We are in Wilmington, NC. I apologize for not blogging more but we haven’t done a lot of traveling this winter.
We’ve mostly been busy on grandparent duty with Maria in Plano and Orlando. It’s a tough job, but somebody gets to do it. Maria’s other grandmother, Olga, received her permanent residency status in the US in September and had some things to take care of in Russia, so we spent most of November, December, and January in Plano being active grandparents. It was a blast!
And, as anyone who has spent any time with an active toddler, that doesn’t leave much energy for anything else.
In February, Natasha had a conference in Orlando where she could obtain her needed continuing education credits, so we headed for Disney World. We were camped there for 3 weeks, the first week for Natasha’s conference, a week of rest and then a week for Mike’s only break in the NBA season, the All-Star break. Mike likes to take a family vacation then, so everyone was at Disney World for another week.
After that, we visited with friends and family who are in and near the Villages in Florida. If you haven’t heard about the Villages, Google them. It’s a retirement community that actually works. I’m intrigued by them from a management aspect. If you like to be active, it’s the place to retire.
We visited Steve’s sister, Nancy, who’s building a house near St. Augustine, FL, and then hopped on a plane for a last visit with an old friend back home. He passed away this past Saturday.
We’re headed to my Dad’s in New Bern, NC, visiting family and friends along the way. We expect to be home by the first of April.
I’ve had a request to blog about our Disney trip, so here goes.
Those of you who know us well, know that we are Disney addicts. We first traveled to Disney on our honeymoon in 1973. At that time, it was just the Magic Kingdom and the only hotels on site were the Polynesian and the Contemporary, although the Fort Wilderness Campground was also open. We stayed at the Polynesian.
There have obviously been many changes over the years and we’ve lost count of how many times we’ve actually been there. These days, we rarely plan a trip ourselves, tagging along with our “kids” when they plan a trip. I must say, after years of doing all the planning, it’s quite nice just to be along for the ride!
So, what was new in February? Well, Maria was tall enough to go on some thrill rides. She was all excited by that, until she went on them. She went on the Seven Dwarf’s Mine train and said it was too fast and too many people were screaming!
And even with a poncho on and hiding behind daddy’s shoulder, she got soaked on Splash Mountain. She was not a happy camper.
However, Dumbo and the Teacups were favored rides and most things she wanted to go on again. Here she is, looking cool with Steve.
She’s pretty good at waiting, although got a bit bored waiting for the Muppets in Liberty Square. It’s an unusual show, taking place in the second floor windows of several buildings. The Muppets tell the story of the Declaration of Independence as only the Muppets can.
The opening ceremony each morning at the Magic Kingdom used to be done in front of the railroad station. Now it is done at the hub in front of the castle, so there are actually a few places to grab a quick bite for breakfast along Main Street. Both Casey’s and the Ice Cream Parlor have breakfast items to munch on while you wait for rope drop (opening time when they drop the rope holding back the crowd).
There’s also a new sit down restaurant in Adventure Land, Jungle Skipper Canteen, themed after the Jungle Cruise ride. We didn’t eat there this trip, but have before during its shake down. It’s fun and the food is good.
Epcot’s big news is the new version of Soarin’. In the old version, you took a hang glide ride over California. The new version is around the world, including the Matterhorn. There are now three theaters for Soarin’ so the lines seem to move a bit faster.
We managed to get a reservation at Le Cellier Steakhouse in the Canadian Pavilion one day while we were on our own. It’s a great restaurant, but expensive and hard to get into. We had some gift certificates, so we used them there. It’s still very good.
Disney Hollywood Studios news at this point is what is gone. The Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground is no longer and the Lights, Motor, Action show has disappeared to make room for the new Star Wars Land and Toy Story Land. Construction has begun, but I think it will be two years before we see anything. They have added a second line in the Toy Story ride, which is identical to the original. This is another ride that Maria loves!
They are on their second version of the Star Wars fireworks at the Studios and I think I like the first one better. The new version uses lots film images projected on the buildings and unless you are in the right spot, you’ll miss some of it. But it’s still great John Williams music and fireworks.
We did manage to be in the right spot for the fireworks show. Before Christmas, I saw mention of a Star Wars tour of Hollywood Studios. It’s a 7-hour tour and includes a snack, quick service dinner and the dessert party before the fireworks, along with a tour of anything related to Star Wars and/or George Lucas in the park. So we got front row seats for the 10-minute film, Path of the Jedi, rode Star Tours with a bunch of Star Wars fanatics (what fun!), front row seats for Star Wars, A Galaxy Far, Far Away (a stage show), participated in the March of the First Order, had a guided tour of the Launch Bay and reserved standing room for the fireworks. It was Steve’s Christmas present, extra special because he hadn’t heard about the tour ahead of time.
Animal Kingdom’s big news is their nighttime show, Rivers of Light. Animal Kingdom has been trying to make itself into a full day park and this will help. It reminded me most of Epcot’s closing show, without the fireworks. It’s beautiful.
But the new “land” at Animal Kingdom, Pandora, is set to open in May and will have all kinds of new things. Animal Kingdom was originally imagined as having past, present and imagined animals and this will fill in the imagined animals.
Animal Kingdom is also offering evening safaris, but we never stayed late enough to try them out.
One new experience we did try out was the campfire at Fort Wilderness. Every night, they light two campfires for roasting hot dogs and/or marshmallows, have a sing along and show a movie. Chip and Dale show up and greet everyone during the sing along and then dance with the kids (of all ages). Then they depart and one of the Disney movies is shown. All for free if you bring your own hot dogs and marshmallows. We took Maria twice and she loved it, except she wasn’t able to take Chip and Dale home with her.
We had a family from Brazil sit next to us one night. I couldn’t convince them to let me take their son over to roast a marshmallow (not enough English on their part and of course, no Portuguese on mine) but as the sing along started, the guy started belting out You Are My Sunshine and knew She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain, too! They weren’t staying at Disney, but the campfire is open to everyone. We ran into them the next day at Mickey’s Philharmagic.
After Natasha’s family left, we ended our stay with the Hoop De Doo Revue dinner show at the campground. We saw it about 30 years ago and hadn’t seen it since. It’s on the expensive side and we’re cheap. But we put another gift card to use and enjoyed ourselves. This meal is an all you care to eat set meal where they bring out bowls of beans and corn and chicken and ribs, etc. so I wasn’t sure what they would do for me. Well, as usual, Disney took care of me. This is what the chef brought out:
That’s a quarter of roast chicken on top, ribs, potatoes and corn. And I had a strawberry sundae for dessert!
The show is a family friendly old time show you might expect with a name like Hoop de Doo. Bad jokes, puns and audience involvement, all as expected at Disney. We had a good time.
Our plan is to be home for Easter and then head for Alaska again. We’ll be meeting up with 4 other couples from our tour two years ago. We’ll meet up in British Columbia and then head for Alaska. Although we’ll follow much the same route (there are only 2 roads in and out of Alaska), we’ll be spending more time in some places and less in others. It should be a great trip!
I’ll try and get this uploaded tonight, so you can see it Wednesday.
Take care,
Deb
