Disney World: Part 1

(so I copied this in from Notepad after typing it up on the plane, and it added all this ugly white background -- I can get it off in the HTML code, but frankly, I'm too lazy -- deal with it)

Each year the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), our national professional association, has an Assembly on Education (AoE) symposium (this is their education division).  I've been fortunate enough to go twice before, once in Las Vegas (when Addie was 1 -- she, Loren, my mom, and stepdad went with me) and last year in San Antonio.  When we found out that this year's would be in Walt Disney World (WDW) in Orlando, FL, I just knew I had to take Addie.  We originally planned the trip as a family, but Loren wasn't overly keen on flying across the country with both kids, and we both thought it might be a little too much and not worth the cost for Hayden, being only 2.  So I recruited my mom to come along instead.  Linda and I got accepted to present at the Faculty Development Institute that occurs the 2 days before AoE.  With a few things up in the air for a while, it ended up being a bit of last minute planning (well, for me -- it was about 2 months prior and I would normally be planning all year!), but we eventually got it figured out. 

My mom, Addie, and I took of Friday, July 20th.  Our flight left Boise in the early afternoon, but with a layover in Denver and the time change, we didn't make it to Orlando until after 11pm.  Needless to say, it was a bit of a long day.  And Addie didn't hardly sleep the whole trip!  I thought for sure she'd zonk out on the plane, but no -- she fell asleep about 10min before we landed in Denver and then was awake for the entire flight to Orlando.  And treated the middle seat as her jungle gym, warranting us several glares from the guy in front of us (hey, if you fly to Orlando don't be surprised if there's a wired WDW-bound kid aboard).  After arriving at the airport we actually got our luggage pretty quickly, but then wandered around for about 20min trying to find our Disney's Magical Express bus (not feeling so magical at the time as we were pushing a tired kid, carrying all of our carry-ons, and dragging 3 bags with us).  We finally found it, boarded, and eventually made it to our hotel -- got checked in and then wandered aimlessly about trying to find our room (seriously, Disney does not apparently believe in signage -- we repeatedly found ourselves lost with nothing to indicate where the heck we were) in the dark.  Once we finally got there and settled it was after midnight, so we were more than ready for bed.

We stayed at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort.  Not too shabby.  Nice room.  The resort is huge, so you do have to walk a bit to get anywhere (ice, food, bus).  Crazy air-conditioned (our housekeeper kept setting the thermostat to 63 and we were freezing our buns off!).  Nice view of a lake -- where we saw an alligator, several turtles, and lots of fish.  

We also saw countless lizards each morning and found tiny frogs and snails each night that it rained.

Speaking of weather, I didn't die quite as much as I thought I would.  Don't get me wrong -- it was HOT!  But we managed ok.  I took a hydration pack to each park -- after filling it with ice at the hotel each morning.  That worked perfect!  It has 2 small pockets in the front -- big enough for my ID, $$, park tickets, and camera (one zippered and one cinched, so I felt my stuff was very secure -- and easily reachable).  And we had ice for pretty much the whole day!  Hydration was definitely important.  BTW, a cup of ice water is free at most places, if you don't want to keep spending money on soda or bottled water.  Saturday, Sunday, and today (Thursday) were probably the worst for heat.  We just tried to find air conditioning as much as possible.  There was a bit of a storm Sunday (my mom and Addie about got blown out of the pool), which helped cut the humidity a bit.  Monday rained for several hours, but it really didn't bother me (Addie whined, but we just covered her and the entire stroller with a poncho) -- I'd rather have that than the straight heat.  We also got some light showers on Tuesday.  Overall, not horrible.  Back to the resort... I believe there were 4 pools.  Nice to have multiple ones and the one nearest our room wasn't bad, but none were very little kid friendly.  All over 3.5ft deep.  Addie had to play on the stairs until we found her a Nemo floatie in the resort store.  One evening we walked halfway around the resort to visit the special "kid pool".  There was a small sandbox and a crummy splashpad -- next to the main, deep pool filled to the brim with teenagers and an adjacent "hot tub" that was luke warm at best.  So not overly impressed there.  The resort store was great -- actually had almost everything I had ended up buying at the parks.  Tip -- I wouldn't bother shopping at the parks (unless you have a kid that is more interested in that than anything else there and with the exception of Epcot, that has lots of specialty stores) because chances are you'll find just as much and more at your resort hotel and Downtown Disney (although we could have skipped Downtown altogether and still found all our souvenirs at our resort store).  That will just give you more time to enjoy the attractions of the park.  Food was good, although they had some crummy service for the first couple days.  It seemed to get better, so I'm wondering if they got some complaints.  They had a small cafe that we visited regularly with a small grill (which is where the issue was -- they repeatedly had several people behind the counter but it was near impossible to get anyone to actually take your order).  They also had 2 restaurants, but one was a buffet (really, do you think us small girls are going to eat $44 worth of food in one sitting?) and the other was a nice restaurant only open 5pm-10pm that we just missed.  So we frequented the cafe even with the crummy service, but found ourselves pleasantly surprised with the food.

I love to take pics of flowers and our resort just had way too many beautiful ones to ignore.

Now for the parks...

Day One:  Animal Kingdom


Can't you see how thrilled she was?

Quick note -- we used the Disney busses the entire time we were there and I'd highly recommend them.  We never waited more than 20min (which was rare -- from our resort, that seemed to only occur with the Typhoon Lagoon & Downtown Disney bus), they're air conditioned, and they get you pretty close to the park entrance.  Also, I think we only stood once, maybe twice -- and we visited during a fairly busy time.  The worst part is probably the canned announcement you get every time you board and unboard -- we had that thing completely memorized in about a day.

Attractions we saw...

• Discovery Island Trails -- well, we saw some of these.  They were our last stop and frankly, we were just hot and tired.  Too tired to really try to find every trail.  But we did see a few.  In fact, Addie's favorite part of the day was the little bunny we saw right before we left the park.
• Festival of the Lion King -- awesome!  Honestly, I had very little desire to see this.  I had gone through each park online before we left and marked the attractions I wanted to see.  This didn't make the cut.  I'm not a musical fan, and the shows just didn't sound that great to me.  But it was repeatedly recommended, and personally recommended to my mom by a friend, so we decided to check it out.  It's also air conditioned, so we figured even if it was a bore, we at least got to sit down in a cool building for a bit.  We were selected for front row seats (they were great, but I actually think the show might be better from further back -- it was hard to see everything -- and Addie wasn't fond of the "animals" interacting with her).  Anywho, great show!  The costumes and set are amazing and the performers were fantastic.  Highly recommend!
• Kilimanjaro Safari -- so awesome we went twice!  This is a live animal safari.  We saw things I can't identify, crocodiles, lots of giraffes, hippos, elephants (even babies! -- my fave part of the day), rhinoceros, ostrich (and ostrich eggs), a lion, termite mounds (quite impressive actually), flamingos, and I'm sure something I've forgotten.  Addie actually fell asleep on the first ride -- the poor girl was so tired.  I would recommend going twice -- the animals move around, and the guide can make a difference (our first one was particularly great).
• Pangani Forest Exploration Trail -- just like walking through the zoo.  Addie slept through it and the stroller was a bit difficult to maneuver while trying to lean it back so she wouldn't fall out (it's a little $5 umbrella stroller).  Gorillas were definitely the best part.
• Wildlife Express Train -- a mandatory ride to get to Rafiki's Planet Watch.  Short trip, but pretty landscape.
• Habitat Habit! -- again, like a zoo.  Worth walking through.
• Conservation Station -- if nothing else, great place to rest!  It's open, not as busy as the rest of the park, and AIR-CONDITIONED!  Addie enjoyed coloring, playing some games, and petting an alligator and snake.  They also have some more cool animals to see.
• Affection Section -- disappointing.  Seriously, you'd think Disney World would have an amazing petting zoo.  Just a bunch of sheep and goats corralled in a large, hot, dirt area.  Oh, and pigs too.  Pretty lame.
• Flights of Wonder -- definitely worth a watch.  The actors are pretty funny, and the birds fly right over head.
• Maharajah Jungle Trek -- another zoo-like walking trail.  Very cool bat exhibit -- it and the komodo dragon enclosure put our poor Boise zoo to shame.
• TriceraTop Spin -- first ride of the trip!  Similar to Dumbo or the magic carpet -- sit and go up and down and around.  Perfect for Addie.

This is her with baby Kali, adopted on Saturday and carried with us for the remainder of the trip.

She finally livened up a bit at the Conservation Station.  Probably because we were able to cool off for a minute.

At the lame Affection Section.

Last stop before leaving the park - where Addie saw the little bunny, her favorite part of the day.

Attractions we missed...

• The Oasis Exhibits -- not quite sure how we missed this.  I think we were too excited when we got there (it's right at the entrance) and too exhausted when we left.
• It's Tough to be a Bug! -- just never quite made it there.
• Greeting Trails -- Addie is petrified of anything in an animal costume.  We avoided characters (except princesses) the entire trip.
• Kali River Rapids -- Addie freaks if a drop of water hits her -- this ride was out of the question (unfortunately -- believe me, we both wanted to get drenched!).
• Expedition Everest -- no roller coasters for Addie either.  I thought about going solo, but we never made it back that direction.
• The Boneyard -- we were so gung-ho that morning that we hit the park right when it opened -- but this doesn't open until an hour later.  We went by too early, and never made it back around.
• Fossil Fun Games -- I am just not a carnival games person.
• Finding Nemo, The Musical -- again, just came by too early and never made it back around.
• Primeval Whirl -- rollercoaster.
• DINOSAUR -- sounded too scary for Addie.  We didn't end up hitting much of Dinoland at all.  Addie was excited to see dinosaurs, but they really didn't have anything for her age except the TriceraTop Spin.

For food we grabbed a bit at the Yak & Yeti Restaurant (ate breakfast and dinner at the resort).  Although it's expensive, as any theme park is (for their express places, plan about $9 per adult meal and $7 per kid meal -- we usually got one of each and shared it between us, so our usual lunch or dinner was about $20 total), I have to say that food at WDW is pretty darn good.  I really never ate anything I was disappointed with.  This includes the express locations (we never did eat at a normal sit-down restaurant because they always seemed so darned busy), the cafe at the resort, and room service.  Always quite tasty.  The best?  A strawberry tart at the French bakery at Epcot (to die for!) and the corn-flake-crusted french toast at the Wolfgang Puck Express in Downtown Disney this morning (yummy!).

I repeatedly read postings before we left about how you just can't do the parks in one day.  I beg to differ.  If you don't have a whiny tired kid that insists on hitting every store and taking far too long to make decisions, and if you like to get up and go and know how to walk at a decent pace (not the insanely slow, gawking, randomly stopping pace), you can easily take down a park in a day.  I believe Animal Kingdom is the biggest in terms of acreage, and I didn't find it any bigger than any other theme park I've been to.  Just depends on how much gawking you want to do.  :)  Oh, and wait times for the attractions we hit at AK -- nothing over 20min.  It's usually the bigger, scarier rides that have longer wait times.

Oh, big tip -- we ran across a baby care station-- best find ever!  Air conditioned, quiet, places to sit, and entertainment for the little ones.  Great little resting point in the heat of the afternoon.  I was surprised they only had one at the entire park (and in every other park).  In fact, I was surprised at how non-little-kid-friendly all of WDW was.  Not that's it's unfriendly, but no more friendly than any other theme park.  And like I said, the signage is terrible.  So be sure to grab a map and know your map (although I wasn't overly impressed with those either -- I'm pretty darn good at navigating a map, but they're so small and not detailed, it was often hard to figure out exactly where we were), and know where the nearest restroom is (especially if you have little one that still can't hold it for long because she doesn't bother to tell you until she REALLY has to go).   Oh, and speaking of maps, I downloaded the WDW app before we left and was very excited about it.  They even promoted it on our bus on the way to the resort.  Well my excitement quickly ended because I repeatedly had problems with it.  It frequently failed to locate me within the park, the map was small and hard to see, and the darn thing took longer to load than it did for us to stumble into the place we were looking for.  It was, however, useful for wait times (if you could get the darn thing to actually load -- but it only gives you wait times for rides, not for seeing characters/princesses).

Days Two and Four:  Magic Kingdom

This was the big one.  This was the one I knew would light up my little girl's face, even after the rough day before it.  This was the "magical" place.  Hmm, not so much...  :)  Don't think I could have been more wrong.  I think my darling daughter just may have taken the magic right out.  Not that it's not magical -- but my excitement was not nearly matched by my still-tired, hot, non-crowd-loving 4yo.  My hyped up expectations and the frustrating day before (I didn't go into it too much, but we were in meltdown mode within about an hour of arrival and the only thing the crabby kid would get remotely excited about was buying a damn toy -- and the meltdowns continued throughout our stay over SUCH trivial things -- where we sat to eat, where we sat on the bus, the fact that Grandma talked to, looked at, or touched her, that she got one drop of water on her shirt...) -- I'm not sure there's much more frustrating than a dealing with a tantruming kid in public at a place that you've gone for her enjoyment, that you've spent a lot of money on, and that you've looked forward to for months -- led to another rough morning.  We ended up leaving for a break and coming back (and then coming back another day).  It was then that I was reminded of my night owl -- when she was finally excited and running around after 10pm.

Attractions we saw/rode...

• Walt Disney World Railroad -- nice little ride around the park, although don't use it to navigate because you can see very little of the actual park (WDW is green, green, green with trees, trees, trees -- there isn't much you can see very far away from you).  FYI -- under the Frontierland stop there is a nice little play area for kids ages 2-5.  One of the few spots we found specifically for that age and Addie loved it -- the first time she really went off independently to play.
• Town Square Theater -- here we got to see Sleeping Beauty, Belle, and Cinderella.  Now, you'd never know it if you were there (with a child who refused to look at, speak to, or pose with any of them) or saw the pictures (with a 4yo being carried by her mom with a miserable look on her face), but Addie loved this!  She was very enchanted by them.  And they were all so sweet to her, trying their hardest to get her to smile and talk (but not being too pushy).  It was about a 30min wait but well worth it.  We even got to see Sleeping Beauty again the second day.
• Swiss Faily Treehouse -- pretty cool.  Just a walkthrough, but fun to see.
• The Magic Carpets of Aladdin -- Addie really enjoyed it.  Again, like Dumbo -- up and down and around.  We rode twice.
• Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room -- if you ask me, cheesy and boring.  But Addie seemed to like it.  And it's an air-conditioned room with seating, with a short wait time -- good place for a rest.
• Jungle Cruise -- we ended up hitting this during the Extra Magic Hours on Sunday, around midnight.  Fun, and we had a great "skipper" (holy smokes this guy could talk fast!!).  We intended to ride again in the day, but frankly, I think we just forgot.
• Pirates of the Carribean -- oops, bad call on my part.  There is a slight drop near the beginning of the ride -- in pitch black -- I ended up with a screaming child (who thankfully calmed down pretty quickly).  I didn't remember being all that impressed with this when I went in Disneyland in high school, and again wasn't all that impressed.  Maybe if you like pirates.
• Splash Mountain -- well I did it and it was TOTALLY AWESOME!!!  My favorite ride.  I remember loving it at DisneyLand too.  A must.
• Liberty Square Riverboat -- nice way to see Tom Sawyer and some of the rest of the park, but hot.
• Mickey's PhilharMagic -- this wasn't bad, but we were sitting rather close and to the side, so it never looked quite right (still blurry).
• Prince Charming Regal Carrousel -- yep, it's a carousel. :)
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh -- first time using the Fast Pass - very cool way to go.  Fun little ride.  Worth the wait.
• Mad Tea Party -- Addie insisted on riding twice.  Short wait times.
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant -- Addie had a fit ride before getting on (she got in trouble because she refused to walk and was holding up the line), so I'm not sure how much she enjoyed it.  But it has a very cool little playroom to enjoy while you're waiting (air-conditioned even).
• Tomorrowland Speedway -- we were pretty disappointed.  The line is mostly in the sun, and the cars are hard to steer, jerky, and slow.
• Space Mountain -- another one just for me and another AWESOME one!  Again, loved it in high school and still love it.  Although it reminded me of my age when I left feeling like I had whiplash after riding in the back and already having a sore neck from carrying a clingy child around much of the day.
• Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin -- just Addie and I ended up doing this after I discovered I couldn't get a Fast Pass since I just got one for Splash Mountain (didn't realize you were limited on how many you could get in a certain time frame).  It was fun to look at, but you're supposed to spin your car around to shoot the Z's (Zorg) and Addie didn't want to spin.
• Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor -- now I love Monsters, Inc.  One of 2 kid movies I owned before having kids.  But I wasn't overly interested in this.  We decided to give it a shot, and it's adorable.  Definitely worth it.
• Celebrate A Dream Come True Parade -- we ended up catching this just after leaving the baby care center and a much needed break.  Addie had yet to show any enthusiasm, but seemed into watching the parade.  I put her on my shoulders (whew!) and my mom said she had a grin the entire time.  That was when she decided she was into the princesses.  :)
• Dapper Dans -- I'm pretty sure this is what we saw.  Singing and dancing.  Entertaining.
• The Magic, The Memories, and You! -- caught this while waiting for fireworks.  I thought it was a little lame.  Addie liked it.  Pretty much the castle turns colors and shows images and there's music.
• Main Street Electrical Parade -- caught this the second time around and Addie was WAY into it (I'm talking dancing AND clapping -- quite enthusiastic for her).
• Wishes nighttime spectacular -- may I remind you, we had to leave the 4th of July fireworks because we had 2 screaming kids...  but I wasn't going to let that stop me.  Addie pouted in the stroller while we watched.  Awesome.  The crowd afterwards?  Not so awesome.  We were on Main Street to watch, but were staying for Extra Magic Hours (these are for resort guests only -- everyone else had to leave by 11pm -- this is at 10pm).  We got stuck pushing our way past thousands of exiting park guests.  It was a madhouse.  But once we broke through, totally worth it because we walked right onto rides.  The next night we went, when there were no extended hours, we left at 9:45pm to avoid the masses.
• Other characters we saw (from a distance -- mostly in the parades) -- Mickey and Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Tianna, Ariel, Alice in Wonderland, Pinnochio's crew, Peter Pan and Captain Hook, Snow White (who we got to meet at Epcot) and the seven dwarves, Belle, Jafar, Chip and Dale, Cinderella's mice, and I'm sure others I'm forgetting.  We never did get to meet Tinkerbell or Ariel which was a bit of a disappointment.  And I never found Rapunzel on any list, but there is a posting online that claims you can see her at WDW.  ??

Now anyone that knows my little princess knows that she watches EVERYthing, CLOSELY.  So even though she appeared to ignore those princesses, she was observing.  And afterwards, she was ready to practice her princess poses.  I couldn't have been more thrilled with this pic - my first glimpse of that "magic".  ;)

Attempted to get a quick pic on the carousel.

My night owl, going strong at midnight.

Seriously, we left the park at 1:30am!

Attractions we missed...

• Main Street Vehicles -- I never did see a place to even get on one, and we only saw one (a horse-drawn carriage) go by the entire time.
• The Pirates League -- never even saw this (it's separately priced anyway).
• Tinker Bell's Magical Nook -- we had good intentions, but it was an hour wait with no Fast Pass, so we bagged it.
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad -- I really wanted to hit this one, but just never made it.
• Tom Sawyer Island -- we were just too darned hot, didn't want to wait for the little boat, and didn't want to walk without the stroller.
• Country Bear Jamboree -- Addie hates the bears at Chuck E. Cheese, so we didn't bother.
• The Hall of Presidents -- um, our thoughts...  booooring.  ;)
• Haunted Mansion -- ain't no way my timid 4yo was up for that.
• Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique -- my princess had no interest.
• Dream Along with Mickey -- I think we may have seen a part of this, but there was no place to sit or stand in the shade and we were melting.
• The Barnstormer -- no roller coasters for my wee one.
• Casey Jr. Splash N' Soak Station -- she actually wanted to go, but by the time we got there she had cooled down and wasn't interested anymore.
• Astro Orbiter -- just didn't seem like something Addie would like.
• Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover -- just not much interest.
• Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress -- not much interest.
• Stitch's Great Escape -- Addie is not quite big enough and it's marked as being potentially frightening.

Food...  Got sundaes at Plaza Ice Cream Parlor -- delicious, but disappointed at no indoor seating (we were HOT!).  Ate at Columbia Harbor House for a late lunch -- quite yummy.

Okay, that's all I have so far.  I'll type up the rest later.  I also have some more pics to add from my phone.  But for now, off to dinner at Chicago Connection (yum!) with my dad and bro.  :)