Family Pictures!

These were taken at an old train station in Tomball, Texas.

Miss Charlotte, our Southern Belle

Sterling III, age 4 going on 40

Eleanor a.k.a. Elle

Wednesday: Animal Kingdom aka our first full day

Sterling's camera was working better today, so there are more pictures. Plus, we did about ten times as many things today as on Tuesday. This is a huge park!

You'd think after my fantasizing about this trip for 5 years I would have double/triple checked the opening times and made sure we weren't going to be late (see Friday), kicked out early (see Friday), or waiting to get in while watching all the resort guests come in for an extra magic hour before us (see today). Extra magic hours are a perk for resort guests, so they can go in for an hour early OR three hours after the park closes, depending on what is scheduled. Well, our schedule was for the great unwashed who stay off property and it didn't indicate that there was an early extra hour for resort guests. We got to Animal Kingdom 30 minutes early and thought we'd be there for park opening. It had already been open for 30 minutes. So we stood in line with kids who really could have used a little extra sleep-in time while we watched a small army of people go into the turnstiles to our right. But, to Sterling's credit, he never reproached me once this entire week.

Once we were in, the park felt pretty empty. We went straight to Everest and I dropped Dad and Elle off at that enormous mountain of snow. They got fastpasses, and I continued on a five minute walk to the dinosaur area of the park. There's an enormous playplace built around dinosaur bones that is supposed to be like an excavation area. We thought you could somehow dig for dinosaur bones, and when we found it was all slides and stairs Sterling III was a little disappointed. But, it was a great place for the kids to play while adults and older ones went on Everest (or Dinosaur, if we had gone on it).

Once Dad and Elle got back from Everest, I traded babysitting duties and took Eleanor back to Everest. She love love loved this one. It is really exciting, scary, and fast. Also,one of the best queuing places too.

It was less than a ten minute wait. Not enough time to see the cool Asian "offerings" to their Yeti protector, or I would have liked to examine all the trashed camping gear that the Yeti had destroyed, or compare Yeti footprints to snow leopard footprints in the yeti museum. The actual ride is so much better if you know nothing about it. Some seriously great storytelling at 40 miles per hour!

Next we cooled off in a big beautiful theater where we saw Nemo: the Musical. One of the greatest thing about Disney parks is the world class entertainment. The Nemo musical was like nothing I had ever seen before. Performers have giant puppets that they personify with music and acting and even swimming. My favorite puppets were the 20 foot tall jellyfish. Some great music and moments too. All of the children were enthralled. This was great prep for seeing the Seas section of Epcot tomorrow.

We had planned to stay the whole day so we got some lunch at the Restaurantosaurus. It has some cute ambiance, like dino skeletons hanging from the ceilings, and some seats in trailers like those at an excavation site. This is a burger and fries joint, and they serve the kids' meals in sand pails with shovels. My favorite thing about this restaurant is the fixins bar. They have sauteed mushrooms, onions, and some other stuff. And the paper ketchup cups are like bowls. I filled one up with mushrooms as a side dish.

By now it was 12:30 and there was a bird show at 1:00. We split up and Dad headed with the stroller to get seats and the big girls went to ride Dinosaur. Sadly it was closed down, and we thought we'd try again later in the day. I met up with Sterling waiting to get in to the Flights of Wonder show. He was chatting up some Brazilians. This is the first but not the last time Sterling just strikes up a convo with Brazilians. They are always surprised to find he is American. We gave them some of our Everest fastpasses because we thought we wouldn't have time to fit in the rides before the "window" was up. The bird show was cool, with different birds than we saw the last time. Charlotte got too antsy in the last 10 minutes so I took her out to stand in a misting machine which is a fan with a water spray thing. The bird show finished, and Eleanor and I hustled back to Everest. The fastpass said we should return between 1:45 and 2:45. We got there right at 2:45 and I asked if we could still get on even though our time was out. And the Cast Member attending the line pulled this face and said "Oh, you're late!" and I must have had this really disappointed look on my face and then she smiled and said "Fastpasses are good for the rest of the day!" Whew, good to know. Ah, such a great ride. Of course, we got more fast passes. We met dad walking down the forest paths and saw all kinds of beautiful animals. including tigers, bats, huge cows, monkeys. And I love the way it's set up. Not like a regular zoo where it's just a bunch of animals in cages. The animal spaces either give the illusion that there's acres of land for them to roam just over a rise behind them, or they have terrific playplaces and viewing areas. The tigers play among temple ruins and you stand in old ruins with a plexiglass window to see them. They are RIGHT THERE. It's so beautiful. At least three different areas to stand to see the tigers so it's not too crowded with humans.

Charlotte loved the bird section. She calls birds "beeps". And she spotted all sorts of cute and exotic beeps and their nests.

At this point Elle and I went BACK to Everest (I know, again!). It's kind of sad because this is actually one of Dad's favorites but he had gotten a little ill on it in the morning (poor guy was fighting some kind of sinus infection all week, so his motion senses were extra wacky). I was the privileged parent to go on this with Eleanor tons of times. Makes up for all the times I missed out on Splash I guess. While we were doing Everest two more times, Dad and the little ones took a train trip to Rafiki's Village, which has all sorts of smaller animals to see. They gave it two thumbs up! As you walk into the building there are all kinds of animal sounds, and the elephant sound kept freaking Charlotte out! We met up with them and got to see Jiminy Cricket of all people (of all bugs? of all characters?).

Sterling loved showing us around to his favorite frogs and spiders.

I'm glad they had fun. Next was the African Safari. This is the way safaris should be. 15 minutes of riding and you see everything you would fly to Africa to see. I realize how Orlando-centric my thinking sounds. There is no irony. I can't believe we had the energy to walk down more paths, but this is where we saw the hippos, and I think the crocodiles?

It was almost time to go, so we walked down to the last showing of the Lion King festival. Charlotte literally dragged her feet.

The Lion King festival did not disappoint. The costumes and dancing were really cool, and the giant animatronic animals were interesting. The acrobatic monkeys were pretty good. I think if the story had made more sense I would have liked it better. The kids have never seen the Lion King movie, and the whole festival was a collection of the hit songs squished together. Not terrible, but not as good as Nemo.

Well, we had squeezed every possible minute out of our day at the Animal Kingdom. We went home and swam in the pool for an hour and ordered pizza and wings. I really liked it. Better than Hollywood Studios, but not as much as Magic Kingdom. It's like the best zoo in the world with world class entertainment and a couple of top notch rides.

Hollywood Studios aka Jedi Day!

Because of our late night (um, we hit the hay at midnight). We slept in a bit (which means I was up and dancing around at 6:45 instead of 6:30. I let everyone else sleep though until 7:30 and we had a slow morning. We made it to Disney's Hollywood Studios around 9:45. This made a big difference in how our day went. The newest ride is Toy Story Mania. We went directly to it and waited in a 40 minute line. Booo. Again, it was a cute line. You walk through giant vintage games as if you are the size of a toy. The actual ride was okay. Too

video-gamey for my taste. Amazing technology though that lets you "shoot" 3D objects out at different carnival games you pass through. The kids wanted to do it again but I didn't want to wait. Plus, my favorite ride, The Twilight Tower of Terror awaited.

Eleanor had heard me talking about this one and wanted to go on it with me. We took our tickets (to get fastpasses) to the Tower while Dad went to visit the Star Wars area with the littler ones. Here's where our story splits a little. Eleanor and I wait in a 30 minute line. Very boring. Once on the ride though, the boredom vanished like a guest in the Hollywood Hotel! I've never seen Elle so terrified in my life! I really felt bad for her on this ride. I couldn't enjoy it because she was screaming like she was gonna die. Poor little Elle. On our picture they took of our group, her face was bright red and her jaw was having some kind of spasm. Bad mommy. Well, I got 4 fastpasses anyway (I can always go again later by myself) and headed over to Indiana Jones.

Meanwhile, Dad was sad he couldn't go on Star Tours (his fave) because it's closed for refurbishing. But he noticed some kind of something called Jedi Training Academy. On looking into it he found he could sign up any children present with him to become Jedis. They signed up Sterling III for one of the last few slots left: 6:30 PM. They killed some time in the Star Wars store before getting us some sweet seats for the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. They waited in the shaded theater for the big girls to get off our ride and come back over. Looking back, we should have had Eleanor go with Sterling and sign up for Jedi training. This is an incredible show with really great stunts. The kids were all captivated. We were so close that when the big explosions happened we could feel the heat. Some minor celebrity from ESPN was one of the audience volunteers.

By now it's past noon, it's really hot, the lines are long and we have really only done two things as a family. Kind of depressing, but we learned a lot. Get there early!!!! We knew the kids would be going nuclear by Sterling's Jedi show if we tried to stay all day so we headed home for naps. It was even too hot for the pool. Do people really come here in August!? Oh yeah, remember those fast passes? Well, silly me, I thought they were only valid for the one hour window of time printed on the ticket. (truth is they are valid for the rest of the day) So since they weren't available until 1:30, we gave them to a family just walking in as we were walking out. So I didn't feel like it was a complete waste. Not until Wednesday afternoon did we learn the true order of milking the fast passes and the rider switch passes. We could have kept them and I could have ridden 4 times in the evening.

After our rest we headed back to Hollywood with an excited little Padowan in tow. They gave the kids a briefing and a little brown jedi robe and training lightsaber. There is a video, but I can't get it to upload. I'll try emailing it. It was pretty funny and really cute. Sterling is the youngest age they allow to join the Jedi Training Academy.

So of course we went to the build your own lightsaber shop. He made a big blue one with great lights and sound! Here is where we got a big bag of salt water taffy which was a lifesaver for the rest of the week. Afterwards, we wandered down to the big Muppet 3D movie. By this time the kids were ready to sit down. We waited forever in some kind of pre show room where we got this lovely picture with Miss Piggy's luggage.

I've never been a big Mupppets fan and the kids are totally clueless about them, but this movie still entertained. They had 3D bubbles and real bubbles floating down from the ceiling, that gave the kids a kick. It was getting late and we had been debating all day about whether to go to Fantasmic or not. It's a really amazing light and film spectacle shown on sprays of water. Our guidebook said it was worth the price of admission. It also said it was murder trying to get in. Like, wait for an hour and hope to get standing room spots. Ew. And the show starts at 9 or 9:30. So, although most Disney parks purists will scream when they hear this, we went home early because Fantasmic was not right for our family on this particular trip. We went home early but not before I sneaked in one more Tower of Terror ride :) Selfish to the end...

Magic Kingdom

After a good preparatory sleep of 10 hours (we had driven through Saturday night and arrived at the hotel in the afternoon). We woke up Monday morning at 6:30. We had a relaxed hot continental breakfast and got to the park at 9:20. They play the happy music of our childhoods while we walk down Main Street towards the Castle. Eleanor wants to go straight to it, but I explain there's not much inside it. Unlike the Temple, which is beautiful as well as useful. Our family tradition (comes down from Sterling's grandfather) is to start our touring with a ride on Pirates. Our kids were in awe. They had no idea what to make of it. Especially Charlotte. She got scared when everything was dark and the boat dropped down a dip. But there were enough realistic animals that she could be distracted. Cats, pigs, chickens, dogs, and donkeys, besides hairy-legged pirates and Jack Sparrow. After Pirates we went to the two big mountains in Adventureland. Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. And oh what horrors: Splash mountain was closed!!! I got fast passes anyway (you put your park tickets into machines and get timed tickets for later). So Big Thunder Mountain was our only option in that area. Since it was still early, the standby lines were only about 10 minutes. Sterling (who I will now call Dear Husband or DH) went on Big Thunder Mountain with the two older kids and Sterling III really did not like it. Eleanor went a total of 3 times.



Our fastpasses for Splash were for 11:30 so we looked around for something to do on the west side of the Kingdom. We headed to the Haunted Mansion. Sterling III hid his face in my lap the whole time and Eleanor said she didn't want to go on it again. I'm not in love with the attraction myself. They all wanted to do Pirates again. So, we did. I wanted to do something Charlotte would like so I waited in a very hot line for Aladdin's flying carpets. Charlotte loved it. She will definitely be a roller coaster lover when she grows up. It was finally time for Splash Mountain! Everyone love love loved that one. That was a real relief after Sterling III's reluctance about Big Thunder Mountain and Haunted Mansion. After going with DH twice, it was my turn while he waited with Charlotte. The Rider Switch pass lets you take two riders with you because you have a little one who can't ride. On that my first Splash and the kids' third, they delighted to explain the whole story to me and tell me when the big drop was coming.

Underneath a railroad overpass Disney has built a small playplace for the little ones who aren't big enough to go on Splash. Charlotte loved it. there are wide benches to sit on, and drinking fountains and trash containers. We chose this moment for a picnic lunch. We had brought sandwiches chips and drinks. That was a lovely moment in the shade watching the kids play and take bites of lunch and run to play again.

We got on the Disney Railroad to hopefully get dropped off at Fantasyland but since they are building a huge new addition to that area, they dropped us off at the front gate again. Well, might as well see the inside of the Castle which Eleanor wanted to view so badly. How wrong I was! There are stunning mosaics of the story of Cinderella. These are worth seeing. It was too dark for any pictures to come through, and I had never seen pictures of them. A nice surprise. Of course there's a restaurant in the castle now but it's super expensive and still has to booked 6 months in advance. Bleh.

It was a hot day and walking to Fantasyland Charlotte fell asleep in the stroller. The lines were all long (Peter Pan was consistently over 40 minutes long all week), so we stepped into Mickey's Philharmagic because I thought Charlotte could sleep in some air conditioning. Wow, this was an amazing show. It's a 3D tour through the best of Disney cartoons with Donald Duck (one of my favorite characters).My kids were enchanted and I'll admit to a couple of tears shed. From sheer nostalgia. Charlotte slept the whole time and woke up just in time to ride Small World. That was the shortest of all the Fantasyland lines. The kids loved it and wanted to go on it again immediately. But we decided to go home and take a break. It was so hot and the lines were so long. We had decided this would be the gameplan but in the midst of it you are tempted to somehow push through and not "waste any time!" But really it's so much better to take a cool 3 or 4 hours at the hotel and come back in the cool evening hours when the crowds are lower. We also can eat much more cheaply outside of the parks. As you will see. We went to Fuddruckers where they were doing a family special for 25 bucks. We were all stuffed and re-energized to go back to the Magic Kingdom.

We went straight to Tommorowland and watched the Monster's Inc show. It's a comedy show where the animated monsters interact with the audience. Next we rode Buzz Lightyear SpaceRanger Spin. This where you get in a spaceship like a teacup that you can spin and ride through different rooms shooting monsters. It was really fun. I thought I had gotten a great score but DH got one ten times higher. Lame. But still fun. One thing about Disney is that the lines are so entertaining. There's a lifesize Buzz waving and talking as you walk by to get into the ride. The kids liked it. Charlotte started waving and tried to talk to him. Next we rode the Carousel of Progress. I hadn't ever been on this one and I really really liked it. Kind of like the Hall of the Presidents with a catchy tune. The kids loved it too. They were all singing "It's a great big beautiful tomorrow..." for the rest of the day. We worked our way around to the Tea Cups (Pooh and Peter Pan AND Snow White were all still mobbed. Disney's lines aren't THAT fun). The Tea Cups are so iconic, and we got a great picture of us in front of the back of the castle while we were in line. I apparently like to pretend I'm in a commercial....
Again, a crazy ride that Charlotte adored. She wanted to go on the Golden Carrousel next so we did that one too. Sweet experiences watching her chubby smile on that antique horse. She has this funny expression when she's proud of herself for being a big girl and she tucks her chin into her neck and smiles from ear to ear.

This is where we go into crazy Mom-pleasing mode. I must have gotten a second wind or the weather finally got cool but it was almost 9:00 and we decided to go to Splash during the early parade (same parade, the early one is crowded). We told Eleanor our plan and she started "mentioning" her tired feet. Poor kid had walked all day while the other two had ridden in a tandem stroller. We promised her ice cream if she could make it. This was not just any ice cream, this was a Dole Float!! Pineapple soft serve ice cream floating in pineapple juice. Each one as big as Charlotte's leg. In the Florida twilight, we just sat in Adventureland amongst the jungle trees and pirate music sipping our pineapple deliciousness. Nevermind that Charlotte tried to commandeer one all herself. She's just trying to be a pirate.

Sufficiently refreshed, we realized the whole world was at the parade so we could walk on to a number of attractions. We took the Jungle Cruise. Oh man, that was super good at night. The cheesy jokes and the petrified children. We didn't tell them that the crocodiles weren't real. Needless to say they never asked to go on that one again all week. LOL. Walked on to Pirates again. Charlotte wasn't as scared this time (yay!).

More crazy Mom shenanigans. I wanted to see the fireworks and they were going to happen in 15 minutes! So I dragged the troops over to Fantasyland to try to get a seat. We had a great view of the castle at Pinocchio's restaurant but the waitress showed us where we'd be able to see the fireworks better. Apparently they are shot off right behind the restaurant. So we stood right between the Carrousel and Snow White and had bombs bursting right above us and around us. Beautiful but startling for Charlotte. I held Charlotte in my arms to soothe hare and she thought they were pretty cool. It was a magnificent experience. This is one of my top 3 experiences of the week. Thrilling and tender at the same time.

As soon as they were over we walked on to Snow White (I am glad I didn't have to wait 40 minutes for this one). Crossed the park AGAIN because we hadn't gotten to ride Splash thanks to my obsession with fireworks (although later we were SO glad we did this, it ended up being our only chance). We all rode Splash about 3 or 4 more times. The kids claimed this as their favorite ride. I was excited to see the castle all lit up at night from the top of the drop, but fear got in the way and it was all I could do to not duck like my son. We decided we had finally pushed ourselves to the limit and headed toward the exit. Then, total bonus, we found that the Electric Light Parade was going and we found a fence rail to sit on and enjoy it. The kids were the only ones on this stretch so all the characters on the floats waved to them or blew kisses. It was great. The kids saw everyone. Tinkerbell, Snow White, Peter Pan and friends, Mickey Mouse, dragons, enormous American flags....cool cool cool. I honestly think this first day was so amazing it was worth the whole trip.