In Disney Right Now, Thursday, April 9th, 11:59 pm
Well here we are! We finally made it back to the Swan! We always say that we find it hard to believe that we leave Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada in the morning, and we are at Walt Disney World in Florida by the middle of the afternoon. However, here we are. To me, I feel like I am “home”, at least for the next 10 days!!
We left Regina today without any delays. The plane actually got into Minneapolis around 15 minutes earlier than expected. We then had an hour before our departing flight to Orlando. Again, smooth flight the entire way and we even landed five minutes earlier than expected. I will say this every time I land in Orlando, to me, it’s like touching down at home, and that walk from the airplane and that first blast of humidity and heat is the one thing that I look forward to every single time. It’s not a huge thing, and it might seem silly, but for me, that walk from the plane to get your bags, to walking outside signifies for me the beginning of my trip and all the awesome stuff that I get to look forward to for the next few days. And, of course, there is also that feeling that in the blink of an eye, I will be making that walk back to the plane ten days later. But, let’s not talk about that right now. I don’t want to even think about my “Final Thoughts” for right now. TIME TO START THIS VACATION!
Chloe was an absolute trooper for only having about five hours of sleep in her. She played on the trip from Regina to Minneapolis, most of it being tapping uncle Brett on the head (she was sitting with her grandpa behind me) and waiting for me to turn around so she could giggle at me. Then, on the way from Minneapolis to Orlando she slept from take off to landing. Her new thing for the trip, however, was to look at all the planes and point and laugh at them and then when we got to Orlando, everything was “monorail” this and “monorail” that. She has a new word in her vocabulary!!
We then picked up our van from the airport and began the familiar trek to the Swan. As you can see from the pics (link at the bottom) I take pics of EVERYTHING! I do, and I am not sorry for it. When I want to check on something that I ate from a previous trip, I have a pic. When I want to see what I thought I might like to buy as a souvenir, I take a pic. So, today’s pics are around the 200 mark. That is mostly travel. We’ll see how good I actually keep up with it over the course of the next few days. With a subject like Chloe around, it’s not too hard to get those pics in.
Well, after checking into the Swan (very nice room by the way), we ventured over to the Yacht and Beach Club for our traditional gorging of ourselves on burgers, fries, onion rings, and malts. This is the meal that most of us wait for because it is tradition for us and it is so good. We also go to see two tables receive the “Kitchen Sink”! That thing is a monster. We had it once a few years ago and I still can’t get over how big it actually it is.
Well, with our bellies full we headed over to Epcot to get our 10 day magic your way ticket with park hopper option. Then, it was into Epcot we go. Since Chloe had been such a trooper we decided to take a look at the Flower and Garden Festival stuff for a bit (butterfly gardens and the Pixie Hallow spot, which Chloe loved! We will definitely be going back there over the next few days for her to have a play) and then we headed into Mousegear for a quick look around. Mom bought herself some of those Disney environmental bags for three bucks. Disney sure is getting onto this “environmental quick” right now with that new movie opening on April 22nd . There were tons of “environmentally friendly” products you could shop for. Some that I took some pics of to share with you. I did find some cool croc flip flops with the Mickey symbol on them that I would like to purchase. The other cool thing about them is that they are green and orange, which is our school’s colors! School Spirit days will be a lot more fun with my Mickey flip flops!
After Mousegear, we headed over to The Seas with Nemo and Friends. Chloe is a fish nut and I cannot describe the way her eyes POPPED when she saw Nemo on the ride. She just started yelling “NEMO NEMO NEMO” every single time he popped up. She had a blast on it and, of course, grandma and grandpa will make sure she goes on it as many times as she wants. We then looked at the dolphin tank. Again, Chloe could have stayed there all night to watch the dolphins and the fish. She just kept pointing and giggling the entire time.
After that, we headed over to Imagination and caught Figment. For me, the original is still in my heart when I ride this thing and I will never be satisfied until Dreamfinder is back. However, Chloe did enjoy it and she really liked Figment. So, I guess that is OK.
We then toured over to the Art of Disney to look in there. Kevin and Beckie found a few things that they would like to purchase for their house and I just browsed. Chloe, mom and dad just hung out outside and played for a bit.
We then headed into Spaceship earth and I got to sit beside my niece for the entire ride. She was amazing! She just sat there and stared at stuff and it she recognized something like “stars” or “smoke” or “santa” (one of the auidioanimatronics did look a bit like Santa Clause, I laughed).
It was after Spaceship Earth that Beckie noticed the times board reporting that Soarin had a wait of 35 minutes. We knew that it was almost time for Illuminations to start and that most people would be watching that. So we decided to go and actually see for ourselves if it was actually 35 minutes. We entered the pavilion and when we reached the entrance the line was at the door. I said “no way” because we knew that there was no way that it could be just 35 minutes. However, and I know that this will sound weird, but the line actually moved quite quickly. We never stayed in one spot for more than five minutes. What we were able to piece together was that because no FPs had been issued for after 9:00 pm (and it is extra magic hours) that the line was just coming from one side. So, FP, while an awesome thing for those that can get their paws on them (especially for Soarin) it can definitely make your wait time super long if you are in the stand-by line. So after thirty minutes from being at the beginning of the attraction, we were sitting on our “glider” and we flew. Man, that ride is AWESOME!! It just floors me every single time about how well it is designed and how it makes you feel like you are actually flying. Well done Disney!
Now, when we came off the ride, dad had stayed with Chloe, and we did have a baby swap pass to use. Dad said that he was not up for it tonight and that Beckie, Kevin, and I just use it. Well, when we went back to the FP line to go through, the CM told us that they were actually using the FP line to corral the stand-by line through. The wait time had increased to over two hours. So, without a FP line for us to use, they ushered us over to a door and took us backstage. The CM that took us warned us that no pics could be taken while we were going through the rooms. We even went outside and saw the back of the “Living With the Land” laboratory. It was cool to go backstage, but it was very dull! Just grey walls and pavement. However, we did get back on. So, in one hour, we got to do Soarin twice, which, to me, is a complete bonus for the first evening of your trip!
By now, we were all starting to hit the wall and we made our way back to the Swan and here we are now. I am finishing up this report and everyone else is asleep. I can just hear the heavenly bed calling me now! Love that bed!
So, here we are; a fresh trip, just starting out. What a great feeling.
Tomorrow, now I know this will sound weird. But rumor has it that tomorrow could be another very busy day at the MK. So, we decided that we are going to go and do our Outlet shopping tomorrow, in the morning, and then hit the MK later on in the day. It’s EMH hours there tomorrow evening so we are going to put in some time there and then we are going to go back again on Saturday for most of the day and tackle the rest of the MK. Chloe is excited to see her Mickey Mouse so I very much bet that is someone we are going to go and definitely visit tomorrow.
Until tomorrow, have a Disney day!
Please click here to view today’s pics!
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. As for the shopping: love the reusable "green bags", the yellow live, laugh, relax t-shirt.... is that also at Mouse Gears?. Thanks for the info!
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