Day 1: The Magic Kingdom (AKA Disneyland, Orlando)

Magic Kingdom...Oh how I love this one! It was a blast, and we made day one a MARATHON! I will have to post my own review and thoughts on the rides (sorry-attractions) we did and the places we ate in another post. For now I will just give you a few pictures of the fun from day one (I should note that we DID go back in the middle of the day for a few hours to swim, eat dinner and rest a bit so we could stay up until midnight with the excited kiddos! But I will say that it takes SOOOO long to drive from place to place-IE resort to park-that it was totally not worth missing the time at the park. Transportation was a bit of a hassle, but we can talk about that more later)
First thing the kids wanted to do was go to Space Mountain, so we did, and it had NO wait...we still got a rider swap (a MUST for families with babies or children too short to ride). A rider swap means you walk up to the "cast member" at the line for the ride with baby and short kids and all and you ask if you can get a rider swap. They look at you and small kids and hand you a rider swap pass. Then, in our case, Wes would go on the ride with the tall enough kids while I waited outside with the too short kids. He waits in the full line. When he and tall kids come out, I take the rider swap and the kids and we go to the fast pass line, hand them our rider swap and go on the ride with much less of a wait. Rider Swap is good for only 3 people but most rides just let us take all the tall enough kids that wanted to go. I did have one confrontation with a cast member-he said "Um..you can only have 3 people-not you AND 3 people." I said "Oh...sorry, down the line they said to just take all of the as I could not choose which child not I like least...my bad" I was a bit jerky but his attitude made me mad...Either way, I took the 3 tall enough kids with me.

Oh-many of the rides have a 40 inch minimum height and Kindle is exactly that, so she could go on most rides. But not Space Mountain. Here we are waiting for them with our rider swap:

I did not get pictures of a lot of the stuff, but I did get some fun ones. One of the really fun lines (yes I said FUN LINE) was for the Winnie the Pooh ride. I think the line was almost more fun than the ride. Here are a few pictures of the kids enjoying some of the activities in the line (the last one is on the ride):

Thank you Disney for thinking of that!

We of course went on it's a Small World (No Disney trip would be complete without this favorite) (BTW-on one of the last 2 days we went on this ride for like the 4th time and Solace took the camera and took pictures of her faves...watch for those pics in an upcoming post):

Disney LOVES to celebrate with you and so they will provide free pins for you to wear to let people know what you are celebrating. So, all our kids had "1st Time" pins that they wore around all week (I had a Happy Birthday one that I wore on my birthday and a couple other days). One cast member saw their pins and asked them if they wanted to play a ring toss game with him. They of course did. Here are the kids doing the ring toss:

We also went on the Jungle Cruise after which Solace decided she wants to be a Jungle Cruise Cast Member when she grows up (because they get to tell funny jokes and ride a ride all day!):

And of course Buzz Lightyear. After which we stopped at the Zurg photo op:

Wes and the kids from Kindle on up were on Splash Mountain during the fireworks, They said they could see them from the ride and they were awesome. Everest and I watched them from near Splash Mountain:

We saw Mickey's Philharmagic 3D show at the very end of the night when we were pooped. Here we are waiting in the lobby:

It was a fantastic day!!

WDW: The Basics of the Parks and our plans...

Growing up in the West, Disneyland was far closer to us and we went there often. Wes and I did go to Disney World's Magic Kingdom on our Honeymoon one day. It was a lot of fun, but not the whole Disney World experience we were going to have this time! For those familiar with Disneyland and not WDW, there are 4 amusement parks at WDW (plus a few water parks). We were able to go to whatever park we wanted to each day for 7 days, but only one park per day (as we did NOT get park hopper passes which allows you to "hop" park to park within the same day). We also could not go to water parks as we chose not to add the water parks option either. We figured there was plenty to do in the 4 amusement parks.
The 4 parks are: The Magic Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Disney's Animal Kingdom, and Epcot. During this time of year when it is off season, the hours are really short. The latest closing time was 10PM the whole week, with most parks closing between 5 and 7 pm most nights. However, for guests staying at a Disney property resort, there are Extra Magical Hours that only resort guests can use to ride rides and stuff. These magical hours are either an hour before the parks open for the early risers, or up to 3 hours after the park closes.

I had read advice saying to AVOID the parks with the magical hours as they will be busier (because people will pick that park for the day to get the extra time-to get the most bang for their buck). But our friends at church has just returned from WDW a month or so ago and they told us that they did not notice much of a difference in the crowds when the went whether it was the magical hours or not. (Granted they went during the very busy season)

So, our first day was Sunday 9/11/11, and The Magic Kingdom was the park with the Magical Hours. Park was closing at 9PM (right after the fireworks) then it was going to have extra hours from 9-midnight. We had also read advice that we ought to save The Magic Kingdom for the last park to see as it will be the most exciting for the kids. So, if you do it first, everything else is a let down.

We bucked the advice I had read and went ahead and started out at the Magic Kingdom the first day with the Extra Magic Hours! We figured we could go back to the hotel in the afternoon for a while to swim and come back and stay up late the first night.

Even with the Magic Hours, the lines were not bad at all-we did Fast Pass a few rides and learned that Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh are really popular with the kids...REALLY popular. Those 2 rides did get lines up to 70 minutes, as did Splash Mountain, but we never were in a line longer than 20 minutes at The Magic Kingdom, and walked right on to most rides. Apparently the off season is really not so bad!

Well, so we thought...Day 2, September 12, we went to Hollywood Studios as it also had the Magical Hours that night from 10pm-1am. We did not plan to be out that late, but I wanted to do this park this day so we could see Fantasmic! It was playing at 8:30 and 10pm. I had read that the 10pm show is usually easier to get into and had a few employees (excuse me...cast members) tell me that they had never seen a 10 pm show fill in the 4-6 months they had been working there. SO, we planned to go there. There are not as many attractions in this park, and the Back Lot Tour was closed. Toy Story Mania was the big deal there. We went straight to that ride when we arrived (we did not get there at opening time) and there was already a super long wait so we did a fast pass (for WAY later in the day). It was a busy crowded day. More details later...

We HAD planned on spending my birthday, Tuesday September 13, at Epcot. They had the Extra Hours early. However, after Hollywood Studios being so crowded, and after having very little sleep (and a sick kid at that point), we chose to sleep in and avoid the Extra Magic Hours of Epcot that day, so we went to Animal Kingdom which was open from 9am-5pm that day. Animal Kingdom always closes early-FYI.

That meant that we were moving out Epcot day to Wednesday September 14th. It was opened from 9am-9pm that night, and did not have magical hours.

We had thought that we would spend our last 2 days at Epcot and Magic Kingdom, but after experiencing all the parks, we realized there was much more our family could enjoy together (with big AND little kids) at Magic Kingdom, so we opted to spend our last 2 days both at Magic Kingdom. Which turned out to be the perfect plan for our family!

I will just post a day by day play by play for you if you are interested!! And away we go... (to quote Peter Pan)

Let's Start at the very beginning...first plane ride...

Some of our kids have been on airplanes before as very young kids, but this was the first plane ride that any of them actually remembers. They were pretty excited about the airplanes. Here we are as we got seated on the first plane:

Just to get this down in a journal like way, here is the scoop on our first day. Wes had been working his last EVER long call month at UNMC this past month. He did 2 weeks in a row of long call (meaning he worked the night shift 6pm-8am). The morning of his last shift ended at 8am. Jessica picked him up at work and I was supposed to meet them over there at like 8:30 so we could be at the airport at 9:20 and maybe still catch breakfast in the meantime. I did not wake up with my alarm. Solace woke me up. I was packed and ready to head out, but I had forgotten the vital part of actually putting the luggage in the van to get to the airport-Wes usually does that...anyway, I got to Jessica's house at like 9am then Jessica and Anne took us to the airport.
I was nervous about the flights. We had one flight at 10:50 am to Atlanta, GA.
That one seems ok since they actually kept our seats together. However, for some dumb reason our seats on the 2nd flight from Atlanta to Orlando, they had rearranged our seats and they had each of us in a different row. Yeah-a 3 year old alone with 2 strangers...really?! On the phone, they told me I would have to talk to the representative at the airport to fix that. At the airport, they said "Sorry, you will have to talk to someone in Atlanta for that." Um...we had only 44 minutes between flights and were going to be lucky to make it at all. But that was all they would do...

So, we arrive in Atlanta and discover we are like 2 terminals away from our gate. We RUSH over to the little shuttle/subway thing and then discover our gate is the furthest gate in that terminal. When we got there they were already in the middle of boarding the flight so we just had to give them our boarding passes as they were...LUCKILY they had actually changed the plane to a much bigger one and they had changed our seats so we were all in one row across now!! Thank goodness.

Now, many of you family know that I am a cursed traveler, and we were thinking all was well this time! I didn't even have to swear at any security people. Our flight started to take off a few minutes early, all was well, and about halfway down the runway, they slowed down and returned to the gate for some sort of a maintenance issue. We sat and waited on the plane for about an hour and 15 minutes, then finally took off (at the exact time we were supposed to be landing in Orlando).

Upon arrival in Orlando, we were to go to the "Disney Magical Express". For those that have not experienced the craziness that is WDW, let me explain that, the Disney Magical Express is one of the perks/benefits of staying "on property." (Meaning staying in a Disney resort hotel) The Disney Magical Express is essentially a bus that transports you free of charge from Orlando International Airport to your hotel on site. They even send you special little tags in the mail before your trip so you can mark any checked bags with their tag, and they will pick the bags up at baggage claim for you and deliver them to your room on site later that day/night. This is all free, but beware-on your return trip, it runs a little differently (but I will explain that later). Needless to say, Disney LOVES to help you get there and will make it easy for you to come spend your money there, but they are not as excited to help you leave.

Our package included 7 day passes to WDW and we were really only going to have 6 days to spend (S, M, T, W, H, F) as we were getting in late on the first Saturday and leaving really early the second Saturday. So, we thought we would just use the 7th day admission on the first night to go over to Disney's Hollywood Studios to see Fantasmic. Sadly, with the plane delay, that was not possible. Plus, you can imagine Wes was particularly exhausted after no sleep for over 24 hours. And to be honest, I was so excited I had only slept about 1 hour the night before we left. So, we checked out the hotel and ate some food at the food court, then went to bed!

I should mention a few other things really quick...We stayed at the Disney's All Star Music Resort (one of their "value" resorts) which is like a dressed up Motel 6-sufficient for our need though. (More extensive review coming later). We were in a family suite room 1636. Our vacation package included a Disney Dining plan for FREE. It was the basic plan which includes 2 Quick Service Meals and 2 Snacks each day for each person age 3 and up. It was a SWEET deal for us! And I will write a whole separate post about the Dining plan. Just wanted to mention those two things for now.

And one last airplane story because my parents laughed and laughed at me...As a background, when I was like 2 months old my mom and dad took me on an airplane from Utah to Ohio to visit family for Christmas. As I remember the story, they had packed all my clothing (ALL) in the checked bag (which was of course lost once they arrived). And of course as soon as the plan began take off, I had one of those blow out HUGE baby poops that got all over me and my mom. She could not get up until the plane was in the air, and it was quite the experience. Well, Everest thought he would provide me a similar experience on the first plane. I did have extra clothing for him, but not for me and boy did he get me good during take off. It was pretty disgusting, and when I went in the bathroom to change him, we hit turbulence which was a bit crazy and a light came on telling me to return to my seat, but I had a naked, poopy baby still, so I had to just finish cleaning him up and redress him...BTW, no one mentioned that there is actually a changing table that pulls down in those bathrooms, so I did this whole change on the tiny 6 inch counter and my lap...Just an FYI...Everest may have just become my mom and dad's favorite grandchild for all that payback...:)

Prepare for Disney overload...

Well, as you are probably aware (because I cannot shut up about things like this) we just had a fantastic family vacation to Walt Disney World in Florida. And (again because I cannot shut up about things like this) you lucky readers of this blog (mom, Andrea, et al) will get a play by play of this trip. I will still continue catching up on other events of the last year, but I want to get down this stuff while it is fresh. I have MANY pictures to share, advice to give and fun stories to share. So, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride!

Oak View/Old Mill Trunk or Treat 2010

Our ward, Oak View has an annual Halloween Trunk or Treat with the Old Mill ward. My kids love it and we attend each year. These are some of the pictures we took at last years Trunk or Treat:

I am sure we will equally love our last Trunk or Treat this year! We always feel spoiled by our great ward members who provide the trunks full of candy for our little Johnsons! Thanks ward for this fun activity each year!!