Some Real Characters

Here are a few of the nice folks we met along the way....
Pinocchio was our first sighting and the first entry in Henry and Clara's autograph book.
Clara had no interest in seeing Mary Poppins, but Henry was delighted to talk to her.
Of course we were very excited to find Alice, and we did have her say "hello" to Eleanor on a video message.
We scored with Frontier Donald....who signed his name "Donald Duck #1".
We missed out on Woody and Jessie, which was a bummer as Clara would have really liked to say hi to Jessie.
We did wait in line for quite a while to say hi to the next 3 princesses. Clara wasn't so sure she was excited to see princesses, but once we got there she really chatted them up. This is Aurora- otherwise known as Sleeping Beauty.
Cinderella, of course.
And Belle, from Beauty and the Beast. She told the kids she liked their yellow shirts.
This was as close as we got to my favorite princess. Pete was worried that it looked like they were giving the nazi salute.
Before the trip Clara was adamant that she did NOT want to see Captain Hook. But we did. He came over and menaced Henry with his hook a little bit. Clara now sometimes will say that Captain Hook was her favorite character.
And, we just got this glimpse of the Beast, who Clara would have also liked to have met.
At Universal we saw Cat in the Hat and The Grinch. Clara wanted absolutely nothing to do with the Grinch.
This one's a little blurry because it was emailed to me from Mary's computer.
The highlight was when we spotted Mickey and Minnie first thing Wednesday morning.
We were all very happy to see them! Micky and Minnie were definitely tops on Clara's list and Pete said the highlight of his trip was getting a kiss from Minnie.
We also saw Stitch...nobody really knew who Stitch was, but now I kind of want to see the movie.
And Ariel! Clara told me she liked Ariel because she was a "sitting down princess". She and Prince Eric spent a lot of time chatting with Clara, and she just ate it up.
Pirate Goofy was hanging out by the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, of course.
We caught sight of Baloo in a parade.
Then we had lunch with Tigger! He sat down in Pete's spot while Pete was up getting some food.
Pooh got lots of hugs.
And Pete and Eeyore chatted about early graying.
Later on Piglet led a little parade through the restaurant. Pete was not impressed, but the kids found it delightful! I loved how each character had their own style of signature. It must be part of their training.
Next time you visit, ask the kids if you can see their Disney autographs! They'll be thrilled to show you their book.

Magic Kingdom Day 2

The other occupants of the car did not appreciate my taking this photo, as they thought the flash was lightning. We actually had pretty okay weather Wednesday morning. The skies weren't as dark as they look in this early-morning photo.
Here are the kids in their Disney World finery. Mary had bought a cute Winnie The Pooh dress for Clara at some craft fair and they bought Henry his new Mickey shirt on our first day in the park. Of course they matched nicely with their new ears. This Mickey is on the way from the parking lot to the monorail station.

Our first ride Wednesday morning was the Astro Orbiter.
I thought it was very cute that Mary and Peter squeezed into the same car, even though we were almost the only people on the ride.
Henry and Pete gave the thumbs up as we were about to blast off.
Tuesday night I had asked everyone if they only got to do one thing at the park on Wednesday, what they would choose. The Astro Orbiter was Henry's top choice and a 2nd ride on Pooh was Clara's. This time we spent a little more time checking out the cool interactive waiting area for Pooh's ride. I loved Eeyore's house.
The Small World ride was Mary's top choice, and one of mine as well.
We also took a trip on Buzz Lightyear's Space Mission (or something). It was a fun ride where you got to shoot at the evil Emperor Zurg in an arcade-style way as you rode through. Each rider racked up points with the targets they hit. Pete kept yelling to me from 2 cars back- asking what my score was. He didn't believe I had 66,000 to his 3,000 or something. I think he forgets that I have Atari blood in my veins.
My top choice was the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Clara rode with me and was very brave. They have incorporated Captain Jack Sparrow from the movies into the ride- and had this guy outside giving pirate tutorials. It's incredible how much he looks like Johnny Depp!
After the pirates we had lunch at the Crystal Palace. There was some excitement there, but you have to stay tuned for the next post for that.
After lunch and a little more Main Street shopping we went back to the time share, tried a nap (Henry yes-Clara no, she had slept for 15 minutes in the car) and then Pete took the kids for a quick swim.
I photographed lizards.
And I kept an eye on the sky.
Then the real fun began. I like this picture of Peter Sr. watching the storm outside- it was another deluge with high winds. Pete's scanning the weather on his phone and Mary is watching the radar on t.v. We were under a tornado watch and I think some parts of the state did have some touch-downs.
But eventually the storm seemed to pass, with just some lingering sprinkles. So we headed back to Magic Kingdom, as was our original plan. We rode a couple more rides- taking advantage of the short lines. The kids wanted another trip on the Jungle Cruise, and we got 2 rides on Aladdin in a row- since no one else was there. We didn't mind the camel spitting on us that time since it was raining anyway. We also rode the Walt Disney World Railroad around the park. Finally we staked out a good spot on Main Street to watch the parade. I headed across the street to get some snacks.
Sadly, while I was in the confectionery I overheard the news that the Electric Light Parade was canceled due to the rain. We were pretty bummed out. I bought the kids some outrageous Mickey-shaped chocolate-dipped rice crispie treats on-a-stick anyway and we talked about what to do next.
Since it was already 9 o'clock and we had been planning to be out a little later anyway, I suggested maybe we try a couple more rides. I didn't want to end on a sad note. So we went back to the carousel- which Clara had loved and we rode the teacups again.
Then we decided we might as well go on in to the Philharmagic show. We were glad we did! It was a fun 3D movie featuring Donald making his way through several popular Disney movie song scenes.
By the time we were out of there it was almost ten o'clock and time for the fireworks. We got a pretty good spot and watched the fireworks in the rain. It was an impressive show- right over the castle. Clara drifted off somewhere towards the end.
So, our time at Magic Kingdom went out with a bang after all. A bit soggy, but fun none-the-less. Of course our travels the next day were impacted by the weather. There were long waits and delays and missed connections in the airports. We ended up spending an unplanned night in Boston, but miraculously JetBlue paid for our nice hotel and our luggage hadn't gone on to Chicago without us! So it wasn't too bad.
Next post....all of the characters we met on our trip!

Rainy Monday

Monday morning found Pete and I trying to sleep in. The kids woke up looking sleepy- but ready to go. We appeased them for a bit with some cartoons while we snoozed a bit more.
The chance of rain was the highest for Monday, so we had planned that to be our break day from the parks. We had read about Gatorland in one of the guidebooks, and decided to check it out. Much of it was under cover, so that made it a good choice.
I could have stood and watched these guys all day. There were pond areas with smaller gators and larger gators. They were pretty active, and you could toss handfuls of food in at them too. Pete got a particularly funny video of one gator who had rain dripping on his nose from the roof, but he must have thought it was food coming from the sky- as he kept snapping at it.
The rain did come in a serious way. It poured. There was plenty of thunder and lightning as well. This peacock came in and perched over our heads to try to escape the deluge. (There was a petting zoo on the grounds as well.)
This area had 3 different white alligators. They weren't albino, as their eyes were blue. They had some other name, but I don't remember what it was. This guy was apparently so aggressive that a trainer entering his pen had to have a couple of back-ups helping out.
We got a couple of commemorative smashed pennies.
And Pete tried out this daring move.
The rain held us back from enjoying everything that Gatorland had to offer. They weren't doing the "jumparoo" show or feedings, for example, but we would still recommend it to anyone traveling to Orlando.
After spending some time with present-day reptiles, we drove our orange van over to Downtown Disney and had lunch at the T-Rex Café. It's a sister to the Rainforest Café, and just as outrageous. In this picture you can see that we were sitting in the underwater section. In the background you can see the ice cave, which changed colors whenever the periodic "meteor shower" came through.
Here are Henry and Clara with the giant t-rex that greets you at the entrance of the restaurant. He's animatronic, of course.
After our meal we went out to the big sandbox where the kids were able to pick up paintbrushes and play paleontologist.
Finally, here's the wet dino on the outside of the restaurant. We did try to shop around Downtown Disney a bit, but we got pretty wet. We spent that night with a little bit of television and popcorn back at the timeshare.