may 9-12

May 9 2007: Today we went back to the Magic Kingdom since we’d only seen one show and one ride before we had to head over to Epcot for lunch on Monday. Pictures are at http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/DisneyDay22007 When we arrived we could smell smoke in the air from nearby forest fires and the air was hazy. The first thing we did when we got in the gates was to grab a park map and put some sunscreen on. As we were doing that a WDW employee came up to Chloe (who was dressed in her Cinderella costume) and said hello and asked if Chloe would like to meet Cinderella. It turns out the lady was in charge of scheduling private meetings with Cinderella and she randomly selects 30 children a day to get a 5 minute meet-and-greet with Cinderella. She gave us an appointment time of 2pm. After that we walked by the castle and happened to catch the show again. Since we’d already seen the show we left just a few seconds before it ended and headed around the other side of castle just in time to find Sleeping Beauty and her prince with only 3 little girls in line waiting to greet them. By the time it was our turn to greet them we heard a lady walking by say “holy cow!” as she noticed how long the line for greeting Sleeping Beauty had gotten. Then we headed over to the Dumbo ride. The kids were pretty tired and Alex spent our entire wait with his head on Casey’s shoulder. The ride perked them both right up and they were ready to run to the next ride. We did the carousel again, and then Alex tried to remove the sword from the “Sword in the Stone”. The line at the Winnie the Pooh ride said it was 30 min, so we got a fast pass so we could come back later and wait in the short line. Alex wanted to ride the race cars and Chloe wanted to wait in line to meet Tigger, so we split up. As we waited in line Chloe got hungry and started a non-stop stream of complaints so by the time it was her turn with Tigger, she was so grouchy she wouldn’t get out of the stroller. Alex and Casey faired better because Alex wanted a blue car and you don’t get to pick which car you get in, you just have to get in the next available car when it is your turn, but they got a blue car. Alex loved the ride, and then we went to lunch. At the restaurant the kid’s meals came with 2 sides with a choice of grapes, applesauce, or carrot sticks! All week the kids have been running like mad and eating enough calories to feed a professional athlete, and this lunch was no exception. Chloe’s good humor returned and she cuddled up with Daddy. After lunch we went back to Winnie the Pooh and the fast pass line was only 2 or 3 minutes long. The ride was inside and much of it was in the dark (the blustery storm) with fake thunder and lightning and it was too scary for Alex. The next ride we attempted was the Buzz Lightyear ride. It was also inside and Alex got scared just waiting in line, so he skipped it, but Chloe loved it. We let Alex pick the next ride and he wanted to ride the Tomorrowland Transit Train. It was getting close to our appointment time with Cinderella so we hopped on the steam train and headed back to the town square. True to her word, we walked right in to a private room with Cinderella and a photographer. Chloe showed her glass slippers to Cinderella and got to twirl with Cinderella. The photographer posted the pictures at http://www.disneyphotopass.com/ with the ID # WDWD-47D3-64P3-3P6F (you have to register your e-mail address with them and create an account, and it is REALLY slow). We then headed over to ride Aladdin’s magic carpet for a fun ride, had an ice cream snack and got a spot on the rope just in time for the start of the parade. After the parade we walked right in to the front row of the 3-D movie called Philharmagic. Alex’s comment about the movie was “Donald Duck fell out of the movie!”. The 3-D effects were really spectacular. It was getting late so we rode It’s a Small World for our last ride and took the ferry back to our car. What a day! Again the kids had no screaming fits, and everything we tried to do worked out like clock work.

May 10, 2007: Today we headed over to Clearwater Beach for lunch at Frenchy’s and swimming in the gulf. Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/Clearwater2007 Alex took a brief nap during the 1hr 40 min ride and both kids behaved very nicely while we had a relaxing lunch in the beautiful weather. After lunch we headed to the beach for about an hour. Until this year Alex has been somewhere between tentative and terrified by sand and surf, but this time he ran right onto the beach, changed into his suit and ran right into the water with no urging and no pausing to acclimate to the sensory overload he used to experience with the gritty shiftiness of the sand under his feet, the pounding noise of the surf, and the constant assault of the breeze. The kids jumped over waves for a while and then settled in to dig in the sand, build sand castles and fill their hole with water. The temperature of the gulf was probably in the low 80’s, so none of us minded. We headed back to Kissimmee for dinner at Margaritaville. It is a huge restaurant with a volcano that makes noise and smoke and flows margaritas about twice and hour. It also has colorfully dressed people on stilts who make balloon hats for kids and for people celebrating birthdays and special occasions .

May 11, 2007: Today we started packing up and the kids fought the whole time. After we were packed we took them out the playground with their new shovels and pails from the beach and they played nicely for over an hour with other kids from the condos. We made the kids take a break from playing to eat lunch at the picnic benches. In the meantime another little girl arrived at the playground with in sight. It was all Chloe could do to stay sitting for lunch, and she kept saying “there is a little girl over there, I like her! I need to go play!” Chloe is such a social butterfly. The kids were turning purple and running with sweat so we “made” them go to the pool and cool off (they actually argued about it). I kept yawning so Casey told me he’d handle the kids while I took a nap. I fell asleep for over an hour and the kids made new friends at the pool. When Chloe told me about it later she told me about the 3 little girls and said that the one with the dark hair was her best friend, “except for Angie, she’s by best-er friend”. The kids were incredibly active the whole day until they got hungry at which point they’d get surly until we fed them, and then they’d immediately go back to bouncing.

May 12, 2007: Casey and I got up at 5:30am and packed the car. We got the kids up at 6:30 which they were really not happy about. On the day of the flight to Florida they jumped right out of bed and helped us get ready. This time they were not excited about flying at all. The only problem we ran into was at security. Alex was wearing overalls with large metal buckles which set the alarm off and he had to get patted down by a security guard. He didn’t cry, but since he’d spent so much effort avoiding strangers at Disney World, I know he must have felt very uncomfortable. We got home by 2pm to long grass, dirty laundry, having to cook for ourselves, and bad news when stepping on the scale. Back to reality.