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To Disney

Monday morning was another early one, up at 6:00. We had hoped to get going by 6:30, but things took a bit longer than expected. We rolled out of the driveway at exactly 7:00. I had figured on a two hour drive. That’s exactly what it was as we arrived at CBR at 9:00 on the nose. We would have been 20 minutes or so earlier, but there was an accident on the FL Turnpike just past 429, where we got off. Check in was smooth. We had done online check-in earlier in the week, but our room wasn’t ready yet.

Epcot

We hopped back in the car and headed to Epcot, our first park of the day. Coming into the park, Kyle seemed excited, but not really able to take it all in. Our first stop was Test Track. We weren’t sure Kyle was big enough, but wanted to check 40″ ride early on as it might have affected our touring plans. He made it easily. It was a bit of a trial by fire as TT is a pretty intense ride, especially for a 3 1/2 year old. He did okay, but wasn’t keen to go on again. We then headed over to The Land to ride Living with the Land. This boat ride was one of his favorites, though he didn’t like the thunderstorm in the rainforest at the beginning. (He’s not a fan of the dark or loud noises.) We got lucky as it was shut down for renovations earlier in October and wasn’t supposed to be open yet. I still say the old version, Listen to the Land, was much better.

After The Land, we headed up into World Showcase to make our way to lunch at the Biergarten in Germany. After a brief stop in China to start Kyle’s Kidcot mask, it was on to Germany. I was very much looking forward to lunch here and was not disappointed. Most of the food was reasonably authentic (the salmon and rote grütze — red berry sauce — were especially good). After lunch, we explored Germany, Italy, Japan, Morocco, and France. We ended up in the UK just as the British Invasion band was starting. We watched them for a bit before heading back to the car to head to the Magic Kingdom.

While doing the pre-show for Test Track, we received the voice mail that our room was ready, so we headed from Epcot to drop off the luggage. Kyle was asleep at this point, so I made one trip to the room while Suzanne waited with him and then she made a second trip while I waited.

Magic Kingdom

After unloading, we headed up to the Magic Kingdom. We elected to take the ferry over as Kyle was still sleeping and we didn’t want to have to take him out of his stroller to fold it for the monorail. (It turns out you don’t have to fold strollers on the monorail unless it’s busy.) He woke up part way over and was very excited about the Magic Kingdom. (I have to admit, some of the ride and attraction ordering may be off. We wrote down what we had done each night, but managed to lose the notepad we had used.) Our first jaunt was up to Tomorrowland to ride the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (what used to be the Wedway People Mover). Kyle really liked this last time and did so again. I think we ended up riding it 4+ times during the week. We then headed over to Toontown. Kyle had said he wanted to ride the coaster (he had seen the one at Sesame Place earlier this year), so Suzanne was going to take him. However, when he saw the ride from the line, he quickly changed his mind. Next up was Fantasyland with a quick trip around the carousel, a showing of PhilharMagic, and It’s a Small World.

After dinner at Pecos Bill’s (our least favorite meal of the trip), it was back to Fantasyland for Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo (two more favorites), and the Tea Cups. Our last stop for the night was the Tomorrowland Speedway. Kyle actually got to “drive”, with me doing the gas and most of the steering. (I let Kyle do it at first, but was afraid he was going to get tossed out from the jerking side-to-side.) After this, Suzanne was nice enough to offer to drive Kyle back to the hotel so I could take some night photos, which I did. (I actually brought, and used, my tripod.) I did hit the Haunted Mansion during this time since Suzanne wasn’t real keen on going and the wait was 5 minutes. (I actually waited less than that to get into the stretching room.) I though Kyle might want to do this, but had forgotten how scary it would be for him. There’s always next time. After a long day, I headed back to hotel on the bus around midnight.

Links to photos

Animal Kingdom
Epcot
Hollywood Studios
Magic Kingdom
Caribbean Beach Resort & few other places