Back to Animal Kingdom...Last Day at Disney

Holding the scorpion and waiting to talk to the visitors about it

Honarary Presenters of the Day!

Opening ceremony

Today was our last day at Disney so we went back to the Animal Kingdom. We rode many of our favorite rides from Sunday and a couple of things that we didn't get to on Sunday, but the highlight of the day came during the opening of the park. While we were waiting to go through the ticket line, one of the cast members came up to me and asked me if we'd like to get into the park early and if my boys like bugs. Well of course to both questions! Dalton and Colby were chosen to be Honorary Animal Presenters of the day! At first I thought this was going to be a really big deal like at the opening ceremony at the Magic Kingdom where they choose a family of the day to help open the park and get to ride on the train in the opening ceremony, but apparently Animal Kingdom has only their regular characters in their opening ceremony...Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy. It was still pretty cool for the boys though. We were allowed to go in the park a little early and the boys were given safari type vests to wear and Dalton was given a glass case containing a scorpion while Colby was given a net to hold. He was told to hold the net in case the scorpion got loose. The cast member told Dalton and Colby about the scorpion so that they could field questions about it. When the cast members said it was time, they went out to where all the people were coming into the park and let people look at the scorpion and Dalton would tell them about it. There were also other cast members with other creatures, but Dalton and Colby were the only visitors who were chosen to do this. After they were finished they were given a certificate to remember this event and were also given pins to wear and keep signifying that they were Honorary Presenters. Anyway, I thought this was such a cool thing for the boys to get to be a part of. The rest of the day was good. We even met some more characters. The crowds still weren't bad, but on the way out we got caught in a little Florida afternoon rainstorm while we were headed for the exits, which really didn't matter that much because we were already soaked from riding the Kali River Rapid ride. We've had so much fun in Walt Disney World this week. We've all had such a blast and can't wait to come back. It's been pretty tiring though, and we usually even left the parks by early afternoon every day. I think I need a vacation to rest from our vacation. Goodbye Walt Disney World! :)

Jiminy Cricket

Tigger

Blizzard Beach

Yesterday, we decided to take a break from the regular parks and go to one of the water parks. We ended up going to Disney's Blizzard Beach. It has a really neat theme based on the story line that there was a freak snowstorm in Florida and they decided to build a ski resort, but the snow melted and this was the result...Blizzard Beach. There are tons of waterslides and even enough slides and areas that the boys could play on. They had a blast playing at the park, but I think going to a waterpark is worse on your legs and feet than being at the regular theme parks. You're walking around on concrete on your bare feet and up steps all day. Whew! Even though it was our day to take a break I was still worn out at the end of the day.

Magic Kingdom Day 2

We Found Rafiki!!

Yesterday we went back to the Magic Kingdom to hit the parts of the park that we missed on Monday. When we arrived off of the monorail the opening ceremony was just ending so we made our way into the park toward Tomorrowland. My parents left to go visit a relative and wouldn't be back until the nighttime so they weren't with us on this day. There was hardly anyone in Tomorrowland right after opening. I guess since Space Mountain is closed for a few months everyone heads to the other headlining rides to get on Splash Mountain or Big Thunder Mountain. We literally walked right on the Buzz Lightyear ride. It's a cool, interactive ride where you have to shoot Zurg and his evil minions and receive points. Throughout the day we toured around through Tomorrowland, Mickey's Toontown Fair, and Adventureland. We also managed to ride Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again. I think these two rides were our favorite rides at Magic Kingdom.

Magic Kingdom at night

Later in the night after my parents came back, my mom and I took the boys back to the Magic Kingdom to see the fireworks and maybe ride a few more rides. I've never been at night and it was so beautiful to see everything all lit up. Main street is so pretty with all the lights at night. The castle is gorgeous at night as well of course. The castle changes colors after a little while during the night. The fireworks were great! They weren't all that long, but there was a nice story to go along with the fireworks told by the infamous Jiminy Cricket. Tinkerbell even flew by us overhead!

Watchin' the fireworks

The boys were so tired after a long day!

Disney's Hollywood Studios

So I'm getting a little slack at this. I was going to try to post a blog every day while we're at Disney. Well, on Tuesday we went to Hollywood Studios. The park was really neat. We arrived before the park opened to see the opening ceremony and when they let us in, we sent Shane on up ahead of us to get Fastpasses for Toy Story Mania. While we waited for our time to come back we all toured around and rode Tower of Terror, even Colby. My mom rode it with us, but my dad chickened out. Pretty cool ride. Colby has even been able to ride all the rides that I was hoping he could ride. He's right at 40" with his shoes on if he really stands up straight and tall, which is what the height requirement is for many of the better rides at Disney. Colby's been quite the little thrill seeker. Some of the rides I thought would scare the pants off of him, he has really loved. I'm so glad he's been able to ride so many rides and enjoy almost as much as Dalton. The rest of the Studios was great. The parks still haven't been incredibly crowded and we've been able to do most everything we've planned. The boys were able to meet or see many characters here as well. There were some rides that I thought would be kind of boring like the Studio Backlot Tour, but it ended up being pretty good. Disney just does most everything well.

Here's a few characters we met while there:

Lightning McQueen and Mater (Sorry, Mater was cut out of this picture)

Mike (We never saw Sully)

Buzz Lightyear and Woody

Magic Kingdom

Today we went to the Magic Kingdom. It's been about 17 years since I've been to the Magic Kingdom so I was excited about going back with our family. We arrived early again as we did yesterday at the Animal Kingdom to see the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony was pretty cool. The cast members gave Dalton and Colby and the other kids confetti to throw up when they counted down for the opening of the park after Mickey and the crew came riding in on the train to the train station. The park didn't seem overly crowded and we managed to get through most all of Fantasyland and Frontierland. I think the Dalton and Colby's favorite ride was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We'll go back later to hopefully hit the rest of the park that we missed. The boys are pretty much wiped out by about 2:30, but we still managed to stay for the parade at 3:00. We were glad we did stay, because the parade was actually pretty good and we had a good spot where Dalton and Colby could get lots of attention from many of the characters that came by. After getting back, the boys were suddenly filled with lots more energy and just had to play in the pool at the condo where we are staying. They were so wiped out afterwards that they both fell asleep around 7:00 while just sitting around with us and we had to carry them to their beds. Tomorrow we're heading to Disney's Hollywood Studios. None of us have ever been there so we're all excited about going.

Frontier Donald

The Parade