Trip Report - Day 6

December 14, 2007

We are finally going to our last park. There are four different parks at Walt Disney World and the Animal Kingdom is the only one we haven't done yet. Well rested from our day at the beach yesterday we all get up early to make rope drop. The whole idea around arriving at rope drop is so that you can get into the park before the masses do.
This is a picture Greg took as everyone walked in. If you can believe it it actually gets worse. I was talking to one of the ladies that works there and she told me that they had 38,000 people in the park the day before. Everyone single one of these people were headed to the Safari. I went with them to get a Fast Pass while Greg and the rest of the crew went over to Dinoland. Forrest rode Dinosaur once while Eliza was able to ride Triceratops spin 4 times without ever getting off. Once I showed up. We headed up to Expedition Everest. We once again convinced Forrest to go on another scary ride. This ride was pretty cool because you went backwards through most of the ride. I am not a big coaster fan, but this one was pretty fun. Forrest didn't seem to mind it, but didn't want to do it again. Once we were down we went to look at some animals. Animal Kingdom is really a zoo done Disney style.
Shirley was really fascinated with some monkeys that seemed to be able to come mingle with the guests anytime they wanted. I assured her that there was some sort of barrier that we couldn't see. We finally asked a Cast Member who told us the monkeys could come down and visit with everyone they just choose not to. That was little disturbing. I wonder what they do when the park closes. We have finally made our way to Africa and it is now time to ride the Safari.
This is the ride that everyone was killing themselves to ride first thing this morning. Since we used a Fast Pass we walked right on. This was really neat. the animals look they there are just out on the Savannah just wandering around.
We were able to see a lot of animals up close. Some a little closer than we would have liked. After the Safari we had lunch and then watched all the Lion King Show. This show was really cool. There was some very good acrobats, a flame thrower and some really good singing. And being true Disney style it was all very loud. Once the show was over Eliza fell asleep. The plan was to head over to the petting zoo, but she was out and I really wanted her awake for the petting zoo. While Eliza slept we took Forrest around to all the Kidcot stations. They taught Forrest a little about the animals in the Animal Kingdom and then would give him a stamp. He really got a kick out of this. Once Eliza woke-up we headed on the train over to the petting zoo.
This was Eliza's favorite stop. Forrest kept combing the goats hair the wrong way.
They didn't particularly care for that.
While everyone was waiting for me Eliza found a fun way to keep herself entertained. Around 4:00 we headed back to the main park. We had planned it just right so we hit the parade when it was returning. That way we didn't have to wait for very long.
Eliza of course loved the parade. Once the parade was over we immediatly headed up and did the Safari again. They were closing at 4:30 and we just barely made it. It was awesome this time. We were able to see some cheetahs up moving around and we also saw some lions wandering around. One was even standing on an outcrop of rocks just like in the Lion King. It was all pretty cool.
We took a short break and played on the drums and then we had our picture taken in front of the Tree of life. I don't know if you can tell, but there are different animals carved into the tree. It is really cool close up.
It was almost time to go so Greg, Scott and Forrest went and rode Kali River Rapids. This ride can soak you to the bone. Everyone wore ponchos, but Greg's butt and shoes still got really wet. On the way out everyone except for Me and Eliza watched It's Tough to Be A Bug. I missed out because Eliza needed to be changed. Boy was I glad. They had spiders dropping from the ceiling and maggots crawling across your chair. The boys really liked it, but Shirley was pretty grossed out about it. I think next time she will take diaper duty. It was now time to head back. Poor Greg's butt was really cold. We didn't get home until 7:30 and we stilled needed to pack and get ready for another early morning tomorrow. Animal Kingdom was a family favorite. We are all sad that our trip comes to an end tomorrow.

Trip Report - Day 5

December 13, 2007,

After our marathon day yesterday we are all very tired.
Especially poor Eliza. Since we were all so tired we decided to head to Cocoa beach.
My kids love the beach. They could spend all day there. They love playing in the surf and and building sand castles. After a long afternoon of playing in the surf, collecting shells and building sand castles we headed home. We were supposed to head down to Downtown Disney, but everyone was so tired we stayed in and watched a movie. This vacation is sure exhausting. Good thing we are going snowmobiling so we can catch up on our rest.

Trip Report - Day 4

December 12, 2007

Today is all about the rides. We are heading into the Magic Kingdom today. Our original plan was to get up early and then take an afternoon break. We would then come back around 4:00pm for the Christmas Party. Everyone voted and we all decided to sleep in. We arrived at the park around 10:30 and of course the first characters we run into are Woody and Jesse. We of course have to stop and get a picture.
We rode quite a few rides and then had lunch. After lunch we went to this really cool 4-D show called Mickey's Phillarmagic.
By now the kids were really getting a hang of the 3-D glasses.
The rest of the afternoon we rode rides. At 7:00 the party started and the park was transformed into a magical Christmas wonderland.
By this time we had split up Greg.Forrest, Scott and Angie went on the older kids rides. While Eliza, Shirley and I went on the little kids rides. At one point while we were standing in line Eliza felt that the people in front of her weren't moving fast enough so she started to push them. This was a little embarrassing, but I also got a good laugh out of it. As it got closer to 9:00 we found our spots the Holiday Wishes Fireworks. They were amazing. A definite must see. After the fireworks we headed over to save our spot for the parade.
While everyone was waiting we went exploring we found signing pirates that the kids really enjoyed. We were also able to play with one of the characters from the Bear Jamboree. The kids loved this.
At 10:30 the parade started. The kids were completely transfixed. One of the cool things about the parades was that they smelled like pine, gingerbread, cinnamon. It was pretty cool. The kids loved the parade.
Once the parade was over we headed home. We got home about 11:45 and started to put the kids to bed. Poor Eliza was so tired that after we got her all ready for bed she climbed in bed and put herself to sleep. Poor kid, but she enjoyed herself.

Trip Report - Day 3

December 11, 2007

Today we woke up all refreshed and ready to go. Today we have a mission. We are going to see Lightening McQeen. This is the only character that Forrest wants to meet. The first meet and greet is at 9:30. We show up at rope drop and are the second ones in line. Later in the day people stood in line for up to 2 hours to see these guys. Forrest was so excited. I was curious to see how he would react when he saw them. He just stood there in stunned silence. He was completely awestruck. Matar was in for repairs when we came through . We were able to see him later in the day, bu that is when the line was about 2 hours long.
After we saw Lightening we headed over and watched Muppet 3-D. It was a cute show. After the show Forrest wanted to ride Star Tours. Since Eliza wasn't big enough I told Shirley to take her over to meet Woody and Buzz. Shirley wasn't quite sure how she was going to react. But as you can see from these pictures she is in seventh heaven.
She was so excited to meet them and went right up and gave Woody a hug.
The guy playing Woody was really sweet with her and got right down on the ground so that she could give him a hug. Everyone couldn't believe how cute she was with him.
She was a little scared of Buzz at first, but by the end she was giving him hugs too.
After Meeting these two we headed over to meet the characters from Monsters Inc. Right when we got there Sully and Mike had to take a break. Eliza started to cry when she saw them leave. They soon came out and we were able to meet them too. Eliza kept petting the fur on Sully and touching Mike to make sure they were real. She really got a kick out of it.
After meeting all the characters that we wanted to meet we went over and watched Lights Motor Action. It is a stunt show with cars. Forrest and Greg really liked all the fancy driving. Forrest was a little worried when they set someone on fire. No matter what we said to him he was never convinced that the guy was okay. Once the show was over we headed home for a quick rest. After dinner we meet up with Scott and Angie and watched Fantasmic. This was an awesome show at one point the whole lagoon in front of the stage was on fire. We all really enjoyed it Here is a clip of the.Fantasmic Show. After the show Greg, Scott, Forrest and I all rode the Tower of Terror. Forrest did really good until they dropped us the first time. He reached for me for comfort, but I was just as freaked out as him. There is something wrong with a ride that drops you so fast that your camera will hover in front of your face. This was definitely not one of my favorite rides. After the ride Scott and Greg ran off to ride a Rockin Roller coaster while Forrest and I headed over to see the Osborne lights. This is truly a sight to behold. They use 5 million lights to light up a small section of the street. They would also have the lights dance to Christmas music. It was one of the highlights of our trip. Once we joined up together again we headed home. Tomorrow we will spend 12 1/2 hours in the park.

Trip Report - Day 2

December 10, 2007

As you can all imagine we were a little tired the next morning. Good thing we really had no plans. Once we were all awake, some of us were able to sleep in until 9:30, we headed out swimming.
Our condo had two swimming pools, a kids pool that was about one and half feet deep, and numerous hot tubs. We went swimming of a couple of hours and then the activity center came out and had the kids throw snowballs, aka water balloons.
Forrest and Eliza got a big kick out of that.
We spent a little time playing on the play ground and then we headed in for lunch. After lunch we headed back out to the pool. This time the activity center had us diving for gold coins and then served us sundaes. A really great afternoon. We soon headed in to get cleaned up. After dinner we headed over the Polynesian resort to watch fireworks from their beach. They also have a volcano for a swimming pool. Forrest thought that was really cool. The thing I thought was a little gross was ducks were swimming in the pool. This is a very high end resort. I was a little surprised they would allow this, but their were ducks all over the place. Some even had little ducklings. So I guess everyone is pretty okay with it. After watching the fireworks we hoped onto the monorail and rode over to the another resort to see their Christmas decorations. They have a very large Gingerbread house that they make out of real gingerbread every year. It was pretty cool.
After seeing some more decorations we headed home to bed. Tomorrow is our big day. Forrest is finally going to meet Lightening McQueen. Will he scream for joy or be completely star struck? Stay tune for another installment of The Waters Trip Report.

Trip Report - Day 1

December 9, 2007

Last night we got in by about 5:30. We picked up groceries, got lost and then had a rough night of getting the kids to bed in a new place. We finally got to sleep, but Eliza woke up at 6:15. We all got up and headed out to Epcot. We were there just in time for Rope Drop. Some of the Characters came out to greet us. Eliza was fascinated with them for about 5 minutes and then she wanted nothing to do with them unless they were very far away.
We sent Greg over to fight the crowds to get FP for Soarin while we waited for him at Journey to Imagination. Journey was a cute show. We then went over and rode Nemo. This was Eliza favorite ride here. She ended up riding it four times. After Nemo we watched Turtle Talk with Crush.
It was now time to ride Soarin. Shirley took Eliza on Nemo again, while Greg and I took Forrest to ride Soarin. While we were standing in line Forrest started to complain that his bum itched and he didn't look very good. We finished up with Soarin and got some lunch. Forrest wouldn't eat anything and still looked pretty pitiful. After lunch we rode Test Track. This is an awesome ride where you ride around in a car while they do certain tests. At the very end you go racing around a track going 60 miles per hour. Forrest loved it. After Test Track we decided to go back to the condo. Once there Forrest immediately fell asleep, unfortunately Eliza did not. When Forrest woke up he looked really sick. I gave him some meds and we talked about whether we should go back to the park or not. Forrest said he wanted to go back so we headed back in. Forrest rode Soarin again and then we all headed down to ride Living with the Land. About half way through the ride Forrest tells me he has to go to the bathroom. We never made it. We ended up buying him new underwear and a new set of PJ's to wear the rest of the night. Everyone rode Test Track a couple more time and then we headed over to see the lights.
The kids seemed to be doing pretty good so we decided to stay and watch Illuminations. We kept the kids entertained by watching a model train. Illuminations was great. Eliza loved the Fireworks. She would get so excited every time a new firework went off. Everyone had a great time just watching her.
After Illuminations we all headed home and were in bed by 11:00. It was a long, but very fun day.

We Are Back!!!!

December 8, 2007

We are back. This past week has flown by. When we left Florida it was a very warm 85 degrees. When we landed in SLC it was a very chilly 35 degrees and snowing pretty heavily. Poor Forrest was even wearing shorts. We are all adjusting again to normal life. I am trying to finish the wash and unpack, while the kids try to adjust to the idea that we have nowhere to go and nothing to do. While we were gone our Christmas lights blew a fuse in the garage and our freezer was turned off. I discovered a freezer full of thawed food this afternoon when I went to get some more bread. Luckily I didn't have too much stuff in it, but nonetheless it was not the welcome home I was looking for.