Magical Trip to PO & AKL - Day 4

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100 Years of Magic Trip Diary: May 3 – May 10, 2002

Cast:
Lisa – 30 something, Disney World Obsessed Mom and Wife; trip planning junkie who’s afraid of heights
Chuck – 30 something, Disney World Lover; Spouse and Dad
Kayla – 2 wks shy of being 5 yr old; adorable “princess” daughter who loves Disney World

Day 4: (Magic Kingdom and Epcot)

We arrived at MK and got our stroller and walked into the park as it was opening. Our goal was to head straight to Dumbo and ride it first. I know the lines can get pretty backed up so we decided to hit it early. While Kayla and I were in line, Chuck walked over to the Pooh ride to get our fast passes. We loved flying with Dumbo and seeing Fantasyland and the castle during our flight. Afterward, we had a brief stop to look at the water near Ariel’s Grotto. Like I said in the previous post, this kid loves fountains and any size body of water. After some brief convincing, we headed to the Carousel and Kayla and her Daddy had a nice ride. We stopped and took Kayla’s photo trying to pull the sword out of the stone since it’s right in front of the carousel. Then, we were off to Peter Pan and It’s a Small World. Since it was still early, the stand by lines were under 10 minutes for both of these rides. These are 2 of my personal favorites. I have memories of riding them when I was a child. Kayla enjoyed them both. My magic pin lit up at certain points during both of these rides. I tell you, I got the biggest kick out of that pin. Kayla decided against Snow White. I had told her about the witch that pops up in this ride. Next stop was the fast pass entrance for the Pooh ride. This is another ride that our family loves. Kayla was excited when the CM told her that our honey pot was going to bounce like Tigger. I love the effects in this ride, like the wind on the windy day.

Time for Cinderella’s Surprise Celebration. We headed to the front of the castle for the 10 am show. We got there about 10 minutes before and it seems that there is really quite a bit of room for a large crowd to congregate. Every spot seemed to be pretty decent for viewing. What a wonderful show!!! It’s so neat because it’s right in front of the castle and there are such a good variety of characters. My favorite part was with Snow White, Cinderella and Belle and their princes. Kayla has not stopped talking about this show since she came back, especially Donald and his little incident. There is a part of the show that Donald opens a present that the queen left despite the audience telling him not to do it.

After the show, we headed to Frontierland to get our fast passes for Splash Mountain. Next stop was Pecos Bills for an early lunch while we were waiting for our fast pass return time. I like Pecos Bills. I think the food is pretty tasty and there’s a nice variety. I had a chicken wrap sandwich with a small bag of mini carrots.

Well, it was now time for the big plunge. I’d been trying to prepare myself for this because of my fear of heights. It was really wise for me that we did fast pass. While I was eating lunch, I really wasn’t thinking about the ride too much. Then, we just walked right on. No time to really get too uptight about it. Of course, we were in the first row of the boat. It was ok though, I had my plan…I just kept doing my deep breathing during the ride. I enjoyed the theme with Brer Rabbit. Really, really cute stuff. Kayla was so excited to be doing this ride. When it came time for the big drop, I remembered a trick I think I read on this board. Close your eyes for the drop and you won’t feel the sensation as much. So, right after our little boat peaked out of the mountain and we saw the castle, I closed my peepers. WHOA!!!!!! It was fun and it really wasn’t that bad. Kayla loved it. She was so happy! My little daredevil. She did not inherit that from me (probably her daddy). After the ride, Chuck told me he was really proud of me for riding Splash Mountain. He knows I'm a big chicken. We had to buy the souvenir photo. It had turned out really cute.

Our next stop was Toon Town. We cruised from Frontierland, through the now very crowded Fantasyland. We toured Mickey and Minnie’s houses. These little houses get pretty packed with people. There are some cute photo opportunities if you get the chance. Kayla really had fun with Minnie’s stove in her kitchen. I believe there’s a cake that bakes in the oven. I couldn’t really get over there to see up close which was fine because all the kids were lined up by the stove watching with these precious looks on their faces.

All of a sudden, we all felt a little tired and hot. So, it’s kinda neat what happened next. We walked over to the train and rode it around the entire park. It’s fun and relaxing and you get a chance to sit down for awhile. After that, we walked into Tomorrowland and walked on to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. I love this ride. Another, slow, relaxing ride that you can cool off on. So, we had a great little rest. At this point, it was time to camp out for the parade. As were walking from Tomorrowland to Main Street, Kayla dozed off in her stroller. She ended up taking an almost 45 min snooze. We found a spot near the Main Street Cinema. It was the side closer to the castle. I had seen a little tree with what seemed like shade. I would say that this was the hottest I felt during our trip. The ice cream and water helped keep us cool. Kayla woke up just in time. We all enjoyed the parade but the best part for us came when the float with the princesses stopped in front of us. The pink fairy came over and motioned to Kayla and another little girl to join her. She grabbed them by the hands and took them to see the princesses up close. Then she danced with them and twirled them around. Kayla was so happy! Another bit of Disney magic and we captured it on both the cameras. We sure have been lucky with these parades. We bought Kayla her double sided Mickey/Minnie balloon right after the parade. She was so excited and kept kissing Minnie and then Mickey over and over.

We went back to PO for rest and food. Then it was off to Epcot for that evenings activities. The security guard at the gate gave Kayla some neat Disney security badge stickers. Kayla was in heaven with all the water of course. We saw Honey I Shrunk the Audience. The effects are really incredible just like everyone says. Kayla liked it. I covered her ears for the loud noises and she sat in my lap and missed some of the effects. She enjoyed it especially because she had just seen Honey I Blew Up the Kid on video a few weeks before our trip. After that, we went to the Children’s Garden which is kind of near Germany if I remember correctly. This was a nice surprise. It really turned out to be a great little spot to visit. The topiaries are stunning…especially the one of Belle and the Beast. Kayla had a blast climbing on the play equipment and I got some great photos. Then we were off to the American Pavilion. We saw the American Adventure show. The animatronics are really lifelike in this show. Kayla, unfortunately, did not care for it as much as we did. For her, it was too lengthy and not enough excitement. I had kind of expected that but Chuck and I had both really wanted to see it. She was pretty good during the show. After that, Kayla stopped at the Kidcot station there. The CM gave her a mask and she started to decorate it. The CM explained that the star that is attached to the mask has a circle inside. Kayla can make a wish, share her dream and give it to the dreamcatchers who lead the Tapestry of Dreams parade. I thought this was such a neat idea. We just kicked back and watched her decorate her mask with the other kids. We knew we would be seeing the parade the next evening so we kept the mask and brought it back to Epcot the next night. We tried to get to Spaceship Earth before it closed at 9 but we were too late. We hopped the bus back to the resort and beat the big crowd that was still in the park for Illuminations. After our nightly swim, we packed up the room since we’d be switching to Animal Kingdom Lodge the very next day.
 
Sounds like a perfect day you all had - thanks for posting!
 
Your trip reports are so much fun to read...there are so many simularities to the one we're planning for October. 1st night Hampton Inn by the MCO, split stay with moderate/AKL.....we're doing that too! I was happy to hear Hampton Inn is clean and an okay place to land for the night. Are there any breakfast spots close enough for walking for the next morning? Or is offerings at the Hampton good/plenty?

Your DD sounds so sweet....just having a ball and loving it all! Can't wait to read the rest!
 
Thanks jennymouse! It's been fun writing the reports. I can't wait to write about our stay at AKL. I hope to have the next part up real soon.

I didn't notice many restaurants right next to the Hampton Inn, but I'm sure there's a decent selection within a mile or so. There's a lot of development around the area. The breakfast selections at Hampton included: toast, bagels, various fresh fruit, chocolate, blueberry and lemon poppyseed mini muffins, a good selection of cold cereal, croissants, danish, donuts and other breakfast pastries, juice, milk, coffee, hot cocoa.

The breakfast filled us up. It really worked out nicely for us. I'm not sure if you've ever stayed at a La Quinta, but the breakfast at Hampton Inn was a lot better. :)
 

The breakfast at Hampton Inn sounds like it would be enough for us! I can go down and bring some up to the room while the girls are getting ready. Can't wait to hear how you liked the AKL!
 
Kayla sounds like such a sweetie!


Thanks for posting your report.



tamie
 
Thanks for posting. Sounds like another fun day!
 














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