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florida trip- part 5. (magic kingdom night)
Yesterday I mentioned how we got to the park at about 8am. Well, we didn’t leave until after 10:30pm that night.
We had a very nutritious dinner of chips and icecream (with some goldfish thrown in for Timmy) while watching Wishes fireworks at 9pm. Well, we did eat lunch around 3:30 and we couldn’t get reservations at Tony’s Town Square for dinner.
The fireworks were fabulous, as always. And yes, I cried like I do everytime at Wishes. Sap.
After the fireworks, we split up and used the rest of our “free” fastpasses. John and Timmy took off for Buzz Lightyear (suprisingly) and the big boys and I went back to Big Thunder Mountain (again, surprisingly). This time, we got the very very last ROW of the train. A perfect way to end a great day at Disney!
We caught the Spectromagic parade (which they have really expanded and did a great job with since our last visit in Feb 2008) which ended at 10:30pm. We left (waaaaa!), jumped in the car, and I think before he was even buckled in Timmy was fast asleep. The kid didn’t nap once during the whole day. When we got back to the hotel, he woke up just long enough to say “i’m staaaaarving” and went back to sleep. We were all done in.
The next day- Disney Hollywood Studios and a visit with my college roommmate. Pictures tommorrow.
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florida trip- part 4. (magic kingdom daytime)
Here’s the first half of the 14 and a 1/2 hour day at Disney. Yes, really. Fourteen and a half hours. In one day. You gotta love Disney. It can kill you, but you gotta love it! At least we got our moneys worth out of the park tickets.
I was able to snag last second reservations for the Crystal Palace breakfast at 8:10am on Saturday morning (when I originally tried getting them, they were all booked but the concierge told me to come back just before 10pm the night before when people get back from the park all exhausted and cancel for the early reservations they had. He was right, and it all worked out).
So the Beyrer family was up at 7am, out the door of the All Star Sports resort by about 7:30am and parked, thru the gates and into the Magic Kingdom by 8:07am, to make our 8:10 reservations for breakfast with Pooh & friends. Please let me just point out that I am NEVER up by 7am, only under the most dire of circumstances. And if I am up at that ungodly hour, then I am the crabbiest you know what that rhymes with witch. But at Disney, I’m up and ready to go! Something in the air there…
The thing about getting that very (very) early breakfast reservation is that they only let the people with reservations in- the park is closed. You can’t go into any of the lands, or thru the castle. But you can still get those empty park shots that I just love! And seeing the castle for the first time each visit—well, I’m home!!! (and after winning the castle suite stay in 2007, I really CAN say that I’m home!)
It was pretty cold out in the morning -around 45 degrees, but was supposed to warm up into the lower 60’s. Good park weather and I think the cold keeps a lot of people away til later.
So we had breakfast and jumped in full force to a LONG day in the Magic Kingdom. Went to Tommorrowland first where we all went on Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin (do I even need to say who’s favorite ride this is?). The park was empty and we just walked on. Then I took the big boys over to Space Mountain at their request (man, they’ve come a long way!) where we also just walked right on while Daddy took Timmy on Buzz 3 more times. Headed over to the Tommorrowland Speedway where we also walked right on (all of this walking on is really unheard of on a Saturday during February break and I was wondering hoping if it would be like this all day). Timmy rode with me while Jack and Patrick took their own cars. Jack’s driving and you can just make out the top of Patrick’s head in the car behind.
Left Tommorrowland (returning later in the day) and zipped over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Timmy bravely said he would go, but he was like 1/2 and inch too short. He was very dissapointed as were we, but Jack, Patrick and I pressed on and only waited about 2 minutes in line. We even lucked out and got the last car on the “train”. The last one is the best as it’s the fastest and bumpiest. We were having a blast. And let me tell you that it is NOT easy taking pictures while on a rollercoaster. I bashed myself in the face numerous times with the giant camera. But it was so worth it!
Next onto Pirates of the Carribean (or carribeada per Timmy last year) where we only waited 5 minutes. But that was the last of that. The locusts invaded the park around 11:30am or so, and then it was packed the rest of the day. Packed.
We rode everything we wanted to though (Jungle Cruise, Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, it’s a small world, the “people mover” in Tommorrowland, The Carousel of Progress where John snored away, the Teacups, The Laugh Floor) except for Alladin’s Magic Carpets, the carousel and Dumbo). Timmy even rode his very first rollercoaster- Goofy’s barnstormer and LOVED it! We took a second ride on the Speedway and Timmy drove, hysterically laughing the whole time.
No trip to Disney would be complete without seeing the Mouse.
We saw Push the talking Garbage can and he said he remembered us from last year. We love Push. Who woulda thought you could have a whole conversation with a garbage (or “gwabage” in Timmyspeak) can?!
Had lunch at the Harbor House- yum. And just loved being in Disney. I started feeling sick to my stomach during the afternoon (hence the shortage of pictures) but felt better toward the end of the day. Sucked it up though, cause we were at Disney and it was only for one day! Sucked it up hard enough to even go on the Teacups. Without puking!
We stopped by City Hall to see if we could find Daniel or Jeff- our tour guides from when we stayed in the Castle suite. Jeff wasn’t working, but Daniel was going to be there, but not inside the park. Last year we went to visit them and they were so nice, giving us tons of “free” fastpasses to use at anytime anywhere that day in the MK. I told them how hard it was going back to being a regular “schlub” in the park, waiting on lines, after staying in the castle and getting to skip all the lines and ride rides as many times in a row as we’d like. So this year (even though they weren’t there) I asked one of the other guys (who I didn’t know and didn’t know me) if he happened to have a few free fastpasses lying around. He gave us 10!! See, never hurts to ask. And that is just another reason I will never, ever stop going to Disney. Can’t beat that kind of service.
Tommorrow, be on the lookout for the nighttime/fireworks pictures. They’re good.
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florida trip- part 3. (the Disney surprise)
I still cannot believe we pulled it off. John and I totally kept the (last minute) Disney trip a secret all the way up to driving thru the gates that say “welcome to Walt Disney World”. The big boys are so smart and usually pretty observant so it was no small feat getting all the way there without them catching on.
I packed a few bags up before we left for Port St. Lucie. When the boys asked about the luggage we told them that we were bringing some of our Florida clothes up to grandma and grandpa so they can bring them home to NY in their car when they drive up the following week. Step one- check!
Spent the day at Mets Spring Training (see below post) and had a great lunch with the grandparents. Told them we were going to drive back to Hallandale and even started discussing what restaurant we were going to go to for dinner that night (it was Anthony’s Pizza in Aventura). Step two- check!
Of course, we were made to stop at the very first rest stop on the Turnpike cause everyone had to go to the bathroom. And of course, there is a huge Mickey Mouse statue in there with all kinds of Disney and Orlando maps. No one took notice (except for Timmy who said- Mickey! but that was it). Avoiding disaster-check!
Off we drove on the 2hr ride up to Disney. It was all I could do to not laugh every time we passed one of the thousand signs on the Turnpike for Disney and other Orlando attractions. Timmy had since fallen fast asleep and the big boys were buried in their Nintendo DS’s. No one noticed that either. UNTIL…Jack decided he was done playing just before the turnoff to Disney. And he noticed a green highway sign that said Disney with an arrow pointing to the left. He said something to the fact that “that sign said Disney is that way”. And I replied (without giggling. barely.) that we’re in Florida and there are signs for Disney everywhere. And that Disney was that way, but like 500 miles away. He bought it. Avoiding disaster again- check!
We turned off the Turnpike onto the local roads where the green signs started reading Disney 10, Disney 6, etc (as in miles). John kept pulling the car up to the side of trucks where we could find them so just in case the boys looked up, they wouldn’t see where we really were. I had to keep asking them questions about their games on the Nintendo so they would stay involved. Avoiding disaster once more-check!
Then we told them that Daddy took a wrong turn and we needed their help to look for the highway signs to get us home. They looked up just as we were passing under the welcome to Disney sign. They were completely dumbfounded. They couldn’t believe we were at Disney and really couldn’t believe we weren’t just driving by and actually going and staying. Talk about shock and awe!!! Timmy woke up long enough to hear that we were in Disney- said yay!! and promptly fell back asleep until the hotel. The boys stayed in shock until we got to the Magic Kingdom the next morning, and maybe even a little after that too. Mission accomplished-check!!
We ended up staying at the All Star Sports hotel which was great and clean and Disney all the way. We got last second reservations to dinner at the Cape May cafe over at the Boardwalk area. They were so excited they were vibrating! Went to sleep at Disney. All was right with the world.
Magic Kingdom coming tommorrow…
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florida trip- part 2. (mets spring training)
So continuing on with the vacation…on Friday we left early and drove the 2+ hrs up to Port St. Lucie to visit John’s parents who have been there since right after Christmas. It was so great to see them and I think that Florida really agrees with them. They are all tan and rested and seem to have very full schedules of fun things with friends. See, snowbird=good.
Port St. Lucie also happens to be the home of Mets Spring training (oh goody.) so after a very quick visit at the apartment, we drove over to the stadium and practice fields to watch the Mets train. I of course was thrilled beyond belief, but the boys were really very excited (and when I say boys, I mean Jack, Patrick, Timmy, John and his dad). John brought a ton of baseballs to get some signatures which they were able to do.
I do have to say that the people there were so unbelievably pushy and RUDE. Shoving people out of the way to get to the fence to get the autograph they wanted. I was seconds from throwing some elbows or stomping on some insteps after being shoved and pushed and watching the same thing happen to my boys. The 24-70mm L lens I had on my camera is very heavy and could be used as a weapon in the right situation (but I didn’t want to break it cause we were leaving for Disney next!). Really people, a little decorum.
So they did get some autographs (Jerry Manuel, John Franco- pictured above, and Kyle somebody) and had some fun watching some of the Mets practice. John says they are expecting good things out of this guy who’s name is Josh Thole (kid, really. How old is he- twelve??) and he was very nice and signed for all three boys and talked to all the boys.
It really pisses me off when the ‘big name’ guys won’t sign. Who is it exactly that you think is paying to watch you play, ya jerk.
A little lens envy. Ok, actually a LOT of lens envy. I mean look at that thing! I’ll even take the smaller one on the camera hanging from his shoulder…
Ya think Timmy’s shirt is big enough for him? At least he’ll have it for a while!
And then after practice, a little lunch with Grandma and Grandpa with a little school politics talk and a see you soon. They are headed home next week. I think we are all pretty happy about that. I mean all the kids are happy, not the grandparents. They’d probably like to stay longer, but it is parade season.
And we’re off to the big surprise of Disney…
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florida vacation- part 1. (miami seaquarium)
See, this time I’m keeping my word about posting pictures quickly.
This was our first trip where my parents wouldn’t be there (we would only have our last night of the trip all together) in the apartment. I was told that I had to take a picture of the way the pillows are arranged on the bed so that I could recreate it upon departure.
We flew down and arrived Tuesday evening and had our traditional first meal at Padrino’s (love me some croquettas!). Spent Wednesday afternoon (after my massage in the morning with the fabulous Asela) at the Miami Seaquarium. It wasn’t warm enough out to go swimming so we made the trip down there to do something different.
On the way down, John and I were discussing the itenerary for the rest of the trip. We decided that based on the weather forecast being pretty chilly for the weekend that we would go and visit his parents up in Port St. Lucie on Fri and see the Mets at spring training there too. I wondered out loud if Camie (my college roommmate) would be up to driving down from Orlando to meet us in St.Lucie so we could visit. It was at that point that John said something about going to Disney for two days- and did I want to do it. Uhhh…yeah! When would I not want to go to Disney??
So while John and the boys checked out the fish and the dolphins, I was on the phone with Disney reservations trying to figure something out for under $1000.00 for the weekend. More on Disney in another post, but suffice it to say we came in a little over budget but still decided to do it and totally surprise the boys. So the rest of the day at the Seaquarium was just a little more fun, with me trying to surpress the giggles at the upcoming surprise!
Funny story with the picture of Timmy on the drain. He’s very, VERY wary about walking on things like that so I had to take a picture of him on there. He still takes a ginormous step out of elevators- I think he’s afraid of falling thru the crack between the elevator cab and the floor! He won’t walk over grates in the sidewalk, and has the same elevator issue when getting on the plane from the hallway thingy.
John loves pelicans. Or maybe just saying ‘pelican’ in his best scarface accent.
Went to Captain Jim’s (which is in the WORST neighborhood, with an armed guard stationed outside. Who we didn’t see this trip- maybe he was being held at gunpoint in the back?) for a seafood dinner. Probably not a great idea after leaving the Seaquarium, but no one got the flipper special for dinner. So first we see em. Then we eat em.
