again, and then we headed for Epcot. There was a MVMCP going on that night at the Magic Kingdom and we didn't have tickets (and I was trying to keep costs down, so buying them last-minute wasn't really an option I was considering.) Animal Kingdom was going to close about an hour from when we could probably get back to any of the parks, Hollywood Studios only had either one or two hours before closing time (can't remember now) but Epcot would be open the latest of all of the parks, so our choice was clear. Back to Epcot it was.

We entered the park and my daughter (who, I'll remind you, thinks you have to ride Spaceship Earth first because she's seen the map and it has a big number one printed on it) announced that we had to ride “the big Epcot ball”. So, off to listen to Judi Dench for us. I finally got us set up in the car before you get your picture taken this time, and we got more than the top half of my daughter's head in the cartoon at the end of the ride. I looked just as wackily goofy in my picture as I always do on Spaceship Earth. Curse you, face recognition software.

The standby line for Test Track was quite long, and so was Soarin's line. Test Track still had some near-future fastpasses left, and Soarin's were, at this point in the day, for just before closing time. I also hate fighting through the building at the Land pavilion to get to the fastpass machines, and my daughter would rather ride Test Track anyway, so we went and got a pair of TT fastpasses.

She had asked me earlier that day for a burrito (something she has for lunch about once a week when we're at home) so I started us toward Mexico to see what the CS location there had to offer. Sadly, the only burrito-ish item on that menu isn't something my daughter would probably recognize as a burrito or enjoy eating, she got the kid's quesadilla instead. I honestly cannot remember AT ALL what I got for myself. This meal was pretty forgettable, unfortunately, though I don't remember it being bad or feeling hungry for the rest of the night.

As long as we were in Mexico, I decided to take us into the building to ride the Gran Fiesta Tour, mostly because my daughter really loves Donald. The ride was just as we remembered it from our last visit and my daughter was pleased to see Donald for a few minutes on the screens there.

We started back to Test Track to use our fastpasses. We were now inside the fastpass window, which also meant we were free to get another fastpass, so we got two more Test Track fastpasses (I was anticipating being asked by my daughter to ride it again after our first ride of the evening) and then we went through a longer-than-normal fastpass line for the ride, and then after we'd been sorted into a loading area before the briefing room, the ride broke down.

We were in loading area one, so we could see a car motionless on the part of the track that you can see from there, the small portion of track after you re-enter the ride building and before you get to the disembarking area. We waited about 15 minutes, during which time about half of the people in the loading areas left via the exit door in that part of the building. I was about to bail as well when I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye, and I saw cars starting to move again on the part of the track we could see. Sure enough, there was an announcement made a few seconds later that the ride was functioning normally and we would all be moving again soon.

We rode Test Track (with no problems) and, of course, my daughter asked to ride it again after we got out. I was glad to have the second pair of fastpasses, and with the time we'd waited through the ride breakdown, we were actually inside the time window for those new fastpasses at that point. We got right back on the ride.

This time, we were actually stopped for a minute or two three times over the course of the ride, and some of the things were out of sync. Thankfully, my daughter's favorite part (the fast section outside, after the collision test) ran like clockwork and she was more than happy with the ride.

We crossed over to the Seas to visit Nemo and Crush again at this point. We had a very lackluster group in Turtle Talk with Crush and I got to see how Crush handles things when the kids chosen aren't very talkative and don't answer his questions the way they usually do. It is a little different experience in that case, but, like I said, interesting to see something different.

We grabbed another PhotoPass photographer on our way out of the park (I was really glad at this point that I'd pre-ordered, because I didn't feel as pressured to get a lot of pictures with the scenery or the characters in the parks, and being the only adult on the trip, that was a load off my mind.) Got a few pictures at the front of the park with the Christmas character topiaries in the planter there, and headed back to the room.

We actually left a little early that night (not right at closing, anyway) but I wanted to make sure we were well-rested for the next day. December 2 would be my daughter's fourth birthday, and it's not every day you turn four years old. (It is, in fact, only that one unique day that you turn four, come to think of it.)

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Very good trip report and your daughter is just darling!

 

[Phillygrl23]

Im glad your daughter likes all those rides (BTM, Test Track)...I am still trying to get my 17 year old younger sister to ride them (she is a big baby!).

I LOVE Port Orleans Riverside. My fiance and I always end up going back there. I love everything but the busses!

 

[Tinkh]

The outfits you made your daughter are so cute! What an amazing trip so far the two of you sound like you had an amazing time. Can't wait to hear the rest.

 

[kathyell]

12/2/2009, aka my B's fourth birthday, aka four years after the morning my B decided she was going to make her first appearance a couple of weeks early:

So, the night before, I saw that there was a 40% chance of rain in the forecast for the morning and afternoon of the 2nd and then a 70% chance of rain for the evening. We had kicked around the idea of going to Animal Kingdom for the morning and early afternoon, but there's so few places to get in out of the rain at Animal Kingdom. I thought that having a little more time at Hollywood Studios might be good, especially since I changed my plans from DHS to AK earlier in the trip and we hadn't spent much time at DHS. As it turns out, it didn't rain that morning or afternoon and only rained for about 15 minutes that evening, but I had left my crystal ball at home and had no way of knowing when and where the rain would strike.

We slept in a little again and headed for DHS via bus when we were ready. The first order of business for the day was to stop by the Will Call with my daughter's birth certificate to get her a Birthday Fun Card. I had considered the fastpass card (but since we tend to spend only half days at each park, I wasn't sure how useful it would really be) but I thought the fun card was the better option for our situation. My daughter had been wanting to buy some of the neat things she'd seen in the stores all week and the fun card would be a great way to let her have a little fun shopping for things she really wanted.

No trouble at all getting the Fun Card, just a tiny little wait at the Will Call window. The card safely tucked into my wallet, we went into the park.

I didn't know what the Toy Story Mania fastpass situation was going to be, but I decided we should go and see if they were being dispensed for a time we could use. After we walked back to Pixar Place, the fastpass return times being given out were 2:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m., which sounded perfect if we wanted to ride TSM just before we left the park. (Those were the fastpass return times at around 10:00 a.m. that day, just to give you an idea of the crowd levels, which weren't bad at all.) I got our FPs and we were then so close to the animation building that it seemed like a perfect time to check out Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey and then the Playhouse Disney character signing area too.

The Mickey line wasn't bad, so we saw him in his sorcerer garb.

We also played on the coloring machines for a bit. I wish they'd double or triple the number of those stations. There's always a lot of kids milling around those and the general impatience level around there is pretty palpable. When we'd colored in Thumper, we went outside to see who was outside representing Playhouse Disney.

Leo and Annie were out to entertain the young fans of Little Einsteins, so we waited through that line and saw them. I was surprised to see PhotoPass photographers there, though. I could have sworn when we saw some characters there this past August, there were no PhotoPass photographers on duty there.

After we saw Leo and Annie, Handy Manny still wasn't out. JoJo's Circus characters were out, and while I'm sure they're lovely, my daughter has never seen the show and I didn't see the point of waiting through the line.

We headed out to the Sorcerer Hat area to see if there were characters out there and there were, and several of them, too! Goofy and Donald were both out on opposite sides of the hat. Also, Chip and Dale came out just as we were passing by the area where they sign and we were second in line for them. They were fun, as they usually are (Chip and Dale always seem to have such fun with the kids and with each other, or at least that's been my experience) and my daughter seemed to have a good time with them.

We also saw Donald after that, as his line was oddly short. People were lined up like crazy for Goofy (who was closer to the stairway leading to/from the animation area and Pixar Place, and the increased traffic over there probably accounts for the length of his line) but Donald's line was a little anemic. We saw Donald after only a few minutes of waiting.

After grabbing a yummy ice cream snack from one of the carts in that area, we went to see if Handy Manny was out. And he was! This was pretty big for us, as we've been trying to get his autograph for two trips before this and we always seemed to miss him. I asked the Cast Member if she thought that he would still be there when we reached the front of the line and she told me he still had plenty of time left, and we set about waiting our turn. Handy Manny was great, and I was so happy that we finally found him for an autograph that I forgot to take any pictures! I had the PP photographer backing me up, thank goodness, but I just zoned out and didn't get a single shot on my own camera.

It then occurred to me that we have been neglecting the Sunset Boulevard area of the park on our recent trips. I've meant to get to the Beauty and the Beast stage show before and never managed it, and I had explained what Tower of Terror is like to my daughter the night before, and she declared that she wanted to try it. It is nearly impossible to scare my kid inside Walt Disney World, but she doesn't mind pretending she's scared in a picture or two:

We started up the stairs to the Beauty and the Beast stage and I heard some music starting up as we were getting to the seating area. We walked in just as the show was starting and found some seating on an aisle near the top. I let my daughter sit on my lap so she could see and we had a great time. That really is an enjoyable show, and well done to all the performers in it.

Then, since it's so close, we checked out Tower of Terror. I found a little amusement in the posted wait time on our way in:

Spooky!

I'd say the wait time was just about right, and before we knew it, we were being loaded into our elevator. B and I shared a row with a lovely lady who hadn't been on Tower of Terror for a few years, but she seemed up for the challenge. I assured her that my daughter would almost certainly not freak out or anything like that, and we ended up having a great time in our little row talking until the ride got moving and then again after we were done.

(Aside: As I was sitting here writing my trip report, my mail came and I got my PhotoPass CD today!)

I'm not sure my daughter really “got” any of the pre-drop stuff, though she did lean over and tell me the ghosts were just pretend. Then our series of drops started, and boy, did we have a lot of really long drops. I'd say either six or seven sizable drops. I heard several people talking as we were disembarking our elevator car, saying that they'd been on the ride earlier in the day but this was a much more intense series of drops than their first ride of the day. My daughter fared just fine during the drops, a fact I am 100% sure of because she giggled quite delightedly next to me as we went up and down.

We left the ride and were dumped into the gift shop, and she spied a small Goofy stuffed toy, and Goofy was dressed in the hotel uniform for the Hollywood Tower Hotel. She asked to buy it, and after I made sure she really wanted to spend some of her birthday money on it, I held her up so she could pick one out and we made our way to the cashier to use her Birthday Fun Card for the first time. Went through without a hitch, the receipt told me how much was left on the card (very helpful that they do that!) and we moved on.

After this, we were quite hungry and we decided to stop at Fairfax Fare, right on the corner outside Tower of Terror. I got a big barbeque combo plate (the ribs and chicken) and it was more than enough for both of us to share. It was rather good, actually, my daughter ate more than her share of the sides, and I rested my feet for a few minutes.

As we were getting up from our umbrella table, some cast members were coming through and zip-tying all of the umbrellas closed on the tables. I'd seen something about possible high winds when I'd checked the weather forecast on my phone to see what the chance of rain was, and it appeared that the winds would be kicking up enough to be a concern to things like umbrellas and the like. I noticed a few other things tied down over the rest of that day and the next morning before we flew home. Nice to know that Disney is on the ball and making sure things are tied down and can't cause an injury to anyone.

We headed from there over to Luigi's Garage to see Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars. Cars was one of the first Disney/Pixar movies that my daughter ever saw and she has a very soft spot for the characters from that movie still.

From there, I decided we should check out the Backlot Tour. I haven't been on the Backlot Tour for a long, long time, not since before they installed Lights, Motors, Action and shortened the tour. I wanted to see what it was like after the changes, and after days of walking in the parks, a chance to sit down for a bit didn't seem like a horrible idea, either.

I liked the “new” (to me) Backlot Tour just fine, though I do absolutely remember it being longer when I rode it not long after Hollywood Studios opened. I loved seeing the wardrobe department in particular, I just wished I could get out and check that place out up close and personal!

On the way off of the Backlot Tour, we ran into the tucked-away place where Mike and Sulley from Monsters, Inc. do their greetings. I'd never found it on our earlier trips, and it is pretty hard to stumble upon unless you do the Backlot Tour. I found my way around to the entrance and we waited our turn for the guys to come on out. They were totally worth it, as my daughter loves Monsters, Inc. as well and she was quite starstruck to see them in person.

Now, at long last, it was nearing our fastpass window for Toy Story Mania. We had about five minutes to wait once we got there, so we tucked ourselves away and watched the clock, coming forward on the dot of 2:15 p.m. and got in the fastpass return line. This is where I remembered that the fastpass line for TSM is still pretty long (by our line-avoiding standards, anyway) but at least there are some fun things to look at. I'd love to have one of these Viewmaster disks:

We did eventually reach the front of the line and we were loaded into our ride vehicle. I spent most of the test screen (where you throw the pies at Buzz and Woody) explaining to my daughter what to do, but she glommed on pretty quick. She shot and shot at the targets after that, though I think she likes the herky-jerky ride from screen to screen more than the actual game part of the ride. I got a truly pathetic score (by my own reckoning, but I do a lot better at the home version of the game on my Wii!) and we left the ride.

On the way out of Pixar Place, she saw a playset of vinyl “guys” from Monsters, Inc. and she asked to use her fun card again. I told her how much they cost and how much she'd have left after that to make sure she wanted them, and she decided it was worth it to buy them. (They weren't bad, six figures for $11.50, I think? Less than $2 per guy.)

We then headed for the exit so we could be well rested for the evening. We had a birthday dinner at Akershus on the docket and we were also hoping to finish there in time to get out for Illuminations. We got back to the room and my daughter found herself in a fairly deep sleep not too long after I closed the door behind us.

She was pretty tired and slept a long time, so I did a little mental arithmetic and decided it would probably be better to stick to something with a predictably short wait, like Spaceship Earth or the Seas pavilion attractions rather than try to squeeze in a ride on Test Track or something like that. I didn't want to chance being late for our 8:20 p.m. reservation at Akershus. I woke her around 6:00 p.m. after she'd had a good, long rest and we headed for the bus stop after she got into her blue Belle “provincial” outfit.

We just missed an Epcot bus before we got to the bus stop, and there was a bit of a longer than usual wait for the next one. I didn't really have a chance to check the time again until after we were in the park, but when I pulled out my phone to check the time after my daughter asked to start with Spaceship Earth (natually, because it has a big number 1 on it on the map) it was just before 7:00 p.m.

Considering that we should be checking in at Akershus up in Norway right around 8:00 p.m., I figured the best thing to do would be to head to the Seas pavilion to ride the Nemo ride and then look around at all of the aquatic displays, something we really hadn't taken the time to do yet on this trip.

Nemo was fine, as always (it's a big, blue world) and looking at the underwater exhibits was great. My daughter, like most small children, really loves animals of all shapes and sizes and she asked me about a million questions about all of the displays we saw there.

Around 7:40, I decided we should start walking for Norway so we wouldn't have to jog or anything like that to make it there at 8:00 p.m. We ran into a PhotoPass photographer on the way and I asked him to take a picture of my daughter with the enormous Epcot Christmas tree, and I was hoping it wouldn't make us late.

(As you can see, I'd broken down and bought her a light toy from one of those carts. She'd been asking for one all week, I'd forgotten to pack the light bracelets I'd bought at Michaels months before our trip, and it was her birthday and I was feeling a bit soft and let her pick one out.)

I guess I timed it about right even with the quickie photo session, because we checked in a couple of minutes before 8:00 p.m. at Akershus. We were called really quickly for our table, maybe the third or fourth party called after we arrived at the check-in area. We got our picture with Belle in the royal room and then were seated at our table.

I know it's silly, but I'd been hoping for the same Belle as the last time we went to Akershus back in August. That night in August, we'd been seated across from the royal room and we got some extra time with (the very wonderful and in-character) Belle during our dinner. It was a different, but still lovely Belle this time.

We enjoyed meeting all of the princesses and I got the chicken with vegetable risotto that I'd enjoyed so much the first time we went there, and it was just as good as I remembered. There's also a chicken choice on the kid's meal there, and my daughter tore into it.

I'd pre-ordered the Princess birthday cake that comes in the little pink treasure chest and (after having to remind the waitress about it even though I'd double-checked at the podium when we checked in) the birthday cake was delivered with a candle for my B to blow out, along with a birthday card signed by all of the princesses who appear at Akershus. My daughter really liked this, though neither she nor I were big fans of the cake itself. I paid with my Disney Rewards Card. After paying for Akershus, it had about $7 left on it for our last meal (we were planning to eat lunch in the food court at Riverside before we got on the Magical Express the next day) from our original balance of $175. Not bad, really. We ended up paying about $5 out of pocket for meals over the course of the trip.

We finished up and gathered our things, getting outside just as an announcement was being made that Illuminations would be starting in 10 minutes. We pulled up a little curb right outside Akershus (so we did miss some of the stuff that happens near the surface of the water, but we could see the fireworks just fine) and ended up there with another family with a little girl. This girl was dressed as Snow White and was friendly and cute as a button! She and my B played and watched the fireworks together, and I think we all had a great time!

It did start to rain during Illuminations, but I had my daughter's Minnie Mouse raincoat in my backpack and I put a disposable poncho over my head and another one covering my lap so my pants wouldn't get too wet. The fireworks continued through the rain and both of the girls seemed to do just fine. The rain actually cleared up right near the end of the fireworks and we were able to walk out of the park without being rained on any further.

We waited a long time at the Riverside bus stop again, as we'd left with a big crowd after Illuminations. I waited one extra bus again so we could get a seat to share (it was only an extra five minutes) and we made it back to the hotel still with some energy to spare. (She'd had quite a long nap.) We decided to shop in the Riverside gift shop to see about spending more of her birthday fun card.

She found a Minnie Mouse kit with a figurine and lots of outfits, shoes, and accessories you can add to her, and decided she wanted that. She also had been eying the charm bracelets and necklaces, so I did a little mental arithmetic and told her how many charms I thought she could get, plus a bracelet, on what was left on her card. I had a little thrill of personal pride that when we were rung up, I owed 11 cents more than what was left on her fun card. How's that for doing math in your head accurately?

Then we made our way back to the room and my daughter sat on her bed talking to me about what we'd done on her birthday while I did a little bit of packing, as we were due to leave the next day. I didn't want to do all of it the next morning, so I packed everything I wouldn't need the next morning and then we both went to sleep.

It would be sad to leave the next day, but it had been such a good trip that I didn't feel too unhappy about it, or having feelings of things being unfinished or incomplete. Sure, we hadn't done everything there is to do in all four parks, but we'd had a good time, she'd never had a tantrum the entire time, and we'd had a lot of fun celebrating her birthday. I was so glad I'd decided to take this celebration trip with my girl, but even more glad that I hadn't been too scared to do it on my own.

Well, there'll be one more post, I think, of the things we did on our departure day. Thanks for reading! (And hi there, Stitch! Good to see you here. )