may 7, 2007

May 7, 2007: link to pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/Disney2007

The kids were so excited they got up at 6am. We had planned to get to the park before rope drop, but we didn’t realize that after arriving at the parking lot, you have to wait in line and ride a monorail to get to the actual park, so it was about 9am on the nose when we got to the park.

We’d read that all the Disney characters arrive at the park by steam train shortly before 9am, but we missed it. We did find the Big Bad Wolf still hanging around the town square and Chloe waited in line to greet him (Alex wasn’t having any of it).

Chloe had been talking for days about riding the carousel, so we headed there 1st, but Alex was more excited about spending the money his MomMom gave to him, so he skipped the ride and went straight to the gift shop.

After that we saw a show in front of Cinderella’s castle and the show had Mickey and his pals, 3 princesses, 3 princess, Peter Pan and Wendy, Captain Hook, Smee, and Malificent the bad fairy from Sleeping Beauty.

Chloe was disappointed that she wasn’t allowed to get on the stage and dance with princesses, but she settled for twirling around the audience. The kids really enjoyed the show it very energetic and had smoke and fireworks during the dramatic moments.

After the show Chloe went to a gift shop to spend her money and Alex sat the stroller and played with his new toy while Chloe debated the relative merits of each dress, tiara, and pair of shoes in Tinkerbelle’s Treasures. In the end Chloe decided that she already had a dress so she would get glass slippers and a “build-your-own” crown with snap-on veil and jewels.

After that we had to take 2 mono-rails and hike half-way across Epcot to get to Akershaus Castle for our scheduled lunch with the princesses. We had to wait 10 or 15 minutes after our scheduled reservation, but it in the low 70’s so it was perfect weather for standing outside.

When they finally called our party, they filed us in for a photo shoot with Sleeping Beauty (Princess Aurora) and again, Alex was having none of it.

The inside of the castle looked like an authentic banquet hall and we ordered hot lunch off of the pre-fix menu and then headed to the cold buffet for appetizers. Every 5 minutes or so as we ate our delicious lunch a different princess would come by the table and talk with us and pose with Chloe.

All of the princesses tried to talk to Alex but he would tuck his head into his chest and cover his mouth in his typical “hiding” pose and I’d say “he’s very shy” and they’d leave him alone, except for Alice in Wonderland who was especially charming and tried a little harder to bring him out of his shell.

Chloe lapped up all the attention and hugged and kissed Grammy Barb and told her “I’m having a wonderful time”.

Daddy found what he liked about Epcot with Margaritas in Mexico, Carlsberg beer in Norway, etc.

After lunch we walked through the butterfly tent and Chloe played on the playground a little before we headed over to the Living Seas.

We waited about 15 minutes to get on the Nemo ride which involved riding in slow moving shells past an array of large tv screens cleverly disguised with fake coral. The screens displayed the Nemo characters who would appear to swim from one screen to the next behind the coral.

After the ride we walked around the gigantic aquarium tanks but weren’t really impressed because they didn’t measure up to the tanks we’d seen in the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. Our favorite part was a big sea turtle who was curious about the people watching him.

In the smaller tanks Chloe pointed to a fish and said “that’s a lionfish”, and sure enough it was (I had to read the tank label to be sure, it is hard to be outsmarted by your 3 year old).

At this point is was 3pm and we had reservations for 10 for dinner on the boardwalk with Casey’s family at 5pm (another hike across the park and a ferry ride away), so we decided it was better to let the kids get a little nap in the stroller than to try to squeeze in another attraction.

The kids had a tough time waking up for dinner, but as always seems to happen when you dine with a large group, it was 6pm before we got our food and they were awake by then. Chloe enjoyed the heck out of her dessert which was a build-your-own sundae.

It was a little after 7 when dinner was over and we decided we were too tired to wait until 9pm for the fireworks so we hiked back to the back entrance to Epcot, walked though the whole park to the mono-rail, rode the monorail, and then took a tram to the parking lot. By the time we got the kids and all our junk in the car it was 8:45, so we changed our minds and decided to drive back to the Boardwalk to watch the fireworks. It turned out that the boardwalk had a very obstructed view of only the highest fireworks, but the kids had never seen a fireworks show, so they giggled and squealed whenever we did get a glimpse of the fireworks. It was well after 10pm before we got them in bed. After the kids were in bed, when Casey and I reviewed the day we realized how well the day had gone. The weather was perfect, we made it on time for all of our reservations, we got to do everything we set out to do, and the kids did not melt down even once. All told it was a pretty magical day.