Disney World Final Chapter

Just as our magical vacation had to end, this blog recap must also come to a close. There are many more photos to share, but I’ve narrowed them down considerably to just a fraction that give an overview of our trip.

The Weather - We had mostly sunny, HOT, HUMID days, but also a few rain showers and one very dramatic thunderstorm. Maile improvised protection from the sun

and from the rain.

The Characters – Maile wasn’t insistent about seeing the characters, especially if there were long lines, but if the opportunity presented itself to be photographed with one, she took it! Here are a few shots of her with some of Disney’s finest. In the Disney Hollywood Studios, she met Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc.

In the Magic Kingdom, she ran into Mary Poppins and Bert near Adventureland, then the evil Emperor Zurg (from Toy Story) in Tomorrowland.

 

In the Animal Kingdom, besides meeting Donald, Daisy, Mickey and Goofy at breakfast, she also posed with Dale and Jiminy Cricket.

  

Happy 7th Birthday, Maile! - The theme at Disney World this year is “What Will You Celebrate?” so when we made our reservation, we told them we’d be celebrating our granddaughter’s 7th birthday. When we checked in, our welcome packet included a birthday pin for Maile, which she wore proudly everyday. Several times during meals, Maile was treated to a special dessert as part of her week-long birthday celebration. Here are just a couple of our special moments. In this photo, she is getting ready to blow out the candle on her birthday cupcake at Donald’s Safari Breakfast.

Another day, after our buffet lunch at the Hollywood & Vine Restaurant, not only did the waiter bring her a cupcake but also a card signed by some of the Little Einstein characters.

A Few Final Highlights– Maile wasn’t sure she wanted to go on the Haunted Mansion ride but once she did, she was very proud of herself. She loved reading the silly sayings on the gravestones in the cemetery outside the mansion.

Maile wanted to have her face painted and chose her favorite character, Tinkerbell.

Maile loved exploring Tom Sawyer Island, which was no surprise to Bill or me. It was so cute; she read all the signs and put a lot of thought into which way to go whenever the path had a fork in it.

One of the pools at our hotel was called the Duck Pond because it was located near the buildings that represented The Mighty Ducks movie. Maile deemed this pool her favorite, possibly because of the poolside Goofy goalie statue.

 

See the large yellow fire hydrant in the background? That’s a stairwell on the end of our building, which was 101 Dalmatians. Do you recognize the little celebrity on TV in the photo below?

I hope these blog posts have shown what a wonderful trip this was. Bill and I will never forget this special week with our oldest grandchild, and look forward to having memorable experiences with Mason, Nikos, Kira, and Olive for their 7th birthdays. I’ll close with one of the last photos we took, showing responsible Maile proudly taking her own luggage off of the carousel when we returned to the Sacramento Airport. What a great little traveler she is!

Disney World Part 3

Our next destination was Disney Hollywood Studios, where part of the plan was to not go on the Tower of Terror. I had mentioned that if pressed to name my favorite ride, I’d have to say this one is it. Melanie had taken Maile on the Tower in Disneyland and Maile’s reaction was “I didn’t really like it very much.” (So diplomatic!) By this point in our trip, Maile knew we wouldn’t force her to do anything, even if we knew deep down that she’d enjoy it . . .  so, we had a lot of fun that day asking, “Shall we head over to the Tower of Terror now?” with Maile rolling her eyes in response.

Disney Hollywood Studios was the location of one of Maile’s favorite activities of the week: the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set. This larger-than-life playground kept her busy for over an hour the first time, and we even went back for another visit. In the photo below, Maile is dwarfed by a paper clip. The orange object on the right is a Lite Brite peg.

Maile got Bill and I in on the fun, too. She took Bill into some tunnels under a tree

and, after climbing through the enormous spider web herself, convinced me that I just had to do it!

One of the exciting attractions we all enjoyed was the Studio Backlot Tour. Our tram took us onto the set of an action film, where a simulated earthquake caused an explosion which destroyed a water tower. It was very realistic. The funny thing is, when the special effect was over and I asked Maile if she was scared, our little California girl said matter-of-factly, “No. It was just an earthquake.” (Just an earthquake!!!)

       Walking along the Streets of America, Mai first posed with Bill in San Francisco

then ran through a leaky fire hydrant in New York City.

 

The magic continues . . .

Disney World Part 2

Next up, Epcot.

Our first ride there was Journey into Imagination with Figment, and Maile loved it. She also enjoyed the hands-on exhibits in the Imagination Pavilion. Here she’s conducting music using a projection screen.

Just outside the Imagination Pavilion were water fountains that featured ‘jumping’ streams of water. Since it was such a hot day, the water was a temptation too hard to resist –-- for all of us! We spent a LOT of time enjoying these.

I was the next victim, but I didn’t mind a bit! (Notice Mai in the background dancing around.)

Another of Maile’s favorite attractions in Epcot was The Seas with Nemo and Friends. Besides the ride itself, we saw a dolphin show in their huge aquarium, plus she participated in an interactive activity called Turtle Talk. In addition, there are several small aquariums displaying all sorts of interesting sea creatures. Maile wanted us to take her picture in front of this lionfish, because it is Mason’s favorite fish and she wanted to show it to him.

 

She loved the seahorses. See the one right above her head?

After several more attractions, including the Universe of Energy (which featured dinosaurs!), Living with the Land boat ride, and The Circle of Life, we headed over to Fort Wilderness (the campground in Disney World) for the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue dinner show. This time, a Disney boat was our transportation of choice.

Bill and I have been to this dinner show a few times in the past, and we’ve always enjoyed it. In fact, we were celebrating our 39th wedding anniversary there last week. They announced our names and we were invited to get up and dance!

After the dessert (yummy strawberry shortcake) was served, the waitresses passed out washboards for us to ‘play’ with utensils.

We left Fort Wilderness and headed to the Magic Kingdom for the new fireworks show called Summer Nightastic, which is really, really a good one. It was followed by the Electric Light Parade, another dazzling Disney production . . . a great ending to another magical day!

Disney World Part 1

We had a wonderful, MAGICAL time with Maile in Disney World. This is what grandparenting is all about! (I use the word magical because “Walt Disney World is the Most MAGICAL Place on Earth” --- that slogan is everywhere there, and all the Disney ‘cast members’ constantly wish guests a magical day.)

Everyday we started out with a plan, which is pretty much a necessity in Disney World because of the enormity of the place. By the 3rd morning, Maile was asking “What’s our plan today, Grammy?” Of course we were flexible within the plan. A good example is the first day, when we headed to the Magic Kingdom because Maile wanted our first ride to be Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Our plan was to head straight for that ride to pick up a FASTPASS, then grab a quick breakfast. However, when we got to the ride, we saw that the wait was only 20 minutes so we decided to just get in line. It turned out we made the right decision because we were only in line for about 10 minutes!

Here are a few shots from our first day in the Magic Kingdom. Frontierland (Big Thunder Mountain Railroad)

 

Adventureland (Swiss Family Treehouse)

and Tomorrowland (Space Mountain)

We headed to the monorail to take us to the Contemporary Resort for dinner. Sometimes Disney transportation is half the fun!

Our 2nd day began with Donald’s Safari Breakfast in the Animal Kingdom. We would recommend this to anyone! Besides Donald (whose photo isn’t here) we were visited by Daisy

 

and Mickey

and Goofy.

After breakfast, our plan was again to grab a FASTPASS, this time for the Kilimanjaro Safaris. Well, once again we lucked out and were able to get right on the ride with minimal wait time. It was great! Here’s Mai boarding the safari jeep.

See how close we were to the rhinos!

While we were at the Animal Kingdom, Maile wanted to go to Dinoland, and especially The Boneyard, a play maze that included a dig site for wooly mammoth bones. She remembered visiting this area from her last trip to Disney World when she was 3 years old.

One of our favorite experiences in the Animal Kingdom was something we’d never done before: Rafiki’s Planet Watch, which included Habitat Habit and Conservation Station. These were right up Maile’s alley! She really enjoyed the backyard scavenger hunt, carefully searching for the creatures on her card.

 

And later she proudly answered one of the naturalist’s questions and earned a conservation sticker. She was so quick that I almost missed this shot!

At Camp Minnie-Mickey, another part of the Animal Kingdom, Maile joined in some games with Chip & Dale.

Tomorrow, I’ll post Part 2 . . .

Disney World, Here We Come!

A few years ago while on a cruise, Bill & I met a couple who were raving about taking their 7-year-old grandson on a Disney vacation. They said it was such a special time for the three of them. Bill & I thought it sounded like such a great idea and decided that we wanted to do that with our grandchildren, one at a time. Since Maile will have her 7th birthday next month, it's time for our first trip!

Tomorrow morning, Bill and I will be picking up Maile at 6:00 for our trip to Disney World. We'll be flying from Sacramento to Orlando with a stop in Phoenix. It looks like Maile's all packed and ready to go!

We will be staying at Disney's All-Star Movies Resort for 6 nights. We have reservations for Donald's Safari Breakfast on Monday morning and the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue on Tuesday evening, but othewise we're going to be flexible. Since we expect to be very busy, we're not going to be posting to the blog until we get back home.