6AM
Yes, I am an early riser. Add in the fact that I am in Disney world, well it's amazing I sleep at all. Luckily, my daughter shares this trait so I have company. Hubby and son are still snoring away.
Hopefully the little escapade my daughter and I had early in the morning won't classify me with the pool hopping, old mug using, lounge food hoarding crowd. Although I do realize how close I come to the not quite dressed lounge crew. But in my own mind we are rather innocent, judge for yourselves.
I got up and the first thing I needed to do was check on the castle. 1st floor room so curtains are closed. I sneak in between the curtain and the door. DD quickly joins me there. We fear our giggling will wake the male creatures in our family (and yes, at 6 AM they are creatures). So we quietly slip out on to the patio. I don't care what you late nighters may think. THIS is THE best time in Walt Disney World. The nighttime lights are still on, although dawn has turned on it's own lights. A few smaller boats begin to come to life on the lagoon. There are more ducks around than people. And the castle is there to greet you, promising to make all the days dreams come true. My daughter discovered she could play a little game with the ducks, first walking towards them and they would walk away, then she would walk away from them and they would follow. This led out on to the grass, but since she (and the ducks) were rather quite, I didn't worry about her waking anyone. I'll admit that I was eyeing the swing on the beach right in front of my room even before my daughter wandered down to the sand. but when she did, I thought, what kind of mom am I if I don't go down and keep an eye on her? There wasn't another soul around, and my jammies do look more like shorts and a shirt. and I just need to be closer to that beautiful little girl running on the beach with ducks in her princess nightgown. So yes ladies and gentleman, at aprox. 6:12 AM on 8/1 I sat on a beach swing in my pajamas. To those of you who may scorn me I offer you this: it was wet.
As the World began to wake up a little more my daughter and I went in, got the guys up and all got dressed and headed to the lounge for breakfast. The lounge offerings in the morning are more than enough to get us on our way, but I had decided to buy and bring with us a few things to supplement for the kids. I'm a mom, I want them to be healthy enough to enjoy their trip, plus I have to offset the 768 cookies they each ate a day. Anyway, what worked for us is I brought drinkable yogurts and some rolled up slices of deli ham. Add cereal and juice. Presto complete healthy kid breakfast. Now excuse me while I eat my danish and coffee!
Now here we go. Magic Kingdom, EE Morning on a Sunday. Let's just say I'm really rethinking the EE mornings. They are more popular and therefore more crowded, and it's hard getting the gang into the park that early now that they are getting old enough to stay up and do some evening activities. If the whole park (this is true I think in all parks) was open it could absorb the morning crowd. But because there is only limited rides open, the large morning crowd overwhelms them quickly. (This was also true when we did EPCOT EE). Having said that we did do Buzz, grab FP for Space, then did Pooh, then were ready when the rest of the park opened and went to Splash (Even my height fearing husband admitted he really liked) and Thunder (yes, I pushed aside events in California). Then it's a little bit of a blur, we were hot and tired. Kaleigh and I tried to go use our Space FP but it broke down while we were waiting. We bailed out of the line. But that's OK, it's a quick trip back to the Polynesian! We had a quiet lunch in our room with turkey sandwiches and carrots from Publix and cookies from lounge. Cookies were part of every meal from hear on out.
A swim (also part of everyday, I think Tyler would have been content to just swim in the pool all day) and then it was time to get ready for MGM. We had a few reasons to go there on Sunday. 1st Chris and Tyler really wanted to check out the ESPN party going on there, they are both sports nuts. We also were meeting my friend and her daughter and doing the Fantasmic dinner package with them. We had and early (4:10) PS for Hollywood and Vine. I was kind of wishing we had reserved for Mama Melrose instead. I had been to MM and really liked it but never been to H&V.
Well we got to MGM, met up with my friend and she and I got FP for R&RC. Then we went to eat. What a great surprise! Hollywood and Vine was great! I had never heard much about it so I wasn't sure what to expect, just that it was a buffet with a retro diner atmosphere. The food was delicious. Maybe it helped that they had just opened and it was really fresh. I wish I could remember all their offerings but all I remember is that we all really enjoyed this meal.
Afterwards Chris and Tyler went off to check out the ESPN stuff and us girls went to see the Muppets (always fun). When we come out it was raining, no pouring , no monsooning. We put on our garbage bag like ponchos (I hate these things) and met the guys by the ESPN stage. We debated leaving MGM because we were afraid Fantasmic might be cancelled. Finally we decided that my friend and I would go use our FP for R&RC and the rest of the crew (DH, DS,DD, and friend's DD) would do GMR then we would decide. Well R&RC was fabulous as always and it was great taking my friend (50 something) for her 1st time. She also loved it. Rubbed it in to her 14 year old daughter who was afraid to ride! The best thing was that by the time we all met back up, the rain had stopped.
We walked though a few store and then went in the Dinner package entrance to Fantasmic. Looks like we weren't the only ones who stuck out the rain. It ended up being a full house. The package seats are not that bad, off to the right if you looking at the stage. So we got there early and sat in the left most seats in our section. Good seats. We had snacks from the venders while we waited - oh yea - Frozen Root beer Float. It comes in a cup, it's frozen root beer and vanilla ice cream mixed together. It was so good I wouldn't share. The crowd was upbeat and the kids were pretty entertained during our wait, the wave, the speedy wave, the slow motion wave - my personal favorite. Fantasmic itself is spectacular, although I think I misjudged with my own kids. It is rather loud and in your face bad guys, they were OK during the performance, but I can't say they loved it. They liked the end when everything is happy. Afterward I asked what they thought and they both said it was a little loud and scary. It was also late for them to be out, so I think sleepiness added to the experience. In the end they weren't unhappy, just ready to go.
And go we did. Back to our room, our patio, and then our beds.
Rest now - waterpark tomorrow!
Tammy
Yes, I am an early riser. Add in the fact that I am in Disney world, well it's amazing I sleep at all. Luckily, my daughter shares this trait so I have company. Hubby and son are still snoring away.
Hopefully the little escapade my daughter and I had early in the morning won't classify me with the pool hopping, old mug using, lounge food hoarding crowd. Although I do realize how close I come to the not quite dressed lounge crew. But in my own mind we are rather innocent, judge for yourselves.
I got up and the first thing I needed to do was check on the castle. 1st floor room so curtains are closed. I sneak in between the curtain and the door. DD quickly joins me there. We fear our giggling will wake the male creatures in our family (and yes, at 6 AM they are creatures). So we quietly slip out on to the patio. I don't care what you late nighters may think. THIS is THE best time in Walt Disney World. The nighttime lights are still on, although dawn has turned on it's own lights. A few smaller boats begin to come to life on the lagoon. There are more ducks around than people. And the castle is there to greet you, promising to make all the days dreams come true. My daughter discovered she could play a little game with the ducks, first walking towards them and they would walk away, then she would walk away from them and they would follow. This led out on to the grass, but since she (and the ducks) were rather quite, I didn't worry about her waking anyone. I'll admit that I was eyeing the swing on the beach right in front of my room even before my daughter wandered down to the sand. but when she did, I thought, what kind of mom am I if I don't go down and keep an eye on her? There wasn't another soul around, and my jammies do look more like shorts and a shirt. and I just need to be closer to that beautiful little girl running on the beach with ducks in her princess nightgown. So yes ladies and gentleman, at aprox. 6:12 AM on 8/1 I sat on a beach swing in my pajamas. To those of you who may scorn me I offer you this: it was wet.
As the World began to wake up a little more my daughter and I went in, got the guys up and all got dressed and headed to the lounge for breakfast. The lounge offerings in the morning are more than enough to get us on our way, but I had decided to buy and bring with us a few things to supplement for the kids. I'm a mom, I want them to be healthy enough to enjoy their trip, plus I have to offset the 768 cookies they each ate a day. Anyway, what worked for us is I brought drinkable yogurts and some rolled up slices of deli ham. Add cereal and juice. Presto complete healthy kid breakfast. Now excuse me while I eat my danish and coffee!
Now here we go. Magic Kingdom, EE Morning on a Sunday. Let's just say I'm really rethinking the EE mornings. They are more popular and therefore more crowded, and it's hard getting the gang into the park that early now that they are getting old enough to stay up and do some evening activities. If the whole park (this is true I think in all parks) was open it could absorb the morning crowd. But because there is only limited rides open, the large morning crowd overwhelms them quickly. (This was also true when we did EPCOT EE). Having said that we did do Buzz, grab FP for Space, then did Pooh, then were ready when the rest of the park opened and went to Splash (Even my height fearing husband admitted he really liked) and Thunder (yes, I pushed aside events in California). Then it's a little bit of a blur, we were hot and tired. Kaleigh and I tried to go use our Space FP but it broke down while we were waiting. We bailed out of the line. But that's OK, it's a quick trip back to the Polynesian! We had a quiet lunch in our room with turkey sandwiches and carrots from Publix and cookies from lounge. Cookies were part of every meal from hear on out.
A swim (also part of everyday, I think Tyler would have been content to just swim in the pool all day) and then it was time to get ready for MGM. We had a few reasons to go there on Sunday. 1st Chris and Tyler really wanted to check out the ESPN party going on there, they are both sports nuts. We also were meeting my friend and her daughter and doing the Fantasmic dinner package with them. We had and early (4:10) PS for Hollywood and Vine. I was kind of wishing we had reserved for Mama Melrose instead. I had been to MM and really liked it but never been to H&V.
Well we got to MGM, met up with my friend and she and I got FP for R&RC. Then we went to eat. What a great surprise! Hollywood and Vine was great! I had never heard much about it so I wasn't sure what to expect, just that it was a buffet with a retro diner atmosphere. The food was delicious. Maybe it helped that they had just opened and it was really fresh. I wish I could remember all their offerings but all I remember is that we all really enjoyed this meal.
Afterwards Chris and Tyler went off to check out the ESPN stuff and us girls went to see the Muppets (always fun). When we come out it was raining, no pouring , no monsooning. We put on our garbage bag like ponchos (I hate these things) and met the guys by the ESPN stage. We debated leaving MGM because we were afraid Fantasmic might be cancelled. Finally we decided that my friend and I would go use our FP for R&RC and the rest of the crew (DH, DS,DD, and friend's DD) would do GMR then we would decide. Well R&RC was fabulous as always and it was great taking my friend (50 something) for her 1st time. She also loved it. Rubbed it in to her 14 year old daughter who was afraid to ride! The best thing was that by the time we all met back up, the rain had stopped.
We walked though a few store and then went in the Dinner package entrance to Fantasmic. Looks like we weren't the only ones who stuck out the rain. It ended up being a full house. The package seats are not that bad, off to the right if you looking at the stage. So we got there early and sat in the left most seats in our section. Good seats. We had snacks from the venders while we waited - oh yea - Frozen Root beer Float. It comes in a cup, it's frozen root beer and vanilla ice cream mixed together. It was so good I wouldn't share. The crowd was upbeat and the kids were pretty entertained during our wait, the wave, the speedy wave, the slow motion wave - my personal favorite. Fantasmic itself is spectacular, although I think I misjudged with my own kids. It is rather loud and in your face bad guys, they were OK during the performance, but I can't say they loved it. They liked the end when everything is happy. Afterward I asked what they thought and they both said it was a little loud and scary. It was also late for them to be out, so I think sleepiness added to the experience. In the end they weren't unhappy, just ready to go.
And go we did. Back to our room, our patio, and then our beds.
Rest now - waterpark tomorrow!
Tammy
