Fri, Disney MGM Studios

Today was the last full day, and it was full. We got to MGM Studios by 8:45 like usual and headed over to Tower of Terror as soon as it opened. Kyler had already decided he didn't want to do this one, and we figured he was probably right. So we finally took advantage of the Baby Swap. All of you stand in line, and when you get to the front you tell one of the workers you want to swap out. So Kipp and Ilea went on the ride and someone took Kyler and I down the handicap entrance to wait. When Kipp and Ilea came off, then I took Ilea back with me up the handicap entrance, and they put us on the next ride. That way you don't have to wait in line another hour or whatever it is (in our case it would have only been about 10 min, but that's beside the point). Ilea LOVED it. It made me a little nauseous, but it was a fun ride.

The next one was Kyler's favorite, Star Tours. It's the same simulator ride from Disney circa 1987! It was a little clunky, but Kyler loved it. Next we went on Studios Backlot Tours. This was a backlot type ride. They showed us some special effects with water, and how you tape things and put it together to look smooth. Then we rode a tram and they told us a little about some backlot stuff stored there. It was interesting. One place we stopped was Catastrophe Canyon where a fuel truck lights on fire, and then water comes. The heat was quite intense, and we got splashed a little, but it was fun to see. After that we went to a big show calledLights! Motor! Action! It was in a big stadium, and it was a stunt car show. It was about 30 min long, and it was really good. The cars came flying through, did a lot of tricks, and were really fun. You never knew what was going to happen next. They showed us a few tricks, and it was a pretty good show.

We wandered off to the next show, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. It was fun. It had a pretty big set, and some funny things. They talked about how the stunt men have to prepare, and acted out some of the scenes from the movie. The kids liked it.

After that were a few shows that seemed to be mis-billed. We went to one hosted by Drew Carey, called Sounds Dangerous, that talked about how they do sound effects. It turned out to be a silly movie, mostly in pitch black, with just a sound track. But they didn't go at all into how the sound effects were created.

Next we headed over to one which was supposed to be a behind the scene look at making of Narnia. I was really interested in that one. You entered through a large wardrobe, and the room was all white, with snow light effects, and pine trees covered with snow. The White Witch said a few lines, then we watched a movie. But the movie was a 5 minute summary of the real movie, with a 30 sec trailer for the next movie they are making! That was it! I was disappointed.

By this time we were pretty much done. We headed sort of out, stopping at Tower of Terror on the way. Kipp and Ilea used their Fastpass, while Kyler and I shopped a little.

This had been the hottest day, about 92, and we were finished. I think MGM is the smallest park. We did want to come back for the firework show, and decided to go eat dinner outside the park and take a quick dip in our pool. We headed for the tram, and it looked like it was about to leave, so we started to run. About 10 feet away Ilea tripped, and skinned her knees and hand on the concrete. It didn't seem too bad at first, but the blood started to ooze out. The driver came to see her, and so we headed over to first aid, which was near the entrance. They got her some big bandages, which always helps, and we went back to the tram. This time we made it out. We went to Chick-Fil-A again, and loved it. It's really tasty chicken. We had about an hour to swim in the pool, which the kids loved.

It was great to feel clean and cool after a day in the park, with no fanny pack to carry. We brought books and Kyler's Gameboy, and headed back to the park in time to get a good seat for Fantasmic. There is a stadium that can hold 7,000, but it often fills up. We got great seats about 5 rows up with no one in front of us, in the middle section. Kipp and Ilea went to go ride Tower of Terror one more time, and Kyler and I waited. No one ever sat in front of us, although the stadium was quite full by the end. We had a fantastic view, and it was an amazing show. There was a big moat, and a large set with a high mountain. It started with Mickey Mouse, and there were lights, music, water, fire, everything! They would spray water in a thin sheet in the shape of a fan and project laser images and movies onto it. It was about 75 feet tall. You could kind of see through it if they had lights on behind. So once they had the wicked witch from Snow White, and on the water they had the magic mirror. It looked kind of shimmery, just perfect, and you could still see the witch behind. They had songs, and lots of characters, and people would come in boats with lights in the moat. At one point when there was a dragon (I think it was from Sleeping Beauty), the lake surface itself caught on fire at one point. Not just points of fire, where you could see the gas, but most of the surface, and it burned pretty well! It was wild. It was truly unique, and a stunning show. We couldn't have asked for a better ending. I've never seen anything like it. The end was Mickey in the Sorcerer costume, way up on top of the mountain.

We finally got out of there and headed home for the last time. We packed up our stuff, and went to bed.

Sat was pretty easy. We didn't leave until noon, so we didn't have to get up very early. We packed the last of our stuff, and turned in our car. The first flight is short, about 2 hours, and we were in Houston. The second flight left on time, so we had about an hour for lunch, and then the longer flight. It's about 4 1/2 hours to Seattle. The luggage took forever, and our friend, Fred and Sue Little, picked us up and surprised us with dinner! What a great treat! We got home and went to bed in our own beds. It was a GREAT trip, one the kids will remember forever (we hope!).

Thursday, Nasa/Medieval Times

Today was a slower day. We slept in a little, and had doughnuts for breakfast. We got going a little bit late and headed out to the coast again. We got to Kennedy Space Center about 11:30. We first did the tram tour. It took over 2 hours, but it was very interesting. There were 3 stops. One near the launch pad, with the actual control room used for the Apollo series, one about Apollo, with one of the rockets there, and a great movie, and a quick stop about thedifferent capsules. It was interesting, and there was a lot to see. When we got back to the main section we rode a simulator ride about launching, and saw a great IMAX 3D movie about walking on the moon. It was narrated by Tom Hanks. It was really good too. There was another IMAX movie we didn't have a chance to see, and another exhibit. We did what we could, but we needed to get back because of our dinner.

It took a little longer getting back than we thought. The tickets for Medieval Times said to arrive by 6pm, and the show starts at 7:30. We didn't know what happened during that time. Did they take your dinner request? Serve dinner? Pre-dinner show? We ended up getting there about 6:30, and they said we wouldn't be seated until 7:15. So we toured a village they had set up. There was kitchen, basketry, weavers, ironsmith, torture chambers, and other stuff. It was interesting and cool, and the kids liked it. We looked around inside, where Kyler took a picture with the King, and we looked at Armour.

Finally we were lead to our seats. We had red crowns on (think Burger King), and sat in the red section, near the middle. We had good seats. There were 6 sections. There was a huge arena in the middle, and you sat on a long bench with a table in front of you. Down a few steps was the next row, so everyone could see. The first course was soup in a pewter bowl, with no spoon. It was tomato vegetable, and it was pretty tasty. Horses came, and there was a loose plot with the King, his daughter, and a tournament. We were given the Red Night to cheer. They continued to serve dinner throughout the night. We were given half of a roast chicken next, with a half of a baked potato, and a spare rib, still no silverware. Kyler didn't like getting his fingers dirty, but the food was pretty good. Before the men started the tournament the Falconer came out, and had his bird fly around and chase a lead he had. It was flying really low some times! Then the men all came out to compete. They had a lot of different events. They jousted for a ring (about 3 inches wide) hanging on a ribbon from a pole. They also picked up flags as they thundered by, and then did some real jousting at each other. It was amazing. Loud, fun, and I would think painful. They knocked each other off the horses, and then fought a little. There was a final event with 2 rows of rings hanging down, about 15 feet apart, so if you got one ring from the first set, you had to be ready immediately to try for the next set. It was really good. There was also a performance of tricks some horses performed in between. The story continued, and there was a bad guy, and then the all started fighting on foot, using sword, halberd, mace, etc. It was really neat, with great music, lights, and very exciting. The whole show was about 2 1/2 hours long. It was a lot of fun, and something really unique.

Wed, Magic Kingdom

On Wednesday, we went to the Magic Kingdom. We had asked the kids what they thought would be the best day before we left, and they both said Animal Kingdom. We thought this would be the best, and it was. Kipp and I thought it would be pretty much the same as Disneyland but there were a few big differences. For one, there is no Matterhorn in the Magic Kindom. The closest is comes is Expedition Everest in Animal Kingdom. Also, you can't park out front. You park in a lot, then take either the monorail or a ferry over to the front of the park. Most of the big rides were the same though.

We got there before opening at 9, as usual. We headed immediately to Space Mountain. Kyler knew it was dark, and we told him it wasn't scary and held our breath. The cars hold 3 people, and Ilea, Kipp and Kyler were in one car, and I was in the next car. I could hear Kyler screaming and was so afraid he hated it and was getting hysterical. It's kind of long, and of course there is nothing you can do once you start. I couldn't enjoy the ride much myself because I was so worried. But when we got off Kyler said, "That was awesome! I loved it!" I was so relieved! We planned to come back later to that one. We went over to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. This is new since we had been to Disneyland (which admittedly was about 20 years ago). It is a continuous track with cars. You can swivel the cars with a control stick, and both people in the car have a laser gun. As you go through the ride you shoot at targets and get points. It was so much fun! Needless to say Kipp way way outdid the rest of us, but we all had fun. We got off and immediately went on it again. Because there were no lines, it was awesome!


Next we strolled over to Fantasyland and went on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. This was cute, lots of detail. Next was Peter Pan's Flight, which was a little better. You rode in boats, and they were connected to the track at the top, so they started flying, and you could see London way below you, and then you flew all around Never Never Land. It's A Small World was across the street, but the front looked very different than in Disneyland. All the waiting was inside, and you got on a boat inside too. So the classic front was different, and much smaller than Disneyland's. The ride and the music, unfortunately, was the same.

We tried to do Haunted Mansion next, but they said it was down for a while. It seemed like they might fix it, since there were actual people instead of a sign, so we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This was another great coaster, and both kids loved it. When we got off we asked at the front of the ride if they had a walkie talkie and could tell if the Haunted Mansion was open yet. They pointed me to a lady who had a phone and could find out. Her name tag said Nance, Seattle, WA. I started to ask my question, then asked if she was really from Seattle. She said yes, and I told her I was from Covington. She said she was from Kent East hill, right near 132nd and 240th! It's about a mile from our house, a block from where Kipp's cousins, Jack and Kathy live! So we talked a little about home, and she gave us all buttons (1st Visit and Honorary Members of MM Club). She was also able to find out that the Haunted Mansion was open now.

Off we went to the Haunted Mansion. Kyler was a little apprehensive, but we told him it was fun and he finally agreed. Ilea loved it, and Kyler was so-so. There was one place where a few things popped out, but they weren't really close to the cars. He was just nervous.

After that we headed over to Pirates of the Carribbean. It was really fun. Kyler was nervous again, but he ended up really liking it. They had a new feature where they had mist covering the tunnel and they projected the head of Davey Jones (from the movie) onto it and he gave you a message before you got going. Then you rode right through the mist. The ride was the same, except it had been updated with Johnny Depp and a few other characters. Again, almost no lines. We waited about 10 min for this one.

After lunch we headed to the Jungle Cruise. Pretty short lines, and the kids really liked it. The patter from the driver is funny, and the kids liked all the animals and things. Right next door was the Swiss Family Robinson Tree house. It was fun also, but easy and quick. Next was the Enchanted Tiki Room. That was a disappointment for me, as it has changed considerably. There are birds, and one has the voice of Gilbert Godfrey, who I hate. There were also some singing flowers, but no birds-of-paradise, which I remember. Luckily, it was a short show. When we got out it was pouring rain. This was almost the hardest we had seen it, and everyone was under cover. We dashed across the street and got into the Country Bear Jamboree. Again, a show for the kids: Kipp and I almost fell asleep. By the time we got out the rain had stopped and it was clearing up. We went back to Big Thunder Mountain again and then split up. Kyler and I took the raft over to Tom Sawyer's Island and Kipp and Ilea went to Splash Mountain. Kyler didn't want to get wet. Unfortunately, the humidity was really high after the rain, and walking around the island didn't help. He had fun looking though, and we caught up with the others, who were soaked. Ilea and Kipp got pretty wet at Splash Mountain. The ride was having some troubles so at times we were stopped in some of the areas.

We tried another 3D movie, Mickey's PhilharMagic. It was pretty good, and didn't scare anyone. We rode the train, and saw one last show, The Laugh Floor. It was interesting. There are animated characters on the screen, and they talk to the audience like a comedy show. The camera will show a person from the audience and put it up on a screen, and the character will talk to or about that person. It was pretty neat. While we were in Tomorrowland, we went on the Transit Authority - the one that used to be called the People Mover. Then hit Space Mountain 2 more times, Buzz Lightyear, Teacups, and Haunted Mansion.

It was about 6pm now, and we had pretty much done it all, plus. We decided to eat out of the park that night, and take off. We rode the ferry this time back to the parking lot. We tried Chick-Fil-A for the first time. It was great! Simple, just chicken sandwiches or nuggets, but they were very tasty. It's owned by a Christian man, and the store is closed on Sundays. We wanted to drive around a little, looking for a Ben and Jerry's (we had a coupon for 2 free scoops), but couldn't find it. We took a wrong turn, and ended up headed back into the parks again. It was almost 8pm by then, so we headed all the way into the parking lot and got there just as the fire works started. We looked through a break in the trees and saw pretty much all of it. We hopped back in the car and zipped home. It worked out perfect. Off to bed after another long day.

Tues, Rest day

On Tues we got up a little bit later. We agreed to a time share presentation for an all you can eat breakfast and an $80 Visa card. The breakfast was nearby and was fantastic. We listened to the guy for a bit and said no. Then we got our card, and we were off. We wanted to do one letterbox in Florida, so we headed off that morning. We found the spot, and started out and I made the mistake of telling Kipp that the person hiding it saw an alligator while doing it. We went into the bushes, with Kipp extremely worried that an alligator would charge out of the bushes and eat Kyler. We did find our letterbox, and had a great drive looking around Celebration (a planned Disney community, very posh, with beautiful houses). We didn't see any alligators that day.

After lunch, we decided to head out to the beach. We found Cocoa Beach, and spent about 1 1/2 hours swimming in the ocean. At the end, I realized it was raining kind of hard, and we got out to avoid lightening and to rescue our clothes! The rain doesn't last long, but we didn't want our towels and clothes to be soaking wet. We waited for the rain to stop, and then drove around a little more, and headed home. We ate at an all-you-can-eat Seafood buffet. It was pricey, but we used the free money from the presentation. It was pretty good. They had a great variety of food, and most of it was tasty, including crab legs, lobster, shrimp, and all kinds of shellfish. We went home and took a dip in the pool. It was a nice day.

Monday, Epcot

Monday we also got an early start and were at Epcot before 9am. The first thing we rode was a roller coaster called Test Track. Kyler wanted to know if it would be scary, and of course we told him no. Turns out that it was the family favorite of the day! There were basically no lines in any of the parks we went to, which was fantastic.

We followed the touring plans from The Unofficial Guide to Disney World, which we got from the library. It is a fantastic book, and the plans worked really well for us.

The next thing we headed off for was Mission Space:Ride to Mars. It was a simulator ride and each rider had a "job" to do. We were prompted to push buttons during the mission. It was OK, and Kyler loved pushing his button. Ilea loved it a lot. She loves all the roller coasters, and didn't have a problem with ANY of the rides the whole trip.

The next ride was The Land. It was an easy boat ride for about 20 min, which went behind the scenes of Disney's plant research. It was really interesting. They had a 9 lb lemon, and were shaping pumpkins to have Mickey Ears, growing plants without soil (spraying the roots with nutrients ), and very low soil production. It was really neat and interesting. After that was the ride Soarin', which is the same as Soarin' over California in Disney's California Adventure. It was really well done, and we enjoyed it, but were on the lowest seats.

Next was Touring the Seas with Nemo, which started with a slow track ride into a huge aquarium. They had a neat effect, where they projected the cartoon characters from Nemo onto the glass wall that separates you from the fish, so it looks like the characters are in the tank with the fish. It was interesting, with other fun displays and also some real manatees. The kids liked everything there.

Then another 3D movie, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, and this one didn't go so well. It was based on Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and was supposed to be funny. But about 1/2 way into it a cat gets loose, and seems to jump out at you, and then it morphs into a tiger. Kyler went hysterical, and I had to pull him out, over people in the row, out of the dark theater, with him crying all the time, "I DON'T LIKE THIS ANYMORE!" We sat outside until Kipp and Ilea came out. The last thing we went to in the Future World half of Epcot was the Innovations Pavilion. It was ok (they had a Segway demo, where you could actually ride them, but the line was too long, and the kids couldn't go). We ate lunch in there because it was air conditioned. We wanted to go, but we ate in front of this Fire Safety building demo, and the kids BEGGED us to be able to go through it. We waited for them, and they assured us it was worth it.

After lunch we did one more ride in Future World, the Universe of Energy with Ellen Degeneres and Bill Nye. It was a long, dark ride (45 min), with a movie in the middle, and some scenes you rolled past (yes, of course there were dinosaurs, but I wisely covered Kyler's eyes before he could get scared). We were learning to ask about the ride before we got on....

After that we headed over to the World Showcase. It was fairly hot, and we went quickly through some of the countries. Mexico was first, then Norway, which had a ride in it. It was called Maelstrom, and was basically a river float ride. Kyler really loved it for some reason. He loved seeing the vikings fight, and the troll was cool. Ilea enjoyed it too. Next was China, Germany, Italy, America, and Japan. We went back to America for a show called American Adventure. It was about 1/2 hour, animatronic, hosted by Ben Franklin and Mark Twain. I enjoyed it, and thought it was great for the kids, who don't see anything patriotic much these days. Also, before the show started they had 9 acapella singers, dressed in period clothes, in the rotunda where we were waiting, and they were fantastic. As we were leaving the show a lady in the next row said loudly "if I wanted to see something patriotic, I would have gone to Philadelphia!" I couldn't believe it. The kids liked the show. We continued around the world to Morocco, France, United Kingdom and Canada.

Kyler loved all the characters he saw, and wasn't intimidated, even by the big ones (like Baloo the bear). Ilea preferred to stay with us and watch. But we saw Mary Poppins, and there wasn't a very long line for her, only one or two. Ilea mustered up her courage and went to talk to her with Kyler. Mary Poppins asked Ilea and Kyler both their names, if they were siblings, and a question. She asked Kyler if his sister kept her room clean (Kyler said yes). She asked Ilea if her brother used his manners (she very shyly said yes). Then they got to take a picture with her. It was great.

For dinner we ate in the park. Kyler had McDonald Chicken nuggets, and we had burgers. It was cool, and the food was good. We wanted to repeat a few rides so we went on Test Track again. It was so great, we went on it again! Because there were so few people, we only had to wait about 5-10 minutes. The lack of lines was amazing. We went over to the Soarin' one again too, and this time we got the top row. It was great! The top made a difference, and it was even better this time.

The park closed at 9pm, and there was supposed to be a great fireworks show (IllumiNations). Around 8pm, we headed out to find a good place around the lagoon (the World Showcase is all around a large lake). We found a pretty good spot and plopped down to wait. We talked with the people around us, and it got dark. The show was really neat. Choreographed to music, of course, with fireworks, water fountains shooting up, lights on some of the buildings around the lake, and then a huge globe started moving out to the center of the lake. It was made up of the land masses only, so the water parts of the globe were see through. Then the continents started to light up, and it was very different. Also there was fire in the lake. The heat was intense, and we were pretty far from it. All in all, it was a great show. We headed home late, tired, but happy.

Sunday, Animal Kingdom

Sunday we got up and got to Animal Kingdom about 8:45am. It was really exciting to finally see DisneyWorld! We headed over for our first big ride. The kids went on TriceraTops (a Dumbo-like ride) and we all went on Primeval Whirl. It was a medium roller coaster that had spinning cars. Kyler didn't like the spinning, but assured us he did really like roller coasters. Next on the list was another Dinoland ride called Dinosaur. We have seen the movie, and this was what's called a 'dark ride', where you get in a car and go through dark tunnels, looking at scenes on the side. The problem was this one was very loud, and the idea was we were going back in time. Dinosaurs started popping out, roaring, and the man keeps yelling about how you're not going to make it, and there's a dino going to get in your car. By this time Kyler's screaming his head off, crying, with his head in my lap. Kipp's dealing with Ilea who's scared, but not hysterical. Kyler swore he was never going on another ride like that one! It was an awful way to set the day off. If only we had known! Because the height restriction wasn't that much, we figured it wouldn't be that scary. Ooops!


Next was the Kali River Rapids, where you get wet. Kyler again didn't want to go on it because he didn't want to get wet. It was 85 deg, and we told him he'd dry fast, it probably wouldn't be that bad. The rest of us loved it, but unfortunately Kyler did get wet, as we all did. He wasn't that bad because Kipp leaned over him, but the rest of us were pretty soaked.

While we dried off we went on a jungle hike, with animal displays, including bats (huge ones, from Asia), Gorillas, and Tigers. It was really neat. The whole park is beautiful, of course, with the giant Tree of Life in the middle, on an island. You can walk around the outside of the lake, or cross over the island like a central hub. We also took in a bird show which was great. There were tons of wild birds all the time, and the show had a few interesting ones.

Next big ride was Expedition Everest. It was the favorite of everyone but Kyler. It was a large roller coaster with a few twists. After you go for a while, you come to a stop because the track in front of you is torn up. Then you fall backward on a different track and shoot through the dark for a while. Then you stop again, and watch a shadow of the yeti tearing up your track ahead (which scared Kyler of course). You start going forward on still another track, zoom by an actual roaring Yeti this time, and finish the ride. It was great! The Yeti scared Kyler. He wasn't having a great day. We took a break and had lunch in the park at a pizza place.

After lunch we did the Pangani Forest Trail, which had different exhibits and went on the Kilimanjaro Safari. It was a long truck ride through a savanna-like setting. There were LOTS of animals, very close, including white rhino, lions, giraffe, elephants, these huge cattle with massive horns, antelope-types, zebra, ostrich, hippos, flamingos, and more. It was really interesting. The animals were very close, and it was neat to see.

Again we saw a couple of shows, one for Fesitval of the Lion King, which was very acrobatic, with songs, kind of a mini Cirque du Soleil style. The next was Pocohantas and her animal friends, which was pretty much for little kids.

We explored on our way to our last 2 shows. We saw a 3-D movie called It's Tough to be a Bug, with characters from Bug's Life. Hopper scared Kyler, as did some of the 3-D images. They really popped out at you! We missed the timing for Nemo play, so we took a train to a building with info exhibits on earth/zoo stuff. The weather wasn't great by this time, raining off and on. We got back to Finding Nemo - The Musical and enjoyed it. They wore black outfits with big puppets on their hands. It's hard to describe, but it was pretty effective. The park was closed when we got out, so we headed to our car.

We went to the store that night and got fried chicken. After dinner we went to explore the pool and hot tubs. There were 2 pools, 2 hot tubs, and one kiddie pool with a giant mushroom that spilled water like an umbrella. We had fun and finally got to bed.

DisneyWorld Here we Come!

Our trip started very early in the morning, 9/22. Ramona graciously took us to the airport, leaving our house at 5:45 am. Security went fine, and the 4 1/2 hour flight to Houston was bumpy, but we made it. Our next leg was delayed by 1 1/2 hours or so, and we finally arrived at Orlando about 9pm. We went to the baggage carousel, and all the luggage came out except Ilea's bag. Kyler's was there, and almost all the people left. Finally out it came, soaking wet. We're pretty sure it had fallen off the tram between the airplane and the baggage claim during a rain storm. No problem. We headed out for the hotel, looking for food on the way (since we only got snacks on the plane). We stopped at the world's slowest Wendy's. Finally arrived at the hotel about 11pm, and got checked in. It was a great room, and we all went right to bed. It was a double suite, and the kids had their own bedroom, bath, kitchen and family room. Ours was the same, but larger, including a jacuzzi tub, and large screen TV in the family room. Very comfortable. Day 1 done!

Blog was down for a bit

We recently changed the account our web sites/blog were hosted under and I just got most files moved. The blog is finally working but I still need to grab the blog pictures from the previous account. I don't understand why blogger didn't copy those as well when I republished the blog. :(

Our website is still having some troubles so I still need to get to that but with Disneyworld coming up and the fact that we just got a Tivo, I've been focused on other things. Since we'll need to get a bunch of Disney pictures up on our site after we get back, I'll be forced to get our web site working again.