TR: A Kid Turns Ten At Disney World!!

[101disneyfan]

Hello, DisBoarders!
I don't know why it has taken me such a long time to sit down and write this report on our 2007 trip to Walt Disney World. However, it has.

And I am going to enjoy every second of it!

Here was our itinerary:

October 5, 2007- Day 1: [Well, you'll see what we ended up doing...]
October 6, 2007- Day 2: Animal Kingdom, Epcot
October 7, 2007- Day 3: Magic Kingdom
October 8, 2007- Day 4: Animal Kingdom, Sea World, MNNSHP
October 9, 2007- Day 5: Disney-MGM Studios
October 10, 2007- Day 6: Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure
October 11, 2007- Day 7: Time To Go Home!


CAST OF CHARACTERS:

• Christian- (Me)- 10 yrs. old, Celebrated Birthday at Walt Disney World!
• Eliza- Mother
• Joe- Father
• Chuck- Brother, 30 yrs old
• Tonia- Sister in law
• Ava- Niece, Chuck and Tonia's 2.5 yo daughter

Here we go!

 

[101disneyfan]

We live near New York City, so obviously we flew down...

We got to Orlando International Airport around 3:00 in the afternoon, and planned on renting a car, and staying at our time share. So that is what we did.

We got to our rental car and left the airport.
Of course, my father got lost trying to find the place that we'd be staying at, and with all 5 of us (2 yo Ava couldn't talk yet.) telling him where to go, where to turn, which lane to get into... You knew this would be a fun week!

We got to our place, unpacked our bags, and headed to a local Walmart-type store. We bought diapers, paper plates... All the usual little semi-neccessities for the week ahead.

I had gotten us a reservation for a Princess Dinner at Epcot to get our youngest guest used to the characters as I knew that we'd be seeing them throughout our trip, and thought that "human" characters would be the way to get her "hooked" on the idea!

However, we get to the gates at Epcot, and we find out that now (I'd say around quarter of 7pm) in order to get into our dinner, that we would have to buy 3 one-day passes to get into the park. I'm not complaining, and we simply let this one slide. I just know that it would have been nice if we had known. But, moving on! I got some lovely video of the Park Entrance at night all lit up! And I knew that we would just get going on a fresh start tomorrow morning...

 

[101disneyfan]

So, we woke up. Everybody got ready for a day in the park. We washed up, ate some fruit and cereal in our little house, and were on our own to Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Now, some background: Joe, Eliza, and Christian (myself) has recently been to WDW in Sept. 2005 for four days, and saw a brief portion of the Animal Kingdom that trip. Chuck had been to WDW in the early 1990s before the Animal Kingdom was built. Tonia and Baby Ava had been to the world prior to this experience.

We parked our car, rented a stroller, and approached the park entrance. A little added note was that one of Chuck's cousins worked at the world, so that we only had to pay for two people per day.

As we got to the park at 11:45am, King Louie and Baloo were greeting guests, but were leaving when we got there, so I took my niece to see who else was around. The two of us took pictures with Terk, Meeko, and Gov. Radcliffe.

Eliza, Joe, and Christian (yeah, that's me) decided to go see Mickey and Minnie. Chuck and Tonia decided to take Baby Ava to the petting zoo.

We met Minnie, Mickey, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto.

The tour group all met up together up at Pizzafari, our favorite Animal Kingdom snack fest. We then grabbed our seats for Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade!

After the parade, we went on the Kilomanjaro Safari, and decided to go back to our home away from home for a little rest.

 

[101disneyfan]

We decided around 6 that if we going to ever see Epcot, that this would be the time to do it. Unknowingly, we visited the World Showcase during Epcot's International Food and Wine Festival. My father and brother were thrilled to say the least. We walked around and filmed some home movies and we had a wonderful time whether we liked it or not!!!

So, we got to United Kingdom, and I questioned if Mary Poppins would be found in the Toy Shop where characters are normally located. Nobody outside knew, so we went in for a look. Who was there? Eeyore and Tigger! My pal, Ava's first characters all day since Terk and Meeko this morning. She was grinning ear-to-ear!

Sorry, I cannot currently locate the digital files of these snapshots. We mostly videotaped because we used our Photopass like another member of our tour group...

Tigger came around and hugged my brother, which I KNOW got him into the spirit at last. Ava was thrilled to see more characters, which made me wonder if it was the right thing letting Chuck and Tonia take her to the zoo when we saw Minnie, as we never saw her again for the rest of the trip...

Well, everybody was gathering to view the fireworks, so Chuck, Tonia, Ava and I went to board the Maelstrom, my favorite Epcot attraction, with no line! We practically just got into our boat and then we were off!

We got off the ride, and the six of us watched Illuminations: Reflections of Earth. We got some good video of the monorail, and the lit up Spaceship Earth, and went home for a well-deserved nap!

 

[101disneyfan]

So the gang's all here, and we are hungry!

So, even though we had met Tigger and Eeyore last night at the United Kingdom in Epcot, we thought, why not? {Plus, we already made reservations} So, we rode the monorail to the Magic Kingdom and walked down Main Street USA, and headed for the Crystal Palace for "a buffet with character."

We were given a window seat facing the castle for the four of us [Eliza, Joe, Christian, and Baby Ava who at this point was smitten with the Disney characters!]

I may have mentioned to our waitress that I was here to celebrate my birthday, and so I led a group of 2, 3, and 4 year olds in the Crystal Palace Birthday Parade. Nothing to make you feel old at ten years old, huh?

Our first character was the one and only Winnie The Pooh!
What do you think Ava did when she saw Pooh? I guess she had seen how it works, because she grabbed the autograph book off of our table and threw it at him along with the pen! [Poor bear.] I used this as an oppurtunity to show her how it should properly be done. He signed our book, and spent a minute or so just with her, which was nice. See you later, Pooh Bear!

Our next encounter was with Piglet. I don't think for some reason that Ava liked Piglet as much, and he knew it because he signed our book, snapped a photo and ran off! Oh well, win some, lose some...

Well, here come Eeyore and Tigger together, probably two tables apart at most and Ava remembered that she had seen them last night. Of course they would visit her during breakfast. Now, they're all best friends!

Overall we had a wonderful time at the Crystal Palace and our character count up to this point is: Terk, Meeko, Gov Radcliffe, Minnie, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore (2), and Tigger (2). Now, let's have some fun at the Magic Kingdom!

 

[101disneyfan]

So, we had some fun at the Crystal Palace, Chuck, Tonia, Eliza, and I decided to go to Splash Mountain. So Chuck and Tonia got the Fastpasses while the three of us took Ava to Mickey and Minnie's houses.

We then decided to see the Magic Kingdom's Disney Dreams Come True Parade!

We needed a break, so we said "Let's go take a nap."
And we did.

 

[101disneyfan]

Just thought I'd mention that we saw the SpectroMagic Parade at the Main Street Train Station that night...

So, the following morning, we had our second of two character breakfasts to attend. This one was in the Animal Kingdom, called Donald Duck's Breakfastosaurus in DinoLand. The four of us (once again, Joe, Eliza, Christian, and Ava) got our photo taken in front of the restaurant, and went in.

We met Donald, Pluto, Goofy, and Mickey, and Ava fell in love with each of them, as she hadn't seen them when the three of us did on our first day in the parks.

Ava thought it would be nice to share her fruit loops with Mickey Mouse.

We decided that this would not be a WDW park day as we had a character breakfast in the morning, and would be attending Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party that evening. We thought about taking it easy at home but then decided to take it easy at Sea World!

I don't have our pictures from Sea World. Please forgive me.

We later attended our very first (same group as Donald's Breakfast) MNSSHP!

We saw the Boo to You Parade (which Ava slept through)
We then saw the Fireworks, the seven dwarfs, and left around 9:30.
Believe me, if it had been just the three of us, we probably would have gotten a lot more done, and would have stayed longer, but it was worth it to have her there with us!

 

[101disneyfan]

Long Story Short, We Got There on my Birthday and the Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade was ENDING!!! That tells you I was not destined to have a good day... Because, that was a big priority to see it before it went to Paris.

Oh well, moving on...

Chuck, Tonia, and I went on the Tower of Terror!!!

We saw Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage which Baby Ava LOVED!!!!



Went on my favorite: The Great Movie Ride



And saw Fantasmic!

Ava and Grandpa

 

[101disneyfan]

Cut to the chase.
We probably didn't see nearly the amount of things that we would have liked, but we were there for only a couple of hours...

The rides that we went on were: ET Adventure, The Cat in the Hat, The Seuss Trolley Train Ride, and the Lucy Tribute Museum

Characters that we saw included: Marilyn Monroe, Doc Brown, Woody and Winnie Woodpecker, Curious George, Guy (from Green Eggs), The Cat in the Hat, The Grinch, and Thing 1 and 2.

Here are the pictures!

Hope you enjoyed this trip report, and when we go in January 2013, I will be sure to make that one sooner so that I remember more!

Thanks everybody!