Holidays Around the World

11/23/07-Day 8-Epcot. We spent this day on a holiday world tour. While we waited for World Showcase to open the princesses took a spin on Mission Space. They tried both teams and decided Orange was the best. I chose to sit that one out. Since I'm a bit Pooh-sized, I didn't want to take any unnecessary risks going into Space. We started our World Showcase tour on the Mexico side. We listened to the mariachi band and tried on some big sombreros. It was a little to early in the morning for over-priced margaritas. Maybe later in the day. We wandered over to China just as the Monkey King was beginning his story. That guy is a good storyteller. We decided to check out the Stone Army on display in the pavilion. The idea that these things were handmade centuries ago is unbelievable. They were beautiful. Then it was on to Norway. After a quick ride on Malestrom and the obligatory picture in front of the troll we got the chance to hear from Julenissen. The guy in that costume must have been hotter than blazes. He was really funny. As we made our way around the lagoon we caught a glimpse of the Illuminations barges waiting to take their positions. In Germany it was the story of the Nutcracker and all the good holiday traditions started there. Germany is a good pavilion to go to at this time of year. Yummy pretzels and gingerbread and don't forget the pickle tree. That was the last holiday performer we got the chance to watch. I don't know why we didn't hit up the other half of the showcase. We caught the tail end of the Voices of Liberty. I like their holiday performances the best. After that we dragged our tired bodies back to the Springs for a quick dip and some much needed rest. For pictures from our trip to Walt Disney World click on the Flickr box to the right.

Happy Thanksgiving! (In January?)

11/22/07-Day7- Thanksgiving Day at the World!! This was our first time spending a major holiday away from home. All I can say is, it was great. We started our day at Chef Mickey's. What a great way to start the day! There's nothing like flying food particles and dancing characters. The food is delicious. I tried my best to get a shot of the monorail coming into the building. I wasn't successful. I missed it every time. After a filling breakfast we headed out to Animal Kingdom. I know, it makes a lot of sense, eat breakfast at Chef Mickey's then go all the way to other side of the resort for a day at Animal Kingdom. What can I say? It made sense at the time. It was a rainy day which translate to muggy and sticky at AK. The bird show was cancelled half way through due to the rain. The princesses still rode Kali River. They reasoned they were already soaked from the rain. We had our big Thanksgiving feast at the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue. I couldn't get a reservation at the Liberty Tree Tavern if I sold a kidney and a lung. We had a good time. Our dining plan seats were in the balcony right next to the stage. We had a great view and plenty of interaction from the cast. Princess B even got a starring role in an unexpected way. During the "which side is louder" portion of the show a loud "yee-haw" sounded through out the building and the spotlight was shown on Princess B. She was so shocked I thought she would fall off the balcony. It was so very funny. After the show, while waiting for the boat back to the Magic Kingdom several people commented on her loud holler. It was priceless. We ended our Thanksgiving at the Magic Kindom. We watched SpectroMagic and enjoyed the beautiful evening. It was an unconventional Thanksgiving but a wonderful one.

A Day of Firsts

11/21/07-Day 6-MGM Studios- On to the Studios. We arrived just after the park opened and made our way to the Tower of Terror and Rock-n-Roller Coaster. We Fastpassed Tower and headed over to RnR. This was going to be Princess 2's first ride. She was very nervous. However, I promised her this really cool guitar purse if she rode it. Needless to say, it was her favorite ride. She especially loved take off. The look on her face at the end was hilarious. She was in a state of shock. We then headed over to Tower. Princess 2 was not interested in riding Tower at all. No matter how much we begged her she wouldn't do it. We meandered over to the Backlot Tour. I miss the ride down Residential Street. The most exciting thing was the ride going 101. We were stopped right next to the Stunt Show. We thought for sure we were going to be evacuated off the trams. We sat there for a good 30 minutes. Then, everything was back online. The castmember did a really good job keeping everybody entertained while we were waiting. We headed back over to Tower for our Fastpass time. This time Princess 2 finally agreed to ride it. She was freaking out! She swore she would never do it again. In exchange for her bravery I bought her a BellHop Stitch. I'd say she did a good job talking me into buying souvenirs I never would have purchased otherwise. Especially that guitar purse. We decided to head back to the resort for some pool time. We ate dinner at the resort instead of dragging ourselves over to Epcot for an ADR at San Angel. We were just to tired. The food court at Saratoga Springs is good. The sandwiches are tasty. The next day was Thanksgiving and we had an early ADR at Chef Mickey's. We dragged ourselves back to our room and collapsed.

The Adventure Continues

11/20/07-Day 5-Blizzard Beach. We spent all day at Blizzard Beach. It was a lot of fun. It was a cool day to be at a water park but we made the best of it. We managed to find a place to sit where I could see most of the kid section and then I let the monsters loose. I relaxed with my iPod and some podcasts. It was heaven. After an hour we took a turn on the lazy river. I enjoyed the lazy river save for two things. The water was very cold and it was full of leaves. I didn't enjoy floating through huge bogs of rotting leaves. We did the Teamboat Springs family raft. That was great. I especially liked the Photopass they use at the water park. They give you a pass on a stretchy bracelet everytime you get a photo. At the end of the day you can consolidate them all on one, which is what we did. We stuck it to our Camelbak pak and used it for the rest of the trip. It was great. Many people stopped to ask where we got it. Princess #1 braved the Summit Plummit. She came back to our chairs shaking from the cold and the terror. She did go on it one more time that day. Princess #2 and I opted out. I was not in the mood for a water wedgie. All in all Blizzard Beach was a lot of fun. Dinner that night was at the Whispering Canyon Cafe. Boy, what a lot of fun that was. One of the hostesses was from our home town. The lobby of the Wilderness Lodge was breathtaking. I couldn't get over how huge it was. The Christmas tree was giant and it was beautiful. We enjoyed the bottomless milk shakes. I had the Canyon platter, way to much food for one person to eat. It's definitely something you want to order when there's more than one adult in your party. The princesses got a kick out of the ketchup act. They loved carting all those bottles of ketchup around. I will say that our server was not on his game. The other servers were way more in to their roles. The topper was the delicious S'Mores cheesecake. Yummy!! It was a great experience and one we will absolutely repeat. As always you can find all the photos on flickr.com. You know the drill by now.

More Trip Report

11/19/07-Day 4-Magic Kingdom. Hello, this park is my favorite of all at Walt Disney World. Every time I walk through the gates I'm filled with the magic. It's especially wonderful when everything is decorated for the holidays. We arrived in time for the opening ceremony. The princesses had fun playing jump rope and hula hoop while we waited. We were right at the ledge so we had a great view of the train as it came rolling in. Even though I had no idea who the family of the day was I was still so excited for them as they got to stand up there and open the park. It was so much fun. I got a great photo of Walt's window at the top of the station. After park opening we immediately hauled it over to Splash Mountain. We then backtracked through Adventureland and rode Pirates. Love that ride. We walked out and ran into Peter Pan and Wendy. They were in a little out of the way place where no one could see them. The character wrangler saw us and begged us to come over. It was great spending all that time with them. It was like they were out there just for us. We then went over to The Country Bears. All I can say is I wanted to cry. If there is any attraction that is in dire need of gutting and refurbishing it's this one. I can't believe they've let this get so run down. Disney, please fix this!! After a yummy lunch at Pecos Bills we went back to Adventureland for a ride on the Jungle Cruise. Every time I ride this attraction I think of that great audio clip Ricky Brigante played on ITM of the Disneyland cast member Mikey. He was so awesome. I wish someone at WDW did their Jungle Cruise spiel like that. I think when I grow up and go to work at WDW that's what I'm going to do. The princesses headed off to ride Aladdin's Magic Carpets and I got a Dole Whip. Boy, I love those Dole Whips. It was finally time to ride Haunted Mansion. The three of us had been waiting excitedly for this one. I had made an effort not to watch or listen to any podcasts or vidcasts that had anything to do with the new HM. I wanted it to be a surprise. I would have to say this is the best refurbishment that I've seen so far. Oh my God it was so great. The sound quality was so much better. The lighting was perfect. The new scenes were amazing. Even the sound in the stretching rooms was new. Overall, I would say Disney gets an A++++ for this one. We retired to our resort for an afternoon of fun in the pool. A little about Saratoga Springs. This is a very nice resort. The beds were super comfortable. I'm sure that has to do with everything being relatively new. The main pool is wonderfully themed. The princesses had a lot of fun playing in the hot tub and going on the slide. We splurged for the refillable mugs and they enjoyed going to the soda fountain almost hourly for refills. My only suggestion is have a car. It took a long time to get everywhere. If you're looking for a place at WDW that doesn't feel like your at WDW then Saratoga Springs is for you. We went back into Epcot for the evening to eat at Teppan Edo. If you have a Japanese steakhouse type restaurant in your home town then don't bother with this one. Our chef was great. He was hilarious. The waitress had some trouble making herself understood with her limited English. The food was not as good as our favorite Japanese steakhouse at home. My little princesses love this type of food but they were not impressed with Teppan Edo. I did have an interesting dessert, a chocolate ginger cake. It was very good. So far, Le Cellier was the best meal. After dinner we made our way back to the Magic Kingdom on the monorail. During our stay the Magic Kingdom was open until midnight every night. We got two magical moments. These were not official magical moments but they were magical none the less. First, Cinderella Castle dressed up for the holidays. It was BEAUTIFUL! Anyone who says this was as bad as the Castle Cake must be smoking something. It was amazing, especially because you don't really notice all the light strings on the castle during the day. At least we didn't. Second, seeing Space Mountain with the lights on. After Wishes we headed over for another ride on Haunted Mansion. We then backtracked to Tomorrowland for a ride on the TTA. I love the TTA. Well, imagine our surprise when we came into Space Mountain and saw all the lights on. I took as many photos as my little camera could take. It was really cool. By then it was almost midnight and we were exhausted. I couldn't drag myself out of the park fast enough. All told, another successful day. For photos from this day and the rest of our trip click on the banner at the right to connect to my flickr site.

And Now Back to Our Story

11/18/07-Day 3-Disney MGM Studios. And we're back. Yes, it's time once again to resume the trip report. I'm such a slacker but let's get into it. We began our day switching from Old Key West to Saratoga Springs. What torture!! If you have to switch resorts during your stay make sure you have your own vehicle. It took us all morning to get it done. We didn't get into the Studios until lunchtime. While we were on our way to the Rock n' Roller Coaster we ran into some Streetmosphere characters. Honey Darling and Kitty (someone) were having a foot race for some reason. Can you tell we came in after it had started. Princess 1 was pulled in to drop the red glove. It was a fun time. We picked up Fastpasses for RnR. The crowds were still manageable. The holiday decorations were wonderful. We were in the very first row on the Great Movie Ride. It definitely is a different experience when you are right up front. I enjoyed it much more. When you get stuck in the back of the ride vehicles you feel kind of left out of the action.
We had a great lunch at the Backlot Express. Love that cheesecake. At Muppets 3-d we ended up at the very end of our row. Not a good place. The 3-D effects were not as good. But, we did have a really good view of Sweetums. We were one family of about 3 in Star Tours. Hello, Disney how about a refurb on that one. It's got so much potential. We all had Fastpasses for RnR but at the last minute Princess 2 chickened out. Princess 1 took it and rode again. Then she hit Tower of Terror. I decided to swallow my fear and do it with her. I've never been on it before. We tried to talk Princess 2 into going also but she would have none of it. She did walk through the queue with us. I have to say I can't believe I didn't ride it sooner. It was AWESOME! I loved it. The drop sequence is great. I must admit being weightless even for a few seconds is wonderful. Over the course of our entire vacation we ended up riding Tower at least 10 times. Did Princess 2 ever get up the courage to ride? You'll have to wait and see. If you would like to see photos from our trip go to http://www.flickr.com/ and search for Sleeping Beauty's Sister.

A Day in NYC

So, during the madness that is the run-up to Christmas we took our annual trip to New York City. Now, let me stop for a moment and glory in all that is NYC. I love this city. I know there are many who are probably thinking I've swallowed cyanide and I'm losing my mind. Sorry, but it's true. I love this city. I tell the princesses every time we go there that if I had visited when I was 19 or 20 I would have gladly dropped every cent I owned into living there. The hugeness of it all. The hustle and bustle. The fact that this is indeed the center of the world. I totally could have been pals with Carrie Bradshaw, maybe not Charlotte. She was way to uptight for me. Anyway, our most recent trip. We braved NYC for the day on a bus trip organized by the company the King works for. Yes, a bus. I went to NYC with my two princesses and a princess friend from another royal family as well as 54 other people. Thankfully, we went our separate ways after we arrived. It was the first trip for my youngest princess and the princess friend. They were both in awe. We went to the top of the Empire State Building. Amazing and cold. We rode the subway numerous times. It was quite fun. We ate lunch at Max Brenner's downtown at Union Square. The hot chocolate was amazing but everything else was just OK. We looked out upon Ground Zero. A very moving experience. While at Ground Zero we met a most amazing man. He entranced the princesses for 30 minutes on the details of that fateful day and what they should learn from it. It was the best $5 I spent. I wish I could remember his name. They're second favorite thing of the day. Playing for an hour in Central Park. All they could talk about was how great it would be to come there every day after school. If only I could afford to move there. At the end of the day we made the mandatory little girl stop at American Girl Place. I have to say that if American Girl had been around when I was young I probably would have died from sheer joy. We spent at least 2 hours in there. The Rockefeller Christmas Tree was beautiful. The sidewalk hot dogs were awesome. I think we each ate at least 6 of them over the course of the whole day. It was a great trip. New York City at holiday time is wonderful. I can't wait to go back!

A New Year!

Happy New Year loyal followers! I don't know how loyal everyone is what with my erratic posting. I'm not one for New Year's Resolutions. No one ever keeps them anyway. However, I do have one that I fully intend to keep. I resolve to post every day! We will begin by catching everyone up on the rest of our trips to Walt Disney World and New York City. In the meantime please go to flickr.com and check out the photos we took while on our WDW trip. Yes, I actually finished posting them all. Just search for Sleeping Beauty's Sister and you'll find them. Happy New Year!!