Category: Family

We spent our first full day (Mother’s Day) at Disney World in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  We arrived before the park opened and waited for the gates to open.  Our plan was for everyone to walk through the gates, hand me their passes, and then I would run to Fast Pass the Toy Story Mania ride.  The plan didn’t work out quite that way, however.  As we walked through the gates, I collected the cards.  Meanwhile, B and B’s mother were handed flowers for Mother’s Day.  After I had all of the cards in hand, I wound my way through the crowds to the front of the pack.  Then I hit the rope.

Apparently, when they open the park, they don’t *really* open the park.  They just let people in so they can see the opening ceremony.  In it, a "casting agent" drove up with two audience members (possible honeymooners).  He introduced the "director" who drove up in another car.  The director, in turn, introduced us to his "stagehand" and told us that we were part of his latest film.  We were instructed to say our lines and then *WALK* down Sunset Blvd.  He couldn’t stress enough that we would all *WALK* down the street.  At his signal ("1… 2… 3…"), we all chanted "Light, camera, action!"  The two chosen audience members then shouted "Hollywood, here we come!"  The director, stagehand, casting agent, and two chosen audience members drove off and we were allowed to *WALK* into the park.  To make sure no running was involved, Disney employees walked in front of us with their arms outspread.

At one point, I thought I spotted a shortcut and made a break for it.  Unfortunately, I was told by a Disney employee not to go that route.  (Plus, I stepped on a woman’s sandal on the way, causing it to pop off.  I fought the crowds to retrieve it for her.)  After returning to the crowd, I made my way back towards the front.  I got to the Fast Pass and got our tickets just as B and everyone else caught up with me.

Since everyone else was Fast Passing Toy Story Mania, the actual line for it was quite small.  We decided to take advantage of this and go on the ride right then and there.  The entrance/line area was amazing.  Tons of giant toys were scattered everywhere.  Everything from Bucket Of Monkeys to Candy Land to drawings by "Andy."  At one spot was a giant talking Mr. Potato Head telling jokes.  ("I’m a potato.  I comment on things.  I guess you could call me a commentater.")

I got in a cart next to NHL and we went for a ride.  It was NHL’s first real Disney World ride and it was amazing.  You ride on a cart with a gun mounted in front of you and 3D goggles on your head.  By pulling the string in front of you, the gun "fires" off rings, balls, or pins (depending on the section of the ride).  The game is a series of carnival games.  In some, you are popping balloons.  In some, you are firing off rings to loop around the little three eyed aliens.  In some, you are tossing balls to hit targets.  In all, you are having a ton of fun as balloons and other objects fly past you (complete with little breezes of air).  Needless to say, everyone had a blast.  (I was very pleased to hear that they’re working on a version of the ride for the Nintendo Wii complete with 3D effects.)  It was a very nice introduction to the kinds of rides that we would experience on our Disney World trip.

When I left off last, we had just arrived at our hotel.  After a quick lunch, picking up our rented double-stroller (rented from Orlando Stroller Rentals, waiting for us at our hotel) and stopping by our room quickly to drop bags off, we headed to the Magic Kingdom.  We didn’t have much time, as we had dinner reservations at Chef Mickey, but we figured we could spend an hour or so walking through the park.  We split up from B’s parents and, after a quick stop to get NHL & JSL’s "1st Time" badges and JSL’s Birthday badge, we walked down Main Street.

We got our first Photo Pass photo taken of all of us (with the kids in the stroller) in front of Cinderella’s Castle.  After taking a photo of all of us, the photographer had NHL cup his hands and look surprised.  NHL complied without asking why.  As we walked away, I let him know that, when we saw the photos online later, Tinkerbell would magically appear in his hands.  This made him quite happy.

We noticed a group of people gathering in front of the castle and stopped to see what was up.  A show was about to start and, as we had some time but not enough to wait on line for rides, we decided to watch the show.  In the Dreams Come True show, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy starred.  Donald thought that no one believed in dreams anymore.  In an effort to prove him wrong, Mickey and his gang had the audience chant "Dreams Come True."  After some fireworks went off around the castle, a few of the Disney Princesses appeared.  Donald and Goofy moved offstage while the Princesses (and their Princes) as well as Mickey and Minnie danced.

Donald and Goofy came back onstage (with Mickey and Minnie leaving).  Goofy said that he always wanted to be a pirate.  On queue, Peter Pan appeared.  Donald got dressed as Captain Hook and Goofy got dressed up as Mr. Smee.  After a short dance number, the real Hook and Smee show up.  Hook attempts to fight Peter pan, but Peter’s too quick for him.  Nevertheless, Hook eventually traps Peter.  Just when things seem grim, Hook gets very nervous at a "Tick-Tock" sound.  No, the croc doesn’t make an appearance, but a clock prop does that the characters toss between themselves frightening Hook away.

Just then, though, Malificent appears.  She declares that she’s going to make nightmares come true instead of dreams.  Everyone onstage prepares to flee, but Donald stands up to her insisting that "Dreams come true!"  Mickey and Donald get the audience to chant it (which NHL dutifully shouted out) and Malificent is defeated.  There’s an ending dance, more fireworks, and kids (both actual and of the grown up variety) leave highly entertained.

When the show was done, we noticed that it was time to meet up with B’s parents and head to the contemporary resort.  Below are some photos from our brief stop in the Magic Kingdom.

As some of you might know (especially if you read my wife’s blog), we just got back from a week-long trip to Disney World this past Saturday.  During the time away, we took notes of the days events so we wouldn’t forget what happened.  In addition to this, my wife and I (ok, mainly me) took a lot of photos.  How many?  Nearly 2,600.  Even after weeding out some of the duds (like many in-door shows with low lighting, no flash photo rules, and swift onstage action), there are over 2,100 photos that I’d like to share with everyone.  So, just like my Charleston trip last year, I’m going to break up the story of our Disney World trip into many posts.  Some will be stories of the days events.  Some will be "Photo of the Day" type posts (with explanations coming the next day).  Some will be series of photos along a common theme.

I’ll start, appropriately enough, with the trip down to Disney World.  By the Thursday night before our trip, I had run a backup of our laptop computers to our main desktop system and was backing that up to an external hard drive.  The idea was to store that off-site in my office in case anything happened to our house while we were away.  Unfortunately, the backup didn’t complete in time (Friday morning), so I let it run figuring that it’d be done by Saturday morning.  Since we were going with B’s parents, I could drop the hard drive off there.

Friday night, we got the kids into bed early and packed until the the clock said 1am.  The next morning, we were pretty much done and ready to go.  All of us except for the backup, though.  It was *still* running.  Finally, we had no more time and I figured that a partially complete backup was better than no backup at all.  I shut down the backup (and our computers) and dropped it off at B’s parents house before the trip.

We dropped our car off at the parking lot and they loaded our suitcases (4 plus 4 carry-ons) onto the bus.  After a short drive to the airport, we made a last-minute decision to use Disney’s Magical Express to handle our luggage.  It was so worth it!!!  4 carry-ons plus 4 checked bags carried by 2 adults just doesn’t work.  We would move forward in line by 2 feet and need to make trips to move all of our luggage forward.  Later on, when we were walking through Orlando International Airport, we counted our blessings that we just had 2 bags per adult and not 4!

When we got to security, NHL melted down.  He started crying and freaking out about taking off his shoes and going through the line.  It was understandable.  Here’s something new for him to do (even though we talked with him in advance) and he was still quite tired from waking up early.  After he went through security, however, he lauded it as his favorite part of the trip.  (This was before the airplane ride, though.)

After a wait for our plane to board, we experienced the Southwest Cattle Call.  You see, Southwest, unlike other airlines, doesn’t assign you seats.  Instead, you get "seating line numbers."  So instead of knowing that you’ll be sitting in row 9 seat B, you know you’ll be boarding with groups A, B, or C numbers 1 – 60.  We were lucky to be in group A31.  After A’s 1-30 boarded, we went aboard and easily secured two rows for ourselves and B’s parents.  I got a window seat with JSL between B and me.  NHL got a window seat behind me with B’s parents next to him.

We soon discovered that one of our flight attendents was a masquarading stand-up comic.  After takeoff, just before snacks were served, he announced that a couples’ "table is ready on the deck."  As we landed and the pilots engaged the breaks, he called out "Woah there Trigger" followed by horse noises.  He definitely made the flight an entertaining experience.  (If any Southwest management types are reading this, I don’t know his name, but I can provide flight numbers/days/times so he can be tracked down and commended.)

The flight itself was rather uneventful.  NHL had fun playing with B’s parents using activities we planned in advance.  JSL liked using his aquadoodle and looking at the snack menu.  He also fell asleep a half hour prior to landing.  Me?  I took photos.  I don’t get the opportunity to take photos above the clouds that often, so I took full advantage of my opportunity.

When we got to Orlando International Airport, we walked (and took a monorail) across the airport to the Disney Magical Express shuttle lines.  As I mentioned before, we were very thankful that we had done Disney Magical Express.  It was hard enough lugging 4 carry ons and two kids with us.  We didn’t need an additional 4 heavy suitcases as well.  When we got to the Magical Express shuttle, we got our first taste of Disney lines.  It was hot (90+) and the lines moved slowly, but we eventually got on the bus for our hotel.  The kids (and let’s face it, us adults too) excitedly saw the Disney World signs just before we got to our hotel.  We were finally in Disney World!