Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Disney - Monday, Feb. 19 (Day 2)



We woke around 7:00 a.m., ate breakfast in the hotel room (I packed cereal bars, fruit and pop tarts), dressed and took the bus to the MGM Studios Theme Park. Above is a photo of the boys near the park entrance. I actually liked it better than I thought I would. There weren’t a lot of traditional rides, but there were some cute movie-type attractions. Check out the picture below. Only a couple of the building facades on the sides are real. The rest is a backdrop painted to look like San Francisco. On the opposite end of the intersection was one painted to look like New York City.



We used the Fast Pass option to get advance tickets for the Star Wars ride. With Fast Pass, you put your Disney resort card in the slot and get a ticket that gives you a time frame in which to return to the special Fast Pass line. It’s a great option to standing in the regular stand-by line for 45 minutes or more. We got our Star Wars Fast Passes, then went saw Muppet Vision 3D and by the time that was over, we went back to Star Wars, bypassed the long line and went right in. We visited a few more attractions before spending some time at the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids play area. Below is a photo of the boys - notice the flower stem behind them?



After leaving, MGM, we took the bus back to the hotel, freshened up, then drove to the Fort Wilderness resort, parked there, took their bus to the restaurant area for our dinner reservation. Son #3 was overly tired, I think, and had a little melt-down. Dear Hubby took him outside for a while, Son #3 pulled himself together, and re-joined the family for dinner (a buffet of country-type cooking – my least favorite meal of the week). After dinner, we took the boat from Fort Wilderness to the Magic Kingdom Theme Park, arriving just in time for the 8:00 p.m. parade – beautiful lighted floats.

After the parade, we meandered through the crowd. Dear Hubby and the boys wanted to do on this Stitch Escapes attraction (from “Lilo & Stitch”) while I opted to watch the fireworks. Right before the fireworks started, a woman dressed as Tinkerbell rode a zip line from near the top of the Magic Kingdom castle to not far from the bridge I was standing. If you’ve never seen the castle in person, trust me, it’s very tall. Props to Tinkerbell – it looks like a fun job, and I say that even though I’m somewhat afraid of heights.




We met up again and Dear Hubby took Sons#1&2 to ride the Indy Speedway. Since Son #3 didn’t meet the minimum height requirement, he and I rode the Space Orbiter. We stood in line for a while, took and elevator to the second level, boarded our spaceship, which Son #3 could raise and lower with a lever. (As I mentioned, I hate heights so I just started at the back of his jacket for the entire ride.) Since they enjoyed the Stitch ride, they insisted on taking me on that – it was kind of cute. It was getting pretty cool (upper 40’s) so we took the boat, then bus back to where the parked the van and drove back to our hotel. That was the only time all week that we used our own transportation.

Today....

Today was Son #3's check up - 5 years old. He was okay with the finger-prick blood test, but the chicken pox booster shot was a disaster. The nurse jabs the needle in my little guy's arm and says she can't get the vaccine in. She at first thought that it was because he was clenching his muscle (he was understandably upset). However, she removed the syringe from his arm, tried squeezing the plunger part - still nothing. Apparently it was clogged (yes, it was hermetically sealed and sterile). She said she had never seen anything like that before and left the room to get a 2nd syringe. This time, she tested it by squeezing out a tiny drop. But still.... two injections when there should've been only one. He's still recovering from the stomach bug, by the way. He's also in the 75th percentile for height, which is interesting since neither Dear Hubby nor I are tall.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am SOOO jealous! My kids are DYING to go there...so I'm sure we'll be doing the Disney vacation before long. Look out pocket book...hehe.

Glad you guys had such a great time!

Elle*Bee said...

It was expensive, but we went with the package, incl. meal plan (I'll blog about that later, I'm sure). Once we got used to the idea of paying the money upfront, and paying very little during our trip, it wasn't so bad.

Sue said...

Great pictures!

And poor Son #3 - two shots when he was only supposed to have 1...I hope he's feeling better now.

Elle*Bee said...

sue, he seems to be perky today, altho' I was up to 2:00 a.m. washing his second set of soiled bed linens for the night. Yikes. The doc said there's a rotovirus going around causing stomach trouble and it can take a week to run its course so perhaps Son #3 doesn't have a simple stomach bug. He seems to be sick every other day.

Lala's world said...

oh man the picture of the fireworks is amazing! sounds like a great time! I can't wait to take my kids! and poor little guy on the needle! as if getting one in the first place is not bad enough!!!

Anonymous said...

Wow, it sounds like you all had a blast!! I've never been to disney world, just land. However my parents took SloMo there and she just wanted to swim in the hotel pool the whole time!! LOL

Nicole said...

That sounds like SO much fun. My kids would LOVE to go, but we just keep distracting them. Ha.

Elle*Bee said...

lala, I feel the same way. Here I am telling him that I know it hurts and that I'd never allow it if it wasn't to prevent a really icky illness...OOPS! My bad. That one didn't count. Let's try it again. Sheesh. Dear hubby has relatively new friend from church who is a pediatrician. I'm considering switching to his practice if he'll meet my 'demands'. I like my current pediatrician, you know how it is. Each visit is 80% nurse (who I'm not wild about at the moment) and only 20% doctor.

flip flop and nicole, Disney is a very commercial place and if you don't mind that (I didn't b/c I grew up on Disney movies and toys), plus the lines, it's really a neat trip. Very clean. Guest services are top notch. Many of the rides have a min. height requirement of either 42" or 48" inches so you might want to keep that in mind. Son #3 still like the kiddie rides. Sons #1 & 2 were old enough to appreciate the more daring rollercoasters (they're 9 and 11). My neighbor was considering taking her 6 and 3 year old, but in my opinion that might not be the best value for a vacation. I suggested she might enjoy the Disney cruise instead from what I've heard from InsuranceMom (see link on my blog) and others.

Nadine said...

Pretty pictures. Sorry for son #3 - ugh.

~d said...

Just popping in, got lots of catching up to do, but wanted you to know I was here...