Disney Dreamworld

Hi all,

Sorry for the long silence; there are a few posts in the queue so I'll start with the first, which is of our trip earlier this month to Disney World in Orlando. Annett had been wanting to go back but none of the rest of us had ever been there, and an invitation and a generous bunch of planning by Annett's parents Oma and Opa were the incentive we needed to spend about a week there enjoying the four Disney parks.

Annett and Maggie knitting on the plane

We flew out on a Saturday, then visited Wild Animal Kingdom on Sunday, Epcot on Monday, Hollywood Studios on Tuesday, Magic Kingdom on Wednesday, and then back to Epcot on Thursday.

We stayed in a nice 3-BR condo outside but near the parks, and even got a few swims in. The weather was mild and comfortable, and we had no rain at all. That plus the fact that it was early February, outside school vacation times, meant there were few crowds. So overall we had a great time.

Day 1: Disney Animal Kingdom

Notice the trekking gear with Everest in the background

We walked through "Asia", including a fairly-realistic model of Everest and the Nepalese trekking shops, "Africa", including a very-realistic safari complete with lions, poachers and collapsing bridges ("That bridge wasn't really going to collapse, was it?", asked Maggie :-), an entertaining live musical with the Finding Nemo characters, and the Rainforest Cafe for dinner.

The lion pacing

The kids in the back of the safari truck

We saw Mickey Mouse and others in Camp Mickey.

Soaked on Kali River Rapids!

End of day parade - a full sampling of jungle characters and elaborate floats.

Day 2: Epcot

We spent the second day at Epcot, which was a favorite for all of us perhaps save Maggie, who still enjoyed the magic of meeting the princesses and fairies in the Magic Kingdom. We had a ball, riding most of the rides, exploring the World Showcase, and spending the evening on secret "Kimpossible" missions in various countries.

Maggie and Mama sampling the wares in Mexico



The amazing acrobats in China

Carson receiving his mission

The Kim-possible missions were actually quite cool - basically an interactive scavenger hunt with a mobile phone. "Control" would come on the animated screen and give the Agent (Carson) a mission - "You're needed in Germany to stop the evil Doofenschmirtz from taking over the world using his mind-control pretzels!" We would run to Germany, Carson wearing his spy watch and spy goggles, and then follow the clues to activate by remote control using the phone some of the exhibits scattered around the World Showcase. There were secret moving objects, LCD animated screens with secret codes, and physically moving objects such as golf-ball dispensers in the UK red phone booths.

Here is agent Carson getting a clue from the Kimpossible Control Room.

Maggie was so funny the whole time because she kept asking "is that real?" with just about everything. When the bad guy was threatening to release the monkey soldiers to fend off the secret agents ("you'd better run before the monkeys get there", said the control room), Maggie got all scared and said "are the monkeys really coming?" :-)

We ate a fun Japanese meal, which we all enjoyed. Especially the onion volcano and the shrimp tails the chef flipped into his toque!



 

Day 3: Hollywood Studios

We spent our third day at Disney Hollywood Studios, formerly known as MGM Studios. The kids got to see some Disney Camp Rock tunes performed live, a Little Mermaid Musical, and an interactive How are Cartoons Made production.

We also got to see a cool Indiana Jones stunt show with some live action, explosions, and fight scenes.

This was a smaller park, so after lunch in the drive in Sci-Fi theatre and a funny 3-D muppets movie, we had time to get back to Epcot for more evening adventures afterwards. Bob joined us and we had dinner in the German pavilion, including a delicious beer and some Kaesesahnekuchen for dinner, accompanied by a live cowbell rendition of Strauss' Blue Danube. We did get to speak German to our host, who was from Berlin.

Day 4: Magic Kingdom

Still running on adrenaline, we spent day four at the Magic Kingdom. We started out with brunch at Mickey's Clubhouse. We got to meet all the traditional characters, including Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy.



Minnie even had Bob close to breaking a smile!



After brunch we hit the park, which is more compact and includes the traditional Disney attractions and rides like Space Mountain (which was disappointing for us adults as it's gone from cools stars inside to pitch black - to make it more exciting, allegedly), the Indy 500 race cars, and Peter Pan's Adventure (the kids' favorite).

Maggie and the girls had a great time visiting the princesses and fairies, while the boys hit Aladdin's magic carpet and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Later that night we took a swim back at the hotel, after a fun but long day. Starting to realize we might need a vacation to recover from our vacation!

Day 5: Grand Finale

We spent our final day at Disney doing the stuff we wanted to go back and do again, or which we missed first time around. Annett and I did Mission: Space once more, Maggie chose to do a KimPossible mission in England, and Carson actually stayed back at the hotel to play with his new Legos and relax a bit with Oma and Opa. They met us later that night for the Electric Light Parade and the grand finale of fireworks over the castle.

Both were admittedly very cool and quite nostalgic, complete with Jiminy Cricket singing and Tinkerbell flying from the top of the tower. Maggie exclaimed "look, it's a girl with a helicopter hat on!"

We ended up having a great time, hopefully the kids will remember the magic of Kimpossible, flying Tinkerbell, and real live princesses for years to come. Thanks again to Oma and Opa for a terrific vacation!

Well, while we would all love to live in the place where dreams come true, we all did come back to reality again. But not to fear, we've had some fun back at home as well, so I'll be blogging again with some updates on skiing and Carson's 9th birthday. Hope all is well out there, and take care till next time!