Disneyworld - The rest

To finish off here are some random thoughts of our time at Disney.

• Andrew spent an hour at Hollywood Studios one night riding the rollercoasters and the Tower of Terror. There were no queues so he was able to ride a few times on each before the park closed.
  

• Ridemax. One way we maximised our time at Disney was to use a program called Ridemax to set our itinerary. It was a very helpful program and I recommend it to first time Disney travellers. However we did find that it had overestimated wait times - I think there are fewer people travelling to Disney this year due to the economic downturn.
  

• Passporters Guide to Disney. I borrowed this book from Alexis and it was excellent. I spent many hours reading and noting down rides and shows we wanted to see. It also helped me select good restaurants to eat at. We used a travel agent to make our bookings so we had all our reservations organised for us.
  

• Autograph book. Our travel agent gave Lucy an autograph book to gain character signatures. This was very fun for Lucy and gave her an entry point to meet the characters.
  

• Photo Pass. Disney has professional photographers throughout the parks. We tried several times to get a family photo of the four of us but Lucy did not co-operate. So whilst it was a great idea to get a photo CD there were only a couple of good photos of Andrew and I, so we didn't buy it. We did have a voucher for one free photo so we picked the best one and had it printed.
  

• Dining Plan. Disney has a dining plan (that we received for free as part of our package saving us $600) which covers all of their restaurants. It allowed us each day to get lunch, dinner and a snack. Both lunch and dinner covered a main meal, a drink and a dessert. In most cases a sugar-free dessert was on offer which helped Andrew out. He was surprised at how well we could eat if we tried and he kept his blood sugar under very good control.
  

• Outlets. Since we had a car we visited one of the Disney outlets. We picked up some souvenirs at 50% off the regular price. Whilst there was not the selection available in the regular stores at Disney it was well worth a visit here to pick up what we could. I also stopped in at the crocs store and got some really good deals.

• Magic. Disney has their own philosophy to life. It is that if you believe hard enough in the magic in your heart your dreams will come true. This is the message that was overtly presented in their shows. We made sure that we explained to Lucy that this was not a biblical view of life and is not the reality that she would see around her.

• Baddies. Most Disney stories have a scary element to them (a component of good storytelling) so it is important to consider what to expose a 3 year old to. Lucy was not scared by any of the rides themselves, she loves speed, but she can be scared by characters and scenery. After going on an adult roller coaster she commented that she didn't like the bats.

Disneyworld - Downtown

Downtown is geared for those that like to go shopping. We aren't really into shopping (except for the online kind) so we didn't go into many of the shops. Despite the $ focus we did do three really fun things downtown and we had a great lunch at the Earl of Sandwich.

1. Visited the Lego store









2. Ate chocolate sundaes at Ghiradelli









3. Watched La Nouba, a Cirque du Soliel show

Disneyworld - The Contemporary

We stayed at the brand new Bay Lake Tower next to The Contemporary. A covered walkway joins the two buildings so it was pretty easy for us to catch the monorail. However the tower is really close to Magic Kingdom and it was easier and quicker to walk than catch the monorail. As suspected we ended up spending 3 days at MK so it was awesome to be so close. [big thanks to Auntie Lynda for picking up the kiddie board from Wilmington!]

We stayed in a one bedroom apartment which includes a full kitchen, a separate laundry room and a 2nd bathroom. It was really great to be able to make breakfast every day, wash our clothes and have the kids asleep in a separate room by 7:30pm. [btw Lucy and Henry were so cute sharing a room. Lucy would talk to him in his cot and he would coo and laugh back at her] We don't think anyone had stayed in our apartment before so we were the first ones!

The tower is part of Disney's Vacation Club so many of the apartments are time-shares, with some being owned by Disney (which is the part that we stayed in). Of course there were plenty of staff willing to take us through the time-share spiel but we politely said no and they left us alone. Seriously, a $100 voucher is not worth 3 hours of time when I could be riding Dumbo with Lucy instead!

Two afternoons we went swimming the Tower's mickey shaped pool. Lucy and Andrew went on the waterslide and then we all explored the water fountain area for kids. Henry loved his dip in the pool and looked super cute in his bathing suit.

We had three excellent meals at restaurants in the Contemporary - a character meal at Chef Mickey's, breakfast at The Wave and one night Andrew and I had dinner at California Grill located high in the Contemporary building (with a view of the 9pm Halloween fireworks at Magic Kingdom).

I would highly recommend staying in these apartments! [Maybe even buy a week of time-share off someone who can't use it]

Disneyworld - Animal Kingdom

We spent a very long day at Animal Kingdom starting at 10am and finishing at 8pm with no nap in between! Everyone did surprisingly well given the heat and all the walking (we purchased a water spraying fan to keep us cool) One of the highlights of the day, and the event with the most photos, was Mickey's Jammin' Jungle parade. We had a prime viewing location, free from the large crowd and got lots of waves from the characters. Henry even had a close up encounter with a bear!













We went on a number of rides including Kilimanjaro Safaris, Triceratop Spin, Kali River Rapids, and Expedition Everest (Andrew only). However one of the best parts of Animal Kingdom is the shows. We managed to squeeze two in - the Flights of Wonder [bird show], and Finding Nemo the musical [puppet show] Both were awesome. We also walked along the Maharajah Jungle Trek and Pangani Forest Trail to see various animals. Unfortunately we missed Rafiki's Planet Watch and Petting Zoo because even though there were magic hours in the park until 8pm some of the animals leave their viewing areas at 5pm.

Disneyworld - Epcot

"With Epcot Center, the Disney corporation has accomplished something I didn't think possible in today's world. They have created a land of make-believe that's worse than regular life." P. J. O'Rourke

Epcot is really two parks in one. The first is about the future and is full of rides and exhibits. The second is a world showcase, like a permanent expo of various countries, to which the above quote refers. I was hoping for the best however, ala Las Vegas, the pavilions for the various countries are caricatures. The international food and wine show was going on while we were there which made the afternoon more interesting. Using one of my snack points I purchased an inauthentic lamington from the Melbourne stand (the bottom had no icing!) On the whole I was very disappointed with the whole Epcot shebang. The only authentic part of the world showcase we encountered was the surly service we received from the French wait staff. To stop worrying about authenticity I spent a bit of time at the American pavilion learning some American history with Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin (both wonderfully rendered robotically). The fireworks at 9pm were pretty spectacular but the technically-demanding LED globe didn't do much for me. If I went back, as harsh as this is, my world showcase itinerary would look simply like this:

• 7pm table for two at the French gourmet restaurant
• 9pm watch the fireworks

Back to the French restaurant, this is where we had dinner with Auntie Lynda and Jen. This was also the only restaurant during the week to give Lucy vegetables for dinner, and she had a wider choice than just nuggets, burgers and hot dogs. Lucy took a while to warm up but in the end she couldn't go on enough rides with Auntie Lynda.

On the future side of the park we had a wonderful time with Lucy. She loved the hang gliding ride Soarin' (Andrew and Lucy got the best seats on the ride at B1 and B2) and all four of us squeezed into a clamshell for the Seas with Nemo and friends ride. We participated in Turtle Talk with Crush which was very fun and hilarious. Lucy sat down the front with all the kids and they were allowed to ask Crush questions about his life as a turtle.

Epcot has some good adult rides including Spaceship Earth, Mission:Space and Test Track. Although we did not experience long lines throughout the week, we would have liked to ride Soarin' again but we ran out of time and the Fast Passes were all given out.

We discovered that during the late magic hours it was MUCH quicker to drive (15 mins) than catch the monorail (over 1 hour).

Disneyworld - Magic Kingdom

By far and away this kingdom was the best one of them all and we visited here 3 whole days!
Lucy was captivated by it all. She loved the parades, the characters and the rides. We truly had a fabulous time here and it went by oh so fast. One day we stayed for the 8pm Spectromagic parade and the 9pm fireworks at the castle. We ate Mickey Mouse ice creams, had breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and friends at the Crystal Palace, and drank frozen lemonades. Lucy and Henry picked out Mickey Mouse ears and we had their names sewn on the back. It was difficult to get Lucy to take off her ears!

If you ask Lucy she'll say her favourite ride was Dumbo the flying elephant. However I beg to differ. Based on her face and the number of times she rode I think her favourite was Goofy's Barnstormer. It is a little kid sized rollercoaster in Toon Town and I estimate Lucy rode on it 7 or 8 times over the three days. As it turns out, Lucy is tall enough to go on all the rides at Disney except 1 (Expedition Everest). I didn't let her go on all of them even though she technically could as I thought they would be too scary for her.










My favourite thing at MK was the 4D show called Mickey's Philharmagic. I didn't know anything about it beforehand but I loved the 4D effects - smelling the apple pie Donald had and feeling water spraying around when he landed in a puddle. Lucy thought the 4D was so real that she kept putting her hands in the air to touch Donald when he seemed to pop out of the screen.

Henry liked all his rides. Surprisingly he could go on most things, just sitting in our arms. He enjoyed riding the boat in It's a small world and looking at all the children singing. He was a very curious boy and spent a lot of time just looking around and not sleeping.

These are the rides we went on: Dumbo, Peter Pan's Flight, It's a small world, Cinderella's Golden Carousel, Winnie the Pooh, Mad Tea Party, Aladdin's Magic Carpet, Jungle Cruise. Andrew and Lucy went on the Big Thunder Mountain Railway and Andrew went on Splash mountain. Space mountain was closed for renovation.

Auntie Lynda and Jen joined us for a day and Lucy had a super fun time!













We also saw the Country Bear Jamboree, Tom Sawyer's Island and rode the train around the park. Andrew rode the Pirates of the Caribbean while the rest of us ate DoleWhip!

The only ride we didn't enjoy was the jungle cruise. It was night time during our cruise so this scared Lucy a little and she thought the animals were real. Andrew and I didn't like it as it was just SO fake. Thankfully we hadn't been to Animal Kingdom yet or we would have been more disappointed.

We have some awesome memories of the days spent here. It was very very fun.

Disneyworld - Overview

The problem with writing this entry is knowing where to start. Disneyworld was so much fun, it was so big and there was so much to do it is difficult to condense such a vast experience into a short blog entry. So I have split the Disney blog into several entries covering the various parks and features. Phew! It seems more manageable now. Enjoy as we take you through our magical experience over the next few days!