2010 – Disney World

Beginnings

Day One of our vacation began with work, ironically. I woke excited about the trip that would be beginning in the afternoon. I worked through lunch so that I could leave at 3:30. I then raced home to finish up last-minute packing.

Driving

Around 4:30, we started driving. Specifically, my 16 year-old drove. That was stressful and harrowing for both of us. There were many repetitions of “Stay between the lines!”. We stopped at McDonald’s just before getting on the interstate, and she drove all the way from Lexington, Ky to our hotel in Chattanooga, Tn. It took quite a while for her to get her Chicken McNuggets and fries down. It turns out that multitasking while driving is an acquired skill.

Hotel

I had booked an inexpensive night at a Microtel. It was clean and quiet and worked well for us. We checked in and got settled and watched Batman Begins on TV to wind down and get some sleep. We had separate queen beds that weren’t the most comfortable, but they were clean. We were asleep by 10:30.

Early Start

Although our hotel room was clean, quiet, and cool, I woke at 4:00 am and couldn’t fall back asleep. I stayed in bed trying to go to back to sleep and at 4:30 I decided to wake my daughter. If we got on the road by 5:00 am, we’d be through Atlanta before rush hour traffic. The original plan was to leave the hotel at 8:00 am and arrive in Atlanta after rush hour. By 5:00 am, there was a grumpy teenager behind the wheel and we inhaled our protein bars.

Breakfast

After making it through Atlanta, we stopped for breakfast at McDonald’s. We went through the drive-thru line and ate in the car. We then headed into McD’s for a restroom break and got back on the road.

Lunch

You’ll discover very quickly that often my vacations revolve around food. We drove throughout the morning and around lunchtime we needed some gas. We filled up and pulled the car into some shade and ate sandwiches and chips that we had packed. As we got back on the road, we nibbled on some grapes for a snack and kept driving.

Swapping

Around Ocala, my daughter starting getting tired and nervous and we stopped and swapped places. That worked out really well, because within a mile it starting raining, and was REALLY pouring within a mile after that. I drove the rest of the way to Orlando.

Downtown Disney

We arrived in Orlando around 1:00 pm. Since we couldn’t check into our room until 4:00 pm, we decided to head to Downtown Disney. First we decided to go shopping in the World of Disney. We got some cool pressed pennies. (For those unaware, a lot of theme parks have machines that press a design into a penny. You put in $0.51 and get a pressed penny. This makes for a fun, inexpensive souvenir.) My daughter found a cool mug that someone had requested she purchase. I found a cute Mickey pendant on sale. My daughter found a cute initial necklace with a little rhinestone Mickey. I found a cool 2010 Christmas ornament. I always get an ornament for my souvenir when I go on vacation. I like pulling them out every year and remembering. We also swung into Disney’s Pin Trader and got a 2010 pin. I guess a lot of people collect and trade these pins. I wanted one because we have a 2000 pin from the last time we were here.

Dinner

When we got hungry, we headed over to the Rainforest Cafe. Since we eat a little early, we didn’t have to wait. That was nice. We hadn’t been to a Rainforest Cafe since we were in Washington DC over ten years ago. She got a penne pasta dish and I got Chicken, mashed potatoes, and steamed veggies. We both got strawberry smoothies in glowing Rainforest Cafe cups that we go to keep. More silly souvenirs that we like. We really enjoyed the atmosphere of the Rainforest Cafe. Our favorite part were the aquariums. My daughter found Dory. 🙂 The elephants and apes were really cool, and it was really awesome when the “storm” came through. The lights dimmed, rain fell, thunder roared. Very cool. We also enjoyed watching people getting the chocolate volcano desserts, though we didn’t get one. We had enjoyed our smoothies and didn’t feel like paying for a $15 dessert we wouldn’t be able to finish. On the way out, my daughter found a cute necklace with her name on it that she bought for herself. She gets excited when she finds her name printed on things. Although it’s easier for her than for me. STEPHENIE – not the usual spelling.

The Balloon

Let me preface this by saying that riding in a hot air balloon is on the list of things that I want to do in my life. I made the list when my dad died. I did some research before our trip and found a nice hot air balloon company that would take me up for a mere $300 or so. That’s per person. I also found a balloon in Downtown Disney. So we headed to Disney’s Characters in Flight. They take you up in a giant tethered balloon 400 feet above Downtown Disney and you can walk around in the large gondola. We got a great view of most of Disney World. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the Cinderella’s Castle because the Contemporary Resort blocked the view. But we could see Epcot, some resorts, and even Animal Kingdom. After the balloon, we headed into LittleMissMatched and got my daughter some cool socks. We then grabbed a Haagen-Daas Dulce de Leche cone and shared it as we took the Ferry back across the lake to where we had parked. Though it had been a hot and steamy day, we moved in and out of air-conditioned shops often enough to keep us cool.

The Resort

After Downtown Disney, we headed to the resort. Some friends of the family gave us a week in their time-share for near Disney. We checked in, avoided a sales pitch, unpacked and relaxed. When we got hungry, we ran out to the Publix and got a Digornio pizza. It was late, but we were hungry and wanted something hot.

Mileage

We walked a total of 3.3 miles on Day 2.

Up Early

Day 3 was the first day we were heading into the main park. We were heading to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The park opened at 9:00 am and we planned to arrive at the park by 8:20 am. We got up at 6:40 am. On vacation. Go figure. You’d think we would sleep in.

The Plan

I’m sort of an organized person. I did some serious research before the trip and I had a PLAN. My favorite sites for my research were www.mousesavers.com and www.touringplans.com. I prepurchased 0ur tickets from www.undercovertourist.com through a discount link in the Mousesavers newsletter. I highly recommend it. I purchased the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2010 book that is associated with www.touringplans.com. This is where I got The Plan for each day. Here’s what we did on Day 3:

• 8:00 – Arrive at the Hollywood Studios parking lot. We were around 50 ft from the buses. We hoofed it to the front gate.
• 8:15 – We made it through security and were second in line at the ticket turnstiles. We sat down and listened to music on my daughter’s iPhone
• 8:45 – They let people through the gates. We walked seriously fast and got abruptly stopped about halfway up the main street.
• 8:55 – They put on a little show then turned us loose.
• 9:00 – We walked to Toy Story Mania. They had employees leading the way and forcing you not to run to be the first on a ride. We were in about the 4th car on the ride. We took our 3-D glasses and hopped in the car and got to shooting. The ride is an individual car that swings around to targets. They have huge TV screens with moving targets like a shooting gallery, and in 3-D. It was pretty fun.
• 9:10 – After Toy Story Mania, we rushed over to ride the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. The sign over the door said it was a 20 minute wait for the ride. We got on pretty quickly and really enjoyed the roller coaster. It was entirely indoors and used blacklights to show you what was just in front of you. Occasionally. There were sharp turns, loops, and small hills. It was great!
• 9:30 – We headed over to the Great Movie Ride and were able to get on pretty quickly. It was indoors and air conditioned, and we recognized most of the movies that it referenced.
• 9:45 – We were then supposed to head over to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid and get a Fast Pass. When we got there and asked about Fast Passes, the lady there told us that the show was about to start, so we headed in and got front row seats. The show was some cartoon and some live-action people and puppets. It was bright and fun and musical. We enjoyed it, and our good fortune in timing.
• 10:15 – We then headed over to take the Backlot Tour. We were able to get right on the car and take the tour. One of the coolest parts was when they took us to a “set” in a canyon and we experienced an earthquake/flood. That hasn’t changed in 10 years, apparently.
• 11:15 – We headed over to see the Beauty and the Beast show. We especially enjoyed Gaston. It was way over-acted, but really funny and interesting. The wait for the show was extremely hot. It was covered, but there was no air moving. We used our battery-powered fan and our cooling neckcloths, but once the show was over, we needed some air conditioning.
• 12:00 – Lunchtime – We ate lunch at the ABC Commissary. I had a Grilled Chicken Sandwich, Fries and apples. My daughter had a cheeseburger, fries, and carrots. We shared a strawberry parfait and both had water.
• 12:30 – We sat in the nice, cool, Commissary and decided what to do next. We debated whether to catch the Indiana Jones show, stay and watch the Lights, Motors, Action stunt show, or to head back to the room.
• 12:45 – We headed over and watched the Indiana Jones show from the back. It was kind of strange. It was a stunt show where they showed how the show would be made.
• 1:15 – We stopped and did some shopping on the way out. We got pennies again, we bought small personal fans. We were tired of lugging the giant squirt bottle fan around. After purchasing the fans, we went outside and looked for a victim. On the curb we found a family sitting there relaxing. They didn’t have any bags or anything with them. Most families had backpacks with water, food, and cooling aids. We gave the squirt water bottle to them. They looked extremely grateful. It was fun. My daughter looked for a pillow that she remembered from coming to Disney the year before with her dad.
• 1:45 – We came back to the room to nap and cool down.
• 4:00 – We headed back to Hollywood Studios for our dinner reservations at the Sci-Fi Drive-In Theatre.
• 4:45 – We made it to our 5:00 reservation early. The tables were in a giant, dark room. The tables were cars. What fun. The big drive-in movie screen showed 50′s movie previews, cartoons, and commercials. It was highly entertaining. We were in the mood, so we ordered kids dinners – I had a hot dog, fries, and mac-n-cheese. My daughter had chicken fingers and fries. She had an Oreo milkshake and I had a funky chocolate/vanilla/Kahula/Bailey’s shake with a cool glowy plastic ice cube. We would totally do this again.
• 6:00 – We stepped outside and I looked at the sky. Right next to the Sci-Fi Theatre was a little shop. It was a writing shop. The sky looked like it was about to dump on us, and I thought my daughter might like some cool writing supplies. She bought a cool mug as a gift for her friend and we bought some yummy looking muffins for breakfast the next day. We were rained into the shop for hours. We huddled down in a dry corner and listened to an audiobook on my iPhone.
• 8:30 – We had planned to watch the Fantasmic show, but when the rain let up, we just left and went back to the room. We pulled out The Plan for the next day and got organized for the next day at Magic Kingdom.

Mileage

We walked 5.6 miles on Day 3.

Magic Kingdom

• in the parking lot at 8
• Had to park at the transportation center and take the resort monorail over
• made it through security and the right side ticket line was long, but the left side was short. We were at a ticket machine, first in line. We got lucky.
• At 8:15 or so, they let us in the gate, but stopped us about 20ft up.
• at 8:50, they did a little welcome show with tons of characters and let us in the park at 9.
• we were one of the first in the park. We rushed as much as we could and headed over to rivertown. We weren’t interested in Splash Mountain, so first on the schedule: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
• we headed straight to Pirates of the Caribbean and got straight on.
• Next we took the Jungle Cruise and again got right on
• Next ob the schedule was the Enchanted Tiki Room animatronic birds. The show wasn’t scheduled to start for 15 min, so we got a frozen Raspberry Lemonade and sat on a bench. We noticed Jasmin and Aladdin signing autographs and took their pictures. Then we got in line for the show.
• We then caught the train over to Toon Town.
• we then deviated from the plan a little and rode Goody’s Barnstormer. We remembered riding and riding that one evening 10 years ago.
• we then headed over to tomorrowland and watched the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. It was interactive and entertaining.
• we then went to the Carosel of Progress. That has been updated in the last 10 years, thank goodness. It was air conditioned and the animatronics were nice.
• at that point, our list was complete. We had planned to shop our way down Main Street, but Kendra wasn’t feeling good, so we left the park by noon.
• we went to Cici’s on Irlo Bronson and had Hershey’s ice cream after.
• We then went back to the room to cool.
• after cooling and watching a movie, we got hungry. We looked around on Google Maps for a nearby restaurant and decided to go to Carrabbas. We had lobster mac n cheese and fried zucchini for appetizers. For dinner we split a chicken dinner and had 2 desserts. Kendra had that buttery cake fruit thing. I had something else I don’t remember.
• After dinner, we went back to the room to relax and get ready for the next day. We were in bed before 10.

Mileage

We walked 4.3 miles on Day 4

Magic Kingdom, Day 1

• Once again, we got an early start. We were at the gate of Magic Kingdom at around 7:45. We were again the first in line at the turnstile.
• At 8:15 they let us through the ticket gate and again held us about 20ft up for the show.
• The show at the train station started at 8:50 and they let us into the park at 9.
• We were heading to space mountain first, so we rushed in and headed to the right. We were stopped at the bridge to tomorrowland and split into 2 groups: Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain.
• They made us wait until a decent sized group formed and “walked” us to the attraction. By walked I mean walking a brisk 4+ mph. By the time we were walking inside the building, I had some serious shin splints.
• After Space Mountain we went to Buzz Lightyear. As we walked, we saw the biggest line we would ever see on the sidewalks at Disney. (Universal’s Islands of Adventure would be a different story.) It was the Fastpass line for Space Mountain.
• Buzz Lightyear only had a 10 min wait. We got in pretty quickly.
• We weren’t much interested in the adventures of Pooh in Fantasyland, but we headed over to the Snow White ride. The line was too long, so we rode Peter Pan’s Flight.
• We then checked the times on Snow White and It’s A Small World, but the lines were too long.
• We headed over to see Mickey’s Philharmonic. We were both very impressed with this.
• We then went to Liberty Square to the Haunted Mansion, which was nicely air conditioned.
• We then rode the Liberty Belle riverboat around Tom Sawyer Island and we met two very nice ladies from Cincinnati with whom we dicussed Kings Island.
• We were starving and decided to dined at the Colimbia Harbor House, where I had fish and my daughter had chicken.
• We then walked over to the very close Hall of Presidents which consisted of a long film and animatronic presidents.
• We became quite tired and simply took shelter in the main street shops, simply looking around and getting Edy’s ice cream with solid choclate Mickey ears. It was delicious.
• We went back to our room and got ready for dinner.
• We ate dinner at the Ohana restraunt in Disney’s Polynesian resort. I wasn’t feeling good and had a migrane. Once we got to the restraunt, it took a while to check in. The restraunt is centered around a family theme (Ohana means family in hawaiian) the food is served like a family buffet, in which the servers give you as much as you want. The grill was breathtaking. It was an 18 foot long firepit in which about five cooks were grilling an assortment of meats. Once we sat down, our server gave us the traditional greeting bread, which was a pineapple coconut bread and was very delicious. For an appetizer, we got a mixture of greens with a honey lime vinegarette, pan fried dumplings, and sweet BBQ wings. For our entree, our waitress brought us seasoned broccoli, lo mein noodles and skewers of pork, shrimp, chicken, and steak. Lastly, for dinner, we ate a pineapple coconut bread pudding with vanilla bean ice cream and a bananas foster sauce. We were STUFFED!
• We headed back to the hotel room and took a nap, planning to go to Fantasmic.
• When we woke, my daughter was shivering but we thought it was nothing.
• We got to the park and my daughter was not feeling well. Her head was throbbing and her stomach hurt, we just thought it was from eating too much food. We got in line for Fantasmic.
• The line was enormous but we waited and my daughter’s shivers came back. I began to get worried because it was over eighty.
• We began to be seated and I weaseled a back seat, because my daughter didn’t look good. The show started and was fantastic, except that my daughter had to leave halfway through. She threw up.
• We went straight back to the hotel with my daughter shivering and holding herself.
• We stopped at Walgreens on the way back and got a thermometer to check my daughter’s temperature, which was 102.5. I checked on her throughout the night. A couple hours later, the fever was still just as high, so I bought pants because she was shivering, tylernol, and ice at 1.
• I gave her the Tylenol around 5 and we finally wen to sleep for a couple of hours. Her fever went down a little at 7.

Mileage

We walked 5.8 miles on Day 5

Sick

• My daughter had been sick all through the night with a fever spiking at 102.7. I was up and down every couple of hours checking on her.
• Around 5am, she was able to take some Tylenol. (You have to wait 4-6 hours to take acetaminophen after taking Aleve.)
• I checked her again at 6am and her fever was gone.
• I fell back asleep and was able to sleep until 8:30, then got up and sat on the sofa with my laptop, doing some web programming work.
• Kendra got up at 10 and her fever was back up to 101. I called her insurance company to find a doctor in the insurance network, then got online and located one. The earliest she could get an appointment (they called it a reservation) was 11:10. We got dressed and headed that way.
• We finally saw the doctor around noon and were told that she had a virus. She was to alternate tylenol and ibuprophen and take it easy. Since she had thrown up and was still nauseous, he prescribed an anti-nausea medicine.
• We were both hungry and were on a main highway, so there were plenty of options. We decided to have lunch at IHOP. (International House of Pancakes for those that don’t know.) She had smoked sausage, eggs and buttermilk pancakes. I had turkey sausage, eggs, and strawberry cheesecake pancakes. It was all very yummy.
• Next, we stopped at Walgreens to drop off her prescription and pick up some ibuprophen.
• We then went back to our room to relax. I had another migrane developing and took another sample medication my doctor had given me. It didn’t work as well as another they had given me, so I called them and asked that they call in the best-working prescription to the local Kissimmee Walgreens.
• We had dinner reservations for the Spirit of Aloha dinner show at Disney’s Polynesian Resort at 8pm. For dinner, we were served Pineapple-Coconut bread, mixed greens with poppyseed dressing and pineapple when we were seated. For the main course, we were brought BBQ Pork Ribs, Roasted Chicken, Polyneisan Rice and seasoned vegetables. Since my daughter still wasn’t feeling well, she nibbled some things and got a kids PB&J sandwich. For dessert, they brought out the Kilauea Volcano Delight. This was a pyramid-shaped chocolate mousse with a mango/passionfruit sauce drizzled on top. It didn’t taste as good as it sounds. I would have much preferred to have the bread pudding from Ohana. Neither of us finished ours, nor did most of the neighboring tables. I think they would have done better making a brownie/ice cream volcano like Rainforest Cafe. The food was good but didn’t blow me away. The show was interesting with amazing bits thrown in. My favorite part was the guy with the fire batons. He twirled and whirled and blew fire from his mouth. He put fire in his hands and laid the burning batons on his feet. That was awesome. It was also cool and interesting to see the indigenous costumes and dances from different Polynesian islands. And since I had made reservations for the 8pm show, we got to see a lot of this in the twilight and darkness. That was very dramatic. I would recommend the show.
• We stopped at Walgreens on the way back to the room and picked up both of our prescriptions.
• We then went back to the room where I organized the plan for Universal Studios Islands of Adventure for the next day. My planning book didn’t really have information on the new Harry Potter exhibit that had opened less than a week prior, so I developed my own plan and headed to bed.

Mileage

We only walked 1.6 miles on Day 6

Universal Studio

• Universal Studio’s Islands of Adventure had a scheduled opening time of 9am, so we planned to arrive at around 7:45. We’d been arriving less than an hour before opening time at all of the Disney parks and being the first in line, so I though an hour and 15 min would be good. We made better driving time than I expected and arrived on property before 7:30.
• I paid a little extra to park closer. With all of the walking we had done the last few days, I was having some serious shin splint issues. We go to the ticket gate just before 7:30. There was no line. But a few people ahead of us were going straight into the park. Confused, we headed into the park.
• According to my map, the Harry Potter section of the park could best be reached by going counter-clockwise through the park. That sounded good in theory, but apparently, the Harry Potter section didn’t open until 9am, and to go counter-clockwise, you had to be staying in a Universal Resort Hotel. We were forced to go clockwise all the way around.
• With my aching shins, we couldn’t move very fast, and got passed by a few people. When we reached the line in Jurassic Park, we could not see the front of it. After a little exploration, we discovered that the front of the line was at the spot between Jurassic Park and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. A family at the front of the line had been at the gates at 6:45 and had been allowed through at 7am. We were late. It was hot.
• Along the way, we discovered that Universal has the equivalent to Disney’s Fast Pass. For a mere $39.99 per person per day, you can hop in the Express Pass lane for most rides. The ride at the top of our list was the new Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Unfortunately it was not on the Express Pass list, so we decided to pass on buying the pass.
• Around 8:30, my daughter headed to see where the back of the line was. It was back at Toon Lagoon.
  • For those not familiar with Islands of Adventure, it’s a big circle. You enter at the 6:00 location. Suess Landing is at 5:00, the Lost Continent is at 3:00, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is located at 2:00, Jurassic Park is at 12:00, Toon Lagoon is at 10:00, and Marvel Super Hero Island is at 7:00.
• I then sent my daughter to try to find some AA batteries for our fans. They were dying. At 8:45, the line started moving. I got all the way up to the entrance to Harry Potter and she still wasn’t back. I went back looking for her and we ran back.
• Once we were in, we raced to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. The line was outside, but not by much. We figured we’d have a half hour to 45 min wait. We started chatting with the people in front of us. They had ridden it before. It was a teenage boy and his grandmother. She was kind enough to show me how to work the lockers going into the ride. You don’t have to put money in and get a key like most lockers. The lockers were free and FINGERPRINT PROTECTED. They use biometrics. Amazing. You select a section, press your finger to the reader and are assigned a locker. When you want your things back, you enter the locker number on the screen and press your finger to the reader. Presto! You get your stuff back.
• After stowing our gear, I went back to find my daughter and the teenage boy in line. The boy was going to get in the single rider line, since his grandmother didn’t want to ride it again. We decided to do the same. It was brilliant! We moved right up to the front and got on almost immediately. We didn’t get to sit next to each other, but she was in the car behind mine.
• We hopped in the cars and rode the ride. It was the best ride on our entire vacation. It was a cross between a moving ride and a simulator. You began by moving through the castle with screens here and there. There was a small screen with Hermoine talking, and larger screens where you got the sensation of flying over Hogwarts. You go into the forbidden forest where Aragon and the spiders spit on you. You fly over the Quiddich field and are chased by Dementors. It was thrilling and amazing.
• At the end of the ride, you get your things from the locker and are let out through a shop. It was PACKED. Wall-to-wall people. We got out of there quickly and came out beside our next planned ride.
• There was no line for the Flight of the Hippogriff. This was a short, but fun coaster that I would compare to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disney. We rode this twice with no line.
• Between these two rides was a cart selling wands. We decided that we wanted to see Olivander’s wand shop instead and got in line for that. While I waited in line, I sent my daughter to go look around and get us some ice water. She learned a very important tidbit – There was a huge line in the street to buy Butterbeer from the Butterbeer cart. But you could walk into the air-conditioned Hog’s Head and get a Butterbeer there.
• While she waited in Olivander’s line, I headed further up the street to look around. I saw the Three Broomsticks. I noticed the line to get into the candy store and the joke store. I saw the train. I headed to the Hog’s Head for a Butterbeer. The Hog’s Head on the wall behind the bar moved occasionally, and there were some rustic chairs and tables. It was pretty cool. I paid $11.50 for a frozen Butterbeer in a keepsake plastic mug. ($10.50 on tap)
• I went back and we waited in line some more. Someone came by and mentioned that there was another line to get wands. After some exploration and questions to employees I learned another important tidbit. The line for Olivander’s is for the show. They take people in by the two-dozen or so. They choose one child in the group to get the experience. That child gets to go to the front of the room and get a wand. The wand chooses the child. If you just want to get into the shop to buy a wand, go around back and get in line there, which takes 10-15 minutes instead of over an hour.
• We got in line at the back of the building and got into the TINY, PACKED shop. You couldn’t really move or even see the stuff you wanted to buy. There was a tiny room in the back that had wands on shelves. It was a poorly-planned disorganized mess. Like the tourists we were, we paid $31 for a wand and got out of there.
• I was hoping to buy a Harry Potter Christmas Ornament, but apparently, such a thing cannot be purchased in the park.
• We got in line for the candy store and headed inside after about 10 min. My daughter got a chocolate frog. This shop was much less crowded than the other shop.
• We then got in line to get another Butterbeer. By this time it was 11:00 and the line for the Hog’s Head was extremely long. I suppose people wanted the air conditioning and lunch. We got in line at the cart, whose line was shorter than it was earlier. We bought two frozen Butterbeers, one in a collector cup and one in a disposable cup. That total was $15. $11.50 for the collector, and $3.50 for the plain one. I think it was smaller.
• We then headed out of the park. We thought about having lunch, but the restaurant we wanted wasn’t open yet. We thought about a few rides, but the lines were too long. We were hot and EXTREMELY tired of the crowds. We stopped and I bought a keychain for my ornament and we left the park.
• We went to Giordano’s for lunch. The last time we went to a Giordano’s was at the original one in Chicago. I LOVE Chicago style pizza. When we walked in, the USA-Algeria World Cup game was at 87min. It was almost over. We got to see Donovan score the game-winning goal. I ordered an individual Chicago-style pizza with Canadian Bacon and my daughter got a thin crust cheese pizza.
• Again, we went back to the room and took a nap. We decided to stay in the room and watch movies and eat reheated pizza for dinner. Thank goodness for the kitchen in our room.

Mileage

We walked 3.8 miles on Day 7

Epcot Day 1

• We arrived at Epcot at 7:15 and we were very early. So early in fact that we accidentally went into the gates inside of security even though they weren’t open. We arrived early because we were going to ride a Segway tour around Epcot, seeing the world showcase. They showed us how to use the segways, which is very similar to a wii fit board, and we rode throughout epcot, taking pictures and riding through gardens.
• This day’s plan was to see all of Epcot in one day.
• we ran over and got fastpasses for Soarin’ for later.
• we walked over to the Test Track and decided to ride in singles line because it was shorter.
• we then went to Mission Space and rode in the green line, which was less intense.
• next, we rode the energy ride
• we then went out the front gate and got our “Give A Day, Get A Day” gifts. Since we had multiday passes, we got a voucher for a mickey hat figurine with collector pins and special fast passes. The fast passes were a card for each of us that we could put in the fast pass machine to get passes that were good immediately, even if they were out of fast passes. And we got 6 passes each for specific rides.
• at that time, we had to hurry over to Canada to Le Cellier for our lunch reservations. They initially brought out breadsticks – Pretzel, Sourdough, and Multigrain. We ordered a Lump Crab Corn Cake appetizer. It would have been a lot better without the red pepper. It was like corn pudding with lump crab meat. For our meal, we shared a Filet Mignon, Mashed Potatoes, and Macaroni and Cheese. All of those were excellent. For dessert, we got a Maple Creme Brulee. It was fabulous.
• We headed pretty much next door to ride Journey Into Imagination. That was the lamest thing we had encountered at Disney. The line was pretty cool. They had burst-shaped logos hanging above the line with animated dragons. But the ride was old and hadn’t been updated in a long time. We considered it a waste of time.
• Next door was The Land and we used our Fastpass from earlier to ride Soarin. It was like being in a hang glider and taking bits of several tours of California. I would recommend doing it at least once. As we left, we used our special Fastpass Exchange Card to get another Soarin Fastpass, even though they were out of Fastpasses. Awesome.
• In the same building was Living with the Land. We used another Fastpass Exchange for this and skipped the 10 min line. This ride was interesting and informative. We got an inside look at agricultural research.
• We then went right back over and rode Soarin’ again. The Fastpass line was shorter and we got a middle “glider” that time.
• Next on the list was The Seas. We watched Nemo and Friends and then did the interactive Turtle Talk with Crush.
• We were going to see Honey I shrunk the Audience, but that attraction was closed.
• We headed back towards the Epcot Ball and rode Spaceship Earth, presented by Siemens. Entertain yourself with that one. This is the ride inside the giant silver Epcot ball. It’s been updated a little bit and was interesting.
• We then put our Fastpass Exchange Card to good use. While in at the kiosk for a Fastpass, a nice cast member lady gave us an extra pass that was good for all of the Daisy rides. We rode Mission Space once (she rode Green and I did Orange).
• We rode Test Track two times using our Fastpass Exchange Card. (Body parts!)
• We then decided to use one of the Fastpasses for Maelstrom in Norway. When we walked over there, we found out it was a wet ride, and since we had dinner reservations in less than 2 hours, we decided not to use it.
• As we came back through Mexico, we went into the Mexican Pavillion and rode the Three Cabellaros, which was pretty old and lame, but air conditioned. When we came out, there was a Mariachi band playing in the courtyard. My daughter wasn’t feeling well, so she sat and rested while I looked around and almost bought a painted turtle pottery.
• On the way back out of the park, we ran into 4 guys and gave them the extra pass the cast member gave us, then rode Mission Space with our last Exchange Card Fastpass. We both did Green this time.

Dinner

• Then we headed to the Monorail to get to Magic Kingdom for our dinner reservations. We had originally planned to go back to the room to shower and put on nicer clothes, but Epcot just took too long.
• We arrived at Cinderella’s Castle 5 minutes before our reservation and quite hot and disheveled. We checked in and were sent to the inner sanctum where Cinderella was waiting for a photo opp. We quickly headed to a restroom to freshen up.
• When we came back out, the line had gotten longer and the room was considerably fuller. We got in line and got our picture taken with Cinderella with our camera and with theirs. I had prepaid for the package and we got our picture with the package.
• We then went over to wander up the spiral staircase looking for the waiting area. It turned out that very full area with little seating downstairs WAS the waiting area. We sat there for about 20 min until our name was called. They handed us our “Invitation” and sent us up the red-carpeted spiral staircase.
• Upstairs in the dining room, we could see several Princesses moving around greeting guests at their tables. My daughter got excited that she’d be able to get her picture taken with all 5 of these princesses.
• We were escorted to our table in front of the tall center window of the dining room. We had the best seat in the house! We had a gorgeous view of the Carousel behind the castle.
• We looked at our menus and our very entertaining waiter brought us water. We noticed that the princesses were gone, presumably on break.
• We ordered our appetizers – she got a fruit bowl and I got a crab cake. When our waiter came back by, we had him take pictures of us at our table.
• For dinner, I ordered Lamb Chops with Scalloped Potatoes and Mixed Vegetables (zucchini, squash, tomatoes, onions, peppers, mushrooms – they were DELICIOUS). The Lamb chops were tasty but a little fatty for me. My daughter had Roasted Chicken, Wilted Spinach, and rice.
• As we ate, the Princesses were announced one by one and visited our table.
  • Snow White had a high, quiet voice and seemed very impersonal.
  • Aurora – Sleeping Beauty had a beautiful dress and crown.
  • Ariel – The Little Mermaid had a stunning personality and was very friendly and engaging.
  • Belle was super-efficient and had the prettiest skin and hair.
• Throughout dinner we received Wishing Stars (like star-shaped glittery coasters), Wands (large blue plastic star-topped wands), and the photograph with Cinderella in a nice cardboard cover.
• For dessert, I had a yummy Caramel Creme Brulee and my daughter had the Chocolate Buckle Cake.
• Full and happy, we gathered our things and took our tired, sore bodies back out to the Monorail Station. We thought about staying for the fireworks and Electrical Parade, but we were too sore and tired.
• At the Transportation Center, our connection to Epcot was the Tron Train.
• Once we got to Epcot, we took some cool night pictures and headed to the car. We had spent 14 hours in the park that day.
• Back in the room, my daughter was worn out and went to bed pretty quickly. I had to do some reservation shuffling. We had decided to stay an extra day, because we needed a second day in Epcot and we had missed Animal Kingdom since she was sick on Day 6. I found a decent $39 a night room just down the road from our current resort, and moved our Georgia reservation to the next night.

Mileage

We walked 10.0 miles on Day 8

Epcot – Day 2

• I woke at 6:30 and laid in be until 7. At 7, I gave up and started packing. This was the day that we had to check out of our super-nice room. I began packing up the kitchen stuff, folding laundry, and organizing the bags of stuff we’d bought. My daughter ended up with a bigger bag of stuff than me. No surprise there.
• At 8:00, I woke her. We both showered and continued packing. Everything was packed in the car and we were headed for checkout just before 10am.
• After checkout, we went to Chick-Fil-A for some yummy chicken minis for breakfast. The drive through took 15 min, and we were on the road heading to Epcot for a day in the World Showcase.
• Since our lunch reservations were on the right side of the park at the Coral Reef at 1:50, we decided to start on the right side of the World Showcase, stopping by the Imaginarium to get our Kim Possible ticket. Our mission was assigned to Norway.
• Canada – We watched Oh, Canada in 360 Circle-vision. We took a picture next to the waterfall above the Oh, Canada show.
• United Kingdom – We watched the Showcase Players comedy troupe do a funny Holy Grail show on the street. We took a picture in a British phone booth. We got ice water (free) in a pub and chatted with one of the servers. She was from Kent. We learned that all of the cast members in the World Showcase were from the countries they were representing. We headed into a shop and decided to buy a “Passport” and get it stamped in the UK.
• The “Passport” is a small booklet that you can get stamped in all of the nations. It came with interesting stickers for the book and you can put your own pictures and notes if you like. It seemed like a fun little souvenir for $10.
• France – We listened to a snooty little man speak poorly in English and watched Impressions de France. The “scale” Eiffel Tower was pretty cool, and my daughter tried on a beret in one of the shops.
• Morocco – It was around noon and getting VERY hot out. We checked out some air-conditioned shops, got a passport stamp and sat near the fountain.
• We then hopped the Ferry back to Canada, where my daughter got her Canada stamp and we headed on sore feet over to the Coral Reef.
• Once again, we had excellent seats in the restaurant. I’m beginning to suspect that a table for 2 is the ticket to great seats. We were on the lower level by the aquarium tank. There were 4 large panes and we were by the 4th, so there was less foot traffic, too!
• When we arrived, there was a diver being silly in our tank. I was taking pictures of my daughter when he waved us over and posed behind her with his regulator out and grinning.
• We ordered the appetizer sampler, which was crab cakes, lobster bisque soup, BBQ beef tips, and some fruity thing that was strange. We also had yummy bread.
• For our meal, we split chicken with a pasta/vegetable thing. Spatzel. The chicken was very good and the spatzel was tolerable.
• As we ate, we got to see sharks, rays, giant sea turtles and other sea life swim by. It was very cool. Lunch and a show.
• For dessert, I had almond gelato. It came served on a weird rice-crispy type thing that had oats and such in it. I didn’t love it. I wish I would have gotten the Butterscotch Creme Brulee, but I didn’t want to have Creme Brulee for the third day in a row. My daughter got the sugar free Cheesecake Napoleon. It was layered with Fillo pastry and had berries drizzled over it. It was good, except for the Nutrasweet aftertaste. She enjoyed it.
• As we left, we got ready for the outdoors (we rewetted our neck bands and refilled our ice water bottle). We made a stop by the outdoor Nemo display and took some pictures.
• We resumed our international tour.
• Mexico – we headed into the large air-conditioned pavillion to get our stamp and take some pictures.
• Norway – we were finally able to do the Kim Possible Secret Agent thing. We went to the kiosk and got our Kimmunicator (this was a programmed cell phone). We waded through the introduction and went to the places we were supposed to go. We got our picture taken by a camera up in the trees and it showed up on the phone. We answered quiz questions based on things we found in the park. This would be fun and interesting for smaller kids, but we were annoyed by the long tedious process. We finished and turned in the phone then went through the shops, playing with swords and shields and getting our stamp.
• China – We saw the Reflections of China in the 360 Circle-vision. We saw the replica of the Tomb of Emporer Qui. We got a stamp and stopped to watch the Dragon Legend Acrobats in the street. Those kids were awesome!
• Germany – We got our stamp and hit the shops where I bought German Chocolate and we took pictures. We left the passport with the beer steins and had to go back for it in a panic.
• Italy – Here, the line was LONG for the passport stamp, so I hit the shops and bought a little Murano Glass picture frame and a Strawberry-Mango smoothie to share.
• The American Adventure – We listened to the Voices of Liberty singing and hit the shops looking at USA soccer gear and getting our stamp.
• Japan – The Matsuriza Japanese Taiko drummers were playing when we got to Japan. They were impressive. We hit the shops, looking at the cool kimonos and got our passport stamped.
• We headed next door to Morocco and took the Ferry back to Canada to get out of the park. We giggled at the Epcot Ball presented by Siemens and took our sore, tired feet and legs out to the tram to our car at around 6pm.
• We headed to our motel next and got checked in. When I made reservations, the guy said that we’d have a room that we could park right by the door. That was nice, since we were so tired. We unpacked the necessities and ran to Subway for carryout for dinner. We came back to the room to eat and relax and get some sleep.
• I worked on our plan for the next morning, realizing that Animal Kingdom would be more crowded than it would have been on our original day because they had early Magic Hours at 8 for people staying in Disney Resorts.

Mileage

We walked 7.5 miles on Day 9

• The beds in our $39 hotel were not the best, so I woke up sore at 6:30 and did some stuff on my phone, then woke my daughter at 7:00 so we could be on the road by 8am.
• We got to Animal Kingdom around 8:15. We were near the front of the line for people waiting to get in, but had to watched hordes of people enter through the Early Magic Hours Gate. If you stay in a Disney property, the parks have early and late hours on certain days. Unfortunately, we had to come to Animal Kingdom on one of those days.
• At 9:00, they let us in about 20 feet, where we were at the front of the line. We waited for the Safari truck with Minnie and Mickey to go by and wave, then we were walked into the park. Unfortunately, at the last minute a few people with strollers hopped over in front of us, so we had to work our way back up to the front.
• We headed over to Africa to get our Fastpass for Kilimanjaro Safaries. Our Fastpass would be good at 9:50.
• We decided to check out the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail next. There was a big fish tank, monkeys, Gorillas, and lots of beautify scenery.
• We then headed into a shop to find pennies and cool down. My daughter found a cool bracelet that she liked. We had a yummy Mickey ice cream sandwich.
• At 9:50 we hopped in the Fastpass line for the safari and lucked into a front seat on the safari truck. We got lots of great pictures and even got to see a pair of lions, even though they normally roam at night. We saw elephants, hippos, a warthog, and more.
• We then headed over to Camp Minnie and Mickey to see the Festival of the Lion King show. We managed to pass a large group in pink t-shirts. They went down the right path and we took the left path. I tried to take a picture of a crane over in the trees while we waited but a little boy was chasing it away.
• The Festival of the Lion King show was a live action and animatronics show with acrobats, singers, trapeze artists, and a fire show. We were in the Elephant section in the first row above the floor. It was great. I’d highly recommend it, but expect to hear all of the Lion King songs repeatedly. We got out quickly to go have lunch.
• We went to Pizzafari for lunch. The pizza was ok, but the breadsticks were REALLY good. They tasted like garlic and had a little sprinkle of cheese on top.
• We then headed around to Dinoland to ride DINOSAUR! The ride was air-conditioned and pretty intense. They took pictures in an interesting place and we bought one. I looked confused and my daughter looked scared out of her mind.
• We then rushed over to get seats for Finding Nemo the Musical. They were already seating 30 min before the show and we ended up in the top section. This was a REALLY good live-action puppet show that was pretty much a quick version of the Nemo movie. We really enjoyed it, but some people in the audience didn’t think it was that good.
• We were thinking of heading over to watch Flights of Wonder in Asia, but we had just missed the show and would have to wait about an hour and a half for the next one. We decided we’d pass on that since we needed to get on the road.
• We headed back to Discovery Island to check out the Tree of Life and watch It’s Tough to Be A Bug.
• For It’s Tough to Be A Bug, we waited under the tree to get in, checking out the cool posters around us and playing with our “Bug Eyes” 3-D glasses.
• Once inside, it was dark, cavelike, and creepy. The show starts with a stinkbug spraying a smelly gas over the audience, then an acid-shooting bug shoots acid (water) at the audience. The angry grasshoppers smack the audience (in 3-D) with a flyswat and the audience is shot with puffs of air at the appropriate time. Later in the show, you get suddenly poked in the back. There’s a hole in your seat and something pokes out at you. At the end of the show, you’re directed to stay in your seats so that the maggots and cockroaches can exit. You hear screaming working its way across the room, and feel something move from right to left under your seat. There were hoards of screaming, crying children. This show had some interesting effects, but served no purpose except to scare and startle people.
• At 2pm, we were leaving the park.
• We drove about 6 hours to our hotel. This one was $37 a night. 😉 Once again, the bed was uncomfortable and it wasn’t the nicest place, but it was cool and quiet. We checked in and grabbed some Arby’s before bringing our stuff upstairs. We were tired, hungry, and grumpy at 8pm and had lots of trouble getting, then using the cart to get our stuff up to the 3rd floor.
• We ate our mostly cold food in the room and watched a recording of the USA-Ghana FIFA game. When it went into 30 min overtime, I went to sleep.
• Technically, there was a day 11, but it was the drive home from Georgia and was uneventful except for our stop to buy some local peaches. Unfortunately, that stop didn’t bear fruit.

Mileage

We walked 5.1 miles on Day 10 Day 11:

• Though our vacation is essentially over, we still aren’t home, so I’m counting this as vacation.
• I woke at 6:30 again and worked on my computer until 9am, when I woke my daughter.
• We packed up and checked out and went through McDonald’s drive thru for breakfast. We got some gas and got on the road with my daughter driving. We hit a few storms and she became an expert in using my wipers.
• North of Chattenooga, traffic was dead stopped, so we used our GPS to go around it. That added a good amount of time to our trip.
• She was getting tired and we stopped at an exit that advertised peaches. Unfortunately, they were out.
• Later, we stopped for lunch at Taco Bell and she started driving again.
• Later, we stopped for gas and looked for peaches again, but the peaches weren’t any better than ones I could get in the grocery store at home, so I decided not to get any.
• She was getting tired again, and I drove us the rest of the way to Lexington.
• We got into town at 6pm. We went to Tolly-Ho for dinner – then home, sweet home. Boy was the cat happy to see us!