A Bunch of Characters

Okay- last Disney post. I promise. We spent a portion of each day tracking down and meeting the characters. Even though we had met the princesses at the breakfast, the kids wanted to see them again. At the princess meet and greet, there were three princess in the room that the kids got to visit with. The first princess commented on Owen's robot shirt, and he felt that it was important to show the other two princesses how cool his shirt was. They played off of this and also commented on his cool robot shirt. This is now his favorite shirt- so whomever gave that t-shirt to him for his birthday, good job. We also managed to see Mickey and Minnie three times each. I love meeting the characters, and I was happy with the number and variety that we were able to meet on this trip. Posted are some of my favorite pictures from the meet-and-greets.

Chefs de France

My favorite moment of our entire trip was our late lunch at Chefs de France in Epcot. The restaurant is located in the rear part of Epcot, and when we arrived it was raining cats and dogs. I admit that as we trudged in the pouring rain all the way to the back of the park I began to contemplate skipping the reservation and scrapping the meal altogether. I'm oh so glad that we didn't. It was awesome! The food was French cuisine, and meal was très fantastique. They even served our french fries with mayonnaise instead of ketchup, which apparently is not uncommon in France. In the World Showcase area of Epcot the people who work in the different country pavilions are actually from that country. Our waiter greeted with a "bon jour" and threw in a French word or two during the service of our meal. I really need to learn more French- mine is pathetic. I couldn't even pronounce the name of my meal. I had to just hold up the menu and point. We were having a delightful lunch and were enjoying being out of the rain when it happened. The "Chef" and unofficial mascot of the restaurant appeared. Yes, I'm talking about Remy from Ratatouille. I was prepared to see Remy (that's why I booked this restaurant), but I was not prepared for how awesome the interaction between the Remy puppet, his handler, and our kids was going to be. The handler (an awesome French lady) was rolling Remy from table to table on a cart and interacting with the customers. When she got to a table near us, Remy broke into his "dance" (see video). The kids saw this and got so excited. When he finally got to us, they were ready. The little cart that had Remy on it pulled up next to Olivia's chair and Owen immediately jumped into her chair too so that he could get a good look. The handler did all of the talking while Remy moved around and made little squeaking noises (it was cooler than I'm making it sound). Olivia started off the conversation by stating that her dog was named Remy. This got the handler/Remy talking about animals that Remy does/does not like (note- does not like cats). Owen realized that they were talking about animals and started getting into the conversation, too. What was great about the character interation here is that Remy did not seem to be in a hurry to move on. At the princess breakfast, the princesses said a little something and moved on pretty quickly. With Remy, it was not like this. After a nice little chat, Remy's handler was getting ready to roll the cart to the next table when she said a little something in French. Olivia recognized it as not being English and started showing off the Spanish that she knows. Hearing Olivia's Spanish got the handler to turn around- determined to teach Olivia some French. The handler taught Olivia to count a little in French, and cheered for her when she got it right. Priceless. This is the type of thing that I was dreaming would happen when I booked the vacation. I'm so surprised that the character who really brought the magic was Remy the rat (and his amazing handler).

Epcot

On the last day of our vacation, we went to Epcot. The weather was terrible on this day. There were tornado warnings in the Orlando area all morning, so we didn't dare leave the hotel until after noon. We were hoping that the rain would die down some in the afternoon. It didn't. Thankfully, we had purchased rain ponchos on our first day. We certainly got our money's worth out of them during our stay. Due to the weather and the late start, we were only able to see about a quarter of the park. We didn't even go into the "World Showcase" section of Epcot except to eat. Instead, we concentrated on three pavilions in the "Future World" section- those being the Seas, the Imagination, and the Land pavilions. I was a little disappointed because I was really looking forward to going through the World Showcase, to checking out the garden festival, and to riding Test Track. Oh well, I guess now I have a good excuse to go back. We did have a good time in the pavilions that we visited. Olivia was tall enough to ride Soarin, and she loved that. Owen really liked the aquarium and the "Turtle Talk with Crush" show. My favorite moment of the whole trip actually happened at Epcot, but I'm saving that because it was awesome and deserves its own post.

Rainforest Cafe

Seeing as how I booked Cinderella's Royal Table for Olivia, I figured that it was only fair to book a meal that was catered to Owen's interests. After considering several places, I choose the Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom. Owen loves animals, and this restaurant certainly played on that theme. The restaurant uses robots and elaborate themeing to create the feeling of being in a rainforest. Owen loved it. We were seated right next to a fish tank and not too far from a robotic elephant. We also had a robotic monkey hanging right above us who went crazy every time there was a rainstorm. The restaurant was loud and there was a lot going on at all times, but it was fun. At the end of the meal, Granny Mel ordered an ice cream and chocolate "volcano" for dessert (with six spoons, of course). It was delicious. Here are some pictures from the restaurant.

Animal Kingdom

I'm just going to come right out and say it, I am a HUGE fan of Disney's Animal Kingdom. It could possibly be my favorite of all the Disney parks. We spent the only sunny day of our vacation at this park. It could not have been more perfect. We arrived prior to rope drop, and so we had a front-row seat for the "Let the Adventure Begin" show. In this "show", Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto drive up on a truck and do a little skit about how much fun everyone is about to have. The kids loved seeing the characters and waved at them for the duration of the skit. Once the truck pulled away, the rope was dropped, and we headed straight to the best ride in the park- Kilimanjaro Safaris. We were on one of the first safari vehicles to pull out, and we saw all sorts of animals- including rhinos, cheetahs, lions, hippos, elephants, and giraffes. Some got amazingly close to the safari truck. We had heard that it is best to do this ride in the morning while it is still cool because that's when the animals are most active. Whomever gave us that piece of advice was absolutely right. The animals were up and at'em. While at Animal Kingdom, we rode many rides (including the Expedition Everest coaster), saw two fantastic shows, and met many characters. Although the entire day was great, the highlight for me occurred during the "Festival of the Lion King" performance when Olivia was chosen to be in the show. She and a few other kids got to walk around shaking some type of maraca-like instrument while the entire cast of the show sang "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". We tried to get pictures of this, but the lighting was all wrong. We did get a very short video clip of her role in the show, and it is at the bottom of the post. We ended up spending the entire day at the park, and we were exhausted that night. But, it was so... worth it.

Cinderella's Royal Table

Our second day at Magic Kingdom began with a breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table (located inside of Cinderella's castle). It took a lot of work to book this breakfast. I tried daily for weeks to get a table before I was successful- and this was several months in advance. The food was just okay, but we didn't come for the food. We came for the princesses! Olivia is really "into" the Disney princesses, and she was so excited to get a chance to eat with Cinderella inside of the castle. The "experience" began with a personal audience with Cinderella herself. Cinderella was beautiful, gracious, and everything that a princess should be. After our encounter with royality, we proceeded to our table and began our meal. As we ate, different princess were introduced and began making their rounds. We were visited to by Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, and Belle. You could really tell that the princesses were well-versed in engaging the children. Even though all of the princesses were great, Sleeping Beauty said the most perfect thing to Olivia. She told Olivia that she thought they looked alike. This comment brought the biggest smile to Olivia's face. After we had been visited by the princesses, the children were invited to participate in a wishing ceremony. All of the kids were given "wishing stars" so that they could participate. The girls were also given wands while the boys received swords. All of the kids were told to raise their wands/swords, close their eyes, and make a wish. At that point, the lights flickered throughout the room. I guess that means the wishes were granted. Here are some pictures of the various Disney princesses with my own little princess and prince.

The Magic Kingdom

While at Disney, we spent two wonderful days inside of the Magic Kingdom. We hit the park early on our first day. Actually, we arrived before park opening on both of the days that we visited, and so we were able to see the "welcome" show twice. Seeing the characters sing and dance before we even entered the park definitely got the kids into the right mood. They were so--- excited! On our first day inside the Magic Kingdom, we got in quickly and headed straight to Tommorrowland. We rode all of the rides (that we wanted to ride) in this area in about an hour and a half. I'm not kidding. The weather kept the crowds light and the lines short all through our stay. I don't think that we waited more than 5 minutes to ride anything all week long. I was so amazed by how smoothly things went. Brian and I decided to ride Space Mountain, and we walked directly onto the coaster with absolutely no wait. I couldn't believe it- I remember being a kid and waiting for hours to ride that ride. As we were coming off Space Mountain, we saw Mickey Mouse standing in the location that we were planning to rendezvous with Granny Mel and the kids (who were riding the People Mover while we were on Space Mountain). We got our picture made with Mickey- no wait. Wow, could our whole trip possibly go like this?

Once we finished riding the rides in Tommorrowland, we proceeded to Fantasyland. Here, we also encountered a surprising lack of wait time. We rode every single ride in Fantasyland (except for Dumbo) and were done by eleven o'clock. The kids loved the rides in this area. I think that "It's a Small World" was Owen's favorite ride in the whole park. We ended up riding it twice. I liked the Pooh ride. Did you know that in the books, Pooh's house has the name Sanders above the door? -Just an interesting bit of trivia- After knocking out Fantasyland, we got a quick bite to eat. The rain turned from light sprinkle to moderate shower as we ate, so we decided to call it an early day.

When we returned to the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday, we headed straight for Dumbo- which was the only ride in Fantasyland that we didn't get to ride on the first day. After riding it, we went off to conquer Liberty Square, Frontierland, and Adventureland. Olivia was tall enough to ride Thunder Mountain and Spalsh Mountain, and she loved them both. Thunder Mountain was her first "big" coaster, and we were curious to see how well she'd do. Well, not only did she LOVE it, but she kept her hands up the entire time. She's definitely a rider! Olivia liked the coaster so much, in fact, that we ended up riding it a second time. Once again, the crowds were light, and we were able to ride everything that we wanted to ride by two o'clock. We returned to the hotel for a mid-day break and then went back to the Magic Kingdom that night. We ate dinner at Tony's, a Lady and the Tramp themed Italian restaurant that had been highly praised by the Qs. The food was fantastic, and the kids loved the theming- especially since we were staying right next to "Lady" and "Tramp" at our hotel. After eating, we saw the new night show, "The Magic, the Memories, and You" (AWESOME), and the "Wishes" fireworks show. It made for a late night, but it was worth it! I would say that we certainly experienced the "magic" of the Magic Kingdom during our trip.