What Puts the Magic in the Magic Kingdom

It makes 5 out of 6 people smile.

They have elephants that can fly.

Elephants that don't fly.

And elephants that you don't have to clean up after.

Magic carpets that you don't have to vacuum.

And come with seat belts. Did I mention, the carpets also fly?

There are princesses.

Lots of boy toys. Please note, no animals were hurt in the taking of this picture. We were lousy shots.

More princesses. 

Bibbidee bobbidee bridges.

Did I forget to mention they have princesses?

The public washroom is an enchanted castle.

Perhaps, too many princesses.





















An eye popping, fireworks show.

Who can blame anyone if after all that, they need a nap.

Can too much magic be a too much? I think we will need to visit again to answer that question. 

 

May The Force Be With You

It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships from a hidden base on the planet Disney, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.

During the battle, rebel spies manage to steal the plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the Death Hat.

Pursued by the Empire, Princess Isla races home aboard her starship, the Rhinoceros, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy.

Meanwhile, on the planet Hollywood (trademark pending), a young man was about to begin a quest that only Steven Spielberg could fantasize about. He was about to become a Jedi Knight

The path the young Padawan took to becoming a Jedi was not an easy one.

 In just over an hour, he was fully trained and ready to do battle with the evil Galactic Empire.

He received his grueling training from a guy who knew a guy, who knew a guy that had a friend who met Yoda in a bar in Miami.  

Armed with the skills of a Jedi Knight and along with his trusted companion Daddy won Kenobi, he went looking for trouble.

Meanwhile Princess Lei had succumbed to an evil plot by the Empire.  Constructing a Princess souvenir shop on the planet Bibbidee Bobbidee Boutique, they lured her in to do a little shopping.

What’s a princess without a tiara?

Hearing the news of Princess Isla’s capture, Ronan and Daddy won Kenobi jumped on their land speeders and made haste to rescue the beautiful Princess Isla. 

They tracked her to the planet of Honey I Shrunk the Kids. Fighting off giant ants........

and humongous spiders, they brought Princess Isla safely back to the Planet Disney where they plotted the attack of the Death Hat.

Armed with only the Force and some really cool three-d glasses Ronan and Daddy won Kenobi took on the Death Hat.

They were successful in destroying the Death Hat but soon learned that the evil Darth Grand Pater had escaped. They tracked him down and in one grand final duel, the power for good succeeded over the power for evil.

 
And we all know how this ends.   Ronan discovered that the Princess was really his sister and the last words spoken by Darth Grand Pater……..

 “Ronan, I’m your grandfather”.

A Ride on the Wildside

Having reached the summit of Everest once, (see blog of Oct. 2009)..........

my thoughts upon entering Disney’s Wild Kingdom were that it would be a piece of cake the second time. 

 

 


So our first job upon entering the front gate was to rush over to the nearest fast pass station and grab a fast pass to arrange a time for our trek. 

 

Disney is the world leader in entertainment. With over 50,000,000 visitors a year, they have come up with many unique ways to move you through their attractions. One such way, the fast pass allows you to bypass the long regular lineups and into shorter lineups.  Everyone can acquire a fast pass, you can get up to 3 but can only get them one at a time and you can only get another when you have used your first one.  The fast pass gives you a window of time when you can arrive at the ride and use the special fast pass lane that bypasses the much long regular lineup.

 

Only 15 years old, Disney’s Wild Kingdom is the second largest amusement park in the world.  With jet lag nipping at our heels, we chose the Kingdom for our first full day in WDW with two goals in mind.

First was a ride on the Everest Expedition, a roller coaster ride through the Himalayas.  It was here that I discovered why it has been almost 30 years since I last rode a roller coaster.  I suffer from a severe case of kinetosis.


 

Kinetosis or motion sickness happens when your brain gets confused about your body's movement. The confusion stems from signals from your inner ear, which controls balance, transmitting one thing, while your eyes see or perceive something else. The conflicting signals that reach your brain cause physiological changes in your body. These physiological changes include but not limited to dizziness and an urge to revisit your previous meal.

With excited anticipation, we moved quickly to the front of the line, boarded cars that would take us to the top.  Due to silly safety rules, the littlest grandchild was unable to ride so Grandma opted out as well. Upon entering the car, we were instructed to pull a padded bar tightly down onto our laps and to ensure that it was securely latched. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t sit up. First clue that perhaps I had chosen a ride that exceeded my abilities.

Did I mention that the mountain is the highest of all Disney’s famous landmark mountains?  Two minutes and fifty seconds later, we were ejected from the mountain. I am hard pressed to remember the exact details of the ride for it was filled with conflicting signals to my brain. For the next few hours I walked with a decided list, as my world kept wanting to veer left and a lack of any to desire to eat solid food.

Now that I think about it, it was exactly the same feeling that I achieved at our first Everest experience. It was my last ride of the day.

 

Our second goal for the day was a decidedly friendlier ride.

It only had tigers

elephants, crocodiles,

cheetahs, hippos and rhinos to worry about.

With over 100 acres to explore, the Kilimanjaro Safari ride is home to over 40 different species of African animals that can be found roaming the Serengeti.

Having been to the Serengeti, (see blogs of  March 2011) we felt totally capable of dealing with anything the  ride would throw at us.  Even suffering from terminal motion sickness. 

With no child height issues, the whole family piled onto the rugged GMC trucks for a back country ride. These trucks would have been scoffed at by the real safari drivers who declared that only Toyota Land Cruisers were up to the task.  No offense to you Land Rover people but whenever Land Rover was mentioned in a guides conversation they crossed their fingers and spit. Probably some Tanzanian guide ritual.  

As advertised, we saw our forty species and it only took about 10 minutes to see what took us 6 days and dozens of hours in a Land Cruiser, to see in Tanzania.




 

The grandkids were mesmerized by all the various animals we saw that day, wondering if we could bring one home. Sadly, I had to admit to being allergic to cats, crocodiles and monkeys.


 

 

 

 

The day was filled with little adventures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With way too many photo ops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was wonderful start to our week of adventures.