The stitches of life: October 2007

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Day 4--Magic Kingdom pt. 2

There will be a few parts for MK because of the Halloween pictures lol ;). Back at the room we had yet another fun surprise waiting for us. Ian kept saying all moring he wondered what she'd do today, and maybe it had something to do with the food chain (smart kid ;). Turns out she didn't continue the food chain theme (I don't think rabbits eat snakes anyway ;) but it was still very cute:

The boys really wanted to go to the feature pool on Ol' Man Island, so we took them over and Dave swam with them. They tried the slide and loved it! That's all they did the rest of the time ;).

After baths and a little rest (not much ;) we headed back over for our 5:00 ADR's at Crystal Palace. When we got in we found we had hit the last part of a family fun parade:

After we got to the Crystal Palace and checked in, Brendan realized he could see the stage at the Castle and the Dream show they were doing. He would have stayed to watch the whole thing, but they called our name and the table was more important ;). They had a ball with the characters, who also had really good interaction. Eeyore was a good sport and posed for me again when I told him I'd cut off the top of his head in the first shot lol ;). He also started to walk away with Brendan's pen, and when he went to get it Eeyore pretended to eat it--too cute! Piglet was a bit brief, but who can argue when the whole experience was so good :). The food was great also, especially the adobo pulled pork--yum yum!

Now that we were stuffed we decided to hit the last 2 rides from our top list that we'd missed that morning--BTMR and the Haunted Mansion. We went to the Haunted Mansion first and on the way had to take these ;)

It was a fun ride, not sure how the refurb changed things since I don't think I'd ridden it before. After that we went to BTMR and we all LOVED it--it's always been my favorite ride and now it's one of the boys' too--yay! Made me wish I'd gotten another set of fastpasses before we left the park earlier ;). It was starting to sprinkle a bit and Dave didn't have a rain jacket, so we waited by Splash Mtn. while he ran in and got a poncho (which came in very handy later). By that time the party had started, so we made our way to Adventureland, hit our first candy stop and Brendan and Dave rode PoC again. We hit the Haunted Mansion candy stop and made our way to the Hall of Presidents to stake out a seat for the parade. Got a space right on the rope line, spread out the poncho and sat down :).

Stay tuned for Boo to You parade and Hallowishes fireworks pictures!

Posted by hollyday @ 8:14 AM | Link

Comments (3)

Day 4--Magic Kingdom!

After a peaceful day at AK and an early bedtime we were woken up by Stitch again ;). Up, changed and down to the food court by about 7 and on the bus around 7:20. Which was a good thing because apparently the MK magic hours are more popular than the Epcot ones--our bus went to a lot more stops (on Epcot day we were the last stop) and there was standing room only. It wasn't packed by any means, but it was more crowded than we'd had yet in the mornings. Anyway as we got close you could see the castle. Ian put his hand over his eyes and said "I don't want to ruin my first sight of it when we get in the park"--awww! That made Brendan do it too, problem was he wanted to get off the bus that way ;). We explained to him he couldn't see the castle anymore and wouldn't be able to see it until he was in the park, so in that way we were able to get him off the bus safely lol ;). When we got in I forgot to look at the kids faces as I was too busy taking everything in, but I know they were very impressed--videos and books just don't do it justice :). All the fall/halloween decorations were up and looked really pretty:

We headed for tomorrowland and had basically no lines. We did have to wait a few minutes for the Laugh Floor, but nothing bad. That show is so cool by the way and Ian got picked (because of his Pluto hat)!:

Oh, did I mention I had the family high score in Buzz? 53,800! Dave was incredulous--he couldn't understand how a videogame novice like me beat him ;). Next was fantasyland:

Dave took like a thousand pictures in Small World--no kidding! He took more pictures in that ride than anywhere else in the resort, including the safari and halloween fireworks :). I guess he felt the Disney magic too ;). He rode it as a kid and remembers it well, and it's one of his mom's favorite rides, so he took pictures for her as much as for him ;). We did Mickey's Philharmagic next and all I can say is WOW! Another highlight for us for this trip--absolutely fantastic!

After that we made our way over to Frontierland, roundabout behind the castle. The Magic Kingdom was the hardest for me to figure out in terms of where things were. In Epcot it's a lot more straightforward, in AK they have signs everywhere, but in MK everything is so compact and there are so many twists, turns and hidden ways it's hard to find your way around. We eventually got there to find that Big Thunder Mtn. Railroad was open--yay! (it had been closed for refurbishment) But the wait was almost an hour long so we got fastpasses and went over to Splash Mtn. It was a cloudy and kind of cool day so the wait was pretty short, so Dave and Ian went on while Brendan and I waited. After they got off we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean which had another short wait. Rode it, loved it ('natch) and went back over to frontierland for lunch at Pecos Bill--yummy! We made our way out via the back of the castle and got some neat pictures:

I decided I wanted to stop in a couple of stores on Main st., so we went to Main St. Bakery--omg how scrumptious! I picked up some goodies there for back at the room and made my way over to the Emporium. Talk about overwhelming! Dave kept the boys outside and when I came out showed me what they did while I shopped:

Before we left the park Dave took pictures of the decorations at the entrance to Main St.:

Up next--more fun with towel animals, swimming and the Halloween party!

Posted by hollyday @ 7:17 AM | Link

Comments (1)

Monday, October 29, 2007

Day 3--Animal Kingdom pt. 2

Okay, round two of Animal Kingdom and safari pictures ;). I just couldn't believe how many animals we saw!

After the safari we went to see Baloo and King Louie. The Jungle Book is Dave's favorite Disney movie so I really wanted to get a picture of him with them (and the boys too of course ;). They were some of the best Character interactions we had--they were very playful and really took time with each family. Baloo took Ian's fan and was looking at it, Brendan hugged King Louie and wouldn't let go, King Louie kissed my hand, and at the end Baloo took Dave's hat off and started pulling at Louie's fur to show that they were the same color! They were so much fun!

You know, for me the character interactions really made the trip. Those of you who know my boys will know what I'm talking about, for those who don't just know that I was worried. They said they wanted to see the characters, and I believed them, but they're both shy and Ian has some sensory issues. I was worried they'd clam up when the characters started interacting with them, that they wouldn't hug them, etc. But they *loved* all the characters, even the Winnie the Pooh ones! To see their faces in these pictures makes my cry (sappy as that sounds ;) and really makes me feel like this trip was something special. I know they'll enjoy the characters the next time we go, but there won't be the same magic that there was this first time. For me the magic of Disney was most apparent in these moments :).

Okay, enough sounding like a Disney commercial ;). When we got back to the room we found this:

She was awesome! The boys actually started looking forward to going back to the room each day to see what she had done :). When we got back we hung out for a while, then did the sea raycers which were really fun! (these are for you Mike ;)

After that it was time for dinner and then for a lovely carriage ride through the resort:

An early bed to get ready for the Magic Kingdom and MNSSHP!

Posted by hollyday @ 1:48 PM | Link

Comments (1)

Day 3--Animal Kingdom, pt. 1

I had planned for today to be a more easy-going day, so we started off with breakfast at Boatwrights (hotel restaurant). Very yummy eggs benedict and Ian loved his Mickey Mouse pancake (which was huge!). After that it was off to the bus and we made it to AK right around 9. I had been bugging Dave about getting a hat to shade his face and neck (red hair+fair skin+Florida Sun=no fun ;), so when we saw a good selection at the gift shop outside the gates we stopped to take a look. Not only did he find the perfect hat, but Ian and Brendan found a couple too ;). I had been looking for "princess" type ears and Dave saw these (which I did end up getting but chickened out wearing in the parks ;)

Ian spent the rest of the morning saying "I love my beautiful ears" and flipping his head around to make them move ;). When we went in we had to take the iconic picture of course ;)

I sent Ian and Dave off to ride Expedition Everest while Brendan and I went to get fastpasses for the Safari. On our way from the safari to EE we saw Baloo and King Louie--the line was pretty short so we stopped. Brendan was thrilled because they were his first Characters ;). Unfortunately I didn't have the camera but Brendan still got to hug them and get Baloo's autograph so he was happy :). We came back later in the day with Ian and Dave and got pictures then ;). The line was so short at EE that Dave and Ian were able to ride it twice. It was Ian's first rollercoaster and he really liked it, although he did say "I lost my stomach" a couple of times ;). It didn't dampen his enthusiasm though so it couldn't have been too bad lol ;). Here he is getting ready to ride the first time, and a couple of good pics Dave got while they were on the ride:
After EE we all rode Dinosaur which was very cool! Surprisingly enough DH wasn't thrilled with it, and the audioanimatronics scared Ian (another surprise), but Brendan and I loved it! Ian didn't mind it, but wasn't really keen about riding it again ;). We started to head back towards the Safari, with an intended detour through the Majarajah Jungle Trek. It was disgustingly hot and humid and Brendan was cranky so we stopped to have an early snack--2 frozen lemonades and a giant pretzel :). Had I known the lemonades were so big I would have gotten one for all of us, but oh well. Brendan was coaxed a little bit out of his mood by being allowed to take pictures--the whole trip he bugged us about taking pictures, had we known we would have brought our old digital camera and let him use that ;).

We went through the jungle trek (very cool but didn't see the tigers very well) and when we got out it was time to head to Rainforest Cafe for lunch. Brendan went back into a mood because he wanted to go to Camp Minnie Mickey. I told him we'd go after lunch but that wasn't good enough (you know how 7 yr. olds can be ;). On the way I got them pressed penny books to hold the pressed pennies they'd gotten so far. That and the pressed penny machines in RFC helped with his mood, as did a good lunch and some drinks (we'd had a hard time getting him to eat and drink so far because of the excitement ;). While we were waiting to be seated we got to see a diver cleaning the tanks:

I'm a RFC member and I'd gotten an email coupon before we left for a free volcano. We'd never gotten one at the restaurant here so I thought that would be a fun thing at Disney ;). I love Brendan's face in this one!

As promised we went to see Mickey after lunch. They wanted to see the others, but the lines were pretty long and I told them about another surprise I had for them--Breakfastasaurus on our last day :). It's a really fun character breakfast buffet with Donald, Mickey, Pluto and Goofy :). Because I had that ace up my sleeve I was able to get away without having to stop for the fab 5 if the lines were too long lol ;).

We then headed over to the safari with our fastpasses. We were in luck because while we were in lunch the clouds came in and really lowered the temperature--it was actually nice out! I think that really worked in our favor because we had a *fantastic* safari! These are the first 2, the rest have to go in a separate post because we took so many (and these aren't even all of them!). This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip :)