The Hamiltons, day to day

Hello, Epcot!

Oh, how I love Epcot.  I have loved it ever since it opened, and it didn't let me down this trip.  We found it to be the most interesting park, and there were a lot of special family moments during our visit there.  Plus, aside from Goofy, we honestly aren't into Disney stuff that much (I know, horrors!), so we didn't feel an overwhelming need to continue to see the Mouse at the Magic Kingdom.

Since we were staying at an Epcot resort, the kids and I walked over on Wednesday morning while Mike was at his conference.  The back entrance takes you into the World Showcase, where all of the international pavilions are. 

We looked at Great Britain. 

 

Zach:  "Mom, why do they have telephone booths, when you can just use a cell phone?"  Ah, youth.

Then there was Canada, which has the best restaurant, Le Cellier, that we've never been able to get into.

Here's the thing.  If you want to eat in a Disney restaurant, you really need a reservation.  And reservations open up six months in advance.  No kidding.  I started booking six weeks in advance, so there were a couple of places that were long gone and never opened up again.  And this was during the low season!

But I digress.  We headed straight to the rides in Future World.  The Land Pavilion was Bailey's favorite, for some reason.  The Living with the Land ride is a great big educational snooze fest, but she loved it so much that she made Mike ride it when we met up with him later in the day.  We got some fast passes for Soarin' while we were there, and then we went over to the Seas Pavilion, where we rode the Nemo and Friends ride and saw Turtle Talk with Crush. This is just like the Laugh Floor at the Magic Kingdom, where computer-generation makes it look like the turtle is talking to the kids and interacting with them.  The adults are all like, "that is the coolest thing", while the kids are like, "sure, we talk to giant turtles all the time."

Bailey was too scared to get into Bruce the shark's mouth.

 

But she was picked to interact with Crush!  She's such a ham, and afterwards, people were asking me if I was the mom of the girl whose favorite food was noodles, since that's what she talked to Crush about. 

Then the kids and I went over to the Spaceship Earth ride in the big dome, and it was soooo good.  They have a computer screen on the seat so you can punch in a bunch of stuff about how you want your future to be, and at the end of the ride, your story appears.  I loved everything about this ride. 

Then we realized that we better use our Soarin' fast passes, so we hightailed it back to the Land pavilion.  Soarin' is one of the most popular rides at Epcot, and they basically swing you around above an IMAX of California.  Bailey was fine until we got strapped in, at which point she started shrieking in terror, "Help!  They're trying to kill me!"  Fortunately, as soon as we started the ride, she loved it.  Loved it so much that she wanted to go on it again.  Because it really is pretty awesome.  This is the one ride you have to do first, or you wait a long time, and the fast passes run out by early afternoon.

We met Mike at this point and toured the international pavilions for a bit.

We loved Norway!

Of course, we bought Viking helmets.  Wouldn't you?  Then we ate at the Kringla bakery.  So good.  Bailey was hankering to take Mike on the Land ride again, so Zach and I rode the Maelstrom ride in Norway.  Short, but really good.

We took the obligatory, "look, I'm holding the giant golf ball" picture.

  Then Mike wanted to see Captain EO, the Michael Jackson 3D film that was playing in the Imagination pavilion.  About five minutes into the film, Bailey royally freaked out.  It was just too loud and scary.  On the guide map, this is the only thing that is marked frightening for children.  Of course, we saw that part too late.

So we left and found these fountains outside the pavilion, where the water hopped in the air between the various fountains.

Then we went back into the Imagination pavilion and played with all of the interactive exhibits.  Mike went off to ride Test Track by himself since the rest of us chickened out.  After that, Zach wanted to do this super cool Kim Possible thing where they give you a cell phone device thingie and you get missions to save the world.  It sounded great and it's free, so we did two missions - one in China, and one in Germany.

We got clues which led us to many locations within the various countries, and without it, I never would have gone inside the China building and seen that they have a Terra Cotta Warrior display.  One of my life dreams is to see the real Terra Cotta Warriors in China, so this was pretty cool.

The best part about the Kim Possible missions was that through the device, the kids could cause things to happen that the non-Kim Possible people didn't know about.  Like in China, he pushed a button, and a statue came up from the middle of one of the ponds to give him a secret message.  And in Germany, it made the glockenspiel play.  The other people were like, "look, a glockenspiel!", and Zach was all, "it's because of me, you fools!"  So this was definitely a hit, and we would do it again.

We spent a lot of time in the Germany pavilion.  My mom is German, and I was born there, so we just sort of gravitated there.

 

We ate dinner at the Biergarten restaurant, which was fantastic.  I was so glad we had reservations, because many people were being turned away.  It is always Oktoberfest there.

As soon as Bailey heard the music, she ran up front to dance.  Of course.  At the end of the session, they would turn down the lights, sing Silent Night, light the Christmas tree, and give chocolate coins to the kids.  Bailey figured this out pretty quickly, so every time they would start with the Christmas stuff, she would run down to the stage to get her chocolate coin.  She's no fool.

Then, Bailey decided she need Mike to dance with her, and trouper that he is, he did.

When the other parents saw this, they all danced with their kids too. 

Dads were holding daughters, mothers were dancing with sons, and it was all so good.  It was Christmas in Germany, the food was delicious, we were seated family-style next to four really nice people, everyone became a big community, and at that moment, I had a rush of happiness just fill my heart completely.  You know how that happens sometimes, when you just feel pure joy?  I was so happy to be in that place at that time with my wonderful family that I couldn't stop smiling.  Just magical.

And it probably didn't hurt that the beers were gigantic.

It was pretty late after we left the Biergarten, so Mike and Bailey rode the boat back to the Yacht Club while Zach and I stayed for Illuminations fireworks and laser show.  Prior to the show, we happened to be walking by the Test Track ride and decided to go in, since the line was short.  Basically, the premise is that you are in a vehicle being tested for safety.  So you go through different tests, including a crash test, and then you hurtle around this track and go around turns at high speeds.  As soon as we were seated, Zach had a major freakout.  Of course, as we were hurtling, he was the one with his hands up in the air, yelling, "woo hoo!", while I was screaming in terror.  Yeah, it was a good ride.

We found a place on the rail of the lagoon for Illuminations, which has always been my favorite part of Epcot.  Zach asked me what it was, and I was trying to explain that there's this globe that opens up and they show videos on it and stuff, but really? You have to see it.

After the show, Zach and I walked back to the resort, where both kids collapsed into the kid-sized chairs in the lobby to watch old Disney cartoons.  Of course, they wore their woven pullovers from Mexico and Viking hat from Norway. 

The Magic Kingdom

On Tuesday morning, Mike went to his conference while I took the kids to the Magic Kingdom.  We rode the bus from the hotel, and it was our plan that Mike would drive in and meet us there.  We were staying for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, so we figured that it would be easier to drive back to the hotel than to wait for hotel transportation with all of the thousands of others people doing the same thing.  Luckily, we visited the park during one of the least crowded times of the year, so we had no waits at all for the majority of our rides.

Thank goodness for Disney's Photo Pass service.  You have a card that you hand to the park photographers, they take your pictures, and then you access their website to download the photos.  I haven't downloaded mine yet, but what a lifesaver to get all of us in the pictures!

In any event, this was the big day to test out the touring plan app on my phone and prove to Mike that I am not the biggest geek in the world.  Bailey was dead set on riding Dumbo, so we headed out to Fantasyland first.  For some reason, Dumbo is one of the most popular rides, even though it's really just a carnival ride.  But we rode that flying elephant and enjoyed every minute of it.

Then the plan was to go to It's a Small World, grabbing fast passes for Peter Pan on the way, since that one gets crowded too.  We rode the carousel on the way, then on to It's a Small World.  Bailey loved this ride so much.  The kangaroo was her favorite.

Next we saw Mickey's Philharmagic, and then rode Peter Pan.  Have I mentioned how in love with fast passes I am?  We had no wait for Peter Pan at all, but the fast pass line takes you right by the regular line, where all of those people who were waiting for 30 minutes glared at us.  

We crossed over into Frontierland, which Bailey kept calling Frontierville because I may or may not play that game on Facebook.  There, we rode the Haunted Mansion ride.  The kids were a little freaked out in the stretch room, but then once they saw it's actually a really mellow ride, all was good.  After that, Bailey and I rode Splash Mountain while Zach kept an eye out for Mike.  The last drop on Splash Mountain freaked Zach out, so he didn't want to ride with us. 

We found Mike, who also rode Splash Mountain, and then we ate lunch before we rode the raft over to Tom Sawyer Island and Fort Langhorn.  This was a much needed break for us, and we love that all of the Disney parks have an area where the kids can play and unwind.  And the whole time, I was checking my app, saying things like, "the line for Dumbo is 42 minutes now!"  

Since we were staying so long at the Magic Kingdom that evening, we took the train back to the entrance of the park and went back to the hotel for a break in the afternoon. 

When we got back to the Magic Kingdom, it was already dark, and the castle was lit up.

Mike and I used the child swap option to ride Space Mountain.  I love that one adult can ride while the other waits with the kids, and then you switch so that the other adult can ride without a wait. 

We also rode the Tomorrowland Speedway, where the kids got fake driver's licenses. 

Then we went to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, where they use computer generated technology to interact with the audience.  Zach was one of a handful of audience members to get picked to talk with the Monsters Inc. characters!

At this point, the Very Merry Christmas Party had started, so we headed over to Cinderella Castle, which had been covered in icicles.

We watched two parades and a Christmas show in front of the castle. 

We rode It's a Small World again at Bailey's request, and then watched the fireworks.  We didn't want to leave, so we headed back to Tomorrowland to eat dinner.  And this was one of the best parts of the entire day, because the place where we ate was having a dance with Goofy and Chip and Dale.  And an elf was the DJ.  Seriously. 

Bailey is a dancing monster, so as soon as she heard the music, she ran right up front to dance with Goofy.  The only twist is that she usually requires Mike to dance with her, so he danced with Goofy too.  It was just the cutest thing, so see all these excited kids dancing and their parents dancing along while trying to video it all.  And that's really what Disney is about - those magical moments you have if you just let loose and act like a kid again.  And dance with Goofy.

Next up:  Our favorite park, Epcot! 

Harry Potter, here we come!

Zach and I had been desperately wanting to see the Harry Potter attraction at Universal's Islands of Adventure.  Mike and Bailey had not.  So because of the cost of admission and the fact that Universal really isn't for little kids, we decided to split up on Monday.

Since Mike actually had a conference to go to, he went every morning, and we met up around lunch time.  On Monday morning, the kids and I met my mom at the Gaylord Palms hotel, where she works sometimes.  The hotel atriums are very cool, and the kids loved it there!

We texted this picture to Mike to see if he would think that Zach was actually out fishing without him.  He was not easily fooled.

After a nice snack with my mom, we headed out to the pool at the Yacht Club. 

Bailey really liked playing on the sandbar. 

And then, while Mike and Bailey stayed at the pool and enjoyed some ice-cream, Zach and I headed out for Harry Potter land.  I will say this - it was weird to leave the protective bubble of Disney World.  Disney creates such an alternate reality for you, especially when you stay at a Disney resort, that you forget there is a real world out there that's not perfect.

In any event, the conductor was waiting for us to take us to Hogwart's.

The Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride was incredible.  The castle was so detailed that we took the tour after we finished the ride, so we could slow down and really see things.

Then it was back to Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley shops.

And then, Ollivander's.  Zach had been talking about buying a wand at Ollivander's ever since we told him we were going to Florida.  They only let about 20 people in at a time, so we waited for about 20 minutes to see the wand demonstration.  It was so totally worth it!  Just like in the book, the wand chooses you.

Wand boxes from floor to ceiling.

And you could pick someone else's wand if you wanted to.

Zach received a wand of birch, tied to his date of birth, from a wizard in the shop.  I don't know that we would go back to Universal, but this was one of the coolest attractions I've ever visited.  Of course, if you don't know the books or the movies, it is completely lost on you. ;-)

After a cheap meal at Waffle House, we took the kids to the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum on International Drive, because Zach loves that stuff.  We went in thinking that it was such a tacky tourist attraction, but actually, we would probably go back.  Bailey started getting antsy after about an hour, but we could have stayed way longer.  We are such tourists!

Next up:  Magic Kingdom!

Animal Kingdom

On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we felt like it was safe to venture into the Disney parks, so we went to Animal Kingdom.  We had a character breakfast in the morning, and Animal Kingdom is a great park to arrive late, because you can definitely see the whole park in one day. 

I can't go to Disney World without planning what to see and in what general order.  When we haven't planned, we have ended up standing in long lines and becoming extremely pissed.  I tend to go overboard on stuff, so I had an app for my phone that I checked obsessively for line wait times, fast pass return times, sequence of rides, and show times the whole time we were there.  It was such a joy.  Sometimes I still check it now, just to see what's going on in Florida.  Seriously, we'll be driving to the store or something, and I'll yell out, "hey kids, the wait time for Mission Space is 18 minutes."  This makes me very happy.

But first - we were on a mission to see Goofy.  Not for the kids, but for Mike.  Yes, it's true.  The lines to see the characters in the parks can get long, so we decided to do a character breakfast at the Cape May Cafe, one of the restaurants in the Beach Club, which is connected to the Yacht Club.  Because I am insane, I had charts of which breakfasts had which characters and the ratio of characters to diners.

We were promised that Minnie, Donald, and Goofy would come to our table, and come they did!  It was awesome, and the waffles were shaped like Mickey.

So then we took off for Animal Kingdom.  We had been there years ago but hadn't been back since.  It's pretty much the same!

We had our little plan, which consisted of Mike and Zach hightailing it over to Expedition Everest, but Zach got scared at the last minute, so Mike rode it twice by himself while the kids and I walked the Maharajah jungle trek. 

We saw It's Tough to be a Bug at the theater inside the Tree of Life, and it was fantastic!  Bailey freaked out a little when the 3D giant bugs came at her head, but then they turned into butterflies and all was good.

Mike almost threw up twice on Everest.

The jungle trek was super cool.  Zach and I thought there was a barrier between us and the huge bats, but we put our hands out and there was none.  Just us and giant bats.  And the tigers reminded me of our beagle, the laziest dog in the world.

This was Di-Vine, the stilts lady.  She hangs out and pretends to be foliage until some poor unsuspecting tourist leans up against her, and then she starts moving, thereby causing much screaming by said tourist.

Because we came at a good time of year, we didn't have to get fast passes for any of the rides at this park.  And we didn't have to stand in line for more than a few minutes at any ride.  This made us oh so happy.  So we hopped on to Kilimanjaro Safaris, where the guy helping us into the ride was from Walton, Nebraska.  We talked Huskers.

We had Mickey-shaped ice cream sandwiches.  I love room charge.

Bailey was accosted by a raccoon.

And we found more characters.

We caught the mid-afternoon parade, which gave us a chance to sit, eat crackers, and play Angry Birds on our phones.

There were characters all over the place!

And we got ears.  I am not in this picture, but I can tell you that my ears are zebra-striped.

After the parade, Mike and kids rode the Kali River Rapids while I facebooked took care of important business, since I didn't want to get soaked.  Then Mike and Bailey played in the Boneyard playground while Zach and I rode Dinosaur.  Great, great ride.  Way too scary for Bailey, so I'm glad she didn't go. 

We also toured Rafiki's Planet Watch, which is the veterinary and conservation area you reach by train.  Mike and I thought it was kind of boring, but the kids loved it!  Zach pulled us into this booth where you sat in the dark on comfy sofas and listened to a rainforest presentation.  It being the end of a long day, I took this opportunity to lay down on the sofa.  Apparently I fell asleep, because when the lights came on, I jumped in the air, shrieking.  Good times.

After the end of our day, we went to our dinner reservations at Boma, the African buffet restaurant at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  It was so fantastic, I can't even tell you.  Of all the places we ate, Boma had the most variety, and . . . alcohol in the deserts!  I love that place.  We also wandered around the Lodge and agreed that it would be a fabulous place to stay next time.  They give you night vision goggles so you can see the animals on the savanna come out after dark.  How cool is that?

Monday:  Harry Potter at Universal's Islands of Adventure!

Cocoa Beach

On our first day at Disney World, we did not go to Disney World.  We have been there enough to know that Thanksgiving weekend is super crowded at the parks, so on the Saturday following Thanksgiving, we decided to go to the beach and my mom's house instead.  So we took off for Cocoa Beach, Bailey's first trip to the ocean.

On the way there, we saw the Mars Rover launching from Cape Canaveral.

Since it was lunchtime, we stopped at our favorite restaurant, Lobster Shanty, where we got to eat on the deck by the bay.  My mom and I used to go to Lobster Shanty every Christmas vacation during my breaks from college and law school.

Mike and Bailey went to look at the dolphins while we waited for our food.

There was a red flag on the lifeguard tower because of rip currents, so we did not go too far out.

Then we went to the beach.  At first, the kids were like, "Mom, this water is not like the lakes we are used to."

There was also a lot of shell hunting and digging.

And at the end of the day, everyone was happy.

On the way back to the Yacht Club, we stopped by my mom's house for a visit and dinner, since Mike thinks she is the best cook in the world.  Ahem.  In fact, he has invited her to live with us if she would cook all of our food.  I think he's just sucking up to be the favorite son-in-law.

Sunday:  Animal Kingdom!

 

 

 

And we enter the South

So after having Thanksgiving dinner in Nashville, we continued on our journey to Disney World, which entailed a stop in Atlanta.

I really like Atlanta, and Mike and I talked about moving there once, but the humidity would kill me.  We always stop at the Target at the Mt. Zion exit (don't ask me why, but it's a tradition), so we did some Black Friday shopping there before continuing down the interstate.

The drive from Atlanta to Valdosta is boring with a capital B, but we saw some interesting sights.

And the kids had never seen a cotton field before.  One of the big deals about Georgia for us is pralines.  The first time we ever drove through, I mentioned to Mike that we had to stop at Stuckey's for pecans and pralines.  And he said, "What's Stuckey's?"  Oh my God.  Really?  But the minute he tasted a praline, he was hooked.  So as soon as we left Atlanta, he started asking when we were going to stop.  Seeing as he was driving me crazy with all this praline talk, we stopped in Perry.

I love this place.  They had samples all over the store.  And the Nebraska game was on.  So I stood in front of the television, watching my Huskers and eating praline samples.  Life is good.

Someone got a lot of stuff.

After all of this praline eating, we decided to stop for a healthy lunch at Subway in the cutest little town ever.  That's the best part about getting off the interstate, unless you end up being framed for robbing the Sack '0 Suds, like in My Cousin Vinny.

We had a Subway picnic under the super tall pine trees.

Then we wandered around and found stuff to mess around with.

We rang some sort of town bell.

Mailed letters.

And climbed on things.

We were a little giddy about Georgia at this point, so we decided we better leave.

We love the welcome centers that appear when you cross into new states.  At the Florida one, they have orange juice samples.  And so many brochures.  I love brochures.

And then all of a sudden, we were driving into Disney World.

I have never stayed in the World before, but I don't think I would ever do it any other way now.  It's just so convenient and special.  Mike's conference hotel was the Yacht Club, and it was fabulous.

It's on a lake across from the Boardwalk, so you can either walk to Epcot or take a boat at the lighthouse.  And there's a beach!  And they show Disney movies on the beach and night and make bonfires!

And there's a pirate ship that has a water slide.

Mike thought the lobby was stuffy.

But it had this train that Bailey had to look at, every time we either left or arrived.

And there's a gentleman named Woody who greets everyone.  Zach thought Woody was an admiral.

We went out the back doors of the hotel the night we got there, to check out the beach and the Boardwalk.  It was so pretty.

We ate a seafood dinner at the Cape May Cafe and headed to bed happy.  The kids became obsessed with Hidden Mickeys and found there everywhere in the hotel.

Next up, Cocoa Beach!

Meet the Griswolds

So this summer, Mike comes to me with this flyer for an anesthesia conference at Disney World in November.  He suggests that we take the kids, since a lot of it will be paid for through his education money at work.  I agree, and we promptly forget about it until November.

Once we got serious about the trip, I started planning, making reservations, buying tickets, all that good stuff.  And it occurred to us that Bailey might not want to fly.  As in Bailey might totally freak out on the jetway and there goes $1600 in airline tickets.  Since my parents have lived in Orlando for many years, I have made the drive there numerous times.  And so we decided to drive.

This is the part where we start singing the theme song to National Lampoon's Vacation.  Because we were the Griswolds, minus Christie Brinkley.  All we needed was the station wagon. 

We really like taking road trips, and this was no exception.  The kids were almost perfect, thanks to the DVD player, many Kidz Bop CDs, and headphones.  Oh, how I love those headphones.

Our first stop was St. Louis on Thanksgiving.  Look, kids, the Arch!

We wanted to show the kids the Arch, but on the way there, we ran into a Christmas parade just a few blocks away.  So of course we had to stop and watch it, because life moves pretty fast, and if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.  Thank you, Ferris Bueller.

We saw the World Series trophy.

Balloons.

Men in kilts.

More balloons.

Look, kids, the Arch!

Cool stuff.

Even more balloons.

Frosty the Snowman high-fived Bailey.

Bands.

Look, kids, a tiny Arch!

More bands.

No, you can't have too many balloons.

Really.

On the way back to the parking garage,

Zach saw his first subway.

And then it was, let's get out of here and go to Disney World!

Look, kids, it's Nashville!