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| Only late September, and Magic Kingdom is already decked out for Halloween! |
Orlando, Florida, is only a 5 hour drive from our place, but as we weren't leaving home until after 7 ish on the Tuesday night after Isabella's weekly gymnastics class, we decided to spend a night en route at Valdosta, 2 hours down the I-75.
Our hotel room, a Hampton Inn, which is part of the Hilton chain, booked an hour before check in, was a mini suite with a separate living area from the bedroom - pity we didn't score a room like that for our 4 nights in Orlando!!
Speaking of our hotel room in Orlando, part of the impetus for our trip was a promotion we'd been offered while on our Canadian road trip - a 3-night stay at any Hilton hotel in Orlando for $164. Sounds incredible, doesn't it?? So what was the catch, you ask?
Wellllll, we had to attend a presentation on Hilton Grand Vacation (HGV) time shares ... Which of course we were under no obligation to buy into, but in agreeing to the hotel deal, we both needed to attend the session for about 2 hours, during our stay in Orlando. Dave and I knew we weren't going to be schmoozed into throwing away our non-existent cashola on an overpriced time-share holiday we weren't likely to use, but it seemed like a small price to pay, to attend the spiel and see what tricks they might use to try to sell us something we didn't want, just to get three cheap nights accommodation at a Hilton at WDW.
With this hanging over us, we'd decided to do the HGV thingy first thing on the Thursday morning, so that we could enjoy our Disney trip guilt and obligation free. When we'd booked our presentation time, we'd thought we'd be driving down on the Wednesday, but as we'd left late Tuesday instead, we actually arrived in Orlando by lunch time Wednesday, giving us the whole afternoon at WDW!
This one's happier...
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| Ok, so this doesn't look like the Happiest Place on Earth ... that's because we'd just arrived and couldn't be bothered lining up with 20 other families to take a picture with Marie from the Aristocats!! Terrible parents, aren't we?! |
Being a bit of a pro with the whole FastPass+ caper, I'd taken it upon myself to put a little pressure on the driver - poor Dave! - and reserve a ride on Magic Kingdom's Splash Mountain for 1 pm, Under the Sea (The Little Mermaid) at 2.15 pm, and Meet Cinderella and Rapunzel at 3.30 pm.
It did mean we had to go straight to the park, which we did by midday, but we hadn't realised that one does not just park at Magic Kingdom and walk through the gates - oh, no! There are two modes of transport - carpark shuttle and monorail or ferry - before you even approach the front gates, bag searching area, and Magic Pass gates. It took us an hour from the time we left our car to get to the gate entrance ... the happiest place on earth!
The research came in handy, as WDW is daunting for a first-timer - four parks, each with its own distinctive theming and activities and if you don't plan at all, you'd be seriously overwhelmed.
In brief, there's:
- Magic Kingdom (think Cinderella Castle, princesses galore, and heaps of rides, shows, parades and fireworks)
- Hollywood Studios (special effects, movie sets and themes, rides and shows)
- Animal Kingdom (part zoo, part amusement park, with a whimsical mix of reality and fantasy)
- EPCOT (a showcase of world cultures and cuisines)
I'd determined that our two were going to be heavily into Magic Kingdom, and somewhat interested in Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom, with probably no interest in EPCOT, so we divided our 4-day pass up accordingly.
Our Disney marathon went something like this:
Wednesday:
Magic Kingdom - 1 pm - 7 pm
Thursday:
Hilton sales spiel - 8 am - 10.45 pm
Hollywood Studios - 11.30 am - 5.30 pm
Magic Kingdom - 6.30 pm - 10 pm
Friday:
Magic Kingdom - 9 am - 6 pm
Saturday: DFD (Disney-free Day)
Space Coast, including Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach - home of "I Dream of Jeannie", Kennedy Space Center.
Sunday:
Animal Kingdom - 9am - 1pm
I've read that an average day at Disney has you hoofing it for around 10 miles, so by the time we'd arrived back in Georgia, we'd effectively completed about 6 marathons - at least, it felt like it!!
Starting with Day 1, our lunchtime arrival at Magic Kingdom, had us take in the following rides, shows, and experiences...
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With regular wait times of over 40 minutes, we'd chosen Splash Mountain as our first FastPass+ ride...
As height restrictions had Daniel sit out for this one, Isabella was allowed to ride twice - once with Mummy and once with Daddy! She had a ball, despite appearances!
Starting with Day 1, our lunchtime arrival at Magic Kingdom, had us take in the following rides, shows, and experiences...
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| About to disembark monorail; first glimpse of Magic Kingdom |
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| One of the regularly scheduled parades started just after we arrived |
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| "Partners" statue of Walt and Mickey |
As height restrictions had Daniel sit out for this one, Isabella was allowed to ride twice - once with Mummy and once with Daddy! She had a ball, despite appearances!
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| The photo we could have bought...I wasn't the only one who took a photo of the photo! |
Around the parks, at various times, are roving characters, some of whom will happily pose for pics, while other more popular/famous ones require you to line up and wait. Not sure who these two were, but I love their faces!
One of my friends had requested I send a pic of Dave on the "tea cup ride", and as we had our very own Alice for the day, it seemed fitting.
It's a Small World was a ride I'd remembered from when I visited Disney Land as a 4-year old, so this one was for me, as much as the kids...Isabella, by the way, has a Hello Kitty alarm clock that plays that tune, so she was thrilled to hear it on high rotation in a non-stressful-get-out-of-bed-for-school, kind of way!
Apologies for the ordinary photo - this was the Hall of Presidents and featured animatronic and life-like versions of a number of American Presidents. We felt that by making Isabella sit through this, we'd slightly absolve ourselves of the guilt associated with her missing three school days to visit Disney World!!
It was very cleverly done, and sort of spooky, with Barack Obama (standing at the front) turning his head to look at each of his predecessors as they were introduced.
And with that, we'd completed our first foray into Walt Disney World, and headed back to the hotel for dinner and bed!
Oops, did I mention that it was around the time we had gone through the gates, on the way to the carpark shuttle, that we realised we'd left Dou Dou behind?!
Here's a tribute to Dou Dou - may you continue to enjoy being on permanent vacation at the Happiest Place on Earth, even if it means the rest of the family suffer withdrawls, along with Daniel!
So long, old friend!!
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| About to go Under the Sea! |
Meeting Princesses is really what our trip to WDW was all about...for Isabella, anyway, though Dave didn't mind cosying up to a couple!
This Meet Cinderella and Rapunzel experience took place in Fairy Tale Hall, and each little person had a chance to meet, chat and pose with their favourite princesses, who seemed to really pay personal attention to each child presented.
It's a Small World was a ride I'd remembered from when I visited Disney Land as a 4-year old, so this one was for me, as much as the kids...Isabella, by the way, has a Hello Kitty alarm clock that plays that tune, so she was thrilled to hear it on high rotation in a non-stressful-get-out-of-bed-for-school, kind of way!
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| Yep, kangaroos and weird looking koalas depicting you know where! |
If you have any sort of intolerance to noise, colour, and movement, stay away from WDW...having said that, I particularly loved the detail in the theming, from the restaurants, to the staff costumes - sorry "Cast Members". Even the restrooms were themed according to where in the park they were!
Talk about sensory overload - no wonder there are blogs dedicated to Disney with children, etc - our little boy had a number of meltdowns, and I wasn't far behind him, on occasions!
Apologies for the ordinary photo - this was the Hall of Presidents and featured animatronic and life-like versions of a number of American Presidents. We felt that by making Isabella sit through this, we'd slightly absolve ourselves of the guilt associated with her missing three school days to visit Disney World!!
It was very cleverly done, and sort of spooky, with Barack Obama (standing at the front) turning his head to look at each of his predecessors as they were introduced.
Oops, did I mention that it was around the time we had gone through the gates, on the way to the carpark shuttle, that we realised we'd left Dou Dou behind?!
Here's a tribute to Dou Dou - may you continue to enjoy being on permanent vacation at the Happiest Place on Earth, even if it means the rest of the family suffer withdrawls, along with Daniel!
So long, old friend!!
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