Category: 2012 Florida

(Originally “published” August 22.)

Amid fantastic crowds, we made our way back to Magic Kingdom today to catch all the rides we’d missed on earlier visits. Splash Mountain was a hit. As was Big Thunder Mountain (or whatever it’s called, I’ve been getting it wrong all week). The Jungle Cruise host was hilarious, but they normally are. Mara and I did the Haunted Mansion while Diana and Cameron got snacks and shot things in Liberty Square. And Pirates, the one I really wanted to see, the one that had been offline every time we’d looked, was back up and running and we walked right on with no wait.

(Originally posted on August 20 and lost by Squarespace… Not liking their growing pains.)

Canonical Epcot shots in 3… 2…

We went to get on the boat, saw the big black clouds, and by the time we turned around to walk for the bus, it absolutely poured. We missed most of it on the bus ride over and during dinner, and now we’re waiting for the fireworks.

 

After 10 days of theme park fun, line-ups, hot and humid weather, drenching thunderstorms, and lots of smiles and laughter, we are all tired and ready for home. What a great vacation! Hard to believe school is just around the corner….well, Mara and Cameron will have some great adventures to share when they see their friends!

We had so much fun, we had to do this park again! We rode Star Tours and the grand movie magic ride, saw some shows, and fell in love with a ride we missed last time here – Aerosmith’s Rockin Roller Coaster. What an absolute blast! We loved it so much, we got Fast Passes to come back and ride it again after the Fantasmic! water and fireworks show. Rock on! Then it was home for a quick cool-off dip in the pool, and off to bed. Tomorrow we head home.

We began today with a return trip to Magic Kingdom, hoping to get beyond the space-related rides in Tomorrowland. We rode the Pirates ride (lucky us! It was closed when we first arrived), Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Run. Then the storm hit, the rides closed, we headed home for a bit and then hit Epcot for our last hurrah there. All the space rides one last time, dinner at the British pub (yum!), Maelstrom all the way through this time, and a stunning fireworks show…what a great last night at Epcot!

After a few false starts over the past few days, today we woke up on good time and we looked out the window to see nothing but blue sky and sunshine. That meant we were heading to the water park! We went to Blizzard Beach and had a fantastic time! We had just finished riding our last slide and were on our way to the changerooms when the heavens opened up and soaked any part of us that had managed to dry off a bit. We managed to drag our sodden selves back to the hotel to shower and dry off, and then we headed to Magic Kingdom for a few more rides and for dinner on Main Street and fireworks too! What a day!

While we’ve been having a blast and very busy, there are a few posts that haven’t made it through for some reason. And I can’t seem to fix them from the also-flaky Squarespace app on the iPad. I’ll backfill when we get home and you’ll just have to guess at what we’ve seen. Sorry!

After last night’s late (or is 1 am considered “early”?) bedtime, we were a little later into the park today. We headed to Hollywood Studios…land of the Star Wars ride and the Indiana Jones Stunt Show, among other things. What a blast we had! Oh, and did I mention that Cameron is over his phobia of Miss Piggy? Yup…we all survived the Muppet 3D experience too!

While we’ve been having a blast and very busy, there are a few posts that haven’t made it through for some reason. And I can’t seem to fix them from the also-flaky Squarespace app on the iPad. I’ll backfill when we get home and you’ll just have to guess at what we’ve seen. Sorry!