Magic Kingdom or Disneyland?

Saturday... Magic Kingdom! Probably the park we've been the least excited about, only because we've both been to Disneyland, and expectations were high. We took it a bit easy in the morning, being the first morning in our non-Disney resort, with separate bedrooms, full kitchen, and even two sinks in the bathroom! Luxury indeed.





Ok, back to the park. First, it's huge. Even the parking is so far away from the park entrance that we had to take the Monorail to get there. We headed straight for Tomorrowland, towards our favourite (we thought) ride, Space Mountain. With Fastpass in hand, we looked around for other stuff to do. So we tried a Stitch ride (missable), a train ride around Tomorrowland (cool), and the Buzz Lightyear ride. This was a fun, interactive, video-game type ride, much like the Toy Story ride at Hollywood (hmm, could they be related?). I was losing big time (I guess the gun wasn't working), but then I must have hit something big because I jumped ahead of Kendra's already impressive score! I love these rides!

And the rain arrived. Oh well, by now we were resigned. And when it rains, it pours. Within a couple of minutes there was a river where there had been a walkway. We stayed dry as best we could, but c'est la vie!

Across the park to Pirates of the Caribbean, and here's where the comparison with Disneyland really took off. We were a little disappointed. Sure, Jack Sparrow is believable and makes the ride, but mostly because the rest was a little... boring. Not at all as we remembered it from Disneyland.

Time to use our Fastpass for Space Mountain, so back we trekked. And... another disappointment! No music on the ride? No dizzying, rotating tunnel to launch us into space? At this point I'm willing to entertain discussion on the relative merits of the two parks, at least with regards to these two rides. Any opinions out there?

We decided to drown our disappointment (not too difficult in this rain) in Fantasyland. Peter Pan, Snow White, and It's a Small World soon restored our park-hopping enthusiasm. Then it was back to Main Street for some shopping, and a ferry ride back to the parking lot.

To be continued... on Kendra's blog.

WDW 2008 - The rest of the week

Ok, where were we? If you've been reading both my blog and Kendra's, you'll know that our week so far was: Monday - Epcot; Tuesday - Downtown Disney; Wednesday - Hollywood Studios; Thursday - Epcot; and Friday - Epcot. Thursday and Friday we had been hoping for better weather, but Fay had other plans, turning herself into a depression, which basically meant lots of rain and not much else. So Epcot seemed the best plan. At least we had fun supper plans on Thursday. We were at the Animal Kingdom Lodge at a restaurant called Boma. In keeping with the African theme of the resort, the restaurant was a buffet extravaganza. Yummy, and again we ate too much.


Friday was the end of our stay at the Pop! Century. Which presented the opportunity to take pictures of all the fun stuff around the resort (between raindrops). I'll attach some pictures below. It also meant that we had one last day to: 1) finish 2 meals and 4 snacks each on the Dining Plan, 2) play a free round of minigolf, and 3) take advantage of Extra Magic Hours at Epcot. Which we proceeded to do. The minigolf was fun, even though we (of course) got rained on, and I managed to kill my umbrella (the saga of the umbrellas is worthy of its own post, so I won't get into that now). The food was abundant, even though we finished our last meal in the rain (huh!). And the Extra Magic Hours was fun. Epcot was open an extra 3 hours (till midnight) for all resort guests. We stayed and went on the Nemo ride for a second time, and Spaceship Earth (see Kendra's blog) for a 3rd time. That one may just end up being our favourite of all.


Ok, let's get to pictures.

Our building at the Pop! was fronted by a giant Baloo and Mowgli.

Also on the property, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head decided to stop for a chat with us, and were obliging enough to pause for a picture.

Fantasia Mini-golf. Very fun, good theme, but very very wet!

Back at Epcot, somewhere around Germany, we found Eeyore and Pooh! I think Pooh was a little jealous because I hugged Eeyore first, and told him he was my favourite. Eeyore is looking a little smug, isn't he?

These were our bracelets for extra hours on Friday night. We had to take the picture this way, because we couldn't get the bracelets off!

We're back!

On the internet, that is. One thing that WDW resorts have not caught up with in this century is free access to computers with internet. So we haven't been able to blog until we moved away from our lovely Pop Century resort.

We only have a few minutes left in our current session, so here are some pictures from our first two days in Orlando. We'll write more later, and give you all the lovely details of living with Fay.

Here's us leaving on the plane to Orlando! Ok, we're really not on this plane, but ours should have looked like this.


Vive le holiday! We just had to celebrate once we got to France. In Epcot's World Showcase, that is.

Our first supper on the Disney Dining Plan was at Restaurant Marrakesh in Morocco (Epcot version). Sorry the picture is upside down. We are quite a way down south, you know. And the computer we're working with doesn't have a lot of the modern conveniences. We'll fix it later.


Here's proof we were at Epcot! It's amazing! We are going to have a blast.

Speaking of blasting, Fay came blowing through here on Tuesday, so no parks and no pictures. What is a girl to do when it rains buckets and rivers? Go shopping, of course. Downtown Disney was only a short bus ride away, so away we went. And no, we can't tell you what we bought.

Here's a sneak preview of Wednesday at Disney's Hollywood Studios. We'll write more later.


The famous hat that Mickey wore as the Sorcerer's Apprentice sits near the entrance to Disney's Hollywood Studios.


The Hollywood Tower of Terror! A very good ride, a little scary, a lot of fun. Better than the Rockin' Rollercoaster, anyway.

Just before catching Fanstasmic (the fortunately NOT cancelled evening light show), we relived Beauty and the Beast on stage. Very fun!

And we ended the day with some fun! A walk through Andy's playroom on our way to the Toy Story Extravaganza! Basically a giant video game, where you shoot targets as the ride progresses. Who scored the most points? You'll just have to wonder about that one.

Never too many books

I love picture books! My collection is bursting out of its bookshelf, but I can always use more. I came across a website today, lookybook.com (thanks, Kris Abel), that may just satisfy my urge to collect more of these wonderful books. Maybe for a little while.

The site is worth a look, as it lets you take a look into each book. And not just a look! You can read through the whole book, save your favourites, and of course buy the books you really need to hold in your hands (Amazon is a dangerous invention!).

I've used my favourite from this site (so far) to showcase the website. Click on the pair of eyes to open this book on the lookybook site, or simply read it here in my blog.

Hmmm... I may just need to buy this book and its sequel, Poor Puppy.

Happy in Heaven

Dear Auntie MaryAnn,

I am so happy to know that you are now happy in heaven. No more pain, no more sadness, no more suffering, no more tears. No more sickness, no more death.
I will miss your warm welcome, your patience and permission for anything we wanted to do at your house. I will miss the addictive games on your computer. I will miss the always ready cup of tea and the yummy waffles with pudding. And I will miss your hugs.
One day we will be able to pick up again where we left off. I look forward to that day.

Anatomy of a birthday bunny

I've sometimes wondered if birthdays were worth celebrating after the first 30 years or so, but this weekend reminded me that they are worth celebrating. There is something very important and blessing-full about having family and friends remind you that you have value and that you are loved. Thanks for doing that for me this year.

From afternoon tea and bookstore browsing, to angel food cake and hugs from my nieces, this has been a birthday to remember.

Colleen, you surprised my socks off!

Just to prove that I enjoyed my birthday, here is documented breakdown of one of my gifts!

(ok, so I cheated and sampled an ear before taking the first picture)

Light show

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Originally uploaded by Auntie Kangaroo

So this is a bit out of focus, but I love the colours and the shadow cast by Mount Baker. In celebration of a memorable sunrise...

Christmas decorations

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Originally uploaded by Auntie Kangaroo

I think I'll be keeping my Christmas decorations up all year. Mr. Knightley has found a new favourite perch. Maybe it has something to do with the warmth from the fire just below him. Or maybe he likes to sit where he can keep an eye on me.
Meanwhile, where is Emma? Oh yeah, I think she's sleeping under my turned-over bed quilts, her favourite new haunt.

And for those who have been waiting with bated breath (ok, I guess that was just me), I finally got my car back just over a week ago. Yeah!