Our Walt Disney World History, Part Two

It must have been February 2007 when Joy and I decided to book a family trip to Walt Disney World.  This would be our first trip together with kids.  I don't recall what brought Disney World back into our awareness but I did find a blog post on my old (no longer updated) blog, Mostly Nonsense, Partly Cloudy titled "Twelve Days to Disney".  I started that post with the words, "No, I'm not a big Disney fan or anything like that..."  Obviously things have changed.

Our trip was booked for April 21st, through April 26th 2007.  Looking over my old blog posts for that original trip, I really didn't keep very detailed trip info so, I had a little difficulty remembering when we left to come back home but, I do remember that we came back home on a Friday.

Anyway, for this, our first trip to Disney World with kids, we booked our trip with Expedia.  They had some sort of vacation package that included a room at Pop Century, 5 day Magic Your Way Tickets, plane tickets, and a rental car.  (I don't remember how much it was but, I'm pretty sure it was way cheaper than we'd be paying now for our family of six.)

Day One

We had an early flight out of the Newport News/Williamsburg International airport.  I don't recall the exact time but, it was definitely pre-dawn.  The other thing I recall is the fact that, between the security checkpoint in Newport News to the airport in Orlando, Caleb had to use the bathroom nine times.  Now, I've flown before but, never on a flight that was so long that I had to use the airplane bathroom.  Thankfully, I was able to experience the luxury of a bathroom on a 737.  Twice.

But enough about airplane bathroom visits.

We arrived at the Orlando International Airport and, as I mentioned above, we had reserved a rental car.  While I was using the Alamo (I think it was Alamo) automated terminal to confirm my information, Joy and I sort of realized that we did not need a rental car.  If we were going to just stay on property the whole time, did we really need a rental car?  We decided that we did not so, after a few calls to Expedia, we were able to get the car cancelled (and get a refund).

Arriving at Pop Century, we walked the grounds a while and took a bunch of pictures of the awesome iconic structures.

One of the views at Pop Century

After roaming the hotel for a while, we hopped a Disney Transportation bus and headed on over to Downtown Disney.  

Molly and Caleb at Downtown Disney

This has been kind of a standard for us.  Not necessarily going to Downtown Disney the first night but, hanging around and not visiting any parks on our arrival day.  I don't think we're against visiting a park on the first day, it's just that we're usually pretty tired from traveling and we usually decide to just take it easy and prepare ourselves for the next day.

Day Two

Our first full day was at Animal Kingdom.  I'm assuming we did this since the park hours were ideal that day (a Sunday).  It's also likely that the "extra magic hours" were at the Animal Kingdom for that day.  Anyway, when I think about starting our vacation at Disney World now, I automatically think Magic Kingdom, as I'm sure so many other people do.  Just seeing that iconic Cinderella Castle... but I digress.

On our first ever visit to Animal Kingdom, I fell in love with Kilamanjaro Safaris.  

"Whaaaa?"

The ride's story was maybe a little cheesy: poachers were trying to kill a baby elephant but they were somehow stopped and, at the end you saw the lifeless mannequins being held at gunpoint by the Harambe Wildlife Reserve official.  And you see the little animatronic baby elephant as evidence that he survived.  I guess others considered it unnecessary but, Joy and I loved hearing the Harambe Reserve guy breaking in over the truck's radio as we toured the savanna, shouting, "Simba One!"  Alas, Disney felt it was unnecessary, too since the story part of the ride has been removed.  Still Kilamanjaro Safaris is an awesome ride.  Seeing a giraffe walking right past you is a sight to behold.

The highlight of our first Animal Kingdom visit and our first full day at Disney?  Running into Safari Mickey and Goofy on our way out of the park.  You can tell from Joy's awww-I-can't-believe-this-is-happening-to-us look on her face in the picture with Mickey.

Joy: "I can't believe it! Mickey!!!!"

Day Three

Second day: Disney's Hollywood Studios (or MGM, as Joy stubbornly calls it).

One of the highlights for me that day: running into Lightning McQueen and Mater as they roamed down the roadway near the Indiana Jones attraction.  Awesome!  

Just a ride.  Not an actual ride to outerspace.

I'm pretty sure our first ride was Star Tours.  As I recall, Caleb (who, in all fairness, was only three) was a little distraught about riding.  He really thought we were going on some sort of spacecraft and would be going into outerspace.  He cried and stuff but, he ended up liking it, which is evidenced by the fact that he rode it about six or seven times when we went in 2012 (re-named "Star Tours: The Adventure Continues).

We also rode the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.  Caleb was tall enough to ride and we convinced him to go.  He did fine up until the last second when we were going to get in the next to last queue for the elevator.  He was crying and upset, which is to be expected.  I mean, first I try to take him to space and now I was trying to take him on a ride in some sort of old, haunted hotel!  Well, I ended up telling a cast member that my son and I could not ride so, we were whisked away down a very magic-ending hallway and rode a very normal elevator that just went down.  No scares.  Still, even that was a cool experience and I can't complain.  I ended up riding it anyway with Molly while Joy waited with Caleb.

So, we rode some rides, met some characters, watched a cool parade and got some awesome pictures. 

Join me Joy.  It is your destiny.

 Also, we watched the Lights! Motors! Action! stunt show.  That was cool, too.  

Near the Backlot Tour (which we also rode), there was giant Coke bottle set up, spraying water out every 30 seconds or so.  Caleb was waiting for it and I was able to capture this cute shot of him with his "embarrassed posture" when he noticed other people noticing him.  So cute.

Waiting for the water.

Aw shucks!

One of the last things we did was watch "Fantasmic".  This is the only time we've watched this show. Not because we didn't like it; we did.  I guess we just really remember the crowds and the fact that the boat-thing where the show takes place seemed to be an awfully long distance away.

Fantasmic

The very last thing we did was go to the Disney Junior Dance Party.  This was pretty cool because we got to kind of mingle with some of the characters like Goofy, Pluto, and even Mickey.  All in all, a very good day at Disney's Hollywood studios.

Day Four

Epcot.  This is really a beautiful park.  From Futureworld to the World Showcase, Epcot is really visually stunning.  Other than our trip to Disney World in 1996, we have only seen Epcot during the Flower and Garden festival which always takes place in the April/May time frame.  Fortunately, because of the this festival, we were able to walk through a sort of butterfly conservatory.  

Tinkerbell Topiary

What's so special about walking through a butterfly conservatory, you may ask?  We were able to overhear one of the funniest things I've ever heard in Walt Disney World.  "Oh no mommy!  But you're afraid of butterflies!"  Huh?  As far as I could tell, this child said this to her mother in all honesty.  Now, I realize that the child's apprehension may have been caused by an off-handed remark her mother may have made in a casual conversation but, still, it was funny.

Aside from the beautiful Flower and Garden Festival, Joy and I fell in love with the San Angel Inn Restaurante in the Mexican Pavilion.  This place looks amazing.  The first time we walked in there, we could not believe how much it really looks like you're walking around a Mexican village.  Complete with an active volcano in the distance beyond a dark river.  This dark river is also the path that the Gran Fiesta tour takes (which is also awesome).  Yes, the Mexican Pavilion is a great highlight at Epcot for us. 

Inside the San Angel Inn Restaurante

Another awesome highlight for this particular trip to Epcot: Soarin'.  I absolutely love Soarin'.  I love the music, the scenery, and the smells.  Yes, the smells.  The concept of Soarin' is really simple.  You could simply Google it but, I'll summarize: the ride attempts to simulate hang gliding over various iconic scenes in California.  The reason I mentioned the smells is that Disney went out of their way to allow scents to be carried along the breezes that are blowing in your face as you glide over scenes like a forest (evergreen smell).  But the ride itself isn't really the reason this qualifies as a highlight.

In one of the vignettes in Soarin', you glide, rather low, over a golf course just as a golfer is teeing off.  Just as you are about to fly over him, he hits the ball and the ball appears to fly straight toward you.  Just after this happened, a little boy seated next to me, about seven or eight years old, held up a golf ball to me and said boldly in a very distinct British accent, "I caught it!"  I still laugh and think back on this.  I mean, how many times had this kid ridden this ride?  And how many times had he shouted "I caught it!" to other riders?  Very cute and definitely memorable.  So, a hearty thank you to the little British kid that made me really enjoy Soarin', wherever you are.

Day Five and Six

Our final days were spent at the Magic Kingdom.  Once again, I don't remember everything we did.  But I do remember going to the Judge's Tent in Toontown Fair.  I remember riding Big Thunder Mountain.  I remember Spectromagic (you are really missed, Spectromagic).  And I remember riding Splash Mountain.  

The main thing Joy and I remember about riding Splash Mountain is when Caleb got a little wet.  He was upset about this and when he heard one of the teenage girls sitting in front of us lament the fact that her new shirt had gotten wet, Caleb started saying, "My new shirt!"  Ha!  So funny.

Brer' Rabbit

After reviewing my old Mostly Nonsense, Partly Cloudy blog, it seems that we left just before the Wishes fireworks show began.  So we went back to the park the next night to watch the fireworks.

Well, I'll be more specific: we went to the Magic Kingdom again not to just watch the fireworks. I don't have any pictures to prove this but, I'm certain we didn't just go to the park at night. That's just not how do things and I would definitely remember if that's the way we did it. 

All in all, we had a wonderful time.  Our 2007 vacation turned Walt Disney World into our favorite destination and our love for WDW is still going strong. 

Cinderella Castle!

Molly and Caleb on the teacups.

Getting Chip's autograph.

Molly and Joy on Dumbo.

Caleb Pendragon...?

Thanks for taking our picture, Molly!

Outside the gate.

Cinderella Castle peeking through Main Street U.S.A.

Molly looks so excited to ride Goofy's Barnstormer.

Shot of Cinderella Castle taken from the patio dining area outside of Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe.

Spectromagic!

Spectromagic, you are missed.

Just before the fireworks.

Beautiful, even with the crane.

Our next installment will cover our March 2009 trip to Disney World when we brought four month old Sophie along for the ride.

Our Walt Disney World History, Part One

Before we get into our last Disney trip or even where we're planning to stay this year, we should provide some background.  Basically, we want to share when we first started going to Walt Disney World.  What made us want to go back?  And, what made us want to go back every year (even though we're really not able to do that)?

Joy and I were married in February 1996.  It's hard to believe that, in under one month, we'll be celebrating our 18th anniversary.  It just doesn't seem possible.  Time really does fly when you're having fun and, man oh man, are we having fun!  Anyway, in June of 1996, we visited Walt Disney World.  We didn't go alone, though.  We went Joy's brother and his wife (fiancé at the time) and we had a really good time.  However, we didn't stay on property.  We stayed at a Days Inn nearby and, as I recall, it wasn't a bad experience.  We didn't feel unsafe or see weirdos roaming the parking lot or anything like that.  I do remember it had a pool and, when the pool was closed at night, we visited the pool of an adjacent hotel.  So, maybe we were the weirdos roaming the parking lot.

But back to the parks.  This was 1996 so, Animal Kingdom was not open and Disney Hollywood Studios was still known as Disney-MGM Studios (in fact, Joy still casually refers to the park as "MGM" on a regular basis).  So, naturally we visited the Magic Kingdom, Disney-MGM and EPCOT.  We also visited Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach (more on those later).  I should mention that, on this, our first Disney trip, Joy and I were not Disney World buffs at all.  Oh sure we had a wonderful time but, for whatever reason, we didn't get hooked like we would later on.

It's also reasonable to expect that, since this was almost 17 years ago and, even though it was our first vacation as a married couple, I cannot remember the exact dates or how long we visited.  I do recall that our trip spanned the last day or two of June and ran into the first week of July (but probably did not run into July 4th).  Aside from the fact that Joy's birthday was spent down there, it's easy to remember that it rained.  Everyday.  Around 4:00pm or 4:30pm.  And I mean it poured.  Knowing what we do now, this was perfectly normal but, for some reason I don't remember expecting this.  Weird.

Throughout our trip, we adopted the habit of getting up super early and going hard all day long until well into the very, very late hours of the night and then repeat for the next day.  To make sure we applied this pressure to ourselves, we had park tickets with the hopper and water park options added.  In other words, no time to relax; we were in Disney World so we were going to push ourselves to experience as much as we could possibly stand.  

Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with people going hard all day long while on vacation.  And there's nothing wrong with getting hopper/water park passes and using those to their fullest.  I'm also not saying that I enjoy sleeping in super late and skipping the fireworks at the parks because I want to be back at the hotel at before 7pm.  Not at all.  What I am saying is that because of this self-induced craziness we put ourselves through, maybe we pushed a Disney trip off to the back of our minds.  And then there was the sun poisoning (more on that later too).

As I recall, each day of our vacation, the four of us would get up, go to Burger King (or some other fast food place) for breakfast and head to the parks.  Even though I can't remember for sure, it's probably pretty safe to assume our first visit was the Magic Kingdom.  Sitting here, I can't believe that I can't remember what we rode that first day.  Wow.  Maybe instead of listing all of the stuff I can't remember, I'll just focus on the things that I do remember.

The water parks.  We took one day and visited both water parks.  I don't remember everything about what we rode at these parks either but I do remember two things in particular:  Joy's brother and I rode Summit Plummet at Blizzard Beach and we all experienced Shark Reef at Typhoon lagoon.

Shark Reef at Blizzard Beech is basically a snorkeling tank.  I had never been snorkeling before and I have not been since this trip.  I don't remember how busy the park was but I do remember that my brother-in-law and I went through the attraction multiple times.  Prior to entering the pool, the cast member that was handing out the vests you had to wear made the following remark to me: "You might want to put on some sunscreen."  Now, I am not what anyone would call a dark complected man.  To the best of my knowledge, my heritage is primarily Irish and English so, it should come as no surprise that I could easily be considered "pale".

Up to this point in all of my 22 years, I had experienced some sunburns before.  Nothing prepared me for the severity of the sunburn I received after spending an entire summer day at Disney's waterparks with my pasty white skin exposed to the cruel Florida sun.

After leaving the waterparks, we went back to our hotel, cleaned up and went to eat at Planet Hollywood in Downtown Disney.  That was when I started feeling sick.  I thought I was just coming down with some sort of stomach bug because I was really feeling nauseated.  The next morning, the agony started kicking in.  I'll skip the rest of the painful details except for one important part: Alien Encounter.

Stitch's Great Escape is the re-branding, so to speak, of Alien Encounter.  We visited this attraction when my sunburn was in all its painful glory (sore, hot, and shoulders... blistering).  As we went to take our seats, I looked at the shoulder harnesses and thought, "I'll let the shoulder harness lock a little further away from my shoulders so I'll be spared that painful contact."  Well, that didn't work out as I planned.  You see, during the attraction, the alien "escapes" and roams through the audience.  At one point, he stomps right overhead and, in order to make this seem authentic, the Imagineers decided to have the ride's shoulder pads slam down onto the audience members' shoulders.  Ouch.  That really, really hurt.  I understand that, generally speaking, Stitch's Great Escape isn't all that popular.  To be honest, I haven't been very interested in riding that again. Ever.

So that's pretty much the rundown of our maiden voyage to Walt Disney World way back in 1996.  You may notice the lack of pictures.  That's because I've never scanned our old prints that are currently sitting in a shoe box under our bed.  However, for our next trip in 2007, I took plenty of pictures.

Stay tuned for part two of Our Walt Disney World History...

The Inspiration

I should have posted this earlier but, here's the "Dancin' A Catchy Rhythm" song, as heard on Youtube:

Our Walt Disney World Blog

Our family is obsessed with Walt Disney World.  Well, more specifically, my wife and I are.  Our kids love it too but maybe not they're quite at the let's-turn-everything-into-a-conversation-that-somehow-ties-back-into-Disney-World level.  That's not a bad thing and, thankfully, we don't annoy them with our love of all things Disney World.

Anyway, my wife, Joy, has a particular song that she heard on one of the many Disney Theme Park music streaming websites that includes the line "on a holiday".  The song title is "Dancin' A Catchy Rhythm" and it comes from the Wonderful World of Disney Parade in Disneyland Paris.  It's a really an upbeat, <ahem> catchy tune and I think it perfectly sums up some of the feelings we experienced while visiting "The World".  Joy, in particular, loves the song.  It's currently one of the ringtones on her phone.

So, what is the point of this blog?  The point is, first of all, to document the run up to our potential trip to Walt Disney World this year.  Right now, we're looking at early May but, we will see.

Look for more Disney* posts to come.

*The term "Disney" on this blog will almost always refer to Walt Disney World.  Fair warning.