Day Two at Disney World

Our 2nd Day at Disney began with a breakfast of cold cereal and powdered milk, all smuggled in our luggage from home. Along with fruit snacks and Teddy Grahams, they formed a solid backbone for the kids snacks for the duration of our time in Florida.

Our theme park of choice for the day was Animal Kingdom

 

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a park just under construction during our honeymoon. We got there just around the time the park opened, and as such had a pretty short wait for the Kilanjaro Safari.

 

 

I had heard someone at the bus stop say they were bypassing the entire park because the "Bronx Zoo was the best". Well, Milwaukee's zoo rocks too, but the park's more than just a zoo exhibit. The only section that fits that bill is the Safari itself.

 

 

I'm told that we only saw a portion of the animals that are usually out and about. Still, there were some great views:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The part where the safari goes after some 'poachers' is both anti-climactic and unnecessary, but provided a cheap thrill.

 

After that we landed our first autograph of the day; Baloo of the Jungle Book!

 

 

 

From there we slid into a performance of Pochantas.

 

 

 This was really rather ho-hum and not at all entertaining for adults, but the kids thought it held their own. She sings some songs from the movie while trying to unlock the secret to protecting our forests, and at various parts of the show real-life animals pay a visit.

 

At one point she throws some paper leaves into the air; our girls grabbed some and hold on to them even now.

 

We then waited in line for autographs from Mickey and Minnie, with the girls wearing Mickey Mouse ear hats for some of the shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry about the loafers with the shorts - day One's 24,000 steps had given me some blisters.

 

Lisa then got in line for a performance of the Festival of the Lion King while I took the girls to get an autograph from Donald Duck.

 

 

Donald was not happy - not happy at all - to see YaYa wearing a Mickey hat with a Pal Mickey around her neck. He gave several LOUD raspberries to the girls and made a motion to cross off Mickey's pic from their autograph book. What a jealous duck!

 

 

 

We quickly rejoined Lisa and sat in on the Lion King, in the lion section of the crowd. It was a great show - one of many musicals we enjoyed over the course of the week - and both the visuals and the performances were top notch. The stilt-walkers rocked.

 

 

 

 

Easily the best part of Animal Kingdom for us.

 

After lunching on Pizza, we bought the girls a pair of Mickey and Minnie themed ears - making it clear it was to be some of their only souvenirs. Nevermind the guy who sold it to us, who said 'those girls will get anything they want from their Daddy"

 

 

When we got back to the hotel it was time for a nap, but we kept our promise to the girls and took them swimming in the hotel pool. At their request we skipped their Body Glove floating swimsuits and went with their standard suits - something that would bit us in the a** soon enough.

 

There's a waterslide in the pool featuring Tritan, Ariel's Dad. ('Hi, Ariel's Dad', LuLu kept saying).

 

 

The girls went down it a few times before Lisa headed up the slide with Lu. I assumed they would be going down together so I didn't pay much attention.

 

Next thing I knew I saw Lisa screaming to me atop the slide, and whirled around to see LuLu behind me at the base of the slide, already underwater and struggling. The lifeguard blew her whistle and dove in, but I got to Lu first.

 

It was terryfing - especially since I have bitter memories of seeing a drowning  in the past - but really, she was in little danger. It was scary, but nothing more than a lesson in caution.

 

Still, the pool made us put a life-vest on LuLu. She did go down the slide again tho - even if she was a little reluctant J

 

After the nap

 

 

we headed off to the Magic Kingdom again. The girls were dressed in full Princess regale for their reserved Dinner with Cinderella - YaYa as Cinderella herself, LuLu as Snow White.

 

Nevermind that the Snow White outfit was much too long for Lu, and the Cinderella dress too short for YaYa.  What does logic matter when you're about to meet a movie star?

 

Inside her magic castle

(heck of a shot huh?)

 

Cinderella herself waited for my girls. They were in awe as the Princess posed for photographs with them and signed autographs.

 

 

Then it was up a spiral staircase to an elaborate dinner, with spring roll appetizers, soft pretzel knots, and grilled salmon and prime rib, and more fancy table manners than any 3 and 5 year old have any right to expect.

 

 

It certainly helped when the mice from the movie and the Fairy Godmother came out to say hello and perform a song or two.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The girls received an 8x10 photo of them with Cinderella, a pair of magic wands, a boatful of memories, and Lisa and I received a pair of Disney wine goblets in honor of our anniversary.

 

 

 

 

[to be honest Lis and I were a little let down by the dinner because we had assumed all the Princesses would be there; even so it was a great time]

 

After dinner we again explored the park. This time Pirates was open for business

and we waited through the line with glee - well, I did.

 

They've added Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow to the ride in several spots since I last saw it, but otherwise it was the old familiar ride of 10 years past. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it. And talk about anti-PC, especially for Disney - 'wenches for sale' indeed.

 

We took a ride on The Magic Carpets of Aladdin, which I didn't adore (hey, for some reason it spooked me)

 

but the kids and Lis thought was a mid-level blast.

 

 

 

Then it was on to The Enchanted Tiki Room - Under New Management. I know this attraction has historical significance, given the 'stars' were the first audio-animatronic characters ever, but let me be honest: it made Pocahontas's show seem mind-boggling. It was the first and last true dud I saw at Disney.

 

The biggest part of the show: Lu dropped my camera and it began acting up as it had on Halloween. I was NOT in a great mood when I left the show. Two days into the vacation and I didn't have a camera? Grreeaat.

 

Then to top off the evening Lisa and I got separated in the human tidal wave of the park closing. Within seconds we were lost to one another, and there was no chance, no chance at all, of finding one another again or of turning around and walking against the crowd.

 

I knew she'd find her way back to the hotel, but I had her key on me and I envisioned lots of dire scenarios . . and then we met up on the bus stop and all was well.

 

Here's YaYa's take on the 10 minute separation: bawling she said "I don't care about Disney or about the trip, I just want my Momma back". This from the girl who's often at odds with my better half.

           

Meanwhile LuLu just kept happily bouncing along, oblivious to all, irritating YaYa and myself in our gloomy moods J

 

On the way home YaYa chatted non-stop with other bus passengers, describing her day to them in detail.

 

Day two was done, and we had one more full day left in Orlando.

Disney Day 1 Continued . . .

So after Dumbo I passed on the news that neither the Haunted Mansion nor Pirates of the Caribbean had Fast Pass options, we decided to stroll around for awhile, and stopped in a Princess themed shop behind Cinderella's castle. Even after years of buying the stuff, I was blown away at the sheer scope of all the Princess related items for sale in the world . .

(by the way - in the movie Cinderella marries the Prince, thus inheriting the title. How is it the castle's in her name?)

We also stopped to watch a show in front of the castle where Donald Duck defeats Melificent by having the crowd chant "Dreams come true!" over and over.

After a few minutes we decided to bite the bullet and head over to PhilhaMagic, the event for which I had FastPass tickets. I should say I was reluctant - Lisa had read about it and was gung-ho.

And brother, she was right! It's a 3-D movie starring Donald Duck. Donald loses Mickey's Sorcerror's Apprentice hat, setting off a wild search for it across scenes from famous Disney movies. Trust me, that description fails to do it justice - it really was excellent and a joy to behold! We were quick to say we wanted to see it again.

The most magical part: watching LuLu reach in vain to catch the objects 'headed' towards us from the screen!

We then headed over to the It's a Small World Ride, which Lisa was disappointed that I didn't remember from our honeymoon. In truth, after viewing the ride I did remember bits and pieces of riding it in '96, but by then the damage was done.

The ride's very kitchy, and you have to steel yourself against 5 straight minutes of the "It's a Small World" melody, but the kids liked it a lot, and I thought the Oriental section was very sharp.

As the streets began to be blocked off for the evening parade we took advantage of the roadblocks by heading over to the now near-empty lines for Snow White's Scary Adventures, a ride which recapped some of the scarier moments from the 1938 film.

 

It was rather dark, certainly darker than you'd expect for a Snow White ride, until you recall how somber parts of the film were - there were different expectations for kids back then I guess.

It was an attractive ride, but LuLu was terrified and I spent most of the ride calming her down. Afterwards YaYa was quick to volunteer to go again (I think mainly to torture LuLu) and Lu just freaked out! She and I stayed behind and browsed a nearby shop while my two oldest Ladies headed for a return visit.

Then it was on to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

It was really quite good, with a hypnotic Dali section based on a dream sequence, and a neat 'bouncing' effect when you encounter Tigger. Thumbs up!

We headed back into PhilharMagic for round two, this time sitting in back. It was just as good the second time!

We finally headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean only to discover it had been shut down in the last hour because of technical problems! Man, the one thing I wanted to see!

So we kept walking through AdventureLand and wound up above the park in the Swiss Family Treehouse. I only saw it at night, when the view is anything but great, so my opinion of it might be flawed. Even so I thought it was kinda lame (even though it's right up my alley) but YaYa seemed to like it.

Lotta stairs, let me tell ya.

By this time we were starving, our last meal having come . . . well, I don't know when.

It became kind of a pain finding something to eat, but we stumbled across a place that offered halfway decent casual fare with a Spaceship feel called Cosmic Ray's Starlight Café.

On the way out the door the nightly fireworks show started.

The kids loved them

 and they were some of the best I've seen - and Milwaukee's a big fireworks town.

The fireworks closed the park for the day and we found ourselves at the tail end of thousands of people leaving for the day. The incredible weight of people was overwhelming, as was the long wait for our bus.

We got home to the hotel, watched some TV, and that was it.

Our first day of vacation was over.

Oh, one last thing I'd forgotten to mention: on the way to the park, these words came out of LuLu: "Hey, guys, I got an idea. Let's find Mickey Mouse and all take a picture together!"

Sorry Folks

Hey, we're back in Milwaukee. Sorry for the week-long hiatus but I ran short of time in DisneyWorld and on the ship internet access was a paltry $99 . . which meant, uh, yeah, no internet :)

Expect long-winded updates for the next few days! Enjoy.

Our Disney Vacation Pt 2

So we got to the Magic Kingdom around 4 o'clock and walked right into the park as the first leg of the parade passed right in front of us!

Here's where I instantly loved the vacation: my girls are at just the perfect age for Disney. They're old enough to appreciate it, and young enough to be in awe.

The moment that parade started they were happy; the minute they saw their first Princess they were overjoyed. LuLu was yelling hello to the characters and went nuts for Mickey, who she personally believes responsible for our vacation.

Here's those much adored Princesses:

When YaYa saw Ariel for the 1st time she was so happy she began to cry! I have it on video, but sadly only the vocal is there, as I couldn't aim the screen in the glare of the sun. But her voice, choked with emotion, yelling "I saw Ariel!" will forever rank among The Best Moments Ever.

Heck, the Mrs. and I began to tear up at their joy.

From there we moved on with a goal in mind, tho' for the life of me I don't recall what it was. Probably because we didn't make it there :)

We were sidetracked by the Mad Tea Party's spinning teacups:

Brother, I can make those teacups spin!

Our next stop was another unintentional one, Airel's Grotto, a water playground where we waited some 45 minutes in line to get the Little Mermaid's autograph. It was ok. The girls had a blast getting soaking wet, and besides Airel's YaYa's favorite Princess.

The Little Mermaid complimented my wife's hair and entertained the girls. You might notice the autograph books she signed for the girls. 10 years ago, on our honeymoon, people thought we were a freak for taking the book around to the characters. Nowadays it's 1000% times more mainstream; heck, we picked the books off of Ebay.

One other thing we got on Ebay was a Pal Mickey, a stuffed animal you wear around your neck. As you travel the park it lets you know where you are and what lies in store for you. It doesn't seem as popular as advertised on Disney Tip sites, as we had one of the few I saw around the parks.

We then hit the carasol (sp?) which is pretty self-explanatory.

After that we faced a problem. LuLu REALLY wanted to ride the Dumbo ride, and we'd already put it off for Ariel, etc. But the line was super long. Therefore we split up: Lisa took the girls while I was sent with the stroller to scout out future locations.

I made journeys as far south as Pirates of the Carribean, and scouted the Haunted Mansion and Liberty Square.

In Liberty Square I saw the Liberty Tree Tavern, a great dining establishment I fondly recalled from our honeymoon. Sadly, they were all booked up.

Ages later the family regrouped.

Here's the pics from the Dumbo ride:

I'm told it was a 45 minute wait for a 30 second ride, but what the heck.

I should mention that on my travels I'd obtained a FastPass ticket for Mickey's PhilHarMagic. That'll be important later on.

But that will wrap it up for tonight, as a) that's all the pics I've uploaded so far and b) there's a long day ahead of us.

I'll try to post more of the trip as it progresses.

Hope everyone back home is well!

 

Our Disney Vacation Pt 1

We woke up at 4 a.m, loaded up the car, and headed to my work, where we got a free ride to the airport.

YaYa was already feeling a little nervous, and going through airline security didn't help (they took away their juice boxes, yet somehow missed the 2nd set of the boxes in a different carry-on).

It was a pretty easy wait until the flight, as the gate was right across from a play area. One problem when we boarded tho': we were scattered around the plane in rows 13, 15, and 17.

Not a good idea to put a 3 year old by herself next to a stranger. Thankfully the stewardess got a woman to switch seats, and I wound up next to LuLu with YaYa and Lisa behind us.

LuLu was perfectly calm and 'la de da', but YaYa was a bit nervous. As she would say later "I was kinda worried we would crash, but part of me knew we wouldn't"

Let me tell ya, it went MUCH smoother than I had expected. The girls were in good spirits and experienced no physical discomfort during the flight (their Mom has problems with her ears in flight; YaYa had a little of that, LuLu - like her Dad - none at all)

They both liked the bathroom, and the soda and snacks (tho' YaYa spilled her soda!) Much of the flight was spent coloring

And LuLu quizzed me about what this and that was in the pictorial flight saftey instructions. After each answer she'd say in a sooo cute voice: "Good job Daddy!"

Lu did freak out when the plane began descent. Thankfully it was a mild episode, and timed well;  a minute into it the plane touched ground and she was all good!

Once we were in the airport we tried to retrieve our baggage, but it never came down the carousel. As is the case in such moments, I began to inwardly spaz. A skycap saved the day by telling us it was probably scooped up by Disney and waiting for us at the Disney Welcome Center.

I imagined it would be a small, cozy desk, but it rivaled or surpassed many of the airline desks.

We caught a Disney Express bus to our hotel, the French Quarter on WDW property.

(Oh, btw - the whole bus broke out into a cheer when we first crossed onto Disney soil!)

The girls were fascinated by the palm trees. [note: I had a great pic here, but it was sized wrong. I'll try reloading it here later]

and settled right in front of the TV in the hotel lobby while we checked in.

The room itself is nothing all that grand, but quite serviceable

Since we'd all been up since 4 am, we tried to get everyone down for a nap. LuLu fell asleep in my arms, but the ever stubborn YaYa never went to dreamland. We were not pleased, as that (in our minds) guaranteed an eventual meltdown.

We got dressed in our summer gear (oh, the pleasure of throwing on sandals in November!), ate a quick bite in the grill on the hotel grounds, and got on a bus to Magic Kingdom, where our adventure really began . .  .

 

[note: for the sake of brevity (!) and so in fear of losing a connection, these things will posted in small bites. Look for more later!]

 

2nd Anniversary and De-Lurker Day

this is a half-hour early, as I won't get the chance to post it on the 9th

Two years ago today, if you go by the date on the hit counter, I started this blog.

 

In the begining it was strictly political, then it became a showcase for my writing, followed by a time as an online scrapbook of my family, and now it's a mish-mash of all of the above.

 

If you want a longer version of the story, and some links to old posts, check out the links on the left sidebar. 

 

I enjoy the heck out of writing this site and I'm grateful to everyone that stops by and gives it a looksie.

 

One favor tho' - I'd like to declare Slapinions' 2nd Anniversary a DE-LURKER DAY.

 

I'm horrible at leaving comments, so I don't normally ask for them. But today, if you routinely visit here once a day, once a week, or just when the mood fits, PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT to let me know who you are.

 

If you can't or won't leave an AOL or AIM comment, just drop me a line at slapinions@aol.com and I'll post the comment for you.

 

Thanks a lot, and here's to 2 more years of Slapinions!

 

Dan