Tuesday--Magic Kingdom again

Well it's taken me a while to get back and finish this blog. It was just too expensive to work on it every day at the hotel and we also didn't have the time because we left early and got back late each day.

So back to Tuesday 5 January--Jade's birthday! At last her day came. She's been wearing a birthday pin the whole time we've been at Disney World and everyone's been wishing her a Happy Birthday. Finally it actually was her birthday.

We returned to the Magic Kingdom to do the rides we hadn't done on Monday because of the crowds and long lines. The park was much less crowded so my guess is that it was so busy on Monday because people arrive over the weekend and they go to the Magic Kingdom as their first priority. Before we went on the rides we went shopping at the Emporium because I had a voucher that gave us a discount before 12 noon. We had already decided what we were going to buy--Jade got a Stitch toy, Jarrah a Mickey Mouse toy, I bought t-shirts for the cousins and we got lanyards and pins (yes we gave in to the trend), Sleeping Beauty castle soft blankets and a biography of Walt Disney. The sales assistant was an older woman--we've noticed a significant number of older workers--they call them cast members--at Disney--who had a bit of Parkinson's disease. She was very slow and shaking. We were in a hurry to get to the rides but what else could we do?

Anyway, after making our purchases we went back to Fantasyland and rode Snow White's Scary Adventures--an 'in the dark' ride. (Disney pioneered rides in the dark--one of his many innovations). We then went on Peter Pan's Flight before returning to Liberty Square and going on the Haunted Mansion ride. It's funny, I'd forgotten what this ride was like after you go down in the elevator and the pictures get longer and longer. I'm pretty sure we didn't do any of these rides either at Disneyland in 2004 or Hong Kong Disneyland last year. Jade hated the Haunted Mansion. She hid her eyes during the ride. What could we do? We couldn't leave her outside while we went on the ride?

After the Haunted Mansion we went to Tomorrowland and rode Autopia, the car ride. I went with Jade and she drove this time--swerving side to side--but not as bad as Jarrah in HK last year.

So far we've had no to minimal waits today.

We then scooted over to Toontown, the area designed for little kids. The main reason for going there was to meet Mickey. I don't think we'd met Mickey before because of running out of time or the lines involved. Jade and Jarrah rode the Barnstormer roller coaster several times then we went through Minnie's house. She wasn't home so we went into Mickey's house. There was only a couple of minutes wait and both Mickey and Minnie were there so we had photos taken with both of them.

Our next stop was the Judge's Tent for more character meetings and photos. There were separate lines for Fairies and Princesses. Jade, Jarrah and I met the Princesses first since their line was much shorter. I got photos of Jade with three Princesses. Then she decided she wanted to wait for the Fairies too. We had time so we waited. It was probably about 45 minutes before we got in. The boys were very patient and waited for us--Jarrah had said on no account did he want to meet any fairies! I got a lovely photo of Jade with the Asian fairy.



After this we went back to Tomorrowland and Jade and Paul rode Space Mountain. Then we all did Stitch's Great Escape ride which included having Stitch burp and sneeze on us (scent and water sprayed on us). That was fun. Stitch has certainly become one of Disney's major characters. Finally it was lunch time. Hot dogs/burgers and fries again.

After lunch J, J and Paul rode the Astro orbiter--space ships on the top of the Tomorrowland tower. I rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority while they were on then then they joined me afterwards. Then J, J and Paul rode buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, we all went into Mickey's Philharmagic back in Fantasyland as our last ride.

You wouldn't think after already having a full day in the Magic Kingdom that we could have another full day here--but it was easy.

We returned to the hotel room to get our warmer coats then took the bus to Epcot for our dinner booking at Nine Dragons. This was a really nice Chinese restaurant with beautiful decor. Jade got a card and the waiter sang Happy Birthday to her. What a special memory. Afterwards we strolled back through Epcot and decided to do the ride in the Epcot ball (Spaceship Earth) which we hadn't done before. We walked right on. It was a wonderful ride narrated by Dame Judy Dench which told the history of written communication from the stone age onwards. It really highlighted that it is communication which has advanced humanity. It was a fascinating ride.

After this we returned home. It had been a long day.

Sunday—Epcot Futureworld & Miniature Golf

Sunday we returned to Epcot in order to do the Futureworld section we hadn’t done the previous Wednesday. We arrived again just as the park was opening and we—and just about everybody else—rushed to the ride called Soarin’ which is a new one to Epcot. This ride simulates a hang glider flight over scenic parts of California and has been brought to Florida from Disney’s California Adventure park. I was a bit nervous about taking this ride but had been reassured by several people that it was gentle and would not cause motion sickness so I went on it. As I was strapped into my seat, however, I had second thoughts but then went on with it and was glad I did. The chairs did rise up and move a bit but most of the sensation of the ride came from watching the 3D pictures on the large screen. It was really fabulous!

After Soarin we went on a boat ride called Living with the Land which took us on an environmental education program about land use and the ways researchers at Disney are working to grow crops more efficiently. Then we went on the Nemo ride again. Jade and Paul went on Test Track--a wild car ride and they and Jarrah went on the Astro orbiter simulator. I was going to do the more gentle form of this ride with Jarrah but opted out at the last minute. I felt bad leaving him but didn't want to ruin the day by getting sick.

We made really good time going on these rides so much so that we were able to return to the World Showcase rides in Mexico and Norway that we hadn’t done. Then we went to the France pavilion and had a delicious lunch at Chef de France.

After lunch we took a boat to the Swan and Dolphin hotels and walked over to the Fantasia Miniature Golf course where we played a fun round of golf.

Wednesday--first full day at Disney

Wednesday was our first full day at Disney. We went back to the cafeteria
at our resort for breakfast. As I mentioned we have a dining plan included with our stay. This plan includes one counter meal, one snack and one table service meal per person per day. The table service meals need to be reserved ahead of time so we'd already missed out on using our first day's allotment of that meal. We were totally in the dark,however about what exactly constituted a snack and what constituted a counter meal so when we went to the cafeteria and put what we wanted on our trays the cashiers had to help us figure out how to group the items so that they made up either a meal or a snack. Consequently we've bought too much food and gone beyond our daily allotment of counter meals and snacks. So now we have to watch our meal usage by either cutting back and eating our own food or by paying for a couple of snacks so that we get back on track. As I said there is a system involved which takes some time to figure out.

Anyway, after breakfast we boarded our Disney motor coach transport shuttle bus to Epcot. We decided to go to Epcot and I had a lot to do with that decision. It was partly because I knew there weren't many rides there--and I needed a day to recover from the flights--and partly because I wanted to see the exhibits from the various countries.

Our first stop was the Finding Nemo ride where we sat in clam shells and went along a belt through an undersea world. Lovely and calm and this kept the ride-lovers happy. Then we went on to all of the national displays starting with Canada. Canada had a 360 degree movie narrated by Martin Short. It was funny and educational and had beautiful scenery too. Below is Jarrah sitting near the totem poles at the Canada pavillion.



We then went on to France for lunch--what a good choice. Jade had a croissant and Jarrah had quiche. France also had a film show but this one was accompanied by French classical music including Saint-Saens Organ Symphony as the finale.

The American pavillion was the largest, of course, and featured a show summarising American history performed by very life-like robotic actors. Prior to the show we were entertained by a group of singers dressed in period costume singing beautifully in parts. After the show outside the pavillion a colonial fife and drum group marched past us.



Many of the countries' pavillions mainly featured gift shops and restaurants without any other sort of cultural display. We homed in on the ones which had films or other shows and China was one of these. The China pavillion had a 360 degree film narrated by Li Bai, a Tang dynasty poet, who spoke about famous sights and some of the minority peoples in China. The show was in the Temple of Heaven, which we'd visited for real just about a year ago. The China gift shop was huge and Jade and I spent a bit of time looking around in it. Jade finally chose a leopard soft toy to go with her growing animal collection. I guess there are leopards in China.



We pretty much finished with Epcot after this as the rides had long wait times and there wasn't anything else much to do there. We returned to our hotel and had another quick service meal--probably our last as a dinner as I went to the hotel concierge as was finally able to book a series of table service dinners for the coming evenings.