McKeeFamily3
Knee deep in snow
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2000
- Messages
- 133
Part 3-Holy cow, we're here!
***starring***
Valerie-me
George-DH
Hannah-DD
Angus-DS
Andrew-DN(nephew)
Amber-DC(cousin)
If you want to read all the info on us, read a previous installment.
I can't copy and paste here and I got tired of typing it all 
Friday, December 15th
We woke up and were thrilled that it was warm enough to wear shorts! It was 25ú and snowing like crazy at home. It's good to be in Florida! We got on the road at 7 am because we had a very important date to keep in Disney World at 9:50 am! I did manage to keep one secret from the kids and this was it. We were all so excited, that the 2 hour trip from Jacksonville to Disney World just flew by! From the moment that we entered Disney World everything was wonderful. Our first stop was The Magic Kingdom for that very important date we had to keep. As we pulled up to the entrance gate I looked up in the sky and you'll never guess what I saw. A Mickey head shaped cloud! Now if that isn't a good omen, I don't know what one is! Everyone thought I was joking around but when they looked up and saw it they all burst out laughing, clapping and hooping it up! We were finally here and Mickey was waching over us! We had to pay for parking since we hadn't chekced into Port Orleans yet and recieved our guest parking pass. I couldn't believe the sized of the parking lot! How on Earth they could fit that many people into the Magic Kingdom is beyond me! Luckly, it was not full. We ended up parking fairly close to the entrance of TTC. Then we had our first Tram ride. The kids loved it! This was Angus's favorite part of Disney World. He loved the tram rides! We made it to TTC and decided to take the mono rail rather than the ferry. Hannah was afraid the boat would tip over As I've mentioned before, she is afraid of everything! The monorail was so cool! Finally it pulled up and we were actually there, the Magic Kingdom! We put our passes through and walked up to the beginning of Main st. and just stood there for a while taking it all in. What a wonderful feeling! The people, the sounds, the smells. IT was all so perfect! Enough of this though, we had somewhere to be. The kids wanted to know what we were going to do first but they were starting to get hungry as we hadn't eaten yet. So I told them we'd find some breakfast and then do some rides. We passed a few reastuants and they kept saying, lets stop there but I had something up my sleeve. I told them I wanted to see the castle first. Groans all around, We're hungry! We made it up to the castle and went to Cinderella's Royal Table. Is that what it's called? I'm so used to just calling it Cindy's that I forget it's real name. LOL! Hannah was in totall shock! She had been begging me to go there since she learnd about the trip. I kept telling her, we'll see, mabey. This was one of the best dinning experiences we had. The castle is just beautiful, the detail is increadable! We got seated right away and our server was right there, My Ladying and My Lording us! It was great! The food was good, especially the french toast pastry thingy. I can't remember what they called it. For those of you who haven't been there; The meal is all you can eat but is not a buffet. They start you with your beverage, fresh fruit and bread. Then they bring you your plates, positivly loaded with food. As we were eating, we saw all the princesses making there way around the room. One by one they made their way to our table. We met Cinderella, Snow White, Aroura, Belle and Jasmin. The interaction with the kids was wonderful. They took the time to talk with each of them, sign autograph books and pose for photos. Cinderella loved Angus! She actually picked him up and he gave her a hug and kiss! It was so sweet. Belle talked alot to DH. He has very long hair and she told him that Beast would love to have hair like that. Snow white was great too. The way she talks, whith her sing song voice, cracked us up. George and Hannah talked like that for the rest of the day. After breakfast we went downstairs to meet The Fairy Godmother. She was so nice! We were the only ones there at the time so she spent alot of time with the kids. She signged their books, posed for pictures and gave them each of handful of fairy dust. Hannah put her's in a baggie and put it away in her jewelry box as soon as we got home. She say's she's saving it for a really big wish We finally made our way out of the castle and headed to Adventure land. The crowds were very light. We walked on to every ride! We did the Swiss Family Treehouse first. This is one of our family's favorite movies so it was a must. Angus was in 7th heaven climbing all those stairs. He had a blast! Next we did Jungle Cruise. Hannah of course was afraid of all the animals until she finally believed us that they weren't real. We all enjoyed that ride. The boat pilot was a riot with all of his corny jokes. While we were walking around after this a troop of acrobats came out and did a little show. They were really good. I love this about Disney World. In every park we saw some sort of street preformers. From the acrobats, to a jug band. Let's see, what else did we do? Pirates of the Carribien. I didn't get to go on this one, much to my dissapointmen. Half way down to the ride Hannah was to scared to go any further. It was to dark for her. So we went back out and waited for the others. While we waited we sat in a little secluded area that had a beautiful fountain, and there were some ohter kids there to. They were all splashing water on there faces and having a good time playing. Hannah went to join them. It was pretty warm that day so I didn't mind her getting wet. We also saw the Teeky Birds. How the heck to you spell that anyway?! You know what I mean though.
We wanted to get Angus's hair cut at the barber shop so we headed over there next. We walked back through Fantasy Land on the way so we could ride Cinderell's Carousel. Angus and Hannah love carousels. This was one of the only rides that Hannah wasn't afraid of. This was the only ride we had to wait in line for, a whole 5 minuets! After this we headed back to Main Street. We looked High and low for the barber shop but couldn't find it. We asked a CM and he showed us the way. Turns out we missed it because Dondald Duck had his Christmas Tree lot set up in front of it! As we walked up the Barber Shop quartet came out and did a few songs. We listend for a while and then Dondald Duck came out to sell a few trees. The kids got to spend some quality time with Donald because they were the only ones there. After visiting with him for a while we went in to get Angus's hair cut. We had to wait for a couple of boys to get their first ever buzz cuts. Their Mom was not to happy about this. While we waited the quartet came in and joked arund with the kids for a while. When it was Angus's turn they serenaded him while the woman cut his hair. It was great! Well worth the $20 price tag! By this time it was about 2:15pm so we headed over to Frontier Land to stake out a spot for the Magical Moments Parade. We got a place right in front of the Liberty Tree Tavern. While the kids sat down and rested Amber and I headed over to the Christmas Store to do a little shopping. While we were looking around Amber noticed some characters out behind the store. She went and got the kids to take them over and meet them. They got Minnie, Pluto, Chip and Dale's autographs. Once again they were some of the only kids there so they got to spend a great deal of time with them. I picked up a Sorcerer Mickey ornament and headed back over to wait with the others. The parade was great! The Little Mermaid unit and the Lion King unit stopped right in front of us ( I knew they would, because I had my handy dandy list of parade stops I got from The Dis, with me) and the kids got picked to go out and dance with both of the units! Hannah was thrilled! Andrew was too, but he's at that age now, where it's to cool to show that you are excited about something like this. This topped off our first visit to the Magic Kingdom!
We left and went to check into Port Orleans. What a beautiful resort! Check in was a breeze and we were soon on our way to check out our rooms! We were in building 3 on the second floor. I had requested connecting rooms but the rooms they gave us were not connecting but were side by side. He said he had some connecting rooms available but they were ont the far side of the comples so I said these would be ok. It really wasn't a problem. The rooms were very nice and roomy, I thought. We had a great courtyard view and could also see the waterfront. We paid for a standard room. After we got settled we went for a walk around the grounds before heading to dinner at the Sasgallousa sp? food court. The grounds are very beautiful and well kept. I was thrilled to see roses around the fountain in December! The whole resort has a very nice feeling to it. It is small and easy to get around. I love the little streets. We took a walk along the water front too. George's goal for the whole trip was to see an alligatior (or are they crocidiles?) in it's natural habbitat. He was dissapointed. We went over to the food court and had a good dinner. The food court here has good food and is not to outragously expensive. The kids got a couple of pressed pennies. Then we headed to the bus stop. Our plan for this evening was EPCOT. This was only 1 of 2 times we used the busses. IT was a horrible experience. We waited for almost 30 minuets for a bus. When it did come it was very crowded. Standing room only, and it still had to make all of the stops at Dixie Landings. PO and DXl share a bus system. Let me tell you, with 3 small kids and a stroller this was no fun! We finally made it to EPCOT. The first thing we did was ride Spaceship Earth. All I can saw is WOW! That is one of the most awesome rides I have ever been on. This ended up being Hannah's absolute favorite ride! After SE we just walked around and took it all in. The kids were amazed by all of the little things in Future World. (The adults were too) from the water fountain to the sidewalk with the lights in it. They were simply in awe of everything. We were all pretty tired by now so we said good night to EPCOT and headed back to PO for a good nights sleep. When we were walking back to our rooms Hannah looked up and saw the spotlights going around in the sky. She just stared up in wonder and said that it must be Tinkerbell and her pixie friends dancing in the sky. I almost cried. What a great way to end a perfect first day in Disney World!
Tommorow Part 4 AK and more EPCOT!
<font color=red>FIRST TIME TO WDW!Port Orleans December 15-16!! OKW DECEMBER 17-22!!</font>
[This message was edited by McKeeFamily3 on 01-05-01 at 02:04 PM.]
[This message was edited by McKeeFamily3 on 01-05-01 at 08:56 PM.]
***starring***
Valerie-me
George-DH
Hannah-DD
Angus-DS
Andrew-DN(nephew)
Amber-DC(cousin)
If you want to read all the info on us, read a previous installment.
I can't copy and paste here and I got tired of typing it all Friday, December 15th
We woke up and were thrilled that it was warm enough to wear shorts! It was 25ú and snowing like crazy at home. It's good to be in Florida! We got on the road at 7 am because we had a very important date to keep in Disney World at 9:50 am! I did manage to keep one secret from the kids and this was it. We were all so excited, that the 2 hour trip from Jacksonville to Disney World just flew by! From the moment that we entered Disney World everything was wonderful. Our first stop was The Magic Kingdom for that very important date we had to keep. As we pulled up to the entrance gate I looked up in the sky and you'll never guess what I saw. A Mickey head shaped cloud! Now if that isn't a good omen, I don't know what one is! Everyone thought I was joking around but when they looked up and saw it they all burst out laughing, clapping and hooping it up! We were finally here and Mickey was waching over us! We had to pay for parking since we hadn't chekced into Port Orleans yet and recieved our guest parking pass. I couldn't believe the sized of the parking lot! How on Earth they could fit that many people into the Magic Kingdom is beyond me! Luckly, it was not full. We ended up parking fairly close to the entrance of TTC. Then we had our first Tram ride. The kids loved it! This was Angus's favorite part of Disney World. He loved the tram rides! We made it to TTC and decided to take the mono rail rather than the ferry. Hannah was afraid the boat would tip over
As I've mentioned before, she is afraid of everything! The monorail was so cool! Finally it pulled up and we were actually there, the Magic Kingdom! We put our passes through and walked up to the beginning of Main st. and just stood there for a while taking it all in. What a wonderful feeling! The people, the sounds, the smells. IT was all so perfect! Enough of this though, we had somewhere to be. The kids wanted to know what we were going to do first but they were starting to get hungry as we hadn't eaten yet. So I told them we'd find some breakfast and then do some rides. We passed a few reastuants and they kept saying, lets stop there but I had something up my sleeve. I told them I wanted to see the castle first. Groans all around, We're hungry! We made it up to the castle and went to Cinderella's Royal Table. Is that what it's called? I'm so used to just calling it Cindy's that I forget it's real name. LOL! Hannah was in totall shock! She had been begging me to go there since she learnd about the trip. I kept telling her, we'll see, mabey. This was one of the best dinning experiences we had. The castle is just beautiful, the detail is increadable! We got seated right away and our server was right there, My Ladying and My Lording us! It was great! The food was good, especially the french toast pastry thingy. I can't remember what they called it. For those of you who haven't been there; The meal is all you can eat but is not a buffet. They start you with your beverage, fresh fruit and bread. Then they bring you your plates, positivly loaded with food. As we were eating, we saw all the princesses making there way around the room. One by one they made their way to our table. We met Cinderella, Snow White, Aroura, Belle and Jasmin. The interaction with the kids was wonderful. They took the time to talk with each of them, sign autograph books and pose for photos. Cinderella loved Angus! She actually picked him up and he gave her a hug and kiss! It was so sweet. Belle talked alot to DH. He has very long hair and she told him that Beast would love to have hair like that. Snow white was great too. The way she talks, whith her sing song voice, cracked us up. George and Hannah talked like that for the rest of the day. After breakfast we went downstairs to meet The Fairy Godmother. She was so nice! We were the only ones there at the time so she spent alot of time with the kids. She signged their books, posed for pictures and gave them each of handful of fairy dust. Hannah put her's in a baggie and put it away in her jewelry box as soon as we got home. She say's she's saving it for a really big wish We finally made our way out of the castle and headed to Adventure land. The crowds were very light. We walked on to every ride! We did the Swiss Family Treehouse first. This is one of our family's favorite movies so it was a must. Angus was in 7th heaven climbing all those stairs. He had a blast! Next we did Jungle Cruise. Hannah of course was afraid of all the animals until she finally believed us that they weren't real. We all enjoyed that ride. The boat pilot was a riot with all of his corny jokes. While we were walking around after this a troop of acrobats came out and did a little show. They were really good. I love this about Disney World. In every park we saw some sort of street preformers. From the acrobats, to a jug band. Let's see, what else did we do? Pirates of the Carribien. I didn't get to go on this one, much to my dissapointmen. Half way down to the ride Hannah was to scared to go any further. It was to dark for her. So we went back out and waited for the others. While we waited we sat in a little secluded area that had a beautiful fountain, and there were some ohter kids there to. They were all splashing water on there faces and having a good time playing. Hannah went to join them. It was pretty warm that day so I didn't mind her getting wet. We also saw the Teeky Birds. How the heck to you spell that anyway?! You know what I mean though. We wanted to get Angus's hair cut at the barber shop so we headed over there next. We walked back through Fantasy Land on the way so we could ride Cinderell's Carousel. Angus and Hannah love carousels. This was one of the only rides that Hannah wasn't afraid of. This was the only ride we had to wait in line for, a whole 5 minuets! After this we headed back to Main Street. We looked High and low for the barber shop but couldn't find it. We asked a CM and he showed us the way. Turns out we missed it because Dondald Duck had his Christmas Tree lot set up in front of it! As we walked up the Barber Shop quartet came out and did a few songs. We listend for a while and then Dondald Duck came out to sell a few trees. The kids got to spend some quality time with Donald because they were the only ones there. After visiting with him for a while we went in to get Angus's hair cut. We had to wait for a couple of boys to get their first ever buzz cuts. Their Mom was not to happy about this. While we waited the quartet came in and joked arund with the kids for a while. When it was Angus's turn they serenaded him while the woman cut his hair. It was great! Well worth the $20 price tag! By this time it was about 2:15pm so we headed over to Frontier Land to stake out a spot for the Magical Moments Parade. We got a place right in front of the Liberty Tree Tavern. While the kids sat down and rested Amber and I headed over to the Christmas Store to do a little shopping. While we were looking around Amber noticed some characters out behind the store. She went and got the kids to take them over and meet them. They got Minnie, Pluto, Chip and Dale's autographs. Once again they were some of the only kids there so they got to spend a great deal of time with them. I picked up a Sorcerer Mickey ornament and headed back over to wait with the others. The parade was great! The Little Mermaid unit and the Lion King unit stopped right in front of us ( I knew they would, because I had my handy dandy list of parade stops I got from The Dis, with me) and the kids got picked to go out and dance with both of the units! Hannah was thrilled! Andrew was too, but he's at that age now, where it's to cool to show that you are excited about something like this. This topped off our first visit to the Magic Kingdom!
We left and went to check into Port Orleans. What a beautiful resort! Check in was a breeze and we were soon on our way to check out our rooms! We were in building 3 on the second floor. I had requested connecting rooms but the rooms they gave us were not connecting but were side by side. He said he had some connecting rooms available but they were ont the far side of the comples so I said these would be ok. It really wasn't a problem. The rooms were very nice and roomy, I thought. We had a great courtyard view and could also see the waterfront. We paid for a standard room. After we got settled we went for a walk around the grounds before heading to dinner at the Sasgallousa sp? food court. The grounds are very beautiful and well kept. I was thrilled to see roses around the fountain in December! The whole resort has a very nice feeling to it. It is small and easy to get around. I love the little streets. We took a walk along the water front too. George's goal for the whole trip was to see an alligatior (or are they crocidiles?) in it's natural habbitat. He was dissapointed. We went over to the food court and had a good dinner. The food court here has good food and is not to outragously expensive. The kids got a couple of pressed pennies. Then we headed to the bus stop. Our plan for this evening was EPCOT. This was only 1 of 2 times we used the busses. IT was a horrible experience. We waited for almost 30 minuets for a bus. When it did come it was very crowded. Standing room only, and it still had to make all of the stops at Dixie Landings. PO and DXl share a bus system. Let me tell you, with 3 small kids and a stroller this was no fun! We finally made it to EPCOT. The first thing we did was ride Spaceship Earth. All I can saw is WOW! That is one of the most awesome rides I have ever been on. This ended up being Hannah's absolute favorite ride! After SE we just walked around and took it all in. The kids were amazed by all of the little things in Future World. (The adults were too) from the water fountain to the sidewalk with the lights in it. They were simply in awe of everything. We were all pretty tired by now so we said good night to EPCOT and headed back to PO for a good nights sleep. When we were walking back to our rooms Hannah looked up and saw the spotlights going around in the sky. She just stared up in wonder and said that it must be Tinkerbell and her pixie friends dancing in the sky. I almost cried. What a great way to end a perfect first day in Disney World!
Tommorow Part 4 AK and more EPCOT!
<font color=red>FIRST TIME TO WDW!Port Orleans December 15-16!! OKW DECEMBER 17-22!!</font>
[This message was edited by McKeeFamily3 on 01-05-01 at 02:04 PM.]
[This message was edited by McKeeFamily3 on 01-05-01 at 08:56 PM.]
