House of Estrogen

Disney World 2013 Trip Report, Day 6, Magic Kingdom Again

We were really hoping Nina would be completely recovered and ready to take on Disney, but she had a rough morning starting about 5:30 a.m., so we left her to sleep in.

Elise, Addie, and I took off for a second day at Magic Kingdom. We walked straight over to Fantasyland to pick up fastpasses for the Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Then we hopped in line to meet Ariel. Can you imagine sitting in that mermaid outfit? It looks like it would feel so awkward.

Then we rode the new Little Mermaid ride. It is really nice. It is essentially a clone of the Nemo ride at Epcot, but it tells the story of the Little Mermaid. It is cute and well done. After that, we got a call from J.C. that Nina was feeling better, had kept down some food, and they were on their way to meet us! Yea!

Next we caught up with Gaston. He is absolutely hysterical! By far, he gave the best character interaction of the trip. The pictures with him cracked me up too.

 

Then we were off to Adventureland to meet up with J.C. and Nina.  We were so excited she was able to come. She had to stay off any spinny, fast, or up-and-down rides, but fortunately Magic Kingdom still has lots of options. We picked up fastpasses for Jungle Cruise and then went on Pirates of the Caribbean. With Addie being such a huge fan of Jake and the Neverland Pirates, she was really excited about going on Pirates of the Caribbean. I wasn't sure how she would like it since the pirates are quite different from the smiling, friendly animated variety, but she had a ball. Toward the end of the ride, we got stuck for about 10 minutes here.

I had never ridden that ride before, so I didn't know if we were supposed to be stuck or not, but I started to wonder if we were going to have to get out and swim. Eventually, they came on with an announcement that we were indeed stuck and would start moving in a few minutes.

As with so many rides, Disney marketing has mastered the art of ending every ride in a gift shop themed to that ride.  (This is an awful picture, but it was so great to see a smile on Nina's face!)

Pirates of the Caribbean dumped us out in the pirate themed gift shop, so Addie left there the proud owner of Jake to accompany Izzy who was purchased earlier in the week. As we were walking over to Jungle Cruise, a pirate cast member outside of Pirates of the Caribbean said to Addie, "Yo Ho! You have Jake and Izzy there!" Then he completely mangled the names of two other characters in the show while trying to tell Addie she needed those too. Elise gave him the classic 11 year old rolled eyes look.  I think the pirate characters need some Jake and the Neverland Pirates education if they plan to chat with five year olds.

Next up was Jungle Cruise. It was so nice that there were two rides in easy walking distance that were slow, flat, non-nauseating boat rides... just right for poor Nina.

We stopped at Pecos Bill's for an early lunch. That was pretty forgettable. I'm not sure I'd go there again. Then, Elise and J.C. headed off to Big Thunder Mountain which was clearly not an option for Nina, so the little girls and I went over to Tomorrowland for a ride on the People Mover, another slow, mostly flat ride.

Nina needed a little rest, so we sat down with a snack and waited for J.C. and Elise. Then it was off to the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor which I absolutely love. That show ranks up there as one of my favorite attractions at Magic Kingdom.

Elise really wanted to meet the princesses. (Yes, Elise... really, that wasn't a typo... she's the oldest of the three, but the only one who still loves princesses). I walked over to grab fastpasses for the princesses while everybody else watched the parade. Then we all took one more spin on the People Mover.

Nina really truly had no interest in the princesses whatsoever, so she and J.C. stayed out on the porch while I took the other two in.

 

Next we had to race off for our reservations at the new restaurant in Beast's castle, Be Our Guest. I had promised Addison that she could ride the carousel before dinner, so even though we were tight for time, JC, Elise, and Addison hopped on the carousel for a quick ride while Nina and I checked in for dinner. As Nina and I waited for them, we got a kick out of the people who walked up to the check-in desk every couple of minutes to ask how long the wait was. Then, they seemed completely shocked when they were told that the restaurant was fully booked and couldn't take walk-ins.  Do they not realize that all of us dining there that night had made reservations 180 days earlier?

I really hate to even share pictures of this restaurant because my pictures do not do it justice at all. It is gorgeous... like breathtakingly, perfectly, wonderfully gorgeous. You really have to experience it in person.

The food was very good too. J.C. got the pork rack chop which he said was fabulous. Elise and I both ordered the sauteed shrimp and scallops in puff pastry. It was very good, but I think I might try something different another time. It wasn't a must-get. Addison got the awful grilled chicken again. I think Disney needs to take that off their kids' menus. I know they are trying to be healthier, but it just isn't good. Go back to good ol' chicken nuggets. Poor Nina was starting to tank, so she didn't eat any of her pasta. The desserts were gorgeous. Elise and I shared the chocolate cupcake and the lemon cream puff. We both actually preferred the cream puff - shocking!

Elise was the only one brave enough to visit with Beast.

Beast's castle looks really neat lit up at night.

After dinner, we offered Nina the option to stay and watch fireworks since she had missed them the night before. She was wiped out though, so we headed back to the resort for our last night in Florida.

Day 6 Favorites:

Addison: the boat ride (Pirates of the Caribbean) and the other boat ride (Jungle Cruise)

Nina: getting to go to Magic Kingdom

Elise: Big Thunder Mountain

J.C.: Big Thunder Mountain

Ann: Be Our Guest and having Nina with us

Disney World 2013 Trip Report, Day 5, Magic Kingdom

Day 5 was a very, very bad day for half of our family. It started out well enough. We decided this day was going to be our one sleep-in day. We weren't in a rush, so we went for a leisurely breakfast at the resort. Nina was complaining of her tummy hurting, but we assumed she was just hungry. We thought breakfast would solve her problem. We all enjoyed our breakfast except for Nina who mostly picked at hers and laid down in the booth.

By the end of breakfast, she was starting to look worse, not better. Our plan had been to spend the morning swimming, but Nina opted for a nap. Anytime your child chooses a nap over swimming at a fun resort pool, you know things are bad. Elise, Addie, and J.C. headed off to the pool. Nina was sound asleep the minute her head hit the pillow.

She slept like a rock for a couple of hours. JC and the girls planned on staying at the pool until she woke  up so as not to bother her. She began to stir, so I texted JC that she was waking up. As they started the (long) walk back from the pool, Nina leaped out of bed and ran to the bathroom to throw up. If there was any doubt about her being sick, there were no longer any doubts. J.C. agreed to stay in the room with her while the rest of us grabbed lunch at the resort and headed off to Magic Kingdom. While we felt bad having to leave them there, we were a also bit relieved to get away from Nina's germs.

Note to self: If your child plans to take a picture holding Tinker Bell, make sure she is not wearing a busy shirt with lots of colors on it. Tink disappears in the shirt.

Our first order of business was fastpasses for Dumbo. Besides meeting Jake, Addie's other big goal for this trip was riding Dumbo.  The poor child had asked every morning, "Is today the day we get to ride Dumbo?" and got a no response four mornings in a row. We walked directly to the new Fantasy Land and picked up fastpasses for Dumbo and Barnstormer. The machine shot out a free fastpass for Mickey's Philharmagic as well. I didn't like that show last time I saw it, so I didn't intend to use that one. I stuffed it in my pocket anyway. Much to my dismay, Addie wanted to ride the teacups too. She is too young to ride them with just Elise, so I was stuck riding that awful ride. The two of them loved it.

Me? Not so much.

Then it was finally time for the big moment... Dumbo!  I'm not sure if this really lived up to Addie's expectations, but she still claims it was her favorite part of the trip. Personally, I think she had much more fun on Test Track and Soarin'.

Next was Barnstormer. Addie liked it. Elise thought it was a bit of a snooze. I think she has finally graduated from the kiddie rides.

After that, we picked up fastpasses for Peter Pan. We needed to kill a little time before our fastpass return time. Since we had the freebie fastpasses for Mickey's Philharmagic, we just went to that. I should have stuck with my gut and skipped it. I really don't like that show. Oh well, live and learn. Peter Pan was, of course, excellent, so we finished our time in Fantasy Land on a high note.

Next, we hopped on the train to Frontier Land. I had seen in the character guide that Jessie was going to be doing a meet and greet soon. She was the character I was most excited to see, so getting to Jessie was our next mission. Her meeting spot is a little hidden. It is by the Splash Mountain queue, but Splash Mountain is undergoing renovations, so there really isn't any traffic over there. That worked to our advantage. Since she wasn't out there yet, there were only a few people in line in front of us.

Woody was a bonus! We didn't know he would be there too.

After our photo op with Jessie, Addison actually gave her a hug. I was so excited she was finally getting comfortable with the characters and even more excited it was with Jessie. Sadly, I didn't pull my camera out quickly enough to snap a picture. It was very sweet though... you'll just have to trust me on that one.

Throughout the day, J.C. had been texting me updates about Nina. The were texts like, "Threw up again", "I'm worried about Nina. Her eyes just rolled back in her head, and she passed out on the bathroom floor.", "Doing a little better. She's watching TV.", and then, "Watched TV for 15 minutes then fell asleep again."  Clearly, Nina was having a really horrible day. Considering JC hadn't left the room the entire day, I'm sure his day wasn't much better. I tried to convince him to switch places with me to go to dinner with Addison and Elise, but he refused saying he wanted to let me enjoy the trip. What a great guy!

Next, we walked to Adventure Land in hopes of riding a couple things there. Most had waits that were too long and fastpasses that were too far out, so we treated ourselves to some Mickey ice cream bars and rode The Magic Carpets of Aladdin.

Then we did a little shopping and hopped on the monorail to the Polynesian for dinner at 'Ohana. I was so sad that J.C. and Nina couldn't join us. 'Ohana is our family's favorite restaurant in Disney World. As usual, everything was delicious!

Customer service was fantastic too. Remember how Le Cellier wouldn't even switch out a potato side with J.C.'s steak?  'Ohana has a mixed veggie dish which contains baby corn among other things. Addie had eaten all of the baby corn out of the dish that was served family style at our table. She asked the waiter if she could have more baby corn. He brought some out in a little bowl for her. She ate all of those and asked for more. He said,"I'll see if I can get out a few more. I have to dig through the mixed veggies to find them!"  So... keeping score... Le Cellier - can't even throw a potato on a plate...  'Ohana - will painstakingly sort through mixed veggies to pull out just the baby corn. 

A+ to 'Ohana... love that place!

After dinner, we hopped the monorail back to Magic Kingdom for Wishes. That is such a great show, and we had a really good viewing spot right in the middle of Main Street.

J.C. doesn't care much about fireworks, but we were all feeling sad that Nina couldn't be there with us to enjoy it.

As we were leaving the park, we decided to buy one of the little spinning glow toys that they sell during the fireworks shows for Nina. If she couldn't be there with us, we figured we would bring a tiny bit of the show to her.

It was a late night, and Addie crashed on the bus ride back.

We got back to the room to find Nina looking slightly more human than she had that morning. She had spent the day in one of the queen sized beds, so in order to cut down on germ transfer, we moved her to the murphy bed. We called mousekeeping to bring clean sheets for the queen bed and then put Addie and Elise in there. We went to sleep hoping for a better tomorrow.

Day 5 Favorites:

Addison: Dumbo, Teacups, Barnstormer, parade (I forgot to mention that in the post, but I guess we watched the parade at some point too), baby corn, fireworks, castle changing colors, chicken legs (an appetizer at 'Ohana), and the monorail.  (She listed those off in exactly that order!)

Nina: the spinny light-up toy

Elise: fireworks and 'Ohana

Ann: fireworks and 'Ohana

J.C.: catching Addie at the bottom of the slide at the pool - watching her so proud of herself, squealing and laughing

 

Disney World Trip Report, Days 7 and 8

 
Our last full day at the park was December 17, Addison's third birthday. The sun finally decided to warm things up, so we were treated to the best weather of the week. Addie was sporting her very cool birthday tee that my friend K made. (She also made the tees the girls wore to Animal Kingdom. Thank you K!!).

 

Our first order of business was to go by the front desk to pick up a birthday button for her. Even though the shirt pretty clearly spells out that it was her birthday, we knew all the cast members at the parks were trained to look for birthday buttons. The person working the front desk asked me her name and then asked Addie how old she was. She responded, "Free and a half." I told the front desk clerk that she was in fact just three, not three and a half. She had already labeled the button with "3 1/2" though, so we just took it and went on our way. This is a key piece of information for later that morning. In case you don't know, Disney World provides free lodging, park tickets, and buffet meals for children under three.

 

We had breakfast in the hotel at Captain Cook's. Elise and I split a piece of Tonga Toast since it was our last chance for that goodie. Then we hopped on the monorail and headed to Magic Kingdom. I walked up to the entrance like always, slid my ticket into the machine and placed my finger on the finger print scanner. Then I waited for the cast member to open the gate for Addie in the stroller. He looked at me and said, "She needs a ticket."  Crap. Stupid button and t-shirt! I said, "Really???? This is the last day of our trip. We've been here all week. She just turns three today."  He said, "No. She's three and a half", pointing to the button.  &*$# button!  "No! She just likes to say she's three and a half. She's not. She turns three today... later today. Really, this is our LAST day here. We've been here all week. Please don't make us buy a ticket on our last day"  He looked at me skeptically and then finally relented and said, "OK. I'll let you in." Whew! We promptly removed the button, went directly to Guest Services and obtained a new button with just her name on it.

Then we were off to Tomorrowland. J.C. went ahead of us to grab fastpasses for Space Mountain. Then we met up at Astro Orbiter. Addison loved this ride! It was so fun to watch her smiling and giggling through the whole thing!

 

Next, the girls and I used our fastpasses to ride Space Mountain. They loved it, but I have to say I was not a fan. It made my neck hurt. Clearly, I'm just getting old. After Space Mountain, we took a whirl on the People Mover. That was surprisingly much more fun than it looks like it would be! Do those sunglasses make me look like a fly?

 

 

By the time we were done with the People Mover, it was time for us to get to the entrance to Toon Town, so we could go in as soon as it opened. We followed Tour Guide Mike's instructions, and as much as I hate to admit it, I think he may have steered us wrong on this one. He recommended we follow his secret path to Toon Town. We did that, and it was definitely secret. We were the only ones on it. Unfortunately, I think they must have opened the main entrance a few minutes earlier than the secret entrance. By the time we got there, there was already a 30 minute wait to see the fairies in Pixie Hollow. Bummer. Honestly though, we can't complain too much since that is the longest line we had to wait in all week. As we got into the line, J.C. discovered that a pop tart had exploded in his backpack. Strawberry goop was everywhere, so he went back outside to find a bathroom and clean up the mess. That left me alone with the three girls waiting in the line. When we finally got to the very front of the line, within mere seconds of seeing the fairies, Addie yelled out a panicked, "I need to go potty!"  You really don't want to mess with a newly potty-trained just-turned-three year old when she says she needs to go potty. I looked around frantically trying to see if I could find a bathroom or flag down J.C.. I told the cast member what our problem was, and she responded, "Can't she just wait? You're almost there."  Clearly, she has never been the mother of a newly potty-trained just-turned-three year old. After waiting in that long line though, I decided to hope for the best. I knew we had spare pants in the pop-tart coated backpack if we needed them. I told Addie to hold it and crossed my fingers.

I don't know any fairies' names except for Tinker Bell, but there was an orangish one,...

 

a purplish one, ...

 

and the star of the show, Tinker Bell.

 

The second we were done, I picked up Addie and ran as fast as I could to the bathroom. Fortunately, we made it. Whew! After that, it was time for our lunch reservations at Crystal Palace. Addie had been talking all week about seeing "Pig-oh-lit", so we were all looking forward to lunch. Also, for the last few months, Addie has told us over and over, "My birt-day comin' up in December. I get candles for my birthday. I'm gonna have a cake with candles."  If you asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she always answered, "candles." She has not asked for a single thing other than that. When we checked in, I made sure they understood that we needed a cake with three candles... not just one, but three. A cake without candles would be no good. We needed candles.

Crystal Palace was nice. The food was good, and it was not rushed like 1900 Park Fare. J.C. said it was the best buffet we had all week, but he is wrong. Boma was the best. He is picky, so you have to take his food opinions with a grain of salt. Crystal Palace was fine, but really, nothing topped Boma in the buffet category. Plus, the characters were the main attraction anyway.

Here is the birthday girl with Pooh.

 

Of course Tigger and Eeyore were there too. Eeyore was looking appropriately gloomy.

 

 

Then Addie spotted Piglet from across the room. She yelled out, "PIG-OH-LIT!!" and started clapping.

 

She could hardly contain herself.

 

Then, her cake arrived. As cakes go, it wasn't particularly pretty, but it had candles. That was all that mattered. In the eyes of that little three year old, it was the perfect birthday - Pig-oh-lit and candles... what more could you ask for?

 

Actually, the cake fits in quite well with our run of ugly birthday cakes lately. She also got a birthday card signed by all the Pooh Corner characters which was really nice.

 

After lunch, we checked out the show at the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. It was a really cute show, better than we thought it would be. J.C. said he wished it had been longer. After that, J.C. and the girls used his parent swap ticket to ride Space Mountain. He was not crazy about Space Mountain either. He is so tall that he didn't fit in the ride well. With the entire ride being pitch black, he kept worrying he was going to hit his head on something!

While they were riding Space Mountain, Addie and I walked over to the castle to watch the Dream Along with Mickey show. It was fun too. Addie really enjoyed it.

 

 

After the show, J.C. and Addie were pooped, so they headed back to the hotel for naps. The girls and I decided to stay a bit longer. First we went on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. Was that ever a disappointment! It felt like the low-tech, less fun, red-headed step-child to Toy Story Mania. If you are going to ride this ride, I highly suggest riding it before you ever ride Toy Story Mania. It might be fun if you don't have Toy Story Mania for comparison. Next we found a spot to watch the Celebrate A Dream Come True Parade. It was cute. I took some pictures, but they really aren't very good. For once, I'll spare you a few pictures and skip those.

After the parade, Elise convinced me it was warm enough to ride Splash Mountain, so we took the train over to Frontierland. I sat next to Nina for Splash Mountain, and the child literally giggled and laughed the entire ride. It was so fun sitting next to her and soaking up her joy!  We all had fun, but we were drenched. By the time we were done, the sun was starting to set, and we were COLD... miserably wet and cold. We took off for the hotel, but the express monorail was out of service, so there was a huge line for the resort monorail. The line for the boat looked much more manageable, so we opted for that. What were we thinking? An open-air boat... at night... in the wind... in soaking wet clothes?  Yeah... that was fun. Let's just say we were really, really glad when we got back to the hotel and could put on warm dry clothes. For dinner, we just hit up Captain Cook's in the hotel. Nina was dying to see fireworks after having missed them a couple nights before, so I went back out to the beach with the girls to watch the show. It was the Holiday Wishes show, and the music wasn't piped onto the beach. I was bummed about that. It was a good show, but not nearly as good as it would have been with the music. I was glad Elise and I were able to see Wishes earlier in the week.

Day 7 Favorites:

J.C.: watching Addie with Piglet ("Pig-oh-lit")

Ann - sitting next to Nina on Splash Mountain

Elise - Space Mountain

Nina - Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin (OK, I guess somebody liked it), and the vanilla Dole Whip

Addie - "Pig-oh-lit"

The next morning, we got our boarding passes and checked our luggage at the resort (love that feature!) and boarded the Magical Express for our journey home. Lucky for us, it was a grey rainy day, so we didn't feel too upset about heading on home.

 

It really was a wonderful, magical trip. Disney certainly knows how to entertain. We enjoyed every minute of it.

Here are a few last thoughts and reviews:

Polynesian Resort - I have mixed feelings about the Poly. The location was superb. You really can't beat it with being on the monorail and so close to the Ticket and Transportation Center. With Addie still napping and dealing with a stroller, location was key. The volcano pool was also fantastic. The girls loved it. I just wish it had been warm enough to swim more. That said, there were a few things I didn't like. The whole place was very dark. I think that is just part of the theming, but I still didn't like it. The room was dark. The halls were dark. I felt like I could never get enough light. Our bed was not comfortable - like not at all. It also looks like it could use some renovations, and the cast members did not seem as friendly and helpful as the ones at Port Orleans French Quarter where we stayed last time. If I were to stay at a monorail resort again, I think I might try one of the others. If I were to stay off the Monorail, I loved the look of the Wilderness Lodge when we went there for dinner.

Best Meal - Boma

Best Character Meal - tie: 'Ohana and Crystal Palace

Best Characters at a Character Meal - 1900 Park Fare

Most Fun Non-character Meal - Whispering Canyon

Best Counter-service Meal - Earl of Sandwich

Favorite Ride - tie: Expedition Everest and Toy Story Mania

Best Holiday Decorations at a Park - Osborne Family Lights at Hollywood Studios

Best Holiday Decorations at a Resort - Grand Floridian

Things We Wanted To Do But Didn't - Test Track (too cold), Kali River Rapids (too cold), meet Jessie (Just didn't work out. She was in Frontierland, and we didn't spend much time there.), the Lion King Show (too hard to fit in both that and the Nemo show)

Things We Did That We Won't Do Again - Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (unless Nina is dying to ride it) and 50's Prime Time.

Best Tips and Planning Advice for a Great Trip - Tour Guide Mike

Disney World blogging is now complete. For those of you who have completely OD'ed on Disney, I will be back to regular programming tomorrow!  

Disney World Trip Report, Days -1, 1, and 2

Yes, you read that right... day -1. Our Disney World "adventure" started the night before we left. Nina came home from ice skating camp complaining about her foot hurting. They had gone on a field trip to a bounce house place, and she said she hurt it there. Complaints and drama about injuries are par for the course around here, so I told her to shake it off and didn't think much more about it. After sitting down for a couple hours watching a Christmas movie; however, she was completely unable to walk. We looked at her foot, and it looked BAD... like broken foot bad. It was purple and swollen and certainly didn't look like anything that could walk around Disney World for a week. I rushed her over to urgent care. The doctor said it looked like she may have broken or "bent" a bone, so she had an x-ray. Fortunately, nothing was broken, it was just a bad sprain... not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but potentially huge the night before a Disney World trip. The doctor told us to keep her loaded up on Motrin and have her wear supportive sneakers. We spent the evening frantically trying to figure out whether to buy a new stroller that night, rent one there, or just cross our fingers that she could walk. We ended up just hoping for the best and figured she could use Addie's stroller as needed. Fortunately, by the next morning, it didn't look quite so bad. She was SLOW, but she could walk. Whew!

Day one was just a travel day... car, plane, tram, and bus. We checked into the Polynesian Resort, got our leis, and took the monorail over to the Contemporary for a quick dinner at the Contempo Cafe. The food was decent, and the kids enjoyed watching the monorail cruise through the building.

You generally think of Disney World being a G-rated, kid-friendly place, right? I certainly do, so words escaped me when I saw a woman boarding the monorail at the Contemporary wearing a super-skimpy Santa dress and red fishnet hose. You know those Playboy-esque Halloween costumes you always see advertised for women? Imagine one of those, Santa-style. That's what she was wearing with boobs popping out and thigh high red fishnets and red stilettos. There were just so many things wrong about it. She was on her way to "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party" in that get-up. Who wears that to see MICKEY MOUSE??? Bizarre. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, we headed back to the Poly.

It had been a long day, so Addie hit the sack while I took the big girls to swim. We knew cold weather was on the way and figured it might be our only chance to swim. The girls absolutely loved the water slide at the pool at our resort, but I have no clue how they kept getting out of the water to go up the stairs to it. It was ridiculously cold when you got out of the water. I think kids' temperature sensors don't really work quite right. You couldn't have paid me enough to get out of that water more than the one required time to get back to the room. They had a blast though, and I'm glad we had the opportunity to swim. Then it was off to bed for an early start at the Magic Kingdom the next day.

We got there early to beat the crowds. This is an awful picture with the girls in the dark shade, but I loved how there is nobody around! According to Addie, "Doofy helped Cinderella build her house." So if you ever wondered who built the castle, now you know.

  

We headed straight for Fantasyland where we had our first character spotting, White Rabbit.

 

Addie was hesitant, and Nina was downright petrified, so Elise was the only one brave enough for a picture.

 

Then we tackled Fantasyland.... Dumbo,

 

 

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh,

 

Peter Pan's Flight which completely terrified Addie (she'll be in therapy for that some day, I'm sure), but fortunately, she got over it fairly quickly with a ride on the carrousel.

 

We got to meet Mary Poppins. Doesn't she look practically perfect in every way?

 

Then the girls convinced J.C. to go on the Mad Tea Party with them. This was one time I was grateful when Addie proclaimed, "I need to go potty!!!", so I could race off with her and avoid the tea cups!

 

Next it was off to Goofy's Barnstormer. This picture is horribly blurry (who knew it was so hard to take pictures on a moving roller coaster?), but do you think Nina was having fun?

 

The Barnstormer was part two of "Project Traumatize Addison." She was not a fan.

 

After the Barnstormer, we decided to take the train around to Frontierland. The train was already in the station as we were walking toward it, so we took off in a run. J.C. was a bit behind us pushing the empty stroller that he had picked up from stroller parking, so he really had to run to catch up with us. I was given explicit permission to quote what he said when he got on the train: "I have to tell you, you were totally right about this stroller. It is amazing. I was able to fold it while running without ever even breaking my stride. I could hear people behind me saying, 'Did you see that? What was it? A city micro? We'll have to look that up!'  You can even write on your blog that I said that." Ahhh, it feels good to be right. We purchased the Baby Jogger City Micro just before our trip, and it was worth every penny!

In Frontierland, we got fastpasses for Splash Mountain, and the girls and J.C. rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It began to rain, so we dashed into Columbia Harbour House for lunch and to escape the rain. I had heard good reviews of Columbia Harbour House, but it didn't seem like anything special to me. The food was fine, but I wouldn't go out of my way to go there again.

The rain and the arrival of cooler temperatures put a damper on our plans for Splash Mountain, so we headed back to the hotel for naps.

For dinner, we monorailed and boated to the Wilderness Lodge Resort for dinner at the Whispering Canyon Cafe. The Wilderness Lodge was beautifully decorated for Christmas. I loved the tree and all the decorations. I think if I were to go to Disney again at Christmas time, I would like to stay at either the Wilderness Lodge or the Grand Floridian. They definitely win top honors for decorations.

 

We loved Whispering Canyon. The servers are hilarious, and the food was delicious. J.C. was completely enamoured with the bottomless milkshakes and the all you can eat meat, meat, meat, and more meat. I recommend Whispering Canyon, and we would certainly go there again. It was a lot of fun. It was a great end to our first full day.

 

Day 2 Favorites

J.C. - a tie between dinner at Whispering Canyon and sitting between Elise and Nina on Big Thunder Railroad, listening to them squeal

Ann - the Christmas decorations at the Wilderness Lodge and dinner at Whispering Canyon

Elise - Big Thunder Railroad

Nina - Big Thunder Railroad

Addie - carrousel