harlowandthemermaid
01-07-2008, 09:44 PM
Part 3-Wednesday December 12
Since our original plans involved a late night at MVMCP we had planned for a late start today. I was looking forward to a nice big breakfast today since the day before we had skimped and it made me feel a little tired.
Today was also Vivien’s first character meal experience, breakfast at the Cape May Café. I had no idea how she would react but I was hoping she would enjoy it. The characters included Chip and Dale and Minnie dressed in their beach gear. The buffet had all the traditional breakfast goodies, there was a great variety to choose from. Everything was pretty good, though there is nothing in particular that stands out at the moment. Buffets are great because you don’t have to wait for your food which is great when you are traveling with a child with limited patience. The drawback for us is that we don’t always eat our money’s worth.
Vivien enjoyed having Chip and Dale visit at the table and we went to see Minnie in the lobby. I could tell she was getting sleepy though so we took this opportunity to hop in the car and let her snooze on the way to the Animal Kingdom. We usually hit the park early but it must’ve been close to noon by the time we got there. We actually passed Ian and family on the way in, they were already leaving. LOL
WE headed over to the Festival of the Lion King but our timing was bad, the show had already started. We took Vivien to see Santa Goofy and Minnie in her Christmas finest but for some reason the pics came out blurry. Too bad…..
I decided that I wanted to ride Kali River Rapids and there was no wait at all so I took advantage of the opportunity. I wound up riding with a big family, it was just them and me. One of the ladies in the family sat with me, poor woman, I should’ve warned her that I’m always in the wet seat. I mean, you always get wet on Kali but some people get SOAKED! Well, that was me. My mother does not like to get that wet, so naturally when we ride together she always is in the wet seat. I think she was happy that I could not force her to get on it….she happily plopped down on a rock and waited with Vivien.
Kali is a fun ride but I was so soaked and definitely had on the wrong shorts. Once they were wet they kept falling down for the rest of the day, it looked like I was wearing a burlap sack! I tried in vain to dry off under a dryer in the bathroom.
Next stop was Pooh Landing for a happy visit with Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eyore. Again a lot of the pics didn’t turn out and my mom admitted that she did not want to be the picture taker with the characters since you have to be quick!
Unfortunately the visit with the characters took a while and by the time we got to Finding Nemo-the Musical it was standing room only. We really wanted to see it since it was new so we decided to hold out for the next show.
Breakfast was still sitting like a rock in my stomach so I just couldn’t even think about riding Expedition Everest, nor did I want to take Viv on the safari(maybe next year) so we headed over to Dino-Rama since it was close by. We rode Triceratop Spin a few times, which Vivien seemed to like and then we watched people spinning on Primeval Whirl. Again the heavy breakfast prevented me from taking a whirl on the spinning coaster.
By this time Viv was ready for a trip to the babycenter so I took advantage of a nice cool dark private place to let her nurse in peace. I had gotten used to nursing out and about at night but I’d rather nurse in private during the day. By the time we were through it was time to head over to see the nemo show. They really did a good job of transforming the old Tarzan Theater. It is totally enclosed and nice and cool. The theater was pretty full when we got there so we just grabbed some seats in the back near an exit. A cast member came up to us soon after and asked if it was just the 2 of us and the baby and said he had a better seat for us. So we followed him waiting for him to stop a few rows up and much to our surprise he took us all the way down to the very front row!!!!!!! How cool is that? Lucky things don’t happen to us so this was a treat.
It was really neat to see the puppets and puppeteers up close, but also bizarre. I’ve never seen a show where you can see the puppeteers but they did a good job of emoting their characters and the costumes were really cool. It was a really neat experience! No pics though, since they are not allowed in the theater.
The only downside of seeing the later show is that we missed the Jingle Jungle Parade. For this reason we decided that we would make it a point to see the daytime parade at MGM. Over the years, we see the parades less and less since it involves a lot of sitting and waiting, and they don’t change the parades that often. Plus, I figure as Vivien gets older and really gets into the whole parade thing we will definitely watch them more often.
We thought about staying and seeing It’s tough to be a bug but we all were a little tired so we headed back to the hotel for a rest and a break. We had no plans for the evening and thought it would be a good night to do our Christmas shopping at Downtown Disney .
When we got back to the hotel it was around 5 and the light was just beautiful. My mom headed back to the room but Viv and I decided to go out to the beach to relax and take some photos. The weather was absolutely perfect and the time we spent out there was very special. Viv was just adorable and I loved laying on the beach enjoying the beautiful view of the whole Epcot resort area with my little girl.
WE headed back to the room as it started to get dark and after a little regrouping we headed out to DTD for some food and shopping. WE went to Wolfgang Puck express for dinner and I had a really good Asian salad and my mom had pizza. The prices were quite reasonable.
Vivien fell asleep so we took turns doing some shopping. Taking her in the World of Disney was not really practical because it was so busy but we went in some of the smaller shops while my mom braved the crowds. I bought Vivien a little Pooh from the Pooh Corner store and spend a lot of time in the Disney Christmas store. It was so hard to pick but I told myself I could only buy 2 ornaments since I wanted a door hanger. I also had Vivien’s name put on a stocking and bought a Disney Princess Christmas CD.
No trip to DTD is complete without ice cream from Ghirardelli but instead of the standard hot fudge I went out on a limb and got the cookie bottom sundae. It was very good but didn’t have as much ice cream. I think it would’ve been even better with a little less cookie and a little more ice cream.
I took my turn buying gifts in the World of Disney and then we called it a night. We were planning to hit Early Entry at the Magic Kingdom at 8 so it was definitely time for bed!
It was definitely an interesting day! Not a lot of rides but some very memorable experiences
Since our original plans involved a late night at MVMCP we had planned for a late start today. I was looking forward to a nice big breakfast today since the day before we had skimped and it made me feel a little tired.
Today was also Vivien’s first character meal experience, breakfast at the Cape May Café. I had no idea how she would react but I was hoping she would enjoy it. The characters included Chip and Dale and Minnie dressed in their beach gear. The buffet had all the traditional breakfast goodies, there was a great variety to choose from. Everything was pretty good, though there is nothing in particular that stands out at the moment. Buffets are great because you don’t have to wait for your food which is great when you are traveling with a child with limited patience. The drawback for us is that we don’t always eat our money’s worth.
Vivien enjoyed having Chip and Dale visit at the table and we went to see Minnie in the lobby. I could tell she was getting sleepy though so we took this opportunity to hop in the car and let her snooze on the way to the Animal Kingdom. We usually hit the park early but it must’ve been close to noon by the time we got there. We actually passed Ian and family on the way in, they were already leaving. LOL
WE headed over to the Festival of the Lion King but our timing was bad, the show had already started. We took Vivien to see Santa Goofy and Minnie in her Christmas finest but for some reason the pics came out blurry. Too bad…..
I decided that I wanted to ride Kali River Rapids and there was no wait at all so I took advantage of the opportunity. I wound up riding with a big family, it was just them and me. One of the ladies in the family sat with me, poor woman, I should’ve warned her that I’m always in the wet seat. I mean, you always get wet on Kali but some people get SOAKED! Well, that was me. My mother does not like to get that wet, so naturally when we ride together she always is in the wet seat. I think she was happy that I could not force her to get on it….she happily plopped down on a rock and waited with Vivien.
Kali is a fun ride but I was so soaked and definitely had on the wrong shorts. Once they were wet they kept falling down for the rest of the day, it looked like I was wearing a burlap sack! I tried in vain to dry off under a dryer in the bathroom.
Next stop was Pooh Landing for a happy visit with Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eyore. Again a lot of the pics didn’t turn out and my mom admitted that she did not want to be the picture taker with the characters since you have to be quick!
Unfortunately the visit with the characters took a while and by the time we got to Finding Nemo-the Musical it was standing room only. We really wanted to see it since it was new so we decided to hold out for the next show.
Breakfast was still sitting like a rock in my stomach so I just couldn’t even think about riding Expedition Everest, nor did I want to take Viv on the safari(maybe next year) so we headed over to Dino-Rama since it was close by. We rode Triceratop Spin a few times, which Vivien seemed to like and then we watched people spinning on Primeval Whirl. Again the heavy breakfast prevented me from taking a whirl on the spinning coaster.
By this time Viv was ready for a trip to the babycenter so I took advantage of a nice cool dark private place to let her nurse in peace. I had gotten used to nursing out and about at night but I’d rather nurse in private during the day. By the time we were through it was time to head over to see the nemo show. They really did a good job of transforming the old Tarzan Theater. It is totally enclosed and nice and cool. The theater was pretty full when we got there so we just grabbed some seats in the back near an exit. A cast member came up to us soon after and asked if it was just the 2 of us and the baby and said he had a better seat for us. So we followed him waiting for him to stop a few rows up and much to our surprise he took us all the way down to the very front row!!!!!!! How cool is that? Lucky things don’t happen to us so this was a treat.
It was really neat to see the puppets and puppeteers up close, but also bizarre. I’ve never seen a show where you can see the puppeteers but they did a good job of emoting their characters and the costumes were really cool. It was a really neat experience! No pics though, since they are not allowed in the theater.
The only downside of seeing the later show is that we missed the Jingle Jungle Parade. For this reason we decided that we would make it a point to see the daytime parade at MGM. Over the years, we see the parades less and less since it involves a lot of sitting and waiting, and they don’t change the parades that often. Plus, I figure as Vivien gets older and really gets into the whole parade thing we will definitely watch them more often.
We thought about staying and seeing It’s tough to be a bug but we all were a little tired so we headed back to the hotel for a rest and a break. We had no plans for the evening and thought it would be a good night to do our Christmas shopping at Downtown Disney .
When we got back to the hotel it was around 5 and the light was just beautiful. My mom headed back to the room but Viv and I decided to go out to the beach to relax and take some photos. The weather was absolutely perfect and the time we spent out there was very special. Viv was just adorable and I loved laying on the beach enjoying the beautiful view of the whole Epcot resort area with my little girl.
WE headed back to the room as it started to get dark and after a little regrouping we headed out to DTD for some food and shopping. WE went to Wolfgang Puck express for dinner and I had a really good Asian salad and my mom had pizza. The prices were quite reasonable.
Vivien fell asleep so we took turns doing some shopping. Taking her in the World of Disney was not really practical because it was so busy but we went in some of the smaller shops while my mom braved the crowds. I bought Vivien a little Pooh from the Pooh Corner store and spend a lot of time in the Disney Christmas store. It was so hard to pick but I told myself I could only buy 2 ornaments since I wanted a door hanger. I also had Vivien’s name put on a stocking and bought a Disney Princess Christmas CD.
No trip to DTD is complete without ice cream from Ghirardelli but instead of the standard hot fudge I went out on a limb and got the cookie bottom sundae. It was very good but didn’t have as much ice cream. I think it would’ve been even better with a little less cookie and a little more ice cream.
I took my turn buying gifts in the World of Disney and then we called it a night. We were planning to hit Early Entry at the Magic Kingdom at 8 so it was definitely time for bed!
It was definitely an interesting day! Not a lot of rides but some very memorable experiences