Perfect afternoon for a swim!
April 24, 2013
April 23, 2013
365 ~ 2013: Day 113
Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me....
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!!!
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!!!
2013 April Vacation - Orlando, Florida - Day 4:
Epcot Center ~ Walt Disney World
Today we headed to Epcot Center. I had planned out which days we would go to which park based on how long they would be open. Certain days each park will open an hour early. That sounded great because we were planning to head back in the afternoons to have some down time. We all got up early and headed out so we could get in and start our day right when the park opened at 8am. Or so we thought.
It turns out the 8am open time is strictly for those who stay onsite. We do not stay onsite. We rented a glorious 7 bedroom house 10 minutes away. So we were not permitted to enter the park and had to wait 40 minutes. I have to say I was a tad annoyed. Annoyed because no where on the calendar when I was looking up park times did it say that "Extra Magic Hours" were for resort guests only. There is no asterisk to point you to a place where it would explain to you that those hours are not for off-site guests. Listen, I take no issue with Disney wanting to give special perks to their on-site guests, I just think it's pretty crappy of them not to at least have something in bold letters for those of us who don't go all the time and don't know the ins and outs of Disney vacations nor care to know. I just want to show up and have some fun. It's not that deep to me. I shouldn't have to scour website after website to figure this stuff out! Just put the darn asterisk next to the hours!
Once we were finally allowed into the park we headed straight to the character spot. This time it was just Mickey, Minnie and Pluto. The last time we were there we were also able to meet Goofy and Donald. I grabbed one of those passes to try and get some pictures of us all together and since I forgot to change my settings on my camera for indoor pictures, theirs ended up coming out better so I'm glad I saved the card!
Today we headed to Epcot Center. I had planned out which days we would go to which park based on how long they would be open. Certain days each park will open an hour early. That sounded great because we were planning to head back in the afternoons to have some down time. We all got up early and headed out so we could get in and start our day right when the park opened at 8am. Or so we thought.
It turns out the 8am open time is strictly for those who stay onsite. We do not stay onsite. We rented a glorious 7 bedroom house 10 minutes away. So we were not permitted to enter the park and had to wait 40 minutes. I have to say I was a tad annoyed. Annoyed because no where on the calendar when I was looking up park times did it say that "Extra Magic Hours" were for resort guests only. There is no asterisk to point you to a place where it would explain to you that those hours are not for off-site guests. Listen, I take no issue with Disney wanting to give special perks to their on-site guests, I just think it's pretty crappy of them not to at least have something in bold letters for those of us who don't go all the time and don't know the ins and outs of Disney vacations nor care to know. I just want to show up and have some fun. It's not that deep to me. I shouldn't have to scour website after website to figure this stuff out! Just put the darn asterisk next to the hours!
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| The boys PATIENTLY waiting to get into the park! |
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| First Disney Character Picture with Daisy! |
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| Disney Photopass Image |
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| Disney Photopass Image |
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| Disney Photopass Image |
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| The boys with Pluto! |
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| Pluto! |
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| Disney Photopass Image |
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| Auntie Kristin, the boys and Minnie! |
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| Minnie Mouse stole a kiss! |
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| Waiting for the Dolphin show |
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| They gave the dolphin a test to see if he could match the pattern from the other window. |
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| David helping the diver with his demonstration |
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| Hello! |
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| Getting the first clue! |
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| Looking for Dr. Doofenshmirtz |
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| The boys with Lots-o-Huggin' Bear |
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| Sun setting in Epcot! |
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| SIL, MIL & GG with David & Shaun |
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| Disney Photopass Image |
April 22, 2013
2013 April Vacation - Orlando, Florida - Day 3:
Island of Adventure
Our first stop of the day was in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! I already mentioned what an amazing job they did making you really feel like you were there, but it's worth mentioning again. If you walk in from the Lost Continent side you are immediately welcomed by the conductor of the Hogwarts Express. SIL and I stopped for a picture!
Then you enter Hogsmeade. I wish I had more time to spend in all the little shops, but I knew the boys were anxious to get on some rides! So we head straight to Hogwarts, where some of us headed right for the Forbidden Journey. Like I mentioned above, the queue was amazing! You really feel like you were in Hogwarts. You walk through the green house and into the castle. Right past the entrance to Dumbledore's office, I said Sherbet Lemon but it didn't open, oh well! Before getting closer to the ride you see the entrance to the Griffindor common room, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom where you meet up with Harry, Ron and Hermoine. Then it's time for the ride. It was just as awesome as I had hoped, and the best part was it didn't make me feel queasy, though I'm not sure I could have done it twice in a row. They did a great job making you feel like you were really there and really flying. I'm really glad I gave it a try.
Right outside Hogwarts the kids were able to ride on the Hippogriff roller coaster Shaun surprised us by wanting to go on, he had been pretty apprehensive to the rides over on the other side so I wasn't sure how he would like it. But as you can see from the picture below, he LOVED it. He rode this roller coaster 3 times!
It was time to move on from Hogwarts, I knew we'd go back one last time before we left to get our Butterbeers but we had other areas of the park to explore. Next up was Seuss Land. We had already walk through this section to get to Hogwarts so the kids were very excited to head back! Here they had lots of fun rides designed for the little ones! Evan, just as I expected, loved the train ride!
After a couple more of the rides, we headed over to meet some of the characters. We got to meet Thing 1 & Thing 2, The Grinch, The Cat in the Hat and Sam I Am. The boys were pretty excited, and even Grammy got in on the fun!
Lastly, before moving onto Toon Lagoon and Jurassic Park, we let the boys run around the splash pad. This was probably one of the favorite places of the day!
We walked through Super Hero Island to get to Toon Lagoon and as we were walking through we saw a bunch of motorcycles pull up in front of us. On those motorcycles were Super Heroes! I think Shaun just about died and went to heaven! He got to meet Captain America!
After we took some pictures it was time to get SOAKED! We headed into Toon Lagoon and went on Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls. David decided to try it out, even though he knew there was a big drop, I think he really wanted to get soaked! It was after all, why he wore his bathing suit!
After we got pretty wet riding on the Ripsaw Falls, it was time to get really SOAKED on Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges, a water rafting ride. I was able to convince Shaun to give it a try. I think he was a little unsure about it, but he had fun and was still smiling after!
After we dried off a bit, we headed into Jurassic park. Shaun really wanted to try out the Pteranodon Flyers, it was like a cross between a swing ride and a train. Unfortunately the line was 45 minutes long for it and only little kids could ride. We decided to let them play in the Jurassic Park themed playground instead, before heading back through Harry Potter and Seuss Land one last time. And since no one was interested in getting wet again, we skipped the River Adventure.
Back to Hogsmeade for our Butterbeers and it was everything I hoped it would be and more. I'm not even exaggerating when I say it's the most delicious drink I have ever tasted! We got the frozen versions which is basically the consistency of a Dunkin Donut's coffee coolata.
And with that, it was time to head home. We plugged through the park without taking a mid-day break so that when we got back tot he house, we would have time to swim in the pool before heading out for dinner. I can't even tell you how nice it is to have a pool all to ourselves! The kids had a blast swimming, but I think it was the grown ups that enjoyed it more...enjoying the hot tub at night after the kids were all asleep!
As I suspected this side of the park was the bigger
hit. I mean we got to go to Hogsmeade
and Hogwarts, what is not to love about that!
In fact that is where our day began.
We knew that the new Harry Potter ride, The Forbidden Journey, was going
to get long lines fast so we headed there first. Because I’m not great on rides, and have been
on one “real” roller coaster in my entire life, I wasn't sure if I was going to
be able to ride (as much as I really wanted to). We asked the attendant for some more
information on the ride, basically what I needed to know was if there were any
drops (like a roller coaster) because otherwise I wasn't sure I could
ride. I also got very queasy on the old
Back to the Future ride (which is now The Simpson’s Ride) so I asked if it was
similar to that and she said no so YAY, I decided to give it a try! Walking through the queue was very cool. They did an amazing job with the design of
Hogwarts. The special affects with the
picture frames were pretty awesome. Let the adventure begin!
There are a few rides on this side that are basically designed to get you wet (or soaked!), including a splash pad playground in Seuss Land! So we decided to put the boys in their bathing suits for this side. I even wore mine! The rapid rides are my favorite!
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| Heading into the park and ready to get a little wet today! |
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| The boys couldn't even wait until getting inside the park to get soaked...they found a splash pad right outside the entrance and had a little fun! |
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| Hogwarts Express! |
Right outside Hogwarts the kids were able to ride on the Hippogriff roller coaster Shaun surprised us by wanting to go on, he had been pretty apprehensive to the rides over on the other side so I wasn't sure how he would like it. But as you can see from the picture below, he LOVED it. He rode this roller coaster 3 times!
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| Shaun and Daddy waving after a really fun ride! |
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| Ready for the train ride...TOOT - TOOT! |
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| Scottie, David and Shaun with Thing 1 & Thing 2 |
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| Evan gets a hug from the Cat in the Hat! |
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| Grammy and The Grinch |
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| Shaun under the BIG shower head! |
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| Shaun and his Favorite Super Hero! |
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| David on the Ripsaw Falls, still smiling... |
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| SOAKED! |
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| Heading into Jurassic Park |
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| Butterbeers, frosty and delicious! |
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After the butterbeers we did walked through Seuss Land one last time, where Evan got to ride on the train again and Shaun got to go on the Cat in the Hat ride again.
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| Evan with the Lorax! |
After we did those rides one last time it was time to hit the final destination - Marvel Super Heroes Island. We had one last ride to go on before calling it a day, and that was the Amazing Adventures of Spiderman, a 3D ride, which ended up beating out M.I.B for Scotties favorite ride!
Before we got into line, we saw that there was a line for people to meet Spiderman, so the grandparents took the little ones to meet him while the Doc, SIL, Scottie and I headed over to the ride. Once we exited the ride we saw that all the super heroes were back so we were able to get a couple more character pictures.
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| Here are the boys with Wolverine! |
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| All of us lounging in the hot tub! |
April 21, 2013
2013 April Vacation - Orlando, Florida - Day 2:
Universal Studios:
I have been to Universal Studios once before. Charlie and I (before the kids) took a vacation down here. In fact, it was down here that we witnessed the Red Sox win the world series! Good memories!
Anyway, I really had wanted to go while we were down here and so we planned to spend 2 of our days checking out the parks at Universal. Today we went to the Universal side.
We got into the park about a ½ hour after opening and headed straight over to ET! It’s the ride that MIL was looking forward to the most! Before we got to the ride we saw SpongeBob SquarePants and David couldn't wait to go over to meet him! Even Scottie was happy to have his picture taken with SpongeBob! Evan was very unsure. He wanted to meet him but wouldn't go near him. SpongeBob came over to him and put out his hand to give him a high five, which then lead to a big hug from Evan! Shaun was very happy to wave from outside the window.
I’m a little curious to see how he reacts to the rest of the characters.
After meeting with SpongeBob we headed to ET. This was a ride I thought for sure they would love, but because it was dark in the waiting area, Shaun was very nervous in line. No amount of reassurance that it wasn't a scary ride helped. We still got him to go on but he was freaked until the end when we all saved ET. We got off the ride and Shaun said it was awesome. But if you ask him if he wanted to do it again he would say “No Thanks”. I’m thinking he didn't really think it was awesome, but felt like that was what he was “supposed” to say.
There wasn't much over at Universal that Shaun and Evan enjoyed, most of the rides were for older kids. M.I.B was the big hit of the day with David & Scottie we rode it twice. Auntie Kristin was the winner both times but she only beat me the second time on a technicality. I was way ahead until the last minute when she got a 100,000 point bonus. Boo!
Unfortunately it rained for the last part of our day so Shaun didn't get the chance to check out the Curious George water playground. I guess they close it. It was a bummer that it was so wet, but the lines were nice and short so we didn't have to wait long at all to ride the new Despicable Me 3D ride (earlier during the day the wait was over a ½ hour!). After we got all our rides in, it was time to head home to get ready for the next day of fun over at Island of Adventure. Harry Potter was calling my name!
I have been to Universal Studios once before. Charlie and I (before the kids) took a vacation down here. In fact, it was down here that we witnessed the Red Sox win the world series! Good memories!
Anyway, I really had wanted to go while we were down here and so we planned to spend 2 of our days checking out the parks at Universal. Today we went to the Universal side.
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| The boys all ready for a fun filled day at Universal Studios! |
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| David checking out what rides he is tall enough to go on, he was just a smidge under 48 inches. |
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| Shaun was 44 1/2 inches, tall enough for MIB, but he wasn't interested. |
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| Evan was a smidge under 40 inches (39 3/4 inches to be exact!) |
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| The boys and I are ready for some fun! |
I’m a little curious to see how he reacts to the rest of the characters.
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| Evan getting a hug from SpongeBob! |
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| Who lives in a pineapple under the sea... |
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| Shaun and Evan, happy to just cool off in the misting station! |
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| Scottie at M.I.B, his favorite of the day! |
Unfortunately it rained for the last part of our day so Shaun didn't get the chance to check out the Curious George water playground. I guess they close it. It was a bummer that it was so wet, but the lines were nice and short so we didn't have to wait long at all to ride the new Despicable Me 3D ride (earlier during the day the wait was over a ½ hour!). After we got all our rides in, it was time to head home to get ready for the next day of fun over at Island of Adventure. Harry Potter was calling my name!
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| Dinner at one of the diners inside the park |
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| Staying dry inside the diner! |
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