Disneyworld January 2013

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Finishing up Saturday at the AK

So the Hermit and I went and got Fastpasses for the Kilimanjaro Safari, then did the Pangani trail. We like the Maharajah Jungle Trek animals a lot more, but the scenery on Pangani is pretty nice. Doesn't this look green and restful?



The stand-by line for the Safari was out there, but no one was in the Fastpass line -- seemed like a huge long walk down to the end, and some of the people waiting were Not Happy to see us buzz by. Next time I want to wear a t-shirt that says, "FastPass is free -- think ahead!" (I think some people believed we'd paid extra for it.) But I guess I should wait and see what they're going to be doing with that whole system first, since all manner of changes are in the works. I really don't think they're going to start charging for them, but they certainly might.

After the Safari, the heat and crowds were getting to the Hermit, so I got her a drink and we retreated to a people-free path for a while.



After she watched the stream and waterfalls for a bit, we headed over to Discovery Island and took pictures of the Tree of Life:





I wasn't in the mood for BBQ, so we headed to Dinoland and got a Veggie Sub at Restaurantasaurus, mostly just because it was something different, but we both liked it more than we expected. We ran across Mr. Cool, and the three of us headed up to catch the Finding Nemo show.

The only pics I took from this point on were bathroom tiles :upsidedow, so here's a pic from when Ballet Girl went:



After Nemo we hit the Joffrey tea cart again, where the Hermit discovered ambrosia. I mean, iced chai. She actually got Green Honey Ginsing, which she thought tasted like soap; this is the kid who likes lavender lemonade, so that response surprised me until I tried it myself. Yetch. I got the iced chai, which I hadn't really expected to like -- I love hot chai, but for some reason the idea of it cold didn't sound that great, and IMHO, it wasn't. But I gave her mine since hers was undrinkable, and she loved it.

After years of refusing to try my myriad of chais, the iced chai at the AK converted her; now the Hermit likes every chai I do. Go figure. And she still periodically talks about how wonderful the iced chai at Animal Kingdom is. So I sat and drank my water and she savored her iced chai while Mr. Cool wandered off because we were boring. He returned almost immediately with the troops and we had a very short confab because the parade was due to start and, after agreeing to meet at Rafiki's, they all ran off to do that.

The Hermit and I got to Rafiki's first but were quickly joined by Mr. Cool, who started lobbying to go home. While he hadn't shown a lot of enthusiasm for the other parks, he hadn't tried to convince me to leave early, either. I still wanted to see the Festival of the Lion King, but when everyone else got there they all said they'd seen what they wanted, so I finally told Mr. Cool we'd head home after we were done here.

Which meant, of course, that he started trying to hurry everyone off. The younger three wanted to check everything out, in detail, so they did, along with their dad.



Mr. Cool finally gave up and sat with the Hermit, while I wandered around taking pictures of the bathroom tiles and the carpeting and such like.



Finally got tired of Mr. Cool's agitating, so the Hermit and I went down with him to wait for the train, and the rest of them were going to "catch up." Which they did, actually, but only because the train was taking forever -- last train of the day, so they wanted to collect everyone and we had to wait until they declared the building all clear and etc. So we drifted through Africa as the band was playing; nobody was dancing, and there was a big clear space in front of the band, so Ballet Girl took advantage of that and did a big solo dance in it:



Her father thought this was terrific, and I didn't really mind, but Mr. Cool was horrified. At first I thought he just thought she was rude for holding us up, but, nope, he thought it was rude of her to be taking up so much space dancing. I told him I was absolutely not going to go grab her by the ear and drag her off when her dad was happily filming away, especially since no one else seemed inclined to dance (or seemed to mind her dancing), and she didn't even dance for one full song, but apparently he was never more humiliated in his life. *sigh*

Ballet Girl finished with a flourishing bow to the band and left the dance floor, but I made them stay until the song was done (the band is pretty good!), then of course we had to check out the otter on the way out (otters are Ballet Girl's favorite critters, and she hadn't seen then yet), but eventually we got into the car and headed home.

So we'd been to three of the four parks, and all of the kids except Mr. Cool had decided Disney was definitely worth doing. Mr. Cool, however, had seemingly not liked anything he'd seen thus far, was vowing he'd never do Animal Kingdom again, and the only park left was Epcot. Problem is, stage shows tend to be Mr. Cool's favorite thing, and Epcot has no stage shows.

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Oh . . . now I know what reality is.

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Walt Disney World is not my first thought when the topic of reality comes up, but okay.

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Well, it's been a leeetle while since my last post here, but now I'm back on a more predictable schedule, I thought I'd try to finish this puppy. They've reconfigured my picture storing site, though, so this may be interesting...

SUNDAY, JANUARY 13

I scheduled Sunday as a down day, since I wanted my feet in good shape for Epcot, so I stayed put in the resort. I about went stir crazy! Should have done the Caribbean Beach Resort, which is the only resort I haven’t seen yet.

MONDAY JANUARY 14

Got there bright and early. As you can see, the kids were all bright and bushy tailed...



Well, okay, they were awake. The Hermit, SeaWorld Son, Ballet Girl and I headed for Living in the Land first thing while Geek Dad and I think Warrior Girl headed for Test Track. We had two days in Epcot planned, and to be honest, there weren't that many things in Future World I wanted to do -- World Showcase is the real draw for me. So we were in no hurry and, after we did Living in the Land, the Hermit, SeaWorld Son and I stopped at Sunshine Seasons for a snack while Ballet Girl went to do Soarin'.

We got four desserts and everyone got at least a bite of each. I thought the chocolate mousse cake, cheesecake, and strawberry shortcake were all “fair to middlin’” – not that great, but okay. The crème brûlée, however, was a great disappointment. Not inedible, it’s just that it didn’t taste anything like a crème brûlée should. It tasted like marshmallows, with an under tone of egg – marshmallow custard was not the flavor I was looking for.

I'm not even sure if the kids had ever had crème brûlée before, so they weren't really disappointed, but they're not marshmallow fans and so didn't like it either. That's one of the few foods I really like that I've never made myself, now I think on it, and I probably should, so the kids know what it's supposed to taste like!

Anyhow, we headed out to the Seas -- well, Ballet Girl and SeaWorld Son did; I stayed to take eight bajillion pictures of the tiled wall and whatnot while the Hermit sat people watching while she waited for me.



But eventually we wandered over to the Seas, did The Seas with Nemo and Friends, and checked out the aquariums. Ballet Girl and SeaWorld Son went to do Turtle Talk with Crush, but the Hermit and I went to wander Innoventions for a while, had a couple of free sodas at Club Cool, and then headed toward Canada. We were early, but they had characters meeting over there for Limited Time magic so there was a little crowd gathered. The Hermit and I aren't much for lines so we just waited over by the garden until the CM took down the rope.

And I took some pics, including this teddy:



I love Canada. Look at that wandering walkway!



However the fake rock in the back is laughably bad.




Still, I think it’d be nice to sit on that bench there in the late afternoon when it’s shaded to take a break with a snack. Of course there’s not much snacky stuff available high handy – the Disney Food Blog points out that there are salty snacks and candies in one of the Canada shops, but also that they’re pricey even compared to other Disney shops. Canada Pavilion, just what is your problem?

Oh, well, on to the UK. I am inordinately fond of these.



I should have gotten square onto this, but then I’d be blocking the doorway. Sometimes it’s, “Which do I want more – to be polite, or to get better angles?”



How do teddy bears manage to be so classically English when they originated in the US and Germany?



This is the butterfly and knot garden, I assume, since there’s a “life cycle of the butterfly” box behind where I shot this.



I hope everyone else likes random Epcot pics as much as I do. Heh.

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'Cuz here's some more...


France. I could not find Belle’s library. Maybe it's gone. *sigh*



These clipped bushes make a really cool pattern if you look at them on Google maps – there’s a fleur di lis in the center -- but there’s no way to really see it when you’re actually there that I could find. Most gardens around here that have something like this where you have to be elevated to see it have a little observatory platform; Disney keeps it as something special for tall people and map obsessives I guess. And maybe people who look through the windows in the upstairs restaurant (if I’m remembering rightly that Monsieur Paul’s is up there).



The Hermit and I stopped at the Boulangerie Patisserie for lunch, and had crème brûlée for dessert, which, while it's not the best I've ever had, definitely tasted like it should. So I made it up to that kid at least.

Morocco. I have no idea who this guy is, I just liked the way he was framed by the door!



The problem with Epcot is, the longer I was there, the more randomly I was snapping. Fez house is one of my favorite places, but its symmetry really makes it clear that I was just sort of clicking as I went, because every time I turned around there was something else I wanted, like the fake rosebush:



The Hermit liked Fez House, because there was somewhere she could sit while keeping an eye on me as I was shooting everything in sight.



We were perusing shops as we went, and The Hermit got excited about a necklace in one of the shops so I bought it for her as an early birthday present. Then we headed into the museum.





We were expecting temps in the seventies and ready for temps in the sixties this trip (January!), but it was in the eighties nearly the whole time we were there. Sometimes the skies were kind of light and there was a bit of a haze or it was overcast, but right regularly the skies were blue enough to look like a summer day.



Silly me, right after I took that pic we stopped to get something to drink in Japan (I got a strawberry smoothie and eldest got strawberry kaki gori). By the time I was finished with my smoothie and was trying to take pics I had dim light again.







Not the most effective moat when an unguarded building crosses it…



So we met the kids and hubby at the Museum in Japan -- the exhibit is on how anime and manga make use of Japanese myths and fables; we all thought it pretty cool but of course we're all fans of anime and manga.

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Nice photos!

[Hobbitess Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobbitess]

Nice photos!

Thanks!

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When we split up that morning, Geek dad and Warrior Girl headed straight for Test Track, which, as it turned out, they both really liked. Of course they hadn't ridden the earlier version, but in this case, ignorance was bliss.



Then they headed for the Land pavillion, but stopped to listen to these guys:



And also stopped at Innoventions, I believe, and a CM flagged them down and asked Geek Dad to take a survey. When he gave the kids' ages, the CM assumed Warrior Girl was the 15 year old and was surprised to hear she was the 12 year old. In telling the story, Geek Dad said he suspected the guys doing the Jedi thing had their doubts about Warrior Girl’s age as well, but she really was just twelve -- she's still twelve, matter of fact; her birthday is in October. Even as an infant, all her well baby visits she'd be 90th percentile in height, and 50th in weight. Born to be a model or something, that kid.

Meanwhile, Ballet Girl got to ask Crush a question at Turtle Talk about shell patterns ("They're like a human fingerprint, dude!"), then she and SeaWorld Son headed over to the Imagination pavilion, where they did Journey Into Imagination with Figment, waved to Geek Dad and Warrior Girl who were entering as they left, and did a couple of Agent P World Showcase Adventures, which they both loved.

Warrior Girl and Geek Dad met up with them when they all got in line to see Mulan:



SeaWorld Son joined in the Mulan conversation on pins but didn't get his picture taken. Afterwards they split up again, and Geek Dad went back to do Living With The Land, according to his pictures. Geek Dad has some tomato envy -- he used to do a huge garden every year; now he just does tomatoes but his plants aren't as abundant as these:



And I didn't take any pictures of the Japanese museum exhibit, because I figured Geek Dad would (he's the better photographer and has the better camera), but he didn't take any pictures, either! Rats. He did, however, take some kid pictures as we headed out:



We went home and had lunch and then most of us crashed -- Geek Dad took Ballet Girl out because she wanted new shoes -- which I was none too sure about, but Ballet Girl said the new ones were more comfortable than the old, although she thought they were homely and wanted to get rid of them and get prettier ones as soon as we got home.

Geek Dad wanted to see the fireworks show, but we see a lot of fireworks at home (the kids grew up being able to see fireworks from the house and we can still walk to two places that hold them multiple times a summer), so no one else was really that interested, even though I told them Illuminations is a lot more than fireworks. My girls were loving WDW, but I was not the only one losing steam.

Mr. Cool insisted that Epcot "wasn't that exciting -- but it's better than hanging around the resort," so he'd go back, and SeaWorld Son is like his dad -- doesn't move fast but just keeps moving -- so it was boys night out while we ladies took our ease. I think they got there well early enough to do other things, but my boys don't fill out their trip journals unless I pin them down and make them, and Geek Dad didn't take any pictures, so I have no idea what they did other than Illuminations. But they definitely did that!







Then they headed for home, Geek Dad stopping for pictures at "the big golf ball", some of which actually had a kid in them:

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Okay, digging up pictures for Tuesday, I realize I got it wrong, that wasn't when Mr. Cool said going to the park was "better than hanging around the resort," because Mr. Cool didn't come home with us when we went to Epcot on Monday, he went and did the monorail resorts.

Here's one of the last pictures he took in Epcot, probably taken right before he joined us:



Just to add a little pressure to his current career choice crisis.

I think maybe he took the boat back across the World Showcase lagoon with us, because this is from his next batch of pics:



And then he went to the Grand Floridian:



Where he took a ton of pictures:









Before heading out again:

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He took a few shots of the MK as they went by:



Then he skipped the Contemporary entirely, not even a photo :scared1: (my favorite resort -- ignored!) before spending some time in the Poly:



But I think he zipped through there pretty fast; not many pics, and most of them blurry, like he was snapping as he went.



If his pictures are anything to go on, he missed all the performers that I thought would be the main attraction for him at Epcot. His next pics are of the fireworks.





After everyone got home, we sat down to consult on the rest of the week. We all had five day tickets; I planned on one day in each park and a second day at Epcot and I kind of wanted to kick my ticket up so I could do a half day at the Magic Kingdom our last full day in the condo. The Hermit thought that was a plan, and everyone else wanted to do second days at Epcot and the MK, but my three youngest and Geek Dad thought they needed to do another day at Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom, as well! :dance3:

Mr. Cool, of course, was the dissenting voice. He was going to SeaWorld the next day, whether everyone else went to a Disney park or not. The other four finally settled on Hollywood Studios. Warrior Girl was the only strong Animal Kingdom vote, and it was a STRONG AK vote, we settled that one by promising her a one day ticket to AK with mom and dad next trip, even though that trip is supposed to be a "parks free" one. Of course I have Sekrit Plans of kicking my one day ticket up a few days...

So Tuesday is Hollywood Studios for Geek Dad and the younger three, SeaWorld for Mr. Cool, and a quiet day in the condo for the Hermit and I.

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On Tuesday, Geek Dad and the younger three hit HS bright and early.




They did all kinda other cool stuff - the kids played in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground, did Toy Story Mania a couple of times, etc. -- but I guess Geek Dad wasn't in a picture-taking mood, because after a few shots at the entrance, he was done for the morning. That'll learn me for not going.

Geek Dad and the younger three picked up the Hermit and I for lunch at the Dolphin. Id heard good things about their dessert buffet there, but the place was practically empty I think there were one or two other tables with people at them and while the food was all fine (I think everyone had salad), there wasnt a lot of selection at the buffet, maybe six or eight things, so that was kind of a bust. Probably a better deal in the busier seasons. *sigh

They dropped us off and headed back to HS, and promptly ran across Frank, Connor, and someone who wasn't Heather (either Ballet Girl didnt get her name or I didnt write it down), and again enjoyed their show:



And this time they managed to get hold of them after long enough for a group picture:



And they did Indiana Jones again; Geek Dad liked the set:



Not the best picture, but I love how hes flailing and she looks so relaxed:



I like this shot, too:



They did TSM another time or two, as well as Star Tours, then came home early enough to swim in the pool for a while.

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Meanwhile, Mr. Cool went to SeaWorld, where a lot of the Christmas decorations were gone:



Compare to this, taken on his earlier vist:



He sent SeaWorld son a picture of Christmas Orcas:



He did the shows and wandered around:



And he tried to figure out how the oyster sea diver blew rings of bubbles:



He didn't take a lot of pictures but said he had a good time. And, although I was sadly aware of how little time we had left, we were all ready for the Magic Kingdom the next day!

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Wednesday at the Magic Kingdom

I would have liked to begin and end the trip with the MK, but I also wanted to do laundry and kind of recouperate Thursday afternoon, and wanted a full day at the MK. So we decided to do the MK Wednesday and Epcot Thursday. We got there bright and early and took the boat across.



Mr. Cool was not feeling photogenic.



The train, the train!



We'd had big plans of riding the horse-drawn trolley down, which is something I'd wanted to do from the first but hadn't gotten around to, however the trolley wasn’t going that day because they were working on the pavement or something. So we took pics of some kids in the car:



And we stopped in for some Sorcerer's cards, then Warrior Girl went to commune with the trolley horse:



Then we strolled up to the castle and paused while hubby took pictures (someone may have run off for JC Fastpasses here, I can't remember):

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...before finally proceeding on to the carousel, which Cinderella’s stepmother and stepsisters were riding. When the carousel stopped, Anastasia thought the ride should have been longer;



...but was instantly recharged once they got over to the line waiting for them:



Overcharged, maybe:



Ballet Girl offered up her brothers and the stepsisters squabbled a bit over who got which boy:



Then they posed for pics:



Except for the part when Anastasia ran over to chase the birds ("Cinderella's always making friends with the birds - see, I can make friends with them, too!" Cue: Birds scattering):



Then we all went on Peter Pan, which I had suggested the night before, and it's a small world, which I had NOT suggested the night before, because I knew Ballet Girl would protest. This is pretty much the look she gave me when I said we'd be riding as a family -- just add a bit of rage.:



I told her, "You're not riding a ride -- you're riding history!"



She was not convinced.

After it's a small world, we all split up; the Hermit and I heading for Liberty Square, Mr. Cool for who knows where, and the rest for Tomorrowland.

It may have been January, but there were still plenty of flowers:



The girls gave Tomorrowland Speedway a try; Ballet Girl definitely prefers the Disneyland version. Then Ballet Girl and SeaWorld Son went on the Buzz Lightyear ride while Geek Dad and Warrior Girl did the TTA:



... then saw PUSH again. After Geek Dad and Warrior Girl rejoined Ballet Girl and SeaWorld Son, they wandered over for a quick Jungle Cruise ride and picked up some Dole Whips, then it was back to Tomorrowland for Buzz Lightyear and Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. Finally they headed for the train station where we were all meeting to take a lunch break.

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The Hermit and I drifted down toward Liberty Square.



I think we were going to ride the Riverboat, but it was too early, so we stopped for slushies in the Liberty Square Market we had the place to ourselves.



Early as it was, the heat was getting to the Hermit a bit, so I sent her off to the air conditioned stores while I took pics of this and that.







Then, for reasons which escape me at the moment, I decided not to wait for the riverboat, and not to do Hall of the Presidents (which would have been the sensible approach, since then the riverboat would have been running by the time we were done), but instead went over to do take pictures in the rose garden. Which I enjoyed considerable, actually.





I really like the little pavilion there. That's where we meet after the evening fireworks. Gone now.