Florida Vacation Part 3

I have always loved Epcot, not necessarily the Land, Sea, etc areas. I love the World Showcase. I love to travel, and don't fear, I do not believe one iota that the world showcase is like traveling to other countries - I know that. But nonetheless, I love being there anyway. I like walking around, looking in shops, tasting food, people watching til the cows come home...

Ron on the otherhad prefers to do this while at Epcot:

Granted, this was after a good long day there, it was chilly and he just wanted to rest. =)

We actually ended up going to Epcot twice. The first day, we pretty much focused touring the front section of Epcot and ventured into only a couple of places at the World Showcase. The second day I just wanted to focus the majority of our time there. So, here are some photos of our two days there...

Maddie playing the drums at the "Outpost" section of the World Showcase. They had several different ones and she had fun making noise with the other kids there.


The gardens in the United Kingdom section.

Taking a break with some street performers. I LOVE this part. My only "beef" is that all of the street performers are not timed perfectly for me *chuckle* But you know...sometimes things work out...

She also got to meet Mary Poppins. Maddie knew exactly who she was...Ron on the other hand was wondering what the line was for....*grin*

Maddie in the Japan section of Epcot. We timed our visit well, they had an artist make sugar candy sculptures as a demonstration while we were walking through Japan. People would pick an animal and the artist would mold the candy, cut and paint it into the shape. We were one of the lucky ones and Maddie was selected to pick an animal. She chose...


A dragon! Specifically, a Pink dragon which she has here on a stick with it's tail swirling around. It was really neat to see. We had delusions of being able to bring it back to the house that night, but unfortunately all of the little "whiskers, ears, etc were breaking off from it's rough ride in the stroller, so Maddie got to eat some of it when we took a break for lunch.



We visited each fountain and made wishes, just like Maddie is doing here in the Morocco section

A great thing that they have in the World showcase is the KidCot stops. Well, they are not only in the world showcase but they help in getting kids from place to place. They get a mask they can color (side note: WHO in their right mind gives SHARPIES - you know, Permanent markers to kids to color when they can get them all over their clothes and they do not come out! Well - guess who one of the sponsors is? heh) They get a stamp, decoration and you can learn how to write your name in different languages. See that blank mask? It was COMPLETELY colored in by the end - and yes, we still have it.

While Daddy and Nana took a ride on Mission Space, Maddie and I enjoyed the music of the Trash can band (which is not their official name, but is what I call them)

We watched the acrobats in the China section twice. The first time Maddie was sound asleep in the stroller (forced nap if she wanted to stay for the fireworks, she has to take a nap in her stroller - and you know what? She did. I swear we have been so fortunate with her sleep habits!) So we stayed and watched the next showing when she was awake and she really liked it - it's amazing what they could do!


One of my favorite rides in Epcot is the Finding Nemo ride in the Coral Seas - probably because it's attached to an aquarium so I have a soft spot there.

There were rides that we didn't even attempt. I would have liked to go on Soarin' on both days there were lines over 90 minutes long and fast passes for late in the evening (like 7pm when we were there are 12) We did stay one night to see the fireworks. It was a COLD night, really cold but it was nice to see. We also dined at the Rose & Crown in the UK section. The food was good, but the cold put a damper on our outside seating *chuckle*

Up next...I'll wrap up our trip with how we celebrated Maddie's 4th birthday there

Florida Vacation Part 2...

So, here I am its 2:30 in the morning and I can not sleep...blog post time! I'm having a harder and harder time finding time to post to the blog so bouts with insomnia work out pretty well for all of you eager readers! It probably doesn't help that we're off and doing things 3/5 weeknights and often are out or away on the weekends. This weekend we went to our local FCC Chinese New Year Celebration, explored IKEA, and ran errands (car service, hair cuts, shopping) and I never found time to do our laundry! I'll download the New Year photos and post them sometime too, but first...back to Florida vacation! I've been told (thanks Mom) that I need to post again as she's been checking looking for more Florida pictures *grin*

Well, I left off detailing our vacation to Florida with the Animal Kingdom visit...

The next day we went to the place I was excited about just because I wanted to see Maddie's reaction... the Magic Kingdom! Now, I was determined not to try to rush through and see everything on one day...I mean, we were there for a week, and I knew we'd be coming back to the Magic Kingdom at least 2 more times so we took it slow and explored, well, about half the park. We started the day in Tomorrowland going on every ride that Maddie was allowed to go on, then went to Mickey's Toon Fair and Fantasyland - we didn't even attempt the other areas and you know, it made it a much more enjoyable day without all of the running to see this or running to see that....we just explored where we were...

Here is Ron, Nana and Maddie (you'll note she's wearing her princess crown and has her magic wand) in front of Cinderella's Castle.


Maddie really enjoyed the rides, and she'd run from one to the other...but you know...one of her favorite, the Carosel, I didn't get any pictures!

Nana and Maddie enjoying the TeaCups ride! They ended up sharing a Tea Cup with a couple of older ladies and I think theirs was the only tea cup that didn't spin during the entire ride!

Mommy and Maddie went on Goofy's Barnstormer. I tried to get Maddie to ride with her arms up which she did until we went down the first part then there was holding on tight with alot of giggles!

Ron and Nana on the AstroOrbiter...and you know, I never knew this ride was there! Maddie saw it while we were on something else and pointed up asking to go on it...So, not sure what we were getting into, we all got in line and rode rocket ships!

Maddie joined me in a rocket ship and here she is with the controls pulling back so we went high up and stayed high up

Maddie fixing Daddy's hair...apparently it got messed up on the orbiter ride... Don't fear - I'm not going to show you pictures of every ride we went on - that was just a sampling of the day.

Now, please remember, at the Animal Kingdom, we had started our great journey to see every character in creation right? Well, way back Disney used to have characters roam around the parks and hopefully you got a chance to see them, let alone take a picture with them. That has now all changed! There are locations specifically set up where you can wait in line and be guaranteed to see them. And when we went to the Magic Kingdom, we found where she could meet Princesses and Fairies....so yes, after touring Minnie Mouse's house, we waited in line...



Here is Maddie being enchanted by Cinderella...


And what's this???? Her FAVORITE princess, Aurora was there too! (Side note: At gymnastics class this evening, Maddie was talking with one of her classmates who had on a disney princess leotard - I asked her if she wanted to tell her which was her favorite princess and she replied that, no, she didn't want to because she didn't want the little girl to laugh at her... hrm...) Anyway, there was much excitement about meeting Princess Aurora! Of course Maddie had her autograph book where she got her to sign with a big pink frilly feather pen - what else would a princess use?

After waiting in the Princess line, then next came the Fairies line... (yes, I love my daughter very much)

Here is Maddie with Irradessa, a light Fairy. Do you see how Maddie has her hands grasped together in this picture? This is how she was while she was waiting patiently for her turn to meet the fairies. She had her hands grasped, big smiles on her face and jumping up and down in one place - I think we hit at the perfect age to visit Disney for her... pure sheer excitement!


Of COURSE Tinkerbell was there...she laughed, giggled, made faces and teased the photographers...Tinkerbell that is....not Maddie *snicker* Tinkerbell was very into character =)

And here she is with her favorite fairy, Silvermist - a water fairy. I really liked looking at the sets they made for the fairy characters - very creative, in parts where we were waiting in line, they transformed it as if we were working our way into Pixie Hollow (fairy land for any of you who didn't know)

We decided to head back home relatively early (6ish) and go swimming in the pool which was a nice way to end a fun day at the park...

Next up is Epcot! Tune back in for my next bout with insomnia! *grin*