Animal Kingdom and Heading Home {Disneyworld}

You can follow along with the rest of our Disneyworld trip here.

On Saturday, we went to Animal Kingdom, the park that feels the least like a Disneyworld park. There were times when it felt like I could have been at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle (where I have been many, many times).

This girrafe was literally three feet from the truck. Isabelle's head helps show scale. :)

The first thing we did when we got there was go on the Kilimanjaro Safari, which is really cool.

We went on the ride Dinosaur, which is a lot like the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland, except with more dinosaurs, and less Indiana Jones. We saw a musical of Finding Nemo, and went on the Kali River Rapids, where we got really wet, and mom in particular got soaked.

Resting in the shade.

At the end of the day, mom and Isabelle went on Expedition Everest, the largest roller coaster in Disneyworld, but I whimped out and watched from the side. They actually have a viewing area that was entirely filled with people waiting for friend and family members who were going on the ride.

Mom and Isabelle after riding. The mountain the ride is on is man made, but is the tallest mountain in Florida.

The next day, we went back to Magic Kingdom again to do a few last rides like Space Mountain, the Tomorrowland Speedway, and a few repeats like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and the Buzz Lightyear ride.

Shopping.

Mom, Minnie, and Mickey. They really love their shrub sculptures there.

One last picture with the castle on our way out.

We left for the airport at 2:30ish, and got on a plane to San Diego at 5pm, two planes later, we made it to Seattle at midnight local time (though it felt like 3am to us), and drove home, arriving at our house a little before three (6 to us).

Epcot {Disneyworld}

This is a continuation of these other posts about our trip to Disneyworld a few weeks ago.

The entrance to Epcot.

On Friday, we got up early and went to Epcot. We spent the first part of the day in Futureworld, which is where most of the rides in Epcot are located. Part of this area is divided into two parts: the Land, and the Sea.

The Land had rides like Soarin' (which is identical to the ride in California), and a ride where you go on a boat through Disney's experimental gardens, which were pretty cool.

After exiting the Nemo ride.

In the Sea, there is the Finding Nemo ride, and a small aquarium area.

Hidden Mickeys are HUGE in Disneyworld, and I found this one on the bottom of the dolphin tank. It can only be seen from that angle, otherwise it looks like random rocks.

We spent more of our time in Epcot at the World Showcase, which is a a huge area where eleven (or twelve, I'm not sure exactly) countries are represented with buildings, shops, restaurants, and small versions of local landmarks.

China

Germany

Italy

America. We saw a fantastic a cappella group singing Americana songs there.

Japan

That night we ate dinner in Mexico (well, actually a restaurant in the Mexican area of the World Showcase), and watched Illumination of Earth, their fantastic nightly fireworks show.

Hollywood Studios {Disneyworld}

After a long break, I am finally getting back to telling the story of our Disneyworld trip. You can read about our arrival in Florida here, and our time at Magic Kingdom here.

Thursday, Mom had a meeting in the morning, but that was the end of her conference. That day, we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios. We got there around 11am, and stayed until they closed.

They have some really good rides there, including The Great Movie Ride, and Star Tours, which we actually went on twice. The Toy Story ride is one of the most popular in all of Disneyworld, and we waited about an hour to get in. Amazingly, in three days in the parks, that was our first long line, and ended up being our longest for the whole trip.


A lot of what they have at Hollywood Studios are shows, not rides, and we went to a few. We saw Beauty and the Beast, and we went to the American Idol Experience, where people sing, and you get to vote. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures that day, so I don't have much to put here!

That night, when the park closed, we went to the show they have there, Fantasmic.

A boat came around with all the characters on it at the end.

It is based loosely off of Fantasia, but has lots of other Disney characters in it too. Sorry I didn't have many pictures from that park. I have lots from the next few days to make up!

Magic Kingdom {Disneyworld}

It's Monday morning, and we just got back from Florida. We flew in at about midnight last night, and got home about 2:30am. Now, I'm going to go back and share pictures and stuff from our week. I'm going to do it in a few parts, since it would be ridiculously long otherwise. This post is going to cover Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Castle at night.

On Tuesday, we spent the day at the hotel, swimming and hanging out, while mom was at her conference. At about 8pm that night, we got to the parks for the first time. We started at Magic Kingdom. With a few exceptions, Magic Kingdom at Disneyworld basically is the same as Disneyland in California. We went on a few rides before the park closed at ten. It was late enough (and a weekday) that the park was pretty empty, and we just walked on to Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and It's a Small World.

Peter Pan. We would have waited 40 min, without our fastpasses.

Wednesday, we got to the park about 3pm, and stayed until about 9. It poured rain the whole time we were there, so it wasn't the most fun, but the lines were really short. We went on Pirates and Haunted Mansion again, since the lines were so short, and then used some of our fastpasses for Peter Pan (which ALWAYS has a long line), Winnie the Pooh, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (one of my very favorites). We stayed and watched the fireworks, and then headed out.

If you've never been to a Disney park, fastpasses are these things you get that save your spot in line for you. You run to the ride when you get there, and then get your passes (using your park tickets), and then it tells you when to come back (maybe between 4:25 and 5:25). At least, that's how it worked when we went to Disneyland a few years ago.

Now, at Disneyworld, at least, it is completely different. At the beginning of the day, you can go to a kiosk (or to their website), and sign up for three passes. The selection process is a little convoluted, but the result is that you have three fastpasses loaded on to your tickets.

Me wearing my Magic Band.

Because we stayed at a Disneyworld Resort Hotel, we got these things called Magic bands. It is your park ticket, your hotel room key, your fastpasses, and your credit card while you are there. You touch the mickey on the front to the scanner at any of those places, and it will get you into the fastpass line, into a park or your room, and you can also buy things with it, since it is linked to the credit card you booked the room with.

That is our first days at Disneyworld. Tomorrow, I'll post about our day at Hollywood Studios.

Disneyworld: We Have Arrived

Hello all! We successfully made it to Florida. On Saturday night, we drove to Seattle to stay with my aunt and uncle, and then we left their house for the airport at about 3:30am Sunday. We flew out early, and had an hour layover in San Diego, but we made it to Orlando by about 5:30pm (Eastern Time). We made it to our hotel by about seven. Our hotel (a Disney resort) is HUGE. One one end is the main lobby, restaurants, and conference center (where my mom is spending a lot of her time). When you walk out the back doors of the lobby building, you find yourself on a path leading around a lake. All around the lake are smaller buildings with the actual rooms. Our room is on the exact opposite side of the place from the conference center, and it's about a ten minute walk to the main building (and food).

The pool. To the far right, you an see the end of the waterslide. To the left (off camera) is a bar and seatting area, as well as a children's play area. Behind me are the hot tub and volleyball court. This is about five minutes from our room, between it and the lobby.

Yesterday morning, we got up and went to play miniature golf. This is Disney of course, so it was Fantasia miniature golf. With our theme park tickets, we got to do this for free.

Isabelle playing minigolf.

Every part of the course was from the Fantasia movie. This is Mt. Olympus.

In the afternoon, Mom had the first session of her conference, and Isabelle and I hung out at the pool. In the evening, we took the bus to "Downtown Disney," a huge shopping and enertainment district, and ate dessert at an Irish Pub. They had a short Irish Dance program, which was fun to watch, since we were missing class that night. :)

This is outside the lego store. The entire thing behind us is made of Legos.

Here's a better view of the Lego sculpture thing (what do you call that?)

I didn't get any very good pictures of the dancing, but this guy was quite good.

Despite the very limited space, they did some soft shoe as well as hard.

They even tried to teach some little kids how to treble! 

This morning, mom is in a meeting, and we're hanging out in our room, but this afternoon, maybe around 3ish, we'll head over to the parks for the first time.