Disney Trip Report Part 2: Mon 10/19 — First Day at Disney (Epcot & The Magic Kingdom)

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You can also see our report as a single page.

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

In front of Spaceship EarthWe 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

In the Magic KingdomAfter 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

Disney Trip Report Part 1: Sat 10/17 & Sun 10/18 — At Mom’s

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I’ll be posting each day over the next few days. You can also see our report as a single page.

Sat 10/17: Departure Day

I left work a bit early on Friday to make the drive home from Boston somewhat earlier than normal. I managed to get home around 7:00, which wasn’t too bad. Once we did the last minute packing, etc., we managed to get to bed around 10:30. However, the alarm at 4:15, for our 5:00 car service pickup, still came awfully early. The trip to the airport was uneventful and we had no problems checking our bags. Both were at 49 pounds; 50 is allowed. We hadn’t weighed them before, just lucky. (We had a duffel bag in one suitcase, so it wouldn’t have been hard to lighten one or both.) I do have to say it seems ages ago when we traveled with 31 lbs combined to Europe for two weeks. The flight down was fine, though we were about 20 mins late arriving.

After arriving, we grabbed our bags, changed Kyle from his PJs, and grabbed our car to head to my mom’s. (We got lucky and grabbed an HHR from National’s Emerald Club. This was good as we really needed the storage space.) We ended up getting to Beverly Hills around 12:30 after a stop at Publix for some groceries. We hung out at my mom’s house for a bit, doing some swimming despite the fact that is was only in the 70s (and the pool was 82). After a visit with my grandparents and Uncle John and Aunt Laura, who also happen to be visiting, it was a uneventful evening. We all turned in early since we had been up since 4:15.

Sun 10/18: At my mom’s

On Sunday, we hung around for much of the day. Suzanne, Kyle, and my mom went out to do some shopping. In the afternoon, my grandparents and aunt and uncle came over for some hot dogs and hamburgers. We wanted to get an early start the next morning, so it wasn’t a late night. We had a very nice visit over the weekend.

Links to photos

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

Back from Disney

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Friends and Cinderella's CastleWell, we’ve been back from our trip to FL/Disney World for almost a week now. We had a wonderful time. We spend Saturday afternoon and Sunday with Paul’s Mom, Grandparents, Joe, and Paul’s Aunt & Uncle (who also happen to be visiting). It was nice relaxing weekend. We swam a bit on Saturday, but it was quite cool on Sunday. When we left Monday morning, it was only 50 degrees.

We headed to WDW first thing Monday morning and stayed until Sunday afternoon. Kyle had a great time and was good most of the time. It was great to be back after having been there so often as a kid. (This was my 15th(?) trip, but I have only been three times for a total of four days since 1991.) The weather was pretty good, though it was in the upper 80s by the end of the week. It only rained twice, once while we were at dinner and once while we were on the bus. A real highlight was the Halloween party. I think we’ll try and his this again in the coming years. I have started going through the 2000+ pictures and will post some and a more detailed trip report in the coming weeks.

Fireworks Photos

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We had a nice time at the fireworks in Nomahegan Park in Cranford. Kyle enjoyed them for the most part. By the end he was covering his eyes, but was okay with the noise. Go figure. I had really good luck with photos this year. (It helped that it wasn’t raining, unlike last year.) Feel free to take a look at my July 4th 2009 Fireworks gallery. (PS, I flipped past 15,000 shots taken with my DSLR that night. Not bad for 3 1/2 years.)

Memorial Day Weekend

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Suzanne had to be in Bristol, RI the week before Memorial Day. Since Providence is only a hour by train from Boston and it was a holiday, we decided to spend the weekend here in Boston. Suzanne and Kyle arrived Thursday and we eventually made it to my apartment after waiting for several trains filled to the brim with fans heading to Fenway. We spent Friday morning at the Children’s Museum, which Kyle liked okay, and the afternoon wandering a bit, ending up at the playground in the Boston Common. Kyle woke up a bit out of sorts on Saturday, so we decided to take a drive up to Cape Ann. After a great lunch at the Ipswich Clam Box, we stopped in Gloucester, then the Good Harbor Beach outside of Gloucester, and then onto Rockport. We didn’t have much time there, but would like to go back.

On Sunday, we started the morning in the North End and did a bunch of walking through Quincy Market, Chinatown, and up to the Swan Boats in the Public Garden. After a delay due to a thunderstorm, we had a nice ride. Suzanne and Kyle left on the 11:40 Amtrak train back to NJ. We had a very nice weekend and it was great to spend the time with them. (It was also nice not to have to travel back and forth to NJ.)

Update: Photos at May 2009: Boston – Photos

Good News

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Good news (well mostly). As many of you know, I was hired for a computational training and support manager position in the Department of Chemistry at Boston University. I have been working there since February and it has been great. My work is a combination of providing IT support and support for application of scientific software. It has been interesting learning my way around a new place and working with so many new people. The only downside is that I am living in Boston during the week while Suzanne and Kyle are still in NJ as we get the house ready to put on the market. (We have a lot of stuff to go through.) I travel to NJ every weekend, but it’s not the same as being there all the time.

Suzanne has to be in RI this week for work, so she and Kyle are coming up to Boston for the long weekend. This should be nice as we’ll get to spend a couple of extra days together and I won’t have to travel home to NJ. We’re going to hit the Children’s Museum on Friday. (I can get a pass for deeply discounted admissions from our library.) I remember this as being great while growing up and we think Kyle will love it.

I have added a few new photos of Kyle since the last update, but those have been up for a bit. I plan to get a few more up this week and will likely get a bunch up next week.

New Look

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As you should notice, if you’re reading this, I have changed the look of our site around quite a bit. Really what I did is to move to the WordPress blogging platform, not so much for the blogging capabilities but for the nice layout tools. All the old information is still here, though I only copied over the last few updates. Some new features include the ability to add comments and the ability to “subscribe” to new posts via an RSS newsfeed. Hope you enjoy.