Day 3: Magic Kingdom

We had a bit of trouble arriving to Magic Kingdom. We left early enough, but a very helpful, but very misinformed, Disney worker told us we were on the wrong monorail and that ours didn't stop at Magic Kingdom. He explained all this while we were at the Magic Kingdom stop. Everyone else got off the train. When he realized his mistake, he was really embarrassed. I think he won't make that mistake again! We made it there eventually, and we decided to go to Space Mountain first of all.

Space Mountain is unique because everyone can go inside the attraction together in the queue. The line splits near the end so that those who don't want to ride can exit to where the ride unloads. As it turns out, everyone decided they wanted to ride, except for Josie who wasn't quite tall enough. This was definitely the biggest roller coaster Luke attempted. Here Luke and Steven check out the roller coaster loading area. It doesn't look that bad, does it?

This is what the boys were looking at. It was not crowded when we were there, so they were only running one track. On Space Mountain there is only one person across, so you really can feel like you are out in space "on your own".

This picture was taken at the end of the ride. Steven and Luke loved it! So did Mac.

After Space Mountain, we decided to go on the favorite from the Great Disney Trip of 2007: The Tomorrowland Speedway. Steven was tall enough to drive his very own car. It was pretty exciting.

Luke took Dad for a ride around the track. He was just tall enough to see over the steering wheel!

Isabel drove Katie around. A good time was had by all. Josie and I cheered from the stands. Josie was too short to ride, of course! From our vantage point we were fully able to appreciate the diesel smell of the engines, and the radiating heat from the exhaust, so we were duly entertained.

While in Tomorrowland, we went to the Buzz Lightyear ride, which is like an interactive video game. Mac and I took Josie on this one. Even though Mac was holding Josie during the ride, he still was able to shoot more Zurgs than I did... But notice that he has 2 hands on the laser gun- and his focus is almost entirely on the Zurgs...

Eventually we made it out of Tomorrowland and headed over to meet Grandma and Grandpa for lunch at the Liberty Tree Tavern. Since the Crystal Palace character meal venue was being refurbished, Disney brought the characters back to the Liberty Tree Tavern to help appease the masses of Disney Fans who Must Have Character Meals Every Day. (That would be us.) Anyway, for a six week limited engagement, Minnie and friends were at the Liberty Tree Tavern in full Colonial costumes, and WE were able to meet them.

But first, the kids had to play around in the stockades outside the restaurant. Very in line with the Happiest Place on Earth, right? Here we are inside the restaurant waiting to be seated. Do you see a family resemblance?

And in the restaurant, Luke seemed to have completely overcome his fear of the characters. Chip and Dale were his favorites- he started a pin collection of Chip and Dales. Now they decorate his bulletin board in his room.

Who says the characters are just for kids? Clearly Grandma and Grandpa are living out their childhood dreams of meeting a giant chipmunk. This one is Dale. I think.

Pluto is always a big hit. Josie was a little bit confused by the characters at first, but she got the hang of it. By the end of our Disney time, she knew that the characters were her buddies.

It looks like Izzy is checking to make sure Minnie Mouse signs her name correctly. Or maybe she's just trying to figure out how one signs one's name at all with such enormous fingers...

After we left our rather long lunch, we headed towards Frontierland. We ended up in the Tiki Room, of course. Josie was beyond exhausted, and the Tiki Room is always so loud that I wasn't worried she'd disturb anything if she had a breakdown in there... Incredibly, as soon as we sat down in the cool room with the flashing lights and obnoxious squawking bird noises, she fell asleep. Now we have to find a sound machine with that magical noise to soothe her to sleep at home. Or maybe not.

In the tikitikitikitiki tiki room...

Here she is, completely out...

Due to excellent planning, we were able to leave the Tiki Room to catch the afternoon parade without having to wait... much. Josie stayed asleep through the entire parade too. Doesn't she look comfie?

During the parade, Captain Hook took a liking to Steven's Pirates of the Caribbean shirt. The old skull and crossbones. Too funny!

And Jafar walked all the way across the street to sneer at Izzy and Steven. Did you know he's about 9 feet tall? Impressive, really.

After the parade, we hopped on the Jungle Cruise (we lucked out- people were still lined up watching the parade so we were able to pretty much walk on without a wait!) Steven was able to "skipper" the ship for a little bit- the most treacherous part of the ride, actually. He maneuvered us through a dark cave with amazing skill. It was almost like the boat steered itself...

We saw some other sites in Frontierland, and then made our way back to Fantasyland. Everyone was very eager to go on the It's a Small World ride.

This ride is always so much fun... I don't know who liked it more: Mac or Josie. I think probably Mac, although Josie was quite enthusiastic on this ride, waving at all the little 2 ft tall people and monkeys and butterflies...

Josie lasted the whole day... We had time to go on all the rides we wanted to. And we even stayed for the fireworks show- Wishes. It was a very busy day!

Here are Grandma and Steven on their Peter Pan boat- which flew of course. This ride scared Luke during the Great Disney trip of 2007. Not this time, though! He loved it.

And here are some pictures from the fireworks. The real fun was trying to leave the park along with everyone else... It took a very long time to get back to the hotel! But at the time, we thought that would be our only day at Magic Kingdom, so we felt it was worth it to stay to the bitter end...

Day 2: Animal Kingdom

We started out the day at Animal Kingdom with not much of a plan. We were there early, thanks to Josie, our little alarm clock. During the night, Josie figured out that she could "wake up" just after we all went to sleep. Then we did the grand *bed shift* where Josie came into bed with me, Mac went to share a bed with Steven, and Isabel went in the crib. Just kidding! Isabel stayed in a bed all of her own over in Grandma and Grandpa's room. Anyway, we were slightly more rested than we were before Epcot, but only slightly.

We ended up going to DinoLand first, so that Josie could get a ride or two on the Triceratop Spin. After her day at Epcot, we thought she needed something a little more age-appropriate! Grandma and Grandpa were of course "sleeping in" so they missed almost all of DinoLand. As you can see from the picture of Mac and the girls, it was a rainy day. Cold, too. But, no bad weather was going to stop us from having some Serious Disney Fun.

Here is the big Triceratop spin ride, which basically goes around and around in a circle. It's very Dumbo-Esque. Notice how Kate carefully considers the ride... I think she's gathering courage.

Eventually Kate rides, as do we all. Many, many times. Due to the weather, there was no line, and we were allowed to stay in our seats and ride over and over. We tried different triceratops cars, just to keep it fun. We switched seats (back seat controlled how high we flew, front seat controlled the tilt of the triceratops). Josie was thrilled with this ride. It was just right for her. We took a gamble on the weather, though. One time we decided to stay on the ride for "just one more round" as it started to sprinkle. While we were up in the air, it started to rain heavily. By the time the ride was over, we were soaked! Nothing like wearing wet jeans at the start of a day at the parks...

This is the money shot. The shot Disney needs to use to get parents to bring their toddlers to Disney where they will spend lots and lots and lots of money. But Josie's expression is one of pure contentment. It's rare to have a photo of her without the ubiquitous binkie! But while in flight, she didn't even miss it.

While we all were trying to dry off after the Triceratop Spin, we waited under a shelter to meet some characters. Eventually we met Pluto and Goofy. It's not every day that you see a 9-foot tall dog carry an umbrella...
After meeting the characters of DinoLand, we rode more rides, including the scariest ride of all of DisneyWorld. I'm not even kidding. The Dinosaur is really, truly, scary. I don't have any pictures of it. It looks to be not scary from the outside, but once you are on the ride... Watch out. And don't listen to the story line...

Here Isabel is *thrilled* to be tall enough for the Primeval Whirl- she was not quite tall enough during the last trip at the World. But she was easily tall enough this time!

All that excitement certainly wore out Josie. Here you'll note one of many binkies we brought on the trip. We started out with something like 15. I bought an additional 9 while there. And we came home with... 5 I think. Josie decorated the grounds of various theme parks with little, non-environmental-friendly plastic pacifiers in three different colors.

The rain didn't really stop during the morning. We eventually went to the Nemo Musical show because it was indoors, primarily. We met Mom and Dad outside the show. We left the dark theatre to find SUN! It was a wonderful magical moment.

To celebrate the good weather, we immediately went indoors to eat lunch. After lunch, we went on the Safari ride where our Safari bus was delayed by a giraffe in the road! It was *this close* to us. Very cool.

The weather was mostly nice for the rest of the day. Here is a picture of most of the gang outside the Jammin' Jungle Parade:

And here is a silhouette of the Everest Expedition ride. Isabel really likes this ride. A lot. The boys didn't want to try it, though. Katie declared it *too slow* and said that it needs some *loopy things*.

And since they were already cold and wet, most of the crew decided to get more cold and more wet on the Kali River Rapids. This is a very mild ride with the sole purpose being to get wet. It doesn't even go fast or anything. So, Grandma and I decided to sit this one out. Looks like everyone had fun...

Isabel, Steven, and Katie went on it a second time. Luke got to squirt them at the squirt gun station. Josie, Grandpa, and Dad watched them coming down the last set of rapids, just before Luke squirted them all.

One big part of the Disney experience is pin trading. Isabel would just veer off at any given minute when she spotted a cast member who looked bored, I guess. Then we were all standing around, waiting... Waiting... Waiting... Everyone had to trade pins. But, hey, it's for the children.

We headed to a new restaurant for dinner that night: T-Rex. We have been to some loud places before, but T-Rex put all those other wannabes to shame. The background noise at this restaurant is overwhelming. It is much louder than the Rainforest Cafe. You can literally yell at the top your lungs to someone sitting three feet away from you and they will not here you. And the noises were a mixture of dinosaur roars and screeches and meteors falling. Just way too much... Half of us had the wonderful view of the rear end of this big plant-eating dinosaur while we ate. Since it was impossible to carry on a conversation, it was a relief to have a nice view at least! Another memorable feature at the restaurant was a life-size display of mother/baby dinosaurs who were making all sorts of grunting noises that sounded exactly like indigestion. It was quite an experience! I'm sure the lucky people who were seated right at the tables by that sweet dino family really appreciated it.