Disney Vacation 2012

Ok, I don't have any photos in yet, but I wanted to at least get the up before it was too out of date. Photos to follow!
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Day 1
Well, not only did we survive the trip to Florida, but the boys did great. No crying, arguments or meltdowns from 6 am till bed at 8:15. We got to the airport over 2 hrs early, which was significantly better than the family in line at security behind us. They showed up at 8 for an 8 am flight. They had 6 minutes to get through security. Surprisingly, they made it!
The boys were great waiting, on the flight and even using the bathroom on the flight. Pete's ears bugged him a bit during landing, but the iPad kept them occupied. The ride to the hotel was quick, and once we checked in we had a nice afternoon.

We can see the main Savannah from our room, and saw giraffe, zebra, cattle, red hog, and various deer already. Before we checked in we had snacks in the lounge for tea time (clotted cream on scones!) then checked in before pool time including a nice little slide. Then more snacks! (Todd ate goat cheese and sun dried tomato hummus, I enjoyed African stuffed bread and the boys tried corn cakes but weren't impressed). We wandered around and roasted marshmallows while watching the flamingos, played on the playground, where Pete managed to get stuck on the twirly fire pole. We wandered around until dinner, where Pete ate four chicken legs, 3 mini corn breads, 3 strawberries, 2 penne pastas, and 2 cinnamon chocolate mousse petite fours. Brian only had 2 chicken legs, but managed to keep pace with the corn bread and desserts (brownies instead), and a small pile of strawberries. There were different kinds of African polenta, my favorite was with spinach. The peanut soup was spicy and peanuty. Overall, a tasty dinner.
Then, we went to the night vision, and saw some small and large deer with night vision goggles. Super cool! It's now 826, everyone's asleep, and the alarm is set for 630 to hit the magic kingdom.

Day 2
We did the magic kingdom. And I mean the whole thing! Except for Tom Sawyers Island, the train and the river boat. We hit adventure land first. Pirate of the Caribbean did not go over well with Brian. At all. The jungle cruise was a surprise hit, but things starting going really well after splash mountain. That's when Brian declared he liked all the rides so far, except the pirates. We finished adventure land and frontierland with barely any lines. Then came "hell alley" between It's a small world and peter pans ride. Stroller parking, skinny walkway and way too many toddlers. We got a fast pass to avoid the 1 hr wait on peter pan and waiting 20 minutes for small world. The boys loved it. Their mouths were hanging open, it was adorable. Somewhere in between we had lunch. The Peter pan ride was not worth an hours wait! Thank goodness for fast pass. Actually, we skipped snow whites scary adventure,since the lines were worse than Peter pan. Pete and I did space mountain together. When we got off, the quote was "I did not like it at all". I was slightly more favorable, but Todd concurred with Pete. Which means we don't have to wait in line for Everest on Thursday! We saw the presidents on presidents day, which totally tickled Pete! Buzz's ride was fun, Todd got double my score (lucky shot on Zurg at the end. Before the last room, I was up by 10K). We bought tons of ride photos and Brian wanted a woody Mickey ears. Which I ended up wearing, much to everyone's enjoyment. Later bed time by an hour tonight, tomorrow might be tougher, but theres extra magic hours for Epcot from 8-9, and after having the longest wait be only 40 minutes, the boys are already spoiled. Pete loves his fast pass!

Day 3
Up early. Really early. Todd woke up around 4 and noticed a sleeping giraffe outside our room. So, what does he do? Take a few photos. Unfortunately, the amount of noise to take a few photos sounds like a small ruckus, so, me, Pete and the giraffe woke up. By 8, the humans had arrived at magic hours at Epcot. Getting in was a bit long, but once we were it, we went to soarin' in the land. Take off was a bit surprising, but we managed to get Pete to open his eyes and we all really enjoyed it. I can understand why the line gets to over 100 minutes. We then hit the gentle green version of mission space. Well, Pete a d Todd did, while Brian and I solved problems with our space team and won the race to mars! I went on mission space after Pete's ringing endorsement of "I don't want to do it again, but you should do it." My car was 4 adult women, on the green side, but it was fun and no barf bags needed. Then we went to the seas with Nemo, which was cute. And the test track, which I think is probably Brian's favorite given his laughter when we hit 60 on the straightaway. Pete, was screaming on all the turns and at the end managed to say "I want to get off this thing!" not exactly a ringing endorsement. We hit captain eo to appease mommy. 3D was cool and the added 4D of alive sneezes was cute. Then we hit Ellen's Energy. Best part was Bill Nye the science guy. Brian was not impressed with the extremely loud dinosaurs. I think this is tied with pirates as his two least favorite rides. Then we went over to La Neuba. The clowns hit Pete's funny bone. His laughter with a bad timing of lemonade from daddy resulted in Pete snarfing the lemonade all over the woman sitting in front of him. Of course, he then had to go to the bathroom with 15 minutes left in the show. We weren't the favorites of our neighbors. The show was amazing, but very teen oriented with two trick bicyclist (one on a dirt bike, one on a street bike) and two jump ropers. I missed the shear feats of strength that the first show I saw had. We had a late dinner at a chip shop in downtown Disney and the boys passed out on the bus ride home. Fortunately, Hollywood studios doesn't open till 9, so maybe we can sleep in.

Day 4
Well, sleeping in is relative. I got up at 630 and went for a 20 minute run. Felt good, but it was hot inside. I hope it's not that bad on Sunday. We did everything we wanted to do n Hollywood studios, which wasn't a whole lot. We went right to toy story and got the fast pass for 1 ish. It broke down first thing but was running fine. Walked over to star tours for a 10 minute wait. Bribed Brian by promising him an ewok doll when we got off. The ride was fun, we went to wookie planet and jar jar binds planet. Only down side was the girl behind Todd threw up. Of course, we hit the gift shop and went crazy. Of course Brian got his ewok doll. Todd caved and got Pete a darth goofy (he almost caved for Mickey obi wan). Then there was Pete's R2D2 ears, Todd's bobba fett shirt and my star wars 77 varsity tee shirt. When geeks go wild... We saw the muppet show, the Pixar parade, lightning McQueen stunt show, Indiana jones stunt show and the toy story ride. The entry to toy story was incredible, it was Andy's room! The game was fun, Todd only beat me by 9K points, but Brian had double Pete's score. We went back to Epcot for dinner at the corral seas. The app was real good, the food was ok. The boys had fun watching the divers and sharks. We hit spaceship earth, since it didn't have a wait then hung out in the lounge for a bit. Early morning tomorrow, safari breakfast, character lunch, then safari dinner.

Day 5
Warning: I'm writing this right after a dinner safari, with 3 different wine pairing...more on that later.
We woke up at the crack of dawn to get ready for the breakfast safari. We took a bus over to animal kingdom, and got to see the "behind the scenes" stuff, like the employee parking lot and borrowable bicycles (since the lot is that far away from the park) and the barns for the animals. Then we got on the ride aka safari and saw pretty much every animal. The rhino was running around, the lion wasn't totally asleep, all in all, it was pretty cool. Then we went for breakfast, which was good, todd loved the banana French toast I liked the peri peri omelet. We hit the Kali river rapids first thing, which was a good idea, until Todd and Pete were aimed down hill and Pete got drenched. He started crying because he thought his "favorite" sweatshirt was ruined. Once we calmed down, we saw Dino-Sue, which thrilled Pete, and the triceratops ride for Brian. Then we went on dinosaur and managed to terrify both boys. The picture is classic, Pete with his eyes closed, Brian with his hands over his ears, Todd hugging Brian and me giving the carnosarius a dirty look. We then went to the bugs movie, which was fun, although the smoke, spiders and grasshopper freaked out Pete and Brian. The "beetles" running in the seat was funny though. The tree of life is pretty cool. We didn't get to see a lot of the animals, since we had the jiko dinner, we left at 2. Spent some time at the pool, which was great once the boys got life jackets. Then, dropped the boys off at simba's cub house (after a bit of confusion regarding 345 vs 430 start time) and we went on safari. The evening one was just around the hotel, and we saw running zebras and a very confused ostrich trying to get out of the way. Huey Lewis the Gnu, a giraffe that didn't notice a truck with a dozen people on board. Then to jiko for the tasting menu. The food was incredible. Fortunately, we got to keep a copy of the menu. The beef crispy rolls, and chicken were both deemed really good by the 2 of us. The 3 wines were great. And the creme brûlée was pretty much like my pumpkin pie (ok, ma's pumpkin pie).

Day 6
Went back tithe magic kingdom today. It was tough getting the boys out of bed, but we managed. Had to get a fast pass for splash mountain, since it wasn't working when we got there. Saw Tom Sawyers island and Peter told Brian a little about the book. Took the ferry boat and saw the construction on thunder mountain railroad. The construction workers all waved to the boys, it was really cute. Finally got to go through the castle, and danced withe the parade again. This time, the gorilla from Tarzan danced with Pete. We spilt a waffle with nutella and fruit for snack. Then, since it was hot, instead of going to epcot after lunch, we came back to the hotel and hit the pool. We went to kadani village, which has a bigger water slide and played on that all afternoon. Then we went back to Epcot for pasta in the park. The food wasn't great, but I got my picture with snow white and we had the best seats in the park for the fireworks. Before they started, we were harassed by a family of ducks. Brian fell asleep about 15 minutes before the show started and saw the first volley, but that was about it. We had to carry him all the way back to the bus, and to the room.

Day 7
Went to the Mara for breakfast, discovered bobotie is pretty darn tasty. Then over to espn for packet pick up,and the boys race. The line was long, but I got ears, a shirt and hoodie. The boys did great on their race, Pete won by a nose. Then over to animal kingdom to see the animals. Kinda cool, but a little rushed since we had the luau at 5. We did see all the animals and begged jay to get the boys last stamp on the discovery tour without doing the activity. The luau was nice, Pete ate a ton of chicken again and even went on stage to learn a dance. Other than tucker house and jiko, the food hasn't really been much better than pretty good. Oh, and boma's peanut soup. The traditional dance was good, but it was Disney-fied to the point I expect Lilo and stitch to show up. It's not quite 9, Todd is snoring, the boys are asleep and I'm packed for the race. The alarm is set for 3.

Day 8
Didn't get to do this last night... Anyway, I woke up at 2, which was an hour before the alarm. Got up at three with the alarm. At 3:15, Todd's phone when off (aaawwww) and I was downstairs by 3:30. Did the race (more on that later) then hit Epcot for the day. We got the boys all of their Duffy country stamps, and more photos with Duffy, Pooh and Tigger. Went on the Mexico ride again, and Norway. Visited figment, talked with crush the turtle (that was super cool, the talked to the kids. Pete thought it was funny). We also went to the lion king environmental movie and watched Japanese candy making, more of carving, it was impressive. Pete wanted her to make an elephant, but I don't think it was on her list. We went to Canada for an early dinner. The steak and risotto was excellent, the boys loved their chocolate moose, and the maple creme brûlée was out of this world! They even used maple sugar on top. Then we went for a nap, thinking the fireworks at the magic kingdom were at 10. Instead, they were at 8 and we saw them from the bus. Back to the hotel for some tv, a few gifts for the boys since Pete isn't chewing his clothes. This morning, we bought almost all of our left over snacks, and got shirts for ourselves and the boys from the gift shop. At the airport now, with a bunch of women from the race. Everyone is still wearing their medals.