Disney Part III: Chef Mickey's and Epcot

I'm back after a longer-than-planned break, but at least I'm back! M. returned on Wednesday from Kuwait, so the presence of adult conversation made it tougher to dedicate myself to blogging for the last few nights. But rather than shower my husband with the accolades he is due, rant about the kids (I could definitely get ranty after this past weekend), or go on and on about Finn's "graduation" from preschool (I only cried a little), I will resume my vacation summary efforts.

I left off at the end of our first day at Disney, which we spent at the Magic Kingdom. Our second day was launched with a character breakfast - Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary hotel. Our party numbered 16 - six kids and ten adults. Combine that with buffet-style eating and roaming, larger-than-life animals, and it was every bit as chaotic as you might think it could be.

Only about half of us had already managed to get some food from the buffet spread before we were greeted by our first table-side visitor, Goofy:

After the requisite autograph book signing and photo-taking, we all had time to shovel a few bites of food in before we had our next visitor, Donald:

Sorry the Big D.'s head is cut off in this photo - for each character, a different complement of kids decided they were game to pose for photos, and my kids must not have been that into Donald, because I don't have any nice group photo shots of them with him.

Then we were graced by the big guy himself, Mickey Mouse! All the kids were excited to see him (except JoJo - she stayed far away from ALL the characters), though I still didn't manage to get a group photo:

Finn scored all sorts of hugs

This is her excited face

Ned's, too, if you couldn't tell

Minnie was another winner, especially with the girls in the group:

And finally, we met Pluto, who was pretty adorable, but still scared the crap out of JoJo. Here she is hiding her little blond head (bottom right-ish part of the photo) pretty much in her mother's armpit:

After we had all eaten our fill (finally), we headed off to Epcot for the day. Because of the breakfast, we arrived at the park well after opening, probably around 10:30. We headed off to try to get fastpasses for the two most popular rides - Soarin and Test Track. Test Track was already sold out, but we managed to get some for Soarin, though our window wasn't until late in the afternoon. We then proceeded to see as much of Epcot as we possibly could, while also battling a pretty steady stream of rainstorms. The Seas with Nemo, Turtle Talk with Crush, Spaceship Earth, that Imagination ride with Figment - we did pretty much everything that was remotely little-kid friendly. We had lunch at the food court in the Land pavilion, and (after another rainstorm and the Figment ride), made our way over to the OTHER side of Epcot - the World Pavilion.

The World Pavilion at Epcot is one of my favorite places in all of Disney. I love the way each "country" is so detailed and so different from all the other surrounding countries. There is a LOT to see and do, and if one has the time and inclination, a lot to eat and drink, too.

It's a different experience with kids, though, especially tired and soggy kids. We pretty much raced around the entire pavilion, stopping briefly to watch the drummers in Japan, chug down a teeny cup of wine in France, and ride the Three Amigos ride in Mexico (where we ended up drifting aimlessly for a little while during a period of "technical difficulties"). We also let the kids get their faces painted during one of the rare dry spells:

I have never seen the two of them sit so still (and quietly!), EVER. And the make-up turned out great - the kids still like to talk about it (and beg us for more face painting, of course).

We also got some nice family photos:

M. likes to point out that it looks like I'm wearing a big white hat, and then I like to hit him.

Bonus picture of Finn getting tribal (I think this was part of the Canada section, maybe?):

We dashed over in the pouring rain to use our Soarin fastpasses, where we learned that Lucy was about half an inch too short to ride. So M. took Finn on the ride, Lucy cried, and I bought candy to placate her (it worked). Once they were done, I headed back in with Finn for a turn (we did the "parent swap" option that Disney is kind enough to provide for families with small kids), while Lucy apparently cried a lot. The ride was definitely fun (you are suspended up in the are in an IMAX-like theater, and soaring over the state of California), which was fortunate given all the crankiness that we took on in order to experience it. It was after 5 pm by the time we finally turned our weary feet toward the Monorail and home. But a lengthy delay on the monorail kept us from getting back to the hotel until almost 7 o'clock. The evening before we had managed to squeeze in a quick pool trip after the Magic Kingdom, but there was no way to make that happen on this night. It was a really, really long day. Fun, definitely, but really long.

Baths, dinner with the cousins, and bed for the kids ensued shortly thereafter. And M. and I vowed to try to make the next day a wee bit shorter.

Disney, Part II, or Magic Kingdom, Part I

Our first full day in Orlando was the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Despite the promise of larger-than-usual crowds from the holiday weekend, we all decided that our first park of the trip should be the Magic Kingdom. To me, it represents THE Disney World, and it's the one park that is most geared toward the age of the kids in our entourage. Which, for the record, included one 5-year-old, two almost 4-year-olds, two 3-year olds, and a newly minted 2-year-old.

With the park scheduled to open at 9 am, our plan was to breakfast on the go and head out by around 8:00. Apparently the early birds get the worm, so to speak, where the "worm" is "a brief period of short ride lines and Fast Passes for the picking." It is highly recommended by just about every Disney-planning website and guidebook that exists that every effort should be made to get to the parks BEFORE they open. Anyway, despite perfecting the art of getting four people up, pottied, groomed, and presentable-ish in a 1-hour time span each morning before work, our foursome was somehow the last group ready to head out. It was a common occurence during the vacation. I blame it on my inadvertent "vacation mentality." Needless to say, we left a bit later than planned. After driving to the Transportation and Ticketing Center, parking, and taking the monorail to the Magic Kingdom, it was a few minutes after 9 when we arrived. We joined the throngs in line for bag-checking and ticket proffering, and then we were off to the races!

We headed of toward Frontierland first, to queue up for Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain, two rides I was SURE Finn would like. Unfortunately, Splash Mountain was temporarily closed due to a technical difficulty, and Thunder Mountain wasn't operating on a full schedule yet (apparently the park was on a "soft open" schedule, since the summer tourism season hadn't begun). M. was assured that by the end of the week (when we planned to return to Magic Kingdom), Thunder Mountain would be in full swing. So rather than wait around to see if Splash Mountain would start up or not, we headed off to Adventureland. On our way we met our first character of the trip - Donald Duck, in "frontier" garb. The kids both got autographs, hugs, and a photo with the big duck:

Our first ride of the day was Pirates of the Caribbean, which thrilled Finn, despite the fact that he's never seen a since Captain Jack Sparrow movie. Lucy was somewhat frightened. Finn was immediately infatuated with every single item in the gift store at the end of the ride:

We met up with my parents, and I felt the need to snap a picture of all the coordinating orange we had going on:

My dad recently had back surgery, hence the scooter.

On our way over to Fantasyland, we checked out the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse. The kids were interested in it, but I was more than a little nervous carrying Lucy so high up off the ground (I had to carry her, because she was holding up traffic with her slow independent ascent), and it's probably not the best activity for a man recovery from back surgery, what with all the many STAIRS and all. Still, we survived :-).

We skipped over the Aladdin Magic Carpet ride (after getting doused by the spitting camel nearby), and headed over toward Fantasyland to meet up with Stacey, Jeremy, and Cameron. On our way, we visited the Haunted Mansion, an attraction in Liberty Square, and one of my favorites from childhood. I forgot how scary it can be, though - at the beginning of the ride, you get locked into a small round room with several other riders, and hear some scary scenario-setting courtesy of either Vincent Price, or a Vincent Price sound-alike. Meaning, CREEPY voice. Then the lights go out, and a very loud, realistic scream echoes throughout the room. Cue loud, evil laughter. Lucy was, needless to say, glued to me. I very likely traumatized her forever. But she handled the ride part OK (if "OK" means "buried her head in my shoulder"). She never actually cried, so I take that as a win.

We met up with Stacey and Jeremy outside It's A Small World, and went on in. No pictures of that - *somehow* none of the photos turned out (not pointing any fingers, ahem, but *I* was not the photographer). It's probably all for the best, because it's not like we need lots of reminders to get that song going in our heads. The kids liked it, though, and it's kind of a "must-see," if only for the many family jokes and memories it brings us. On our way out, we grabbed Fast Passes for the Peter Pan ride, and headed toward Main Street for our lunch reservations.

Along the way, we ran into Cinderella's Stepmother and Stepsisters, just outside the castle. Lucy, having just seen the animated movie for the first time the day before, refused to meet them. But Finn and Cameron queued up, and I must say, the stepsisters were FABULOUS. They pouted and fawned over the kids, and played their characters perfectly - a little despicable, but also funny and relatable. The red-headed stepsister (Anastasia, I believe) could not get enough of Finn. She went on and on about how adorable he is, she kept playing word games off of his name (Finn, do you like to Fish? Are you a Fisher? etc - completely overemphasizing all the "F's" and anything that might relate to the name Finn), and made lots of threats to keep him forever. She even planted a wet one on his cheek (see below), which he tolerated with embarrassment. Apparently he told M. later that he liked the OTHER stepsister better (Druzilla), because she was "wearing boy colors," but I think he liked all the attention he got from Anastasia.

Lucy and Finn popped in to the "Castle Couture" shop with their Grammy and got sprinkled with pixie dust. I snapped a couple of photos of Cinderella's castle:

We ate lunch at Tony's on the Square, the Italian restaurant featured in Lady and the Tramp. The food was just so-so (M. expected far better of their spaghetti and meatballs), but at least the kids got light-up souvenier straws, and the company was nice:

Mom and Dad left to find MommyEsq's family, and the rest of us headed back to Peter Pan to use our Fast Passes. Once we were through Peter Pan, the boys and girls split up - M., Jeremy, and Finn headed back toward Splash Mountain to see if it was up and running yet (it was, but the line was super long and the Fast Passes were gone), while Stacey, Cameron, Lucy, and I got Fast Passes to the Winnie the Pooh ride. While we waited for the Fast Pass time, we took the girls to Mickey's Philharmonic, which was GREAT! A shortish (about 10 minutes) 3-D film, starring many of the traditional Disney characters. It was in a nice cool auditorium, and Lucy surprised me by keeping her 3-D glasses on for the entire movie (her first experience with 3-D). It was a super-cute attraction. Then we headed over to the Carousel, which both girls loved:

Note that Cameron looks photogenic, as always, while Lucy looks dazed.

Photogenic...

And dazed.

Photogenic...

Dazed, AND actively gathering germs.

After the carousel, we wandered around a bit in the (now extreme) heat, and eventually met up with the menfolk at the far end of Fantasyland. There were longish wait times on everything nearby, so we decided to beat the heat by riding the train that encircles the Magic Kingdom. It was a nice way to see everything, including a view of some of the construction/expansion that is ongoing/unopened.

By this time, around 3 pm, it was starting to rain, and Stacey and Jeremy were flagging. My mom and dad had already left the park in favor of the Grand Floridian for a drink, and the MommyEsq family had petered out, too. Stacey and Jeremy left, and passed to us their extra Winnie the Pooh Fast Passes. We decided to stick it out. We saw the residents of the Hundred Acre Woods, and trekked all the way back to Adventureland to buy Finn a souvenier from the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction (skullcap and sword, courtesy of Grammy):

By this time, the afternoon parade was beginning, so we stuck around, and it was GREAT! It was raining a little, so I didn't get any pictures. But we saw many, many characters, and a lot of them came right up to the ropes and interacted with the kids. Lucy was ecstatic because "Belle waived right at me!," and Finn got to shake hands with Captain Hook. It was a thrill, and I was a ridiculous, practically-crying idiot. THIS was why we had come to Disney, to help bring all those stories and characters our kids love come to life. I was so glad we had stayed, and made the most of our day at the park.

We headed for the monorail and home, barely making it in time for a quick bath, and dinner with all the cousins. Then it was time to celebrate JoJo's second birthday (it was her actual birthday). The kids had a blast, and even managed to eat a little, too:

Watching TV before dinner

The birthday girl

Blowing out the candles, with help

Cameron, highlighting her blue eyes with an applique of frosting

Lucy rubbed enough blue frosting on herself to qualify for an audition to join the Blue Man Group

We fed ourselves, piled the kids into bed, and stayed up a bit longer to play some cards (my family is definitely in the "card playing camp"). Then we all hit the sack to prepare for Day 2: Breakfast at Chef Mickey's and Epcot. Stay tuned!

Disney, Part I

The Big Disney Vacation of 2012 has been in the planning stages for over a year. Now that it's over, I hardly even know where to begin by way of summary. But I do want to try, so the kids can have a record to look back on. I'll start by describing how the trip went for us, likely in stages/over multiple posts, and hopefully I'll have enough energy at the end to wrap it up with a "Planning and Tips" type post. Though if you have been reading here for any length of time, you should know to take all of these grand plans with a very large grain of salt.

We decided, several months ago, to drive to Disney (and when I say Disney, you should be aware that I mean Disney World, in Orlando, FL, the one true, real, best, awesomest Disney there is. Which I can say quite confidently, despite never having been to Disneyland). This was not a decision I came to lightly (M. was much more comfortable with it). I am used to flying places. The thought of a 14+ hour car ride with the kids was more than a little intimidating. But I was won over by cost factors. Four tickets to Disney (FYI, a 5-day pass to Disney for 2 kids and 2 adults is over $1000, even without any of the special "Park Hopper" or "No Expiration"options) PLUS 4 airplane tickets (likely another $1000 plus) PLUS a rental car (since we stayed "off property") was more than M. and I really wanted to pay for a family vacation. So we drove, which allowed us to pack our car up with many more conveniences than we would have brought otherwise - two umbrella strollers (Disney is big, even 5 year olds get tired), a cooler of food, lots of toys, swim gear, books, clothes - you name it, we packed it.

On the way down, we planned to drive from our place to my sister's house in Charlotte, NC, a decent midway point. This wasn't just an "M. Family" vacation, this was a vacation with most of my immediate family - my mom and dad, my two sisters, their husbands, and their kids. So on Friday morning, May 25th, we planned to leave Maryland at the crack of dawn and head for Charlotte. M. and I were up before the alarm (so hard to sleep well before a trip), which was set to go off at 4:30 a.m. Ridiculously early? Not really, when the alternative is battling D.C. beltway traffic. We knew that Charlotte was only about 7-ish hours away, but that could easily increase to 9 hours in the wrong kind of traffic.

We ran into our first snafu while throwing some last minute items into the car. The majority of our crap had been packed the night before, but things like toiletries, the cooler, and the kids' (ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY) DVD player still needed to be loaded in. M. was having some difficulty getting the sound for the DVD system hooked in to the car's sound system. I went out to assist, and immediately felt some stinging bite-like sensations on my flip-flop clad feet. I ran for the house, and discovered several teeny ants chewing on me. M. was apparently getting similarly chewed, though he had more stamina than I to carry on. Henceforth, every trip out to the car was done as quickly as possible, including loading the kids (immediately wide awake when I roused them at around 10 to 5) into their car seats. These carnivorous ants were a killer - they attacked immediately! For the rest of our trip down to Florida, M. and I kept finding random ants crawling in the front seat of the car, those that were able to hitch a ride on our tender flesh before we hopped in, turned on the engine, and set the GPS.

We left about 20 minutes later than I had wanted to, mostly due to the DVD player set up issues (never did get it jacked in to the car's sound system) and not the ants - though they certainly didn't help! We made good time, stopping for breakfast at around 8:00 a.m. after we were well past D.C. The kids watched movie after movie, which was a theme of each leg of the car trips on this vacation. All the toys, coloring books, and activity books that we packed? Pfft. They held the kids' interest for maybe 5 minutes total. We spent our time listening to MANY movies, and, as each one ended, MANY whining entreties to load up a new movie. Gone are the days of the old-fashioned road trip, where one actually LOOKS OUT THE WINDOW OF THE CAR for entertainment, I guess...

Road trips are fairly boring to describe when nothing dramatic happens (as, fortunately, was the case here), so I'll cut to the chase and let you know that we arrived in Charlotte at around 1:30 p.m., far earlier than we needed to. But the kids got a chance to stretch their legs, and had some extra play time with their cousin Cameron (just one month older than Lucy). Stacey and Jeremy treated us to a grilled dinner, which the kids ate half-nude, like the savages they are.

Stacey

Lucy

Finn, right after writing on himself

Cameron. This child ALWAYS takes a good picture. She LOVES the camera. My children could learn a thing or two from her!

The kids went to bed in the same bedroom (and EVENTUALLY actually fell asleep). The grown-ups played cards, and piled ourselves into bed by 10 p.m. Planning to leave even earlier for the second leg of our trip (more miles, Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend), alarms were set for 4:00 a.m.

Lucy had an accident at 3:00 a.m.

And we didn't have extra clothes for her.

I cleaned her and the air mattress up, and M. had to run out to the car and root around for more underwear for her.

Good times.

M. and I never really got back to sleep after that, which was awesome.

But we were up and on the road by 4:30, as planned! And in Orlando before 2 pm. Vacation? Was officially ON.

We took the kids swimming in the hotel pool while we waited for our rooms to be ready. We stayed at the Marriott Grande Vista resort, a time share property that my parents bought into many years ago. It was wonderful - our little family had its own 2-bedroom condo, and between the 14 of us we had 3 condos and 8 bedrooms. Plenty of space, and all the full kitchens made it really easy to have many meals in - most of our dinners and breakfasts were consumed at the hotel, to save on money and hassle (mostly hassle, as little kids are a-holes at restaurants when they are overexcited/overtired).

We got into our rooms, cooked up some frozen pizzas, and hit the hay to prepare for Day 1 at the parks - Magic Kingdom!

And... there you'll have to wait, until my next post. I know, I know, I haven't even gotten to any of the parts about our actual time in Disney World. But I'm tired, so I'll have to keep you in suspense a bit longer. M. is in Kuwait (wha? I know, right?), I'm on solo parent duty, and tomorrow is a work day, so my bed is calling :-).

Just a Teaser

Hello!

We're back! From Disney. To blogging. Etc.

The trip was fun and exhausting, and I've spent the last three nights going through our 300+ photos and editing them. More posts to follow, with far more detail than you'd probably like to know. In the meantime, here is a nice family shot that a sweet couple celebrating their 10th anniversary at Epcot was kind enough to take of us.