Loges in Disneyworld- Day 6

As we parted the night before, our two families agreed to meet for breakfast and get on the bus early enough to enjoy the extra magic hour at the Animal Kingdom park. But when we got back to the room, Mark and I didn't have the same recollection of what the time was! I thought the park opened at 7, but he thought 8, and he found a schedule that backed up his memory. Because I am often wrong about such things, we set the alarm to to be in the restaurant at 7:15.

And found out that I was right in the morning!!!!!  (I'm not saying, I'm just saying....) Once we realized we were late and that the Rinks had already left we started off to the park on our own, although Avery was distressed by this.

It was very chilly this morning! Only about 5 degrees celsius, we cuddled together, puffing our cloudy breath in attempt to warm up.

At 8am, the sun is still just rising! Brrrr......

Even though we missed the extra magic hour, the park was not that busy yet.  We grabbed a fast pass for Expedition Everest, and headed to the safari to see us some critters! I absolutely loved this adventure, despite the almost freezing conditions.

Clutching my coffee in hopes of some residual warmth, the bus is boarded! Safari time, Ba-by! And yes- my Ukrainian thermometer is working. Red nose=cold outside!

As the sun rises at the watering hole, some kind of cool bird sips peacefully...

Some springy animals standing there, not at all springy. Must be too chilly for them too....

nom, nom....

Giraffe, cleverly camouflaged as a tree root...

Is there anything more adorable than a baby elephant??? Nope! Didn't think so!

Peaceful scene...

Lions waking up and greeting the morning sun! So cool:0)

Alright! Awesome safari done, we wandered into an aviary- also very cool!

In the background, you can see the magnificent 'tree of life'. The longer you look at the trunk, the more animals and figures you can find embedded into its design. This actually housed a theatre for "It's a Bug's Life", and we did catch that show later in the day.

Bird...

Bird...

'Nother bird...

Sleeping tiger. This exhibit included some asian animals too. The whole park was divided into two distinct areas/themes. Asian and African animal exhibits, building styles, food, etc were found in their appropriate part of the park.

And then!!!  Oh happy day for our little! Mid-morning we ran into the Rinks. They had devoted their morning to riding the Everest Expedition as many times as they could before the crowds arrived, and we met them as we headed that way to use up our fast passes.

Together again! Bliss...

Mama Rink took all the littles to the safari, while Papa Rink and the Big Loges went to check out the African trek. Like the asian one, there was an aviary section, where we saw this little guy happily weaving a nest onto a branch.

His kind are prolific builders- their pods were everywhere!

You can't look at a meerkat and not smile! See? Told you!

Enjoying the gorilla habitat.

There were two areas for the gorillas- one for a gorilla family, with a mom, dad, auntie and baby. The other was for the single guys to hang out, and this is one of the bachelors.

In the center was a square where all sorts of entertainment happened. African drumming, traditional music and dance demonstrations happened all day long.

Once the girls got back from safari, we knew they would want to see the gorillas, so we went back. While there, they participated in an animal science activity and figured out what kind of animals were in the area by looking at the scat and tracks.

Yes, we did ride Expedition Everest many times! And by mid-afternoon it had warmed up enough to ride the Kali River rapids, so we did that a few times too.

A yeti + a bit of going backwards= AWESOME!!!!

parade time!

Go critter, go!

Satisfied that we had drained all the fun we could out of Animal Kingdom, we headed back to the hotel. The children had the crazy notion that they would like to go swimming, despite the temperatures that barely reached warm in full sun. By the time the sun was setting, it was quite cool again but our undaunted littles dived right in. Oddly enough, they practically had the pool to themselves. The pool was heated, and they had a great time! It was the poor parents who were hanging out on the deck chairs that suffered!!!!  What we don't do for our children. Eventually, we had enough of that sort of fun and...

...apparently we ended up back at Hollywood Studios! But I have park soup and have no idea what we went there for, or what we did. I do know we didn't see Fantasmic, and I hope I rode on the Tower of Terror again!

Remember I mentioned the turkey leg t-shirts? True story....

In the end, I have to say that Animal Kingdom was probably my favorite park. I loved all the vegetation that surrounded every exhibit. I loved the animal enclosures that looked open and accessible, using natural barriers to keep people and critters on the appropriate sides of things. In fact, during the safari, we had to stop the jeep to let some giraffes pass in front of us. Now, that doesn't happen every day!

Loges in Disneyworld- Day 5

After breakfast, we headed out to Hollywood Studios. We were greeted by an ernest entertainer who stopped to chat with us. I liked him a lot! And not just because he said I was beautiful and should be in the movies. Or at least jumping out of cakes... again.

Tower of Terror was the main ride we were after, but there was already a huge lineup. So we fast passed it and went off to see what adventures we could have in the meantime. We went on the Star Tours ride and caught the Indiana Jones stunt show. Both were entertaining and we were glad we stopped.

We took a mission through space. Just for fun!

The time came for us to hike it back to use our Tower of Terror tickets, and we angled ourselves towards the ride. And encountered a parade. And pin trading. So Mark, who had no lanyard with pins to trade was ahead of us, and did not realize that the rest of us found a good pin board to peruse. Upon noticing that we were missing he stopped to wait on the sidewalk. And met the insistence of a parade marshal that he move on.

"You can't stand here!" What would you do if a parade marshal told you to move on? Well, if you are Mark, you take a picture!

Parade Bug.

Parade super hero...

At last, we made it. The Tower of Terror.  As in: THE TOWER OF TERROR.

The Tower of Terror terrorized me! It has such a large and visible presence, and screams emanated from it constantly; I was not sure it was a good idea to go on this ride. In fact I am sure I loudly made this assertion as we rode up the elevator to our certain doom. And then- it drops! And I started to laugh maniacally.  And so, I was seduced by the lure of the demon tower... Best. Ride. Ever!  We'll be back, sweet ride. Soon...

The kids were getting kind of droopy, so we decided to head back to the hotel so they could swim for a while before our dinner reservations at 6:30. Of all the fun things to do in Disneyworld, Avery was strangely obsessed with the 'Hippy Dippy' pool at the resort, and she was excited about this. She changed at the speed of light, and I grabbed my book to accompany her there while Mark took a little nap. No sooner did she jump in when Mark came racing to the pool to share the revelation that we had mixed up our reservation time. We actually had 45 minutes to get to the Animal Kingdom resort for our meal! And so, an angry, dripping child was drug from the pool and hauled off for dinner.

Our reservations were for 'Boma', an African themed buffet restaurant. We were not sure what we were getting into, other than the place had been recommended by the Rink's travel agent. It turned out to be a great place to eat with a huge, interesting buffet. We all rolled out there kind of hurting, but in agreement that it was totally worth it!  Oddly enough we didn't take any pictures here, so I went surfing to find something. So here is the empty restaurant. I promise that we were there!

A way cool and delicious place to eat! If you are planning a trip to Disneyworld, make a stop here!

Littlest Rink was tired, so Momma Rink stayed back at the resort with her as the rest of us headed back to Hollywood Studios to catch the 8:30pm Fantasmic show. Despite arriving at the park at 8:00pm, we walked in to hear the announcement that the show was full for tonight. So we watched a band in the square and went on a 'Ride through the Movies'. In the end, even with a few bumps, it was another wonderful day.

Loges in Disneyworld- Day 4!

This was the day that the Harry Potter obsessed girls were really looking forward to- Universal Studios and Hogsmeade! We booked a van to take the 7 of us to the park and headed out fairly early.  We had to turn our paper vouchers into park tickets at the gate in what we assumed would be a simple matter. Turns out there was small print saying you also needed to bring photo ID along with the paper. Which of course, none of us had planned for. Who carts around their personal documents to go to a theme park?  It would mean an $75-$80 return cab trip to fetch them... so pleading and whining commenced. It took a bit to sort it all out, but we all were eventually granted park access. I was dreading telling the girls that we were not going to make it into Harry Potter World after all...

The girls were troopers while waiting for everything to get sorted out! There was no rain on this parade!

The park angels smiled down on us, and we burst into Universal Studios with enthusiasm and started to beeline to Hogsmeade, right at the far end.  Until....

we had to detour for a candy apple!

Onward! We trekked the rest of the way to Hogsmeade uninterrupted.

Although it was just past opening, Hogsmeade was FULL!

How lucky! The Hogwarts Express just pulled in!

Zonko's had everything you could have hoped for: Sneakoscopes, Puking Pastilles, Extendible Ears, Wizard's Chess sets, t-shirts, Chattering Teeth, and Remeberalls were all here!

Of course we bought a chocolate frog and Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans at HoneyDukes.

We toured the whole area and gave the wand kiosks special attention. The girls were very methodical and thorough about their selection. We visited several times throughout the day, but waited until we were ready to leave to make our purchases.

 While we were walking about and exploring, Mama Rink kindly held the girls' spot in line to visit Ollivander's Wand Shop. The line up to get into the wand demonstration was about an hour and a half. And there are no fast passes here!

While we waited we saw the Hogwarts Frog Choir Sing...

And had some Butterbeer and pumpkin juice. (Only a half hour wait in line for that!)

Finally, the big moment came, and the girls went into Ollivander's to see the wand demonstration. A group of about 30 kids are sent in at a time, but only one is picked to 'choose' their wand. As she tried out the wands, the spells tried with the first few wands create disaster, but finally the right wand is in hand and the spells work.

Would this not be the coolest job ever? Ollivander leads the new students through their wand selection process...

Love the crazy piles of wands!  I wonder how many of these are sold in a day? These were not the ones for sale as they were part of the staging/demonstration room. To buy a wand you either had to go to an insanely crowded little shop adjacent to the demo room or to one of the street kiosks.

With the wand wait finally done, we went off to check out the rides. The first we went to was at the Hogwarts Castle called the Forbidden Journey. We learned that the theme park designers are experts at hiding how long the line is. They do post the times, and so we knew that we were in for at least an hour and a half wait for this ride. But you don't really get a visual sense of the line because it started in the front of the castle, and looked like it went along the side, doubled back and then went in. What actually happened was this. Start at front, turn and go along the side, double back but once you reach the castle front you turn back again but this time you turn along the back of the castle. Go back and forth along the back of the castle for about 6 rows, then come back along the side and into the front doors, where the line snakes through the castle in similar fashion. You don't see 80% of the lineup! Nonetheless, we did the line shuffle, talking the big girls through their impatience. Funny thing was Littlest Rink took it all with the least amount of complaining, and she was too small to even go on the ride! What a trooper! Anyways, once you make it to the castle line up, there are lots of interesting things to look at:

Dumbledore's office

a hall filled with portraits that talk to each other

 The ride itself was pretty amazing! It was like going to an iMax theatre, but your chair also moves with the scenery. Sometimes you are riding with the screen scenery, sometimes you are riding past a dragon and you feel the heat as it fires at you, and sometimes Aragog and her family cover you with spider spit! Of course, the girls were beyond delighted with it, and seemingly forgot the long complaint filled line to get there; they immediately wanted to do it again, so I know it was worth it!

on the far right you can see a bit of the 'Flight of the Hippogriff' ride, a smaller roller coaster that all of the kids could ride.  And we did!

From there we went to the 'Dragon Challenge' roller coaster. I left everyone to ride it and took Littlest Rink for her wand as she was also too small for this one. This ride was actually two roller coasters in one that intertwined with each other; you chose to ride the Hungarian Horntail of the Chinese Fireball at the end of the line.

After buying a replica of Fleur Delacour's wand, we returned to meet up with everyone else and found Mark waiting with Avery outside the ride; she had a cloud over her head and tears in her eyes. I found out what happened as Avery stormed over to the ride measurer to inform me that they thought she was too small and she had a rather different opinion.  She stretched for all she was worth and if she just slightly raised her heels she grazed the bottom of the stick. Two millimetres separated her from what she knew was the best ride ever! A traumatic experience for sure, made all the more stormy by the fact that her best friend had that extra two millimetres of height...

The Chinese Fireball goes by... your feet dangle over your head!

And the Hungarian Horntail... After the others got off, Mark and I did go for a ride. It was too intense for this cowgirl! And given that we never saw waits more than 20 minutes for it, I don't think I was alone in thinking so. This was no consolation to our girl, however. She will forever hold a grudge for the missed opportunity!

By now, it was time to eat! Where do you eat in Hogsmeade? The Three Broomsticks of course!

English pub fare was served up here! The restaurant itself was HUGE... 

...and cool!

We decided it was time to leave Hogsmeade and head over to another area of the park for a bit. We made it as far as the Jurassic park ride. You take a boat through the Jurassic Park breeding facility and it starts off quite lovely... but soon you realize that things are not so good here! And you have to dodge velociraptors and t-rexes before you plunge down a waterfall to escape just in time. It was also a lot of fun to hang out at the bottom of the waterfall in the 'splash zone'.

The day was nearly done, and it was time to head back to our resort.  But not without one last stroll through Hogsmeade, where Avery entered the park at her absolute stretchiest and walked up to that measuring stick confident that she would somehow pass this time. Alas...

Loges in Disneyworld- Day 3

This morning we had a character breakfast booked- for 7 people! It was finally time to unveil the second part of the surprise!!! Avery has a friend that is equally crazed about Harry Potter, and when we first started planning this trip last November her family decided to make the trip as well. So we became co-conspirators with the Rinks. They were in the same resort as us, and we were able to sneak a quick meeting amongst the grownups once we got back to the hotel the night before. And so the girls 'accidentally' ran into each other in the resort gift shop. Stunned, disbelieving looks, whole-hearted hugs and high pitched squeals ensued....

Totally worth sneaking around and being evasive!

And with that we hopped on the bus to the Polynesian Resort where the restaurant Ohana was waiting for us! We got to meet Mickey, Lilo and Stitch (although somehow we missed getting a picture with Stitch, the girls' favourite). Breakfast was delicious too!

What else do you do with a Tiki statue except pick its nose? 

Of course we all joined in the dance parade, shaking our touchas' and maracas! 

And with that we were off to The Magic Kingdom!

 along with everybody else... It was hot and crowded in the park!!!

Avery and E! 

We learned from the Rink family all about pin trading, something they started when they went to Disneyland California a few years ago. They had their lanyards on, and Avery decided to join in on the fun. We fit her out with a trading set and she quickly decided that she wanted to trade for all things 'dragon'.  It was a lot of fun stopping and chatting with different cast members to trade and learn about the pins. This became our mission rather than photos/autographs with characters.

Avery and her fresh, dragon free lanyard, ready to trade!

The other thing we learned about from the Rinks was how to use fast passes.  It wasn't that we hadn't noticed them in Disneyland- we just figured that they were for guests that had a different 'level' of park pass and never thought more about it!  Turns out they are for everyone!!!!!  BUT you can only hold one fast pass at a time, and they only give out a set number for each hour the park is open, so you have to play it carefully. If the ride's fast pass doesn't let you use it for 6 hours, you are blocked from getting another. (There was an exception to this, but I never heard what it was. The Rinks understood it though, and just let us in that regard, so occasionally we did hold more than one. Full disclosure, right?) So, I was pretty excited when we got a fast pass for 'Splash Mountain' when the lines were over an hour long. We were trucking along in the fast pass line when a storm hit. Like typhoon type storm. I think there were tornado warnings out with it too.  That is when our good friend Murphy joined the cabaret. You wouldn't think you could close down a wet ride because it was wet out, but that is just what happened!  As we were in line inside the building, we decided it was as good a place as any to wait out the storm. And that's just what we did. For an hour and a half. And that is how the Loge's first fast pass ride actually took them longer to get to the ride than if they had gone the regular route.

A little peek through the window by our indoor lineup spot! Miserable, no?

Finally we had enough waiting and devised a new plan that allowed us to have fun even though it was P.O.U.R.I.N.G.  We decided to head to a gift shop and buy the fancy plastic ponchos they sell for the wet rides and carry on our merry way to rides that are indoors on the theory that they shouldn't be affected by the storms. And we found out that they would honour our precious fast passes outside our allotted time, so even better! We would come back and fast pass when things were running again. Off we went to the nearest gift shop (never very far, lol!) and spent almost $30 on what were essentially 3 garbage bags with arm and head holes already cut into them. We smugly hit the road... and the rain stopped.  Murphy is such a joker!!!!!!

In the end we rode Splash Mountain a few times. All was well:0)

The night ended with a dance party, where many characters came and danced with the kids (including Stitch again, but he is a popular guy and hard to photograph amongst the hordes of children- including ours- around him).

And a parade. And a light show. And fireworks.

We arrived back at the resort, tired and pleased with the day's events, even with Murphy's company for a good part of the afternoon.  We thought we were just heading to bed, when I checked my phone for emails and found a barrage of messages from my neighbour through facebook and imessage that she couldn't get the key to work in our front door and she was not able to check on the cats and feed them.  Was there a trick to making the key work?  After some back and forth I realized that I had given her the wrong key. I gave her my inlaws' house key!!!!! I took my phone off 'airplane mode' and had to face the roaming charges to text my parents who hopefully had a house key with them (they were in the city for the night).

In the end, it worked out and our poor cats were saved.  That was a far-beyond-blonde moment. Wrong house key. Who does that??????