Daughter's 1st trip (and my first in 20 years!)

This is my first trip report and while I’m excited to write it, I’m completely bummed that our trip is over! Anyway, to follow trip report protocol I believe introductions are the first item of business.

I’m 31, and my last visit to WDW was over 20 years ago so for me a big part of this trip was about recalling some of those old memories and experiencing some of the new things that didn’t exist back then. I used to live in Naples, Florida, and my Dad worked for Eastern Airlines (then partner airline of WDW) so we were regular visitors and always stayed at the Contemporary – mostly because of the huge arcade.

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My wife (Frances, 32) last visited around the same time as I did but that was also her only visit so her memories were quite a bit different than mine – more on that later.

Our daughter Nora is 3 years old, loves the princesses but especially Ariel and now Rapunzel, and has been talking about going to Disney World for the past eight months when we first started planning. That’s really my fault, because I’ve been talking about and planning for this trip since she was about three cells wide.

My Mom and Dad came with us and were very helpful for babysitting duties – one thing they noticed during the planning stages was that it’s significantly more expensive now that we can't go for free.

Day 1 - Getting there is 1/2 the fun. Not really, but it's ok.

We live near Nashville, Tennessee, and despite the fact that my Dad still works for the airlines we decided to drive. There were several reasons for that, in no particular order: cost, convenience of having a car at WDW, wanting to avoid the probes. My Dad got a good deal on a Toyota Sienna van through Priceline so we didn't have to tack miles onto one of our cars.

My wife, daughter, and I regularly drive from Nashville to Houston, Texas so Nora is a seasoned car traveler but because of the timing of things we decided to spend the night in Cordele, Georgia – about a 7 hour drive from home. Unfortunately that turned into 9 hours due to post-Thanksgiving traffic, but we made it without incident. A highlight of the drive included the frequent leapfrogging of an incredibly grumpy-looking dude driving some sort of fugly van, which was matched in its beauty by the wife in the passenger seat.

Our hotel en route was a brand new Country Inn & Suites which I scored on Priceline for about $60 per night. My wife spotted The Wizard of Oz on TV and promptly scared the crap out of both my daughter and I. That movie always gave me the heeby-jeebies. Anyway, the hotel was nice but I got no sleep due to the highway noise, late night greasy pizza, creepy movie – and the excitement of knowing that the next day we’d be in WDW.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm joining in for the fun!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Okay. I know you only did the introductions but can I just say that your start for your TR is completely awesome?! I love the part about why you didn't fly. That pic of your dad parked right square between his discovery of how expensive WDW is compared to 20 years ago and the probe comment is absolute perfection. Classic. Love it.

Yeah, my boys & I finished up our massive road trip a bit over a week ago and the leapfrog drivers make me insane, too. I get particulary irked by the ones driving like brand new beamers or something that can't hold a steady speed. I mean, helloooooo, I know that car came with a cruise control, sweetie. Why should that person's lack of intelligence in being able to successfully utilize it have to effect myyyyy gas mileage when I have to slow down because they've cut in front of me (for the 6th time in 20 miles) and now I can't get over to pass them (for the 7th time)???

Can't wait for more!!! Sounds like my kinda TR! Fantastic start! And your daughter is Adorable with a capital "A"! :wave:

 

[Saoirse1916]

Okay. I know you only did the introductions but can I just say that your start for your TR is completely awesome?!...That pic of your dad parked right square between his discovery of how expensive WDW is compared to 20 years ago and the probe comment is absolute perfection.

I know that car came with a cruise control, sweetie. Why should that person's lack of intelligence in being able to successfully utilize it...

You know, that photo of my Dad is the only decent one that I have from the trip -- we got some on PhotoPass and at the various dinners but I haven't added them to my collection yet. I didn't think about the juxtaposition -- hahahahahaha. And I completely agree on the cruise control bit...one of my big pet peeves. I wish I had a big sign that I could hold up that says "we're not racing, I have cruise control."

 

[MKCP 1985]

First time back in 20 years . . . wow! I am always amazed at how much the Disney resort area including the surrounding territory around Highways 535 and 192 change from year to year. For 20 years of elapsed time, you had to be thinking you were visiting another planet compared to the one you remembered.

 

[Saoirse1916]

Day 2 - A Long Time Coming

One decent, free hot breakfast later and we were on the road again. However, after about two hours on the road we spotted…the same grumpy old guy in the fugly van. Now, having played in a touring Irish-rock band for several years and doing a lot of other travelling by car, I’ve experienced highway leapfrogging fairly often. But I have never managed to leapfrog someone over the course of multiple days, involving frequent stops and an overnight at a hotel.

Anyway, we drove on to Kissimmee and after one quick pit-stop at a Publix for my Dad to pick up a prescription that he forgot at home we were scoping out signs for Disney World. Having made the journey several times recently via Google Street View (told you I was excited) I was surprised that we were able to see Spaceship Earth from the East side of Epcot Center Drive. EPCOT Center was always my favorite park growing up so it was awesome to get to see the big ball peeking over the trees. We told our daughter to watch the monorail track that we followed toward the Contemporary Resort, as I had already briefed her on how awesome the monorails are. And naturally, we didn’t see a single one.

We got to the Magic Kingdom entrance and Nora squealed, "I see a castle!" Ohh, wait for it kiddo.

The sight of the Contemporary more than made up for the lack of monorails – it really brought back some memories, despite all the changes (BLT, missing Dixie-cup trees). The lobby had changed quite a bit too, I remembered that it was a lot more wide open but Nora would vote for the current setup as she plopped herself down in front of the TV playing old Disney cartoons while we checked in. At check-in we were told that our rooms would not be adjoining, which was a bit of a drag as that would make things more difficult later in the week. They were also not ready when we arrived so we left our bags with the bell staff and headed for the grand concourse.

We decided to catch the resort monorail and just take a cruise around the Seven Seas Lagoon since we’d been talking about the monorails for so long. As we rolled by the MK on the monorail heading back to the Contemporary, we pointed out the castle to our daughter. She screamed, "I see it! There's Cinderella's Castle! It's right there!!" That's one of those things that makes the trip worth every penny. About halfway around the loop we got the texts that our rooms were ready, so once we got back to the concourse we headed to the South Garden Wing. I had to snap a quick and dirty shot of our first monorail – just because it's awesome I suppose – but I imagine no one on here will begrudge me.

One of my favorite WDW memories was the Electric Water Pageant so when we finally got to our rooms I was a little disappointed to find that we didn’t have a view of the lake (pool view instead) but as it turned out we were never around for the EWP anyway – except for one night which I’ll get to later.

We unpacked (which is always a great feeling in a hotel, as opposed to living out of the suitcase) and decided to hit the pool since Nora was a bit worn out from the drive. We left 40 degree weather in Nashville for 85 degrees in Florida so the pool was wonderful. One of our regrets was that we didn’t get to spend a whole day outside at the pool – I guess we’ll just have to take a longer trip next time. But after a nice two hours in the water we cleaned up and headed for dinner.

I suppose now is as good a time as any to share a few observations about dining at WDW. Thanks to this forum I knew to book the princess breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table 180 days out, which, with a 3 year old girl, was priority #1. But I assumed that since we were traveling at a relatively low season, reservations for everything else could wait until only a few weeks out. That was a poor decision, and we didn’t get to eat at some of our other first choices – fortunately, everywhere we ended up eating was fantastic so I certainly don’t have anything to complain about and I learned a valuable lesson for next time. In truth, the only place that I felt bad about missing out on was Chef Mickey’s but Nora still got to meet all the characters quite a few times.

After that brief tangent, we loaded up the van again to head to The Captain’s Grille at Yacht Club. Our reservation got us a table after just a few minutes of looking at the impressive model trains and ships outside the restaurant. I thought the food was great, particularly the crab cake appetizer that I downed and we each had an adult beverage to toast the start of the trip. As I’m not a dude who photographs food (not that there’s anything wrong with that) I don’t have any pictures of our grub – but I did have to snap a shot of the dessert because of the impressive writing on the thin piece of chocolate that came with it. Never seen anything like that.

After dessert we split up and my folks took our daughter back to the hotel so that my wife and I could hit the evening EMH at the Magic Kingdom.

Since it was still relatively early and we had to go through Epcot to catch the monorail anyway, we took our time heading through Future World. It was awesome being back in my favorite park and despite all the changes, there was so much that was still familiar. I grabbed a picture of one new thing – the LED lights that are sunk into the pavement near Innoventions (I think). Totally cool and totally old-school EPCOT Center, if you ask me.

Since I knew Spaceship Earth would be a walk on we headed that way and I got to smell Rome burning – one of those things burned (ack…no pun intended, honestly) into my memory. It was cool to think that the last time I was on that ride there was no “evolution of the computer in a garage in California” scene. I also loved the new blue LED star field as the ride vehicle turns backward. So cool.

After SSE we hit the monorail and made our way into the Magic Kingdom – just as everyone in a 200 mile radius was jamming Main Street for Wishes. I couldn’t believe the amount of people that were in the park on an allegedly slow day, but in the end it worked out in our favor. We made our way around the castle through Tomorrowland and Fantasyland and ended up in front of the Haunted Mansion which, presumably because of Wishes, was a walk-on. The ride itself seemed relatively unchanged from what I remember but I had no memory of the queue with the expanding room. If that was new, it was a very cool addition!

We walked outside after HM just in time to hear some shells explode from Wishes. It made for an exciting walk over to Big Thunder Mountain which was also a walk-on. I should explain here that I’m not a roller-coaster guy. The backwards decent in HM is fairly close to my border between fun/exciting and scary/unenjoyable. But, I did ride BTMRR when I was last at WDW so I figured that I could handle it now. My wife, who is all about roller coasters, was dying to ride so off we went. She was laughing and whee-ing the whole time while I was gripping that lap bar as if my life depended on it. I kept thinking "we can't bank at this speed!” After a day or so I was ready to try again but at the time every fiber of my being was screaming that this was a bad idea.

Having survived BTMRR I vetoed my wife’s request to go again and we headed to Pirates of the Caribbean, which was yet another walk-on. There again, the 3 foot drop was dangerously close to my fun/sucks threshold but the audio-animatronics and overall coolness of the ride easily pushed it back into fun status.

After Pirates we beat feet back to Tomorrowland and grabbed FastPasses for Buzz Lightyear since it was about a 20 minute wait. In the meantime we hopped on the PeopleMover so that I could proactively scare myself just by going through Space Mountain and hearing everyone else scream. I was surprised at how fast the PeopleMover went in certain spots – in my memory it was always the same speed, but that could just be how I remember it. Either way, it was cool to see the Progress City model that I had watched in YouTube videos over the past few years.

At this point I really wanted to find out what was so objectionable about Stitch’s Great Escape. I’ve read about how lame that ride is here on WDWMagic for years and I always had the impression that there was either some sort of agenda or people were just too picky or the ride took the place of some fan favorite. Well, having ridden it I now understand what people complained about. It really sucks. So much so that I wish I could have those 7 minutes of my life back. It was loud, annoying, and generally pointless.

Fortunately Buzz Lightyear was none of those things and by the time we laughed off the Stitch debacle our FPs were due. I dropped the hammer on my wife as evidenced by our scores, despite the fact that she controlled the spin lever and did her best to unintentionally throw off my aim. She said that she didn't realize that the thing was keeping score, but I don't buy that at all.

I do wish that I had purchased the photo of us on that ride as it had her laughing like a normal person and me crouched down over the gun to get a good line of sight like some sort of sniper. But hey, I won.

After a long day of fun it was back to the hotel for a short night’s sleep.

 

[Saoirse1916]

First time back in 20 years . . . wow! ... For 20 years of elapsed time, you had to be thinking you were visiting another planet compared to the one you remembered.

Pretty much -- there were quite a few differences but a lot of familiarities too. It made for a great trip!

 

[oommggitskait]

Can't wait to read more!

 

[KaneMarko]

First time back in 20 years . . . wow! I am always amazed at how much the Disney resort area including the surrounding territory around Highways 535 and 192 change from year to year. For 20 years of elapsed time, you had to be thinking you were visiting another planet compared to the one you remembered.

Before my wife and I started going to the World in 2006, I hadn’t been since the late 80s. I was almost floored by how much the world had changed in that time period. It was simply amazing. I'm trying to get my mother to go because she hadn't been since the late 80s. I'm sure she'll be shocked when she sees it (if I can ever get her to go).

 

[KaneMarko]

The smell of Rome burning inside SSE was also burned in my brain from when I first went in the late 80s. I was shocked at how vividly I remembered it (and the fact that it was still there) when I returned in 2006.

Excellent TR! Can't wait to read more.

 

[Tazer19]

Great report so far, looking forward to the rest!

 

[GrumpyFannyPack]

Awesome report. I'm hooked.

 

[Saoirse1916]

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Day 3 – Princesses

We woke up relatively early because we had 8:30 reservations at Cinderella’s Royal Table. Our daughter first watched The Little Mermaid when she was about a year old, Ariel’s “Part of Your World” was the first song she learned, she wears at least two princess dresses around the house each day, knew the Disney princesses names better than those of her cousins, etc. For months leading up to the trip Nora would say, “Maybe while we’re eating Ariel will tap me on the shoulder.” And we’d ask her what she’d say if that happened and her answer was, “Hey, there’s a mermaid behind me!” And she’d laugh like crazy. So I knew that the princess breakfast was a must-do for us. It also had the side benefit of getting us into the park before the throng of people stuck at the gates, which was pretty cool. We took the walking path from the Contemporary and were at the gates in about 7 minutes.

Of course, we brought a few princess dresses to WDW and Nora picked out her favorite (now Rapunzel) to wear to the breakfast. She got a lot of smiles from the PhotoPass folks as we headed toward the castle, dancing and squealing all the way.

We stood in line and our girl just stared at Cinderella very quietly, I think more in shock than anything. The line moved right along and soon she got to meet her first princess.

After a brief interaction and a few photos we headed upstairs and were seated for breakfast as the characters were already out and about. It proved challenging getting to our seats because Nora kept stopping to squeal, “There’s Belle!” “That’s Jasmine!” But we made it and in short order had both food and princesses headed our way.

Then came Ariel – she initially stopped by but had to go sing Happy Birthday or something so she said that she’d come back to our table. Nora just quietly turned to us and said, “That’s Ariel…” She was too stunned to deliver her zinger line. Then Ariel came back and posed for a bunch of pictures and talked with her but for once in her life, Nora had no words.

I was particularly glad to see that Ariel was among those greeting guests, as I heard that she was rarely a part of Cinderella’s Royal Table. The whole thing did feel a bit rushed as the PA was announcing another princess introduction , though in truth we probably could have hung out a while longer without anyone encouraging us to leave.

 

[Saoirse1916]

Day 3 (cont'd) - MK & Epcot

After the breakfast Nora changed into more ride-friendly clothing and we hit Fantasyland for some rides, starting with the Carousel.

We grabbed FastPasses for Peter Pan, and walked on It’s a Small World where I was struck by how small the boats were. I’m not that tall but it felt like my knees were up to my ears.

Huh, after looking at that picture I guess IASW’s boats weren’t that small, just smaller than I remember! Anyway, we followed that up with a walk on at Mickey’s Philharmagic which I thought was awesome – I figured those little boxes between the seats where speakers so I was really surprised when they blew air, water, and various smells. Nora didn’t like having her 3D glasses on but we made sure she did for Ariel’s scene.

After the show it was time for Peter Pan – a ride that I had never been on, and I have no idea why not. It was great! I gave myself a chuckle because as I was watching the track disappear underneath our flying boat, I thought “how are we doing this?? We’re flying!” After a few seconds I realized that the track was actually above us, of course. I’m going with I was inspired by the Disney magic as opposed to I’m a moron.

Dumbo had only a 15 minute wait so we did so and chatted with a nice lady from New Jersey who was there with her 5 year old daughter. Afterwards we headed back to the resort for a much needed nap.

After the nap we were headed to Epcot because my folks had a reservation with Nora for a late lunch/early dinner at The Garden Grill. This was one of those times that our delay in booking all of our table service meals came back to bite us – Frances and I booked a nice dinner for two at Artist Point so my folks and Nora had 2 credits to use and the only character meal that was available was The Garden Grille at 3:30 or so. It threw a bit of a wrench into our first Magic Kingdom day but it turned out to be lots of fun for Nora and gave my wife and me a chance to bum around Epcot by ourselves.

While they ate, we first hit Mission Space which was a walk-on and made the somewhat difficult decision (for me) to go with Orange. Despite my previously described low tolerance for roller coasters, I felt fairly confident that the centrifuge would not bother me because I was a frequent Space Camp graduate – an eight time graduate in fact, which totals about 16 trips on the centrifuge if I remember correctly. That confidence was somewhat shaken, however, by the frequent and insistent warnings that Orange puts in your face about motion sickness, fear of simulators (?), spinning, and the like. But I manned-up and listened to Gary Sinise give me the run down. As we were heading through the queue, I noticed the Horizions logo in the center of the rotating gravity simulator.

I’m sure that’s been discussed elsewhere on here but it took me by surprise and I thought it was a nice homage to the old EPCOT. Anyway, we both thought the ride was awesome! I was impressed by how quickly the centrifuge could spin up to simulate the high-G liftoff and slingshot maneuver. From what I remember of Space Camp, their centrifuge took quite a while to rev up to the high-G speeds so I was surprised how quickly MS accomplished it.

After MS we grabbed FastPasses for Test Track and headed back to the Land to be nearby when my folks’ character meal was done. Soarin’ was about a 50 minute wait so instead we hopped on Living With The Land, one that I remembered from years past and which had the benefit of being a walk-on. The ride was great and seemingly unchanged, though the nine pound lemons certainly jumped out at me this time. Seriously…nine pound lemons? Awesome.

Some time ago there was a thread on here about favorite WDW smells with SSE’s Rome burning taking the majority of the votes – however, my vote was for the smell of the dinosaurs in Universe of Energy, so that’s where we headed after meeting up with Nora and my folks following their dinner. I knew that things had changed a bit but I was surprised by how thin the crowds were. I remember when the entire pre-show auditorium was packed but this time there were only enough people to fill the benches around the edge. And when Ellen came onscreen, I realized why – she’s irritating. But I sucked it up, played with Nora, ignored Ellen, and was still jacked up when it came time to take our seats in the main building. Off we went…into Ellen’s dream? The dinosaurs were still cool but the smell was gone and Ellen was incessantly yammering on. I finished the ride shaking my head and wondering how such a cool ride was reduced to a campy game show.

At that point Nora was getting sleepy so Frances and I took her back to the hotel while my folks stayed for a reading of the Christmas Story. On our way out we remembered our Test Track FPs – we spotted a couple heading into the park and gave them away. Everyone likes a free FastPass! We also had a chance for my wife to grab a shot of Nora and me in front of SSE.

Our dinner reservations at Artist Point were for much later so we had time to put Nora to bed. My folks came back right on-time and we headed to the dock, only waiting about 2 minutes before the ferry to Wilderness Lodge arrived. Another couple said they had been waiting for 30 minutes so we certainly timed it right.

We got there early enough to wander around WL a bit – that really is an impressive resort and we decided we might have to stay there next time. We were seated immediately and had a great meal – I hit the buffalo per the recommendations here and on allears.net. I also got a crab cake appetizer which was not needed at all…way too much food! Frances got some sort of vegetable gnocchi which she loved as well. We both left stuffed for a nice boat ride back to the Contemporary via Fort Wilderness.

Off to bed!

 

[Billy6]

I was particularly glad to see that Ariel was among those greeting guests, as I heard that she was rarely a part of Cinderella’s Royal Table. The whole thing did feel a bit rushed as the PA was announcing another princess introduction , though in truth we probably could have hung out a while longer without anyone encouraging us to leave.

Awesome reports so far..Brings back some memories of when I took my 5 yr old to WDW for the first time and her "stunned" look when she saw the princesses for the first time...

This June, we are planning on taking her to Cindy's Royal Table for Breakfast and have heard great things about it..My question is why do people feel that they are being rushed out of the place or how they do it??? The breakfast at Akershus in Norway with the princesses didnt give me that impression at all..Maybe its just at the Castle cause of the popularity..Curious to know how that comes into play...

Thanks and cant wait to ready more....

 

[Saoirse1916]

This June, we are planning on taking her to Cindy's Royal Table for Breakfast and have heard great things about it..My question is why do people feel that they are being rushed out of the place or how they do it???

In our case, the problem was that we got seated while the princesses were already out and about in the restaurant. As a result there were a bunch of people leaving at the same time and shortly thereafter they had begun announcing that the princesses would be returning for their next appearance, etc. We missed that whole bit so I'm sure there would have been no problem with us staying, it just gave us the vibe that it was time to go.

 

[Saoirse1916]

Day 4 – Back to Epcot

We began our day with a few snacks in the room as we were planning on a big lunch at Biergarten. We slowly made our way down to Epcot on the monorail and I raced ahead to grab FastPasses for Soarin’, as that was one of my must-dos for the trip. I only picked up three FPs though, as our daughter was too small and my Mom too afraid of heights. So FPs in hand we all headed for Living With The Land which Nora liked – pretty much any slow boat ride was a winner for her – and allowed us to grab some more photos of insane vegetables.

Afterwards we jumped over to The Seas with Nemo. I have vague memories of The Living Seas, Alpha Base, and all that but the ride was fairly new when I was there last so I imagine I only visited it once. As a result I was particularly impressed with how they integrated the Nemo characters into the real aquarium. Nora loved seeing them in the tank and kept a keen eye on the shark, but once we passed him by she breathed a lot easier and enjoyed the last few scenes.

She loved the small aquariums near Turtle Talk, for which we waited a while but eventually decided that we needed to hop out of line to get a snack and find a place to sit down for a bit.

Spaceship Earth seemed like a good place to chill for a bit and it was a walk-on. It was cool to check out a few things that I missed the first time, and Nora loved getting her face on the in-car computer screen that describes your future.

By the time we finished SSE our FastPasses were due for Soarin my Dad joined Frances and I as we cut through a remarkably long line (love FP!). Even with the FastPasses, we were still waiting a good 10-15 minutes, so I can’t imagine how people can camp out for an hour in standby. Anyway, I have a bit of a fear of heights myself but I was surprised how cool and relaxing Soarin was. The subtle rocking of the chair combined with the wind-in-the-face really made you feel like you were changing speeds. A great ride for sure, though I’d love to see a more WDW-specific video instead of flying around California.

After the flight we caught up with my Mom and daughter and she came running up to us saying, “Hey dude!” They happened to end up back at Nemo in time to get in on Turtle Talk with no wait and Nora had a great time, though she was a bit too nervous to sit up front with the rest of the kids.

We then headed towards World Showcase for our lunch reservation at Biergarten but as we passed Norway we saw that Maelstrom was a walk-on. I had never ridden it before so I wasn’t sure if Nora would be able to handle it but it turns out she really enjoyed it. I’m afraid she might just be a roller-coaster chick when she grows up.

After the obligatory post-ride gift shop, China was next up with a short line to meet Mulan. Nora had never seen the movie but still squealed when she saw her so we didn’t mind queuing up.

Saying goodbye to Mulan, we headed to Germany for lunch. And man, did we pound some food. The German band was great though we were all a bit bummed that they didn’t do more actual German songs and sang Christmas songs instead. I’m no Grinch but I can (and do) hear Christmas music at home; when I’m in Germany in WS, bring on the yodeling!

After the grub it was back to the Contemporary for a nap which gave us an opportunity to peruse the $100 offer for taking the DVC timeshare tour. My folks were going and I figured I’d do the same while Frances stayed with Nora for her nap – $100 would cover a few souvenirs, I figured. Unfortunately the DVC rep asked if I was married and after saying ‘yes’ he said we both needed to attend. Denied. So my folks took the tour and I went back and did some reading while Nora slept.

We all had a bit of a nap and Frances and I wanted to get some “just the three of us” time so we walked over to the Magic Kingdom. Thanks to the Lines app we saw that both Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear were only 10 minute waits so Frances headed for the mountain (one of her few memories from her only trip to WDW) and Nora and I got on Buzz. As the queue for Buzz winds around we’d get a look at the giant talking Buzz and Nora would scream “There’s Buzz! He’s right there!” Each time was like the first time, too cute. Once on the ride she loved controlling the car and pointing out where I should shoot. I went to find the post-ride picture of the two of us but all you could see of her was a small tuft of hair as she was too short for the camera to capture her. Hahahahaha

We met up with Frances after her ride on Space Mountain (which she loved) and headed to Fantasyland, stopping at the teacups for the two of them to ride. I’m not one for reviewing my lunch in reverse which surely would have happened had I ridden the Mad Tea Party so I waited with the stroller. They both loved it and Nora kept yelling to go faster, and then learned the hard way how dizziness works as she clunked her head getting out of the cup. But she laughed it off and told me the story about 10 times as we walked on.

Winnie the Pooh was a short walk and a walk-on so that was our next stop. This was another ride that I had never been on and it was really cute – though I think it was a bit too fast for Nora. By fast, I don’t mean thrilling-fast, but simply that it moved so fast through the scenes that she didn’t have time to process them individually. But she liked bouncing with Tigger, so that made it worthwhile.

The carousel was up next (fortunately, Nora’s favorites happened to be those with short/no lines!) and I was able to grab a few pics of mom and daughter.

Nora requested It’s a Small World again which was great for me – my wife and I both noticed that each time we rode we spotted things we missed the previous time. That’s the sign of a classic, regardless of how icepick-to-the-brain inducing the theme song may be.

At this point it was getting to be well past Nora’s bedtime and we still hadn’t had dinner. Plus we knew the throngs would be approaching soon for Wishes so we slowly made our way to the exit, stopping in a few shops on Main Street along the way. We got back to the Contemporary and grabbed a quick bite at the Contempo Café – surprisingly good food, in my opinion. Then we were off to bed – early for us, late for Nora!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Totally ate up the update! Your daughter is just too stinkin' cute! I bet if she watched Mulan that would be her kind of girl. Keep it coming! You're totally keeping me motivated in finishing up the text on our recent trip.... :wave:

 

[Saoirse1916]

Totally ate up the update! Your daughter is just too stinkin' cute! I bet if she watched Mulan that would be her kind of girl. Keep it coming! You're totally keeping me motivated in finishing up the text on our recent trip.... :wave:

Thanks so much -- glad you're enjoying it and I'll definitely be reading yours!

 

[Saoirse1916]

Day 5 – Animal Kingdom

We knew this day would be something of a challenge for us as we wouldn’t be able to get our daughter back to the resort for a nap. Fortunately a relatively early night helped! On a cold morning we got in the car and headed to Animal Kingdom as we did want to have our own ride available for dinner at Boma that evening. Based on advice from touringplans.com we headed straight for Africa and Kilimanjaro Safaris, which was basically a walk-on.

Our daughter loves animals, particularly giraffes, so she was excited to go see them out and about. My wife and I got chuckling at how boring the guide was: “Hey. Do you want to go catch some poachers? Ok. Here we go.” From what I’ve read the guides are really hit-or-miss but ours certainly didn’t bring down our enjoyment of the ride. Among the highlights for us was a hippo walking out of the water – in all the zoos I’ve been I’ve never once seen a hippo out of the water, so that was really cool. We also had the pleasure of listening to a nice Japanese couple practicing their English phrases…very cute.

After the Safari I jumped ahead to grab FastPasses for my wife and Dad to ride Expedition Everest. I was more than happy to sit that one out with my Mom and Nora. We met up at Flights of Wonder which turned out to be a great show. Best of all, Frances got picked to photograph the big bird that flies up to the stage! My wife has also since developed quite a fetish for singing/talking/swearing parrots and has scoured YouTube to find a ton of videos. Somehow we also managed to get a shot of the girl bowing to a chicken. Not sure what that’s all about, but it’s funny as hell.

Our FPs were due so we headed back to Asia so Frances and Dad could ride EE. We tried to get a few pictures of them but I couldn’t tell which train they were on so these are probably just shots of random people on the ride. Anyway, they thought the ride was great – my wife said, “that’s the kind of roller-coaster I was hoping to find here.” Further confirmation that I made the correct decision in staying away from it.

From there we headed over to Dinoland stopping by Finding Nemo the Musical to check showtimes. As we had a few hours we took Nora on Triceratops Spin which, in my opinion, was more fun than Dumbo because of the dual control-sticks. Such a cool idea! We then took a run through the Boneyard and Nora zipped down the huge slide about 47 times. One more ride on Triceratops for good measure and we were off to lunch at Flame Tree BBQ.

I’m sure the birds at Flame Tree are a nuisance to the staff but I thought they were awesome. Nora kept squealing, “there’s a duck under my feet!” We did follow the signs not to feed them from our trays but we saw a bunch of folks who didn’t, so I imagine they live fat and happy there despite the warnings from Cast Members.