We’re off to see the castle

Finally, we are off to see Disney World. We put it off as long as we could. After our grueling day at Universal Studios, we didn’t know if our old bodies could take it.

We were up at 5 am. We left our hotel at 6 am and arrived in the Disney parking lot before 7 am. We never got lost even once. We hopped on the monorail to the park and arrived at the park 1/2 hour before it opened.

Look how deserted the park is this early in the morning.

The kids got autographs from some of the characters and also some pressed pennies.

Here’s Daisy Duck. Note how empty the streets are.

Chip and Dale (not Chippendale). Hudson was not amused.

Disney photographers are on hand at every turn in the road ready to take your pictures. When you get home you can purchase a cd with the pictures on for the mere price of $99. That doesn’t include any printed pictures.

Here’s the first picture the photographer took. I put the border on it.

We only had about 10 pictures taken before Hudson cried, “Enough, Grandma. We’re here for rides not stupid pictures. We won’t be purchasing the $99 cd with our 10 pictures on it.

I like this picture of Annie. I’m not sure how Disney added the fairy in her hand after, but she was sure surprised.

With our trusty touring plan in hand, (Yes, you heard me right. I actually had a touring plan printed out and in hand), we started on the rides. As I got into the second ride (some sort of water ride), my touring plan fell into the water. As the ride started, I unbuckled my safety belt, plunged my hand into the water before anyone saw me, and retrieved it. Even though it was a little wet, it was still readable.

THudson’s favorite ride was the “Big Thunder Railroad.

Big Thunder Railroad is a roller coaster disguised as a train. Hudson and I rode together. I screamed like a little kid and totally embarrassed Hudson. He told everyone that I was afraid. Annie rode with Pres. She laughed the whole time. She loved it.

Annie’s favorite ride was “It’s a Small World”. I first saw this as a kid in California’s Disneyland. It has always been my favorite, too.

Pinocchio and Annie

Stitch and Hudson

Lunch for $40 included 3 kid sized pizzas and one burger.

Pres and Hudson enjoying a ride

Annie and Jasmine. Hudson didn’t want anything to do with this character.

Annie and myself on a ride

Goofy (?) acting goofy with Annie

After a little shopping, everyone was more cooperative with the picture taking.

Annie said to Peter Pan, “You’re my first talking character!”

Foster Grants? Ready for a 3D ride

Hudson and Pres waiting for the parade to start.

We stayed and watched the Spectro Magic parade and fireworks. We were all very tired and crabby by the end of the day.

Princess Belle and Chef Mickey’s

Last night before we retired, I took a princess Belle dress I had ordered from Ebay for Annie out of my suitcase and hung it up by our coats in the hotel room. I was going to surprise her. When she got up this morning, she found the dress hanging there. She was ecstatic. We told her that Tinkerbell must have left it for her since it didn’t fit Pres or me and Hudson didn’t like yellow dresses. She put the dress on and I did her hair up “just like Belle”.

Princess Annabelle wearing the dress left by Tinkerbell.

This morning we had reservations for a character breakfast at Chef Mickey’s at Disney’s Contemporary Resort. This character breakfast is usually booked 3 months in advance. I called 2 days before we got here and was able to get a reservation, as someone had just cancelled.

We had planned to leave our hotel at 7:30 just in case we got lost. Getting lost for us is a given. At least now we can blame our GPS. When the GPS says to take the next exit and you don’t listen, I personally think it’s your own fault, but what do I know? We overslept, of course, and had to drive like hell. We made it in plenty of time.

Who can resist a Mickey Mouse shaped waffle!

Goofy strikes a pose. Get out of my picture, Minnie.

Minnie signs the autograph books.

Here’s Chef Mickey himself

The duck is ready for pictures.

Finally, we get in the picture.

Stuffing our faces at Chef Mickey’s

Annie is staring out the window. She’s just discovered that she can see “the castle” from the restaurant. Notice her pretty hair. We stopped in a gift shop and found this pony tail with pretty ribbons in it that matched her hair.

One more picture of Annie’s hair

After the breakfast, we walked around the Contemporary Resort. Guess what the kids found!? Pressed penny machines were all lined up like slot machines.

We found out that other Disney resorts also had pressed penny machines. Since the monorail runs right through the Contemporary Resort, we jumped on and rode to 2 other resorts and found more pennies.

We asked the monorail driver if we could sit up front with him. He not only let us sit with him, he gave the kids each monorail operating licenses. Maybe they will come in handy some day when they are out looking for work!

Princess Annie and her driver, Hudson.

Filling up those penny books

After our monorail hotel tours, we went back to the hotel for some swimming. The pool was freezing, but we had fun anyway.

to be continued…

Universal Studios in the Winter

We ate the crap we bought the other day at the grocery store for breakfast today, as we wanted to arrive at Universal Studios as soon as they opened this morning. Although Universal Studios is only a few miles from our hotel, the little lady on our GPS showed us her sense of humor by taking us a different route via the Interstate. 45 minutes later, we arrived at Universal. I don’t think our GPS lady has ever been to Orlando!

We arrived at Universal in shorts and t-shirts shortly after they opened. We realized our wardrobe mistake as soon as we got out of the car. The temperature was in the 50’s, but the wind was blowing at 25-30 miles an hour. We were frozen by the time we purchased our tickets. Needless to say, our first stop was to purchase Universal Studios sweatshirts for the kids. ($100). The stores had all of their sweatshirts packed away for the season and had to get them from the back room. Unfortunately, there weren’t any left to fit Pres and me. Admission to the park was a mere $500 for 3 adults and 2 children. After our initial outlay of $600, I knew we would be staying all day no matter how cold we were. We are from Minnesota, after all!

Here we are before Pres and I were able to find sweatshirts to fit us. Notice the goose bumps on our legs.

Scenes from a Barney show. It appears that Barney is well-fed.

This seemed to be Pres’ favorite place. When I mentioned this to Annie, she said, “That’s ok Grandpa. I have a bladder problem, too.”

Hudson’s favorite thing in Universal Studios was the Dippin’ Dots, even though her was freezing.

Lunch at Finnegan’s Bar and Grill (the only place without a 100 person line and also where it was warm)

We finally found some sweatshirts to fit us ($100).

Pres wants this car for his birthday.

The Blues Brothers (not the real ones) put on a great show.

The kids discovered that Universal Studios also has pressed penny machines. They each collected 60 pennies. We had to get another book to keep them in.

We stayed at Universal Studios until they almost had to throw us out. We were all exhausted. We have tickets that allow us to come back all week. Oh, great!

Back at the hotel, Pres cleaned Annie’s feet. She wore sandals and was too tired for a shower. Pres is always cleaning something.

Rain in Florida

We had the big $3.99 buffet all-you-can-eat breakfast at Ponderosa this morning. I’ve eaten better, but probably not for that price.

I’m glad these photos are small. I look much better small. Can you tell how windy it is by my hair?

Here we are pigging out on a cheap breakfast.

We were going to Universal Studios today, but the weather forecast wasn’t looking very accommodating. We decided to go to Downtown Disney and do some serious shopping (per Hudson and Annie’s requests).

Welcome to shopping heaven.

Sleeping Beauty and Princess Annie

Who’s the skinny guy in the background!

This is the all-you-can-stuff-in-a-box My Little Pony scam. Needless to say, we fell for it.

Hudson bought Legos, of course.

I met the nicest man. He never talks back.

No caption for this photo. I’m out of witty things to say.

We started our search for the pressed pennies the kids were going to collect. I thought it would be a cheap souvenir. Once I learned that there are hundreds of pressed pennies to collect I realized my error. The kids found 28 different pennies each just at Downtown Disney. We ran through the rain to each location. Luckily, it didn’t rain all day long.

Cranking out the pressed pennies with Grandpa’s help

All done with this machine

By the end of the day, we were exhausted. We retired to the hotel room by 6:00. The kids had to take all of their souvenirs out and examine them.

Legos

My Little Ponies

Some more of Hudson’s souvenirs