"oh Mommy, dat's boo-tiful."
"Yes, it is a beautiful castle Katie."
"Boo-tiful Cin-er-ella Cas-sell, see Cin-er-ella Cas-sell?"
"Yes, Katie, I would love to go back and see the beautiful Cinderella Castle again. We need to ask Daddy don't we?"
"Yep. Cin-er-ella Cas-sell boo-tiful."
A few hours later, Daddy calls for some reason and I'm talking to him. Katie runs up to me and yells, "HI DADDY!!!!"
"Boo-tiful Daddy."
To which we end up trying to figure out what she's saying, and we go through Daddy is boo-tiful, Katie is boo-tiful...and then I remembered. I show her the photo of Cinderella's Castle and she tells Daddy, "Cin-er-ella Cas-sell boo-tiful. See Cin-er-ella Cas-sell?"
I laugh. I really do. Daddy has to tell her no, but he stalls by telling her not right now, but probably in 2 years. Like she understands 2 years. LOL
Tonight, after her bath...many hours later.
"I go Cin-er-ella Cas-sell? See boo-ti-ful cas-sell?"
No Katie...not right now. But be sure to ask Daddy again. ;)
Showing posts with label Disney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disney. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Disney 2009 - Chapter 6 - Magic Kingdom
Wednesday February 11, 2009 - Magic Kingdom (to Epcot)
Again we were up early to make it to the Magic Kingdom for rope drop, and this time we were actually earlier than we’d been the entire week. I stood in line next to the opening near the strollers so I could grab it and go to Fantasy Land quickly. Dh took the kids to watch the opening show because they were going regardless of whatever we told them. Clone2 really wanted to see the opening show from in front of the train station. I just smiled and told Dh that it’s Disney. It’s all good.
Well, it was all good until a family with 2 small children in a stroller had one start vomiting standing 2 people away from me waiting on rope drop. Poor little thing was coughing, and it sounded very much like what Clone2 had been doing and his Mommy was not patient with it at all. We survived, and rope dropped and we made our way down Main Street. The Cast Members were waving, the characters were out, and the bubbles were blowing out of the trash cans! Princess Peanut and Clone2 were really excited about the bubbles, but we had them in the stroller by this point and I just pushed them past the bubbles. We laughed about the trashcans burping bubbles for a good little bit.
Our reason for being at rope drop was Dumbo, and we quickly made our way to Dumbo and got on the 3rd ride of the day. We were hoping that Princess Peanut would love the ride, and she did! We had to encourage her to sit on the seat, but once that elephant started flying she was all smiles. Thinking we might have turned the corner on the rides department, we sashayed over to Peter Pan and basically walked on, Princess Peanut buried her head for the entire time again! We finally started putting it together that she would like the outdoor rides but not the indoor ones. So, we went directly to the carousel to make it up to her. She loved the carousel, absolutely loved it. At this point we were debating, and not fully following the plan as this morning was all about Princess Peanut for the first time. Did we do It’s a Small World again, or do Pooh? Dh thought Small World would be better for the Princess because we had fast passes for Pooh and could ride it later, and as it was an “indoor” ride it might not go over well. Small World she’d ridden before and liked it so he thought it would be a good one to try. Okay, it was a morning ALL about the Princess afterall. Clone1 was oh so thrilled.
After Small World we decided to try seeing the Princesses and found the line to be posted at 15 minutes (time on exif data on photos says 10:16am). Not too bad, but the Fairies line? It said 75 minutes! What in the heck? We decided it wasn’t worth that. Princess Peanut did not react well to the face characters at all, not even for her favored Cinderella. We got our photos, and Clone2 got his photo made with them. Princess Peanut told them all bye and blew kisses, but wanted nothing to do with getting closer than seeing them from Daddy’s arms. She’s excited to see the photos now, so it was worth it.
We left the Princesses and decided to see how long the line for Mickey was. Dh played FPV and got Space Mountain fast passes as the boys really wanted to ride this again, and they had been so very patient with the morning that was all about Princess Peanut. Mickey’s line was really short, but after a few minutes standing in it we realized that it was not moving at all. Having been in this line before, I realized that only one Mickey must have been back there. VERY slow moving line, so we left and made our way to Tomorrow Land where we were able to get on Buzz Lightyear easily, and then Dh took the Clones to Stitch’s Great Escape. I sat outside in the sun and enjoyed the warm day with an overly active Princess Peanut. After a few minutes Dh came out with the clones, and Clone2 told me that he did NOT like that ride and refused to ride it! Okay by me, so Dh and Clone1 got back in line and I sat with the kids outside eating a snack.
Right before lunch.
I rode Space Mountain with the boys after securing a Rider Swap pass for Dh’s trip later in the day. Then we made our way to lunch, and caught the show in front of the Castle. Yep, Princess Peanut yelled at Dh to stop the stroller so she could watch. Clone2 enjoyed it as well. Clone1? Well, he went with me to grab some grapes and water to help round out our lunch and we made it back to the show for the very end. The younger kids really enjoyed it, and I’m glad they were able to “work it in” at that point.
We ate lunch and headed toward Frontier Land, and I knew we were getting close to really being off our normal schedule, so we talked about what ride the kids wanted to do and Splash Mountain won. Dh was FPV and got fast passes for those as I made my way that direction. Clone1 had asked if we could please do Tom Sawyer’s Island this trip, so I figured that now was a good time for it. Tom Sawyer’s Island was “eh” to me, but the kids seemed to enjoy it. Time stamp on these photos is around 1:15 pm.
We finished up with that and went to Splash Mountain. We were seated in rows 1 and 2, and I got soaked. I dislike being wet, and getting soaked at the beginning of the ride was the pits! Oh well, the boys thought it was hilarious. When we finally exited we saw Dh with Princess Peanut first in line to see Goofy! She went up to Goofy with Clone1’s encouragement and even gave him 5! (Time stamp here is 2pm)
We left Frontier Land and made our way back toward Fantasy Land where we rode Pooh with our fast passes, and Princess Peanut seemed to like it (she only buried her head a tiny bit). We headed on to Tomorrow Land for that Space Mountain rider swap and to use the Buzz Lightyear fast pass we’d grabbed earlier. Princess Peanut was in my arms for Buzz Lightyear and she actually tried shooting her gun the entire time! We were making definite progress. When we exited Buzz, the Princess saw Stitch and insisted on getting in line for him. I didn’t argue with it, and sent the boys ahead to Space Mountain.
Our experience with Stitch was awesome. Princess Peanut really started opening up to the “furry” characters, and as she had her squeaky shoes on Stitch really got down and played with her. It was adorable. Princess Peanut went up to Stitch (he was down on her level and let her approach him). The only problem came when we were leaving, Princess Peanut blew him a kiss and said “bye” then started walking away. Stitch followed behind her looking at the shoes, and Princess Peanut freaked out a little. Poor Stitch was so sorry that he’d scared her. It was okay though as Princess Peanut blew him another kiss…safely from my arms though. ;) (time stamp here was 3:55pm)
We made our way to Space Mountain to wait on the boys, and I made Princess Peanut get into that stroller where she proceeded to show off all of her “two-ness” for everyone.
I used her Nemo towel and played peek-a-boo which got her giggling again. Phew! The boys finished their blast through space, and we headed out of Magic Kingdom to hop to EPCOT. I knew that Princess Peanut would fall asleep in the van (why we drive to all the parks), and we were able to let her get a 30 minute nap in.
Once in the van we decided a quick 30 minute or so stop at the resort for the boys to experience the water slide at our pool. Great plan, well, sort of. I was going to rest with Princess Peanut in the room, the boys were going to swim. The slide was NOT working that day, so it was a quick disappointing “rest period” in the pool. Still fun, still a quick rest period for Princess Peanut who really needed it at that point. But we still had a park to see that night! The plan…I was insisting we stick to the plan.
When we got to EPCOT we sent Dh on to get Test Track fast passes, and then the boys all rode Mission Space. We grabbed the Rider Swap for this one as I knew they’d be riding it a 2nd time back to back (we do green with Clone2 then orange with Clone1 for each time of riding it). Dh and I swap off riding with the boys as well (I only ride the green though). We made our way over to the Land for dinner, and noticed the Soarin’ wait time was 40 minutes. We agreed to wait to ride it. We then went to ride Jounrey into Imagination because the Clones asked us to. We knew Princess Peanut would hate it, she did. The kids played in the exit area for a little bit, then we headed over to ride Test Track with the Fast Passes. We got our rider swap, and I rode with the boys. We left there to ride Mission Space again (hey the boys love it), then we went back for Dh to ride Test Track with the boys on the Rider Swap, but it was “down.” Clone1 asked to ride Spaceship Earth, so we went to ride that and enjoyed the updates. I miss the whole ending that was the “future” but were things that were actually happening now. I remember riding it as a child/teen and being amazed at the thought of communicating over the computer with another country!! I was looking forward to pointing to that and saying “We DID that while in China!” Oh well, the computer thing was cute.
Unfortunately Test Track was still down when we exited, so we had to skip it. It was almost time for Illuminations by this point and I feel like I forgot some of the stuff that we did that night, but it’s really starting to all blur together now.
We made it back to our room and promptely fell asleep so we could be back at EPCOT for rope drop the next day. Why didn’t we just stick around at the hotel after we “rested” I wonder? I'm also starting to wonder if anyone here would ever willingly travel to Disney with us now? LOL
Again we were up early to make it to the Magic Kingdom for rope drop, and this time we were actually earlier than we’d been the entire week. I stood in line next to the opening near the strollers so I could grab it and go to Fantasy Land quickly. Dh took the kids to watch the opening show because they were going regardless of whatever we told them. Clone2 really wanted to see the opening show from in front of the train station. I just smiled and told Dh that it’s Disney. It’s all good.
Well, it was all good until a family with 2 small children in a stroller had one start vomiting standing 2 people away from me waiting on rope drop. Poor little thing was coughing, and it sounded very much like what Clone2 had been doing and his Mommy was not patient with it at all. We survived, and rope dropped and we made our way down Main Street. The Cast Members were waving, the characters were out, and the bubbles were blowing out of the trash cans! Princess Peanut and Clone2 were really excited about the bubbles, but we had them in the stroller by this point and I just pushed them past the bubbles. We laughed about the trashcans burping bubbles for a good little bit.
Our reason for being at rope drop was Dumbo, and we quickly made our way to Dumbo and got on the 3rd ride of the day. We were hoping that Princess Peanut would love the ride, and she did! We had to encourage her to sit on the seat, but once that elephant started flying she was all smiles. Thinking we might have turned the corner on the rides department, we sashayed over to Peter Pan and basically walked on, Princess Peanut buried her head for the entire time again! We finally started putting it together that she would like the outdoor rides but not the indoor ones. So, we went directly to the carousel to make it up to her. She loved the carousel, absolutely loved it. At this point we were debating, and not fully following the plan as this morning was all about Princess Peanut for the first time. Did we do It’s a Small World again, or do Pooh? Dh thought Small World would be better for the Princess because we had fast passes for Pooh and could ride it later, and as it was an “indoor” ride it might not go over well. Small World she’d ridden before and liked it so he thought it would be a good one to try. Okay, it was a morning ALL about the Princess afterall. Clone1 was oh so thrilled.
After Small World we decided to try seeing the Princesses and found the line to be posted at 15 minutes (time on exif data on photos says 10:16am). Not too bad, but the Fairies line? It said 75 minutes! What in the heck? We decided it wasn’t worth that. Princess Peanut did not react well to the face characters at all, not even for her favored Cinderella. We got our photos, and Clone2 got his photo made with them. Princess Peanut told them all bye and blew kisses, but wanted nothing to do with getting closer than seeing them from Daddy’s arms. She’s excited to see the photos now, so it was worth it.
We left the Princesses and decided to see how long the line for Mickey was. Dh played FPV and got Space Mountain fast passes as the boys really wanted to ride this again, and they had been so very patient with the morning that was all about Princess Peanut. Mickey’s line was really short, but after a few minutes standing in it we realized that it was not moving at all. Having been in this line before, I realized that only one Mickey must have been back there. VERY slow moving line, so we left and made our way to Tomorrow Land where we were able to get on Buzz Lightyear easily, and then Dh took the Clones to Stitch’s Great Escape. I sat outside in the sun and enjoyed the warm day with an overly active Princess Peanut. After a few minutes Dh came out with the clones, and Clone2 told me that he did NOT like that ride and refused to ride it! Okay by me, so Dh and Clone1 got back in line and I sat with the kids outside eating a snack.
Right before lunch.
I rode Space Mountain with the boys after securing a Rider Swap pass for Dh’s trip later in the day. Then we made our way to lunch, and caught the show in front of the Castle. Yep, Princess Peanut yelled at Dh to stop the stroller so she could watch. Clone2 enjoyed it as well. Clone1? Well, he went with me to grab some grapes and water to help round out our lunch and we made it back to the show for the very end. The younger kids really enjoyed it, and I’m glad they were able to “work it in” at that point.
We ate lunch and headed toward Frontier Land, and I knew we were getting close to really being off our normal schedule, so we talked about what ride the kids wanted to do and Splash Mountain won. Dh was FPV and got fast passes for those as I made my way that direction. Clone1 had asked if we could please do Tom Sawyer’s Island this trip, so I figured that now was a good time for it. Tom Sawyer’s Island was “eh” to me, but the kids seemed to enjoy it. Time stamp on these photos is around 1:15 pm.
We finished up with that and went to Splash Mountain. We were seated in rows 1 and 2, and I got soaked. I dislike being wet, and getting soaked at the beginning of the ride was the pits! Oh well, the boys thought it was hilarious. When we finally exited we saw Dh with Princess Peanut first in line to see Goofy! She went up to Goofy with Clone1’s encouragement and even gave him 5! (Time stamp here is 2pm)
We left Frontier Land and made our way back toward Fantasy Land where we rode Pooh with our fast passes, and Princess Peanut seemed to like it (she only buried her head a tiny bit). We headed on to Tomorrow Land for that Space Mountain rider swap and to use the Buzz Lightyear fast pass we’d grabbed earlier. Princess Peanut was in my arms for Buzz Lightyear and she actually tried shooting her gun the entire time! We were making definite progress. When we exited Buzz, the Princess saw Stitch and insisted on getting in line for him. I didn’t argue with it, and sent the boys ahead to Space Mountain.
Our experience with Stitch was awesome. Princess Peanut really started opening up to the “furry” characters, and as she had her squeaky shoes on Stitch really got down and played with her. It was adorable. Princess Peanut went up to Stitch (he was down on her level and let her approach him). The only problem came when we were leaving, Princess Peanut blew him a kiss and said “bye” then started walking away. Stitch followed behind her looking at the shoes, and Princess Peanut freaked out a little. Poor Stitch was so sorry that he’d scared her. It was okay though as Princess Peanut blew him another kiss…safely from my arms though. ;) (time stamp here was 3:55pm)
We made our way to Space Mountain to wait on the boys, and I made Princess Peanut get into that stroller where she proceeded to show off all of her “two-ness” for everyone.
I used her Nemo towel and played peek-a-boo which got her giggling again. Phew! The boys finished their blast through space, and we headed out of Magic Kingdom to hop to EPCOT. I knew that Princess Peanut would fall asleep in the van (why we drive to all the parks), and we were able to let her get a 30 minute nap in.
Once in the van we decided a quick 30 minute or so stop at the resort for the boys to experience the water slide at our pool. Great plan, well, sort of. I was going to rest with Princess Peanut in the room, the boys were going to swim. The slide was NOT working that day, so it was a quick disappointing “rest period” in the pool. Still fun, still a quick rest period for Princess Peanut who really needed it at that point. But we still had a park to see that night! The plan…I was insisting we stick to the plan.
When we got to EPCOT we sent Dh on to get Test Track fast passes, and then the boys all rode Mission Space. We grabbed the Rider Swap for this one as I knew they’d be riding it a 2nd time back to back (we do green with Clone2 then orange with Clone1 for each time of riding it). Dh and I swap off riding with the boys as well (I only ride the green though). We made our way over to the Land for dinner, and noticed the Soarin’ wait time was 40 minutes. We agreed to wait to ride it. We then went to ride Jounrey into Imagination because the Clones asked us to. We knew Princess Peanut would hate it, she did. The kids played in the exit area for a little bit, then we headed over to ride Test Track with the Fast Passes. We got our rider swap, and I rode with the boys. We left there to ride Mission Space again (hey the boys love it), then we went back for Dh to ride Test Track with the boys on the Rider Swap, but it was “down.” Clone1 asked to ride Spaceship Earth, so we went to ride that and enjoyed the updates. I miss the whole ending that was the “future” but were things that were actually happening now. I remember riding it as a child/teen and being amazed at the thought of communicating over the computer with another country!! I was looking forward to pointing to that and saying “We DID that while in China!” Oh well, the computer thing was cute.
Unfortunately Test Track was still down when we exited, so we had to skip it. It was almost time for Illuminations by this point and I feel like I forgot some of the stuff that we did that night, but it’s really starting to all blur together now.
We made it back to our room and promptely fell asleep so we could be back at EPCOT for rope drop the next day. Why didn’t we just stick around at the hotel after we “rested” I wonder? I'm also starting to wonder if anyone here would ever willingly travel to Disney with us now? LOL
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Disney 2009 - Chapter 5 - "Rest Day" and Disney Quest
I've sadly neglected our Disney tales! So, after our awful evening at Disney Studios, we luckily had a "rest" day planned. This means we sleep in, it does not mean we just sit around the hotel and actually rest, to the chagrin of many who think they would like to travel with us. ;) If you have forgotten our magical tale, click the Disney labels link and bring up all the posts about Disney for the beginning of this story and hopefully I'll get it finished before we go back (which will probably be in about 2 years).
Sleeping in plans didn’t go so well, but at least we were able to sleep later than the 6am! We were ready to head out around 10am to go eat lunch at Earl of Sandwich at DTD and do a little shopping. Princess Peanut saw the carousel and pointed with excitement. I thought that perhaps we’d have to do that, not even thinking that there is a HUGE carousel in the Magic Kingdom.
Shopping with 3 kids in the slightly overcrowded areas of Downtown Disney is not my idea of great fun, but we survived. We got a few ideas for things, bought a couple of things, forgot to look at even more things…
But finally, we were on our way to Disney Quest. The Clones adore Disney Quest. They talk about it to complete strangers when the subject of going to Disney World comes up. I could spend that time shopping if I could, but I love the Clones so I go for them (dh needs help keeping an eye on them). We’d done this arcade with a toddler previously, so I knew what to expect with Princess Peanut. Surprisingly right after getting to Disney Quest I sat down with Princess Peanut in a quiet food court area, in a darkened area and she fell asleep. Princess Peanut, who has NEVER fallen asleep in my arms except once in China, fell asleep. Yes, she was THAT tired. Then I fell asleep, for about 30-60 minutes. Dh woke us up and off we went to play some video games with us girls all refreshed. ;)
As always, Pirates game was our family favorite. We met up with Friends here, and as we thought 14 year old son loved it. Unfortunately the Dad had caught our “plague” and wasn’t feeling the best in the world. I felt bad that Clone2 had sneezed and coughed directly on him earlier in the trip.
We finished up at Disney Quest and headed back to the shopping and doing some of the big souvenir buying. A few tantrums later (same child as the one with the Nemo tantrum), and we were out of there with me drooling over the Mickey Mouse “silverware” sets! Oh and some lovely lunch type plates and glasses for the kids.
We met Friends at Whispering Canyon for dinner, and it was “okay” but still fun. After dinner was our BIG debate. What to do? More shopping? Mini-golf? Swimming? Or the surprise Dh sprung on me…we have an extra park day! WHAT?! He bought us an extra day as he thought we might like it and it was only $9 more total.
Awwwww….
But with paying for parking and all, we chose to go back to the hotel and swim. Well, okay, the kids and Dh went swimming. Princess Peanut got in the pool and actually had fun!
Sleeping in plans didn’t go so well, but at least we were able to sleep later than the 6am! We were ready to head out around 10am to go eat lunch at Earl of Sandwich at DTD and do a little shopping. Princess Peanut saw the carousel and pointed with excitement. I thought that perhaps we’d have to do that, not even thinking that there is a HUGE carousel in the Magic Kingdom.
Shopping with 3 kids in the slightly overcrowded areas of Downtown Disney is not my idea of great fun, but we survived. We got a few ideas for things, bought a couple of things, forgot to look at even more things…
But finally, we were on our way to Disney Quest. The Clones adore Disney Quest. They talk about it to complete strangers when the subject of going to Disney World comes up. I could spend that time shopping if I could, but I love the Clones so I go for them (dh needs help keeping an eye on them). We’d done this arcade with a toddler previously, so I knew what to expect with Princess Peanut. Surprisingly right after getting to Disney Quest I sat down with Princess Peanut in a quiet food court area, in a darkened area and she fell asleep. Princess Peanut, who has NEVER fallen asleep in my arms except once in China, fell asleep. Yes, she was THAT tired. Then I fell asleep, for about 30-60 minutes. Dh woke us up and off we went to play some video games with us girls all refreshed. ;)
As always, Pirates game was our family favorite. We met up with Friends here, and as we thought 14 year old son loved it. Unfortunately the Dad had caught our “plague” and wasn’t feeling the best in the world. I felt bad that Clone2 had sneezed and coughed directly on him earlier in the trip.
We finished up at Disney Quest and headed back to the shopping and doing some of the big souvenir buying. A few tantrums later (same child as the one with the Nemo tantrum), and we were out of there with me drooling over the Mickey Mouse “silverware” sets! Oh and some lovely lunch type plates and glasses for the kids.
We met Friends at Whispering Canyon for dinner, and it was “okay” but still fun. After dinner was our BIG debate. What to do? More shopping? Mini-golf? Swimming? Or the surprise Dh sprung on me…we have an extra park day! WHAT?! He bought us an extra day as he thought we might like it and it was only $9 more total.
Awwwww….
But with paying for parking and all, we chose to go back to the hotel and swim. Well, okay, the kids and Dh went swimming. Princess Peanut got in the pool and actually had fun!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
I want to go back
WHY? Because I want to see this face again....
The look of pure JOY in the thrill of getting to ride a carousel in Fantasyland with the Castle nearby.
*taken by Dh with the point and shoot, complete with Katie fingerprint smudges on the lens...if you look VERY carefully you will spot ME in the background as well as JM.
The look of pure JOY in the thrill of getting to ride a carousel in Fantasyland with the Castle nearby.
*taken by Dh with the point and shoot, complete with Katie fingerprint smudges on the lens...if you look VERY carefully you will spot ME in the background as well as JM.
Monday, March 02, 2009
Disney 2009 - Chapter 4 - Disney Hollywood Studios (H31l day)
Another early morning, although Clone2 slept all through the night without coughing fits! Bonus for him, not so much for me because I had to get up and check to make sure he was still breathing as Moms are wired to do that sort of thing.
We arrived at Hollywood Studios just a few minutes later than we would have liked, and were happy to see our friends waiting at the turnstiles! Yippee!!! We sort of kind of explained that it would be a giant crush of people getting to the new ride, Toy Story Mania, and if they could at all hang with us for that, then the rest of the day would not be so bad. Good times getting the stroller and trying to maneuver up the street in the crush of people. I had not anticipated what effect limited Fantasmic! would do to the park, nor had we been to a park on an EMH day in the past few trips. It was more crowded than I thought it would be, but we managed.
Dh was FPV for our family and luckily we had explained that to Friends so Dad/Husband was FPV for them for Toy Story Mania. I had the stroller with Clone2 and kept up with the Friends. Clone1 and Princess Peanut stayed with Dh. I would say Dh managed to get up toward the middle of the front of the pack while I was in the middle of the back of the pack. It all worked out as we got our FP for Toy Story Mania, got the stroller parked, and got in the long line that wasn’t too bad as we ended up constantly walking until we picked up our 3D glasses. I rode with Clone2 while Dh had Clone1 and Princess Peanut (who was not able to be held for this ride, so she just held her blanket up to her face instead until she started laughing at the movement of the vehicles). First impressions of this ride are that it is GREAT and not too difficult to score fairly well. This is important because Clone2 has been discouraged on Buzz for not getting very high scores like his Daddy does (yeah me too Clone2 me too). We all finished around 100,000 points, and we all could not wait to ride again!
We guided Friends to a place to grab breakfast as they had not eaten, and we took the boys to ride Star Tours and get a rider swap for it. Flight to Endor was it’s usual bumpy self, but the boys loved it. We chose to skip the Jedi Training Academy at that point (regretted it actually later in the trip as it would have been easy to see if the boys could be picked). Friends caught up with us and we went to see Muppet Vision 3D. Princess Peanut almost liked this one. The boys laughed, Friends seemed to really enjoy it. We walked the Streets of New York and San Fran for a few minutes, then made our way to Sci Fi for our dining reservation. I played FPV for our family and walked to get Rockin Rollercoaster Fastpasses while they finished up lunch.
It was around Noon by this point, and characters were not something Princess Peanut was at all interested in nor was Clone1. Clone2 could have seen them, and I wish I had made the effort to find Buzz and Cars for them. As it was, we got on the Great Movie Ride after I took Clone1 back to Sci Fi to get his ears he’d left behind. Everyone loved the ride, and Princess Peanut even watched some. We are making progress!!
Once we left the Great Movie Ride we decided to use our fast passes for Toy Story Mania. Fun again and all the scores improved a little! I noticed that it was time to quickly make our way to Lights Motors Action, and I had based our touring plan on previous trips and expected there to be plenty of room in the stadium. There was not. We managed to get seats, but they packed this stadium full and had to turn people away. It was the first I had ever seen that happen, and it was then I looked at Dh and we both started thinking about Fantasmic! that night. Friends and the clones enjoyed LMA of course, and it took forever to exit (big huge crowds).
We knew were Monsters Inc were, so we went to stand in line to meet those characters (Friends had specifically asked to meet them). The Clones and Dh with Friends’ 14 year old went to watch Jedi Training Academy, I stayed with Princess Peanut as she wanted to meet Mike. Wow. She was all for it as long as she was at least 3 feet away from him, so definite progress had been made there! We joined up with the Jedi hopefuls to find out they had not been picked, and then they rode Star Tours again while the girls of the group went on to Indiana Jones. Once again I was expecting a mostly empty arena, but found it was starting to get crowded already. We grabbed some seats, and the boys joined us.
Friends’ Dad/Husband was chosen for the evil laugh, only they really should have used his real evil laugh as I’ve heard it and it’s really good! LOL Having a friend participating made it a fun show for me and Dh. The Clones thought it was great as well.
Phew…I’m tired just remembering all of this. I do remember Clone2 having some major issues with coughing and breathing coming out of Indiana Jones, and as we were walking toward Narnia (Clone1 really wanted to see it) I remember other people staring at him and yanking their kids away from us. Cough variant asthma really does sound bad. Clone2 felt a little warm to me, and with how he’d been coughing I decided to call the pediatrician to check in and double check okay meds for him and dosage amounts. Clone2 and I sat outside Narnia while I called the doctor’s office. Clone2 was just about literally turning flips inside the stroller (obviously he didn’t feel THAT bad). I got through and the nurse saw Clone2’s chart and decided that the doctor really did need to review it all before she advised me (duh…). So I had to wait on a return phone call. Fun times indeed.
It was now around 5:30pm, and Dh and I had decided if we were going to attempt Fantasmic! at 7pm that we needed to head to find a seat about now, and as we had fast passes for RnR, Dh, Clone2, and Friends’ Dad/Husband all went to use them. The rest of us found seats in the over half full stadium. Yes, long before 6pm it was over half full. I spread my bags and jackets out and waited. I saw the stadium fill up around us, and heard the complaints as people saw my “saved seats” but I knew I had to keep them saved. The boys rejoined us, we got our snack dinners and chatted with our friends. I could tell they were tired, but I hoped they weren’t too bad off as we had spent more of the day sitting than previous days. Well, at 6:40 or there abouts we got the 10 minute warning on show start. Huh? I noticed at that time that the stadium was completely and totally full. Dh told me that at 6:30 when he was up a Cast Member had mentioned that standing room was full as well. Fantasmic! started at 6:50pm. It was wonderful as usual, and I felt very sorry for the people down in the “mist zone” as it was a windy night and rather cool. I know they got soaked.
Friends LOVED the show. As we were sitting in the 3rd from the top row, we thought we could exit easily. No such luck. Exiting this show was horrendous. Absolutely horrendous. Imagine a mob of people standing shoulder to shoulder, front to back, with only the ability to shift your feet forward about ½ an inch at a time. Then because you have little kids walking with you people think there is an opening, so they shove into that space. You become separated from your 6 year old because of this, and before you can blink there are 4 adults between you and you have to shout ahead to the 14 year old to PLEASE keep an eye on your 6 year old. Which is when you notice that your 10 year old is with said 14 year old. You look around and Dh with Princess Peanut (age 2) asleep in his arms is at least 6 people behind you. Friends? Well, they are behind Dh. No amount of “excuse me my child is ahead of me and separated” gets you any further ahead. After 5-10 minutes (scary ones as you imagine your child getting trampled) you finally make it to the restroom area of Fantasmic! and you tell the 14 year old to pull the kids off to the side so all the adults can catch up. From that point on we hug the right side of the exit area so someone could dart ahead and get the younger kids if we had to. Only, others have this same idea and push forward trying to get ahead so you really have to watch your child. Your asthmatic child who is coughing yet again (stress is one trigger). We finally make it to the Tower of Terror area, and our hopes of things clearing out are dashed. Not only does it seem more crowded (we’re back to ½ inch steps) but there is a group of smokers with a heavy cloud of cigarette smoking hanging over the area we must walk through. I know this will trigger Clone2’s asthma, as it will also trigger my own and Princess Peanut’s. We do our best, I give Clone2 a throat drop to suck on hoping it will help keep the coughing spasms from getting bad. Dh covers Princess Peanut’s head with her blanket. I don’t let Clone2 stop for coughing, we basically drag him along with us as I know he has to get away from that area.
Now, you would think, YIPPEE we’re on Hollywood Blvd. We’re OUT OF THERE! Only, we’re now. Imagine this mob you’ve been traveling with, the crowd of people around you all sensing the freedom of the open “road” to travel in. It’s half blocked on the left by the people waiting to get in the 8:15pm showing of Fantasmic! The sidewalks on the right are full of the masses streaming into the RnR and ToT for their EMH night of riding as well as the various carts and trashcans on the sidewalk. As we hit the road with the left half blocked off with the mass of people waiting to enter Fantasmic! there is a cart, one with light up toys parked horizontally on the road. It literally is blocking all but 3 people widths around it. Our exiting mass has to further squeeze down into 3 single file lines to get by. This is compounded by strollers, wheelchairs, and scooters. People see the open areas where a stroller is and push into it not realizing they are pushing into a stroller. I saw the same thing happen with wheelchairs and scooters. We did NOT have our stroller with us as we knew it would be insane. Clone2, still slightly coughing, was walking beside Dh. I was in front of Dh with the diaper bag on my shoulder. Princess Peanut was on his shoulder. 2 adults pushed their way forward, pushing into Samuel and pushed him into Dh and myself (with the bag). I couldn’t move over any because the cart was there. They looked at Dh and me and said, “We’re just trying to exit Fantasmic!” Dh replied, “So are we!!” I looked at them and said, “and you just squished my asthmatic 6 year old!!!” Yes, complete with evil Mommy bear glare. No apologies. Dh did not realize, even after I said that, that Samuel had been squished between us. Clone1 was on the opposite side of the cart with Friends. Right after this, I drug our group to stand beside a trashcan (protection from the surging mass of people), so we could wait on it to die down some.
Friends chose to go shopping and dove through a break into the shop. Dh insisted we move on ahead with me in front, Clone2 behind me, Clone1 behind him, and then Dh. Everyone moved single file, holding on to the shirt in front of them. We passed a larger cart (popcorn maybe?), and got to the restrooms halfway down the road and finally the crowd started easing up. We moved faster and finally were able to walk almost normally, got outside of the park as quickly as possible. Dh took the kids to the bathroom, I found the asthma rescue meds, and we finally were able to take care of Clone2 and his breathing. I knew the fumes from the buses would further irritate him, and had him take my sweatshirt jacket and breathe through the material.
I was never so happy to get into our van as I was that night.
Dh and I have promised to never see another Fantasmic! as long as this kind of chaos is going on with it. Luckily we know this was not a normal Disney experience because it would have severely colored our judgement on what Disney is like. If someone were to ask me what my single most horrid experience at Disney has been, this was it.
We got back to our hotel, and Dh took off for a pharmacy as we needed some more decongestant/cough meds. I finally got the return phone call from the doctor and after some back and forth had a plan for Clone2’s asthma. Dh had to return to the pharmacy (caught him on the drive back to the hotel) for a new cough med that the doctor thought might work better with the myriad medicines Clone2 had to take. Luckily the next day was our rest day.
Recap of the day
FPV Toy Story Mania
Toy Story Mania - Standby
--drop friends off for breakfastStar Tours Standby & get rider swap
--Dh FPV for Star Tours
--friends meet back up with us
Muppet Vision 3D
Streets of New York (friends loved it)
Sci-Fi for Lunch
FPV - Rockin Roller Coaster
Great Movie Ride
Toy Story Mania with Fast Pass (at least I think we did this prior to Lights Motors Action)
Lights Motors Action
--Meet MIKE
--Jedi Training Academy
Ride Star Tours
Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular
Narnia thing
--Get seats for Fantasmic!
Rockin Rollercoaster
Survive H-E-double hockey sticks
Get back to hotel.
We arrived at Hollywood Studios just a few minutes later than we would have liked, and were happy to see our friends waiting at the turnstiles! Yippee!!! We sort of kind of explained that it would be a giant crush of people getting to the new ride, Toy Story Mania, and if they could at all hang with us for that, then the rest of the day would not be so bad. Good times getting the stroller and trying to maneuver up the street in the crush of people. I had not anticipated what effect limited Fantasmic! would do to the park, nor had we been to a park on an EMH day in the past few trips. It was more crowded than I thought it would be, but we managed.
Dh was FPV for our family and luckily we had explained that to Friends so Dad/Husband was FPV for them for Toy Story Mania. I had the stroller with Clone2 and kept up with the Friends. Clone1 and Princess Peanut stayed with Dh. I would say Dh managed to get up toward the middle of the front of the pack while I was in the middle of the back of the pack. It all worked out as we got our FP for Toy Story Mania, got the stroller parked, and got in the long line that wasn’t too bad as we ended up constantly walking until we picked up our 3D glasses. I rode with Clone2 while Dh had Clone1 and Princess Peanut (who was not able to be held for this ride, so she just held her blanket up to her face instead until she started laughing at the movement of the vehicles). First impressions of this ride are that it is GREAT and not too difficult to score fairly well. This is important because Clone2 has been discouraged on Buzz for not getting very high scores like his Daddy does (yeah me too Clone2 me too). We all finished around 100,000 points, and we all could not wait to ride again!
We guided Friends to a place to grab breakfast as they had not eaten, and we took the boys to ride Star Tours and get a rider swap for it. Flight to Endor was it’s usual bumpy self, but the boys loved it. We chose to skip the Jedi Training Academy at that point (regretted it actually later in the trip as it would have been easy to see if the boys could be picked). Friends caught up with us and we went to see Muppet Vision 3D. Princess Peanut almost liked this one. The boys laughed, Friends seemed to really enjoy it. We walked the Streets of New York and San Fran for a few minutes, then made our way to Sci Fi for our dining reservation. I played FPV for our family and walked to get Rockin Rollercoaster Fastpasses while they finished up lunch.
It was around Noon by this point, and characters were not something Princess Peanut was at all interested in nor was Clone1. Clone2 could have seen them, and I wish I had made the effort to find Buzz and Cars for them. As it was, we got on the Great Movie Ride after I took Clone1 back to Sci Fi to get his ears he’d left behind. Everyone loved the ride, and Princess Peanut even watched some. We are making progress!!
Once we left the Great Movie Ride we decided to use our fast passes for Toy Story Mania. Fun again and all the scores improved a little! I noticed that it was time to quickly make our way to Lights Motors Action, and I had based our touring plan on previous trips and expected there to be plenty of room in the stadium. There was not. We managed to get seats, but they packed this stadium full and had to turn people away. It was the first I had ever seen that happen, and it was then I looked at Dh and we both started thinking about Fantasmic! that night. Friends and the clones enjoyed LMA of course, and it took forever to exit (big huge crowds).
We knew were Monsters Inc were, so we went to stand in line to meet those characters (Friends had specifically asked to meet them). The Clones and Dh with Friends’ 14 year old went to watch Jedi Training Academy, I stayed with Princess Peanut as she wanted to meet Mike. Wow. She was all for it as long as she was at least 3 feet away from him, so definite progress had been made there! We joined up with the Jedi hopefuls to find out they had not been picked, and then they rode Star Tours again while the girls of the group went on to Indiana Jones. Once again I was expecting a mostly empty arena, but found it was starting to get crowded already. We grabbed some seats, and the boys joined us.
Friends’ Dad/Husband was chosen for the evil laugh, only they really should have used his real evil laugh as I’ve heard it and it’s really good! LOL Having a friend participating made it a fun show for me and Dh. The Clones thought it was great as well.
Phew…I’m tired just remembering all of this. I do remember Clone2 having some major issues with coughing and breathing coming out of Indiana Jones, and as we were walking toward Narnia (Clone1 really wanted to see it) I remember other people staring at him and yanking their kids away from us. Cough variant asthma really does sound bad. Clone2 felt a little warm to me, and with how he’d been coughing I decided to call the pediatrician to check in and double check okay meds for him and dosage amounts. Clone2 and I sat outside Narnia while I called the doctor’s office. Clone2 was just about literally turning flips inside the stroller (obviously he didn’t feel THAT bad). I got through and the nurse saw Clone2’s chart and decided that the doctor really did need to review it all before she advised me (duh…). So I had to wait on a return phone call. Fun times indeed.
It was now around 5:30pm, and Dh and I had decided if we were going to attempt Fantasmic! at 7pm that we needed to head to find a seat about now, and as we had fast passes for RnR, Dh, Clone2, and Friends’ Dad/Husband all went to use them. The rest of us found seats in the over half full stadium. Yes, long before 6pm it was over half full. I spread my bags and jackets out and waited. I saw the stadium fill up around us, and heard the complaints as people saw my “saved seats” but I knew I had to keep them saved. The boys rejoined us, we got our snack dinners and chatted with our friends. I could tell they were tired, but I hoped they weren’t too bad off as we had spent more of the day sitting than previous days. Well, at 6:40 or there abouts we got the 10 minute warning on show start. Huh? I noticed at that time that the stadium was completely and totally full. Dh told me that at 6:30 when he was up a Cast Member had mentioned that standing room was full as well. Fantasmic! started at 6:50pm. It was wonderful as usual, and I felt very sorry for the people down in the “mist zone” as it was a windy night and rather cool. I know they got soaked.
Friends LOVED the show. As we were sitting in the 3rd from the top row, we thought we could exit easily. No such luck. Exiting this show was horrendous. Absolutely horrendous. Imagine a mob of people standing shoulder to shoulder, front to back, with only the ability to shift your feet forward about ½ an inch at a time. Then because you have little kids walking with you people think there is an opening, so they shove into that space. You become separated from your 6 year old because of this, and before you can blink there are 4 adults between you and you have to shout ahead to the 14 year old to PLEASE keep an eye on your 6 year old. Which is when you notice that your 10 year old is with said 14 year old. You look around and Dh with Princess Peanut (age 2) asleep in his arms is at least 6 people behind you. Friends? Well, they are behind Dh. No amount of “excuse me my child is ahead of me and separated” gets you any further ahead. After 5-10 minutes (scary ones as you imagine your child getting trampled) you finally make it to the restroom area of Fantasmic! and you tell the 14 year old to pull the kids off to the side so all the adults can catch up. From that point on we hug the right side of the exit area so someone could dart ahead and get the younger kids if we had to. Only, others have this same idea and push forward trying to get ahead so you really have to watch your child. Your asthmatic child who is coughing yet again (stress is one trigger). We finally make it to the Tower of Terror area, and our hopes of things clearing out are dashed. Not only does it seem more crowded (we’re back to ½ inch steps) but there is a group of smokers with a heavy cloud of cigarette smoking hanging over the area we must walk through. I know this will trigger Clone2’s asthma, as it will also trigger my own and Princess Peanut’s. We do our best, I give Clone2 a throat drop to suck on hoping it will help keep the coughing spasms from getting bad. Dh covers Princess Peanut’s head with her blanket. I don’t let Clone2 stop for coughing, we basically drag him along with us as I know he has to get away from that area.
Now, you would think, YIPPEE we’re on Hollywood Blvd. We’re OUT OF THERE! Only, we’re now. Imagine this mob you’ve been traveling with, the crowd of people around you all sensing the freedom of the open “road” to travel in. It’s half blocked on the left by the people waiting to get in the 8:15pm showing of Fantasmic! The sidewalks on the right are full of the masses streaming into the RnR and ToT for their EMH night of riding as well as the various carts and trashcans on the sidewalk. As we hit the road with the left half blocked off with the mass of people waiting to enter Fantasmic! there is a cart, one with light up toys parked horizontally on the road. It literally is blocking all but 3 people widths around it. Our exiting mass has to further squeeze down into 3 single file lines to get by. This is compounded by strollers, wheelchairs, and scooters. People see the open areas where a stroller is and push into it not realizing they are pushing into a stroller. I saw the same thing happen with wheelchairs and scooters. We did NOT have our stroller with us as we knew it would be insane. Clone2, still slightly coughing, was walking beside Dh. I was in front of Dh with the diaper bag on my shoulder. Princess Peanut was on his shoulder. 2 adults pushed their way forward, pushing into Samuel and pushed him into Dh and myself (with the bag). I couldn’t move over any because the cart was there. They looked at Dh and me and said, “We’re just trying to exit Fantasmic!” Dh replied, “So are we!!” I looked at them and said, “and you just squished my asthmatic 6 year old!!!” Yes, complete with evil Mommy bear glare. No apologies. Dh did not realize, even after I said that, that Samuel had been squished between us. Clone1 was on the opposite side of the cart with Friends. Right after this, I drug our group to stand beside a trashcan (protection from the surging mass of people), so we could wait on it to die down some.
Friends chose to go shopping and dove through a break into the shop. Dh insisted we move on ahead with me in front, Clone2 behind me, Clone1 behind him, and then Dh. Everyone moved single file, holding on to the shirt in front of them. We passed a larger cart (popcorn maybe?), and got to the restrooms halfway down the road and finally the crowd started easing up. We moved faster and finally were able to walk almost normally, got outside of the park as quickly as possible. Dh took the kids to the bathroom, I found the asthma rescue meds, and we finally were able to take care of Clone2 and his breathing. I knew the fumes from the buses would further irritate him, and had him take my sweatshirt jacket and breathe through the material.
I was never so happy to get into our van as I was that night.
Dh and I have promised to never see another Fantasmic! as long as this kind of chaos is going on with it. Luckily we know this was not a normal Disney experience because it would have severely colored our judgement on what Disney is like. If someone were to ask me what my single most horrid experience at Disney has been, this was it.
We got back to our hotel, and Dh took off for a pharmacy as we needed some more decongestant/cough meds. I finally got the return phone call from the doctor and after some back and forth had a plan for Clone2’s asthma. Dh had to return to the pharmacy (caught him on the drive back to the hotel) for a new cough med that the doctor thought might work better with the myriad medicines Clone2 had to take. Luckily the next day was our rest day.
Recap of the day
FPV Toy Story Mania
Toy Story Mania - Standby
--drop friends off for breakfastStar Tours Standby & get rider swap
--Dh FPV for Star Tours
--friends meet back up with us
Muppet Vision 3D
Streets of New York (friends loved it)
Sci-Fi for Lunch
FPV - Rockin Roller Coaster
Great Movie Ride
Toy Story Mania with Fast Pass (at least I think we did this prior to Lights Motors Action)
Lights Motors Action
--Meet MIKE
--Jedi Training Academy
Ride Star Tours
Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular
Narnia thing
--Get seats for Fantasmic!
Rockin Rollercoaster
Survive H-E-double hockey sticks
Get back to hotel.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Disney 2009 - Chapter 3.2 - Epcot (night1 there)
We got to EPCOT and DH being the FPV ran ahead and got Test Track fast passes. Then he met us at Mission Space where he and the Clones rode the GREEN side of Mission Space and we got a rider swap for this ride as well. Dh immediately used the rider swap to take Clone2 on the Orange side. When Mission Space first opened, Clone2 was 19 months and Clone1 was 5 and 44 inches tall. Clone1 rode Mission Space at FULL force, at the age of 5, seven times in one trip. We knew he could handle it and he loves that side. Clone2, being asthmatic, can really only ride the green side (well it’s all we feel comfortable letting him ride). So, that’s where we stand on that.
After Mission Space, we headed across Future World to the Land for lunch at the counter service there. I saw the Soarin’ stand by wait and no fast passes, and chose to forgo that fun experience for now. We exited the land after lunch and headed to Nemo and Friends at the Living Seas. We stopped for photos with Nemo, waited through the major temper tantrum thrown by one child (not naming them here), more photos with Nemo, and finally onto the ride. Princess Peanut buried her head again for this ride, but LOVED the fish inside the aquarium. We went to see Crush and she LOVED Crush as well. More time with the fish, and Dh and I were starting to get a bit twitchy. We encouraged the kids to leave, and Princess Peanut blew kisses to the fish, told them bye-bye, and then told them she loved them. Awwww….melt your heart, but we still left.
Clone1 suggested we ride Figment’s ride, and I looked at Dh and shared that moment that says “I’m not sure it’s a good idea with the darkness, the loud noises, the smell…” Dh agreed with Clone1 and off we went. Princess Peanut buried her head GOOD for this ride, but we got her to peek at Figment’s upside down house. She loved the fun stuff to do outside the ride at least, and ran up to grab a Figment stuffed animal.
By this time, our fast passes to Test Track were ready to be used, and the boys went off to ride Test Track while I entertained Princess Peanut and tried to convince her the stroller was a good thing. She didn’t agree, so mostly I chased after the whirling dervish of a 2.5 year old. Fun times indeed. After Test Track, Dh volunteered to take over the whirling dervish while I took the boys and stood in line for Soarin’. He’d grabbed a 2nd set of Fast Passes for Test Track to use after our dinner at Garden Grill already, so I took him up on the offer. 20 minute wait wasn’t too shabby. We exited and it was time to wait for our dinner reservation. 20 minutes AFTER our dinner reservation Dh checked on it, and we were next. It was just a little bit later they finally seated us (and we checked in about 20 minutes early – reservation was for 7:20, checked in around 7pm, we were seated about 8pm). Not the best experience, but the food was good. Friends enjoyed the meal and the characters, and Princess Peanut? Well, she gave characters a high five from across the table! YIPPEEE!!!
Dinner was over and the boys from my family went to Test Track, the boys from Friends’ family went to Mission Space ORANGE (still can’t believe they did that), while the girls from both families went to watch Illuminations. Princess Peanut loved Illuminations as well, and did not bury her head once. After that over, it was time to head back to the hotels for bed. It had been a LONG day for us and we had another early morning rope drop to make the next day.
Clone2 did his normal coughing fits until it seemed like he would vomit for us. Found out that Luden’s throat drops helped not cough as much for some reason, so that helped this day. I also had his rescue meds and inhalers so that helped as well.
Recap:
Rope Drop at AK
EE standby, get rider swap
EE FPV
Dinosaur!
Finding Nemo the Musical
Kilimanjaro Safari FPV
Africa Trails
Ride Kilimanjaor Safari
EE with Fast Pass
Asia Trails
Park Hop to Epcot
Test Track FPV
Mission Space Green – get rider swap
Mission Space Orange
Lunch at the Land
Finding Nemo
Turtle Talk with Crush
Test Track FPV
Journey into Imagination
Test Track
Soarin’
Dinner at Garden Grill
Test Track
Illuminations Back to hotel
What did the Friends do? They made it to EPCOT by lunchtime, did some of Future World then walked some around the World Showcase. Other than that I do not know, but I know they weren’t nearly as tired as we were by dinner! I was a little worried about the next day being RD at DHS and it being an EMH evening as well as Fantasmic! day....little did I know how horrid it would be! Darn Disney for changing up show times, park hours, and EMH days less than 2 weeks from when we were leaving!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Disney 2009 - Chapter 3.1 - Animal Kingdom
Sunday February 8, 2009
I once again woke up fairly early, but managed to fall back to sleep only to be woken a few minutes later by Dh’s alarm going off. It was time to start our first full day in Disney. Too bad I was still so tired from the previous day, and the 2-3 times of Clone2 waking me up with coughing fits. Bleary eyed, I looked at Dh and wondered how much of the asthma and cold meds we should take into the parks that day. We didn’t manage to leave our hotel as early as we would have liked, and as such arrived at Animal Kingdom around 8:35 to see 4 other cars already in Diamond parking and many people at the turnstiles already. No biggie. While waiting we got a text message from friends who said they were meeting us at EPCOT and sleeping in and swimming. I guess we really did wear them out a little too much on Saturday.
So, there we were, standing at the turnstiles at Animal Kingdom making our plan of attack for the day. I was going to take the stroller tickets and pick up the stroller while Dh took the Clones and Princess Peanut on ahead to the interior rope holding area. We were headed to Expedition Everest first thing, and Dh was our FPV for the day (like always). We manage to once again both be no further back than 5-10 people (that’s with the stop for the stroller), and Clone2 is able to go up to the rope to see the park opening show which he loved. When the rope drops, we all walk briskly behind the Cast Members holding the rope. The speed walkers ahead of us out pace us slightly as I tend to get cut off with the double stroller quite a bit. No worries as we have to get Rider Swap at Expedition Everest as well. We find out that we have to go through the line a little ways, but Dh takes Princess Peanut and the stroller through, gets our rider swap then high tails it back to the Fast Pass machines to get our future Fast Passes while I journey on ahead with the Clones. We make it into row 4 and 5 of the 2nd train. Not shabby at all. I sit with Clone2, while Clone1 is in his own seat.
But not for long! Clone1 had someone assigned to sit with him, a rather cute younger girl about his age ended up being his ride partner. Clone1 showing his age agreed with me when I turned to him and mouthed, “She’s CUUUUUTE!” He then blushed and has since refused to even comment on the rather cute girl that rode Expedition Everest with him.
Clone2’s experience, however, was much different. Remember the coughing and asthma fits? Yeah, well, the fast moving ride, the backwards in the dark, the higher levels of anxiety this ride produces created breathing problems for him. He survived, but told me that it was hard to breathe on the ride and it scared him. The backwards was really scary. The big hill was really scary. He did NOT want to see the Yeti again. When asked if he wanted to ride later with Daddy, he told us no rather emphatically but that he “maybe” would ride it later in the week. He said that he would ride it on our NEXT trip, well, possibly.
With all the excitement of the girl riding with him, the excitement of seeing if his brother liked the ride, Clone1 forgot his special Pirate Mickey ears! Yikes! We had to turn around and go back to see if they could find them, while Dh worked on catching back up with us. When they found them, the relief in Clone1’s eyes was huge. We quickly put the ears up in a safe location, and rushed to join Dh and Clone2 on their way to Dinosaur. I was taking Princess Peanut to get a seat for Finding Nemo the Musical as she adores the Nemo movie. We hoped that she would not bury her head, but I recognized that sitting near an area where anything might possibly come near her was not a good idea. The 10am showing of this was not crowded at all, and getting there early was nice because I could talk with the Cast Members and get a good idea of where to sit for Princess Peanut’s comfort.
The boys joined us, and Dh told me that he now remembers that he really doesn’t like Dinosaur. Clone2 tells me that he doesn’t want to ride it again, and he doesn’t like it because it’s scary. Poor Clone2 – 2 scary rides in a row for him! The show starts, Princess Peanut buries her head. It takes a little convincing, and a few lines from the movie she loves to get her to peek out. The rest of the show is spent with her alternatingly hiding her head and peeking out. Let’s just say I was greatly relieved they didn’t do the dark depths of the ocean scene were Dory reads the mask. VERY grateful they didn’t do that scene as the shark scene about did her in. While I know this is almost sacrilege, we did not care for Finding Nemo as much as Festival of the Lion King. Personal preference here, but the truth.
We exited the show and it was time for the FPV to rush ahead to Kilimanjaro Safari, only we were not going to subject the kids to It’s Tough to be a Bug this trip as we had FINALLY learned that it’s too scary (especially for Princess Peanut and quite possibly Clone2). We went as a family to get Fast Passes and learned that Princess Peanut could unbuckle herself as she flipped out of the stroller and ended up underneath (luckily I was moving slowly and she didn’t get hurt), then headed into the Africa animal trails. All was good until we hit the Monkeys and Clone2 had to go to the bathroom RIGHT NOW! I ended up speed walking with him in the double stroller to the closet bathroom (a good 5 minute walk away), and then we waited on the rest of the family to join us. Clone2 entertained himself with my point and shoot camera and I ended up with some of the only photos of ME on the trip!
It was finally time for Kilimanjaro Safari ride, and we hoped that all the kids would have fun. We were lucky to get in the front row, and I sat Clone2 next to me and Clone1 next to Dh on the outsides. Each had a point and shoot camera, and I thought “Hey this is working out GREAT!” It was, until Clone1 complained that Clone2 had all the better animals on that side and that Clone1’s side didn’t have many so he didn’t get very many photos to take. Princess Peanut was giggling and laughing at the bumpy ride, much as she had in China in the cars we rode in there. Success for one child at least. Clone2 didn’t complain any at all, and we ended up with some interesting safari photos from him. We kindly asked Clone1 to shape up the attitude.
It was just about lunch time, but really, what was there left for us to do? We had enough passes for Clone2 to ride Expedition Everest 3 more times. There would be no more Dinosaur rides, Triceratop Spin was down for refurbishment, we figured Festival of the Lion King would scare Princess Peanut, and neither Dh or I wanted to get wet. We had some shows to see possibly. Or we could eat a snack, do the Everest rides, and get to EPCOT where there was more to ride for the little kids. We chose to leave early and get to EPCOT. Dh and Clone1 rode Expedition Everest and we had 2 fast passes and 1 rider swap in our hands. We walked the Asia trails where in one building Princess Peanut who was refusing to ride in the stroller was trying to hold open a door . She took a step away and the door started closing and knocked her over resulting in a big bump on her forehead. We finished the trails with a crying little girl, and Dh decided he was ready to go. We handed off the 2 fast passes and the rider swap to others to use. It was barely 1pm at this point.
I once again woke up fairly early, but managed to fall back to sleep only to be woken a few minutes later by Dh’s alarm going off. It was time to start our first full day in Disney. Too bad I was still so tired from the previous day, and the 2-3 times of Clone2 waking me up with coughing fits. Bleary eyed, I looked at Dh and wondered how much of the asthma and cold meds we should take into the parks that day. We didn’t manage to leave our hotel as early as we would have liked, and as such arrived at Animal Kingdom around 8:35 to see 4 other cars already in Diamond parking and many people at the turnstiles already. No biggie. While waiting we got a text message from friends who said they were meeting us at EPCOT and sleeping in and swimming. I guess we really did wear them out a little too much on Saturday.
So, there we were, standing at the turnstiles at Animal Kingdom making our plan of attack for the day. I was going to take the stroller tickets and pick up the stroller while Dh took the Clones and Princess Peanut on ahead to the interior rope holding area. We were headed to Expedition Everest first thing, and Dh was our FPV for the day (like always). We manage to once again both be no further back than 5-10 people (that’s with the stop for the stroller), and Clone2 is able to go up to the rope to see the park opening show which he loved. When the rope drops, we all walk briskly behind the Cast Members holding the rope. The speed walkers ahead of us out pace us slightly as I tend to get cut off with the double stroller quite a bit. No worries as we have to get Rider Swap at Expedition Everest as well. We find out that we have to go through the line a little ways, but Dh takes Princess Peanut and the stroller through, gets our rider swap then high tails it back to the Fast Pass machines to get our future Fast Passes while I journey on ahead with the Clones. We make it into row 4 and 5 of the 2nd train. Not shabby at all. I sit with Clone2, while Clone1 is in his own seat.
But not for long! Clone1 had someone assigned to sit with him, a rather cute younger girl about his age ended up being his ride partner. Clone1 showing his age agreed with me when I turned to him and mouthed, “She’s CUUUUUTE!” He then blushed and has since refused to even comment on the rather cute girl that rode Expedition Everest with him.
Clone2’s experience, however, was much different. Remember the coughing and asthma fits? Yeah, well, the fast moving ride, the backwards in the dark, the higher levels of anxiety this ride produces created breathing problems for him. He survived, but told me that it was hard to breathe on the ride and it scared him. The backwards was really scary. The big hill was really scary. He did NOT want to see the Yeti again. When asked if he wanted to ride later with Daddy, he told us no rather emphatically but that he “maybe” would ride it later in the week. He said that he would ride it on our NEXT trip, well, possibly.
With all the excitement of the girl riding with him, the excitement of seeing if his brother liked the ride, Clone1 forgot his special Pirate Mickey ears! Yikes! We had to turn around and go back to see if they could find them, while Dh worked on catching back up with us. When they found them, the relief in Clone1’s eyes was huge. We quickly put the ears up in a safe location, and rushed to join Dh and Clone2 on their way to Dinosaur. I was taking Princess Peanut to get a seat for Finding Nemo the Musical as she adores the Nemo movie. We hoped that she would not bury her head, but I recognized that sitting near an area where anything might possibly come near her was not a good idea. The 10am showing of this was not crowded at all, and getting there early was nice because I could talk with the Cast Members and get a good idea of where to sit for Princess Peanut’s comfort.
The boys joined us, and Dh told me that he now remembers that he really doesn’t like Dinosaur. Clone2 tells me that he doesn’t want to ride it again, and he doesn’t like it because it’s scary. Poor Clone2 – 2 scary rides in a row for him! The show starts, Princess Peanut buries her head. It takes a little convincing, and a few lines from the movie she loves to get her to peek out. The rest of the show is spent with her alternatingly hiding her head and peeking out. Let’s just say I was greatly relieved they didn’t do the dark depths of the ocean scene were Dory reads the mask. VERY grateful they didn’t do that scene as the shark scene about did her in. While I know this is almost sacrilege, we did not care for Finding Nemo as much as Festival of the Lion King. Personal preference here, but the truth.
We exited the show and it was time for the FPV to rush ahead to Kilimanjaro Safari, only we were not going to subject the kids to It’s Tough to be a Bug this trip as we had FINALLY learned that it’s too scary (especially for Princess Peanut and quite possibly Clone2). We went as a family to get Fast Passes and learned that Princess Peanut could unbuckle herself as she flipped out of the stroller and ended up underneath (luckily I was moving slowly and she didn’t get hurt), then headed into the Africa animal trails. All was good until we hit the Monkeys and Clone2 had to go to the bathroom RIGHT NOW! I ended up speed walking with him in the double stroller to the closet bathroom (a good 5 minute walk away), and then we waited on the rest of the family to join us. Clone2 entertained himself with my point and shoot camera and I ended up with some of the only photos of ME on the trip!
It was finally time for Kilimanjaro Safari ride, and we hoped that all the kids would have fun. We were lucky to get in the front row, and I sat Clone2 next to me and Clone1 next to Dh on the outsides. Each had a point and shoot camera, and I thought “Hey this is working out GREAT!” It was, until Clone1 complained that Clone2 had all the better animals on that side and that Clone1’s side didn’t have many so he didn’t get very many photos to take. Princess Peanut was giggling and laughing at the bumpy ride, much as she had in China in the cars we rode in there. Success for one child at least. Clone2 didn’t complain any at all, and we ended up with some interesting safari photos from him. We kindly asked Clone1 to shape up the attitude.
It was just about lunch time, but really, what was there left for us to do? We had enough passes for Clone2 to ride Expedition Everest 3 more times. There would be no more Dinosaur rides, Triceratop Spin was down for refurbishment, we figured Festival of the Lion King would scare Princess Peanut, and neither Dh or I wanted to get wet. We had some shows to see possibly. Or we could eat a snack, do the Everest rides, and get to EPCOT where there was more to ride for the little kids. We chose to leave early and get to EPCOT. Dh and Clone1 rode Expedition Everest and we had 2 fast passes and 1 rider swap in our hands. We walked the Asia trails where in one building Princess Peanut who was refusing to ride in the stroller was trying to hold open a door . She took a step away and the door started closing and knocked her over resulting in a big bump on her forehead. We finished the trails with a crying little girl, and Dh decided he was ready to go. We handed off the 2 fast passes and the rider swap to others to use. It was barely 1pm at this point.
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