Sharing the Magic-Our Niece and Nephew's 1st Trip to the World! 2/1-COMPLETE!!!!

[UGAFan0829]

It's all right about the 2 month hiatus, we all get those post-Disney blues. They're the worst! And I think the more times you visit, the worse it gets.


I'm glad Mark discovered the all you can eat sushi at Park Fare. It's always a special treat when you go to a buffet and find a great dish. From the pictures, it looks like he really does love sushi!

The character pictures are great, especially the "evil" stepsisters ones. So much fun to interact with the villians.

Thanks, Alicia! The Disney blues are terrible this time around. And I have to agree--the more we go, the worse they get!

Even though 1900 Park Fare has great food, I think the character interaction alone makes it worth the trip!

Don't worry about the hiatus, we are all here!

I don't think I've seen someone as young as Mark in love with sushi so much! Glad to hear he enjoyed dinner even if he had to pose with Prince Charming!

Thanks, and I'm glad you're still here!

I don't think I've ever seen anyone love sushi the way that Mark does either! That's something that he and Mike definitely "bond" over!

 

[UGAFan0829]

It's all right about the 2 month hiatus, we all get those post-Disney blues. They're the worst! And I think the more times you visit, the worse it gets.


I'm glad Mark discovered the all you can eat sushi at Park Fare. It's always a special treat when you go to a buffet and find a great dish. From the pictures, it looks like he really does love sushi!

The character pictures are great, especially the "evil" stepsisters ones. So much fun to interact with the villians.

Thanks, Alicia! The Disney blues are terrible this time around. And I have to agree--the more we go, the worse they get!

Even though 1900 Park Fare has great food, I think the character interaction alone makes it worth the trip!

Don't worry about the hiatus, we are all here!

I don't think I've seen someone as young as Mark in love with sushi so much! Glad to hear he enjoyed dinner even if he had to pose with Prince Charming!

Thanks, and I'm glad you're still here!

I don't think I've ever seen anyone love sushi the way that Mark does either! That's something that he and Mike definitely "bond" over!

 

[UGAFan0829]

When I last left off, we were on our way to the Magic Kingdom where we planned to spend the rest of our evening.

We made our way out to the monorail platform to wait for a train. As we waited, the CM noticed Mark and decided to play a little magic trick with him.

He had a ball that he made disappear, and Mark thought it was the coolest thing, ever! I loved seeing such a big smile on his face—it served as just another reminder of exactly why we wanted to share the Disney magic with them.

Soon enough, we’d made our way back to the MK and were headed inside to find a spot to parade watch when we realized that the evening may not go exactly as planned. In all our previous trips, Mike and I have always watched the parade and fireworks from either Main Street, or somewhere in front of the castle. We walked towards the hub, and quickly realized that there was no way we’d be watching the parade from anywhere close to that vicinity. Soon, a CM realized what we were doing and recommended that we head over towards Frontierland, as there was tons of space available there. Now, I don’t know if she was just confused, or was just trying to get us out of her section of the park, but Frontierland was just as packed. This was really all my fault—I should have never scheduled dinner at that time. Looking back now, we probably should’ve just had an early dinner or late lunch in the park. But it’s just one of those things you learn from.

By this time, we were all starting to get a little irritated. Mike and I certainly weren’t use to these kinds of crowds, and Mark saying that he didn’t want to watch the parade didn’t help any either. But we finally find a spot just big enough to squeeze into where the others who were already there didn’t mind us being there.

It seems like it took forever for the parade to start, but it eventually did. And as you can tell from my pictures, I still have a lot to learn about photographing parades at night!

Once the parade had moved through, Mike’s plan was to head towards Main Street, or the front of the castle at least. So, as soon as we were allowed to move, we headed that way. It wasn’t with much luck though. We made it as far as being somewhat catty-cornered from the castle with tree blocking the entire view. I was a little bit irritated that we didn’t have the perfect view and of course I made sure to let Mike know about it since he was the one who had led us there. Of course now I regret being so hateful, but it was just one of those things that didn’t go as planned. I really wanted Mark & Jaden’s 1st time seeing Wishes to be perfect. Someone really should have reached out and slapped me to make me realize just how fortunate I really was at that moment! Of course I realize it now! Anyway…so we stood in our spot and watched “The Magic, Memories and You” which was pretty cool to see…

And then the show that we’d been waiting for finally started!

It was so good to finally see our favorite fireworks show, and I loved that Mark and Jaden enjoyed it just as much! We tried to wait for the crowds to part, which was a bit of chaos. And somewhere during this time is when Jaden had her one meltdown of the trip.

Once we could actually walk and move, we made our way over to the area in front of Crystal Palace to try and see if we could all just re-compose ourselves and see if there was something that would help Jaden dry her tears. Nothing was helping. She was just a total mess. I don’t even know what triggered it to begin with, but she just couldn’t stop and was inconsolable. It had been a long day, with lots of excitement going on, so I know that she was completely wiped out. We’d had a lot of early mornings and late nights so far, and I think it was taking its toll. I also had to remind myself that this was the first time that she’d been away from home without her Mom. We took our time and let her get it all out before we started our way down Main Street. As we passed the PP photographer, I had the bright idea of getting one last Magic Kingdom photo. You can see here how Jaden wasn’t into it. First the serious one:

And then, with Mickey ears!

We continued on down Main Street where we then decided to duck into one of the shops, but I don’t even remember what for. While we were there, Mike and Mark decided to be silly to try and cheer Jaden up, and I think it worked.

How could you not get a kick out of that?! I thought it was so sweet that Mark was willing to look silly in public just to help his sister smile. It totally melted my heart!

And with that, we headed on out of the park where I managed to snap two last pictures on our way.

I think we were all very thankful when the bus arrived and we had a place to sit and rest our feet for a while. Once we made it back to the room, we all got ready for a good night’s rest, and I attempted to take down Jaden’s hair. She was not a happy camper, and I can understand why people say these hair do’s can last for several days…yikes!

Up next…a day in Hollywood Studios!

 

[amazingact21]

Oh, I'm sorry to hear the night didn't go exactly as planned. I understand completely about being irritated at not getting a great view. I mean, you plan for months and months, imagine the reactions on the first timer's faces when they see such an amazing show, and then when the plans veer off course, it becomes a little overwhelming. Completely understandable....
But I'm glad you all were able to at least see Wishes and the Magic, the Memories, and You. That's a plus!


Sorry to hear Jaden had a meltdown at the end of the night. I'm sure the combination of late hours, less sleep, and being away from home was what did her in. It's not surprising, but definitely not something you want to encounter on a trip. Glad her brother was there to perk her up and let her leave MK with a laugh.

Man, how much hairspray do they use at BBB???

 

[Jennifer48]

You are a DIS veteran, what were you thinking getting to MK so late for the parade?!

Your view of Wishes didn't look bad at all!

Poor Jaden! A meltdown and hair trauma all in one night!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Oh, I'm sorry to hear the night didn't go exactly as planned. I understand completely about being irritated at not getting a great view. I mean, you plan for months and months, imagine the reactions on the first timer's faces when they see such an amazing show, and then when the plans veer off course, it becomes a little overwhelming. Completely understandable....
But I'm glad you all were able to at least see Wishes and the Magic, the Memories, and You. That's a plus!


Sorry to hear Jaden had a meltdown at the end of the night. I'm sure the combination of late hours, less sleep, and being away from home was what did her in. It's not surprising, but definitely not something you want to encounter on a trip. Glad her brother was there to perk her up and let her leave MK with a laugh.

Man, how much hairspray do they use at BBB???

Yes, considering the title of your latest TR, I know that you can totally relate to wanting things to be perfect for others! lol

The funny thing is...they really didn't use that much hairspray--most of that was from whatever gel/goop they use...it's obviously some good stuff!

You are a DIS veteran, what were you thinking getting to MK so late for the parade?!

Your view of Wishes didn't look bad at all!

Poor Jaden! A meltdown and hair trauma all in one night!

I know, I know...believe me, I kicked myself for it afterwards! I guess I just caught up in all the details of the rest of the day and didn't even give our timing for the parade a second thought. I can definitely chalk that one up as a lesson learned!

 

[UGAFan0829]

On Thursday we all awoke feeling well rested any ready for a day in Hollywood Studios. We showered, had breakfast and went through our usual morning routine which included breakfast on the balcony while checking out the view down below.

Though I had somewhat planned to make it to park opening this morning, I wasn’t really in too big of a rush. I think the night before had taught me to slow down a bit, which is what I tried to do.

We made it to the park about 30 minutes after opening and thankfully it didn’t seem too crowded just yet.

My only concern was getting a FP for TSM, but we didn’t immediately head that way. Instead we set our sights on this.

What better way to start the day than with one of our favorite rides! I was a little worried about what Mark & Jaden would think, but they were both ready to take it on! Just to add to the fun of their first ride, we decided to wait for the front row! And as you can see from our ride pic, I think Mike and I were more scared than those two were!

And once again, they loved it!!!

After a successful ride on ToT, we decided that if we were going to get a FP for TSM, that we better do it now, so we headed that way.

Once we made it there, the wait times looked like this:

And our return time was this:

I didn’t think that was too bad considering that we’d waited so late. I was actually just happy that we were able to get one!

With FP’s in hand, we decided to head over and check out the new version of Star Tours.

This is a really cool ride, but none of us are really big Star Wars fans, so this probably isn’t a ride that we’d stand in too long of a ride for.

Once we left Star Tours, we found ourselves wandering the Streets of America. Well, we really weren’t wandering…we were actually heading over to see Lights, Motors, Action, but since we had a little time before the show started, we did wander a bit. I saw this in one of the windows and had to take a pic!

Finally, after enough window gazing, it was time to head over to the show.

We did get there a little bit early since we wanted to make sure and be able to grab a seat in the covered part of the bleachers…it was definitely hot out that day and we wanted to avoid the blazing sun as much as possible. Thankfully we found a seat not too far from the fans with a decent view.

Mark really loved the show. Jaden was pretty into it too, but we all know that boys tend to like this one just a bit better.

By the time it was over, we were all starting to get a bit hungry. And since we don’t have a lot of counter service experience in this particular park, we decided to stick with one that we knew.

The kids and I found a table outside while Mike went inside to place our orders. Mark and I both had Cheese pizza while Jaden and Mike opted for the Pepperoni. We also ended up with two Caesar salads which we offered to the kids, but they both declined. Mike also ended up with this piece of chocolate-y goodness…

We took our time eating and lingered just a bit. There was a cute little girl at the table nearby who had a ball chasing the little birds, so that entertained us for a few minutes. Our next scheduled ride was going to be a wild one, and we needed to make sure that all our tummies were settled before heading that way…

So where would we end up next?? Stay tuned to find out!!!

 

[Jennifer48]

Brave kiddos on ToT!

That Vader cupcake is ginormous! Was he able to eat it all?

 

[Pinkocto]

Great start to the day. How cool they liked ToT. That's one of my absolute favorites.

I've not been to Pizza Planet yet. Whenever I think about it I wish it looked like the one in the movie.

 

[UGAFan0829]

Brave kiddos on ToT!

That Vader cupcake is ginormous! Was he able to eat it all?

They are pretty brave!! I was proud of them for giving it a try since they were a tiny bit unsure, but I think we were more nervous than they were!

He did eat it all!!

Great start to the day. How cool they liked ToT. That's one of my absolute favorites.

I've not been to Pizza Planet yet. Whenever I think about it I wish it looked like the one in the movie.

I've never thought about the fact that Pizza Planet doesn't look like the one in the movie...that would be so cool if it did...complete with the claw games and all!

 

[UGAFan0829]

With our tummies settled, we gathered our belongings and headed towards this wild ride…

When we arrived, we noticed that the stand-by wait time was posted as 90 minutes. Though we really like this ride, we wouldn’t normally stand in a line this long, but Mark and Jaden really wanted to ride, so we decided to go for it.

As we made our way towards the line entrance, there were a group of 3 that were following behind, and one of them was a teenage girl who was in a wheelchair from what appeared to be a leg injury. As we walked toward the CM who was standing there, he noticed the wheelchair and stopped us all as we reached him. His plan was to give us all front of the line passes and thought that we were part of their group. Mike was honest and told him that we weren’t actually with him. And this is where we got another sprinkling of Disney magic…because Mike had been honest with the CM and hasn’t taken the passes dishonestly, he ended up giving us passes as well! We were SOOO excited since that meant we could bypass the majority of that 90 minute line!!!! Of course since it’s been so long since the trip, I don’t remember what kind of passes it was that we were given, but I think it may have been Fastpasses that the window was already open for. Either way, I do remember that was thanked the CM profusely…I even wanted to give him a hug…and gladly headed on our way.

During the very little time that we had to wait, Mark asked if he and I could wait for the front car, so of course I was happy to oblige. This meant that we ended up riding separately from Mark and Jaden, but we made sure they didn’t mind. Since we did have to wait for the front car, they were a couple of trains ahead of us. Jaden told me she wasn’t scared, but after seeing their ride photo, I can’t help but think she was!

Mark and I LOVED being in the front…it was definitely really cool and well worth the wait.

Since we’ve been home, they’ve both decided that this was their favorite ride of all!!


As we exited, we stopped and browsed in the gift shop where Mark and Jaden both decided to spend a little of their money to bring home a set of the glass light-up drumsticks.


With big grins still plastered to our faces, we decided to head over to check out the next showing of the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. For some reason, this is the only pic I have from the
show.

The show was just as I remembered, and the kids thought it was okay, but they weren’t as impressed as I thought they might be.

Though it may seem like we’d just had lunch, it was now time to head over for our dinner ADR.

As far as meals, this was the one and only request that Mike had made for the entire trip. We’d dined her back in 2007 and he loved it! We’d been saying that we were going to make a return visit, but never had until now!

We didn’t have to wait too long for our table which was a good thing since the kids were starting to get a little worn down.

After reviewing the menus, Mark and Jaden were a little disappointed in the choices, and I honestly can’t blame them. While the adult menu here is great, I definitely think the kids’ choices leave a lot to be desired. I myself was very sad to see that the Herb Fried Cheese is no longer on the menu.

Mark went with the hot dog…

Jaden had the Mac and cheese…

I went with the Pot Roast…

And Mike had Mom’s Favorite…

For dessert, Mike and I shared Dad’s Brownie Sundae…

Mark chose the Warm Apple Crisp…

And Jaden had the Yogurt Parfait…

While Mike and I enjoyed our meals, I was somewhat sad that Mark and Jaden didn’t enjoy theirs very much. It was at this point that I decided that when we return to Disney, that we’d definitely pay to upgrade them to the adult dining plan. I know it’s expensive, but it just wasn’t fair for them to have what I felt were such crummy choices each time they had to order from the menu.

Continued in next post...

 

[UGAFan0829]

After settling our bill and thanking our CM, it was finally time for a much anticipated ride. So we headed here…

Since Mike and I are a bit competitive on this ride, Mark and Jaden agreed to ride together so that us two adults could battle it out. And I’m very proud to say that I came out as the victor for the first time ever!!

And you can bet that I made sure and rub it in as much as I could!!! Mark and Jaden loved the ride as well!!

By now, it was getting a little closer to time to head over to get in line for Fantasmic. On all our previous trips, Mike and I had attempted to see this show with no success. And having Mark and Jaden with us made me determined to see it this evening.

But first, we had to stop for a couple more PhotoPass ops…

This one is one of my favorites:

And their faces in this one totally tickles me!

We then made our way down Hollywood Boulevard when we were once again distracted by this lovely sight:

Only a 20 minute wait??? This was the shortest wait we’d seen all day! The kids loved their first ride, so we thought we’d give it another go. We ended up in the back row this time, and they loved it just as much!

We exited the ride, and decided that it was time to finally head on over for Fantasmic. We arrived at a great time as they were already allowing us in, and we were able to find a pretty good spot towards the top. We did have a bit of a wait before the show started, but thankfully Disney provided some fun entertainment that we all really enjoyed. Mark and Jaden did ask for some popcorn, and I was happy to oblige! I was very excited that Mike and I were finally going to be able to see the show and having Mark and Jaden there to share it with made it even better!

Soon enough, the show began and we took it all in! I tried to get pics from where we were, but sadly I’d forgotten to pack my zoom lens in the park bag, so I wasn’t able to get very good pics. I did manage to get a couple that were worthy of sharing.

Once the show was over, we decided to stay put for a few minutes to let the masses die down. As we waited, a random girl came by and gave Mark and Jaden her bubble gun. Of course this put a huge smile on their faces!

We let them play with the bubbles for a few minutes before we decided to head on out as well.

We slowly made our way towards the front of the park while stopping for one last group shot…

We boarded the bus and were headed back to AKL in no time. This time though, instead of getting off at our usual stop at Kidani, we decided to pay a visit to The Mara and disembarked at the Jambo House instead. Mike and I were a little hungry and we thought it would be a great time to pay up on the promise of more cheesecake that we made earlier in the week.

We made our purchases, which ended up being a grocery bag full and made the trek back towards Kidani, which didn’t seem to be as long this time.

Once in the room, we all gathered around the table and dug in! Mark and Jaden each had a piece of cheesecake while Mike and I decided to go with a salad, which is definitely a rarity for me!

We finished our snacks, and then completed our nightly routines before tucking into bed for a little TV watching before drifting off to another night of happy dreams!

 

[Pinkocto]

What a fun filled day!

Bizarre about the limited choices on the kids menus.

Very cool pixie dust! That kind of thing just makes my day

 

[mousetravel]

The food at 50's Prime Time looks pretty good. I've been wanting to go there on one of our trips.

Love the photopass pics from HS!

 

[amazingact21]

I can see where you're coming from with the kid's food at 50's. You'd think they'd try to add a little variety to the menu, since the adult selection is really good and different than most other restaurants.


It's great that you finally got to see Fantasmic! and that you didn't have to wait in a long line to get in!


Great Photopass pictures!

 

[UGAFan0829]

What a fun filled day!

Bizarre about the limited choices on the kids menus.

Very cool pixie dust! That kind of thing just makes my day

It was a very fun day! I'm so glad the kids loved the rides as much as they did!

To be honest, the kids food choices were pretty poor, in my opinion.

I agree about the Pixie Dust--it's one of those things that makes Disney so special.

The food at 50's Prime Time looks pretty good. I've been wanting to go there on one of our trips.

Love the photopass pics from HS!

It was good! Mike loves that place and it was the one meal that he requested for the whole trip! You should definitely give it a try!

I can see where you're coming from with the kid's food at 50's. You'd think they'd try to add a little variety to the menu, since the adult selection is really good and different than most other restaurants.


It's great that you finally got to see Fantasmic! and that you didn't have to wait in a long line to get in!


Great Photopass pictures!

I totally agree about the kids menu. I know I've mentioned that a lot during my report, but it was one of the negatives of the trip.

Yes, we were very excited to have finally seen Fantasmic! It was a great show!

 

[UGAFan0829]

On Friday morning, I awoke in disbelief that this was our last day in Disney. But, I wasn’t going to let that little fact keep me from enjoying the last full day of our trip!

Since we’d eaten in the room all week, we decided it was time for some real breakfast food. So, we headed over for one last meal at The Mara. We all decided on our fare and easily found a table inside in the air. The kids were excited about what AK had in store for them!

For our meals, Mark and Jaden both had a Mickey Waffle with bacon.

Mike had his usual Bounty Platter.

And I decided to give the Croissant Sandwich a try.

We all enjoyed our choices and were glad that we’d decided on this for breakfast!

Once we were done, we made our way out to the front of Jambo House to board the first bus that came along for Animal Kingdom! It was nice to have such a short ride on this morning!

On our way towards the gates, we of course had to stop for a quick picture or two, or three…
First was our normal “happy to be here” pose.

Then came our “Yeti” shot.

Then the photographer noticed my hat he decided to rib me about getting a picture while doing the “Gator Chomp”! We politely declined and instead suggested a “Dawg bark” one instead. And though we do look a bit silly, we were very happy to oblige! How many people can say that they have this kind of shot from Disney?

And lastly, another successful “magic” shot with Stitch!

Finally, we made our way inside the gates and join the crowd.

Our first order of business was to head over to the Safari to either go ahead and ride, or grab a Fastpass. On our way over, we spotted something that we’d never seen before.

Devine!! I’d seen her in so many other reports, but never in person! It was so cool to have spotted her, especially since we weren’t even expecting or looking for her. A very large crowd had formed, and we all just stood there and watched her move. Of course I took lots of pics to document our first sighting.

It’s so neat as to how well she really does blend in with her surroundings! I’d forgotten to tell Mark and Jaden about her before then, so they both thought it was a little strange!

Finally, we made it to the Safari and saw this as the wait time:

Typically, we wouldn’t have waited that long, but Mark and Jaden were really excited about riding, so we decided to go ahead and wait. And since most of the line is shaded, we figured how bad could it be? And though the wait did seem to take a while, it really wasn’t that bad other than the lady behind me who kept insisting on shoving her stroller into my heels every timer we’d move forward. I understand that from time to time it’s going to happen, but this was EVERY SINGLE TIME! Eventually, I started to get a tad bit annoyed and made a very loud comment to Mike that the next time she hit me I was going to donkey kick the stroller. And just so you know, the stroller was unoccupied. Thankfully, she got the message and decided to back off a bit.

We boarded our vehicle, ready to see some wildlife, and we were in for a treat! And of course I tried to document as many sightings as possible!

This Rhino didn’t seem to be very photogenic!

We even got to see the baby elephant who was busy having a snack!

See Pumbaa’s kin folk hiding in there?

And that’s just a little taste of what we were able to see! The kids really loved it, and I think it was probably the best Safari that we’d been on so far as far as the number and variety of animals that we were able to see!

Next--with a successful Safari behind us, we head towards our first thrill ride of the day!

 

[Jennifer48]

Last days are so sad!

Love your Photopass pics outside AK entrance!

How wonderful that they got to see Devine! She is mysterious that one.

Why did that woman have a stroller in line anyways? Aren't they supposed to put them in the stroller parking area?

 

[amazingact21]

Aw, your last day. But at least it sounds like it started off well. The croissant sandwich is actually pretty good, in my opinion.


It's awesome that you got such a friendly and cooperative PP, who was willing to take a bunch of pictures in different poses. Makes viewing them later on so much fun.


Glad the safari went well and all the animals cooperated for Mark and Jaden's first trip. Guess the 40 minute wait was well worth it! Even if you did have to deal with a rude guest behind you. I mean, really, lady, pay attention and be respectful to other people's surrounding.

 

[reelmom]

I am only up to your arrival morning and I am already in tears. Your niece and nephew are so adorable. I can't wait to read about their first trip. We took my niece and nephew for their first Disney trip 2 years ago and it was such a special trip.