10 points if you can tell me what Disney movie the title comes from.
Shaye is going to write her own post for the time at Disney so this will be short.
I had originally booked us to do one theme park per day for three days. Because we had gone to the space station on day one we only had two full days left to do Disney. A trip to the concierge was in order and a lovely lady named Dionys changed our tickets so we had 2 day hoppa passes (where we could go to as many parks as we wanted per day). After thanking her profusely we headed off to the Animal Kingdom for the first half of day one.
The Animal Kingdom was pretty cool. We went straight to the kick ass Everest roller coaster where a Yeti was out to get us. So cool.
After that we headed to the river rapids where the signage warns you that you might get wet. Guess who wore a white t-shirt that day? Steve - no not really but that would have been funny. No it was me but I didn't get too wet thank god, more my butt. But we walked around for a while then went on the Safari tour so by then I was totally dry.
There are people everywhere. Kids on school trips, elderly couples on their fiftieth time at Disney, disabled people in wheelchairs, fat people on scooters, fat people on scooters with anxiety dogs and prams prams PRAMS!! My god! Seriously, why would you take any kid under the age of 8 to this place? They won't remember it, it costs a bucket load of money and it is such a hassle with the strollers - till you get the double strollers!!!!! Man!
We went back to the hotel at 1pm for an arvo kip - well that was me, the rest went to the pool for a swim. After chilling for a bit we then missed the next bus to the Magic Kingdom and waited for the next, getting to the Magic Kingdom at about 4:30pm.
The Magic Kingdom is the real Disney. It has everything; Cinderella's castle, space mountain, splash mountain, it's a small world ride - everything. Guess how much of it we got to see? It started off good, we climbed the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House and went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride then we headed over to Splash Mountain. 90 minutes later we finally got on the 5 minute ride. 90 minutes of waiting. Who has two thumbs and is a sucker for waiting in the line at Splash Mountain? This girl.
The ride we waited to go on
So once we got off it was time to get something to eat and find a spot to watch the fireworks that start at 9 (or so we thought). We found a table near the centre of Magic Kingdom then waited in line again to order dinner. Our lunch went so smoothly that I was expecting the same. Not this time. More people, more scooters, more bloody PRAMS!! But I got our hot dogs and fries to the family which we finished just before the Electric Parade started.
A picture of all the prams at Hollywood Studios - 1 hour after opening. Hollywood studios is one of the quieter parks too.
After watching all the Disney characters wave to Shaye from their floats, the next part of the production started. They projected images onto Cinderella's castle, showing all the characters with a story behind it all. It was really impressive. The amount of work that goes into everything Disney does is mind blowing. No wonder the CEO gets paid so much - just to run one food stall in a theme park would take a lot of managing.
Puff the magic dragon - for the people who remember him
Shaye waving to the characters
Next was the fireworks. It wasn't just a firework display; Jiminy Cricket narrated a story about wishes and how your wishes will come true etc. Again, so well done and the fireworks were fricking awesome! We had such a great spot where we were and we got to sit for the whole thing.
We had such a great time that the 90 minute wait for one ride was forgotten. Even for Steve.
On to day two.
Friday 17th May
After getting the feel for things yesterday, today was going to be better organised. The kids and I were going to go to Hollywood Studios then come back and get Steve to go to Epcot and finish the night with their firework and laser display.
Kids and I were feed, watered and on the bus at eight thirty. We arrived at Hollywood Studios just as they opened and headed towards the Tower of Terror ride. Hey, Shaye said she wanted to get the scariest ride out of the way first so that's where we went.
10 minutes of waiting and we were strapped in our elevator ride. It is a 13 story high drop that goes down, up, down and up. It was so much fun and I screamed the whole time. At one point Jackson looked at me like he was going to throw up - poor bugger doesn't like free fall rides. Shaye was petrified and took about 10 minutes to calm down once we got off the ride. So much fun that I wanted to do it again but got vetoed. Democracy sucks.
A photo of the photo they try to sell you of you on the ride - can you see us? That is the exact point where Jackson looked at me with what I thought was vomit in his eyes. Shaye is packing herself - funny!!
The next ride we headed to was the Aerosmith roller coaster but it turned out not to be working - that was fine we just headed over to the back lot studio tour which was like Universal studios tour just of Disney instead. It incorporated a live show showing sound effects with water and fire, plus the bus tour of the back area. After that we wondered around, bought lollies, checked out the character costumes and then headed to the Star Wars ride.
The Star Wars ride is like The Simpsons ride at Universal, you are put in a flyer (not the delta one) and the story goes there is a rebel alliance sympathiser on board and once the storm troopers see he (or her, the show someone in the group) C3PO takes off with the flyer as Yoda give the co-ordinates of where we need to drop this person off. A trip around Endor and a drop through the Death Star and we make our way to the Rebel's hiding place. It was the bomb. So much fun but once I got off I felt sea sick all day. Same thing happened after the Simpsons ride but so worth it. Then I found out that the programs are randomised and a different scenario plays each time - so wanted to go back on it for the rest of the day!
The Endor set up as you wait in line for the Star Wars ride
Being Friday it was Star Wars weekend and there were people everywhere in costumes - so much fun! Darth Vador was trying to take over on the stage while Bubba Fett had Han Solo frozen up another stage bragging about how good he was. Awesome.
Really shoddy pictures of the robots that check you in for your space ride
After going to the gift shop and getting Steve a Star Wars training academy shirt we headed back to the hotel for another nap and onto the next and last park - Epcot.
Epcot was a great way to finish Disney for us. We pretty much just walked around and looked at all the displays and stuff. We went on the Test Drive ride which was really cool and once that was finished we headed over to Japan for dinner.
We ended up eating in a place called Teppan Edo. The best meal we have had so far this holiday - even better then The Poop Deck. We sat at a teppan-yaki station while the chef cooked our dinner so we got dinner and a show! It was so much fun and the food was delicious. It was so good that it took the sting off the bill when we got it.
My green mist sake cocktail
After dinner we walked around the rest of the world and made our way out of Mexico to sit at the fence while we waited for our last show at Disney.
Disney did not disappoint. The fireworks at Epcot were even better then the ones at Magic Kingdom and the best part was we were so close to where they were coming from that we had to kink our necks up to see everything. It was loud and hot and bright and just the best was to finish our time at Disney. I would definitely go back.
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