In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t been around much this past week. The family (and by family, I mean WHOLE family, all 15 of us) went to Walt Disney World for Thanksgiving. We were down there from last Tuesday until last night (rolled in the house about 2am). I would have posted daily updates, but aside from getting to sleep at 2am every night network access down there was 9.95 a day and I wasn’t going to pay that.

Needless to say, I have a ton of photos to post (you can check the gallery), some really cool videos I’m going to clean up and post on youtube and then here and a couple of days worth of blogging about the trip to do. Stay tuned!

Edit: There are currently, 1416 photos in the gallery from the trip. I’ll be uploading approximately 130 more in a week or so… Also, I’ll be back dating the blog entries for the trip to coencide with the day it was like I did for the west ward trip…

Saturday was a long day. We were up early and struck off back to the Animal Kingdom so we could see Finding Nemo the Musical and ride the Safari ride. We got to the park and booked it back to Africa and the line for the Safari (which was less than a 5 minute wait, not bad at all). We had a really cool safari and its done a little well (even if it is a little cheesy).

We saw several animals up close (see the Giraffe?) and in their somewhat native habitat (if you can call middle Florida native for a Giraffe). The ride was fun and totally worth getting up and heading out early for. The Safari is a must do in the morning (lines are shorter) as the animals are more active in the AM then in the PM. We saw the top of the lion’s mane but not much else, but the other animals made up for it. Once we were safely back from the safari we made our way over to finding Nemo the Musical.

We’ve seen Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King several times and loved them and Finding Nemo is well on its way to being the next musical hit from Disney. It was really well done, the songs, the costumes everything about the production was top notch and an awesome start on their next broadway hit. I’d go back and watch it again (we bought the cd so I can sing along with it!).

Once done there we headed over to Disney/MGM Studios park. We caught beauty and the beast, and the little mermaid before we met up with Denise and her family for dinner at the Brown Derby. If you go to Disney and miss eating at the Brown Derby, you’re at a loss.

The meal was GOOD. One of the best of the whole trip. Their chopped cobb salad was excellent. Plus our reservations reserved us a seat at the evening showing of fantasmic. A battle of Good vs. Evil in Mickey’s dreams.

It was really well done with the effects (they use a wall of water as a projection screen) and the appearances, the music everything. It was a show you don’t want to miss and yet grace fell asleep through the end of it.

Once that was over we piled in to the rinaudo’s minivan and headed back to the Magic Kingdom. We got there in time to watch the evening’s fireworks (the little green dot thats moving in the upper right of the video is tinkerbell coming out of the castle). It was a very good show (trust me, I know).

We also hit some of the rides. Grace wanted to take me on Pirates, Its a Small World and Peter Pan, we hit all of them except Peter Pan. I was somewhat frightened by Its a Small World. The colors, the puppets, the music, it all seemed like a really bad dream or a nightmare. I wasn’t too fond of it, but Grace liked it so thats all that really matters. We did manage to catch a pretty cool night time parade that reminded me a lot of a mardi gras parade in the way it was done.

The last ride of the night was Snow Whites Adventure which is good. After it, we were in Sir Mickey’s (a shop just outside the ride) and Emma decided she had had enough and proceeded to throw up. Luckily it mostly landed on me and not the merchandise in the store. So I went and got her cleaned up and we headed out towards the entrance of the park on our way back to the cabin. We took the ferry back to the campground (there are, as I have said, several ways to get from most of the resorts to the parks) and made it back by about 1am. Grace continued her streak of closing down the parks at night. I am amazed at how well she did the whole trip.

Today was no different. Even after staying up and closing the park last night, Grace was up by 8 am. We made breakfast (I cooked up some eggs and toast) and got ready to head to Epcot today. We had a lunch scheduled today at 11:30 with some of the Princesses at a Castle in Norway (not really Norway, but the Norway country in Epcot).

It was pretty cool. When we arrived, Belle greeted Grace and Emma and took some photos and signed their books. We sat down to a really really good meal. Grace had Mickey shaped ravioli, I had a BBQ Pork Sandwich, Amy and Denise had a Salmon sandwich and mom had roast chicken. While we were eating the other princesses came around and signed books and took photos. Grace got to meet Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Jasmine (I had my photo take with Jasmine… ).

After lunch we walked around the rest of the “countries” @ Epcot. This time around we didn’t have too much of a chance to go take a look at some of the other stuff (its not really for the younger kids), but we did manage to snag a pint from the Rose and Crown Pub in the England section. Sometime in the afternoon we made our way back to the cabin for a bit of a nap.

We made it back to Epcot that evening for the Magic Hours and the evening firework show. Before the show we made it to the Sea area and rode the Nemo ride before the show. The ride is cool in that it ends at the Aquarium in Epcot. The Aquarium has two dolphins and some other really cool fish that you don’t get to see too often.

That big ball of light in the clip is a giant globe with a couple of matrix screens where the contentets are. It was pretty cool, that and the flames…

After the show we went to the land section, watched the circle of life, rode the boats through the land and the Epcot “farm” it was cool to see the way they planted some of the stuff they’re growing. We also went back to the sea to ride nemo one more time and hit the turtle talk with crush exhibit, which was neat as well. Crush the turtle from Nemo interacts with the kids in a really fun manner.

To end the night, Grace got to see many of the characters. It was a good day over all, but Amy and I both weren’t too impressed with epcot on the whole. It might be more fun when the girls are older.

Morning came early on Thanksgiving day. Bolstered by the fact that we were at Disney, the girls (all three of them) were up by 8 and ready to go. We had breakfast at the cabin and got ready. Grace was in her Ariel costume (since we were going to the Magic Kingdom) and the rest of us were dressed a little warmer due to the overcast skies. We drove to the MK parking lot (which is a mile and a half away from the entrance to the actual park itself) and then rode the monorail over from there. Thankfully this monorail was not like Blaine and it just took us where we needed to go. We saw the Wedding Chapel (a nice site for beach weddings) and some of the other resorts as well.

When we got to the MK we made our way in and headed towards Cinderella’s Castle and the center of the park. Grace had her photo taken in front of Disney and Mickey Mouse and in the WDW Photo they were able to add Tinkerbell to her hands. Its pretty cool. The castle was blocked because of a show so we made our way around the back to the Tea Cups. I wasn’t too sure if they’d like them or not, but as you can see from the video, Emma and Grace loved the tea cups.

After that we rode the Dumbo ride (Uncle Eric joined us for that one) and Grace got to meet Ariel, who was very impressed with Grace’s “fins” and offered to go swimming with her some time. From there it was off to the Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique for a princess makeover (Not me you dolt!). The boutique is in Cinderella’s Castle and has a crew of “fairy godmothers” working on hair and makeup for little princesses of all ages. Packages range from just hair to full makeover (which includes a costume). Grace of course got the full package.

While G was getting her hair done, Emma and I went and rode the Carousel and the Winnie the Pooh ride which was fun (emma liked the colors on the Winnie the Pooh ride). By the time we got back to Grace and Amy, she was almost ready. The FGM sprinkled half the container of glitter on Grace’s hair (it all came off on my shirt later) and poof, time for daddy to pay the bill! Grace selected Ariel’s wedding dress as her dress (which is one she doesn’t have) and we made our way out of the castle and back towards the front of the park stopping to meet Belle along the way.

While we waited for the parade at the front, Grace had her princess photos taken (which took several tries…). We watched the parade and then made our way back to the cabin around 2pm to rest and cook for the 3pm dinner we were having.

Pops fried a turkey, I made Green Beans, Denise and co brought Sweet Potatoes, Eric and tracy made mashed potatoes, Brian and Tonya brought biscuits and Aunt Denise, Uncle Bill and the girls brought a desert. Dinner worked out very well at the cabin and it was nice having everyone together for a meal. Much better than eating at a restaurant.

After dinner, Amy and Grace headed back to the Magic Kingdom with everyone while Emma and I stayed at the cabin to clean up and sleep. They had a lot of fun riding the rides with Uncle Eric, Aunt Tracy and the Rinaudo clan and Grace rode a couple of rides I wasn’t sure she’d like. She liked Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan and Its a Small world. Grace closed down the park (made it until midnight) for the second day in a row.

Wednesday started off early. I was out of bed before 8 and on my way from the Animal Kingdom Lodge to the Fort Wilderness Campground Outpost to check in and get our tickets for the day so we could be off and rolling. It wasn’t tricky getting there. Most of the roads at Disney make loops. It was just a matter of finding the right loop. Our cabin wasn’t ready yet, but with tickets in hand I headed out of disney in search of a supermarket. Didn’t find one, but I did snag breakfast from McD’s for the fam.

By the time I made it back to the room at the AKL the girls were all up and bouncing off the wall. There was a Giraffe just out the window which was pretty cool to see first thing in the morning. We packed up (its amazing the CRAP four people need to get by for a week), checked out of the room and headed over to the animal kingdom.

On the whole, Disney is very well laid out and it spans a massive amount of property. You could go for days and never see everything there is to see (we were there for five days and never even saw the stuff in the area we were staying in!). We parked in the AK parking lot and made the short walk (it took less time to walk to the entrance than it did to the tram to get to the entrance) and before you know it we were inside. The park was very cool. We made it around to Camp Minnie Mickey and caught the Lion King show. It was cool. Kind of Cirque like in the way it was done and a lot of fun.

After the show we stood in line and met Minnie Mouse. Grace really got in to meeting the Characters and getting autographs and photos during the time there (I think she enjoyed that most of all). The lines for the characters moved quickly for the most part and it seemed like they spent a decent amount of time with the kids. We left Camp MM and made our way through the park to Africa and the Train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch.

At Rafiki’s we met Rafiki and Pocahontas, the first of many princesses we’d meet, and got to go to a petting zoo. In the gallery, you can see the photos of a cow named cat and some of the other animals there. It was pretty cool. By the time we got done over there it was around 1pm and the girls were getting pretty tired so we decided to head over to the cabin at Ft. Wilderness (Disney’s Campground) and have a rest.

I don’t know what we were expecting, but you can see from the photos that the cabins were pretty nice. A queen (I think it was a queen) and two bunk beds in the bedroom and a murphy bed in the “living room”. Pretty spacious and of course, it includes maid service! Once the car was unloaded and the place kind of moved in to, the girls went down for a nap. Which is a good thing cause amy and I were tired as well. They slept until about 6 or seven and then we headed back out to the Animal Kingdom.

One of the “perks” of staying on property at Disney is that they have special Magic Hours in their parks for resort guests. Wednesday was MH in Animal Kingdom so we were able to go back and ride some of the stuff that we didn’t get to earlier. We met up with mom and dad and made our way to DinoLand USA. Grace and Emma loved riding the Triceratops Spin and Amy and Pops enjoyed the Prime Evil Whirl so much I couldn’t get them back on (check out the video below!). For the last ride of the night I went with Denise and Alex over to Expedition Everest and rode the coaster. It was really well done and the view from the top of the tracks of the park at night was worth it.

We made it back to the cabin and crashed. I think the girls had a fun day at the park, the only thing we didn’t get to do was the Safari ride, but we have plans to come back so we can.

Surprisingly we were out the door by 7:10am. Granted, we didn’t leave kennesaw for another hour due to dropping my car off at the body shop, but we made good time leaving the house for once. With the Xterra dropped off at CrashMasters,everyone piled in to the van (I say everyone, but really, there was only four of us in the van) and a movie spinning in the DVD player (how the hell did we manage road trips when I was a child?) we made for I-75 South.

The drive down was rather uneventful, I got bored of watching the GPS on my phone after a couple (one) minutes. Outside of the potty breaks, food/gas stops and the slowing down to throw our exact change at the toll booth collector people (yes, that is their OFFICIAL title) we managed to make pretty good time. We pulled in to Disney’s Animal Kingdom lodge around 5pm est and checked in.

If you’ve never stayed on property at Disney World, its a definite must. I’ll talk about the other accommodation’s later, but the AK Lodge is freakishly cool. Animals outside every window, nice staff and very good (if pricey) food. Amy checked us in and since it was our first time we all got first timer buttons (YAY US!). It was cool that we all (except emma) got our own room keys, it made Grace feel important. Once we found our room the first thing we did was open the blinds to the balcony so we could see the cool animals out our window.

The animal kingdom lodge has several style rooms, the coolest ones are the savanna view rooms. These look out over the “savanna” and you can see some of the animals out in the park. Nothing to interesting that evening aside from some antelopes. We left the room and went exploring. Along the way we saw some zebras and a couple of giraffes eating.

The AK has a big hall in the main area where check in is, several restraunts and bars. There seemed to be something going on all the time there and while the place was busy it never seemed over crowded. We found the pool, the hot tubs and the play ground and had a fun evening. All in all it was a pretty good way to spend the first night. Amy and I would like to go back to the AK Lodge sometime when its just the two of us….