Did You Know About our Visit to Magic Kingdom?

Did you know about our visit Magic Kingdom?



The night before we went, we were all a little giddy. My son said "I am going to be a little kid tomorrow!" That is just the feeling Magic Kingdom brings out in you. We had a plan for Magic Kingdom, because we found out that they closed at 7 pm that night. We were afraid we would not get to finish everything we wanted to do.



We knew we wanted to hit either Space Mountain or Buzz Lightyear first, get fast passes if needed then head straight over to the other two mountains-Splash Mountain and the Thunder Mountain Railroad.

When we got to Tomorrowland, the wait for Buzz Lightyear was only ten minutes, so we thought we would go ahead and jump onto this ride. This was one of our favorites from our previous trip. The ride is a car with a power cannon attached to the front. You ride through a video game, shooting at targets throughout the ride! There is a screen in front of you that keeps your score. This is tons of fun for the kids and grown ups alike! And our wait actually turned out to be about five minutes!

After our ride, we went directly to Space Mountain. My daughter had never ridden this one and was anxious to do so. The wait said it was about 20 minutes, but I doubt we waited quite that long. While waiting, see if you can figure out what the meteorites are that float along the screen ! The ride itself was much rougher than we remembered and somewhat of a let down after riding the Rock N Roller Coaster in Hollywood Studios. We stopped in to catch the comedy show by Monsters, INC. This was a fun show, with the MC animated on-screen, but able to pull off audience participation and jokes on the audience!

Then we headed for Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain. We did not know which to get the fast pass for and which to stand in line for. They were both pretty long. The kids chose to get the passes for Splash Mountain, and that turned out pretty good as that line got long fast! After about 20 minutes in line, we rode Thunder Mountain and headed over to Splash. I love this ride! I don't really like getting wet (and you will get soaked!) but I love it because it is all about Bre'r Rabbit! Most kids won't even know who it is since Disney won't re-release Song of the South, but I love it! And yes, I got SOAKED!





The kids and my husband then went to the Haunted Mansion. I got fast passes for Peter Pan while waiting on them. That turned out to be a good idea. That ride is one of my favorites and I did not want to miss it. The line early on was 40 minutes and it is a slow moving line. This was about 11:30 and our pass was not good until 2:30. A little later, all the fast passes for this ride were distributed. Upon our return, the line for this ride was 50 minutes. It is a fun ride through the story, but they have speeded it up; I would prefer not to be rushed through the ride (but then I had fast passes, which got us on in about ten to fifteen minutes, and I did not have toddlers hanging off of me!)

I got to see the Hall of Presidents, then met back up with my family. We took a lunch break (hot dogs and chicken wraps) and then my son wanted to head over to Tom Sawyer Island. This is a relaxing place to take kids to play and rest, but he was adamant that we not miss it "for old time's sake!" We rode the raft over and went through the cave and the fort, even the secret tunnel. We hung out there for a little while before heading back. Then we struck out for the Pirates of the Caribbean. They have changed this ride a bit so that it now matches the movie.


We could not leave the park without visiting the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. I love this tree house! It has a working water wheel and everything is set up like the old movie.



And you get a nice view of Space Mountain.




We of course went back to ride Peter Pan and catch the boat through Small World.



We headed back for another pass on Buzz Lightyear. Getting stuck this time around allowed my husband to max out on the points. As we came back around, we noticed a parade in which regular families were being asked to participate with the other cast members. I am sure that was lots of fun for those families.

We then stopped to do some shopping, check into dinner reservations (none to be had in any of the parks, save Epcot at 8:45!) and got to see the flag lowering ceremony. Then we headed out to eat at downtown Disney. We took the monorail to the Contemporary Resort and caught a bus from there.(There are no buses from Magic Kingdom to Downtown Disney.)




We loved our day in Magic Kingdom, and if the kids would have been a little more willing, I'd have loved to see the Winnie the Pooh ride, Snow White's ride, and the Philharmagic show. Guess I'll just have to go back! :)

Did You Know About Hollywood Studios--Part 2?

Did you know about Hollywood Studios?


For fear of leaving out a couple of things, I want to insert them here: We did enjoy a quick walk through of the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground set. We were all too big to play this time, but we liked seeing the giant sized stuff.



I also enjoyed seeing the huge backdrops of San Francisco and New York City.



After we finished our meal in the 50's Cafe, the boys took off to the Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show. Us girls were a little behind and got there late. We were afraid we would miss the show or have poor seats. As we were funneled around the stadium, we were brought back to a section in the middle where the cast member opened a roped off area. We got to sit right in the middle in some excellent seats!

We saw some extremely beautiful driving in the car ballet scene. We learned how the cars are able to do backwards stunt driving, how they can jump a ramp and keep driving, and how they can drive on two wheels. We even got to see Herbie!




Next, the motorcycles came out for some cool stunts. One guy skidded into a fire. We were shown his protective gear and how he caught on fire and how quickly this had to be put out, even under five layers of protective clothing! We all enjoyed this show a great deal.




Next we enjoyed the Great Movie Ride, reliving scenes from some classic movies, all housed in a replica of Mann's Chinese Theater. My daughter and I went on to meet Mickey. We had to stand in line for a good while before getting him to sign some Mickey Mouse shoes she had bought!




We met up with the boys and rode the TOT and coaster again. We tried to get in to see the Fantasmic show. We actually could not get a seat at the first show, so we went out and walked around a bit more, grabbed something to eat, then came back to sit outside the gate for the next show.

I got in line early and was able to grab some great seats for this wonderful show, hosted my Sorcerer Mickey! The scenes were wonderful and filled with characters, dancing water, fire and fire works! I adored seeing my teenaged son clapping through the show like a little guy! A great way to end our fun filled day at Hollywood Studios!






I had heard there is a Journey Into Narnia (which will soon be turned into Prince Caspian) exhibit that I wanted to see. We never did see it, but since being home, I heard it is still running. I am sorry to have missed it. We also did not get to see the new Toy Story Mania , which opens in a couple of weeks.

Did You Know About Hollywood Studios--Part 1?

Did you know about Hollywood Studios?

The next part of our big adventure was over to Hollywood Studios, formerly called MGM Studios. Both the kids were looking forward to this park and my son seemed to really remember it well. There was so much we wanted to do there, and for resort guests, the park stayed open til 1am! The first thing we did was head over to the Hollywood Hotel Tower of Terror.



We grabbed a fast pass and headed over to ride Rock N Roller Coaster while we waited. The line was very long at the roller coaster, so we thought we would wait til the time specified so we could get another fast pass for the roller coaster. While we were trying to decide how to best plan out our time, a lady gave us her three fast passes to the roller coaster. So the kids and I went through the fast pass line and my husband went on the single riders line. The kids rode together and I rode with someone else, as did my husband-who actually got on before us. We decided to use this method each time we rode it after this. Going through the single rider line cut the wait time substantially.



After these rides, and I believe the Star Tours, we really wanted to see the Indiana Jones stunt show. We did not know that fast passes were used for this show as well, and did not feel like standing in the very long "standing room only" line. We tried to get fast passes for a later show, but it just kept not working out for us, since we had a reservation to eat at the 50's Prime Time Cafe. We did get into a later showing by having my husband go early to get into the "standing room only" line. We got seats no problem, though at the time we were not sure we would. The show was really great and my son remembered quite a bit of it (from our previous trip.)




After the show, we went over to the 50's Prime Time Cafe for our reservation. My husband went to try to get fast passes for another motor stunt show. They did not give them out for that show, so we had to wait before we could check into the diner until he was back with us. The cafe was set up like a home in the 1950's would have been. There were different rooms to seat guests in, each with an old fashioned TV playing a reel of clips from 50's shows. The food here was ok. My husband had the meat loaf, my son had the chicken pot pie and a really excellent chocolate malt, my daughter had fried chicken and I had a grilled chicken sandwich. My daughter ate the drumstick and mashed potatoes, but did not want to try the greens (an unusual side dish I thought!) so our waitress, "Cousin Silvante" fed them to her "airplane style"! My husband was threatened with punishment for putting his elbows on the table and my son kept getting told to stop being a tattle tale!!

Did You Know We Just Returned from Disney World?

Did you know we just returned from Disney World?

That's right! My family just spent most of this week in Disney World!

For the last six years, we have planned on taking the kids back to DW. But since my son went into public school this year, we thought it just would not work out. So we were debating on other vacation choices. Then, two weeks ago, my husband found an envelope in his office. Inside was the itinerary for a trip to Disney World...hotel arrangements, airline arrangements and DW passes! Well, we felt we could not pass up a trip that someone else had paid for, so we did take our son out of school for a trip to Disney World!

We had a great time (though the son was/is stressed about all the make up work). We made it to all four parks and had a great time seeing and doing all things Disney! I will be sharing many of our adventures and pictures over the next few days!!