More Magic

Our last day of fun got off to a rough start. At some point in the middle of the night, Bubba threw up on the bed he shared with Philip. We thought he'd just eaten too much junk and that would be the end of it. Got up in the morning and went down to eat the breakfast buffet; I took Bubba in line with me and he threw up a little more in line (so sorry to all those other people in line!). I went and sat at the table with him and kept the airsickness bags I'd taken from the flight to FL handy. Didn't do me any good. He then threw up all over the floor at our table - not just a little bit, a whole lot. At this point we were cutting it close to the time to catch the bus to Magic Kingdom. We quickly debated whether I should keep him at the hotel for a while and try to meet up with them later. Instead, I got him back up to our hotel room, gave him the quickest shower ever and clean clothes, then raced down to the buses (I'm telling you, I've never stayed in a hotel that had so many corners) and made it just in time. Poor Bubba still didn't look too good. After all my sympathy and probably a few too many "I'm so glad that's not me/us" statements regarding all the poor people with strollers, we decided to have pity on our little sicko and rent a stroller for the day.

We started off with a few mellow rides to make sure Bubba was going to be alright. Scott and I thought the sarcasm of Jungle Cruise was completely hilarious. Either no one else on the boat was really listening or they don't enjoy that kind of humor. I know every word is scripted, but our guide was so good. We wanted to crack up laughing, but no one else was, so we kept it in for the most part. Our favorite line was her last one, "One last joke for all you psychics out there..." and then nothing, We rode The Magic Carpets of Aladdin (pretty much just a variation of Dumbo) then went to a couple of short shows; Country Bear Jamboree, extremely corny, but Scott remembered it from when he was a kid and wanted to see it again; and The Enchanted Tiki Room, also corny and outdated, but the old folks liked it,

Bubba made it through those things just fine and by then it was time for us to ride Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. He was a good little barometer all week of which rides were good and which were not so; if it was good he seemed to get a little turbo boost from it. Big Thunder was just what he needed to get him back to his usual little self. We took a little raft over to Tom Sawyer Island; the kids liked it but I wasn't impressed. Then we had some lunch at Peco's Bills before heading over to Pirates of the Caribbean; it's really the same ride it was years ago, they just added a few Jack Sparrows into the scenery.

And that was that! We went on everything we wanted to ride. Silly still wanted a t-shirt, he'd seen one at Splash Mountain that he liked but we didn't want to buy it right then and thought maybe we could find it in the Main Street shops, but couldn't. Scott went all the way back to Splash Mountain while the 4 of us waited in line at Plaza Ice Cream Parlor to get some treats. Scott hadn't bought anything for himself yet, and wanted a nice golf shirt, which is pretty much what he gets on every trip. His only choices were Grumpy or Mickey, so he went with Grumpy.

Somewhere in there we watched the Main Street Parade, which was worth watching for the experience of it, but my kids aren't all that into characters so it wasn't a major moment for them. I got lost during a night time parade when I was a kid, so I told them all about that. I also went to Disney my senior year of high school for a show choir competition. I pointed out the stage we performed on and they were not impressed.

Gotta take this picture, right?

I wore my BYU hat all week and I think I only got one comment; Bubba wore his VT hat everyday, and Scott wore a VT shirt one day and got commentary all day long. He thought that was pretty awesome.

Then we went back to the hotel and I dealt with all of this while Scott took the kids swimming. Fun stuff! I also avoided a potential disaster for the morning. Our taxi company had called to confirm our airport pickup the day before we left, so I was kind of waiting for my phone to ring all day, but it didn't. I called them Friday night to make sure we were all set and discovered I had accidentally made the reservation for the next Saturday. Oops! Good thing I called to confirm.

We must have really worn everyone out because all three of them slept past 8:00 Saturday morning and that is an extremely rare occurrence, for the boys anyway.

There was a brand new, really cool playground right outside our hotel room. They actually finished it while we were there, so the kids got a chance to go play on it before we checked out.

View from our little porch

Silly thought the rollers on this slide were pretty cool

Riding the elevator with a little assistance (which he didn't much appreciate)

By himself this time

I, of course, liked the musical elements

Bubba's shirt - totally perfect for him!

And that was Disney World! Definitely worth the wait, had a great time, Less Drowsy Dramamine is a miracle drug, Cakes won the award for wettest person in all of Animal Kingdom, Silly survived a typhoon and Bubba managed to limit his throwing up to just the one morning. Scott has now become the Disney World guru for all of his friends who have gone since we went. He's got a whole paper written up about it.

Now for the Magic

We stuck to Fantasyland and Tomorrowland for our first day. Our plan of attack was to head straight to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, which we did, but they were experiencing some technical difficulties and told everyone it might be hours before it finally opened. So we went next door to Dumbo The Flying Elephant first (Bubba now loves Dumbo) then the Barnstormer. That was a fun little roller coaster and we met a cute family there that had an odd number of people too so the dad talked to us, introduced himself, and asked if his daughter could ride with our daughter. It worked out just right.

By the time we got through that the Mine Train was open again. Here's where I should say that the Touring Plans app and membership we bought was completely, absolutely worth it. I think we only paid about $12 for the plan; it saved us so much time and was always more accurate than the wait times posted by the parks. This was most clear at this particular ride. We knew we'd have a long wait, and when we got in line there was a cast member there who kept telling everyone the wait time from that point was 80-90 minutes. Touring Plans said 45, so we stuck it out, and their estimate was right on target. Later in the day the wait was much longer, so we definitely made the right choice. We used that app far more that Disney's. Anyway; even the wait was pretty fun, there are things to see and do along the way, and the ride was super fun! I've always loved the Seven Dwarfs and this was definitely a favorite ride.

Thankfully, none of my kids were even remotely interested in meeting any characters and don't give a hoot about princesses, so we were able to avoid all of that time consuming nonsense. (I was also grateful many, many times that we decided to wait until our kids were out of the baby and toddler phases. My heart went out to all those poor moms and dads pushing strollers and carrying babies around in that heat!) Winnie the Pooh was across the way so we got in line for that. Again, lots to do so the kids didn't really even notice they were waiting.

Hanging out in Pooh's house

Sad little Eeyore

Working in Rabbit's garden

We just about suffocated at Tomorrowland Speedway. You're standing on hot asphalt the whole wait, then driving on hot asphalt and there's no shade anywhere, just nothing but really hot! The kids had fun driving though. Cakes was old enough to drive herself, so I helped Bubba and Scott helped Silly. They had a really good time in spite of the temps.

Monster's Inc Laugh Floor was extremely funny, Buzz Lightyear was fun, Stitch's Great Escape was  lame. Space Mountain was totally awesome - I didn't feel sick at all, but I did scream my head off the whole time. I always feel like my head is going to hit something on that ride. I rode it at about 8 years old with my mom, oldest sister and younger sister. I screamed my head off then too; my younger sister was so scared she never even made a peep (at least that was our theory). The kids absolutely loved it.

We ate a tasty lunch at Cosmic Rays, then rode Peter Pan's Flight, which was fun and it's a small world, which hasn't changed at all. And of course I sang along for most of the ride, which my children didn't appreciate much.

It was only 1 or 2 o'clock by then so we waited in line for The Haunted Mansion, which was pretty outdated and not at all scary (this from a girl who's pretty easy to scare). After that we did a little shopping; Cakes got a Winnie the Pooh and Bubba got a Baby Dumbo.

Proof they were there

Proof I was there

A more mellow day

We decided to take it easy Wednesday before we spent the next two days being really hot and crowded at Magic Kingdom. If we were to ever go back, I think we would plan on one less day and not bother with water parks. We've got Water Country and Great Wolf Lodge around here, so Typhoon Lagoon wasn't all that thrilling. We went on all the family rides first and we gave Shark Reef a try. Papop (my dad) taught Silly to snorkel a few summers ago and he loves it, so we thought we'd give that a try. Cakes and Bubba wanted nothing at all to do with those little bitty sharks. Silly didn't want to swim with sharks either, but he really wanted to snorkel. I snorkeled once in Hawaii and said I would never do it again, but this little pool was like 30 feet across, so I thought maybe that wouldn't be a big deal. Nope. Still a big deal. Still don't like it. Still have a hard time breathing if I think about it too long. Sorry dad! This girl will never be a scuba diver. Ever. Silly was funny. He was swimming along just fine, but at some point he actually saw a fish or a shark and then he just wanted to get out of there. He can say he swam with sharks though!

There was one little kid area that Bubba and I stayed in while Scott took Cakes and Silly to ride the big slides (are you noticing that he takes the big kids a lot? it's because I'm a wimp). He must have gone down that slide 150 times, over and over and over, never getting tired of it. Once we reunited, everyone wanted to go to the wave pool. Now, we know wave pools. We've been in a few. We know the waves start when the bell or alarm rings. But clearly we were not familiar with typhoon pools. We ran into the water right as the alarm sounded, having no idea that this wasn't the typical waves turn on for so many minutes, then off for so many minutes scenario. No, this was just one huge tidal wave that caught Silly completely off guard, tumbling him every which way underwater and battering him into the nonslip surface. Thank goodness he had on a rash guard, because his poor little body would have been completely torn up otherwise. He was pretty scraped up even so. Scott had to take him to the first aid station where they patched him up and gave him lots of extra band-aids. He's a tough kid though, so it didn't really slow him down, but we sure felt bad about it! The ladies at the first aid station were impressed that he managed to scrape something other than his toes, that's what they're usually bandaging.

After a little break at the hotel, we went back out to explore Epcot's World Showcase, but first we had to ride Test Track again because Bubba loved it so much, and gave Mission:Space another try, since that was the first ride we attempted and didn't yet know the trick to getting Bubba on those 44" rides. Scott and I took Bubba on the calmer version and let Cakes and Silly try the wilder one. They take you into this briefing area first and I could not take it! I was on the verge of screaming to be let out and/or hyperventilating. And that wasn't even the ride! Thankfully, there was an opportunity for wimps like me to get out before moving on to the actual ride. Plus, we were worried about Cakes and Silly - they'd gotten too far in front of us and still had their cards with them; we were both worried the cards would be left on the ride and that would be the end of our fun! They were super responsible though and kept track of them.

Then it was time to be piggies traveling the world. We started off with cronuts then visited the UK. Silly gave the classic British phone box a try.

He doesn't even know what a payphone is!

Bubba was more interested in the regular payphone

But he gave the red one a try too

We stopped by France for some sorbet, one of Scott's all-time favorite things. I was expecting the serving size we got in France, forgetting I was in America, so we ended up with these giant waffle cones of sorbet. If I'd known that I would only have bought 1 or 2. Somehow we managed to eat it all. :-)

Cakes jammin'

We ate a few more goodies over in Germany and then finally satisfied Silly's craving for some Chinese noodles at the Lotus Blossom Cafe. That boy could live on any kind of Asian noodle if given the choice.

We mostly just walked through each country, stopped in at a few stores. We did go on the Gran Fiesta Tour in Mexico; that was a nice, cool break from the walking and the heat. Then we stuck around until 9:00 to see the IllumiNations show with lights, fireworks and music. It was pretty cool. We had a good view, but were still towards the back of the crowd so we could make a quick exit. Scott and I seem to have this special snack for beating the rush and we got back to our hotel without any trouble.

And that concludes Day 4. 

Next up: Magic Kingdom!

Best Day Ever! (otherwise known as Animal Kingdom)

This is why I really wanted to go to Disney World! Since the odds of my ever going on an actual African Safari (a lifelong, completely unexplainable obsession) are slim to none, this will have to do. The Kilimanjaro Safari at Animal Kingdom was super, duper awesome, exceeded my expectations for sure. We got there early and headed straight for the safari (a long line forms pretty quickly and they can only do so many tours a day). Early in the morning is the best time to go anyway, because that's when the animals are most active. Honestly, I could have stayed there all day.

Those would be hippos

a real termite mound

baby giraffe walked right in front of us, mama giraffe thought we were a little too close

those are actual ostrich eggs!

Not just the safari, but all of the animal trails were great too. The whole park was great, nice a shady (unlike Animal Kingdom that's almost entirely asphalt and you feel like you're being cooked to death). We all loved this park.

two Hokie boys; there was way more commentary on Bubba's Hokie hat than my BYU hat

just some dragon feet

cruisin Silly

on the Maharajah Jungle Trek

 By now we knew the secrets to getting Bubba on those rides with the 44" height requirement, so we all went on Exploration Everest; really great ride, definitely worth riding once, but Bubba and I opted out of going back with Scott, Cakes and Silly. There's a part where it goes backwards, in the dark, and that doesn't mix well with my motion sickness and claustrophobia issues. Bubba very firmly said he did not want to ride it again.

Kali River Rapids was awesome. We went straight through with our FastPass and enjoyed it, everyone got at least a little bit wet. That was not enough for Audrey though. It was still early in the morning and there wasn't much of a line yet, so we went again. She was determined to get as wet as possible this time around. And boy did she get her wish. She got completely drenched. It's possible that she was entirely underwater at some point. We were in that park for most of the day, and I never saw anyone else even close to as soaked as she was. And she loved it.

soaked Cakes

 We explored the rest of the park; saw It's Tough to be a Bug, were pretty disappointed by Dino-Rama!, well not really disappointed, it's a carnival, and it was just like every other sketchy, crappy carnival you've ever been too. DINOSAUR was scary - we did not like it, particularly Bubba, and he didn't want to go on anything dark after that. The Boneyard was a fun place to play and take a break.

Then we had lunch at Flame Tree Barbecue which was pretty good. There was a band playing nearby and Bubba started dancing like crazy when they sang Happy - here's a little snippet of the tail end of his performance

best shirt ever - Cakes wears it all the time now and always gets comments on it

 We weren't planning to go to Rafiki's Planet Watch, but we wanted to ride the Wildlife Express, so we went, and the train ride was fun, but the destination was not so very exciting. We just wanted to get back over to Africa because we hadn't walked the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail yet.

our favorite sign - you can hold hands but you can't dance

Do you know what that is? That's an OKAPI, people! Who the heck has an okapi? They're practically extinct!

K, so I loved the safari, and I was amazed to see an actual okapi, but then, then, the most unexpected thing - NAKED MOLE RATS!!! My family loves naked mole rats! And I have instilled this love in my children, but they had never seen real, live naked mole rats before! Bubba slept with a stuffed naked mole rat for years. I was so stinkin excited! I think the man there at their exhibit was pretty happy to have a whole group of people standing there oohing and aahing over these ugliest of all creatures. This day was a real win for me - African safari? check! Showing my children a real life naked mole rat colony? check!

We spent a long time watching these gorillas too. They were pretty entertaining. The baby even looked at us and banged on the glass.

And I couldn't resist taking this picture. Like father, like son. :-)

We took a little break at our hotel, then set off to check out Downtown Disney. First for the unpleasant part, because I want to end on a happy note - do not go to DisneyQuest in Downtown Disney. We wouldn't have gone ourselves, but it was included in our park tickets, so we basically went for free. If we had paid to go in there it would have been over $200 and we would have been really mad at the money we wasted. It's like a horrible Chuck E Cheese pretending to be something awesome. Don't do it.

 Anyway, we had some good food at The Earl of Sandwich, bought some Ghirardelli chocolate, checked out the Lego store (The highlight of Scott's day) and I found what I was looking for - the seven dwarfs!

My family went to Disney World when I was about 8 and I got a set of dwarfs almost exactly like this and a Snow White dress (A real dress, not this dress-up crap they have now). I had already decided before this trip started that if I saw a set of dwarfs, I was gonna hafta buy 'em - I saw some, and I did. I even bought another one and sent it to my friend. :-) Now they hang out in my closet with all my other childhood stuff and it makes me happy!

Bowens in Hollywood

Hollywood Studios was the plan for Day 2. Like pretty much everyone else with children 12 and under, we wanted to sign our kids up for Jedi Training, so we had to get there right when it opened. I took the backpack and went through the bag line while Scott took the kids and went straight to sign up. Bubba wouldn't answer the questions to say he would participate, so they wouldn't let him sign up, but that's OK because he totally would not have done anything if we'd tried to send him up there. Once we got that taken care of, we hit some rides, starting with Star Tours. Of all the rides that I actually went on (I'm smart enough to know my limits, even with Dramamine) that one got me the closest to getting sick. Everyone else thought it was awesome. The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular was pretty sweet. We did the Studio Backlot Tour (walking/tram ride, somewhat entertaining) and The Great Movie Ride (horribly, terribly outdated; Scott and I both walked out of there saying the exact same thing - that ride has got to be next on the list for an upgrade!) to kill some time before our next FastPass.

Scott took Cakes and Silly off to ride Rock 'n' Roller Coaster while Bubba and I took a little break. We were hot and wanted a treat, so of course I had to get him a Mickey Mouse ice cream bar. It was pretty messy, but he definitely enjoyed it. Thank goodness I brought wipes. I have to say, I don't think we ever encountered anything I was not prepared for. That backpack of mine was one well planned accessory.

Then Jedi time! Cakes was only so-so about it, and hates being hot, so she wasn't thrilled about wearing the Padawan robe, but she was a good sport. Silly was thrilled, but trying not to show it; pretty typical.

Pre-training lecture

 I just love these pictures of the two of them from the back. :-)

Scott had to get a picture with the AT-AT (and there's Bubba was my awesome bag)

Silly taking things very seriously

Cakes on the far right looking like she doesn't care

After all that hard work, we split up again so Scott could take the big kids to the Tower of Terror, while I took Bubba to the Disney Junior show. It was not all that exciting, and we picked a bad seat so we couldn't see much, but I would much rather have done that than fall down an elevator shaft. I went on that ride in high school and I believe I was shaking for the rest of the day. Once was definitely enough for me.

We met up for lunch then took the plunge to wait in the longest line ever to ride Toy Story Midway Mania. Here's where I should say that Disney also does an excellent job of making their waiting lines entertaining. There's a lot to look at and even some interactive things here and there, so you're not just staring at the back of someone's head for an hour. I think we waited about an hour and a half. We knew that's what it was going to be, so we just did it. The kids loved the ride, and it was pretty fun for grownups too.

The kids needed something active after that, so we went to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure where they could run around and let off some steam after shuffling along in line for ages.

Then the craziest thing happened. We're leaving the play area, and who comes around the corner but one of my roommates from BYU! I'd seen on Facebook earlier in the week that she was posting about being at Disney, but I thought she was gone already, so it was totally unexpected to see her. We've kept in touch, but haven't seen each other in person since 1997! How could you not make a bunch of Its a Small World jokes after that?

That pretty much filled up the day, so it was back to our hotel (we stayed at Shades of Green, the military/gov't employee Disney resort) for some dinner and swimming. The kids got quite a show with their pizza when I little girl drowned at the pool. There were two men there, they clearly had a lot more training and experience than the two lifeguards on duty, who were able to revive her before the ambulance arrived. The hotel clearly had procedures in place for emergencies and carried everything out really well; had someone out front to get the paramedics to the right pool as quickly as possible. I actually wrote a letter to the hotel after we got back, saying I thought it was handled well, but I was concerned that they didn't have a cordless phone on sight so the rescuers on site could speak directly to the 911 dispatcher rather than having someone shout instructions across the pool. The hotel manager called me and let me know the girl recovered and that they had reviewed their emergency procedures. 

Finally, this happened. They were talking and giggling their little heads off, then suddenly, they weren't.