Disney Summer '09 Trip, Day 6

Today was supposed to be Typhoon Lagoon (which we planned to pay for out of pocket), but Casey choose Animal Kingdom (after passing it up the day before) so we saved our money, and off we went. We were surprised to see Br'er Rabbit outside—he was one of Casey's favorites, especially after riding Splash Mountain the day before.

We headed straight to the Kilimanjaro Safari to get fast passes and then walked down to see the Festival of the Lion King show. This will be a repeat performance for me on future trips, I was very impressed.

We walked the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail where there were some great animals to view. Then we rode the Kilimanjaro Safari—this is another highlight. The animals are so close to the vehicle, and they make it exciting for younger riders by playing up the scenario that there are poachers in the area, and you are on the hunt!

We spent the afternoon at our resort waiting out a thunderstorm. It was a welcome relief from the heat and we got to relax before our big night. We headed to Magic Kingdom and took the water taxi to Fort Wilderness Resort & Campgrounds. We had reservations for Mickey's Backyard BBQ. What a great night of food and entertainment!

We caught the water taxi back to Magic Kingdom just in time to catch the SpectroMagic parade. The floats are all lit up, even the characters walking in the parade have lights in their costumes - the best parade in Disney World by far. THe crowds were intense afterwards, but we stuck around to wait for the Wishes Nighttime Spectacular fireworks display. Again - by far the best in the World!

Disney Summer '09 Trip, Day 5

Today was supposed to be Animal Kingdom day, but when we got up Casey said she wanted to go back to Magic Kingdom. We had a table service reservation in Animal Kingdom that afternoon, but we decided to cancel it and see if we could pick up another table service meal somewhere else during our trip. I am a meticulous planner—this was spontaneity for a change!

We made sure to head to Tomorrowland and ride Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin first thing. When we walked out of the ride we saw Buzz himself standing by the Astro Orbiter—what a great character meet! We also had a close run-in with Zurg—aah!
We ate lunch at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. Sonny Eclipse, an animatronic lounge singer that entertains you while you eat, was a fun attraction. We picked up fast passes for Splash Mountain but had some time to spare, so we went into the Country Bear Jamboree. What a blast from the past! I remember seeing this show back in 1990, so it was a real treat for me to see what had changed…and what hadn't!

Just as we were getting in the fast pass line-up for Splash Mountain, I noticed the note on the bottom of our tickets that said "Eligible for another fast pass at XX:XX time". It was that time now, so I ran over to Big Thunder Mountain and grabbed fast passes for one hour after our Splash Mountain ride. Great decision, because by the time we got off Splash Mountain, the fast pass return time was as additional hour and a half later—whew!

Splash Mountain was so much fun. We still had to wait for a long time, but there were people waiting in line (in the hot sun) for over two hours for this ride. Those are some dedicated riders! We were prepared to get wet at the end when you splash down into the br'er patch, but we didn't realize that as we were climbing up the steep roller coaster hill, the car plunging down by the side of us would send up a huge splash—we got soaked! It was a great ride though—very enjoyable and a must-do for next time for sure.

Big Thunder Mountain was also a fun ride. We had watched videos of this online before we travelled, so Casey was particularly looking forward to riding through the dinosaur bones. We rode the Funny Jungle Cruise—the kitschy humor is another fav. Then we found Rafiki just standing by in Adventureland—a real treat.

After cooling off in the pool back at our resort, and grabbing some dinner in the food court, we felt rested enough to try EPCOT in the evening. We headed straight to England in the World Showcase where we knew you could meet Winnie the Pooh characters in the back of the toy store.

Then we walked up towards the fountains, had some treats and did some shopping, and watched Illuminations: Reflections of the Earth. This was a really nice show, with an interesting story. We stayed back towards the entrance of the park as much as possible so that we could be among the first group headed out to the buses. You could still see most of the show and it was a great night.

Disney Summer '09 Trip, Day 4

Today was Sea World day! This was the main reason we had arranged for a rental car. Our travel agent had recommended getting our car for a 24 hour period spanning two days so that we would be able to shop on one day, and still have lots of time for Sea World on the second day.

We arrived at Sea World to a mass of cars, so we paid for premium parking and got a spot near the main entrance. There was another long line to head in to the park, but we finally made it in by 10:30. There simply wasn't enough time to enjoy all that Sea World has to offer. There were animals on display at different sites throughout the park.

Believe was the absolute highlight of the day for me. I cried! The trainers and whales are so talented, and it's a really moving performance.

There is a fantastic kids ride area Shamu's Happy Harbor. Casey absolutely did not want to leave here. We finally dragged her away for lunch—very cute offerings for kids.

After lunch we headed towards the Clyde and Seamore take Pirate Island show—absolutely hilarious. These sea lions are legendary at Sea World, and a must-see for everyone. The humor may be over some younger viewers heads, but the physical humor draws everyone in.

We had to leave this park early to get our car rental back on time, but I could have stayed here much longer. We went back to our resort where we had reservations for Shutters—the table service restaurant at Caribbean Beach. Dinner is 1 Table Service credit if you are on the dining plan, or you can order individual items from the menu. Overall, this was a nice restaurant, with okay food. We very much wanted to stay at a moderate resort this time to have a restaurant available to us, but we found that we would rather use our table service credits in the parks and have really unique dining experiences.

Disney Summer '09 Trip, Day 3

Today was Hollywood Studios day. This park had extra magic hours from 8-9 AM, so we ate breakfast in our room and headed to the park. There was a rush to get tickets for Toy Story Mania, like always. We were there at about 8:30 AM and our fast pass return time was 11:30 AM. We saw a few shows, but this park is doing less and less for me every time. I think it is because of the lack of rides geared towards small children. Our daughter wasn't interested in the stunt shows, and we didn't want to try the Aerosmith Rock 'n Roller Coaster. We did enjoy the Playhouse Disney and the Muppets shows very much. And as always, we spent some time shopping!

We finally got to ride Toy Story Mania. It is still a long wait for this ride, even in the fast pass line, but the waiting area is so colorful, with lots of great photo opportunities, that we didn't mind waiting.

She does love, love, love, The Little Einsteins, so we had a lunch reservation at Hollywood & Vine to see Leo and June from The Little Einsteins, and Jo Jo and Goliath from Jo Jo's Circus. This is a great, interactive meal for kids. Two singer/dancers lead the kids in sing-a-longs and dances with the characters—Casey had a great time here.

The lunch meal is 1 Table Service credit if you are on the dining plan, or available at a cost of $26.99/adult and $13.99/child. The same characters appear at breakfast, but the dinner meal is non-character (it is available as part of the Fantasmic diner package). I enjoyed the food, particularly some of the chicken options. And I loved the meatballs available in the kids buffet section! No one will care if I take some, right? I also thought it was great that the kids buffet section was set a little lower so that kids can easily reach if they are old enough to go get their own food.
We headed back to our resort after lunch, relaxed for a bit, and then took the internal shuttle to Custom House, the main check-in building at Caribbean Beach. There we caught a prearranged Budget shuttle to the Budget Rent-a-Car location near the Magic Kingdom. We picked up a rental car and headed out for some shopping at Premium Outlets. This was a nice change of pace from the buses and parks, and we found some really great deals.

Disney Summer '09 Trip, Day 2

We always like to start our vacation at Magic Kingdom. Even though we had squeezed in a visit to Animal Kingdom the night before, we were up early and ready to hit Magic Kingdom for the opening. The opening at any park is always a special experience. Unfortunately we just missed most of the opening ceremony at MK, arriving just as the train was leaving the Main Street station. We didn't mind—we caught the first show on the castle main stage at 9:30 instead. All of the princesses, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Peter Pan, Captain Hook, even Malificent, make an appearance. It ends with fireworks (hard to see in the daytime though) above the castle. It's a must see at least once in every vacation.

We were ready for 'Dollies'! That is It's a Small World—Casey's favorite ride in all the parks, so we headed up to Fantasy Land and rode all of our favorites. We always get Fast Passes for Peter Pan's Flight since they usually are for within the hour, and the line-up can talk 30 minutes or more on its own.

We headed over to Mickey's Toontown Fair and tried to line-up to meet Tinkerbell. The sign outside said the wait was 75 minutes from this point—no thank you! I know a lot of people braved that line-up, but Casey wasn't as interested in meeting Tinkerbell as she was in getting on Goofy's Barnstormer—we have a real thrill rider in the making!

We had an early lunch at Peco's Bills Café around 11:30. We have learned the hard way that if you wait until 12:00 or later, you will have a long wait to get your food, and seating can be problematic, especially when you have a small child and are trying to juggle a tray full of drinks! The atmosphere was really nice here and it was the first time we had eaten here.

Later we headed over to Tomorrowland to pick up fast passes for Buzz Lightyear. Then we went down to AdventureLand to get on Pirates of the Caribbean. Just outside we saw a pirate setting up to do some sort of show. We had seen him packing up during our last trip, and didn't pay much attention to it. This time we stopped and watched for a while, and then he called out for Captain Jack Sparrow to join him. What a treat! This show was really great for the kids. Captain Jack called up 4 children to be his special pirate apprentices and had each of them enact a small scene with him. Then he got all of the kids to form a circle and made them all honorary Pirate Apprentices. Casey was delighted!

We headed straight to Pirates of the Caribbean afterwards. This ride seems like it has a long line, but it is constantly moving. It's another of our favorites.
We had dinner reservations at 1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridian Resort at 4:30. This resort if just a short monorail ride away from MK, but we had planned on heading back to Caribbean Beach to rest and clean up, before coming back to MK that night. We were having too much fun that day though, and decided to just push through. We walked back up to Fantasyland and stumbled upon Celebrate! A Dream Come True Parade. This was a nice treat as you get to see the characters in their true outfits, unlike SpectroMagic (which is still my fav by far).

We rode a few more rides, and headed back to Tomorrowland to use our fast passes for Buzz, but the fast pass line was at least an hour long! I have never seen this happen before (other than at Toy Story Mania in Hollywood Studios where you will always have a long wait). We decided to just skip this ride as we were coming back to MK at least 2 more times during this trip.

Finally we took the monorail to the Grand Floridian Resort. What an elegant property! It seemed targeted towards an older age group, but even families with young children will appreciate the little touches for kids set among the opulence.

1900 Park Fare—Cinderella's Happily Ever After Dinner is a character meal featuring Cinderella, Prince Charming, Lady Tremaine (the Wicked Stepmother), and Anastasia and Drisella (the Wicked Stepsisters). We had our picture taken outside, which they brought to our table while we were dining. We had the option of paying for this picture, or simply refusing. Normally I prefer the meals where the picture is included (like at Princess Storybook Dining at The Royal Akerhaus Banquet Hall in EPCOT), but this was a really nice picture, so we opted to purchase it.

The dining is buffet style, and available for 1 Table Service credit on the dining plan, or at a cost of $38.33/adult and $19.16/child. The food was fine, but I wasn't overly impressed. We were seated in a small room off of the mail dining hall, so this dampened the experience for me. We were the second group to be seated, so I initially felt it unfair that they would seat these tables first; however, this is likely due to seating a party of 3, and the order in which you make your advance dining reservations.

The character interactions were amazing—Drisella was one of the best I have seen! Prince Charming and Cinderella were standard, but Lady Tremaine, Anastasia, and Drisella were hilarious. Very in character. In particular, I walked by a table where Drisella was visiting, and overheard her ask, "Are there any eligible bachelors here?" A young boy, about 7 or 8, said, "Me!" Drisella looked him up and down, and then said dryly, "Are you wealthy?" Very fun!

We took the monorail back to MK, and then the bus to Caribbean Beach. Later, we sat on the beach outside Jamaica, building a sand castle and watching the very top of the fireworks show from EPCOT. I had heard that you could watch the fireworks from the beach, but it doesn't beat seeing them in person—more on that on Day 5!

Disney Summer '09 Trip, Day 1

Our flight to Florida left Newfoundland early, too early. We were up at 3:30 AM to start getting ready, and then got our daughter up by 4. We were out the door before 5 and at the airport an hour before our 6:20 AM flight. YAWN! Luckily WestJet offers satellite TV on all of their flights and Casey was happily watching Treehouse TV while we napped or drank coffee. She's a great little traveler.

After a stop in Toronto, and a very quick wait for customs, we flew to Orlando, arriving at 1:00 PM. Disney's Magical Express offers a fabulous service where you tag your luggage with custom tags (mailed to you from Disney) before you leave home, and then don't have to wait for your luggage in Orlando. We skipped right by the luggage carousels and headed down to the Magical Express area. The guides waving us forward with giant white Mickey hands were a favorite of Casey's!

It took about 30 minutes on the bus to our Disney resort—Caribbean Beach. We sat at the front of the bus, and I hurried inside to line up for check in, while Bev and Casey waited for our carry-on luggage that was on the bus. Check-in was quite busy, but more Disney cast members opened up their windows, and we were served in no time. Our TPI travel agent—my new colleague, Jaime Murphy—had faxed a building request to Disney for us. Caribbean Beach is a massive resort, with its own internal bus system to travel from one area to another, so we wanted a building close to the main building—Old Port Royale—where the food court, gift shop, and main pool are located. We were assigned Jamaica 45, second floor—exactly what we wanted. Jamaica is a short walk across the bridge and Caribbean Cay island from Port Royale. It took us maybe 5-6 minutes to walk over there each day.

After checking in, we took the internal shuttle system to Jamaica and found our room. All rooms in Caribbean Beach were recently redecorated in Finding Nemo or Pirates of the Caribbean themes. The Pirate-themed rooms are only available in Trinidad South and at an increased cost. We were quite pleased with our Nemo room and the general Caribbean decorations in the room.

We had arranged for groceries to be delivered through GardenGrocer.com. Once in our room, we called Bell Services and they brought up our groceries (which had been kept refrigerated for us). We changed into some clean clothes that we had packed in our carry-on and headed to Animal Kingdom for the evening. One downfall of leaving your luggage with Disney's Magical Express, is that you cannot pack sunscreen in your carry-on (unless it is a very small bottle), and so we had to buy some as soon as we arrived in Animal Kingdom. Expensive, but we used the whole bottle during our trip, so it was worth it!

We really enjoy Animal Kingdom. I find it to be of a slower pace than the other parks, and the green foliage and natural surroundings really take you away from the hustle and bustle of the other parks. Another plus is that Animal Kingdom features a Rainforest Café restaurant. This is another must-do for us whenever we travel to Disney. We ate at this fantastic restaurant first (it is not on the dining plan, so we paid out of pocket) and then headed into the park.

We headed straight to the kid's area, DinoLand U.S.A., and went on TriceraTop Spin, Casey's must-do of the day! We tried to ride Expedition Everest (using the kid swap program) but the line-up was long and the fast passes were for a much later time. We ended up walking on the Maharajah Jungle Trek trail. We saw giant fruit bats, tapirs, Komodo dragons, and tigers, among other animals.

After returning to the resort, we finished our first day by heading over to the main pool with its fantastic kids area. This was one of the selling points of Caribbean Beach for us—no need to go to a water park when you basically have all your 4 year old could want right at your resort!