Disney World - Day 5

April 14, 2012 – Saturday - We woke up early 6 a.m. and left for Magic Kingdom around 7 a.m. The weather was a little overcast and a bit chilly compared to the past few days. We got there early enough to be in the first parking row and headed over to the gates. We were one of the first waiting behind the gates. We had to wait for almost one hour. Once the gates opened, we all ran over and headed across the water in the Metro to the actual Magic Kingdom Park. It was quite the set up – pretty frustrating how we were waiting so long and then we had to cross on the metro to even enter near the park.

While we were waiting near the gates at the first, a worker that was manning our gate asked us what brought us to Orlando. We told her we were here for fun. Melissa mentioned it is Byron’s birthday. She jumped on this and grabbed out a huge pin that says “Happy Birthday” as she wrote Byron below that. Byron was not very happy about it, but willingly accepted the pin and put it on. She also gave “First Visit” pins on 3 of the kids. It was so funny how everywhere we went and saw employees, they would say “Happy Birthday” Byron (or Brian). After a while it was fun to see the spontaneous way so many of the workers just said it as they were cleaning up or just the gate workers. I was so glad Melissa said something – it made for a very entertaining day.

We headed first to Space Mountain with Melissa, I and the children (minus Bradley). We had about a 5 min. wait and got on the ride. It was so fun! I had forgotten how enjoyable and exciting that ride it. It has some differences than the Disneyland ride, but so fun! We then headed over to Buzz Light year, Winnie the Pooh, Snow White, Peter Pan’s Flight, It’s a Small World, Haunted Mansion, Slash Mountain, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Luckily we had an app to follow that got us through each line in 20 min. or less (most around 10). It was absolutely amazing! Most of the rides had a few slight variations from Disneyland. Pirates was a shorter ride, but great also.

For lunch we got 2 turkey legs and shared them. They were so good and every last piece of meat was eaten off them. I am always amazed at how much they can fill you on just $9.50 each – pretty inexpensive meal for Disney World where most are around $40-50.

After lunch we enjoyed the Jungle Cruise – our tour guide was amazing and had one joke after another – barely breathing between everything she had to say. She was awesome! We also saw the Tiki room, country Bear Jamboree, the Riverboat, Hall of Presidents and Mickey’s PhilharMagic. The Hall of Presidents was presented on a huge screen and also included life size wax figures of each of the American Presidents. It was truly amazing! I learned a lot from the short video and dialogue. Mickey’s PhilharMagic was a 3D cartoon on a screen – it was really good. We also rode Goofy’s Barn stormer – the line was one of the longest we waited (about 30 min.) It compared to Puff at Lagoon – roller coaster for much younger kids. Bradley sure loved it.

We ate dinner at a sit down restaurant. It felt good to eat a meal without sharing it. I had a cheeseburger with bacon. Camille & Byron shared a lobster sandwich – Camille absolutely loved it . The kids all shared meals with another child. They devoured everything. While we were eating, the workers let the kids play with hula hoops. Parker & Carter are all over that and were pretty good.

The 5 kids, Melissa & I all headed back to Space Mountain for one last ride. Melissa & I were in the front of the car and it was amazing how it was so much cooler. We even felt airborne at one point. There was such a huge rush of energy on that ride – it was so fun! Then we headed to Laugh Floor. It was so funny – Tanner submitted a joke for the show – they actually mentioned his name, but accidentally said another joke than he had submitted. The joke he actually texted in was “Guess who is the most vulgar character in Star Wars? It’s R2D2 because they beep out all the swear words.”

There was a DJ playing music with a lot of people dancing. Pluto, Goofy and Stitch were all dancing with the group also. Camille, Carter & Parker were all getting into it as we loved watching them. The music was really fun and had a great beat.

After the dancing, we went on the people mover. It was a really relaxing ride that just went through Space Mountain and the Buzz Light year ride. When we were almost done, it broke down and we were stuck in one place for about 20 min. It finally started up after a while – thank goodness.

When we got off the ride, I asked Parker where his Mickey hat was. He said he had put it in our stroller before the last ride. We had not seen our stroller since before dinner, so I knew he could not have put the hat in our stroller. Apparently had saw a stroller before the previous ride that looked like ours and he put his hat in. At this point we looked around and the stroller was no where in sight. Poor Parker was so sad. We started walking out of the park and then stopped at the next stroller area (about 30 sec. walk from last stroller area). We just checked in case we could find the stroller like ours. Just about the same time, we saw a lady walking around with a Mickey hat and looking for a stroller. I guess they had found this hat in their stroller, then ended up loosing their stroller and were looking for it. She was so happy we found her and was just so nervous that some kid had lost their hat. Then they ended up finding their stroller at the same time. Parker totally lucked out! Not sure how he got so lucky to find it, but he was pretty excited.

The electrical parade was going to start when we were wanting to leave the park. We ended up finding a small path way to exit. Camille wanted to go to one last store to buy some charms and a charm bracelet. Johnathan ended up getting a cute goofy hat while there also. By now it was around 9:40 p.m. when we headed to get on the ferry. We waited for about 15 min. to get on one and then it took a while to go across the water. After exiting the ferry, the fireworks started above the castle in Magic Kingdom. It was cool to see them – they were amazing and really fun to watch as they went with the music coming across the loud speaker. We finally were able to head to our van – it probably took us about 1 hour to leave. That was the worst part about this park – how it was surrounded by water so we had to take a Monorail or ferry. We had a great time and were so glad we had the opportunity to go. We are also so excited to be able to sleep in until 8:30 or 9 a.m.

Camille-Favorite show so far has been the 3D Mickey Mouse show.

Tanner- Liked Magic Kingdom the best. He finally got his Goofy hat there. Favorite ride was Expedition Everest. Favorite show was Bugs Life.

Johnathan- Favorite rides are Splash and Space Mountain.

Carter-Favorite ride has been Expedition Everest and Space Mountain. Loved swimming at the condo.

Parker-Favorite ride has been Test Track and swimming at the condo.

Bradley- Favorites rides have been Pirates of the Caribbean and Buzz Light year.

Byron- Loved being told “Happy Birthday” at day at Magic Kingdom. He even was sang to by all the workers at the restaurant we ate dinner at.

Tricia- Loved going on the safari, Space Mountain, Expedition Everest.

Melissa – Loved Soarin’, Expedition Everest, Test Track, Rapids ride and Splash Mountain. She also loved the air boat ride.

Mom Beck – Loved Soarin’ more than any ride she has ever gone on. She also loved the safari and the air boat ride.

Dad Beck – Soarin’ and Animal Kingdom other than Expedition Everest. The Laugh Floor at Magic Kingdom was also great.

 All of us wearing our new Disney shirts.

 Waiting at gates before the park opened.

 On the metro ride over to the park.

 Byron with his cool "BIrthday" pin.

 It's a Small World ride.

 Parker & Carter

 

Tanner & Johnathan with their Goofy hats.

Disney World - Day 4

April 13, 2012 – Friday - We went to the Orlando Temple this morning. It is about a 30 minute drive and is in such a gorgeous part of Orlando. The temple itself it just exquisite and stands out. We started out by the oldest 2 being able to do Baptisms for the Dead. Dad Beck, Byron, Tanner, Camille, Mom Beck & Melissa all headed in. I stayed outside with the youngest 5 – we just sat in the van and enjoyed playing electronic devices. After around 15 minutes Melissa came back out to tell me to go in and that she would stay outside with the kids. I was so overwhelmed and grateful I had the opportunity to go in and watch them baptize. I had not experienced anything like this since I was a youth doing them around 20 years ago. I was very emotional as I witnessed it. How awesome to be in the temple with two of your children!!! Byron was able to do the baptisms. It was awesome because they both were able to do 10 names where they normally just get to do around 5 in the Mount Timpanogos Temple.

After the baptisms, Byron went outside to spend time with the kids and Melissa came back in for an endowment session. The workers were all so gracious and overly kind to us while there. We were in a session with 6 total people. It was a little different being in such a small session, but equally powerful and special. I felt so grateful to have had this opportunity to start my day in the House of the Lord. I had a really hard time staying awake, but succeeded (luckily we are getting to bed a lot earlier tonight than the past 4 nights).

We came out of the temple to find Byron walking around the temple grounds with the kids. They had found a lot of lizards and Byron even had one go the bathroom on his hand. We enjoyed taking some pictures then headed out to Wal-Mart. We are always excited to see Disney t-shirts there since they are so expensive in the real place. We had fun all picking one out that we will be wearing tomorrow. I was so excited at the selection for girl and women shirts – they were all really cute.

We headed out to find a Long John Silver’s for lunch. Dad Beck was very excited to eat at one since they are not in Utah anymore. We followed out GPS to a location a couple of miles away to find it was not that anymore, but a Popeye’s. We ended up eating there. I enjoyed a yummy chicken sandwich.

We headed back to our condo to change clothes and enjoy relaxing for one hour. I played a game of pool with Tanner - he is really good – not sure how he learned how to play so well, but he was beating me both games.

We headed out to go to Tom and Jerry’s for an air boat ride. It is about 1 hour 15 minutes away. When we arrived all we could see was a trailer park. Upon calling the company, we found out they were located behind the trailer park next to the water. I wasn’t impressed with the facility as a lady was sitting on a picnic bench with her phone, but no electronic devices or verification that we had prepaid our rides. After her calling the person in charge of the computers, we finally found out the information that supposedly we were supposed to bring with us. From there it just went uphill. We got onto an air boat with 3 other people in our group. We had Captain Ron as our tour guide and driver. He was awesome and so knowledgeable of the area we were in. We started out by going into a swampy grass area and just drove right over all of the green plants – it was crazy how the boat could go through practically anything and not hurt it at all. We found a cool crocodile just hanging out in the sun and plants. Then we had fun for one hour going all over this swampy area to find other crocodiles and other wildlife that lives in the water area. There were moments when he was driving so fast and turning such sharp turns, that we would get splashed with water. It was a moment like this that Bradley was ready to be done. He was pretty nervous how fast we were going and worried we would tip out. He did relax more and ended up enjoying the ride. We saw about 7 adult crocodiles that were about 4-12 feet long. There were also many small 2 feet or smaller babies. I was surprised how some of the alligators didn’t seem to be afraid of the boat and not try to run when we came with this very loud boat. We got some amazing views. The water area with all of the vegetation was absolutely gorgeous. We learned that alligators more scared of us than we are of them which were pretty comforting as we were a couple of feet from some large ones. We also saw cranes, fish, and ducks. It was so fun – unlike anything I had ever done before.

After the air boat ride, we headed back and stopped along the way for some Taco Bell/Long John Silvers (we ended up finding one on the way and had to stop since a Taco Bell was also in the same location). We then headed back to the condo, the boys all jumped into the pool for 20 minutes to have a quick swim – enjoyed playing some fun water games. Then we called it a night and sent them to bed around 8:30 p.m. We have not been sleeping near long enough the past few nights and with tomorrow being such an early morning we are all getting to bed early.

We have had an amazing time so far and have seen such amazing things. I think we will be going home to actually get some sleep, though. We are heading Magic Kingdom tomorrow morning and very excited to experience this first hand.

The group before heading into the Temple.

The whole family after being in the Temple.  Parker (navy blue), Carter (light blue)

Carter and a lizard.

Everybody who wanted to had a turn holding an iguana.

Swimming time after dinner.

Disney World - Day 3

April 12, 2012- Thursday - Our morning started early as I was up at 5:30 a.m. and we left around 7:15 a.m. We headed out to Animal Kingdom. We arrived about 15 minutes before opening. We ended up waiting behind ropes until the workers took them down. We started out with Byron running to Expedition Everest for FASTPASSES while the rest of us went to a kiddie area that had some fun rides. We rode a ride called DINOSAUR that is like Indiana Jones at Disneyland. It was jerky and bumpy, but really fun. Bradley even enjoyed it. The next ride was Expedition Everest. Everybody rode except for Bradley. I did the baby swap and rode after the rest did. It was one amazing ride! I absolutely LOVED it! It was like Matterhorn Mountain but had a fun twist. A monster chewed up the track, so the train stopped on the track and it started going backwards for quite some time in the dark (a weird sensation). Then the train starts going forward again as it twists through the mountain in the dark. It was really a fun ride. Dad Beck got really sick from riding it since he had no clue about it going backwards – he was imagining Thunder Mountain at Disneyland. He was out of commission for about one hour. After that ride, Mom Beck, Melissa, and the rest of our kids (minus Bradley) enjoyed Kali River Rapids. Byron, Bradley & I were not excited about getting wet so we opted out. They ended up riding it twice in a row and got soaked! I think it took them at least 4 hours or more to dry out after that one. We had fun watching a Flight of Wonders bird show. It was so fun to see different varieties of birds compared with what is shown at Hogle Zoo.

One of my favorite parts was the Kilimanjaro Safaris. We all got into safari jeeps that held about 30 people. As we went along we saw some amazing animals just roaming without any fences between them and other animals. It reminded me of Jurassic Park with the beauty and openness. We saw some beautiful giraffes, Hogwarts, ostrich, elephant, black rhino and white, hippos, cheetah, huge ox with large horns, and other miscellaneous animals. They were all magnificent and so beautiful in their natural surroundings. The Hogwarts burrowed large holes all over their area – it was just fascinating to see. We later learned that this park closes earlier than the rest because it takes 3 hours to round up each animal at the end of the day. They all have certain calls they sound to call them to their individual cages.

Parker bought a cute Mickey Safari hat – he was so excited about his purchase.

Animal Kingdom is enormous as far as area it covers. We walked from one end of the park to the other a couple of times probably covering 5 miles or so today. We ate lunch at a Chinese place and enjoyed some yummy lemon or sweet and sour chicken. It was so filling and tasted yummy.

Two amazing shows we were able to see was “Festival of the Lion King” and “Finding Nemo Musical.” “Festival of the Lion King” was combined with dressed up characters from Lion King along with some natives that sang the songs (they were amazing!). We were all thoroughly enthralled the whole time. It was definitely first class. “Finding Nemo Musical” was amazing also. It was about a 45 minute production in a beautiful large auditorium with a stage. The characters were all large puppets carried around by the person who played their voice. It was fascinating how they did it and very entertaining. The songs were also really fun. Bradley ended up falling asleep during it – he has had 3 very long days in a row and can’t keep up with all this excitement.

Before heading out around 6:30 p.m., we got a turkey leg for all to share. The kids were devouring it! It was a pretty funny sight to see.

After leaving the park, we headed over to Chilies to eat dinner. Since it was so packed, we ended up doing take out and eating back at our condo. It was so nice to actually get back at a decent time to relax before bed. We all enjoyed some swimming time together. The water was so warm (pretty much the perfect temperature). Bradley was practicing holding his breath under water. He was cracking us all up. He first started out thinking he could only hold his breath with goggles on, but then graduated to doing it without them. He would hold his breath for about 15 seconds at a time. I was very impressed. If he keeps this up, I will have to get him into swimming lessons this summer.

All of us upon entering the park - Parker light blue, Carter navy blue

The Dinosaur ride was pretty scary when the large dinosaurs came out of nowhere right above where you were.  I love this picture of Johnathan ducking down and all of the facial expressions.

After the water ride- all soaking wet!

In line for the safari ride.

Refreshing treats after lunch.

Parker and his new hat.

Tanner next to a possum and Parker at the petting zoo.

Yum!

All of us together while leaving the park.

Fun water time.  Below - Camille, Bradley, Parker, Melissa, Mom Beck, Tanner & Carter.