We drank our tea on the lanai and chatted about the water over here. It REALLY smells. So much that it makes me gag if I walk into the bathroom after someone’s been in the shower. I knew they had more chlorine in their water than we do, but to put it bluntly; it smells of poo!
We all managed to get showered and dressed in record time considering there were only 2 bathrooms between 7 of us. Tracy commented on how she can’t get on with the shower in the bathroom as the head can't be removed from the wall so she had had to “feed her own pony” after washing! I nearly spat my tea out everywhere when she said this! Those of you who have seen The Inbetweeners movie will know what it means! If not, here’s a clip... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3-CcGQq36M
The weather was beautiful, hot and sunny and by the time we pulled off the driveway at 7:30am it was already 77°F. Our car had a built in reversing camera in the back which showed the road behind us as we reversed. Very clever!
We plugged in the SAT NAV that Joanne kindly provides in the villa and we were on our way. I noticed Sherbeth Road as we passed down the 192 but Paul was in the wrong lane and we missed it.
After another sight-seeing tour of the 192 and more views of the Wizards Sleeve, we pulled up at Disney’s Main Gate and followed the signs to Magic Kingdom and up to the parking booth.
Now I know some of you won’t agree with this and it’s probably frowned upon and you’ll all shoot me down but we were on a tight budget and needs must. I was looking on eBay one day and came across somebody renting out their annual pass which would give us free parking at Disney for the duration of the holiday. In a bid to save some money, I booked it and it arrived 3 days before we left home. Today was the first morning of using it and we were all a bit nervous that it was going to work or if we would all be banned from Disney for good. We approached the booth and Paul unwound his window, held out the ticket and said “Annual Pass”. The guy walked over to it, looked at it for a few seconds (which seemed like 10 minutes!) then looked up at Paul and said “Can I ask you a question?” Our hearts stopped. OH MY GOD! We were sure we were busted. I think all 7 of us were holding our breaths! Paul timidly said yeah and the guy shouted “ARE YOU READY FOR A DAY OF MAGIC?!” We all burst out with nervous laughter and shouted back “YEAH!” as Paul wiped away the beads of sweat on his brow. Then the guy shouted “GET OUTTA HERE!” and motioned for us to drive into the parking lot. Paul quickly drove off as the rest of us were in fits of laughter. From that day on, he always drove to the window on the right so that I would have to hold out the pass (such a gentleman is my husband!).
We drove to the Heroes side and parked up in the Aladdin parking lot. We were close to the entrance, so no need for a tram to take us. We walked across the road and through into ticketing and transportation and caught our first ever monorail. Exciting!
Being as this was our first day, we didn’t have our tickets yet. We booked Virgin’s Amaze me tickets and had paper vouchers which we were to exchange for proper tickets when we got to the guest relations. We were all a little worried about Tracy’s ticket as the park commencement date stated 21st May and today was 20th. We need not have worried; Tracy’s was fine and she collected her ticket and first visit badge. It was our tickets that caused us problems again. Good old Virgin strikes again! This time they hadn’t printed our names on the voucher. It just said “Paul Clifton’s party of 5”. He had his passport, but the rest of us left ours in the safe back at the villa. We had proof of all of our names on our Virgin Itinerary but that was also back at the villa. I was starting to get stressed and a little upset. It was looking very unlikely that we were going to get into the park today. We also had a breakfast ADR booked at Crystal Palace at 08:05am which was looking even further out of our reach. The lady made a phone call and thankfully the person on the other end must have told her to just write our names on the voucher and she issued our tickets. Although we did have to write our own names on the back of them rather than having them printed. I asked about our reservation and she said it would be fine and they would still be able to seat us. She gave us some First Visit pins and we were all set.
The crowds for rope drop were huge already and it was only 08:10am. We went to a CM on the left and told him we had an ADR at Crystal palace and he let us through. He didn’t ask for a reservation number or anything and it got me thinking how many people actually say they have an ADR just to get into the park early. There were already several people walking up Main Street.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw the bronze statue of Walt Disney sitting with Minnie and ran over to it and almost gasped when I saw the castle for the first time! I was like a kid in a sweet shop! I’d seen photos of it so many times, but I was actually here!!!! It was like a dream! I called over to Oliver and told Paul to get Amelia out of the pushchair so I could take a photo. He started whittling about time and how we were late already, but I couldn’t pass up a photo opportunity of a practically empty main street. Amelia wasn’t keen on posing for a photo, so this is the best I could get. But it’s a memory I will hold with me forever.
As we walked up Main Street I was totally in awe of everything; the beautiful buildings, the sweet smell of pastries from the bakery and how pristine and clean everything was. I got a few photos of the castle before Paul started to get anxious about being late and I knew it was time for me to get a move on.
As we made our way to Crystal Palace, it sounds strange, but I knew exactly where to go. It was like I had been there before. Maybe it was just from looking at park maps so many times! A sad thing to admit, but at least I wasn’t running around like a headless chicken wondering where to go like the others! I pointed them in the right direction and we came to this magnificent building...
Crystal Palace
We went to the front desk and checked in and waited outside for a few minutes before we were taken inside to be seated.
The restaurant is beautiful; So light and airy. I took a few quick snaps of the Winnie the Pooh flower display as we went in.
Then we were taken to our table and seconds after sitting down our server came over and took our drinks order. We had rounds of hot tea, coffee and orange juice. We were then told to go up to the buffet and help ourselves to the breakfasts that were on offer. There were so many delicious things. I think we all must have gone up about three times. I had scrambled eggs, sausage patties and bacon followed by Mickey waffles with syrup, cream and strawberries. Oliver had the same and had some fruit loops also. Amelia had some scrambled egg and sausage, a Mickey waffle and some yoghurt. Oh, and I also pinched a plate of Pooh puffed French toast from the children’s buffet which we all shared. It is to die for!!! It really should be available for the grown-ups too!
I noticed that a few of the other children around us all had their orange juice in a disposable cup with a lid and a straw, however Amelia was given a proper glass and she struggled to drink from it. Our server seemed to be on about 10 different tables and rarely came to ours. He was really busy, rushing around and we tried to grab his attention a few times but I didn’t seem to hear us. Amelia managed with a glass, but i’m surprised she wasn’t given a kids cup seeing as she’s only 2.
After Mum had finished her second plate of breakfast she asked me to get her another Mickey waffle when I went back up to get Amelia more yoghurt. She really liked those waffles! It was a bit of an in joke and we all made fun of her, acting like a spoilt little girl, stamping her feet saying “I want some more Mickey waffles!” Lol.
Amelia nearly wet herself when she saw Tigger at some tables across from us. However, when he got to our table she went really shy and wouldn’t look at him. We got his autograph and took some photos. He gave Oliver a massive hug.
Next was Pooh and Amelia acted in the same way.
I thought Oliver would think that the Pooh characters were a bit lame being that he’s 12. But he relished it and was quick to get out his autograph book at every opportunity.
Next up was Eeyore and Piglet and a rare photo with me in it! These are few and far between as a) I hate having my photo taken and b) I’m usually on the other side of the camera.
There was an Indian family sitting in the table behind us and they had a little girl, probably about 10 years old and I was utterly shocked at what she was wearing. She had one of those horrible silk Minnie Mouse dresses on that you see on ebay – or indeed in an ‘adult’ shop – really short. I thought OK, she’s young and it would probably have a longer length on her as she’s little, but when she stood up to hug Pooh and pals I noticed it was practically a belt on her and even worse was that she was wearing stockings and suspenders with it!!! Seriously, 10 years old!! What parent in their right mind would allow their child to wear that around the house, let alone in public in a busy Disney park! I was shocked.
Anyway, after our bellies were full we got the bill.
As we were a party of 7, 18% gratuity was automatically added. I thought it was a bit of a cheek seeing as our server only came to our table twice. We were all in agreement that although it was expensive, it was a lovely breakfast, the kids loved it and it was an experience we’ll always remember. And when you break it down between 7 of us (Amelia still got her fair share of breakfast and met the characters, even though she didn’t have to pay as she’s under 3) it came to $25 (£16) each which I thought was quite reasonable.
We made our way to the exit and took some photos of the outside of the building and Amelia splashed in the fountain.
We spotted a draft horse pulling one of Disney’s Street cars on Main Street who was stationary and like most animal lovers, we walked up to stroke it. As I got closer I heard its keeper tell another lady not to touch it, so I just went to the side of him and took a photo. Tracy on the other hand didn’t hear her and went up to it and went to stroke its face before the lady bellowed “Don’t touch the horse Ma’am!”. She was quite abrupt with her and made Tracy jump! We all laughed and Paul said “nah nah nah nah nah! You got told off!” (How mature!) The keeper laughed along with us and shouted “busted!”. This was another phase that got repeated every day for the duration of the holiday. Every time we saw a horse, or any other animal for that matter we all put on an American accent and said “don’t touch the horse Ma’am!” So childish, but amusing.
Guess you had to be there! Lol.
We made our way over to Adventureland and our first attraction to go on was Swiss Family Treehouse. Nothing thrilling, but it was nice to walk around with the whole family while our breakfast went down.
Oliver ran through the Tiki-style water fountains and tried to get Amelia to join him but she wasn’t keen. My Dad picked her up and they all went in together to cool off a bit.
Next Mum and I took Amelia on the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. She loved watching the camels spit water and was laughing her head off all the way around. She LOVED it! I would have taken her on again but the queue had doubled in size so we decided to go around and see what else there was. The whole time we were in Florida I don’t think we even looked at a park map once. We just wandered around at our own pace and because of that I think we missed out on quite a lot looking back on it now. At least we’ll know for next time.
Next we went on the Jungle Cruise. Our driver Dave took us around a little tour seeing the silly animals and threw in a few jokes here and there. I loved the elephants at the end playing in the waterfall And Amelia did all the actions and sounds of the animals as we sailed through.
We exited the boat and made our way over to Pirates of the Caribbean. Amelia was too small to go on so Paul said he would go and get a drink and wait with her while we all went on. It was good and Oliver enjoyed it. We exited into the gift shop and Oliver bought some sweets.
I waited impatiently as Mum, Dad and Tracy spent the next 20 minutes or more in the gift shop. I had already been around it twice and went outside to find Paul but couldn’t see him anywhere. I was starting to get bored. I was also worrying about Paul as I know what it gets like when he’s kept waiting. I honestly don’t know what they found to look at for the time they were in there and they didn’t even buy anything!
I went outside and eventually found Paul. I feared the worst. Amelia was fast asleep in her pushchair but Paul was surprisingly in a good mood! He had been watching Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Tutorial and had taken a few photos.
We really wanted to go on Splash Mountain but knew Amelia couldn’t go on. I couldn’t believe it when Paul told us all to go on without him for a second time, especially as the wait time was 40 minutes!
We made our way down to the entrance and was umming and ahhring about whether or not to wait that long when a lady came up to us and told us she had some fast pass tickets for the current return time and asked if we wanted them. I think there was about 10 minutes left on them. We asked her how many tickets she had and she said 5! I couldn’t believe our luck! With all the mishaps with our tickets, finally luck was on our side! We thanked her and ran to the fast pass entrance, bypassing all the miserable looking guests who were waiting in line. I was trying not to look too smug but just couldn’t help it!
We got right to the front of the line and got in our log and proceeded through the Br’er Rabbit attraction part of the ride. It was really good and I really enjoyed it! The drop was intense and I screamed my head off. And Dad... well; you should have seen his face on the ride photo! My Mum bought the photo which came with a download, but we’re having trouble accessing it. As soon as I work it out I’ll put a pic up.
I think she paid about $16 for the print + a download. It’s now sitting pride of place in a wooden Mickey frame on her mantle piece!
We went outside to find Paul and luckily enough we found him straight away. He’d been for a walk around and thought we were going to be ages yet. We all went to find somewhere to sit down and have a drink.
The first place we found was Peco Bill’s. The food looked and smelt gorgeous in there, but we were still stuffed from Crystal Palace so we weren’t at all hungry. We bought 3 apple juices and 3 cokes and it came to $16.56 including tax. We found a table and sat for a bit in the cool air conditioning and looked at the park map for the first time and decided where to go next. Amelia woke up and had some apple juice.
After leaving Peco Bill's we headed in the direction of Cinderella’s castle and stopped at the side of the fence to watch Dream Along with Mickey which was going on in front of it. Mum, Dad, Tracy and Oliver walked ahead to the front of the castle and watched from there. We had a good view at the side and Amelia was mesmerised by the characters up on the stage.
We found the others and watched the end of the show before making our way over to Tomorrowland. We waited outside Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor while a couple of the others went to the restrooms. While we waited I saw this on the bench outside.
Gross. Unfortunately this wasn’t the last cockroach we saw in Orlando.
The others returned, we parked up Amelia’s stroller and went onto Monster’s Inc which only had a 5 minute wait. The show was excellent. I was a bit worried they were going to pick me out of the audience as I’m not sure I would have the guts to do any of the things the American’s were doing up on the big screen. One lady who was picked was hilarious. Her name was Nana and the monsters called her Banana. When they asked if she minded she said “no, you can call me anything” so they called her Plantain instead! Then they put Boo up on the big screen and who should be picked to play the part but our own little monster Amelia?! I was over the moon. They all said how cute she looked in the dress I’d made her and the whole audience went “awwwwwwwwww” whenever she went up on the screen. Very proud mummy moment! I wish I could have filmed it!
From there we sat outside at The Lunching Pad and Oliver and Amelia had a hot dog. The rest of us weren’t hungry for anything in particular but fancied an ice cream. Dad and Oliver went off to Auntie Gravity’s Galactic Goodies and came back with these which Mum requested! "I want a Mickey Ice Cream!!"
I didn’t really want anything and was contemplating getting a hot dog after tasting Amelia’s (yum!), but they came back with a Mickey ice cream for me so I ate it. It was delicious!
The kids loved their hotdogs and I was astonished that Amelia ate the whole lot! As we were sitting there a lady came over and offered Mum a cookie! Apparently it had come with her meal and she didn’t want it.
I was gutted at this point to find that Amelia had pulled off her first visit badge which had made a big hole in her dress that I made her.
Oliver wanted to go in a shop he’d spotted; Mickey’s Star Traders so Dad took him in there and said he would meet us back at the table. I needed the loo which was in the same direction so I followed them and then met them in the shop afterwards. I was only in there with them for two minutes when Paul came in saying they had been looking for us. So much for meeting them back at the table! He said he had got up and Mum had left the table too when he realised he’d left my camera bag under the table!!!! Luckily he ran back and it was still there. Phew.
The shop was great. Oliver managed to wangle a double-ended light saber out of my dad and he asked me if Amelia wanted anything so we picked out a WDW holographic place mat and a My First Trip to WDW toddler cup for her. Amelia was running around the shop giggling, picking everything up and cuddling all the plush toys. She grabbed a HUGE Mickey Mouse by the hand and made me hold his other hand and she led us around the shop like that for a few minutes!
Oliver also bought a Vinylmation lanyard with his own money and I bought some postcards to send to three dibbers (pixie dust postcards), one for Paul’s Mum and my Nan and a 2012 holographic one for me as a souvenir. I almost had a heart attack when they rang up the bill and it came to $11.40 for the 6 postcards! I guess I should have gone to Walmart as later on in the holiday I saw them for 40c each. Oh well. At least I can say I bought them AT Disney!
This is also the point when Mum began her pin obsession! She was standing at the pin rack for ages and Dad went outside so he didn’t know how much money she was spending! Hopefully he won’t read this as I have her receipt! Mwahahaha. She bought a 4 park pin lanyard, Jimny Cricket pin, 2 Mickey pins, and a Tinkerbell pin... $41.27!At last we all got out of the gift shop and back into the Florida heat. As we started to wander further into Tomorrowland, a man came up to us saying he was leaving the park and had 3 fast pass tickets which could be used on any attraction in the park and asked if we would like them! Like really was on our side today! We thanked him gratefully and Paul, Oliver and I decided to use them on Space Mountain. Mum, Dad and Tracy said they would wait outside the entrance for us with Amelia. So off we went; Straight to the front of the queue and onto the ride itself before we were whisked into oblivion. Oh my god, how harsh is that ride??? I like a good rollercoaster as much as the next person, but it was awful! I really worried about Oliver as he doesn’t like rollercoaster’s and I told him he would like this. I screamed once or twice at the weightlessness bits, but other than that I just sat back in shock, unable to move or make a sound. Oliver was the same. It was so bumpy and threw me around. I thought my arms were going to be bruised the next day. Needless to say we all vowed never to go on it again!
We came out expecting the others to be there waiting for us but they were nowhere to be seen. We wandered around a bit, not wanting to go too far, but it was as though they had vanished. We ended up walking around and around Tomorrowland in search for them in the scorching heat until my feet would take no more. I tried to sit down on a wall but it was so hot that it burnt the backs of my legs. I was so frustrated. My mum does the same thing to me every time I go to Tesco with her. I nip to another aisle to get a tin of beans or something and when I go back to the aisle she was in she’s vanished. I don’t know how she does it.
After a good hour or more I eventually saw my Dad who said they had been sitting down for ages. I eventually calmed down and despite Mum moaning she was tired and wanted to go back to the villa, we made our way over to Fantasyland so that I could complete my dream ambition of taking Amelia on Dumbo before heading ‘home’.
The queue said 20 mins but it was actually 30. Amelia was a little monkey and tried to run ahead under the barrier a few times, but for the most part she was as good as gold and just stood on the railings and watched the ride. An American woman in the queue in front of us commented on how pretty she was and said she looked completely fearless the way she was climbing and jumping around.
Finally it was our turn and we picked the one elephant that didn’t work.
Like the magic carpets of Aladdin, it had a metal lever inside to push up and down which we had fun using on Aladdin, but it didn’t do anything on Dumbo. Nevermind. As you can see, she loved it anyway!
When we got off, Paul decided he would take Oliver on Goofy’s Barnstormer which had another 30 minute wait! Why he couldn’t have taken him on while I was on Dumbo I don’t know. So we waited longer in the boiling sun.
After they came off we caught the train at the Fantasyland Railway station. Dad and Paul had a bit of a thing for the girl on the platform
For the life of me I can’t remember where we got off the train, but I know we walked back down Main Street on our way out of the park at 6:40pm. A very long day!
When we got back to the car, the temperature was 90°F! We left the air conditioning on for a bit before collapsing in our seats. On the way home the Sat Nav stopped working and we got lost for what seemed like an eternity.
We eventually found a Publix where we stopped off to buy a cooked chicken and some salad and bits for dinner. However I’ve seen bigger sparrows and they was quite expensive so we decided to get a KFC instead. Another blip in our bid not to eat anything we can get at home! Paul went to find one while we finished up paying for a few bits. I bought some yoghurts for Amelia, some plastic bowls with built in straws so the kids could suck the milk up after their cereal, some little plastic boats for the bath/pool, cool aid sachets, chips ahoy cookies, some nail varnish remover and 2 key rings for my Nan and cousin. It also says Apple Nectar 3pk on my receipt but I can’t for the life of me remember what that was! It all came to $21.71 with tax. The KFC came to $27.59 for a 16 piece bucket and wedges.
When we got back to the villa, Paul put the put-me-up bed that Tracy had slept on in the living room last night at the bottom of our bed for Amelia and Tracy slept in the Mickey room with Oliver for the rest of the holiday. That way we would know if Amelia woke up in the night. We thought Oliver would have heard her get up if she was in the room with him, but he is such a heavy sleeper that he wouldn’t hear a bomb go off!
I was so tired and my legs and feet were in agony. I just couldn’t function properly. I ate a piece of chicken (which are double the size of our KFC!), had a shower and was in bed by 10pm. As usual, I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
As an aside; A lot of people have been asking me on the Disney Forums about the dresses I made for Amelia and many people have been asking me if I would be willing to make them dresses for their children. While I cannot talk about the dresses on the forms due to advertising issues, I am pleased to say I am now making these dresses for anyone who would like them. For those of you who use Facebook, you can visit my page, Little Sugar Plums. Or visit my Esty Shop. I am also selling the mini colouring book totes on here which are fantastic for toddlers to keep them occipied when going out for breakfast/lunch/dinner.
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