In this edition I am going to focus on two of the four parks we visited: the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Keep in mind that the events recorded here happened over several days due to our park hopping.
ROLLER COASTERS. Oh, before I start I should just own up to a weakness now. I cannot stomach roller coasters. It’s not that I haven’t tried. The first roller coaster I rode was the Mini Timber Topper at Opryland. I threw up in the bushes. The last one I tried was Chaos, also at Opryland. I managed to keep my lunch down, but it wasn’t easy. I rode a lot of things at WDW, but I sat out on the roller coasters. (I’m not sure where this comes from with me. When taking flight lessons I would always fight nausea when the instructor demonstrated a stall or some other maneuver, but I never had a problem when performing the same maneuver myself.) Nate faced his fears pretty well, though one time he reached over and grabbed Vicki’s hand when he got scared. A few minutes later he didn’t need to hold his mom’s hand so he threw it back.
CROWDS. When we went to WDW in 2004 we were surprised at how empty the Magic Kingdom was. Well, I think Fall Break has caught on in four years. The parks were far more crowed this year.
You might think we saw a lot of foreign guests due to the current economic situation, and there were plenty. But the majority of guests were Americans by far. I knew of several families from Robertson County with plans to visit WDW over Fall Break. We hadn’t been in the Magic Kingdom a half hour the first day when we ran into Sharon Keay and her family (Vicki taught with Sharon in her Bransford days). Later Jenna saw a classmate, Will Gregory, and his family. And Wednesday night at church Randy Hall told me he saw me from a distance at one of the parks.
THE MAGIC KINGDOM. I don’t think there was anything new here since 2004, but we enjoyed riding our favorite rides and watching our favorite shows. Of course, it was all new to Nate. Ben says he doesn’t remember his last visit either. One of the first things we tackled was Space Mountain. Nate was so excited after riding this roller coaster he was almost beside himself. Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain were also big hits. Other favorite Rides were the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear, and Goofy’s Barnstormer. As to shows, you can’t beat Mickey’s PhilharMagic.
PIN TRADING has become a big thing with our kids. Disney makes all kinds of pins, and Dianna started each of our kids off with one (as well as a gift card). Many Disney cast members wear lanyards with pins for trading. Once the kids traded for pins they liked they spent their money for more pins and had a blast trading all week. (You too can get in on the fun at www.disneypins.com.)
My favorite memory of the week involves these pins. We had just gotten off the Carousel of Progress when Ben said, “My pins!” While in the show he had taken his lanyard off and been sucking on it. When he noticed it was wet he set it on the seat beside him to dry and forgot to pick it up. We doubled back and two different cast members checked the theater we rode in but didn’t find his pins. We were told they would check again after the park closed. Ben tried to be tough, but when he saw Vicki he broke down and cried.
Vicki and the kids then went on the ride Buzz Lightyear while I stayed behind to look for the pins again. I was going to ride the Carousel again if needed. As I waited for the theater we rode in to come back around I got a cast member to agree to let me go in and look for Ben’s pins. I found them within ten seconds (thanks to the flashlight on my key ring) and was waiting at the BuZZ Lightyear exit with the lanyard around my neck when Ben came out the door. I will always remember that smile and hug.
HOOP DEE DOO MUSICAL REVUE. While this was at the Ft. Wilderness Campground, I will include it here. This meal and show was two table service credits for us. The food was really good as well as the show. It was a very fun evening, but we really wouldn’t say this was a must see show.
EPCOT. I think Alex has a great alternate definition for the Epcot acronym. He says it means Every Person Comes Out Tired (it actually stands for Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow). This park was new for the kids. There are three new popular attractions here since Vicki and I last visited in 1994, and all for them were hits with our family. When you first arrive at Epcot the first thing you should do is get Fastpasses for Soarin’. That was the one of the coolest rides I’ve ever been on! It simulates riding in a hang glider. Mission Space and Test Track were also lots of fun. Spaceship Earth was another favorite of the kids.
I really enjoy spending time in the World Showcase part of Epcot, but the kids weren’t so enthused, so we didn’t even make it to all the countries. Our big meal here was at the Akershus Restaurant. This was a character meal with five princesses: Ariel, Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty. We had a photo op with Belle when we arrived and the other four visited our table during our meal. What was so funny was that Nate was watching Cinderella and was actually checking his hair when she was a couple of tables away. He must have been nervous because he asked to go to the bathroom after just getting back from there. When we were reminiscing about our trip on the way home we asked Nate if he enjoyed meeting the princesses. He downplayed this saying, “We boys don’t like princesses!” Yeah, right. I think we’ve just had a preview of the year 2020.
Joe
