So We Went to Florida This One Time....
Finally getting around to this. Brace yourselves, here comes the slide show...
The Magic Kingdom was the focus of the first two days of our four-day visit. It's a little bit mind-boggling to think that there are four different parks in Disney World: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. I've never felt any real urge to visit Animal Kingdom; not sure why except that I don't personally equate Disney magic with a safari. Or maybe it's that I used to go jogging through the National Zoo on a regular basis. I imagine that someday I'll get there, but it just never ranks high enough on the list to fit in the allotted time.
Anyway, I'll cover the other parks in a later entry, but this one will be devoted to the Magic Kingdom.
That is, after briefly mentioning our flight down, which was blissfully uneventful. We opted to fly down on Friday evening so we'd have a full day in the park the next day. This picture was taken on the terminal shuttle at the Orlando Airport, and the kids are very happy to be in Florida, whereas I am simply happy to be on the ground. I think our faces say it all...
The thing that amazed me about myself the most on this trip was my ability to get up bright and early every morning, which just shows where my priorities lie, because every other morning of my life I lie around in bed hitting the snooze button. But no, I was bounding out of bed that first day: The park opened at 8! We had to be through the gate the instant it opened! Come on, kids! It was like some sort of reverse Christmas-morning scenario: we adults were the ones egging the kids on. "Get up! Get up! We wanna go play!" We were so determined to beat the crowd that we were still eating our portable, hastily-purchased breakfast when we arrived at the park, so the kids' first-ever impression of the Magic Kingdom includes handfuls of banana peels and me saying "do you want any more juice?" Kind of killed the mood just a bit, I'm thinking.
About to storm the castle....
Storming the castle.....(apologies for my hideous fanny-pack and color combo)
We're in!
As I mentioned in a prior post, I kept waiting for the kids to have the big WOW moment and it never quite came. In that post I blamed a lot of Life Experience factors, but in the here and now we must also add in the aforementioned breakfast-on-the-run business - it's hard to be swept away when you're looking for a recycling bin for your juice bottle - and the fact that there was some repair work going on, so that one large facade of Main Street was covered with scaffolding, and then a painted fabric over that, so that it didn't stick out like a sore thumb - still, it took away from the picture just a bit.
Since it was clear that the kids weren't going to get all swept away by the magical Main Street, we set our sights on getting deep into the park to hit some of the major attractions before the lines got too long, so off we trotted to Adventureland.
I list our First-Ever Attraction at this time for the future historians to settle bets/arguments: "It was the Haunted Mansion!" "No, no, it was the Jungle Boats!")
Actually, it was The Swiss Family Robinson Tree House, which is just a fun little walk-through thing where you climb upstairs to see all the different rooms in the tree. There was absolutely no line, so we just strolled right in. From there we went to the Jungle Boats, where the only wait was for the next boat to pull up. I'm guessing that the reason we don't have any photos from the actual ride is Jeff didn't want his camera to get sprayed by anything.
From there we hustled over to the Haunted Mansion. I've already told you how the big kids wouldn't even look at anything and couldn't wait for it to be over. Meanwhile Teddy was having a grand time and saying things like "I know how they made the ghosts - it was with mirrors!"
After that, it seemed necessary to debrief Maggie and Gregory, so it was decided our next stop would be "It's a Small World." Once again, the person having the biggest WOW expression seems to be....me.
Still, the kids liked it. The big kids, that is. Teddy thought it was boring. Maggie, on the other hand, ranks it as one of her three favorite rides of the whole weekend.
At this point you are probably worried: "Is she going to list every single attraction they visited, in order, complete with reactions?" Well, for one thing, that would require a memory, which I don't have more than a Swiss-Cheese version of, so, no, we're going to get more general now. In fact, I'm going to jump ahead to our visit to Tom Sawyer island - again, there's nothing particularly whiz-bang about the place, but that's precisely what made it so appealing to our low-key kids. You take a raft across the river - about a 45-second ride - and then you just wander around. You can walk through a cave, a mine, a fort, or a mill - but the biggest hit with all of us was the barrel bridge covered with wooden planks - you walk across and bob up and down. Kids have the edge here - that is, if you just want to walk across. Grown-ups soon discover it's fun to jump up and down while your kids are halfway over!
At the height of the day, it started to get crazy-crowded, so we opted to take a break and head back to the hotel. The first day we rode the monorail over to Epcot and then walked through Epcot to what turned out to be the far entrance, and then on to our hotel. The second day we wised up and just took the shuttle bus. Still, it was nice to get a peek at Epcot, although we didn't go on any rides at Epcot at that time - we were fairly eager to hit the hotel pool. We were at the Beach Club resort, which has a fun pool area with little waterfalls and lagoons and a small "lazy river" loop. Just a few steps away was a big pirate-ship water slide. And all the pools have sand on the bottom! On purpose, of course. I wish I had a picture, but that would mean somebody would have to take the pictures, and we all preferred to just swim.
I don't seem to have any good pictures of the pool, so it's on to....
The Eeeee-lectric parade! We headed back over to the Magic Kingdom at about 5 o'clock and folks were already staking out spots along Main Street for the 7 p.m. parade. We figured that was a little silly, but it also encouraged us not to wander too far away, either. So we hit some of the shops - actually, that's a bit deceptive; it's actually one great big huge store tucked behind several different storefronts along the street. We were rather dismayed to discover rather quickly that the items in the store just plain weren't all that appealing, even if they hadn't been ridiculously overpriced. So we went out to join the folks hanging out on the street. Here's a hint: Stand behind a stroller, even if it's not yours. No one will dare stand in front of the stroller, because of course they'd be blocking a child's view, and then you can see over the top. Here's another hint: Don't stand near anyone with a balloon. Because they're stupid people, paying fifteen dollars for a balloon.
After the parade, there was a nifty projection show on the castle. I'm having trouble coming up with a good description, but somehow they got the thing to be like a giant screen, and they'd beam images onto it, sometimes making the castle seem like it was moving....Quite cool. Perhaps somebody filmed it and put it on YouTube or something. We just stood and gaped at it. Very cool. I forget if that came before or after we squoze our way through the crazy crowds to get some dinner over in Tomorrowland. The entire time we were eating I was getting all uptight about whether we'd be done in time to see the fireworks. Sometimes I can be a really fun person to travel with.
This image probably doesn't do justice to the idea, but this is an attempt to illustrate what is my absolute favorite thing about the Magic Kingdom: the overall design, landscapes, that wonderful attention to the visual detail. Absolutely everything your eye falls on (with the exception of the visitors, of course) fits into the theme, and is shaped, arranged, and maintained to just satisfy in every dimension. Sure, it's fake, but I love, love, love it.
I'm sensing that nobody is still actually reading this, so I'm hurrying to the finish line. How appropriate, then, to end in Tomorrowland, with the speedway. Tomorrowland really and truly was our last stop in the Magic Kingdom, so it's chronologically accurate, as well as thematically appropriate: We end looking to the future!
Maggie was strangely freaked out about driving - we kind had to jolly her along through the 45-minute line. I kept telling her I was going to remind her of this moment when she turns fifteen. I'm sure she'd say it proves her right that she had as little fun as she predicted. It proves something, that's for sure.
Our last ride in the Magic Kingdom: The People Mover. There was an oddly long section of this ride that went through total darkness, with a voice narrating about Space Mountain. Still, it was the perfect final note for our visit: a chance to sit back and hover above the crowd, feeling highly satisfied about our vacation.
The Magic Kingdom was the focus of the first two days of our four-day visit. It's a little bit mind-boggling to think that there are four different parks in Disney World: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. I've never felt any real urge to visit Animal Kingdom; not sure why except that I don't personally equate Disney magic with a safari. Or maybe it's that I used to go jogging through the National Zoo on a regular basis. I imagine that someday I'll get there, but it just never ranks high enough on the list to fit in the allotted time.
Anyway, I'll cover the other parks in a later entry, but this one will be devoted to the Magic Kingdom.
That is, after briefly mentioning our flight down, which was blissfully uneventful. We opted to fly down on Friday evening so we'd have a full day in the park the next day. This picture was taken on the terminal shuttle at the Orlando Airport, and the kids are very happy to be in Florida, whereas I am simply happy to be on the ground. I think our faces say it all...
The thing that amazed me about myself the most on this trip was my ability to get up bright and early every morning, which just shows where my priorities lie, because every other morning of my life I lie around in bed hitting the snooze button. But no, I was bounding out of bed that first day: The park opened at 8! We had to be through the gate the instant it opened! Come on, kids! It was like some sort of reverse Christmas-morning scenario: we adults were the ones egging the kids on. "Get up! Get up! We wanna go play!" We were so determined to beat the crowd that we were still eating our portable, hastily-purchased breakfast when we arrived at the park, so the kids' first-ever impression of the Magic Kingdom includes handfuls of banana peels and me saying "do you want any more juice?" Kind of killed the mood just a bit, I'm thinking.
About to storm the castle....
Storming the castle.....(apologies for my hideous fanny-pack and color combo)
We're in!
As I mentioned in a prior post, I kept waiting for the kids to have the big WOW moment and it never quite came. In that post I blamed a lot of Life Experience factors, but in the here and now we must also add in the aforementioned breakfast-on-the-run business - it's hard to be swept away when you're looking for a recycling bin for your juice bottle - and the fact that there was some repair work going on, so that one large facade of Main Street was covered with scaffolding, and then a painted fabric over that, so that it didn't stick out like a sore thumb - still, it took away from the picture just a bit.
Since it was clear that the kids weren't going to get all swept away by the magical Main Street, we set our sights on getting deep into the park to hit some of the major attractions before the lines got too long, so off we trotted to Adventureland.
I list our First-Ever Attraction at this time for the future historians to settle bets/arguments: "It was the Haunted Mansion!" "No, no, it was the Jungle Boats!")
Actually, it was The Swiss Family Robinson Tree House, which is just a fun little walk-through thing where you climb upstairs to see all the different rooms in the tree. There was absolutely no line, so we just strolled right in. From there we went to the Jungle Boats, where the only wait was for the next boat to pull up. I'm guessing that the reason we don't have any photos from the actual ride is Jeff didn't want his camera to get sprayed by anything.
From there we hustled over to the Haunted Mansion. I've already told you how the big kids wouldn't even look at anything and couldn't wait for it to be over. Meanwhile Teddy was having a grand time and saying things like "I know how they made the ghosts - it was with mirrors!"
After that, it seemed necessary to debrief Maggie and Gregory, so it was decided our next stop would be "It's a Small World." Once again, the person having the biggest WOW expression seems to be....me.
Still, the kids liked it. The big kids, that is. Teddy thought it was boring. Maggie, on the other hand, ranks it as one of her three favorite rides of the whole weekend.
At this point you are probably worried: "Is she going to list every single attraction they visited, in order, complete with reactions?" Well, for one thing, that would require a memory, which I don't have more than a Swiss-Cheese version of, so, no, we're going to get more general now. In fact, I'm going to jump ahead to our visit to Tom Sawyer island - again, there's nothing particularly whiz-bang about the place, but that's precisely what made it so appealing to our low-key kids. You take a raft across the river - about a 45-second ride - and then you just wander around. You can walk through a cave, a mine, a fort, or a mill - but the biggest hit with all of us was the barrel bridge covered with wooden planks - you walk across and bob up and down. Kids have the edge here - that is, if you just want to walk across. Grown-ups soon discover it's fun to jump up and down while your kids are halfway over!
At the height of the day, it started to get crazy-crowded, so we opted to take a break and head back to the hotel. The first day we rode the monorail over to Epcot and then walked through Epcot to what turned out to be the far entrance, and then on to our hotel. The second day we wised up and just took the shuttle bus. Still, it was nice to get a peek at Epcot, although we didn't go on any rides at Epcot at that time - we were fairly eager to hit the hotel pool. We were at the Beach Club resort, which has a fun pool area with little waterfalls and lagoons and a small "lazy river" loop. Just a few steps away was a big pirate-ship water slide. And all the pools have sand on the bottom! On purpose, of course. I wish I had a picture, but that would mean somebody would have to take the pictures, and we all preferred to just swim.
I don't seem to have any good pictures of the pool, so it's on to....
The Eeeee-lectric parade! We headed back over to the Magic Kingdom at about 5 o'clock and folks were already staking out spots along Main Street for the 7 p.m. parade. We figured that was a little silly, but it also encouraged us not to wander too far away, either. So we hit some of the shops - actually, that's a bit deceptive; it's actually one great big huge store tucked behind several different storefronts along the street. We were rather dismayed to discover rather quickly that the items in the store just plain weren't all that appealing, even if they hadn't been ridiculously overpriced. So we went out to join the folks hanging out on the street. Here's a hint: Stand behind a stroller, even if it's not yours. No one will dare stand in front of the stroller, because of course they'd be blocking a child's view, and then you can see over the top. Here's another hint: Don't stand near anyone with a balloon. Because they're stupid people, paying fifteen dollars for a balloon.
After the parade, there was a nifty projection show on the castle. I'm having trouble coming up with a good description, but somehow they got the thing to be like a giant screen, and they'd beam images onto it, sometimes making the castle seem like it was moving....Quite cool. Perhaps somebody filmed it and put it on YouTube or something. We just stood and gaped at it. Very cool. I forget if that came before or after we squoze our way through the crazy crowds to get some dinner over in Tomorrowland. The entire time we were eating I was getting all uptight about whether we'd be done in time to see the fireworks. Sometimes I can be a really fun person to travel with.
This image probably doesn't do justice to the idea, but this is an attempt to illustrate what is my absolute favorite thing about the Magic Kingdom: the overall design, landscapes, that wonderful attention to the visual detail. Absolutely everything your eye falls on (with the exception of the visitors, of course) fits into the theme, and is shaped, arranged, and maintained to just satisfy in every dimension. Sure, it's fake, but I love, love, love it.
I'm sensing that nobody is still actually reading this, so I'm hurrying to the finish line. How appropriate, then, to end in Tomorrowland, with the speedway. Tomorrowland really and truly was our last stop in the Magic Kingdom, so it's chronologically accurate, as well as thematically appropriate: We end looking to the future!
Maggie was strangely freaked out about driving - we kind had to jolly her along through the 45-minute line. I kept telling her I was going to remind her of this moment when she turns fifteen. I'm sure she'd say it proves her right that she had as little fun as she predicted. It proves something, that's for sure.
Our last ride in the Magic Kingdom: The People Mover. There was an oddly long section of this ride that went through total darkness, with a voice narrating about Space Mountain. Still, it was the perfect final note for our visit: a chance to sit back and hover above the crowd, feeling highly satisfied about our vacation.