Paul's Down-Home Page

That would be Tim, who now has a real blog.

On our previous visit to MGM, we had a great time but didn’t hit most of the big-ticket attractions because we went around dinnertime. This time, we hit the park first thing in the morning. We started off with the Indiana Jones stunt show, which recreates a couple of scenes from various Indy movies. It’s actually quite cool. Thomas was particularly enthralled, since now he knows how to throw a character punch (plus there were lots of explosions, always a plus for the 5-year-old set.)
Mom, Thomas, and I rode Star Tours, which was mildly amusing; it’s a simulator ride through a Star Wars space battle. I rode the Tower of Terror— it was great. You go up in a Twilight Zone elevator, then you free-fall a random distance, then you repeat that cycle a few times. Matt has since taken great delight in pointing to the Tower every time he sees it and intoning “Tower of Terrrrrr!”
David, Mom, and Thomas went to the Drew Carey “Sounds Dangerous” show, which the non-Disney guidebooks all describe as lame. They all liked it, though. For lunch, we had reservations at the Prime Time Cafe, where the schtick is that you’re eating at home with “Mom”. Our waiter, Mickey (yes, that’s really his name), was very zealous at reminding the boys to keep their elbows off the table, and he wouldn’t let Arlene or David order dessert because they didn’t clean their plates. He also did something that I found incredible: after Thomas popped Matthew’s balloon sword, Mickey went next door to the Indiana Jones shop and bought Matt a plastic sword to replace it. Try that at Burger King.
I didn’t keep any notes on them, but there were two other noteworthy activities. David and I played Millionaire, which was loads of fun. It was wicked cold in the the studio, though. I squeezed in a ride on the Rock-n-Roller Coaster. I’m not a huge Aerosmith fan (as in, I wouldn’t have them over to dinner), but this ride was particularly good at providing an immersive environment– you see a projection of them in the studio, then descend into a very realistic parking garage for a “limo ride” to the concert. A very fast, smooth launch and several corkscrews.
Then we went back to the hotel and ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, one of our favorites. The food was excellent and served in large portions (I recommend the Parmsesan-crusted snapper). We got a coupon from the hotel concierge that gave us head-of-the-line seating and a free appetizer. The animatronic animals are pretty neat, and they play some really invigorating background music. The fish tanks are impressive, too. Note that there are two of these restaurants here: one in Downtown Disney and one in Animal Kingdom. Then, to bed.
Pictures:

For day 3, we went to the Magic Kingdom. It was, well, magical. We got up, ate breakfast at the bus stop, and caught the shuttle to the ticketing and transportation center, where we caught the monorail. The boys and I sat in the front cabin with the driver, giving us a great view of the lake and various Disney resort hotels on our way. When we got there, Arlene rented a stroller and we set off for Fantasyland, but not before seeing Cinderella’s Surprise Celebration. This was certainly a surprise, since we had no clue it was going to happen. Thomas particularly liked it; he has a real crush on Cinderella.
Last time, we hit pretty much every ride in Fantasyland. This trip, the park was more crowded and we had, shall we say, a difference of opinion among the boys over what they wanted to do. We hit it’s a small world, the Peter Pan ride, and Mickey’s PhilharMagic, a simply brilliant 3-D film with terrific effects (including a 3-D apple pie with accompanying scent.) I thought it was one of the day’s highlights.
We also finally visited the Haunted Mansion, on which Thomas hid his head the entire time. David seemed to like it pretty well. (Hopefully on Monday we’ll go back and hit Winnie the Pooh, which was a big hit with David & Thomas last time.
We had lunch reservations at the Crystal Palace for a character lunch. The food was quite good (but pricey), and the boys were delighted to visit Tigger, Pooh, Eeyore, and Piglet. After lunch, we hit Tomorrowland. To my disappointment, the ExtraTERRORestrial Encounter ride was closed, but we managed to ride the Tomorrowland electric railroad and the famous Tomorrowland go-karts. David and I each drove one; Matt was busy napping. After Matt woke up, David, Matt, and I went on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin; Arlene and Thomas had already been. We squeezed in a visit to Frontierland at some point, but I honestly don’t remember when; all we did there was visit Goofy’s Diamond Dance Jamboree– country music, line dancing, Toy Story 2‘s Woody, Jessy, and Bullseye, and, of course, Goofy. We all loved it. (We also rode the steam train, but darned if I can remember when).
We had burgers from the Starlight Cafe for dinner, then we navigated over to Main Street for the Spectromagic parade. Although this was billed as all-new, much of it was familiar to use from our previous visit. Matt in particular seemed to enjoy it, but we hightailed out of the area before the fireworks started. Here are a few excerpts from the day’s pictures (actually, they may be from other days; I’ve given up trying to keep track):

For our first real vacation day, we went to Animal Kingdom. It’s the largest park in terms of area, but it has relatively few things to do. We started off with an invigorating shuttle bus ride, then made a beeline straight for the safari ride, which is basically an open jeep you ride on a track through a zoolike area. We saw several elephants, a group of giraffes, some Thompsons’ gazelles, a few oryx, a batch of hippos, and a lioness. Matthew was entranced, especially by the elephants. This was Arlene’s favorite ride. We also went for a walk on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, where we looked for (but didn’t find) the legendary white-bellied go-away bird.
Next, we wandered over to the Asia section and the Kali River Rapids. Matt and I sat this ride out, since a)I didn’t want to get wet and b) Matt was too small. The riders were unanimously thrilled with it. After a quick snack, we went on to see It’s Tough to be a Bug. Mom and the older boys loved it; Matt spent the whole time with his face buried in Arlene’s shoulder. David and I rode the Dinosaur thrill ride, which he said was “so turbulent” that it “aggravated his motion sickness”. Indeed. So, here are a few pictures:

So, yesterday we packed our stuff and set out for Disney World. It was snowing.
We got to the airport about an hour earlier than I would have if traveling alone—a wise precaution given that we had all three boys. Checkin was uneventful, but then we hit the first of several travel snags: our inbound aircraft from Cincinnati was delayed due to weather. It arrived about 20 minutes late, and we hustled aboard. Then we had two rounds of de-icing, which the boys liked pretty well (we told Matt that they were spraying the plane with orange juice to make it sticky). Bobby Brown, the flight attendant working our flight for ACA, was bar none the friendliest, most cheerful FA I’ve ever had, anywhere. His boss is getting a glowing letter.
Our flight to CVG was bumpy, and we got there just in time to board our connecting flight to Orlando. Borrrrring, smooth flight. The real fun began when we got to Orlando: our luggage wasn’t there. The DL ramp folks in TOL hadn’t loaded it because our aircraft was overweight. I guess they figured bumping luggage for a party of six was better than bumping three sets of two, or something. Anyway, I didn’t find that out because Thomas and I had gone to the Budget car rental counter. Imagine this scene: a 50-foot-long counter with about 15 computer terminals and 17 people in line… manned by two rental agents. When we finally got to the head of the line, the very helpful agent fixed up our reservation and arranged to have an Explorer for us, so I went back to baggage claim to check on our bags. DL promised to have them delivered to the hotel. (They eventually arrived around 11:45pm, festooned with big red “VIP” tags. Evidently “VIP” in Delta’s lexicon means “leave off airplane”). We trooped out to the parking area and boarded the Explorer, which turned out to have a defective airbag. Oops. Back to the rental island, where they instead gave us the minivan that I should have reserved in the first place. (All this way to take an exotic vacation, and what am I driving? A minivan. Sheesh).
We found the hotel easily, unloaded our carry-ons, and walked across the street to Downtown Disney. I have some good pictures of Matt with Buzz Lightyear and the older boys at the Lego store, but they’ll have to wait until everyone else wakes up and I can find the camera. Everybody remained really cheerful and flexible throughout our travails yesterday, which I appreciated greatly.
This morning, our plan is to hit Animal Kingdom early to ride the safari ride, then see Legend of the Lion King and some of the other live shows (because I’m in a hurry now I’m not linking to any of the Disney pages for these; you can find more links here