March 2006 Trip: Day 1 - 4 w/ Photos

[mansionterror]

I originally posted this trip report as one whole document w/o pictures right after we returned. I am now able to post the pictures so I posting each day separately. ENJOY!


March 4th: We (James, Colby and I) got up about 4:00 A.M. on Saturday morning to head out. We packed the last few items we needed, said goodbye to the animals and Mom and headed out on the road. We rented a SUV (Kia Sorrento) and although it cost nearly $400 it was so worth it for the extra space. We took our time going down to Florida stopping when needed. We made sure to make a stop at the BRAND NEW Florida Welcome Center for OJ and pictures and to let Colby run off some energy. Due to some crazy road construction we finally checked in at about 6:30 P.M. We stayed at the Palms Villas and Suites and this was perfect for us…we were literally 5 minutes from all Disney parks, had a kitchen and the pool was heated. It was perfect.

March 5th: We got up early for breakfast in the Hotel Lobby…pretty good breakfast, no complaints and then headed out for our 1-hour drive and $6 worth of tolls to Cocoa Beach. This was a pretty nice beach (paid $7 to park) and spent roughly 2 hours there…Colby was a bit scared so not too much time spent in the water. After this we headed out towards the Cape to see the cruise ships. We went back to the hotel to swim…Colby loved that and get to bed early for our first day at the parks.

On to day 2...

 

[mansionterror]

March 6th: Got up at 7:00 to get breakfast and be at Animal Kingdom by park opening at 9:00. Headed straight over to Asia to ride Everest. A really nice Cast Member put any worries I had about not being able to ride due to my Pooh Size to ease fairly quickly. I got in the 20-minute standby line while James and Colby waited with the child swap pass. I had no problems at all fitting the seat for this ride, the ride bars appear to have several lock positions and I was very comfortable. Oh my this is now on my favorite list. This coaster is AWESOME!!! I have never screamed so loudly in my life. Two big thumbs up!! After James took his turn we then headed over to Africa to ride the safari…but not before stopping to see Baloo and King Louie! Colby LOVED the safari it was hard to keep him seated, we got the back seat all too ourselves which gave me lots of room for photos. Next we headed over to Dinoland so that Colby and James could ride triceratops spin. At this point we were about finished so we headed back to Discovery Island and looked up a photo pass photographer for our family photo. On the way out we noticed that the rope was dropped for the character meeting and Discovery Cove. We were very excited to meet Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger.

We then headed out and on to Epcot. We spent the rest of the day at Epcot because we could ride most things here as a family. We rode Spaceship Earth and then stopped at the Electric Umbrella for lunch. After lunch we rode Figment hit the land and rode Living with the Land, took turns on Soarin (neat ride but one I will probably skip on the next trip…not sure I get the hype). We then headed over to the Living Seas for Turtle Talk and then looked around the attraction. We left close to park closing.

Coming up day 3:

 

[mansionterror]

March 7th: Magic Kingdom was the only thing on the agenda today. We started out the morning badly as Colby was overly excited to pose with the statue of Goofy and ended up falling and banging his Knee up pretty good. We took a trip to first aid for cleaning up and a band-aid and headed back into the park. We got our family photos in front of the castle…skipped the meetngreet before main street as Colby was not in a good mood and headed on over to fantasy land. We learned very quickly that Colby is still too young for shows. Philharmagic scared him to pieces. We hit the carousel, dumbo, small world (looks beautiful since the rehab), got fast passes for pooh and went on Peter Pan (40 minute wait the whole time we was there) and then went on pooh. We grabbed some lunch at Cosmic Ray’s and then headed on into Tomorrow Land. I hit Space Mountain while James and Colby shared an ice cream, Colby was asleep when I came out so we rode the transit authority. We then did Carousel of progress and then Buzz Light year. The lines really seem to slow down in MK during the afternoon. We headed over to Liberty Square for Haunted Mansion. I tried to find the wedding ring on the way out and no luck…I did see the hidden Mickey in the banquet scene. We then headed over to Adventure land for the Jungle Cruise and the carpets. We walked though the tree house and then caught the last Cinderellabration for the day.

Day 4 coming up: Pay no mind to the Jan 2005 date on the photos...changed the batteries and forgot to edit my date.

 

[mansionterror]

March 8th: Our last DW day. We started the morning at MGM and may what a lucky morning we had. We headed straight over to the hat to look for characters…they were everywhere but we decided to start out in the line for Mickey and Pluto…halfway there they took a break and out came Minnie…we stayed in her line and met Minnie. We then headed over to meet Chip and Dale. We then headed towards TOT and RcRC. James decided to do the standby line for RcRc while I took Colby with me to get fast passes for Tower. When James came off (his newest favorite ride at Disney) we child swapped and I took my turn with Aerosmith. Again I had no problem with fitting on this ride…it was a bit difficult to get up out of that thing but I had no problems with being comfortable. GREAT Ride…. James chickened out on Tower so I took my turn with the fast pass and he gave his away. I LOVE TOT4…matter of fact I was smiling in my picture! :O) Afterwards we attempted to catch playhouse Disney but a show was about to end so we decided to go on the Great Movie Ride while we waited…turns out that took longer then expected and we missed another show. It worked out in the end because a Cast member told us that Mickey was on Mickey Avenue…we headed over and met Donald on the street. We saw a marquee that advertised Mickey and we headed over to see if he was in…I HIGHLY recommend looking for Mickey here…there was no-one waiting to see Mickey and we got to take our time with him. He was dressed as Sorcerer Mickey and was in front of the fantasia backdrop. It was truly magical!! We headed back out onto Mickey Avenue and met JoJo and Goliath from JoJo’s circus.

We then left MGM and headed back over to MK to catch all the rides we missed the day before. We got to MK at around 2:30 and grabbed a spot on Main Street for the Share a Dream Come True parade. While we waited, I got to get up and hoolahoop and we were serenaded by a barbershop quartet. The parade was beautiful and Colby loved it! At the character meeting we got to meet Goofy. We land jumped to grab everything we had missed…Big Thunder Mountain, Snow White, we did Haunted Mansion, Carpets, Carousel again. We then headed over to Toontown and got to meet Pluto. We headed back to the hotel for dinner and one last swim in the pool before packing our bags for home.

 

[TLinden16]

Great pictures (I remember reading your trip report before). Colby is adorable!

Thanks for posting.

 

[mansionterror]

Thank You! He is the light of our lives!!

 

[stitchesmom]

I loved your report andthe photos are wonderful. Thanks for sharing.
Your son is soooo cute!!!!!
and the photo of the castle is great.

 

[mansionterror]

Thank you...the castle picture is one of my favorites...kinda looks like a post card.

 

[cabowser]

I loved the photos. Esp. that one of the Dapper Dans. Now that they are offfically no more, keep that photo safe. Sad.

 

[silverangel879]

Great Photos!!!!! Glad you had tons of fun!!!.....Your son IS cute!!

 

[disneyfamilyof5]

Great photos. Your son is soooo adorable!!!

 

[mansionterror]

On no..what happened to them? I really enjoyed having them sing for me. I was wearing an IRISH shirt that day and they did several jokes and a song because of it. That really makes me sad!!

 

[Joann]

Great report love the pictures!! I agree your son is soooooo cute!

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your report ~ Thanx for sharing.

Lovely piccies.

 

[averill94]

Thanks for posting and with the awesome pictures. You have a beautiful family and Colby is SUPER cute! The pictures are wonderful.

 

[pumba]

fantastic report and the photos with the background are just great. Your colors were awesome.......thanks so much for letting us visit with you and your son of many hats. I loved them all.......thanks again

 

[mansionterror]

Thanks again everyone!! I can't begin to tell you how much I love the dis boards. I really enjoy reading everyone else's reports and was happy to finally be able to post pics with mine. Looking forward to next year!!

I really love having a digital camera. Seems like I was able to catch much better shots this year then years past.

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

thanks for sharing your trip report! what an adorable little boy u have there. reminds me of when my ds was that small. :O( He turned 5 today, so i am feeling a little sentimental. :O( esp now after seeing sweet little colby.

thanks for sharing the report

 

[3mickeys&me]

Great report and great pictures!!!! Thanks for sharing!! Question, did you make your son's shirt? The one in the beginning of the post with the Mickey Mouse on it?? If you mad it can ya tell me how. Its ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[mansionterror]

Yes I did make it. I work at a preschool and my boss gave me the idea. All you need is the shirt, rubbing alcohol, a dropper, sharpies, rubber bands and a cup (s) or bowls or various sizes.

You take the bowl or cup (depending on how big you want the circles) and place it under the shirt in the area you plan to use and rubber band it into place. You take the sharpies and make a pattern (I used a circle) out of dots. After you get all the colors you want in place and the size you take a dropper ful of alcohol and start to drop it into the center of the design. The alcohol will start to make the sharpie colors bleed out towards the outside of the design. It takes some patience because if you use too much too quickly it will distort the circle. You just repeat that with all the circles. I did a practice shirt first to make sure I had it right.

I suggest setting it somehow when finished. I didn't. It didn't bleed but when Colby dropped some OJ on the words it ran a little...however it did not bleed in the wash...

It is like tiedie without the mess. Glad you like it!!