My wife Kim did such a great job with her first blog and it made me so excited to pen my own initial entry that I decided to do it twice. Actually I'm doing it a second time because my first blog didn't save with the exception of a "C" in the draft. Boy was I frustrated because in my mind I wrote the perfect blog! ;)
When Kim and I decided to start a blog about our love for and knowledge of Disney, we decided we would each try to write to our strengths. Kim's strengths are her attention to the details of even the smallest memories and I think that's something that makes her a great wife and mother! My strengths are sort of the other things that tend not to matter as much once the vacation is over, but I've done a lot of research and planning in my day and I love to share that knowledge as well as those experiences.
When I think about our first Walt Disney World vacation, I think about questioning if this type of vacation would be the type of trip that would really satisfy our young family. While our family loved all things Disney, the thought of spending a week at a theme park seemed like a bit of a reach for us. At the time I thought we would try it but I never thought about what might (or what would definitely) happen to us.
As Kim said, we stayed at All Star Movies and because our son Peyton loved Toy Story I booked a room in the Toy Story building. Walking through the "bedroom door" into Andy's Room was as magical as we'd ever seen. One of my most vivid memories of staying at All Star Movies was outside of the Toy Story buildings was a life sized replica of R.C. the remote controlled car from the movies. Every morning as we left our resort room, Peyton would dash for R.C. and every morning he'd trip and scrape an elbow or skin a knee. But he would always jump in the car in the hope that it would speed away with him in it. We loved staying at All Star Movies!
Kim went into great detail about our adventures at The Magic Kingdom and Disney's Animal Kingdom. I'd love to go into great detail about our first experience with Epcot but it will take longer to read this blog post than our time in Epcot on that first trip. We had this misconception that Epcot was just about learning and education. We figured we wouldn't have any interest in that park with a pre-school aged child. We entered into Future World on an extremely hot and sunny May afternoon and made it as far as the Odyssey Pavilion before getting an icy, blue drink to share and we promptly made our way to the exit and headed for The Magic Kingdom. I can't even tell you we learned our lesson on our 2nd trip because on that trip we thought that since we didn't do anything in Epcot on the 1st trip, why even go to that park. Boy, were we in for a shock when we finally decided to tour that park for real!!!
While we didn't tour Disney's Hollywood Studios as much as The Magic Kingdom or Disney's Animal Kingdom, we certainly spent more time there than we did at Epcot. Because we didn't know what to expect from this park we tried to do as much as we could. We rode The Great Movie Ride which sort of left us flat because the most recent movie referenced seemed to be Star Wars or Indiana Jones so we didn't get much out of it. We really enjoyed Playhouse Disney Live (now re-themed Disney Junior Live) and it was in the Magic of Disney Animation that we found our first hidden gem in WDW. There are character meet and greets inside The Magic of Disney Animation and some of the characters are somewhat rare. And the bonus was that because we were there on a night that Fantasmic! was shown, many of the villains were available for meet and greet opportunities. We even walked past One Man's Dream to a new section of the park called Pixar Place. There were friendly cast members standing in front of Pixar Place to let us know it wouldn't open for a few more days so we would have to wait until our next trip to realize the magic of Toy Story Midway Mania. Alas, Disney's Hollywood Studios has become our least favorite of the 4 parks over the years.
Kim talked about the celebration for Peyton's 4th Birthday at Chef Mickey's and I must concur. It was an amazing experience. Watching cast members, characters, and other diners celebrate our son's birthday with him is a memory that I will always treasure. Those memories are the reason we book this restaurant every trip. Even though the cuisine may not be what we once thought it was, this restaurant will always be so special to us.
I remember the night of Peyton's 4th birthday so vividly. It was our last night on property and after dinner we were really excited to go to The Magic Kingdom because we were going to experience Extra Magic Hours that night and it seemed so perfect. It was on this night that I found my greatest Disney love... Spectromagic!!! Spectromagic is a night time parade in The Magic Kingdom that ended its run in the Summer of 2010 and was replaced with The Main Street Electrical Parade. Watching this parade blew me away. The music, the pageantry, the characters. I loved every second of it! On this night we saw the only rain of our trip, which oddly enough would be the polar opposite of our next trip but that's for another post. Peyton loved riding Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in the dark as well as the rain. We rode until the wee hours of the morning before kissing the park good night and sadly, good bye.
As we waited for Magical Express to arrive at the resort the next morning, a man standing next to me began chatting me up. He asked how long we stayed at the resort. I told him we'd been there for a week. He told me they had been there for 3 nights but spent the previous 5 at The Animal Kingdom Lodge. His description and explanation of that resort had me convinced. On the coach ride to Orlando International, Kim and I made our plans for our next trip. And we were going to stay at The Animal Kingdom Lodge. But on the next trip, we were going to bring our new princess and introduce her to her kingdom. Until next time...
When Kim and I decided to start a blog about our love for and knowledge of Disney, we decided we would each try to write to our strengths. Kim's strengths are her attention to the details of even the smallest memories and I think that's something that makes her a great wife and mother! My strengths are sort of the other things that tend not to matter as much once the vacation is over, but I've done a lot of research and planning in my day and I love to share that knowledge as well as those experiences.
When I think about our first Walt Disney World vacation, I think about questioning if this type of vacation would be the type of trip that would really satisfy our young family. While our family loved all things Disney, the thought of spending a week at a theme park seemed like a bit of a reach for us. At the time I thought we would try it but I never thought about what might (or what would definitely) happen to us.
As Kim said, we stayed at All Star Movies and because our son Peyton loved Toy Story I booked a room in the Toy Story building. Walking through the "bedroom door" into Andy's Room was as magical as we'd ever seen. One of my most vivid memories of staying at All Star Movies was outside of the Toy Story buildings was a life sized replica of R.C. the remote controlled car from the movies. Every morning as we left our resort room, Peyton would dash for R.C. and every morning he'd trip and scrape an elbow or skin a knee. But he would always jump in the car in the hope that it would speed away with him in it. We loved staying at All Star Movies!
Kim went into great detail about our adventures at The Magic Kingdom and Disney's Animal Kingdom. I'd love to go into great detail about our first experience with Epcot but it will take longer to read this blog post than our time in Epcot on that first trip. We had this misconception that Epcot was just about learning and education. We figured we wouldn't have any interest in that park with a pre-school aged child. We entered into Future World on an extremely hot and sunny May afternoon and made it as far as the Odyssey Pavilion before getting an icy, blue drink to share and we promptly made our way to the exit and headed for The Magic Kingdom. I can't even tell you we learned our lesson on our 2nd trip because on that trip we thought that since we didn't do anything in Epcot on the 1st trip, why even go to that park. Boy, were we in for a shock when we finally decided to tour that park for real!!!
While we didn't tour Disney's Hollywood Studios as much as The Magic Kingdom or Disney's Animal Kingdom, we certainly spent more time there than we did at Epcot. Because we didn't know what to expect from this park we tried to do as much as we could. We rode The Great Movie Ride which sort of left us flat because the most recent movie referenced seemed to be Star Wars or Indiana Jones so we didn't get much out of it. We really enjoyed Playhouse Disney Live (now re-themed Disney Junior Live) and it was in the Magic of Disney Animation that we found our first hidden gem in WDW. There are character meet and greets inside The Magic of Disney Animation and some of the characters are somewhat rare. And the bonus was that because we were there on a night that Fantasmic! was shown, many of the villains were available for meet and greet opportunities. We even walked past One Man's Dream to a new section of the park called Pixar Place. There were friendly cast members standing in front of Pixar Place to let us know it wouldn't open for a few more days so we would have to wait until our next trip to realize the magic of Toy Story Midway Mania. Alas, Disney's Hollywood Studios has become our least favorite of the 4 parks over the years.
Kim talked about the celebration for Peyton's 4th Birthday at Chef Mickey's and I must concur. It was an amazing experience. Watching cast members, characters, and other diners celebrate our son's birthday with him is a memory that I will always treasure. Those memories are the reason we book this restaurant every trip. Even though the cuisine may not be what we once thought it was, this restaurant will always be so special to us.
I remember the night of Peyton's 4th birthday so vividly. It was our last night on property and after dinner we were really excited to go to The Magic Kingdom because we were going to experience Extra Magic Hours that night and it seemed so perfect. It was on this night that I found my greatest Disney love... Spectromagic!!! Spectromagic is a night time parade in The Magic Kingdom that ended its run in the Summer of 2010 and was replaced with The Main Street Electrical Parade. Watching this parade blew me away. The music, the pageantry, the characters. I loved every second of it! On this night we saw the only rain of our trip, which oddly enough would be the polar opposite of our next trip but that's for another post. Peyton loved riding Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in the dark as well as the rain. We rode until the wee hours of the morning before kissing the park good night and sadly, good bye.
As we waited for Magical Express to arrive at the resort the next morning, a man standing next to me began chatting me up. He asked how long we stayed at the resort. I told him we'd been there for a week. He told me they had been there for 3 nights but spent the previous 5 at The Animal Kingdom Lodge. His description and explanation of that resort had me convinced. On the coach ride to Orlando International, Kim and I made our plans for our next trip. And we were going to stay at The Animal Kingdom Lodge. But on the next trip, we were going to bring our new princess and introduce her to her kingdom. Until next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment