The Trip Report: Disney World, June 2008

Brian, Jaime & Lily Delaney

To see an overview of out trip, click here.

Chapter 1 - The Magic Begins (Day 1 – Sunday)

The alarm went off at 3:30am. Now we had all gotten to bed reasonably early the night before, but everyone knows that getting to bed and getting to sleep are two totally different things! Especially the night before a big vacation. But soon our excitement overcame the exhaustion and we got up and ready to go. Lily's alarm was set for 4am, but she woke up a few minutes early from all the commotion upstairs , and wasn't the least bit sleepy.

After making sure the Magical Express tags were securely fixed to all the checked bags, getting the car loaded, and a quick stop by King Soopers for medicine and cash, we were on our way! We decided to use the curbside check-in since which was just opening since we had so many bags - unfortunately the guy was having some trouble with the computer, and had to go inside to get our stuff printed out for us. But we were on our way before long. The line at security looked daunting, but moved rather quickly and we made it through with no more than the usual ordeal of taking off shoes and half unpacking every bag :)

We picked up a few snacks, and then it was time to board! The flight was fairly uneventful, except that Lily got a little grumpy toward the end and as we were getting off in Dallas- we were having flashbacks to the horrible experience on the first flight of last year's vacation. But Lily proved that she has grown up a little since then, and managed to work herself out of her mood so that we could get a "second breakfast" in peace. She was also glad to see there was a train to ride! When we got to our next plane we were surprised to see that they were already boarding. Lily said she would take a nap once we were in the air, but as we started being pushed back from the gate I looked over and she was out already. She slept for a little over an hour, then watched and episode of Super Sleuth Pooh on the iPod (after all she was wearing the shirt...) It seemed like we were flying over Orlando for a very long time before we landed, but finally we were on the ground. It is an odd feeling to be doing that which you have planned and thought about for so long. I had pictured it being such a magical trip, and until this point it had just been two boring plane rides - nothing had seemed very magical.

That was about to change.

Chapter 2 - In Disney's Hands (Day 1 – Sunday)

We got off the plane and were looking for the Magical Express Check-in, as we came down the escalator there were a few people holding those VIP signs like they do when picking up someone they don't know. One was a rather stately looking elderly gentleman holding a Magical Express sign. He greeted us and explained where to go, and reminded us NOT to pick up our luggage - that it would "magically appear" in our hotel room in a few hours. He smiled and wished us a “Magical Adventure” and we were off! After months of planning and waiting, and hours of traveling, we were finally in Disney's hands. The air suddenly seemed to buzz with excitement as we made our way to the check-in desk. They confirmed our information then directed us toward the "red carpet" to await our motorcoach. The bus was loading when we walked up, Brian and Lily got rather silly while waiting for it to depart - but who could blame them???

Once on its way, the motorcoach showed a preview video of Disney World which made the magic become even more real! The driver didn't tell us at first the order of resorts we would be stopping at, once on Disney Property he announced with great suspense that the first stop would be...the POLYNESIAN! What luck! We were suddenly immersed in a tropical paradise when we got off and took a few minutes to revel at our surroundings before heading inside. There was a wishing fountain and Lily wanted to throw in a penny to make a wish. We asked her what she had wished for, expecting something obvious like to have a fun vacation. Instead she told us that she had wished that all the people in the tornado got enough money to build their houses again! It was one of those completely unexpected moments when we marvel at her sweetness and though process. Up next - we officially check-in, and a minor panic sets in when confirming meal reservations...

Chapter 3 - There's supposed to be 16!!! (Day 1 – Sunday)

We checked in at the Polynesian without any difficulty- the nice CM showed us on the map where Tokelau was, the longhouse we were staying in. Then gave us our Key to the World cards (which include our park tickets and dining plan as well as the room key). The Concierge desk was right next to check-in, and I was anxious to confirm all 16 of our meal reservations so I could relax about our plans. Brian talked to him first, gave him our phone number and he printed out a list of confirmations. I glanced at it, waiting for the next page, but he said that was it - 6 reservations!!! I said no, there's supposed to be 16!!! He did something in the computer, this time coming up with 7. By now I am in almost total panic mode, most of our big character meals were not on the list - and I knew from trying to make some last minute changes the week before that they were booked solid already. I had the confirmation numbers with me, and asked if we could look them up that way. After looking up a few, he figured out that my name was spelled wrong on some (big surprise) and that was causing the confusion. With that fixed he printed the list again, this time all 16 showed up, and all the times matched exactly what I had written down. Wheew! Crisis averted. Now time to go see our room...

Chapter 4 - By the Quiet Pool (Day 1 – Sunday)

The Polynesian resort is breathtaking. Leave it to Disney to make something feel so completely authentic! On the way to our longhouse we passed by the Volcano pool with its slide, past a few more longhouses and then by the "Quiet pool" as it is aptly named. Tokelau is in a perfect spot really, right in the middle of the property and not too far from anything, but also not in the middle of everything so it still has a peaceful feel to it. Our room overlooked the gardens on the side opposite the Quiet Pool, and I thought it had a very nice view to be a standard room. I was very glad I didn't pay for any upgrades. The room itself was very nice - spacious and nicely themed with dark wood furniture and tropical decorations. Of course our luggage wouldn't be along for some time, so we had carried on the plane a bag with our swimming suits. We had no other formal plans for the evening except to enjoy the resort and get a counter-service dinner in the hotel. So we changed clothes and headed out...

We went first to the quiet pool, Lily paddled around a little with our help, but soon we grew bored. So we hopped out with the intention of going to the volcano pool. Once in the area though, we spotted a water play area and Lily spent quite a bit of time there - it was good to see her thoroughly enjoying herself! We noticed while there that you could see the top of the castle from the beach so we headed out to take a look. Brian and Lily waded into the water a little, and Lily began collecting clams that she found in the water. We later convinced her to leave them there, since they can't live long out of the water. Down the beach a little ways was a hammock and Lily decided to check it out. We strolled a little more along the beach, then opted for a quick dip in the volcano pool before it was time to get ready for dinner. Brian went down the water slide, while we watched him from the bridge! Then it was time to head back to the room. So far we were having a perfect start to our vacation!

Chapter 5 - Magically Appearing Luggage (Day 1 – Sunday)

As we were coming to Tokelau, a baggage cart was arriving - with our bags! Well, with 4 of our 6 anyway. The CM met us at the room with them, and explained that it was not uncommon for luggage to get separated, and that the rest should be along later. Lily and I had ours anyway, and we all changed to go to dinner.

We were keeping it simple tonight and went over to Captain Cook's in the Great Ceremonial House (GCH). This is the counter-service restaurant for the Polynesian. The computerized ordering system confounded us, but we ended up with plenty of yummy food, and it was all "free" since we were on the dining plan! Well, we actually paid for it a long time ago...but that doesn't matter now. It feels free. Lily liked that her meal was in a Mickey shaped plate!

After dinner we rode a circle on the monorail, and could see a little bit of Magic Kingdom from the window. By the time we got back to our room, the missing luggage had "magically appeared" and we set about unpacking. Lily found a Cinderella nightgown waiting for her in the closet that she was excited to put on, and before long we were snuggled into bed. Tomorrow starts off with a Lilo and Stitch breakfast...

Chapter 6 - "Where's Lilo?" (Day 2 – Monday)

We were up bright and early our first morning - greeted on the phone by Mickey Mouse and Stitch! Lily had a few morning grumpies to work out, but soon we were on our way to Ohana's for Breakfast with Lilo and Stitch. We checked in at the podium and were given a buzzer. While waiting for our table we got our picture taken, and when we were done our table was ready!

The characters weren't out quite yet, and Lily kept asking "Where's Lilo?" They began to bring out our meal - since "Ohana" means "family", the meal was family style, they brought out plates of bacon, eggs, biscuits, and Mickey waffles for us all to share. Finally, we looked up and saw Stitch coming into the restaraunt! Lily began to get excited for her first character interaction. He eventually made his way to our table, and we were relieved to see that Lily was not scared, just a little shy. A few months ago that may not have been the case (the Easter Bunny was a real breakthrough for us this year)

More characters began to follow - Mickey and Pluto! She was getting a nice start to her autograph book. It was hard to focus on eating with all the excitement, though. Finally Lilo appeared, and after making her way through the restaraunt, she lead a parade! Lily joined in shaking the maraka they had given her after we arrived. After we had seen all the characters and had enough to eat, we decided it was time to head out to the park for the first time!

Chapter 7 – Fantasyland is Ours (Day 2 – Monday)

Lily decided to take the boat over to the Magic Kingdom, even though we were right by the monorail, so we walked out to the Polynesian Boat Launch. There was a sign saying it was closed, but the boat was just pulling up and the CM said he would be ready to take us over shortly. It turned out we had the boat to ourselves! It made for a peaceful ride over, especially knowing it wouldn't be so calm once we arrived! When we got off the boat they were just finishing up the rope drop ceremony for the park and we got to join in the countdown. After figuring out how to work the new fangled ticket reading machines, we were in! (But not before Lily spotted and picked up some Mickey Mouse confetti on the ground - always the treasure hunter!) We stopped for a couple of Photopass opportunities on our way toward the castle. (Photopass is Disney’s system of taking your picture in the park and allowing you to view it online and order prints and CDs)

Main Street can be a little overwhelming, but Lily mostly wanted to get as close to Cinderella’s Castle as quickly as possible so that's what we did. The front of the castle was closed off so that we couldn't go through it, so instead we took the path around it towards Fantasyland. Lily had wanted to do "It's a Small World" first.

I had planned on picking up some Pooh fast passes on the way, but not knowing exactly where it was and not seeing it immediately, I gave up and grabbed some Peter Pan ones instead, which was just across from IASM. We walked right onto Small World, which was almost empty, and sat in the front of our boat! Nothing quite compares to the first time on that ride for a child...Next we headed over to the carousel and practically walked onto that as well. Where were the crowds???

Across from the carousel I could see Ariel's Grotto (where you meet Ariel in her secret hideaway) I hadn't even mentioned this one to Lily because I had read that they waits were generally upwards of an hour, I wondered if that's where all the Fantasyland crowds were, but it almost looked deserted...maybe Ariel wasn't there yet. Just to be sure, I walked a little closer, and made out a few people standing in line, and saw a flash of red hair from inside!!! Ariel was there alright, and with almost no wait! So in we went, and within minutes Lily was meeting Mermaid Ariel, who she has been obsessed with since long before her more recent Princess Stage.

After Ariel we went to Dumbo, which was the only attraction in Fantasyland with a significant wait - no big suprise. Lily and Brian rode together and I in front of them so that I could turn back and get a picture. I also snapped a nice shot of the Castle as we whirled around. Phillharmagic didn't have much wait, so we went over and Lily really loved it - it was her first 3-D show and it was fun to see her trying to grab all the stuff as it came flying out at us! We finished up Fantasyland with Pooh, Snow White, and Peter Pan (which the fast pass did help a bit with). By this time we were growing a little weary, so we settled on a frozen Cherry drink from a snack stand (got to use a snack credit-yay!) Then Lily wanted to go to Tinkerbell's tresures, and made her first purchase with her accumulated Disney Dollars of a Mickey/Princess ears headband. We had completed Fantasyland in far less time than my schedule predicted, thanks to the short lines so we decided to head to explore some uncharted territory. (I guess it pays to get there early) However, on the way out, right by the Castle, we saw...

Chapter 8 - Fairy Godmothers and Aliens (Day 2 – Monday)

The Fairy Godmother! She had just "appeared" so there was hardly any line. This was our first spontaneous character greeting, and how appropriate that it be the Fairy Godmother! It was also Lily's first "face character" and she was a little unsure about the interaction, since the Fairy Godmother could talk. Also, it was at the moment that a show going on in front of the Castle launched some fireworks, and the noise startled her a little. But she still posed for a picture, and was very proud to have met her.

We then headed into Tomorrowland. In hindsight, we probably should have just headed back to the hotel, even though we were running a little ahead of schedule. But we didn't, and Lily started getting a little grumpy. We did the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, and Lily did like that. We had picked up a fast pass for the Buzz Lightyear ride but it wasn't time yet, so we grabbed a quick lunch at Cosmic Rays. We got lucky and snagged a table right at the front by Tommy Eclipse. Lily really enjoyed watching the alien play his show!

Then it was time for our Buzz fast pass. The FP line was still pretty long, but bearable. The ride got stuck at one point and we were in this very disorienting room of stars and robot things zooming past us for what seemed like a very long time. The ride includes and interactive part where you use the gun on your car to shoot at targets - of course Brian rocked it. I did okay, and even Lily scored some points. By now it was getting hot and crowded and we were ready for our break, so we jumped on the monorail back to the Polynesian and settled in for a much needed nap. It will come as no surprise that Lily was asleep within moments of laying down! We had had quite a morning...

Chapter 9 - I didn't order rain tonight... (Day 2 – Monday)

Lily slept for about 2 hours, when she woke up she found that the "nap fairy" had left her a small Cinderella figurine! We had a little bit of time before we needed to head back to MK, so we went for a short dip in the pool. We had checked the weather online, and it looked like some storms were heading our way. When worrying about the weather before the trip, I had said that the two times when I absolutely did not want it to rain were tonight and on Wednesday night, since those were the two times Lily planned to be in a Princess Costume. But sure enough, with only a few minutes of swimming time left, we heard the rumble of thunder. We headed back to the room, and by the time we were inside the rain was coming down pretty hard.

At this point we had to make a choice, or actually Lily did. To go ahead and put her costume on and hope that it stopped raining before we left but chance it getting wet, or to just carry the costume with us and change once we were at the Castle. She had

really been looking forward to parading around in her Cinderella dress, but she was more terrified of messing it up, so she opted for the latter. We packed everything up as best we could, donned our raincoats, and headed out. By the time we got to the MK on the monorail, the rain was beginning to lessen, but we had seen on the radar that another bigger storm was close behind it. We stopped for a photopass shot in our raincoats, then took them off as the rain had almost completely stopped. It really would have been a disaster for her to wear her dress, there were muddy puddles everywhere. After stopping for some popcorn (did I mention that I LOVE the Disney Dining Plan???) we still had a few minutes before we needed to make our way to the Castle, so we wandered into Adventureland. As soon as we crossed the bridge, we saw Rafiki and Timon! Another spontaneous character sighting, and this time for characters we would not also see at a character meal! The line was pretty short so Brian and Lily went up to meet them while I took their picture. Now it was finally time to head to the Castle for a little bit of Princess Magic...

Chapter 10 - Bippity Boppity Boo (Day 2 – Monday)

We entered the Castle from the back, as the front was still closed off. We checked in at the Bippity Boppity Boutique (BBB), and found out that they were running a bit behind, just as I expected (I had read that it was very common, anyway). Lily made Brian take her back outside for a moment while we waited so she could be sure we really were IN the Castle! She hadn't noticed coming in.

Finally, the Fairy Godmother in Training (FGIT) called "Princess Lily" and we were taken to the royal dressing room to change into the gown. Soon after, it was her turn to be made into a Princess! She looked very tense during the whole process, but I could tell she was beaming inside, and she will surely talk about this for a long time to come. The FGIT was very patient, and took her time getting as much of Lily's short hair into a bun as she could - it ended up being a lot more than I thought would go! Another FGIT came over to help out with make-up and nails, while a photopass photographer shot pictures continuously. We had gotten the very last appointment of the day, since we had a late dinner at the Castle, so Lily was the last one to be done. One of the CM's joked that now they were going to really treat her like Cinderella and make her mop the floors!

The big "Reveal" moment came, and Lily saw herself in the mirror for the first time as a princess! Many people had walked into the BBB while we were there and were very surprised and disappointed that they were completely booked up for at least the next month - I have the nice CM who suggested an appointment when I made the Castle Dinner reservation to thank or I might have been one of those people. All done, we headed back into the Castle Corridor to assess the weather. A storm was nearby but not much rain, just very overcast and windy. It looked rather foreboding actually. The front of the Castle was now open to walk through, but we didn't want to go all the way down Main Street so we headed out the back again.

Since we still had a few minutes until our dinner reservation at the Castle, we stayed in the immediate area trying to find something to do. Snow White's ride was close-by and Lily wanted to go again, so we opted for that. Afterwards we decided to go ahead and check in at the Castle, even though it was still a bit early.

Chapter 11 - A Royal Invitation for the Delaney Family (Day 2 – Monday)

The check in line at Cinderella's Royal Table (CRT) was short, but moved rather slowly, mostly due to a person at the front who didn't seem to understand that advance reservations were required, they were not taking walk-ups at all. I expected to still be waiting a while after checking in, but we were immediately ushered inside and suddenly Lily was being called over to meet and greet Cinderella!!!

Unfortunately I was rather unprepared, and didn't have the autograph book out yet. I would have taken a picture with my own camera had I not been scrambling for the book, but the photopass photographers on hand got several good ones anyway. After the picture and autograph, Cinderella asked that our "Royal Family" be seated and wait for our Royal Invitation to Dinner. The CMs gave Lily a special CRT wand, and we sat down to wait for our name. It began to sink in that we were INSIDE Cinderella's Castle!

Of course we had been at BBB too, but this felt different. Very authentic. After only a few minutes it was announced over the PA that there was a "Royal Invitation for the Delaney Family" and we were lead up the spiraling staircase to the dining room. We were taken to a table right by the leaded glass windows! Lily was still fantasizing about her BBB experience and wanted to do my hair and make-up the same as hers... we somehow managed to get her to listen to the menu long enough to decide on a hot dog.

The dining room itself was smaller that I had pictured, and more "warm and cozy feeling" but definitely had the look of a formal medieval castle, complete with the Coats of Arms hanging from the ceiling. The food was excellent, and partway through the meal the Mice and Fairy Godmother came out to do a show! The Mice even came by Lily to pose for a picture. Dessert was included in the meal, but by that time none of us were very hungry so we only picked at it. We were still in a little bit of shock at where we were - how many people have been given the royal treatment at dinner in Cinderella's Castle???

Finally, though it was time to go, as we were hoping to make the 10:00 fireworks and it was now 9:45. So we made our way down the spiraling staircase again and into the Castle corridor. The last seating had occurred so it was completely empty when we stepped out, a stark contrast to the chaotic scene outside when we had entered. This time the back of the Castle was closed off, so we headed out towards the front. That's when we saw it...

Chapter 12 – Wishes (Day 2 – Monday)

As we made our way out of the front of the Castle, we saw a mob of people extending back as far as the eye could see, and they were all looking at us!!! Well, to be exact they were looking at the Castle, which we were coming out of, but completely alone. It was a weird feeling and for a moment we feared we really were about to walk onto a stage of some sort. But there was no other way out, and we made our way down the main ramp. The Castle was all lit up in colors, and I took the opportunity to snap a close-up shot looking up the towers. A CM at the bottom was ushering us down past the rope holding back the crowds that had gathered for the fireworks.

Once on the other side of the rope we hit a wall of people and there was really nothing to do but... sit down at the base of the Castle for the fireworks show!!! We might as well have had reserved seats! It wasn't long before it started, and Lily was so excited. She especially liked how the Castle kept changing colors. The fireworks show was called Wishes, and had a theme of wishing on a star and believing in magic. It was truly magical. Lily was completely mesmerized the whole time and barely even moved, even though we were sitting on hard concrete and she was in her princess dress. Of course she loved that everyone was calling her "Princess"! Watching her face during the fireworks was priceless, and would end up being one of my favorite moments of the whole trip.

At last the evening was over and we made our way towards the monorail, but opted to take the boat instead. While we were waiting the Electrical Water Pageant went by, and we all enjoyed watching that. What a magical way to end our first day. Had it really only been one day??? Thinking back to our Lilo and Stitch breakfast that morning, it seemed hard to believe! We dragged ourselves back to our room, and were asleep in no time...planning to sleep in the next morning.

Chapter 13 - The First Meltdown (Day 3 – Tuesday)

We slept in today since we were out a bit late last night. Instead of taking time to get breakfast, we just ate a little in the room and figured we would get another snack at the park. Today we were headed to Epcot! We had a Princess Lunch in Norway scheduled and Lily wanted to wear her Sleeping Beauty costume, I had planned for her to wear a simpler pink dress, but she had her heart set on the costume. So we compromised, she wore the pink dress there and we brought the costume to change into before lunch.

From the Polynesian it is easiest to walk to the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC) for the Epcot monorail rather than have to make the whole loop on the resort monorail so we took the trail to the TTC. It wasn't far at all, and it was nice to get to see more of the resort. That side seemed even more lush and tropical than the parts we had seen already.

Once off the monorail we stopped in front of the "Golf Ball" which Brian gets on to me about calling it...Lily wasn't in the best mood at this point but the photographer got her to smile for the picture at least. Then we went to do Spaceship Earth. The new computer screens in the car let you customize a "future" on the way down, and then show it to you with little cartoon people, that have your heads! That was pretty neat. We had a little time before lunch so we got a snack from one of the carts (which also took the dining plan so we got to use up some more snack credits) and then walked into Innoventions.

We were immediately greeted by a CM who started telling Lily about a place you could dress a frog then take it home. From that moment Lily could think of nothing else, and when we were not able to find it (it turned out it wasn't open yet, that's why we didn't see it) she had her first meltdown. It was bound to happen at some point, I suppose. We barely managed to get her calmed down in time to change clothes for the Princess lunch. We were fortunate to get a very large bathroom stall to change in, but still had some difficulties, mostly due to the fact that I had forgotten how the arms go in! But finally we emerged, princess transformation complete. It was time to make the journey to Norway!

Chapter 14 - Cinderella won't be here... (Day 3 – Tuesday)

When we arrived at the Storybook Lunch in Akershus, Norway I was suddenly very glad that I had let Lily bring her Aurora dress, at least half the little girls were dressed up as well! There was a bit of a crowd out front and again I was worried that we were in for a long wait. But it wasn't more than a few minutes until they were calling us inside. First stop - meet Belle! Belle was very nice and asked Lily if she liked stories as much as she did, and asked her to pass along a message to Princess Aurora when she saw her!

The hostess explained that there would be 3 other Princesses visiting the table during our meal, but didn't specify which ones. I had read from several sources that Cinderella is not usually present here so I had warned Lily not to expect her, but most of the others appear regularly. So I was curious to see who we would get today...

We were seated and soon helped ourselves to the salad bar. These character meals are great, but it does make focusing on eating difficult, especially for Lily, since she is always on the lookout for who might be coming. It wasn't long before I caught sight of something pink...Princess Aurora was to be first! How appropriate! She was lovely, of course and commented to Lily that they could be sisters. She also warned Lily not to let Meriwether change her dress to blue... because she gets in that sort of mood sometimes.

Lily was completely awed after this. Almost immediately I caught sight of another princess in the next room, I couldn't make it out for sure at first but... was that light blue??? A few more seconds, and...it WAS! Cinderella was here!!! I couldn't believe our luck! Lily would get to meet her again. She visited a few minutes later, and Lily was in Princess heaven by now. Soon after we saw Jasmine, she was very entertaining and good in character. We were almost done eating, and knowing we had seen our 3, thought we were about ready to go. But the we looked up and saw Mulan! A bonus...probably because Cinderella didn't count as one of the normal 3. Lily didn't get a chance to see the Mulan movie before our trip, but still enjoyed meeting her nonetheless. Her autograph book was starting to look pretty impressive now...

Finally ready to go, we made our way out and headed over to Maelstrom, the Norway ride, since there was hardly any wait. Lily didn't want to change out of her costume yet, so everyone was calling her "Princess" as we went!

Chapter 15 - One more ride (Day 3 – Tuesday)

The Norway ride can be a little scary, but Lily did enjoy it despite herself being nervous. Afterwards we stuck around for the movie. Then we managed to find that troublesome Frog station, and Lily made a frog queen wearing a bikini!

We still were about 30 minutes ahead of the schedule I had made, and the smart thing at this point (just like yesterday...) would have been to head back early for nap, but no, we decided to do one more ride instead so back to Future World we went. Afterall, the Figment Ride only had a 5 minute wait...Lily was a little unsure that she would like it but we convinced her otherwise. The ride seemed to have changed a bit from what I remember, but I didn't remember very well so I'm not sure. I remembered it being a little more along the lines of Small World, but who knows.

Afterwards we spent some time playing around in Imageworks, Lily especially liked the lighting up pictures on the floor. Brian liked conducting the Figment instruments. I wanted to get one of the creative photo thingys done, but we were already a little overdue to return, and Lily was starting to show her grumpiness. So we headed toward the monorail. A CM asked us to do a short survey on the way out, but I was afraid we would be approaching another meltdown if we didn't get back to the hotel soon so we declined.

All this time Lily had stayed in her Princess Costume, refusing to take it off despite the heat. The walk back to Tokelau from the TTC seemed long and hot, but we were so relieved to be inside one we got to our longhouse. Again Lily was asleep almost instantly, after pulling off her costume and not even bothering to put on any other clothes!

Chapter 16 – Dale is a hit! (Day 3 – Tuesday)

Brian decided to go for a swim while Lily napped, and we planned to meet him at the pool after she woke up. But she slept, and slept, and slept. For just over 2 hours, and only woke then because I intentionally started increasing the amount of light in the room. This time she found that the "nap fairy" had left a Sleeping Beauty figure by her bed - very appropriate indeed! She had slept so long that we needed to get ready to go to dinner, but where was Brian?

He had been gone the whole time, and was probably still waiting on us to join him. So we got ready and headed to find him and tell him it was time to go. As it turned out he was on his way back already and we met him coming into Tokelau.

Once Brian was ready we made the journey to the TTC again and headed back to Epcot, this time to the Garden Grill inside the Land! I had planned to ride something before and something after, but we were a little later getting back there than I had intended. Of course we had jumped ahead and done Figment already, so I was thinking that would work out fine, we would just do Test Track after dinner and call it good. On the monorail, however, I realized that Future World often closes at 7pm... and our dinner was at 6:20. I checked the times I had in my trusty plan book, and sure enough, 7pm was closing time. Rats! We wouldn't have time to ride anything afterwards. So this was just going to be a dinner trip.

Once at the land, I decided we had enough time to do the Circle of Life movie, which I had never seen before. It was really awesome - lots of Lion King stuff and very inspiring. Good music too.

We checked in at the Garden Grill, I was a little disappointed to see that it didn't turn as I remembered it doing. But I also thought I had read somewhere before that they stopped doing that, so I hadn't been completely counting on it. For most of the day Lily had been a little tense and on edge, the nap had lessened it but not done away with it altogether. She was still a little grumpy waiting for dinner, but cheered up somewhat in time for us to be seated. Of course once the characters started coming around she was all smiles!

We were seated in a section near the jungle part of the "Living with the Land" ride, and I could just barely see the waterfall below. The meal was "a buffet that is brought to your table" as the waitress called it. And large plates of food were brought out family style for us to share. During the meal, Farmer Mickey, Pluto as well as Chip and Dale came by. Dale was really awesome; he took a long time playing with Lily. He even picked up her Cinderella wand she had brought and pretended to cast magic spells with it! Then he acted like he was going to steal it. Lily was soaking it all up of course. She was still being rather shy with the characters, but loved meeting them more than anything. And as usual had a hard time concentrating on her food. Well, except for the dessert, which was a Build you own Cupcake plate.

When we came out of the Land it was raining pretty hard. No big deal, I had the rain coats in the backpack, and afterall we were just heading back to the hotel to bed... or so we thought!

Chapter 17 - Is EPCOT still open? (Day 3 – Tuesday)

As we were leaving we noticed that the electronic signs that give wait times for all the rides were still giving wait times, as if they were still open! It was now after 7:30... could I have written down the wrong times??? As we walked past the Seas with Nemo ride, we noticed that people were definitely still going in, so we thought, why not. It seemed appropriate to do that ride when we were getting all wet anyway. There was no wait at all, except the time it took us to work our way through the wandering queue area. It was actually rather cold in that part since we were all wet! I was glad that Lily's raincoat at least was made of the thicker material, which kept her pretty warm.

I hadn't been on this one since they changed it, the Nemo stuff they added is pretty cute, though I thought the ride was a bit short. Afterwards, we were let off in the old Sea Base Alpha part. We wandered around looking in the various tanks, until I spotted the Turtle Talk with Crush theater. I had read really good reviews of this, but didn't think we would have time, so wasn't planning to do it. But there was a show starting in 10 minutes and only a handful of people waiting to go in! So we decided to check it out.

The show was one of those interactive ones, where it looks like a normal cartoon character on screen, but "Crush" could see and hear us and spoke to individual audience members and answered their questions. I had heard of this type of technology but hadn't seen it - pretty impressive! After that it was time to head back, since we had a very early breakfast the next day. It had almost stopped raining, and we took off the raincoats. As we were walking toward the exit I realized why they were still open - it was Extra Magic Hours (EMH) night! Which meant the park was open 3 hours later for resort guests. Even though we were eligible I hadn't planned to make use of any of those, simply because I figured we wouldn't have the endurance for it. That means they should have checked us at Nemo for EMH wristbands, I guess it was so empty that they didn't care.

Again, we had probably pushed it too hard, too long. Lily got very grumpy on the way out. Finally we sat down in front of Spaceship Earth and had a long talk about how to keep things in perspective. She decided that she wanted to start over so we walked back quite a ways the way we had come. This time we actually had a very pleasant walk to the monorail and talked about how nice Spaceship Earth looked all lit it up.

Illuminations was starting, but we were planning to come back for that on Friday, when we didn't have such an early morning the next day. Throughout the trip Lily got in the habit of running up the ramps to the monorails everytime it wasn’t crowded – something about that incline just made her take off! We were usually struggling to keep up. The ride back was uneventful, and after arranging for our taxi the next morning and setting the wake up call, we were off to sleep.

Chapter 18 - Chef Mickey's (Day 4 – Wednesday)

The phone rang very early, again it was Mickey and Stitch. I had requested a taxi at 6:45 to take us to the Contemporary since the monorails wouldn't be running yet, and not wanting to get up any earlier than necessary, we had to get ready quickly. When we got to the front of the hotel there were actually several taxis waiting and we were a little confused, but the first one knew my name so we figured that was it. We arrived at the Contemporary with plenty of time to spare, so Lily watched a few minutes of a Mickey and Donald Duck cartoon in the lobby. Then we found our way to Chef Mickey’s! This had been rated the best character meal in all of Disney World, so I had been determined to get us there, even if it meant taking a taxi and getting up at the crack of dawn. We checked in at the podium and were seated a few minutes later. The atmosphere is really fun there, it feels like a party! And the monorail is right overhead. The breakfast was a buffet with pretty much everything you can imagine, and we easily filled our plates. After a few days of eating some pretty exotic foods, it was nice to be able to sit down with a bowl of cereal and some muffins.

It wasn't long until Goofy came out! Lily hadn't met Goofy yet, so autograph book was at the ready! Soon after the other were along - all the traditional ones - Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Pluto. It definitely has the feel of classic Disney Fun, I can see why it is considered the hallmark of Character Dining at Disney, and I was very glad we had gone through a little extra effort to experience it.

After breakfast Lily looked at an Ariel dress in one of the stores, but they didn't really have her size so she decided to look for it at the park instead. It was barely after 8:00, but we headed on to Epcot anyway. By now the monorail was running, and Lily had thought it would be cool to board it inside the hotel. So we headed back for Day 2 at Epcot.

Chapter 19 - Rope Drop at EPCOT (Day 4 – Wednesday)

We got to Epcot and saw a fair number of people waiting to go in, of course they hadn't opened the gates yet except for those heading to breakfast. I bought a pair of sunglasses because I seemed to have lost mine the day before while we waited. A few minutes later they began letting people in, around 8:45. We made it up to the big fountain in Future World, apparently EPCOT does the rope ceremony there.

Yesterday Lily had really wanted to go to the Character Spot in Innoventions, and even though she had just met all those same characters she still wanted to do it. The line yesterday had been extremely long, but since we were there so early today we had a plan. Lily and I would rush straight to the Character Spot while Brian ran to get Fast Passes for Soarin'. There was a mob of people already by the fountain, so we went to one of the smaller pathways to the right, where we could go right up to the rope. A few minutes later all the characters came out in a Test Track Car for the opening ceremony. We couldn't really see it from where we were, but Minnie came over and gave Lily a hug! Then we talked to some of the CMs while we awaited the countdown.

At last the rope was lifted and what we experienced next was a bit of a harrowing experience...

Chapter 20 - So close... (Day 4 – Wednesday)

If you have ever had the experience of turning right onto a bustling 10 lane interstate and immediately needing to get into the left lane, then you might have some idea of what Lily and I faced in those next few moments. I was trying desperately to hang on to her while making a mad rush across running people, wild kids, and half out of control strollers, all going perpendicular to the way we needed to go!

But we arrived unscathed at the Character Spot as the second guest. A girl and her mom who had been standing beside us beat us by a second or two. At first I was thrilled, we would have no wait at all this time! Then I was bummed by what I saw next.

The first girl was quickly ushered over as all the characters came back in from the opening ceremony for a group photo with all of them together before they went to their individual stations. That would have been really cool, and we were so close! Fortunately Lily didn't see that part so didn't know what she had missed, but it bugged me for the rest of the morning. Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Dale were there. She was a little disappointed that Chip wasn’t there, and even more so when she realized a few minutes later that he had appeared as well after we left. Oh well. At least we got to do it.

It had only taken a couple of minutes for the whole thing, so we sat down outside to wait for Brian to come back with the Fast Passes. It took him a rather long time, but once he came back we headed over to Test Track for some fast Paced fun...

Chapter 21 - Soarin' (Day 4 – Wednesday)

The line at Test Track said it was 20 minutes long, but it didn't even seem like that much once we were in there. We checked first to make sure that Lily cleared the height requirement, which she easily did. When getting into our car we decided to put Lily in the middle, thinking that seemed safer. But then I was a little unsettled to realize that the middle only had a lapbelt! I guess the shoulder belt would have been really high anyway, but I felt a constant need to keep my arm across her. This was by far the wildest ride we had done yet. After it was over she looked a little stunned and we asked if she was okay, but she assured us that she had loved it.

It was almost time for our Soarin' Fast Pass window, so we headed back in that direction. We stopped at Mouse Gear to see if they had the Ariel dress she was looking for. They had several Princesses, but no Ariel. She and Brian however quickly became distracted by the other fun in the store, and I had a bit of difficulty getting them both out of there to go to Soarin'! In the end, it was Lily who had to help me pull Brian out of the store...and then we were off to our high flying adventure!

The fast pass line had a little bit of a wait, but it ended up only being a few minutes. We were placed in the middle flight, in the middle row. At first I was bummed because I thought our visibility would be severely reduced, but once it started the row in front of us lifted up to where we could just barely see there feet hanging down above us. This ride has got to be the most awesome thing Disney has come up with! It definitely lived up to all the hype. As we swooped over the ocean, mountains, fields, and golf courses (complete with realistic smells) I had a hard time believing that we actually had not left the building. I had to lift my feet up several times as we swooped down low because I was sure they were going to get wet or scrape the tops of trees! As exciting as the ride is, it is also very gentle and relaxing. The finale was a trip over Disneyland and into the sky with the fireworks. Lily had been completely thrilled up until that moment, but the fireworks made her a little nervous. I was afraid that would ruin it for her, but when we got off we immediately heard the tell-tale phrase that indicates something she found totally awesome. "I want to do it again!"

I agreed - I couldn't imagine leaving EPCOT and not doing that ride again! We didn't have time right then (and two times in a row might have been overkill anyway) but we promised to come back later.

We had just enough time before lunch to ride the Living with the Land ride, since it was right there. I had forgotten the whole first part of that ride, so I was glad we did it. And Lily enjoyed it more than I though she would. After that it was time to head to Canada for lunch! Brian and Lily got a little distracted playing with the jumping water on the way by Figment, and had some fun “conducting the fountains” in the middle of Future World...but after that we were on our way!

Chapter 22 - Soarin' (take 2) (Day 4 – Wednesday)

Le Cellier is an incredibly nice steakhouse restaurant in the Canada part of the World Showcase. We had wanted dinner there, but when I made the reservations over 4 months ago dinner was all booked. So we had settled for lunch instead. We had an 11:30 seating, which is when they opened. We got the special treat of seeing the CMs sing the Canada anthem to open the restaraunt! Then we were lead down into the "Celler" for our meal. Since we were on the dining plan the appetizer was included. I got a "tomato stack" which was pretty tasty and Lily tried some cheese soup. The dining room was dark and cozy, I mentioned to Lily that it felt like being in the basement of a castle. The meal was exquisite, and Brian continued to be nervous about whether all this was really covered on the dining plan. We were consistently eating $70 meals and only paying for the tip out of pocket!

Before lunch we had thought to pick up fast passes for Soarin' (for a second ride!) so we headed back to use them. We took our time though, since our bellies were so full! There was some commotion in the fast pass line going in because a family was trying to take two young boys on who didn't really meet the height requirement. They finally decided that the smaller one had to sit out. I was glad Lily easily cleared the 40' mark! The second time on the ride we got to sit in the front row on the left hand side, so we were raised up higher when it started giving a slightly different perspective. I actually didn't like that we were so high up I could see the top of the screen, made it a little less realistic but still awesome nonetheless!

By now it was time to head back for nap, so we walked up to the monorail, and since it wasn't very crowded we asked the CM at the station if we could sit in the front with the driver. He said we could and sent us to the front loading bay, where there was another family that apparently thought they were going to sit in the front but hadn't asked yet. They offered to let just the younger girl ride with us since it could seat four, but she didn't want to. So we had the front to ourselves! The driver gave Lily a co-pilot license and we chatted a little about our day.

Once back in the room Lily was again asleep pretty quickly, if only nap time was this easy at home! Brian went down to the pool for a swim...next up - he comes back to the room with bad news.

Chapter 23 - Keys to the World and other things (Day 4 – Wednesday)

After swimming for about 2 hours Brian came back in a bit of a panic because he had lost his Key to the World Card (which has the room key, dining plan and park tickets on it) He was very worried, but I was pretty sure the front desk could issue a new one easily, so I sent him to take care of it. Lily had just woken up and found that the "nap fairy" had left her a Snow White figurine, now she had the 3 original princesses!

Brian returned a few minutes later, with a new Key to the World, it had been as easy as I suspected. So we were ready for a quick swim before the Pirate and Princess Party. Lily's two favorite games in the pool are Boat - where someone pretends to be her boat and takes her various places in the pool, and Unlocking Prisoners - where someone is locked against the side of the pool and someone else has to find the key to unlock them, the key is often a leaf or other piece of debris that has fallen into the pool, and sometimes you have to try many keys before you find the right one!

After a little while in the Quiet Pool we went to the Volcano Pool because I wanted to do the water slide one time. The Volcano Pool is much cooler (temperature wise) and I found it much more refreshing. But at last it was time to go dress as pirates and a princess so we headed back to get ready for our big night.

Chapter 24 - Enchanted Adventures (Day 4 – Wednesday)

It had taken us a little longer than I intended to get into our costumes so I was in a hurry to get going to the MK. We would be taking the boat over instead of the monorail - we were pirates afterall! The walk to the boat was actually fun with all of us in costume, we got quite a bit of attention. As we walked past the pool a group of guys berated us pirates for kidnapping a princess! And others warned Princess Lily about the crowd she was hanging with.

As the boat neared the MK dock we could see that tons of people were leaving (the park was closed to non-party guests) and not nearly as many were going in. That was a good sign that it wouldn't be super crowded. There were some adults in costumes like us, but it wasn't the norm, so I was feeling pretty cool. The only ride I really wanted to make sure we did was Pirates of the Caribbean, partly because, well, it was the Pirate Party. But also that was the last day that it would be open during our visit due to some planned maintenance. So we found our way to Adventureland. The Genie and Abu were there but had a terribly long line so we moved on. Pirates, however, was completely deserted, and we walked right on with no wait at all. Lily was a little more scarred than I had hoped she would be, but she made it through okay. I liked the new parts they had added from the movie.

Next we walked into Frontierland and decided to get some dinner. Pecos Bill Cafe was open so we went in for a quick bite. I had a Veggie Burger. I don't eat those often, mostly because they taste a little too authentic and I have a hard time convincing myself I am not eating beef! But time was of the essence here so we scarfed down our food and headed out to get a spot for the Enchanted Adventures Parade. It would be starting from Frontierland, and we found a good spot right in front of the rope at the starting point. All of the princesses were in it, plus the Pirates characters, and even Peter Pan and Tinkerbell! It was the only parade we were planning to see and it definitely lived up to its name! Lily was having a great time so far, and the parade would end up being one of her favorite parts of the trip. Unfortunately, our good time wouldn't last long due to a serious error in judgment on our part, which was about to take place...

Chapter 25 - Lily does not like roller coasters. (Day 4 – Wednesday)

Sometimes in life, and vacations are no exception, there are moments you wish so much you could take back, split second decisions you wish you could change. What a difference it would make if we could. This was to be one of those times.

Two bad decisions were made actually, but both were errors in judgment. And both contributed to the downfall of the good time we were having so far. As soon as the parade ended, we rushed toward Thunder Mountain Railroad, which was nearby. We had talked about this ride before, and Lily seemed more than willing to do it, so we didn't discuss it much at the time. Mistake #1. Again there was no wait at all and we walked (ran actually) right on. The seats were a little small and since there was no wait we split up - Brian and Lily rode together with me right behind.

The CM did the usual speel about removing hats and glasses, so I removed my pirate hat. Lily started to worry about the small crown (that she had gotten at the BBB) that was in her hair, so I leaned forward to take it out. It was pinned in with a barrette, and I couldn't get it out immediately. We were starting to move and I was afraid I would just drop it trying any more, so I told her it was in there pretty good and thought it would be okay. Mistake #2. She reached up for it one more time (loosing the barrette some more I think)

Well by now you can probably tell that this story does not have a happy ending. Lily was miserable the whole ride - frightened out of her mind actually, and finally put her head down against the bar in such a way that I actually became worried she might flop out. And at the end, the crown was no where to be seen.

Mistake 1 - going on a roller coaster with a 4 year old.

Mistake 2 - not removing crown (which 4 year old is severely attached to) before roller coaster

She was inconsolable afterwards, even though I promised to get her another crown just like it from the BBB (I was pretty sure they sold them separately) She kept telling us how much she did NOT like the ride and that she wished we hadn’t done it. Of course losing the crown made it even worse, but even if that hadn’t happened I don’t think she would have been a happy camper afterwards.

Not even doing several of the Treasure Hunt Spots set up for the party cheered her up. Surely a ride on Small World would do the trick - who could be sad on Small World? We got an answer. By now we were wondering if we should give up and call it a night, but we went over to Ariel's Grotto where there was a Sebastien Dance Party going on. Lily perked up a little but still wasn't the having a lot of fun. We wandered around a little more and she found a stuffed Minnie Mouse that was dressed in a pink princess outfit that looked a lot like Lily's Aurora Costume, and she decided to spend some of her Disney money on it. That cheered her up more than anything else had so far, and then we went back to the dance party for a bit. She actually danced some this time with Brian, and then it was time for the fireworks!

We sat down at a table facing the Castle (we were in Fantasyland behind the castle) then realized the fireworks were coming from the other direction. Or not. It turned out we were in the middle of fireworks, they were on all sides! The fireworks show was called Magic, Music, and Mayhem. And just like the party, had Princess and Pirate parts. During the pirate part we really felt like we were being surrounded by canon fire!

After the fireworks we headed back towards Adventureland. This time the line for Genie and Abu wasn't nearly as long so jumped in. Unfortunately in my light packing for the evening I had forgotten two important things - the photopass card and Lily's autograph book. The Photopass card wasn't a big deal since the photographer had extras and I knew how to merge cards onto my account, but Lily missed getting their autograph. Oh well.

By now it was going on 11:00, far later than we had intended to stay so we headed for the gate. On the way we saw another Photopass photographer in front of the Castle so we stopped for one last picture. Walking down Mainstreet toward the monorail was cool, it was lit up in a sort of funky way, and though we were all worn out, everyone was at last happy. Not the perfect night we were hoping for, but still a cool experience. And even though it was unfortunate that we had to find it out on this night, we now know that Lily does not like roller coasters.

Chapter 26 - We're going on a Safari! (Day 5 – Thursday)

Thursday morning - we are now about 1/2 way through our trip. We slept in a bit, having been out late partying the night before. The wake up call was set for 8am, but we all started waking after 7:00. Brian joined Lily and I in our bed, and we lazed around until the phone rang. Today we were headed to Animal Kingdom and had a late breakfast at Donald's Safari. I didn't remember much about Animal Kingdom, but most of the reviews I had read on messageboards were not that positive. Everyone seemed to think it was just hot, boring, and not very magical. So I was hoping I would disagree, but a little hesitant to hope for much. This was also our first time going to a non-monorail park, but it turned out that the Polynesian Bus Stop was very close to Tokelau, and our bus came after just a few minutes of waiting. It stopped at Blizzard Beach first, which got us excited for going there on Saturday.

On the way in we stopped at a shop because I wanted to get one of those spray-fan bottle contraptions I had been seeing everywhere to help keep us cool. While I was taking care of that, one of the CMs that worked there asked Lily if she wanted to play a matching game. She drew some lines connecting various movie items in a book, and the lady gave her a certificate! It was one of those unexpected moments that doesn't seem like much looking back, but it was pretty neat at the time!

It seemed really crowded going into the park, and I worried we had picked a bad day. And it was crowded once we got in, but we quickly got immersed in the theme and were too busy looking at all the animals on the main path to notice. We didn't have much time to dilly dally before breakfast, but I did stop for one photopass opportunity on the way. While Brian went to check us in for Breakfast, I ran over to Kilamanjaro Jungle Safaris to pick up fast passes. The return time window was about an hour out, perfect for after our meal.

Breakfast was at the Tusker House, which is themed to be an African hotel. One of the things I loved about Animal Kingdom was how authentic everything felt. After being seated, we quickly ran to the buffet because Safari Minnie was headed our way! We also got to meet Safari Goofy, Donald, and Daisy, the only new character so we got an autograph. All through breakfast we had the Safari Song from Lily's TJ Bearytales in our head! At the time I was thinking this was one of my favorite character meals, but then again it is so hard to choose...

We walked on the Kilimanjaro Safaris with a very minimal wait in the Fast Pass line. At first Lily was very worried about my backpack since it wouldn't fit in the seat compartment, but we convinced her to relax and let me take care of it. We saw tons of animals, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, and some other less common ones. Lily enjoyed it, but did get a little scarred during the part where the bridge seems like it is going to collapse.

So far we were having a great time, and none of my fears about Animal Kingdom seemed justified. Contrary to what I had read, there was tons of shade (which helped with the heat) and I was feeling the magic here more than I had anywhere all week. I think we all were.

Chapter 27 - Is it Simba or Nala? (Day 5 – Thursday)

Kilimanjaro Safaris had taken far less time than I planned due to the Fast Pass, so I was pleased to see that we had time to take the Train to Rafiki's Planet Watch. This was a really cool part of the park. (Literally, since there was a tall canopy of trees over our head keeping the sun out) We followed the trail looking at some exhibits and generally enjoying the environment.

We got to Conservation Station and went inside. There was a presentation going on about Taco, a small spiky mammal, and Lily sat down to watch. After that ended we went over to meet Jimminy Cricket and collect another autograph. She was the last guest he took before going on break! Then we wandered around some of the exhibits before heading outside to the petting zoo. I stopped to buy a really neat Animal Kingdom bag (similar in style to the backpack purse I carry a lot) and Lily decided to use some more of her money for a stuffed baby Simba wrapped in a leaf blanket. By now she had decided against using her money for a princess dress, thinking she would rather buy several small things. She wanted it to be a girl so we concluded that it was Nala instead of Simba (Nala from the movie, not to be confused with our dog!) We had seen most of the area so headed back to the train. It was turning out to be a really good day!

Back in the main part of AK, we wandered through the Tree of Life Trails past the It's Tough to be a Bug entrance. After last night's experience we weren't willing to take any chances with anything mildly scary (which this warned of) so we skipped it and looked for lunch instead. I had planned to eat at Pizzafari and thought I knew where it was, but after coming out of the trails we were totally turned around and it took us a little while to stumble our way back to it. The line inside was long, but it was a cool place - especially to be a counter service restaurant. I really like the theme in all of Africa at AK - so colorful and festive, but still had a wildlife nature to it. We finished eating and decided we had time for one more attraction. I had wanted to see either the Pocahontas or Lion King show, and Lily voted for the latter. I had no idea how often it was done or the times (poor planning I know) but we headed over to Camp Minnie Mickey to asses the situation.

Brian asked what time it was as we were walking up to the entrance, just about the time I told him it was almost 2:00 we came in view of the sign which said the next show was at 2:00! They actually don't do very many a day so this was a huge stroke of luck. The theater was filling up quickly but we were seated and the show soon began. Lily was a little disappointed that it wasn't the actual Lion King Story but more of a Festival, with singing and dancing that some of the characters were involved in. She really like the part with the dancer that flew around on one of those ropes though. And the fire twirler was fascinating. We were right by the Character Greeting Trails when we came out but there looked to be a long line, and Lily was asking to go back to the hotel for a nap. It was time anyway.

We were walking to the Bus area when Lily noticed a Bus at the curb. I was starting to explain that there were LOTS of different busses and that it probably wasn't ours anyway when I came into view of the sign and realized that it WAS ours! And it was loading! We broke into a full paced run and got there just as the last people were getting on. The bus driver who had been watching us joked as we came up that the bus was full - I said we would just hang on the outside then :) Actually there was plenty of room and we even got to sit down. Those busses only run every 20 minutes so we had gotten lucky a second time that afternoon! The bus made a few stops before getting back to our hotel and we had to wake Lily up when we got there. But that didn't stop her from going back to sleep as soon as she got in bed. And not even a kid screaming in the hall for 5 minutes woke her up! As she slept, Belle was waiting by her bed, courtesy of the "nap fairy" :)

I had commented on the way back that this was the best morning we had had so far, and we all agreed that Animal Kingdom was awesome, regardless of what others may think! I'm glad we will have another morning here before we leave...

Chapter 28 - Royal Stair Coverings (Day 5 – Thursday)

While Lily slept I walked over the Great Ceremonial House to pick up our Luau tickets and check on some photopass photos from the previous night that had yet to appear in my account. With that taken care of, I stopped by Captain Cooks to pick up some snack and refill my Resort Mug. We had noticed earlier in the day on a receipt that we had almost 40 snack credits left. I told Brian we needed to start eating more snacks or I was going to feel the need to take home 30-some bottles of water on the last day!

I finally woke Lily up after more than 2 hours of nap and she found Belle. We put on our swimming suits to go join Brian at the pool, and found him easily at the Volcano Pool. Lily munched on some of the fruit I had picked up at Captain Cook's on the way to the pool. After playing boats and prisoners for a while it was time to get out and go dress for dinner. We were headed to the Grand Floridian for the 1900 Park Fare Dinner with Cinderella, as well as the Prince, Stepsisters, and Stepmother. Lily, of course, was wearing her Cinderella costume. I had not been able to get another crown yet like the one she lost, but it was okay because we had brought the Cinderella crown that came with her costume, which was bigger anyway. As usual, on the walk to the monorail Lily was called Princess many times. Even though she acts shy at the time, she does enjoy the attention.

Once inside the Grand Floridian, Lily immediately decided that everything was "royal". As we came down the main stairs she declared that the strips of green carpet on the side were royal stair coverings! There were also royal couches, royal desks, royal statues; the Princesses must live here she thought. When they aren't in the Castle of course.

We had arrived a little early and for the first time had to wait a little while for our table. But we sat out in the main part of the lobby and Lily had a great time pretending that she was the princess and we were the King and Queen, and she was bringing us everything our hearts desired. Including toast and juice. When our buzzer went off we headed back to Park Fare, but after being led into the dining room the hostess realized there had been some confusion - someone else was already at our table! So we had to stand outside for a few more minutes waiting for a different one. Being led back in a second time, I was actually very glad for the mix up. The first table had been back in the corner of one of the side rooms. Our "new" table was in the main room, close to the buffet with a much better view of the carousel horses and other fanfare decorating the room. It was a very relaxed atmosphere despite the rather formal surroundings.

Almost immediately after being seated, the parade was beginning. Cinderella had been at the next table and personally invited Lily to come join! After the parade Cinderella came back for a picture (the third time for Lily on this trip!) Again, she remarked that Lily and her looked like sisters. She was very Princess-like I thought. The stepsisters were not far behind. They were a hilarious pair - very much in character. So far all of the face characters had been princesses and acted very polite and formal. The step-sisters however had a different part to play and created mischief everywhere they went!

I had managed to get Lily's food from the buffet but now I went back for mine. The characters went on break shortly after this, and when they came back they started the circle again. I am not sure what happened but we ended up waiting a very long time to get to meet the Prince and Stepmother. We had been done for a while, but there was no way we were leaving without those autographs! Besides, it had been a very pleasant evening and we were in no particular hurry. While we were waiting, Lily wanted to go back up to the buffet and on our way the aisle suddenly became blocked - the music started and the Prince and Cinderella began dancing right in front of us! Cinderella came around by our table again and talked briefly to Lily.

At last the Prince came, he was very sweet and called Lily "Princess". The stepmother was much more polite than I expected, not quite as much in character as the stepsisters had been. At last the evening was coming to a close. We had thought about walking back instead of taking the monorail but it had grown dark and late, so we decided to ride the monorail, even though we would have to make the full circle to get back to the Polynesian. What a royal evening we had been treated to! So far this had definitely been our best day - Lily had been in a great mood and we had done and seen some really cool things!

On the way out of the Grand Floridian we had stopped by the M. Mouse Mercantile because I was hoping they would have some of those crowns, after making a circle through the store I thought I had struck out but as I was trying to get Brian and Lily out of the store, I spotted them by the entrance! We were in luck, they had one exactly like the one she had lost. With the crown in hand, we headed home.

Chapter 29 - Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! (Day 6 – Friday)

And Piglet and Eeyore! That's who we were set to have breakfast with at the Crystal Palace (inside Magic Kingdom). Friday morning came early - Lily had not slept well. I found her still awake at 2:30am, having heard her be restlessly moving around several times through the night. So it was a little tough to get going when the phone rang at 6:30.

In the still mostly darkened room Lily made out a shadow of something familiar looking sitting above her head on the bed. She reached for it and I had her turn her light on. It was a stuffed Darby and Super Sleuth Pooh! She immediately latched onto the Darby especially. Darby is the (girl) replacement for Christopher Robin in the Disney Playhouse Pooh show that Lily really likes. We wondered how those could have gotten there…I could tell that it might be a rough morning, she clearly had not gotten good sleep. But I didn't want to miss our Pooh breakfast, I had personally been looking forward to meeting my favorite Pooh friends!

We jumped on the monorail and headed to MK. There were quite a few people there for breakfast, the park didn't open for another 1.5 hours. Once they began letting breakfast goers in, we headed down Main Street. I was hoping to get a nice picture of Lily in front of the Castle without it being so crowded. She wasn't in the best mood at this point but we took a few shots with the camera. There were no photopass people out yet, but I had mostly expected that. Just as we were about to head over to the Crystal Palace her mood took a sudden turn for the worse. I ended up going to check us in while Brian sat with her to get her attitude back in control. I was worried we would be called for our table before they joined me, but they came just in time, and I was very relieved to see that Lily was doing MUCH better now!

Right inside the door there were flower statues of Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore! We were seated and saw Piglet come out! He had a ways to go before our table though, so we went ahead to the buffet. While we were at the buffet Tigger and Eeyore came out right past us! Eventually they all made it to our table, though we had to wait quite a while after we finished eating for Eeyore. Lily got to do the parade twice, and I joined in the picture with Piglet and again with Pooh. On the way out she wanted her picture taken by the Pooh made of flowers. This had definitely been one of my favorite character meals... I always seem to think that as we are leaving. But getting to meet my long time hero Pooh was going to be pretty hard to top!

Now it was on to Toon Town to see Minnie and Mickeys house...

Chapter 30 -Lily conquers the Barnstormer (Day 6 – Friday)

On the way to Minnie and Mickey's we passed the Mad Tea Cups and stopped for a spin since there was no wait. Alice and the Mad Hatter were just outside but there was a long line and Lily didn't know either of those characters so we didn't wait. It turned out that Toon Town wasn't open yet so we headed back to see the show that was going to start in front of the Castle.

We stood very near the front and saw all the characters come out and do a song and dance number. That alone was pretty cool, but afterwards it was announced that the characters would be coming down to greet the audience. I could tell immediately that lines were forming in various places. Not having a clue which character would come to which line, I just picked one and jumped in - moments later Sleeping Beauty and the Prince appeared in our line! Lily got to have her picture made with them in front of the Castle. With 2 people in line in front of her my camera battery had locked up (as it has done a few times now) I frantically dug for the other one and got it in just in time!

The other lines were very long and the characters were only going to be there for 10 minutes so I didn't think we had time for another. We headed back to Toon Town which was now open. We first toured Minnie's house. Lily decided it was magic that let Minnie pick up and use all the stuff in her house that was "stuck down" to us! We popped some popcorn in the magic microwave then headed next door to the Character greeting Rooms. The princess room line was much longer than the "Pals" line so Lily decided to go for the shorter one. The Princesses were Belle and Aurora, which she had met already anyway. In the "Pals" room we met Pluto, Donald, and Goofy and since there were photopass photographers inside we all got to be in the picture!

Next up was Mickey's house. Lily didn't enjoy it quite as much since so much of it was fenced off, but his kitchen was a remodeling mess and so we concluded that he probably didn't cook much anyway - he must go to Minnie's house for dinner most nights! The line to see him was incredibly long and since she had met him several times already we moved on.

She had expressed an interest in the Barnstormer Rollercoaster, we were a little nervous about this after our terrible experience on Thunder Mountain, but perhaps this would be a milder way to get her over her fear. After watching it go a few times she wanted to do it. I sat with her and thought she still looked terrified the whole time, but as we were getting off instead of whimpers I heard THE phrase... "I want to do it again!" So again we went! Maybe there is hope for her and roller coasters afterall. By now we had finished up Toon Town and she wanted to ride Haunted Mansion, must have been feeling a little braver after conquering a roller coaster. She looked around briefly in an outdoor shop, and tried on a Stitch hat. Decided to save her money for now, though.

We made our way to Liberty Square, and Haunted Mansion had almost no wait. She was still excited until we went into the first room where everything starts getting dark and spooky. She got very nervous and AFTER the doors closed suddenly didn't want to do it anymore. It was too late. I held her and was afraid this was going to be a repeat of last night. She was quite frightened for most of the ride, but finally started to relax a little at the end during the part where it shows all the ghosts down below dancing and eating. By the time we got off she was fine, and she talked about the ride and the ghosts all the way to Adventureland!

The only other thing I had really wanted to do that morning was the Tiki Room, a show had just started when we walked up, but at least we would get first pick of seats. Lily wasn't quite sure what to think of the show, I am still not sure if she liked it or just thought it really strange. On the way in she had mentioned that she wanted to do the Aladdin carpets, but when we came out she was tired and just wanted to go back to the hotel. She hadn't slept well, afterall, so we agreed to head back a little early and get lunch at Captain Cook’s in the lobby.

On the way out she saw the Swiss Family Tree House and wanted to stop, she was very fascinated by the water wheel part and we actually spent a good bit of time there. On the way back down Main Street there was a band playing so we listened for a little while before walking back to the monorail. This was our last time at Magic Kingdom, unless we decided to abandon my plans on another day. But I think we had seen a good chunk of it. Once back at the Polynesian, Lily was too sleepy for lunch, so we split up and Brian went to get lunch while I took Lily back to the room. As usual, in a few minutes she was sleeping soundly. What in the world would we do without these mid-day breaks?

Chapter 31 - We Got Shrunk (Day 6 – Friday)

After Brian came back I went to the GCH to get some lunch for Lily and myself. I also picked up a couple of things in one of the shops while I was there. We had decided before nap that we were going to forgo our swimming plans in the afternoon so that we could go back to Epcot early, afterall we had inserted some swimming in on a few afternoons when I hadn't planned it. And we would be swimming plenty tomorrow! So after Lily woke up, found Jasmine by her bed, and ate the lunch I had brought back for her earlier, we headed out for one last walk to the TTC.

Brian and Lily really wanted to do the Honey I Shrunk the Audience show, and I was hoping to get one of those "magical pictures" done at Image Works right next door. We walked up to HISTA, intending to get a fast pass, but realized the next show was in 30 minutes and no one was waiting so we were just going to wait instead. As we came in, the CM was telling us to hurry up, and it turned out he was going to let us into the show starting right away! We took advantage of our good timing and slipped in. Unfortunately when we entered the pre-show area we ended up right next to a family that had a screaming baby. So we couldn’t hear much of the pre-show, and made sure not to be sitting near them inside the theater.

Lily was a bit scared at first, especially during the part with the snake. I had forgotten how realistic the mice jumping on your feet feel! I don't by any means have a horrible fear of mice, but it was still a little creepy. After the show Lily had a million questions about how exactly we got shrunk, and blown back up again.

We still had almost an hour before we needed to head to dinner so we went back to Image Works. There was only one family waiting for the "magic pictures" this time so we got two done - one of all of us with the WDW sign and characters in the background, and one of Lily walking up the steps of the Castle with Cinderella above her. I was a little disappointed that you couldn't put the pictures on the photopass, but I bought a print of each to take home. Lily considered buying a stuffed Figment for her EPCOT souvenir, but decided to keep looking instead.

We thought we had just enough time to take the long way around to Mexico for dinner and stroll past the other countries, so we set off for the World Showcase.

Chapter 32 - Around the World in 60 minutes (Day 6 – Friday)

We were off for a quick tour of the world! We had almost an hour until we needed to be in Mexico for dinner. We breezed right through Canada, we had eaten lunch there earlier in the week and didn't feel the need to look around any more. As we were coming into the United Kingdom area we spotted Alice! There was only a short wait, and since we hadn't waited in the long line at MK earlier we decided this was a good opportunity. Lily hadn't seen Alice in Wonderland, but I knew that she would eventually and it would be cool then if she had met her already. Alice was very formal, and commented on how lovely Lily's name was.

Just up the path from Alice was Mary Poppins so we stopped there too. Two more unexpected autographs! We crossed the bridge into France, and just strolled through Morocco, Japan, America, and Italy. The character visits had cost us some time and we didn't want to miss dinner. We did pause for a bit in Germany to watch the model train and get a picture of Lily next to the Snow White Flower Statue. That was about the only princess we hadn't met - I was a little bummed that she wasn't in Germany because I had read that she often was. I knew that was our last good chance to find her this trip, too.

As we went through the African outpost, Lily wandered into one of the shops and fell in love with a stuffed Cheetah. Some were flat like pillows, and some looked more like normal stuffed animals. She was pretty sure that's what she wanted to get, but agreed to wait until after dinner to come back and choose which form she wanted. We went on through China and Norway. There was of course a line of young princesses waiting to go into Akershus, and I remembered with a little bit of longing our lunch there a few days ago.

Finally we had arrived in Mexico, and it was time to step into the big pyramid!

Chapter 33 - Can we stay in Mexico until morning? (Day 6 – Friday)

Lily was amazed when we went inside Mexico. Having just been there for real last year made it really neat, it almost felt like we were back! Had it not been for the AC in the building I would have been convinced. :)

We hopped onto Donald's Gran Fiesta Tour (the boat ride) since we still had a few minutes before dinner. They have changed that ride a bit since I rode it, the new Donald stuff is pretty cute. After the ride we went up to the podium to check in. I had always wanted to eat here after seeing it everytime from the boat, so I had been really looking forward to this. There were lots of people wanting a table, and were being turned away or given very long waits. Again I was glad we had planned ahead so well.

As we were checking in I noticed that there was a small room of tables down to the right that was surrounded by walls and had no view of the main room at all. There was one empty table in there and I feared that would be ours. But when our buzzer rang a few minutes later we were lead to a table only 1 row from the fence looking over the water and boat ride! That was almost the best we could have hoped for, and the atmosphere was everything I had dreamed it would be!

Since there wasn't anything vegetarian on the menu, I asked if I could get the shrimp pasta without the shrimp. The waiter offered me a separate veggie menu, but by that time the pasta sounded pretty good so I stuck with it. The food was excellent, and Lily liked the place so much that she wanted to stay there until morning. We had to explain to her that in Mexico it is always night. She was quick to point out that that wasn't true in real Mexico :)

With our night in Mexico coming to an end, we sadly bid it farewell, assuring Lily we would be back someday. She kept wanting to know if it would all be EXACTLY the same next time we were here. I had worried that this might not be one of our more kid friendly meals, but my fears were put to rest. This one had been a hit!

Chapter 34 - A night of endings (Day 6 – Friday)

After dinner we went back to the African outpost, since Lily had decided for sure that she wanted to spend some of her money on the stuffed Cheetah. We thought she was going to have to choose between the flat or not-flat type, but Brian cleverly figured out that they were one in the same! A small velcro strap allowed it to be either. How cool. She named the Cheetah "Sara" and Sara became our companion for the rest of the evening. We had nothing else we really wanted to do, so we began walking the circle looking for a good spot to watch Illuminations.

We finally stopped just past Morocco, since we could be right against the rail and there weren't too many trees in the way. It was still almost an hour until the show, so Brian took Lily over to the playground right across the way while I saved the spots. Later we switched off and I walked through Morocco for a little bit.

This was the one time when those bug spray wipes that had been sitting in the hotel room all week would have been really useful. The bushes on the other side of the railing housed lots of bugs, some of which were mosquitoes. I only got a few bites though, it could have been worse. Next to us was a family with a little girl about Lily's age, they became fast friends and entertained each other while we waited for the show to start.

Illuminations is always spectacular, Lily and her new friend stood next to each other the whole time and kept exclaiming to each other how cool a particular thing was. At first we thought we should make them be quiet, but there wasn't any one else near by that was likely to be bothered by it, and they were getting more out of it by being able to share the experience as it happened.

We were pretty worn out by the end, and of course the line at the monorail was enormous. It moved fairly quickly though. On the walk back from the TTC we could see the fireworks from MK over the top of Tokelau. We fondly recalled our magical night there earlier in the week, that sort of thing was starting to happen a lot.

Tired as we were, once back in the hotel room we still didn't feel like going right to bed, so we munched on some snacks before settling in for the night. Another really good day - but unfortunately it also felt like a day of endings. We had spent our last day at both Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Lily was especially sad to leave Epcot, she has come to really love that place in the last few days. (I suspect that Soarin' is somewhat responsible for that…)

On the way back we tried to keep our spirits up by reminding ourselves that we still had 2.5 days left, and 2 new parks we hadn't even been to yet. But it still felt like our vacation was winding down - all these things we had been thinking about and planning for so long were being checked off, one by one. Anticipation was being replaced by memories. And Monday was seeming ever closer.

Chapter 35 - *Appetizers not included (Day 7 – Saturday)

Saturday was Blizzard Beach day! The phone rang a little after 7am, and we forced aside the growing fatigue to get ready. We were eating breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe, so we went to the GCH to catch the monorail. It was on the first floor not far from Park Fare, and all the little girls heading in with their autograph books again made me wistful for our dinner there a few nights ago.

The Grand Floridian Cafe was more elegant and formal than I had expected, and I wondered if we were dressed to casually. I had only picked this in an attempt to reduce our number of counter service meals, and I started wondering if I shouldn't have tried to get us another character meal at a different hotel instead. As we checked in and were seated, no one asked us anything about whether we were on the dining plan, which was odd.

This was the first non-buffet breakfast we had eaten, and since there were appetizers on the menu we each ordered one. We had eaten enough non-buffet lunches and dinners to know they were included. The food was good, but there was far too much of it. When we gave the waitress the Key to the World card to pay, she at first asked if it was a room charge. For that quick moment I feared that I had messed up and that the restaurant wasn't even on the dining plan. It turned out it was, but the appetizers were not included. Would have been nice to know that BEFORE we ordered! We tried to shake it off - not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but the service had been less than great all around and it had put a damper on our morning.

We caught the bus to Blizzard Beach from the GF, since there was no need to go back to our hotel first. The bus came right after we got to the stop, and we were on our way to our first water park adventure!

Chapter 36 - The trouble with tubes (Day 7 – Saturday)

We arrived at Blizzard Beach and I pulled out the Key to the World cards for our entry. As we attempted to get through the turn style, the CM informed us that we did not have the water park option on our tickets. I was sure I had paid extra for that! But then it had been almost a year since I made the reservations, it was possible I had forgotten. We went to the ticket counter, and the CM there confirmed the same thing - we had 9 day park hoppers, but no water parks. It was cheaper to buy a one-day ticket than add the package to our hoppers, so we did that and were on our way. A little frustrating because for the second time that morning we were paying for something I had thought was included, but since this way was cheaper than the option on our tickets, I suspect that I intentionally did not include it, but then forgot what I had done :) It's been known to happen...

But now we were inside, time to shake off the frustrations of the morning and enjoy our day. We rented a locker for our stuff, coated ourselves in sunscreen, and went looking for some fun. We saw the Cross Country Creek (a lazy river that encircles the whole park) and decided that would be a good place to start. We had a little bit of trouble getting Lily into her tube, since she was unfamiliar with how those things work.

Once we were all in, I grabbed onto her tube to pull us both out of the loading area into the river. Just about the time that I was picked up by the current, she decided that she did NOT want to be pulled by me, and very quickly managed to wiggle her tube out of my hands. The problem was that now I was being taken downstream by the current, and she was still stuck in the loading bay. I knew even if she got out of there on her own she would never catch up so I bailed out of my tube, completely dunking myself in the process, and went back for her, against the current. I explained to her that she had to trust me on these rides, with this being a water park and all, and that it wasn't safe for her not to. Thinking she understood now, we set off - together this time.

However, it wasn't long before she started complaining about me holding onto her tube again, and not wanting too argue I let go but tried to keep a hand very close. We were riding with our feet hanging out over the top of the tube, so we didn't have a lot of control over where we went or how fast. She continued to be frustrated by my attempts to keep her close to me, and tried to separate herself as much as possible. Well, again, you can probably tell that this will not end so well.

It wasn't long before she got her wish, due to her efforts to keep me away. Of course at this point she panicked, apparently not having wanted to become quite this separated. She was several tube lengths ahead of me in a matter of seconds and still speeding up. Brian was a ways behind me. Trying to speed myself up, I yelled at her to try to slow herself down. That was probably a mistake. She grabbed onto the wall, which she had seen me do a few times already. But not quite knowing how to do it properly, she immediately came tumbling out of her tube. There were by now several people between me and her, and an older guy went rushing towards her. That combined with the fact that she had a life jacket on, and the water wasn't very deep anyway meant that I wasn't really worried about her safety at that point. But by now I was VERY unhappy that she hadn't learned her lesson the first time, and had caused a problem again just because she didn't want me to hold on to her tube.

The man in front of me grabbed her out of the water and somehow Brian got to her before I did - she was fine of course, just a little shaken. But now she finally understood that going it alone in the river was not an option, and we were able to enjoy the rest of our trip around, with me firmly holding onto the back of her tube. I also decided to go in the raft with my feet down in the water, so I would have more control over where we went. The lazy river was very relaxing, and had a few water falls and a “Sneezing House” that Lily and I had to dodge!

Chapter 37 - Tike's Peak (Day 7 – Saturday)

After making a trip around the lazy river, we headed over to the wave pool. Lily was a little nervous at first but then relaxed and enjoyed bobbing in the waves. It was at this point, having little else to do I suppose that I began thinking. And too much thinking near the end of a vacation if usually not a good thing. I wondered if this had been the best choice for today - I had made these plans so long ago and was thinking that by this point we would be tired and needing something a little more relaxing. Which we definitely were.

But I was also getting anxious because we had so little time left - should we have been using these last days doing something more important? Maybe we should have spent the day at Magic Kingdom. Had I not known we would have to pay separately for this I almost would certainly chosen to go to one of the other parks. I was still haunted a little by breakfast and was trying to remember which character meals we hadn't done that we maybe could have done instead.

At some point, I managed to get a hold of my second guessing mind and assured myself that this was okay. Really, what had we not done at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT? Short of doing favorites again, there wasn't anything we had missed that I really wanted to do. One day would almost certainly be enough at DHS, especially since I know knew that Tower of Terror was out of the question. And we still had Monday morning to finish up Animal Kingdom. And how many characters had she met already? We were here, and we might as well enjoy this new adventure for what it was. So I was in better spirits by the time we got out and went to look for Tike's Peak.

Lily splashed around a bit at Tike's Peak and did each of the Kiddie water slides. I was surprised to see that there was a photopass photographer there, and we got our picture made by the statue that I though looked like Figment in the Kid's pool. He gave me a smaller photopass card on a rubber band since mine was back in the locker, I wish I had had that one all week - it was much more convenient!

After a little while Lily decided that she was ready to try Teamboat Springs - the family rafting ride that we had seen on the way. A chair lift was available for transport to all the water slides at the top of Blizzard Beach, but the line was incredibly long so we toughed it out on the stairs. I was very glad at this point that I had my flip flops on. Lily had also worn her Tinkerbell pool shoes, but Brian was barefoot and those stairs sure got hot in a few places! At the top we found out that you needed at least 4 people to ride, so we would have to join up with someone. Lily was starting to get nervous and I hoped to goodness we weren't making another mistake. It is so hard to know. Kids will almost always be nervous when going on a new ride - sometimes they will end up loving it and sometimes it will ruin the day. Which would it be this time?

Chapter 38 - Teamboat Springs (Day 7 – Saturday)

We were quickly joined up with two girls and loaded into our raft. Teamboat Springs is a 90 ft tall water slide that you go down in a giant raft. It is fairly gentle, but swooshes you up the wall in several places. On the way down I was attempting to keep a hand on Lily and on the camera (I had brought the old camera in the waterproof case for today's adventure) I couldn't make much of her expression on the way down, but after the rather long trip we hear it for the third time - "I want to do it again!" (That means she REALLY liked something.) So again we went. And again. The only ride that we had done three times, and Lily claimed that it was her second favorite in Disney World, second to Soarin' of course.

After 3 trips up those stairs, it was time for some relaxation. So back to the lazy river, which was much more crowded by now. But at least Lily knew the ropes a little better and we had no major disasters this time. There was even a photopass photographer at one of the loading bay and I managed to snag Brian's tube just in time to pull him back for a picture. They guy had some trouble with my card though and I was hoping it had worked, later at the hotel I was relieved to see the pictures show up on my account.

We picked a pretty random spot to get out, and by now it was time to get lunch and head for home. We weren’t really sure where we were but we stumbled our way back to the front for lunch. Brian wanted to do some of the more extreme water slides, and since that's just not my thing (yes I'm a wimp, I know) I agreed to take Lily back while he stayed a few more hours. We all had lunch together at LottaWatta first, and Lily was excited to see that her meal came in a plastic bucket with a shovel! So she made out with a "free" souvenir from Blizzard Beach.

By this time I was very glad we had done Blizzard Beach afterall – Teamboat Springs had ended up being one of her favorite rides, and it was fun to do something a little different for a day. Brian had a great time going on the big slides after we left – even if he had a freaky experience on the Slush Gusher when he was launched off the slide into the air for a few seconds! He also did Summit Plummet, a 120 drop almost straight down! Too much for me, that’s for sure. We thought it was cool that so much of the stuff in the park seemed to be a play on words of things in Colorado! It had been a successful morning, even though it didn’t get off to such a great start.

Lily and I headed back on the bus, once again we saw the bus as it was pulling up and made a mad dash for it, arriving just in time. Again she fell asleep on the way, but again she went right back to sleep in the hotel. Felt like Deja Vu. On the way back she had been begging to go back to Epcot after the luau tonight, but there were no EMH and it was closing to early for that to be possible. So I tried to think of another way we could see Epcot one more time. It would depend on how the rest of evening went.

Chapter 39 - Edible volcanos (Day 7 – Saturday)

As Lily was napping I came to the unfortunate conclusion that I had gotten a sunburn that morning at Blizzard Beach. We had been so good about using our sunscreen that I thought we were going to make it the whole week without any fried skin, but not so. Oh well.

Again I had to wake Lily up after more than two hours of snoozing, she rarely sleeps this long but Disney World can be tiring, even at the relatively slow pace we were taking. Today she found Princess Ariel in her pink dress waiting for her by the bed, and she was excited because Ariel is her favorite!

We dressed in our matching Mickey and Minnie Luau dresses, and wondered if Brian was going to make it back from the water park in time to go with us. He arrived shortly, after having had to wait 20 minutes for a bus, apparently he hadn't had our same luck at the bus stop. We had originally planned to take it easy after the Luau at the hotel, but Lily had her heart set on going back to Epcot and the only way I could think to make that happen was to go the next night, when we had planned to see Fantasmic. There would be time to go see Fantasmic tonight after the Luau, and that would then free us up for the next night. We all agreed on that plan.

While Brian got ready, I ran over to the GCH to see if by any chance I could score dinner plans at Epcot for the following night. I knew it was a longshot, but it couldn't hurt to ask. There was a huge line at the Concierge desk due to people picking up Luau tickets, but I didn't have to wait long. As I suspected, everything at Epcot was booked, so if we were to spend the evening there we would be on our own for a counter service dinner. Which is what I had planned to do at DHS before Fantasmic anyway, so no big deal.

I met up with Brian and Lily and we headed down to Luau cove. There was a crowd of people already checking in, but soon we were greeted in the traditional Hawaiian manner and given more leis. Our table number had been pre-assigned and we were soon led to a table on the second level of the theater. Not the best visibility, but it would do. There was already a plate of fruit and salad as well as water glasses on our table, which was good because I was parched.

The show started, and the main dish was brought out. It was earlier than we had been used to eating dinner, and none of us were particularly hungry. The show was okay, not as good as the real luau we went to in Hawaii a few years ago. In hindsight, it probably wasn't worth the two meals it took up on the meal plan (since it was a "signature dining" experience) but it had seemed fitting when I booked it that we should go to a luau if we were going to stay in Polynesia.

Near the end Lily got brave enough to go up on stage with the other kids and do the Hula dance – she actually got into it a little bit and as usual was very proud of herself afterwards. The desserts were chocolate volcanoes, which were brought out on plates with a large model of a steaming volcano. Lily really got a kick out of that part.

When it ended we were all still feeling up for Fantasmic. We had bought the picture from the luau, and Brian's drink had come with a keepsake glass so we dropped those things off at the room, Lily picked up her stuffed Darby that she wanted to take, and we were off to the bus stop for our first trip to Disney Hollywood Studios (DHS), and a nighttime extravaganza!

Chapter 40 - Mickey beats the villains (Day 7 – Saturday)

The bus came before too long, so far I thought we had been pretty lucky with the timing (though Brian had a different opinion after his earlier experience) We were the only ones on it and worried that maybe Fantasmic wasn't even going on tonight. But the sign at the entrance allayed our fears and we walked as quickly as we could to Sunset Hills Amphitheater.

Fantasmic is known for filling up quickly, sometimes as much as an hour in advance. 9pm was showtime, and it was already almost 8:15. The theater was at least 70% full when we got there, but we still managed to find a pretty good seat. Lily and Darby danced and played peek-a-boo with Brian to pass the time, and Lily especially loved participating in the "wave" as it came around several times. She really wanted to buy one of the various glow-y toys they were selling on the carts at the bottom, but we convinced her to save her money for something better the next day. Overall, the 45 minute wait went better than I had expected, and Lily started getting very excited near the end when the 10 and 5 minutes announcements came on.

Finally, the show began. Fantasmic is a bit more frightening than I had remembered, and for a large part of the show Lily was cuddled in Brian's lap with her hands over her ears and Darby hanging around her neck. I was afraid we had made another mistake, maybe this was just too much for a young kid. But she got a huge smile on her face when Mickey defeated the villains in the end, and she really liked the part where the Princesses came by on the boats. So it turned out to be a hit afterall, and was definitely a memorable experience.

Leaving would require some patience, they actually have it set up to where the theater empties into an area outside the gates, since the show takes place after the park closes. Tonight was an extra magic hours night so lots of people were arriving to go in as we left, but we just aren't the night owl type to stick around for such things. The bus that was at the stop when we arrived filled up just before we got on, but that was okay because another came within a few minutes and since we were almost at the front of the line, we got to sit down. We could see Magic Kingdom fireworks from the bus on the way back, and again we were reminded of how close we were coming to the end of our magical trip. But we still had a full day left, and we had only seen a small portion of DHS on our mad flight to the amphitheater.

Chapter 41 - Leo and Lily have glasses! (Day 8 – Sunday)

Once again Mickey and Stitch woke us up a little before we would have liked, but the Playhouse Disney Pals were waiting to have breakfast with us at DHS! Wanting to allow as much sleep time as possible I had not given us much time to get ready, so we hurried to the bus stop. We kept seeing busses go by on the street, but it was a while before any turned into our hotel. We were on our way shortly. DHS wasn't open yet, so only those with character dining reservations and something else having to do with the Star Wars weekend were headed there already.

We found our way to the Hollywood & Vine restaurant. This was one of the character meals that had rotating characters, so there was no way to know ahead of time exactly which characters you might see. Options included characters from JoJo's Circus, Handy Manny, Higglytown, Little Einsteins, and My Friends Tigger and Pooh. I was most hoping for some Little Einsteins because that is one of Lily's favorites and we hadn't had any other opportunities to meet them.

Breakfast was a buffet, which we were glad to see because those always seem to work out better for us. Since the characters hadn't come out yet when we sat down, we went on up to fill our plate. After a few minutes Lily needed to go potty. There were still no characters out so we quickly made our way to the bathroom, and got back just in time - Leo from Little Einsteins was at our table! June, one of the other Little Einsteins as well as JoJo and Goliath were there. JoJo had to sign the autograph book for Goliath since, well, Lions have a bit of a hard time with a pen. The characters were great, as always, and I was sad that this was our last character meal. Leo had been especially cool - gesturing with his hands that he and Lily had matching glasses! Several times during the meal the characters had invited the kids up to the front to dance. Lily went each time and looked a little nervous to be there, but always came back with a big smile on her face. I hope she remembers this trip for a long time!

The characters were moving so fast the some made it around to us again before we left, and asked us with their hands if we had filled our bellies! We had, and the park had just opened so we were off to explore.

Chapter 42 - One more Einstein (Day 8 – Sunday)

We headed over to Animation Courtyard where the main two attractions were that we wanted to see - Voyage of the Little Mermaid and the Playhouse Disney show. A Mermaid show was starting in just a few minutes so we went to that one first. I can't remember if I have seen that one before, but it was really neat. They do some pretty amazing stuff with what appears to be puppets. And some live face characters are mixed in as well.

Before going in to Little Mermaid I had noticed that the next Playhouse Disney show would be at 10:30. It was only around 10:00 so I thought we had time to let Lily look around at a couple of shops before going over, but then we noticed that there was quite a line forming already so we decided to go ahead and get in it to make sure we made the next show. In line there were TV showing Playhouse Disney, and that entertained Lily for most of the wait.

The Playhouse Disney show does not have seating so we found a spot on the floor, and Lily sat on my lap so that she could see. The show was pretty cute, had Mickey's clubhouse, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins and My Friend's Tigger and Pooh. I think Lily was especially happy to see Darby for the first time. It's a shame we didn't get to meet her at all. After being given false hope at the Magic Kingdom a few days ago, I had been hoping to see her here, but no such luck.

On the way out of the show I saw Quincy, another Little Einstein at the character greeting spot and jumped in line. Brian and Lily ended up way behind me coming out of the theater, but came out just in time for Lily to jump in with me in line. Right before we got up there it was announced that June was about to come replace Quincy, but fortunately Lily made it to the front while Quincy was still there - she had met June already that morning.

A slight argument ensued afterwards about what we would do next, but we semi-resolved it and after a quick stroll through the Mermaid store we headed for the Toy Story ride. Lily wasn't quite out of her bad mood though, and we had to stop a few times. It didn't help that when we got to Toy Story there was a 90 minute wait. I should have figured, the ride is brand new and very popular. Fast Passes were available, but not until 4pm. Not knowing what to do now, and with Lily's mood spiraling downward fast, we sat down on a bench and got some popcorn. Lily cheered up after a few minutes and we formulated a plan.

Chapter 43 - Meeting Monsters (Day 8 – Sunday)

Brian had been begging to do the Beauty and the Beast show which we had seen last time and really liked. Unfortunately it only ran in the afternoon and evening, and required early arrival for seating. And Lily really wanted to do the Toy Story ride, which we went ahead and got Fast Passes for in the 4-5pm window. So we were going to have to come back here after nap instead of going to Epcot. Or maybe we could still make it to Epcot for a few minutes after B&B, we agreed we would try anyway. We still had over and hour until lunch we walked to the Streets of America section. I was hoping to be able to meet Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc. there, but character greeting times could be fickle so I tried not to get my hopes up too much.

On the way we passed one of those face painting huts, we had seen them before but never at a good time to stop. Now we had some time to kill, so Lily picked out the butterfly mask pattern, and soon (and $12 later) the transformation was complete! It actually looked really good with the purple shirt she was wearing.

We wandered around a little more, and I had about given up on finding Mike and Sully, but at the last minute decided to ask a CM standing in the street. She told us vaguely where to go, and we were soon walking into the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Backyard Playgound area. As soon as we were in, I remembered having been there before, but I still had no idea where I was or how to get to where we were going, so we asked another CM and walked inside to see Boo's door! The CM inside said that it would be 10 minutes before Mike and Sully came back out, but there was no one else waiting yet so we stuck around.

Soon Sully came out the door right next to us, and for a few seconds I was afraid it would only be him, but Mike quickly followed. Since there was a photopass photographer there, we let Butterfly Lily get one with just her, and then we joined in! Monster's Inc. is one of my favorite Disney movies, so I was excited to meet them too.

We had promised Lily she could go back to the playground we passed on the way, so we headed back to get "shrunk". Lily wanted to make sure first that afterwards we would be brought back to normal size...although she thought it might be fun to go around being small too! She ran around the playground for a while, played some more of her Prisoners game inside a giant tree, and then it was time to leave to go to lunch at the movies!

Chapter 44 - We get a "Speeding Ticket" at lunch (Day 8 – Sunday)

Back at the Sci-Fi Dine-in Theater there was a rather chaotic scene of people trying to get in for lunch. Once again lots of unhappy would-be customers without reservations were being turned away. All morning I had been wondering if this meal was really worth it - it seemed like we were having to stick around longer than we would have otherwise to wait for our reservation time, and it was putting a bit of a time crunch on the afternoon now that we were going to have to come back to DHS after nap. That combined with the chaotic scene outside was making me feel a bit negative toward the whole thing. I even doubted given how busy they were that we would get a real "car table".

So when the hostess, who was on roller skates, called us (after not too long a wait actually) and led us into the "theater" I was pleasantly surprised to see that not only did we get one of the real cars, but we were in the front row! Suddenly things didn't seem so bad. The Sci-Fi Dine-in Theater is actually a really cool place, our table looked just like a car, and Lily got to sit in the front seat, and was called the driver. We were the passengers. In front of us a giant movie screen played old fashioned sci-fi and cartoon films. It looked just like we were parked outside at a drive in theater. Again, I thought, when Disney does something they do it all the way.

The meal turned out to be a lot of fun, and I was really glad that I hadn't suggested giving up on it earlier. Near the end we had to remind Lily that we were only eating lunch - the atmosphere was so realistic that she had forgotten it wasn't really night! And when the check was brought at the end, the waiter gave it to us as our "speeding ticket"!

After lunch we headed back to the main gate but made a quick stop for Lily to buy her souvenir from DHS. She picked out two more stuffed animals - a Tinkerbell and a Dalmatian dog. She had now spent $90 of her dollars on stuffed animals, which have only recently become appealing to her. Then we quickly walked to catch a bus, needing to salvage as much of naptime as possible since we would have to return in just two hours to catch Beauty and the Beast, and of course make it back for our Toy Story Fast Pass.

There was a large crowd at the bus stop and we had to wait a little longer than I would have liked, but we made it back and got Lily straight to bed (well, after washing off the butterfly face which I knew wouldn't survive the nap anyway). I left her and Brian to fall asleep (wondering as I left if this was wise) and headed to the GCH to stock up on some snacks (still had lots of those credits left) and see about acquiring one of those "squwahed pennies" Lily had been wanting all week. I ended up not getting one because I wasn't sure if she would want Pocohantas or a dwarf, which were the options, but at last I knew where the machine was and finally had the right combination of coins.

I was glad to see that Lily was asleep when I returned, but after a short 1 ½ hours we had to get going again. Today, Mulan was waiting by her bed when she woke up. She was very groggy and I wondered if we would make it afterall, but we managed to get ourselves back to the bus stop in just a few minutes. The ride back seemed incredibly slow, all sorts of minor delays with other passengers were causing us to cut it a lot closer than I had wanted with our Fast Passes, but once in the gate we made a beeline for Toy Story and were there 10 minutes before the passes expired! Buzz and Woody - here we come!

Chapter 45 - Lily ROCKS Toy Story Mania! (Day 8 – Sunday)

We breezed right through the Fast Pass line of Toy Story Mania, the standby line outside was still nuts! Toy Story Mania is built on the same concept as Buzz Light Years Space Rangers Spin in MK, an interactive ride where you try to shoot things as you go. (In fact I would comment to Brian later that I felt as if after making Buzz at MK, they thought of how they could have made it a lot better so decided to start over with a new one, but at a different park) This one was a little more cosmic, the whole ride consisted of being moved in front of various screen where you shot at animated targets. The guns were a little easier to work, and the graphics were simply outstanding.

After the first round, and feeling like I had done pretty well, I glanced over at Lily's score screen - her score was 10,000 point higher than mine! I thought she must have just hit a really lucky mega-points target at some point. But her score continued to gain on me with every round, even though her accuracy rating was well below mine. It was then that I realized her strategy - shooting the gun as rapidly as her hand would possibly go and not ever stopping. Her aim wasn't anything to brag about, but the sheer number of shots she was firing off were adding up to a serious number of points. While I on the other hand was hitting some pretty big targets, but taking way to long to aim and set up my shots. In the end she had a score of 49,000 to my 34,000. Brian, who was sitting in the seat behind us, of course beat us both.

After finishing Toy Story we stopped to get more Popcorn because Lily was hungry, the headed to the B&B theater since it was almost time for seating. As we were going into the theater, I was of course trying to scope out a good seat where Lily would be able to see. I happened to notice that one of the benches did not go all the way to the end of the row, and immediately concluded that if we sat in the end of the row just above that one, that no one would be sitting in front of Lily! So we snagged it. The theater ended up being full, and Lily had an almost completely unobstructed view of the stage!

The theater was outdoors but covered. Even though we were in the shade it was still pretty toasty inside, especially once it started filling up with people. We stayed cool by rubbing our cold drink cup on our arms, and I wished again that I had brought my squirty fan with me. My sunburned shoulders didn't like carrying the big backpack though, so we had traveled light that day. Once again, the theatrical production was outstanding, and it never ceases to amaze me how much Disney puts into each one of these shows.

Today had seemed like the day of chaos, always rushing from one thing to another. And after the show was no exception. We again took off on a mad dash for the gates, this time in an attempt to get to Epcot before Future World closed for the night. No surprise, I suppose that on the last day we would be scurrying around trying to finish up everything we wanted to do at the last minute. It is unbelievable that in 8 days we were not able to see and do everything, but our mad pace on this last day proves it so.

Chapter 46 – Postcards from the Future (Day 8 – Sunday)

Again, the bus ride to Epcot seemed to be taking far too long and I wasn't at all sure we would make it. Lily's one request was to ride Spaceship Earth one more time, but she had agreed that it would be okay if we didn't get to ride as long as we could walk around under it for a few minutes. So I shouldn't have been so nervous about the time, but I was really hoping to make it. I had never been to the bus stop at Epcot, because we always took the monorail from the hotel. It was rather far from the gate and it seemed that we walked and walked to get there. We were very glad to see people were still going onto Spaceship Earth and we jumped in line before we lost our chance! Lily had ridden with me last time so she decided to ride with Brian this time.

I could hear him behind me the whole time quietly explaining the scenes to her much more than I had, and it was neat to hear how genuinely interested in everything she was. I was now VERY glad we had made it in time - it made for a nice way to end our day. After the ride we wandered around in Project Tomorrow which was still open. This time I got to see the "Postcard from the Future" we had made on the ride, and even emailed it to myself! Those computers are so dang smart that as soon as I walked up the Facial Recognition technology immediately pulled up our card. I was completely blown away, as there was no other way that the computer could have know which one was mine! Brian and Lily each did one of the memory test kiosks, then we moved on.

Outside Epcot was beginning to glow like it so often does that time of day in the dimming sunlight with its lights everywhere. It is really the neatest time to be there, too bad Future World always closes just about the time Epcot is getting really pretty. We had no plans for dinner and walked over the to Electric Umbrella which was still open. The CM said they had a veggie burger but would take 10 mintues to cook, so I decided it wasn't worth it and just got some fries. Lily tried the infamous DisneyWorld Mac n Cheese, and confirmed the bad reviews I had read of it. This is why I like eating table service, it is always such a better experience. We finished eating and went across to MouseGear, the big shop in Future World. I had wanted all week to find the three of us matching tee shirts, and I knew this would be my last good chance. We found some blue 2008 shirts that we really liked, the kids shirt was a little different, but we liked it nonetheless. We debated a little over which size to get Lily, finally deciding on the small. We had also been debating color... and in the end I walked away with which ever blue shirt I had in my hand last not really noticing the size...

We picked up a few other things, and Brian and Lily went outside to watch the fountains do their show one last time while I paid. On the way out of the store I saw those blue shirts hanging up and remembered that I hadn't sorted through the sizes earlier. Outside I checked my bag, and sure enough I had the wrong size shirt for Lily! Exchanging it turned out to be a bigger ordeal than I had expected, but with it taken care of I joined Brian and Lily by the fountains. It was time to say good bye to Epcot, for real this time.

Chapter 47 -How much longer do you think we could stay? (Day 8 – Sunday)

Once back at the hotel our plan was to go swimming until it was time for the MK fireworks at 10pm and then watch them from the beach. It seemed like a nice way to end the trip .So after making the last walk in the dark from the TTC, we changed into our swimming suites and headed toward the Volcano Pool. Lily still had $10 to spend and wanted to get something from the hotel so we were going to go look for something and drop Brian off at the pool on the way. As we headed out of our building we could hear the Electric Water Pageant and rushed to the beach to see it. I was surprised at how crowded the beach and pool area was, and wondered if all these people were hanging around for the MK fireworks like we were planning to do. I had imagined it being a little more peaceful than this.

We went on to the GCH and Lily picked out a sticker book with her last $10, and got her squwashed penny. She wanted Pocohantas, but that one was broken so she settled for a Sneezy the Dwarf one instead. We filled up our Resort mugs (which I realized we hadn't gotten as much use out of as I had hoped) and went to find Brian at the pool. We still had about 30 minutes before the fireworks, so we played around in the pool, which for the first time actually felt quite chilly. It had definitely cleared out after the water parade and the whole area seemed much calmer than I was used to experiencing it during the day. Was this really our first nighttime swim? I supposed it was.

A few minutes before 10pm we walked down the beach a ways and found a good spot to watch the fireworks. The view was awesome, though we wished that they piped in the music and narration that went with them. Having seen the show at MK on our second night, I roughly remembered what was happening during each part, and it was actually quite nostalgic. That night in front of the castle was still one of my very favorite parts of the whole trip, and remembering it on the night before we were to leave made me more than a little sad. We stayed on the beach for a few minutes after the fireworks, but then it was time to go. We made our way back to our room one last time, full of memories and not feeling the least bit homesick yet. If only we could stay here forever...we did (mostly jokingly) discuss how long we would be able to stay before the credit card reached its limit and the hotel kicked us out... we figured we would have at least 3 weeks! Of course by that time with Brian probably not having a job to go back to anymore I'm not sure we would ever recover from that bill...so home it would be, and in just a matter of hours now.

Chapter 48 - Packing up the zoo (Day 9 – Monday)

Mickey and Stitch woke us up one last time, bright and early. We had wondered if the nap fairy would come again, since we would have to check out before naptime, and Lily was happy to see that a Pocohantas was waiting by her bed when morning came! But wait... that wasn't all. A small box with a fairy was waiting by her bed as well! Inside we found a beautiful Tinkerbell necklace that said on the back "Believe in the Magic". The necklace was to remain glued to her for quite some time.

Our room had fallen into a bit of chaos in the last few days and I wasn't looking forward to finding a way to get everything back into the suitcases! Including the 7 new stuffed animals Lily was going home with...But somehow, little by little, the room began to return to its original state, and our luggage became fuller and fuller. While we packed Lily played in the floor with her princesses and stuffed animals. Naturally, it had taken a little longer than expected to get everything packed so Brian and Lily headed to the GCH with one load while I finished up in the room. Finally everything was packed, and as I turned to head out of the room one last time, I again found it hard to believe the week was almost over. This had been home for the last 8 nights, and I couldn't hardly imagine what it would be like not to be coming back there in a few hours for nap.

I met them at the elevators, and we took the rest of the luggage to the airline check in desk in the front of the hotel. I wasn't sure whether to encourage Lily to go back and say bye to the room or not, in the end I figured it would just put a damper on the morning so we headed straight out of Tokelau to the GCH. They went ahead and took our luggage and gave us boarding passes - that has to be the earliest I've ever checked in for a flight. It wasn't even 8am, and our flight didn't leave until almost 6pm! But it sure would be nice not to have to lug those bags off the bus and into the airport. The Magical Express rocks. Period.

We had breakfast reservations at the Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom at 8:30, and it was already after 8:00. Our good luck with the busses had waned in the last day and this was no exception. But it got us there with a minute to spare, and it turned out that Rainforest Cafe wasn't that busy anyway. Breakfast apparently isn't such a popular meal there. I decided to try the Tonga Toast I had been seeing everywhere all week, and Lily had some oatmeal. The atmosphere was pretty neat, but I did find myself wishing that I had scheduled one last character breakfast for the morning instead. It would have made for a nice farewell.

The Rainforest Cafe has its own entrance into Animal Kingdom, so we were soon off. Lily had said she wanted to meet the characters one last time so we headed toward Camp Minnie Mickey. On the way we stopped for another photopass opportunity, I wanted to make sure we got a picture in our new matching shirts! I thought we looked pretty spiffy...

Chapter 49 - The Drench Seat (Day 9 – Monday)

It turned out that Camp Minnie Mickey didn't open for another hour, so we made a quick change in plans and headed to Dinoland instead. We stopped first at the Boneyard, which is a dinosaur-dig themed playground. Lily wanted to do the part where you dig for bones, so we plunged into the sandy gravel to uncover a Woolly Mammoth skeleton. Note for future reference - this is not a good place to be wearing sandals! Tiny rocks in shoes are painful. With enough of that under our belt, Lily took off to explore the playground. It reminded me a lot of the "Shrunk" playground from yesterday, just a different theme and far less crowded since it was early morning still. In fact we almost had the place to ourselves.

Dino-Rama was just across the way, which was a Dinosaur themed carnival-like area. Primeval Whirl, the main attraction, looked to be a combination of a roller coaster and Mad tea Party Ride. The height requirement far surpassed Lily so it wasn't an option for this trip. There was a flying Dinosaur ride which was a lot like Dumbo, so we headed there. We ended up riding that one twice, since the front seat riders control the tilt of the Dino, and the back seat riders control the height. Lily, of course, wanted a turn at both. There was no wait, so no reason we couldn't comply.

By now the Character areas would be opening soon, but at this point Lily decided she didn't want to go back to them. So we wandered, a bit aimlessly into Asia. We came to some Colubus monkeys playing up high in the ropes. Lily hadn't been in the best mood in the last few minutes, and this didn't seem to be helping. She finally decided that she did want to ride the Kali River Rapids Ride. I hadn't planned on doing this one, but after seeing how much she liked the raft ride at the water park I thought perhaps this one would be a hit too. We didn't have fast passes for this one, but it was still early and the line was only 10 minutes long.

To our credit, we warned her, several times, that she would get wet and would possibly even get soaked. She didn't seem thrilled about the idea, but assured us that she was okay with it, and wanted to ride. We even paused on the path to watch one of the rafts taking off so she could get an idea of what it would be like. And still she wanted to go. I noticed that about 20-30% of the people coming off were completely drenched, they might as well have gone swimming. Most of the rest were wet in a few places, but nothing major. Apparently 2-3 of the seats would really get the lion's share of the water. Does this sound foreboding yet?

We climbed in our raft, and Lily snuggled close to Brian, obviously a bit nervous. It was a typical River Rapids Raft, with the seats grouped in twos and steps in between each set. I stowed the bag (with the camera!) in the middle compartment, I was a little disconcerted to see how wet it was in there, but after a moment's hesitation decided it was still better off there than with me in the seat.

On the first big drop, Brian and Lily were facing backwards, at the very front of the raft. This was the drencher. And they were in the drench seat. 2 seats in every boat, and it was theirs. Poor Lily looked like a soaked dog afterwards, and everyone in the raft was feeling pretty sorry for her. She took it pretty well, not happy about it for sure, but held it together for the moment anyway. There was only one other big drenching spot, and yep - they got it again. Before the ride Lily said she wasn't afraid of the ride itself, just of getting wet. And wet she was. Perhaps this wasn't such a good idea...

Chapter 50 - "Tigger, is that you?" (Day 9 – Monday)

So Lily was not a happy camper when we came off the River Rapids. And of course, this was the one day that I hadn't brought her extra set of clothes with me. I had lugged them around all week, but not today. They were back at the hotel with the rest of our luggage. Afterall, we were only coming for a few quick hours before we had to go to the airport... We stopped for a while to let her compose herself, and thought we were ready to move on. The Jungle Trek was nearby, and that was one I had hoped to do, but not expected to have time. Of course, that's when I had planned on doing the Everest Roller Coaster. After Thunder Mountain we had known better than to try that. And should have known better than to do the River Rapids.

So we headed for the Jungle trek, which is a self guided tour through the jungle with bats, tigers, dragons, etc. But immediately we realized that Lily was not ready to cooperate. We briefly considered giving up on the morning at the park and heading back to the hotel early, but Lily finally calmed down enough for us to try the Trek again. Once we got going, she really enjoyed it, especially the "Bat house". She also had a great time trying to read the map and lead us on the journey. And she was quite good at identifying birds with the Bird card they gave us! When we finished, it was only about 40 minutes until the Flights of Wonder bird show that Brian really wanted to see, and after wandering for a bit we decided that we should get some lunch first.

This proved to be more difficult that I had expected. It seemed that was always the case when we had to fend for ourselves at counter service. Once again I wished I had just planned a nice character meal somewhere instead, maybe trying to do a park on the last day just wasn't worth it. Brian and Lily scarfed down a sandwich, I hadn't managed to find anything veggie, but wasn't hungry anyway.

The Flights of Wonder show started, Lily was enjoying it well enough, but really liked the part at the end with the Eagle. No birds flew directly over our head, but it was still fun to watch them fly over others with just millimeters to spare.

With that complete, we had no other major attractions to attend, and found ourselves wandering in the general direction of the front gate. I didn’t care for Asia as much as I had Africa, but I did find I really cool that the CMs said “Namaste” everywhere! We stopped to explore several side paths and got to see a few more animals. Brian and Lily really enjoyed walking around on the Tree of Life trails, and we admired many of the carvings up close that you can't even see from a distance. Lily pretended she was on an animal hunt. The time to wander was giving me time to think again, mostly reflecting on the week we had had. Sure, there were some things I would change if I could, some moments I wished hadn't happened. But all in all, we had done and seen a lot more than I expected, and had made memories that would last a lifetime.

There were two things I wanted to do before we left. I had seen earlier a really cool Pooh shirt with him looking at a Tiger saying "Tigger, is that you?" and I just had to get one! And I had been saving my free 5x7 photopass print, which could only be redeemed at a few places. The front of Animal Kingdom was one of them. So as we wandered slowly toward the front we stopped to pick up the shirt, got one for Lily too. While Brian and Lily looked at some more animals, I went to redeem the photopass voucher. I chose the picture we had taken that morning in our matching shirts, and the CM helping me let me add a logo that was the same as the one on our shirts! Probably a little tacky I know, but I though it was cute anyway.

By this time we were all worn out, and some ice cream back at the hotel sounded pretty good. It was time to go anyway - the Magical Express would be picking us up in just over an hour. The vacation was really almost over.

Chapter 51 - Back in the "Real World" (Day 9 – Monday)

We didn't have much time once back at the hotel, I collected my carry-on bags which the hotel had been storing. I had bought Lily a sweatshirt there earlier in the week and was hoping to have time to exchange it for a larger size before we had to leave. But first we went to Captain Cook's for one last snack. I had a rather unpleasant encounter with the CM checking me out, when at Disney for so long one gets used to everyone being so friendly, this seemed downright shocking. But perhaps it was just getting me ready for immersion back into the "real world" which would be happening shortly. I went to exchange the sweatshirt, but they didn't have any in the right size so I got a refund instead. I wasn't terribly attached to it anyway.

The moment had arrived. How had it arrived so quickly? Hadn't it just been a couple of days ago that the Magical Express dropped us off in this very same spot, and we climbed out, ripe with excitement and anticipation? We recalled the moment as we walked those very same places, this time with a much more somber demeanor. I almost felt listless as we climbed aboard the bus, and soon we were whisked out of the Disney Property for the first time in 8 days. Back to the real world it was.

We went into the airport, with our bags already checked and boarding passes already printed, since the hotel had taken care of everything that morning. We started to go through security then realized we had plenty of time to grab a light meal before going to the gate. We went to Chili's Too for some chips and cheese sticks. It would turn out to be the only dinner we got. By this point I think we were all looking forward to being home, simply because it would beat being at the airport and traveling, but we were missing Disney World already.

On the way into security I realized I still had a full-size bottle of sunscreen in my bag, so I had to toss it. Later, going through security, my spray bottle was spotted by the x-ray machines, and OOPS! It still had water in it! They just poured out the water, though, and we were on our way. At the gate, I turned on the computer and Brian helped me get the free wireless internet going, so I finished editing our photopass pictures and put in the CD order. There were 144 pictures in the account. Not to shabby for a weeks work... of course I had amassed close to 1000 on my own camera throughout the week.

We were on the plane, all ready to go, watching the safety video when the Pilot came on. I knew as soon as I heard the words there was trouble...."I hate to interrupt this video, however..."

Chapter 52 - Some bad news from the cockpit (Day 9 – Monday)

It turned out that due to some weather in Dallas our flight had been delayed 2 hours! There was some confusion about whether or not we could deplane at this point - Lily wanted to stay on, I wanted to get off. Lily ended up getting her way because they finally made it clear that they REALLY didn't want us off the plane if possible.

Many were trying to make arrangements for connecting flights that were going to be missed. But with the weather in Dallas most of the flights were delayed, and there was no way to know if we would even miss our connection. So we decided just to wait until we got to Dallas as see what the situation was then.

We passed the time easier than I had expected in the confines of our seats, Lily watched some videos on the iPod and played with some of the toys she had brought, and I turned on the laptop to catch up on writing this trip report. Just after we took off, Lily finally fell asleep and slept for most of the flight, which was uneventful after the delay.

Off the plane in Dallas, there was supposed to be an agent at the gate to help with missed connections, but since we didn't see anyone we went over to check the monitors. There was no longer a Colorado Springs flight listed, it had indeed left without us! And it was after 10pm. There were very few American Airlines people around, the ones that were had huge lines of people waiting to check in to the handful of flights still leaving that night. So we started wandering rather aimlessly, not knowing what to do.

After a few minutes we saw a gate with two airline employees and only 1 customer with each. We thought we could at least ask them where we should go. It turned out that this was a gate for a flight to Puerto Vallarta that had been delayed until morning. We fondly remembered our trip there last year. The lady at the desk asked us which flight we were supposed to be on, and went ahead and put us on the first flight the next morning. I had expected to have to go to a ticket counter for that, and was glad she was willing to help us here. We asked about hotel room availability.

Since it was a weather delay, the airline is not responsible for putting you up for the night, but we knew she could at least tell us what hotels had room and if there were any discounts. After staring at the screen for a rather long time and shaking her head she mentioned that the hotels were pretty booked due to a Nascar event and that there was nothing close to the airport. She was still thumbing through stuff on the computer, and we just kept standing there, fully expecting now that we would be sleeping on the floor of the airport. At least Lily had a blanket with her, I thought.

I noticed that a few times she glanced at something on the desk beside her, and she seemed very hesitant to say much to us for several moments. All of the sudden, she announced that she was going to do something for us, threw some boarding passes and vouchers in our hand and told us to run RIGHT NOW...the directions after that got blurry it all happened so fast! Something about a bus or a counter, which was it? Gate D30, lower level I think, the Gaylord Texan, it was a blurring together. But she had made it clear there was no time to lose so we started running.

If it was a bus we were looking for we needed to be outside, and we had caught something about D30, so we went out the doors closest to that gate. We stood on the curb, not really knowing what we were looking for exactly. Not seeing anything that looked right, we wandered back inside. The vouchers were for a room at the Gaylord Texan, they were hooking us up for the night! But apparently we were supposed to catch some sort of shuttle. Standing around inside wondering what to do, we almost missed the American Airlines bus that pulled up outside. We asked to be sure, and it was going to the right place! Once the bus was on its way we pieced together what had happened...

Chapter 53 - Fortunate Solution to an Unfortunate Situation (Day 9 – Monday)

The flight to Puerto Vallarta had been delayed due to a mechanical problem, so the airline was putting all those people up for the night. They had just finished giving out the vouchers when we walked up, and had arranged for the shuttle since everyone was ready to go. They must have had a few extras, and even though she wasn't supposed to do it, the nice agent had given us one. All the people on that bus were headed to Mexico, most for vacation and had been delayed overnight! As unfortunate as this seemed, it could have been much worse, at least we hadn't been delayed on the way TO our vacation - that would have been awful!

And what good timing we had to walk up to that gate right as they were finishing up making the hotel arrangements! I wished we had had more time to thank the agent, it had all happened so fast and we didn't even realize just what she had done until we were long gone.

The bus was very crowded, Lily and I managed to get a seat but not together. Several of the others on board commented on how cute she was, and how brave she was being! Once at the hotel, we couldn't believe where we were! This was a full-up resort! Too bad we wouldn't have time to enjoy it. But a bed would be so wonderful right now...

We checked in and got to our room. We were still wearing our matching Disney World shirts, and most people guessed that we were coming home from there. Of course all we had with us was our carry-bags. Fortunately that extra outfit I had been carrying around for Lily all week would finally come in handy! And I had my Pooh shirt I had bought earlier in the day.

As I was falling asleep, I woke up briefly, and though for a few moments that I was back in my bed at the Polynesian. I felt homesick for the place already. But soon sleep overcame, and the alarm clock was ringing all too soon.

As tired as we were, we were incredibly grateful to be this rested. We would not have felt the same after a night on the hard floor, which is what we had come so close to. We hurried out to catch the same bus, which the other passengers had told us was coming at 7am. It just so happened that the Puerto Vallarta flight was leaving around the same time as ours.

The line at security was short, but moved painfully slow. Lily got confused and almost went around behind the security desk instead of through the scanner! Ooops! We got some breakfast in the airport, and went to our gate. Everything had gone pretty smooth so far that morning, and with no weather threatening it looked like we would be home soon.

Again, Lily fell asleep right after take off. A little early for a nap, but we had a pretty short night. The flight was uneventful, as we were landing we discussed the fact that we hadn't seen our luggage in over 24 hours, since we checked in for our flight at the hotel. A lot of opportunities for it to get lost, we thought. But it finally emerged from the luggage belt and we loaded it onto a cart to take to the car. No Magical Express here, we were on our own.

So this was it. Vacation was really and truly over. I had felt like there were several endings already - last time at a certain park, on the monorail, last character meal, etc. But this was THE end. It had gone so fast, how could it have been 9 days already? It did seem like we had been gone for a long time though, strangely enough.

We walked out of the airport into the cool, dry morning air. A warm wind was blowing, as it usually is this time of year. We looked over at the mountains and saw the clear, deep blue sky that you just don't see anywhere else. Everything felt peaceful and cheery. It had been quite an adventure, but it was good to be home.

Chapter 54 – Epilogue

Now that vacation is over, it is fun to look back and remember everything we did. On our flight back to COS, we all discussed which had been our very favorite things. It is so hard to choose even a few favorites because there was so much to the trip. But finally we all came up with 5 things that we thought we enjoyed the most...here they are in no particular order.

Brian -

* Magic, Music, and Mayhem Fireworks (@PPParty)

* Fantasmic

* Lunch at Le Celllier (in Canada)

* Blizzard Beach

* Soarin'

Jaime -

* Dinner at the Castle and Wishes Fireworks outside

* Soarin'

* Breakfast at the Crystal Palace with Pooh

* Rafiki's Planet Watch

* Phillharmagic

Lily -

* Soarin'

* Teamboat Springs at Blizzard Beach

* Princess Storybook Lunch in Norway

* Enchanted Adventure Parade (@PPParty)

* Dinner with Cinderella at 1900 Park Fare (Grand Floridian)

As you can see, Soarin' made all of our lists, so if there was to be an All-Star award for the trip, I suppose that would be it!

As for what I liked (and didn't) in general... I definitely liked staying at the Polynesian. I had a few moments of doubt before the trip wondering if I had picked the right resort, but it was worth it to be on the monorail and of course the atmosphere there just can't be beat! I also loved being on the Deluxe Dining Plan and having so many nice table service meals planned out. If anything I wish we had planned more of them, whenever we ate counter service it just didn't seem to work out as well. I also liked all the character meals, we didn't have a single bad experience with one. There were a few we didn't get to do, and I found myself wishing several times we could have done more. I also liked the overall pacing of the trip - taking the afternoons off and having something nice planned for dinner most nights. It made for such a more relaxing trip. It is supposed to be a vacation, afterall! Not a race.

Is there anything I would change? Well probably - as good a trip as it was it wasn't perfect. In hindsight I don't think I would use up two meal credits on the luau, it just wasn't worth it. And the Grand Floridian Cafe did not impress me much, mostly because of the service, so I probably would not go back there. Obviously I wish we hadn't done Thunder Mountain at the Pirate and Princess Party, and I would probably take back the Kali River Rapids if I could. But considering how many things we planned and did, the hits far outnumbered the misses!

So now we are back, and have to adjust to life in the real world again. Lily has the summer off for the first time ever, and we already thinking of all the fun stuff we want to do. Coming back from vacation is always hard. In a way I almost felt robbed simply because it went so fast! Surely I was cheated of a few days somewhere, but looking back over my report I see that every day is accounted for. Time just flies when you are having fun.

Brian will pick our destination for next summer. And there is only one cure for the post-vacation blues - Start planning next year's trip!