Saturday, October 22, 2011
Last Day at Disney World!
We got to the Magic Kingdom at about 9:30 or so on Friday morning, not sure what to expect, crowd-wise. Would it be great, like Sunday? Or crowded as a Mumbai street market, like Monday? Fortunately, the crowds, weather, and overall experience turned out to be just fantastic.
The experience was probably helped by the fact that we had very limited goals for this last trip to the Magic Kingdom: we wanted to ride the Jungle Cruise (after being stymied by long waits on Monday), meet Tinkerbell (ditto), and ride It's a Small World. Again. Anything else we could fit in would be gravy.
First stop, Jungle Cruise. While the wait time had been 45 minutes or more on Monday, we just walked straight onto the boat on Friday. I'm not quite sure what the big deal is with this ride since everything on it couldn't have looked any faker. Even Amanda was unimpressed. And if the "big deal" with the ride is all the high-larious puns delivered by the captain, I'm sorry, but it's totally not worth it. If we had waited an hour on Monday for THAT, I'd have had some choice words for Mickey Mouse next time I saw him.
But with no wait, there was no harm done. On to It's a Small World! Again, there was no wait, and we got right on the boat. Reagan assumed the position, this time on my chest. That was the best part. I believe this was our third journey through the magical world of first generation animatronics, so Amanda (and everyone else) was becoming quite familiar with the scenes. The funny thing is, while she talks about how much she LOVES the ride (it was her favorite), you'd never know it by watching her ride it. Rather than laughing, singing, or even smiling, she just calmly looks around at everything. Studying. We fully expect her to see some random object in a few months and say, "that's just like on It's a Small World!"
After Small World, we headed over to Tomorrowland to ride the Astro Orbiter, which I can't help but call the Astroglide (heh heh . . . some of you out there know what I'm talking about, amirite?). Anyway, this is the ride Amanda saw from the race car, causing us to slam into the guide rail. It's like Dumbo on steroids -- rocket ships spinning around a central tower, going much faster (and higher) than Dumbo. I fully expected Amanda to get cold feet when she got a close look at it, but we braved the 20 minute wait, and she rode it with no problems. I started getting a little queasy, but she was a champ.
Then, Amanda wanted to ride the Teacups, so Susan took her on that while I played with Reagan, who was happy to get out of the stroller for a bit. By this point, it was getting close to lunch time, so we headed over to Adventureland to eat at a Mexican quick-serve place Susan had spotted. The food was good, and so were the girls.
After lunch, we went to ride Peter Pan, which we had gotten FastPasses for earlier in the day. FastPass is definitely the way to go for Peter Pan since the lines are always really long for some reason. Amanda wasn't too fond of the ride when we did it the first day (something about volcanoes), but we bribed her to try it again by promising we would ride Small World again if she did. She eagerly jumped at the offer. Yay.
So we did Peter Pan and got in line for Small World. By this time, the line was maybe 15 minutes long, still a far cry from Monday. But it was worth it to have Reagan resting on my chest again.
When we finished Small World, we split up. Susan took Amanda to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (which was to be her first real roller coaster), while I took Reagan to ride Dumbo. Ever since the first day, Reagan would point at the ride and say something that sounded a lot like "Dumbo" every time we walked near it. We therefore assumed it was her favorite ride and favorite character, so we wanted her to ride it again before we left. She was actually a little fussy riding it with me this time, so maybe I ruined her love of Dumbo. Or maybe when she was pointing and saying what sounded like "Dumbo," she was actually using her baby word for either "foreigner" or "morbidly obese person on a rented scooter." Lord knows the park was loaded with both of them.
After Dumbo, we reconnected with Susan and Amanda, only to learn that Amanda was just barely too short to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The park had three different people measure her, but she was too short by about a quarter of an inch! She was definitely going to ride it and had really gotten all psyched up for it, only to have those hopes dashed. She was very disappointed, but she handled it really well and knows that next time she comes to Disney, she'll be big enough!
Not that it's the same thing, but we decided to take her on the regular railroad, which happened to have a stop right there in Frontierland. That was a nice relaxing way to kill 20 minutes, and we got a good view of the huge expansion of Fantasyland that will open in 2012. We've got something else to look forward to now.
After the train dropped us off where we started, we had one more attraction to visit -- Tinkerbell. For some reason, they've got the Tink meet-n-greet set up in Adventureland instead of Fantasyland, but whatever. This line was supposed to take 30 minutes, but it actually took closer to an hour, making it the one thing that day where the wait got a little monotonous. After the wait, we got to meet and take pictures with one of the other fairies (I think she's called Fawn) and with Tinkerbell. I guess Amanda did fine, but she acted really weird around them -- she would stand very still and force a smile for the pictures. She wasn't unhappy, but she wouldn't really engage them in conversation, despite the best efforts of the fairies. You'll see that in one of the pictures I'll upload. Very odd.
After the Tinkerbell experience, it was time to do some souvenir shopping (we'd gotten off remarkably light to this point) and head back to get Reagan a nap to make sure she had a good night's sleep!
After the nap and a quick dinner at the hotel (using the last of our meal plan meals), we started the depressing job of packing to go back home. We wanted to pack as much as we could on Friday night so we could have a stress-free breakfast at the hotel and hit the road right afterward.
It was a good thing we packed most of our stuff the night before because Reagan decided our last morning would be the morning she would give us problems. Beginning just after 5:00 a.m., we heard her fussing pretty good in her pack-n-play in the closet. Even at home, she still cries out for a few seconds some nights without actually waking up, so this wasn't particularly unusual. But she seemed a little more upset than usual, and it went on a lot longer. Finally, after she had cried for over 20 minutes, I broke down and went to check on her. There she was, standing up, wide awake, looking at me with her lower lip jutting out. I couldn't resist such a sad face, so I picked her up. She immediately quieted down and got incredibly happy! I bent over to put her back down, and the crying started. Stood back up, happy again! Amazing how that works!
Since I apparently had no other choice, I brought her to our bed to see how that would work. Let me tell you, she had a grand old time. She crawled around, climbed on the pillows, laughed, got cuddly, etc. Although she would lie down and seem like she might actually go to sleep, it never lasted more than a few seconds. This behavior would have been adorable if it hadn't been 5:30 on the morning we were facing a 500 mile drive.
Finally, at about 6:30, Susan did us both a favor by putting Reagan back in the pack-n-play. She (Reagan) fussed for just a moment or two before going back to sleep. We also went back to sleep and almost missed our breakfast reservation thanks to Reagan's morning antics, but it worked out fine.
We left the Wilderness Lodge at 10:40 a.m. and made remarkably good time. We had expected to make several stops to calm down a fussy child (or two), but both kids did really well for almost the whole drive. We actually made it in about eight hours, which was about two hours less than we had prepared ourselves for. Reagan was happy for most of the trip, even though the sun was in her face for virtually the whole time. She even made up a little game where she would take her pacifier out and put it on top of her head. Then she would laugh until it fell off, at which point she put it up there again. It was actually pretty impressive that she was able to balance it there repeatedly, and her squeals of laughter really cheered everyone up.
Amanda was just wonderful, too. She didn't whine at all and was very helpful keeping Reagan entertained by retrieving dropped toys, feeding her cheerios, etc. Toward the end, Reagan got tired and hungry, so the last 30 minutes were a little rough for her, but overall it was a very pleasant end to a wonderful vacation.
The experience was probably helped by the fact that we had very limited goals for this last trip to the Magic Kingdom: we wanted to ride the Jungle Cruise (after being stymied by long waits on Monday), meet Tinkerbell (ditto), and
First stop, Jungle Cruise. While the wait time had been 45 minutes or more on Monday, we just walked straight onto the boat on Friday. I'm not quite sure what the big deal is with this ride since everything on it couldn't have looked any faker. Even Amanda was unimpressed. And if the "big deal" with the ride is all the high-larious puns delivered by the captain, I'm sorry, but it's totally not worth it. If we had waited an hour on Monday for THAT, I'd have had some choice words for Mickey Mouse next time I saw him.
But with no wait, there was no harm done. On to It's a Small World! Again, there was no wait, and we got right on the boat. Reagan assumed the position, this time on my chest. That was the best part. I believe this was our third journey through the magical world of first generation animatronics, so Amanda (and everyone else) was becoming quite familiar with the scenes. The funny thing is, while she talks about how much she LOVES the ride (it was her favorite), you'd never know it by watching her ride it. Rather than laughing, singing, or even smiling, she just calmly looks around at everything. Studying. We fully expect her to see some random object in a few months and say, "that's just like on It's a Small World!"
After Small World, we headed over to Tomorrowland to ride the Astro Orbiter, which I can't help but call the Astroglide (heh heh . . . some of you out there know what I'm talking about, amirite?). Anyway, this is the ride Amanda saw from the race car, causing us to slam into the guide rail. It's like Dumbo on steroids -- rocket ships spinning around a central tower, going much faster (and higher) than Dumbo. I fully expected Amanda to get cold feet when she got a close look at it, but we braved the 20 minute wait, and she rode it with no problems. I started getting a little queasy, but she was a champ.
Then, Amanda wanted to ride the Teacups, so Susan took her on that while I played with Reagan, who was happy to get out of the stroller for a bit. By this point, it was getting close to lunch time, so we headed over to Adventureland to eat at a Mexican quick-serve place Susan had spotted. The food was good, and so were the girls.
After lunch, we went to ride Peter Pan, which we had gotten FastPasses for earlier in the day. FastPass is definitely the way to go for Peter Pan since the lines are always really long for some reason. Amanda wasn't too fond of the ride when we did it the first day (something about volcanoes), but we bribed her to try it again by promising we would ride Small World again if she did. She eagerly jumped at the offer. Yay.
So we did Peter Pan and got in line for Small World. By this time, the line was maybe 15 minutes long, still a far cry from Monday. But it was worth it to have Reagan resting on my chest again.
When we finished Small World, we split up. Susan took Amanda to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (which was to be her first real roller coaster), while I took Reagan to ride Dumbo. Ever since the first day, Reagan would point at the ride and say something that sounded a lot like "Dumbo" every time we walked near it. We therefore assumed it was her favorite ride and favorite character, so we wanted her to ride it again before we left. She was actually a little fussy riding it with me this time, so maybe I ruined her love of Dumbo. Or maybe when she was pointing and saying what sounded like "Dumbo," she was actually using her baby word for either "foreigner" or "morbidly obese person on a rented scooter." Lord knows the park was loaded with both of them.
After Dumbo, we reconnected with Susan and Amanda, only to learn that Amanda was just barely too short to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The park had three different people measure her, but she was too short by about a quarter of an inch! She was definitely going to ride it and had really gotten all psyched up for it, only to have those hopes dashed. She was very disappointed, but she handled it really well and knows that next time she comes to Disney, she'll be big enough!
Not that it's the same thing, but we decided to take her on the regular railroad, which happened to have a stop right there in Frontierland. That was a nice relaxing way to kill 20 minutes, and we got a good view of the huge expansion of Fantasyland that will open in 2012. We've got something else to look forward to now.
After the train dropped us off where we started, we had one more attraction to visit -- Tinkerbell. For some reason, they've got the Tink meet-n-greet set up in Adventureland instead of Fantasyland, but whatever. This line was supposed to take 30 minutes, but it actually took closer to an hour, making it the one thing that day where the wait got a little monotonous. After the wait, we got to meet and take pictures with one of the other fairies (I think she's called Fawn) and with Tinkerbell. I guess Amanda did fine, but she acted really weird around them -- she would stand very still and force a smile for the pictures. She wasn't unhappy, but she wouldn't really engage them in conversation, despite the best efforts of the fairies. You'll see that in one of the pictures I'll upload. Very odd.
After the Tinkerbell experience, it was time to do some souvenir shopping (we'd gotten off remarkably light to this point) and head back to get Reagan a nap to make sure she had a good night's sleep!
After the nap and a quick dinner at the hotel (using the last of our meal plan meals), we started the depressing job of packing to go back home. We wanted to pack as much as we could on Friday night so we could have a stress-free breakfast at the hotel and hit the road right afterward.
It was a good thing we packed most of our stuff the night before because Reagan decided our last morning would be the morning she would give us problems. Beginning just after 5:00 a.m., we heard her fussing pretty good in her pack-n-play in the closet. Even at home, she still cries out for a few seconds some nights without actually waking up, so this wasn't particularly unusual. But she seemed a little more upset than usual, and it went on a lot longer. Finally, after she had cried for over 20 minutes, I broke down and went to check on her. There she was, standing up, wide awake, looking at me with her lower lip jutting out. I couldn't resist such a sad face, so I picked her up. She immediately quieted down and got incredibly happy! I bent over to put her back down, and the crying started. Stood back up, happy again! Amazing how that works!
Since I apparently had no other choice, I brought her to our bed to see how that would work. Let me tell you, she had a grand old time. She crawled around, climbed on the pillows, laughed, got cuddly, etc. Although she would lie down and seem like she might actually go to sleep, it never lasted more than a few seconds. This behavior would have been adorable if it hadn't been 5:30 on the morning we were facing a 500 mile drive.
Finally, at about 6:30, Susan did us both a favor by putting Reagan back in the pack-n-play. She (Reagan) fussed for just a moment or two before going back to sleep. We also went back to sleep and almost missed our breakfast reservation thanks to Reagan's morning antics, but it worked out fine.
We left the Wilderness Lodge at 10:40 a.m. and made remarkably good time. We had expected to make several stops to calm down a fussy child (or two), but both kids did really well for almost the whole drive. We actually made it in about eight hours, which was about two hours less than we had prepared ourselves for. Reagan was happy for most of the trip, even though the sun was in her face for virtually the whole time. She even made up a little game where she would take her pacifier out and put it on top of her head. Then she would laugh until it fell off, at which point she put it up there again. It was actually pretty impressive that she was able to balance it there repeatedly, and her squeals of laughter really cheered everyone up.
Amanda was just wonderful, too. She didn't whine at all and was very helpful keeping Reagan entertained by retrieving dropped toys, feeding her cheerios, etc. Toward the end, Reagan got tired and hungry, so the last 30 minutes were a little rough for her, but overall it was a very pleasant end to a wonderful vacation.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Days Four and Five
Okay, imma get caught up now!
Wednesday was EPCOT day. We got there a little late, just because it is difficult to get the gang moving in the morning. We started in the Finding Nemo ride since it was right near the entrance. It was a simple ride which was geared toward preschoolers, and I guess Amanda liked it okay. We also did an interactive movie thing with the sea turtle from the movie, but it didn't really excite her much.
We then made it over to Norway to ride the Maelstrom, which sounds way more awesome than it actually is. It's a water ride with a little drop, but Amanda really liked it. Se got a little scared by some trolls that made an appearance, but she is at the point where she likes the drops in rides like this.
After Norway, it was Mexico time, and they have a little water ride with no drops. What it DOES have is some little dancing dolls reminiscent of It's A Small World, so Amanda liked it a lot. In fact, Small World will probably end up being her favorite ride here. Oh, well. There's no accounting for taste, I guess.
After Mexico, we got some fish n chips in England and went to ride Soarin', which is a hang glider simulator where you fly over California. Amanda was a little cautious going in, but she seemed to like it ok, even though she declined the opportunity to ride it again.
By this point it was time to head back to the hotel for naps since we planned to come back that evening for dinner and fireworks. And after Reagan's nuclear meltdown the night before, we were taking no chances. The naps went well, and we went to catch the bus back to EPCOT. We must've waited about 30 minutes for a bus, which completely sucked. I could go on about the bus service here, but apparently I decided to make this a family blog a while back.
Anyway, dinner in Mexico was really good, and we had time to ride the Mexican river ride again before fireworks. Yay. We watched the fireworks/light show while walking around the big lake. It was okay, but nowhere near as impressive as the Magic Kingdom fireworks were. I got a funnel cake, which was also nowhere near as impressive as I was expecting it to be.
When the fireworks ended, we wanted the crowds to die down a bit, so we went into The Land to ride their boat ride tour through the fascinating world of agriculture!!!!!! I mock, but it was actually pretty cool. Amanda had all sorts of questions about the weird produce they were growing, and I was able to crack wise about hydroponic pot farming without her knowing what I was talking about. Disney actually uses the produce grown there in some of the restaurants, which may explain why I saw something called "Swiss chard" on several menus. From the taste of it, I'm guessing "chard" is what the Swiss call grass clippings.
By the time we left The Land, the throngs had dispersed enough where we were able to catch a bus back to the hotel with relative ease. It was another late night, but both girls did great.
Now might be a good time to mention something cute that Reagan has been doing on most of the rides, especially on the boat rides. Susan usually holds her on her lap, and as soon as we get settled in our seats, Reagan just lays her head on Susan's chest and keeps it there. She keeps her eyes open, but you can just see how secure she feels. It's really sweet.
Thursday was Hollywood Studios day, and again we had a bus from Heck. It was packed and probably took us about 45 minutes to get there, thanks to having to stop at the Fort Wilderness Campground to pick up a bunch of unshowered, inbred smokers. Ew.
Hollywood Studios was probably the park that had the least to offer Amanda, mostly because she hasn't really ever watched the movies or the Disney Channel shows that feature prominently in the attractions. We saw a live stage show that had puppets of Mickey and some others that she seemed to enjoy, and a live, 17-minute Little Mermaid stage show was pretty cool. Amanda knows a little about the movie, so she was at least interested in it, even tough she got pretty scared of the villain.
We had a character lunch at Hollywood &Vine, and the characters were from TV shows Amanda hasn't really seen! Still, she liked a character named "June" from a show called "Little Einsteins," primarily because she was a girl. I guess we'll have to start watching that one.
After lunch, it was time for Star Tours (the Star Wars ride) which was my main reason for wanting to come on this trip. Ha ha. Just kidding. Kinda. We decided Susan should ride first to see if Amanda would like it, and if so, Amanda would ride it with me. Turns out it was probably too intense for Amanda, so I rode it with Christi, Robert, and Jackson.
But while Susan was on Star Tours, I took Amanda (and Reagan) to a "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" playground, and Amanda rode a little slide there about 900 times. I only mention this because of a thought I had while she was doing it. I had seen a boy who was probably 6 or 7 go down the same little slide very, very cautiously, and the thought I had was that, while Amanda can be very timid in the face of some activities, at least she's not a wimpy little boy.
After Star Tours, we came back to the hotel so we could finally use the pool here. While Reagan napped and Susan got ready to go to the Sugarland concert with Christi, I took Amanda swimming. The big pool here has a short water slide, and Amanda has been saying she wanted to ride it all week. While the slide is short, it has a few turns and goes through a tunnel, so I fully expected her to change her mind when the time came, especially since I had to be at the bottom to catch her and wouldn't be at the top to "encourage" her. But I sent her to the top like it was nothing and waited at the bottom. And waited. And waited. Then she come barreling around the last turn right into my arms. And she loved it. In fact, she loved it so much that she didn't want to do it again. I ultimately rode It with her (against the rules, it turns out), and it's pretty intimidating from the top, so I am absolutely stunned (and proud) that she actually did it the first time by herself.
Ok, I'm gonna wrap this up now. After the pool, the evening was uneventful, except that Reagan absolutely lost it during her bath again, but she recovered pretty quickly. Not sure what's up with that, but I hope it stays in Florida.
We've got one more day at Magic Kingdom tomorrow before rolling out on Saturday.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Days Two and Three
Ok, so I was late on my Day 2 update, but it wasn't my fault. We were totally expecting Tuesday to be a washout, with storms in the forecast all day. I figured that would give me plenty of time to do the Monday write-up, so I slacked off on Monday night. Then, Tuesday arrived, cloudy, but dry, and my best-laid plans went awry.
Anyhoo, Monday was our second Magic Kingdom day, and it was a good bit different from the first, primarily due to the crowd size. Apparently the crowds on Sundays are notoriously small since it's a travel day, so we had been spoiled without realizing it. Well, Monday was insane. Even the crappy rides (e.g., Peter Pan) that we walked right onto on Sunday had long waits.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The day started fine, with us sleeping in a little bit and having breakfast in the room. I'm telling you, getting the villa with the kitchen is key - we can do breakfast and snacks in the room with no problems.
By the time we got to the Magic Kingdom, it was probably 10:30 or so, and we had plans to meet family (Kati & Chris; Justin, Mindy, and Landon; and Chrissy) for lunch at Tony's, an Italian restaurant on Main Street at 11:45. That left us just enough time to ride one ride in the crowded park, and we did the Aladdin magic carpet ride, which was just like Dumbo. The girls really liked that, especially Reagan.
By the time we had our nice lunch, the lines for everything were insane. We ended up doing Pirates of the Caribbean, which took close to an hour. Reagan was scared by the darkness and the cannons, and so was Amanda. The little drop in the ride scared Amanda a little, but she later said that was her favorite part. Right after we left Pirates, Amanda said, "I don't want to ride any more boy rides!"
So off to the Tomorrowland Speedway we went to race cars! Amanda and I did the speedway while Susan and Reagan rode the Peoplemover. I let Amanda steer, which was hilarious. Right after we left the loading area, she takes her hands off the wheel looks up, points to another ride and squeals, "Daddy, look at THAT ride!" The result was that the car slammed into the little guide rail, throwing us both hard to the side. The rest of the little track was much of the same, but Amanda liked it. Even though it was arguably a "boy ride." [insert obligatory women drivers joke here]
After the speedway, we headed back to the hotel for a rest break, since we wanted to come back that night for the Main Street Electrical Parade and fireworks. When we got back to the Magic Kingdom, we wanted to have dinner, but the park had gotten even MORE crowded in anticipation of the parade. Robert and I waited forever to get hot dogs and fries, then we fought the giant crowds to get to where the wives and kids were. We were all pretty frazzled, and the meal was less than satisfying. Oh, well. The electrical parade was just fantastic, and we ended up watching at a really good spot. Amanda was mesmerized. The fireworks were also impressive, but I was actually more impressed with the effects they projected onto Cinderella's Castle. It's hard to explain, but whatever they did with the lights and the colors made the castle look like it was alive. Well worth seeing, in my opinion.
Okay, so after a good night's sleep, we got up Tuesday expecting it to be raining. It wasn't, so we headed to the Animal Kingdom as planned. I wasn't sure what to expect, but like most other Disney projects, it was really well done. We started with the African safari, and it was great. Unlike at a zoo, there was really nothing between us and the animals. Our truck even had to wait for a couple of rhinos who were butting heads to get out of the way before we could move forward. Amanda seemed to enjoy it. Reagan looked and pointed at the animals, so I guess she did too!
The walking tour through Asia's animals was also really cool, especially the tigers. I feel like at every zoo I've ever been to, the tigers are either hiding or sleeping or both. These tigers were walking around, jumping on things, scratching a log, etc. it was great. Reagan really liked them!
Susan wanted to ride the Kali River Rapids, but neither Amanda nor I did, so I watched the girls for a few minutes while she did that. Then, when we met back up with the Luskins, Amanda suddenly wanted to ride the rapids since Jackson wanted to. While Christi and I kept the babies, the others rode the ride and got absolutely drenched. But I'm impressed that Amanda was willing to do that. She's getting braver and braver, which is great to see.
Christi and Robert were then kind enough to watch the girls so Susan and I could ride Expedition Everest, the big roller coaster in the Animal Kingdom. Apparently the girls never even knew we were gone. The coaster was really good. I had forgotten how fun real roller coasters could be.
After some face paint and carnival games (I beat Amanda at whac-a-mole 150 to 30) it was time to head back to the hotel since Amanda and Jackson had to get ready for Mickey's Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom. Susan took her to that, so I don't Know much about that, except it rained. Also, the parade was good, Jafar got in Amanda's face and said "boo!", they got some candy, yadda yadda yadda.
The real action was back in the hotel room, where I was struggling with Reagan. After two-plus days of doing great despite the weird (or non-existent) schedules, she melted down for me right after Susan and Amanda left for the Halloween party. Nothing would console her - not food, not a bath, not toys, not hugs. It was a rough 45 minutes, but I finally decided to just put her to bed. That did the trick, and she slept for about 14 hours.
Wednesday was EPCOT day, but you'll have to read about that tomorrow. Or maybe Friday.
Sent from my iPad
Sunday, October 16, 2011
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