But first, a rarity for us: an airplane flight! We were so excited, we showed up at the airport WAY early which turned out to be a really bad idea because Spirit Airlines holds the philosophy that waiting rooms and access to restaurants and rest room in the terminal are a "frill" and they are very much a "no frills" airline. (Their tag line literally is "Your ass, and some gas" and they are very serious about that!) But we made the best of it, with a "airport picnic" as Audrey called it. And hey, these kids are on their way to Disney World, nothing is going to dampen their enthusiasm!
And I don't know how they did it, but even with the strict baggage policy requirements, they still managed to smuggle on several "friends".
Our first flight to Atlanta was uneventful, until they decided to read the emergency information in the seat back pocket. Awkward!
Atlanta International Airport: A great place to spend a six hour flight delay!
To pass the time, Audrey and Bob went off on an exploration expedition and found this cool tunnel. Just like being in a forest! They also found a PF Changs where we had some dinner and may or may not have seen 1980's TV star Kirk Cameron. (We are pretty sure that it was him.)
And chilling out, exploring and eating dinner we STILL had enough time to watch the UK Georgia game (at a place called Chicken + Beer where we had neither chicken, nor beer.) They pulled it out at the last minute, whew!
After a very long day, we finally arrived in Orlando (I think this was the first time the kids had ever been up past midnight, on purpose anyway!). We rented a car at the airport, spent a quick night in a hotel near the airport and then had a whole day available for tooling around in our sweet rented minivan. Audrey was so enamored with all the space, she changed seats every time we stopped.
After some breakfast at a local joint (aka Dunkin' Donuts) we stopped by Bob's Great-Aunt Eva for a visit. It was so nice to meet her after hearing about her for so many years, she's 97 years old and a very interesting lady!
After our visit, we still had some time so we tried to get ourselves onto an air boat ride to see some gators. Unfortunately, everything was already booked up. But that didn't stop us from finding a gator for Maddy stick her head in it's mouth. (When in Florida, right?)
Then we had a nice lunch near a marina on a lake in Saint Cloud where we literally got to eat gator. It was delicious!
After we wore out our kids patience long enough, we finally checked into another hotel (getting closer to Disney, but not yet on property yet!) so the kids could swim and we could wait for Grandma and Aunt Katie to arrive. They had a long day of driving, but arrived in time to have some crappy hotel pizza and to rest up for our Disney adventure!
On Monday morning, we made it into the Magic Kingdom! It was so cool to finally see Cinderella's Castle in person.
But enough with that princess nonsense, point us to the roller coasters! First up was the Seven Dwarf's Mine train.
I picked the Seven Dwarf's Mine Train as our first Fast Pass selection because I figured it would be pretty mild, and I was right. Still, it was the biggest coaster the kids had ever ridden but you can see from their faces that they don't scare easily!
Poor Grandma had to get used to the rides and most of her roller coaster photos shall forever be held in a secure location for future blackmail. (But the carousel was one that was easy on her frazzled nerves.)
We spent most of the first day at the Magic Kingdom (we hit the kids new favorites Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Seven Dwarf's Mine Train again) before heading over to Epcot for our dinner reservation.
The Japanese Steakhouse was a favorite!
I thought we'd hang out for the Epcot fireworks (Illuminations) but we were pretty exhausted by dinnertime and the kids were itching to check out the pool back at the resort so we called it an early night and headed back.
On Tuesday, we started out in the Magic Kingdom again, this day was not quite as sunny but the cooler temperature was nice!
For this day, we got Fast Passes in the "Tomorrowland" part of the park. We didn't get one for the Tomorrowland Speedway, which turned out to be the longest wait we ever had and it was the crappiest ride. But Audrey got to terrorize Aunt Katie, so that was a bonus at least.
The finale of our Tomorrowland journey was Space Mountain. Yikes! I don't know if Grandma's going to get a handle on her face for this one.
(insert blackmail photo here)
After we wrapped up at Tomorrowland, it was back to Frontier Land to have another go at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
See Grandma, after Space Mountain and Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad seems totally tame!
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was definitely every one's favorite.
In the afternoon, we started to head to Hollywood Studios for dinner and Fireworks and ran into a really cool parade on the way out. One of my favorite things about Disney was how it was so easy to run into interesting events without really trying too! I also got to stop at the Splash Mountain overlook and pay my final firewalls to my Red Sox hat.
Hollywood Studios...
...home of the Muppets!
After some Italian food, we took advantage of some VIP passes to Fantasmic. It was very impressive, lots of fire!
On Wednesday we started out at the Animal Kingdom; the weather wasn't ideal, but we made the best of it. Our first Fast Pass was for "Kilimanjaro Safaris", we saw tons of animals!
We were able to have lunch and get in a few rides (Primeval Twirl, Dinosaur) before the skies opened up and started pouring rain and we were forced to find some shelter (and some hot cocoa.) Grandma and Katie gave up and headed back to the resort for some dry clothes.
But, the silver lining is that by the time the rain stopped the crowds had died down and we could walk right onto the coolest roller coaster ever: Everest Expedition! It was awesome, it's longer and higher than Big Thunder Railroad, and then half-way through the ride, it tears off backwards as if you're being pursued by a Yeti! It was terrifying, the kids loved it!
The Animal Kingdom Tree of Life.
We met Grandma and Katie later on for dinner at The Coral Reef in Epcot, a restaurant that was inside an Aquarium. It was a seafood restaurant which maybe sends the wrong message to the residents. Maddy had the steak, obviously.
After dinner, we were able to race across Epcot to take advantage of a last minute Fast Pass to the most popular ride at Epcot; Soarin'. It was just thrilling enough for the daredevils in the group, without giving anyone else (looking at you, Grandma) any more grey hairs. We felt like we were hang-gliding all over the world: over the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids. It was amazing!
On Thursday morning everyone needed a bit of a break, so we got a slow start and took advantage of the beautiful pool at the resort.
(Bob took advantage of being child-free, and went to Epcot early and walk around the World Showcase.)
After we dragged the kids out of the pool, we got ourselves to Epcot too. Maddy and Audrey both had their eye on some "friends" to bring home from the Finding Nemo gift shop before our week ended. Bob should win dad of the year for squeezing in two large sea animals into his backpack to walk around with for the rest of the day!
Another example of running into something cool by accident: Muppet Mobile Lab!
We did another couple rides at Epcot, then headed back to the Magic Kingdom because somebody wanted to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again.
It was cool to see the park at night for a change, the castle all lit up!
And Main Street.
We saw the start of the parade too, as we were leaving the park for dinner. Tonight, we had special dinner plans.
We took a ferry boat across the water to The Grand Floridian for dinner with Cinderella and her family! The first one we met was her meanie Stepmother.
Next was Anastasia. Audrey tried to get on her good side by telling her that she was way prettier than Cinderella.
Prince Charming was there too, both of them.
Audrey tried her "you're prettier than Cinderella" trick on Drizella but it didn't work so well... she insisted that Audrey tell Cinderella that to her face! We really don't need to get in the middle of any family drama!
Then finally we met Cinderella. Neither kids are really into princesses, but they were very impressed. Audrey was just a little disappointed that she didn't sit down and eat dessert with us.
We had a nice boat ride back to the Magic Kingdom and saw the end of the fireworks and a cool light show on barges...another happy accidental discovery!
Friday was our last day, and we started out at Hollywood Studios.
The Storm Troopers were a constant presence in the park. A little creepy, given the state of the politics in this country!
But we tried to seek out some happier things. Like Kermit, and Jim Henson's hand prints on the "Hollywood Walk of Fame".
We did the MuppetVision 3D (again), The Great Movie Ride and Star Tours: The Adventure Continues before have an altercation with the local authorities.
The were going to take her away in the cargo hold, but changed their mind at the last minute. Whew!
The park really felt like Hollywood, with the palm tree lined streets.
We had one last thing on our Hollywood Studios to-do list, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. There was much debate about whether we should ride this or not, but we finally decided to go for it, minus Aunt Katie.
It was very cool, with all the allusions to the old Twilight Zone show. But it was also the most terrifying ride we rode all week!
For our Disney week dinner finale we went to another resort to Chef Mickey's where we saw a lot of Disney friends!
Goofy
Chef Mickey himself
Donald Duck
Pluto
And Minnie Mouse.
After dinner we went back into the Magic Kingdom one last time, for a couple more rides. Of course we had to say a sad farewell to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. (Riding at night was very fun, we even saw some fireworks in the distance!) And finally, we watched the "Wishes" fireworks display. It was a great way to end an awesome week!
Saturday morning we boarded the Magical Express to get to our very last, and most terrifying ride...
...the flight home on Spirit Airlines.
Thanks so much to Grandma for a magical week, and one that we will all treasure forever!
No comments:
Post a Comment