Disney Pictures 2010



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The 2010 Disney Trip... Sunday: Day One – Of Driving, Mini Golf, and Purses

First, I feel as though I have to preface this entire thing by saying that we decided to take Allie’s SUV, because, well, that was the only car that all our stuff would fit in. It was actually at least fall-ish, or colder, in Florida, so we had A LOT of clothes. The car was absolutely PACKED. I mean, couldn’t see out of the back window, couldn’t move in the back seat, stuffed to the gills packed. Now, let the tale telling commence…
So, we actually left the house on Saturday, drove halfway, and stopped just outside of Jacksonville for the night. That way, we didn’t have to drive the entire day on Sunday, because, let’s face it, that’s a LONG way… Trust me…
Sunday, we got up, left the hotel and drove the last couple or three hours to Disney. We were still pretty early, too early to get into the hotel, so we decided miniature golf was in order. Dad drove us over to Blizzard Beach, which is actually a waterpark, but has a mini golf course just outside of it called Winter Summerland. Because we are SUCH pro mini golfers, we decided to play a round while we waited out time before our hotel was available for us to check in. The story behind this golf course, which is one of two at Disney (and the one we’d never played before), is that apparently Santa stopped in Florida and decided that it would be a perfect place for the elves to unwind, so he built a mini golf course… well, two, actually, a summer course (the sand course) and the winter course (the snow course). We decided to play the winter course, as, of course, we were there for Christmas. Let me put this gently; none of us will ever be pro mini golfers… Dad won, handily, with Allie and Mom closely behind him and, no great surprise, me a distant fourth…
By this time, it was only about an hour before our hotel was available and Dad decided that we could go ahead and try to check in. We drove over to Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa, which is located just behind Downtown Disney, and were able to check in… Four of us and ALL our stuff in a condo room with a double bed, a sofa bed, a bathroom, and a kitchenette. It was a tight fit, but a super nice place. We then went over to Downtown Disney and walked around, with all the bazillions of other people, before we went to dinner at Captain Jack’s Restaurant. This trip, we decided to do the Disney Dining Play, which was an awesome idea. We got one table service meal, one quick service meal (like chicken fingers or a little pizza or a burger), and one snack (like a drink or fruit) per day we were there. Best choice ever, because this meant we could eat different places and that we could do some things we’d never done before. I’ll elaborate more later… Anyway, we were sitting in the lobby for awhile before we were seated and, when we moved, I totally forgot to pick up my purse… After we had a table, thankfully, a nice hostess retrieved my purse and brought it to the table, intact. I was extremely thankful, needless to say. Dinner was wonderful and we went back to the hotel to go to sleep early, knowing we had a long day on Monday.

Monday: Day Two – Parkapalooza

We started out our day early, and had breakfast at the Grand Floridian, which Mom, Dad, and I had never been to. It was SO beautiful. Our waitress was from Wisconsin, where, apparently, it was colder than it was in Florida that day. Mom decided she wanted to live at the Grand Floridian. Then, we went to the Animal Kingdom. The first thing we did when we arrived was tromped around to ride Expedition Everest. The line said 20 minutes, but we only waited about 5, which was fabulous, considering that, later that day, the line was up to 80 minutes long. Then, we went to see the Festival of the Lion King show, which is a personal favorite of the family. There is singing, dancing, acrobats, and people making animal noises… like bleating, which is apparently the sound giraffes make. Who knew? At the exit, we went around and met the main Disney characters, Mickey, Minnie, Donald (who looked sad because he had no line) and Goofy, all of whom were dressed for Christmas. We then went on Kilimanjaro Safaris, where Allie took animal pictures to her heart’s content. We rode the Dinosaur ride, which was a nice break. There was a parade, which was super cute, because everything was decked out for Christmas. We were right along the parade route, something we always try to do. It gets us close to the characters and that means interaction, which is fun. So, we’re standing there and characters are coming by waving, shaking hands, high fiving… Timon, the meerkat, from The Lion King, comes up, in his cute little scarf. He stops, right in front of me, where he proceeds to touch my hair and mime getting stuck because it’s pointy. That’s right, I was mocked by a fictional character… We then went to eat at Pizzafari and went to see the It’s Tough to Be a Bug show, which was also pretty cute. By this time, we’d pretty much done everything at Animal Kingdom that we wanted to do.

We drove from Animal Kingdom back to the hotel, to put on warmer clothes, as we were going to hit TWO more parks before the night was over. We went to Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM) because Allie wanted to see Fantasmic, the night fireworks show. Mom took the blanket off their bed and we wrapped it around the four of us on the bleachers to stay warm, as it was RIDICULOUSLY cold. But first, we rode Toy Story Midway Mania. Then, Mom, Allie, and I decided to ride Tower of Terror, because the wait only said 10 minutes and we had time to kill. Dad got in line to go into Fantasmic and we went to Tower of Terror. We made it through the introduction and were standing in line at the elevator with this group of people. Apparently, earlier in the day, these people had ridden the ride and got stuck right at the top for almost 20 minutes. Yup… and it was cold. I mean, bitterly cold. The ride went off without a hitch, however. There was dropping and squealing and bouncing and more squealing… and then giggling. We went over and went in Fantasmic, where Dad and Allie got us hot cocoa, which was nice.

After Fantasmic, we drove from Hollywood Studios to Magic Kingdom because, duh, we had Extra Magic Hours that night. What this means is that Disney Resort guests are able to spend longer in the park, without other park guests, for us that meant from 8pm until midnight. All you have to do is show your room key at everything. So, here we are, at 9.30 at night, in Magic Kingdom, in the frigid cold. Now, granted we rode everything in the entire park that night. But it was cold. We met Chip and Dale. No waiting on pretty much everything. Then we went back to the hotel because it was cold… and we were done.

Tuesday: Day Three – Pooh on the Floor and Handy Bob

Tuesday, we were pretty much exhausted, so everything was funny… I will attempt to explain. We got to Hollywood Studios a little later, and our brunch at Hollywood and Vine was at 1-ish. Dad, Allie, and I were standing on the street, waiting on Mom at the bathroom and these people come up to us, dressed as “Hollywood-ish personalities” from the 1930s and 40s. They just started up a conversation, firstly about me looking like I was praying and then just chatting. Finally, we escaped and went to see the Beauty and the Beast show, up close and personal… Super close. Then we went to lunch/ brunch… with characters we didn’t really know. These characters were from Playhouse Disney shows, which are for the preschool sect, but the food was supposedly amazing, so we went. We met Handy Manny, who Dad proceeded to call Handy Bob the rest of the day (a combination, I’m pretty sure with Bob the Builder), June and Leo from Little Einsteins, and a yellow bear… apparently a secret agent of some sort… named Oso… The food was excellent. We watched a lame parade, which made us sad, and rode the Great Movie Ride, a favorite of mine. The Aerosmith Rockin Roller Coaster was shut down, but we got FastPasses and moved along. We then decided to meet some characters… we headed over to where Toy Story is to meet Buzz and Woody…

So, we’re in line to meet the Toy Story characters and we’re behind this family, mom, dad, a daughter who was probably 5 or 6 and another daughter who was 3-ish. These parents are talking to a family in front of them and we learn that, apparently, the smaller of the two daughters is terrified of automatic flushing toilets. There was a staff massive hunt for a non-automatic flushing toilet, which can’t be found. Then, the smaller of the two kids was holding a small stuffed Winnie the Pooh doll. She kept dropping it and her mom suddenly said, “Pooh on the floor,” indicating that the doll was down. This just cracked us up… Then, the dad was trying to distract the kid for a picture and put the stuffed toy on his head… “Pooh on the head.” You see where this is going… We finally made it up to Buzz and Woody. Buzz had the copyright symbol with “Disney” stamped across his… butt… which I found hilarious. I think that the people playing Buzz and Woody were just thrilled that we were adults. Woody took a fit over Mom, even going as far as trying to leave with us once we got the picture and were on our way out, and reaching for her out the door, making Buzz have to hold him back. It was pretty cute.

We went around to meet Mike Wazowski and Sully from Monsters, Inc., more people we’d never met. And we went to see Mater and Lightning Mcqueen from Cars, but didn’t take pictures because, well, they are just cars; they don’t talk or anything. We tromped back over to the Aerosmith coaster and Mom, Allie, and I rode it, while Dad, whose stomach wasn’t feeling well, waited. By the time we got out, it was just about dark and we went to walk through the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. I took pictures, but there’s really no way to capture how many lights there are or how bright it really is. I try, but I know I fail. It was really cold, again, so, after we walked through the lights, we headed back to the hotel.

Wednesday: Day Four – Magic Kingdom Redux

Okay, so the exhaustion was really taking its toll by this time. We slept in a bit, because we were actually having a little later lunch at the Crystal Palace with… that’s right, Pooh and friends (“Pooh at the table”). As soon as we got there, we met Pinocchio and Daisy. The parents had to hit a bathroom, so Allie and I stood and watched part of a show. We tried to meet the characters from Tangled (Flynn, not Finn, and Rapunzel), but the line was too long. Because we’d already been there, we really didn’t have anything to ride. Then we tried to meet Tiana and Naveen, from the Princess and the Frog, but they had already closed the meeting line. We were told that, if we wanted to meet them, there was a parade, immediately after which they would return. Then we ate. We met Pooh (“again, Pooh at the table”), Piglet, Eeyore, and Tigger. It really is a lot more fun than you would think. I mean, the people who do the characters are super nice and the food is always great.

I had made the statement earlier that the only real person that I wanted to meet was a pirate. I wanted a picture with a pirate. Unfortunately, and ironically, there aren’t any pirates that you can meet. You can watch a pirate SHOW, but not actually meet one. However, we found a PhotoPass guy, one of the people who take pictures of you meeting other people, who was dressed as a pirate. Apparently, it was his first day, so he had a handler. The guy finished taking pictures for this one family, and I was like, “So, we wanna borrow you. I want my picture taken with a pirate and you’ll do.” He was like, “… Okay…” Then we popped a squat to watch the parade. Allie, Mom, and I got stickers with Mickey on them from Steve the Secret Service agent (well, that’s what he looked like). The parade was really good, and we sent Dad ahead as a scout just at the end of the parade to get us a spot in line for the Tiana/Naveen meet, which was successful. According to Dad, Naveen was wearing camo and had mud flaps on his boot. He also apparently knew something about Charleston and New Orleans because he commented on the Battery area being similar to New Orleans. And, nobody knew Naveen’s name; they kept having to ask. We went back out and watched the show, again. We also stuck around to watch them light the castle for Christmas. Stunning. Allie and I had tickets to Cirque du Soleil to see La Nouba that night, so we left. Mom and Dad watched the Electric Light Parade and the fireworks, and that was pretty much our night.

Thursday: Day Five – “So, we hear you tap…”

This morning, we got up super early to go back to Magic Kingdom and meet the Tangled characters, which was successful. Other than the whole “Flynn/Finn” thing. So, we’re standing in line and this guy comes up to near where we are in a motorized wheelchair thingy and the title on the front says “Rick”. I don’t know why we thought this was funny, but, because Dad couldn’t remember the names of the characters we were meeting, he kept calling them, “Flynn, Finn, Eugene, Handy Bob” and then added, “Scooter Rick” to the end of that list. Anyway, we left Magic Kingdom to go to Epcot, where the plan was to meet characters for the day, so that we could actually enjoy Epcot on Friday (when we had brunch there). Mom decided that she was celebrating her birthday starting on Thursday, so she wore her button and everybody told her happy birthday. We took the Monorail to Epcot, where we whisked around the world to meet Alice (from Alice in Wonderland), Mary Poppins, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Jasmine, Mulan, and Snow White. Marie, the cat from the Aristocats, was also out; her handler said that kids either tend to think that she’s the Easter Bunny (yup, in December) or Hello Kitty. We then got in line to see the Candlelight Processional, narrated by Jodi Benson… yes, for those of you un-Disney initiated, that’s the woman who voiced Ariel of the Little Mermaid. The show was stunning. We left the park to change clothes and go to dinner.

Our dinner was at another restaurant at the Grand Floridian resort called 1900 Park Faire. Here, you can meet various Cinderella characters, which was super exciting for me. We were the last dinner seating, at 8.50pm, so, we’re pretty sure that the people who were dressed as characters were just thrilled to be almost done. We get seated and Mom, Allie, and I go to get food, thinking, well, there aren’t really any characters around at the moment. Before we can get back Druisella, one of Cinderella’s stepsisters, makes it to our table. She hung out for a long time, just chatting, bad mouthing Cinderella. We learned that Allie is most like her, as she is bossy, the youngest, and clearly the perfect child, and that Allie and I have a bit as we often answer questions at the same time. She left and Dad went to get food. Cinderella showed up while Dad was gone. Then Lady Tremaine, Cinderella’s stepmother, came by. Anastasia came by, the other stepsister, and we told her some of the less flattering things her sister had said about her, which she vehemently denied. And she asked who we were waiting on to meet. Prince Charming, was our obvious answer… to which she said it wasn’t worth it. Not much going on upstairs. She left and, while we were waiting, Druisella came back by. We’re pretty sure she was just glad to have adults to talk to, because she just hung out for awhile. She told us to ask Charming, when he came by that we’d heard that he was an excellent tap dancer. Prince Charming finally makes it around to our table and, I’m getting ready to stand up to get my picture taken and these bells go off. He says, “Do you hear those bells? I must go waltz. Excuse me, I’ll be right back.” I sat. There was waltzing. Then Charming came back. We get ready to start taking pictures and Dad goes, “So, we hear you tap.” The guy’s face goes absolutely blank. Then he asks who told us that. It was hilarious. We took pictures and almost immediately decided that that’s the way to begin any awkward conversation.

Day Six: Friday – Characters, Cookies, and Cocoa

Friday was a big day for us. We got up and went back over to Epcot, where we rode Spaceship Earth and the Journey into Imagination (with Figment). We rode Under the Seas with Nemo… and found Nemo (again). In the ride, you sit in Clam Cars, not to be confused with Clown Cars, which is what we rode down in J. Then walked around to Norway, where our brunch reservations were at Akershus (A-ker-shush, not Aker-shoosh) with more Disney princesses. We did this our last trip and really enjoyed it and, again, it was really great. We then walked around the rest of the world, via the World Showcase, shopping and just wandering around. We rode Mission: Space (the orange team, more intense, of course) and the Universe of Energy ride, a 37 minute ride where it was hot and Allie took a little nap-let, Mom did too. Allie and Mom went back around to America in the World Showcase to get a Beauty and the Beast cheese wheel of ornaments. We did some Christmas shopping and went back to the hotel to get appropriately dressed for that night.

Now, Friday night was awesome. We went to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, which is an extra event that you have to purchase additional tickets to. They only sell so many tickets and they do special Christmas things during the event, as well as provide all the cookies and cocoa you could ever want for free. There are also characters out during this time that only come out during Halloween and this Christmas party. There is an abbreviated version of the Disney Very Merry Christmas parade and a special Holliday Wishes firework show. And, they make is snow on Main St., which is awesome. First, we asked around to find out what characters were out and about to do pictures with. We found out that the 7 Dwarves were out in their Christmas gear, so they were our first stop. While standing in line, we found out that some of the Princes were in residence with their Princesses. Needless to say, we rushed over to meet them. We met the Beast, again (and Belle in her Christmas wear), Cinderella and Charming (not the same one), and Aurora and Prince Phillip, who advised Allie and I to sing to find our own princes. Apparently that’s the way to go, as that was the same thing Ariel had told us the day prior. Allie says that I must also mention that he looked jaunty in his tights and large feather in his hat. We went to find a good spot to watch a show, the fireworks show, and the parade. Everything was stunning. We were sitting on a curb, just on the parade route. It was chilly and I was just in a sweater, so Dad gave me his sweatshirt to wrap around me. Mom was wished Happy Birthday by the Fairy Godmother, Cinderella, and Santa, not to mention lots of other characters in the parade. And, Bullseye, Woody’s horse in Toy Story, made fun of me for holding the sweatshirt in front of me. Just in case you’re keeping count, that’s two fictional characters that mocked me. We then ran around and got assaulted by a Country Bear, met Aladdin and Jasmine again, and spotted Mr. Smee and Captain Hook, who we were told, if we could catch them, we could take a picture. Done.

Saturday was fairly uneventful. We repacked the car, which looked even more like a clown car, strapped a bag to the roof, went to Downtown Disney to finish Christmas shopping, and headed on the long journey home… in the tiny space.

Basically, we had an AMAZING time. We met people we hadn’t met. We went places we hadn’t gone. We did stuff we’d never done. And there was Pooh on the floor.

Until later…

Whitney