Disney World. Day 3. Coming Home.

7:00 a.m. awake and out of the room in 15 minutes.

We were headed to Hollywood again to see if we could grab an early seat on the Toy Story Mania ride before the crowd got there. Speed walking to get to the Toy Story Mania ride was similar to the running of the bulls. I was appalled that these folks were racing to get to an amusement park ride – then, I realized that I was racing to get to… an amusement park ride. Yikes! We (Napmom and Lulu) got to the ride and were numbers 8 and 9 in line.

Lulu and I spent some time at the Imagination Stage where we were given a demonstration on how the animators bring the Disney cartoon movie characters to life. After leaving the demonstration, we were second in line to meet this guy. I say this because I would have liked to have taken more pictures of Lulu and the mouse, but she refused to wait in line to meet the characters. I think that this was part of her not wanting to be bothered with celebrities thing.

Lulu practiced a voiceover and took a quiz to see which Disney character she is most like. Look in the background – we practically had the whole place to ourselves.

Then, we went in to the studio to try our hand at drawing a famous Disney character.

Note to Disney: Yes, the animator explained that there are no erasers on these pencils. Yes, he also explained that these drawings do not need to be perfect. Yes, he was very kind. However, there was more than one child who was crying because he ‘messed up’ on his drawing and wanted to fix it. I mean, we had sobbing kids in here folks. They wanted erasers and they wanted to fix their pictures. They wanted to opportunity to make it look better. For crying out loud – can’t you give us some pencils with erasers? Who gives kids pencils without erasers? Pencils without erasers – bad idea, very bad idea. Parents – this is a very fun experience and will be well worth it, but save yourself the tears and bring your own eraser.

We saw some more shows, ate lunch, and headed back to the resort so that we could catch the Magical Express to the airport.

This was my state of mind at the end of the day on Sunday. One Napmom can only handle but so much fun!

Coming Home

On the flight home, Lulu completed her class assignment. She was tasked to come up with a food item that she likes and is important to her culture. Unfortunately for us, her ancestral food does NOT include chicken nuggets or pizza. Her culture/heritage choices are limited to: Native American, Greek, and Irish. I almost had to make Greek Baklava with no nuts (nuts being the signature ingredient) because we are not permitted to bring nut items to school. However, Lulu settled for the Native American cornbread casserole instead. Whew!

Other tidbits and memories from our trip:

Our Top 3 Disney Experiences
1. Waking up Tinker Bell
2. Seeing Lulu cheer at Downtown Disney
3. Seeing the Osborne lights at Hollywood
Honorable Mention. The Buzz Lightyear and Toy Story Mania rides

Question that Lulu said we asked most during our trip:
“Where are you from?”

Where are we going on our next girls’ trip?
“Wherever life takes us” -Lulu

Lulu’s honest response to learning that there were Disney celebrities performing at MK while we were there: “I can’t be bothered with celebrities while I am at Disney – I just can’t be bothered.”

The End.

Disney World. Saturday. Day 2. Performance Day.

Finally, we/I got to sleep in. We hung out at the resort during the day. Then, the girls stopped for a photo shoot and quick rehearsal before boarding the bus for Downtown Disney.

When we arrived to Downtown Disney we were greeted by wonderful weather, loads of visitors, and this sign.

Here are some Downtown Disney visitors awaiting the cheer performance.

Did I tell you that Daddy Warbucks came to see Lulu cheer?

And… here is Lulu’s Disney performance. There were more girls on the left of the stage, but my eyes were on Lulu. I apologize that the video is so grainy. I had to upload to YouTube and then upload to blogger because blogger wouldn't let me upload directly. Nonetheless, Lulu is in the front and just to the right of the high schooler that you see on the left of the screen.

We couldn’t leave Downtown before visiting the Bibbiti Bobbiti Boutique for a Pop Princess makeover. Here are the results:

After the makeover we headed to Hollywood. I don't want to forget to mention the bus ride to the park. Lulu, Fairy Grandmother, I were on the bus with... these guys.

That's right - a bus load of 9, 10, and 11 year old football players. Halfway through the ride, Lulu looked over at one of the dads and said, "This is a train wreck waiting to happen!" She really said that; I am NOT kidding. He took it in stride and told her that he thought that her comment was funny and that she could read his mind. Ha! Ha! Ha!

We didn’t have much time to spend in Hollywood before it closed. We managed to view the Narnia experience and ride the Toy Story Mania ride. Apparently Toy Story Mania is one of their newest attractions and normally has a very long wait (up to 2 hours long in fact). We jumped into line 5 minutes before the park closed and waited 25 minutes to get to the ride. It was as great as I had expected and a highlight of the trip (but I wouldn't wait 2 hours to ride - no way).

We were advised not to leave the park before seeing the Osborne lights. Oh – they were magnificent!

Here is a picture...

and a video!

To be continued.

Disney World. Day 1. Continued.

After waking up Tinker Bell, we went on a few Fantasyland rides and left to have breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. It was a fabulous breakfast and much needed break. We ran into some friends while we were there.

Lulu and I played at MK for a few hours while Fairy Grandmother went back to the resort.

One of the highlights of the trip was the birth of Lulu's new penny collection. The idea is that you drop a penny (and 50 cents) into a machine and crank the handle of the machine. The machine presses a design onto the penny which you get to keep. Here she is... cranking out a Buzz Lightyear penny. We were constantly looking for penny machines around the park. Some machines were quarter press machines and they were very hard to crank.

Note to self: This is a fabulous idea. I spend 50 cents to get a penny... and it isn't even a penny that I can spend? Wonderful!?!?!

Then, Lulu and I made it back to the resort so that she could practice her cheer with the rest of the girls from around the country, most of whom were high schoolers.

Here is the video from practice. Lulu is in the front and wearing the pink shorts and white top. Whoa! This was very cool!

Finally, we were off to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. We had to pay extra for the party tickets but I would do it again in a heartbeat because: we got to see all of the characters dressed in their holiday attire, Cinderella’s castle was decorated with icicles, it was snowing on Main Street, there was hot chocolate and cookies to keep us warm and energized until midnightall night long, and there was a very short line to meet Tinkerbell in person.

Midnight: Caught a bus back to the resort. Very tired napmom.

Disney World. Day 1. Wake Up Tinker Bell

Our quest to wake up Tinker Bell felt more like a scene out of the Amazing Race. Our task was to be the first of 40,000-50,000 visitors to the Magic Kingdom to get to Tinker Bell’s Fairy Treasure store. We all got up and out of the room with plenty of time to spare. As we were waiting for the bus, Fairy Grandmother asked if I had the tickets to Magic Kingdom (MK). Whoops. Thus, I had to run all the way to our room to get the tickets (through the hotel lobby, past the pool, past the football field, past the baseball field/pool, and down a lengthy hall – and back). As I came back through the lobby and rounded the corner I saw that a bus had already arrived and Fairy Grandmother was stalling the bus while acting like she was going to get on but really just kinda loitering at the stop. Luckily, I made it on the bus with the MK tickets in hand.

Once we arrived to MK, we weaved our way to the front of the crowd. This was fairly easy because we just had the three of us and didn’t have to contend with strollers and such. After the opening ceremony, the masses (including moi) were permitted to enter MK. We bee-lined for Tinker Bell's Fairy Treasure store, which is located just behind Cinderella's castle.

This is where I stop the story to give credit to Fairy Grandmother who was speed walking though the crowd. Seriously, I could not keep up – I have a desk job and the closest I get to a cardio workout is getting up from my chair to see what kind of goodies have been left up front for me to eat. This was NOT the task for me.

Once we got to the castle, we scooted to the back of the castle where we were greeted with a rope barrier because they were not letting visitors past the castle. At this point, we had Tinkerbell’s Fairy Treasure store in our sight but we were blocked by the rope barrier.

We waited patiently and finally, when the ropes were removed, we headed into the store where Lulu found the first Cast Member she saw and proudly asked, “May I wake up Tinker Bell?”



I was holding my breath. The cast member smiled and told Lulu that she certainly could wake up Tinker Bell. Yippee!

To wake up Tinker Bell, you ring a special bell while calling out, “Wake up Tinker Bell! Wake up Tinker Bell!” Also, we were told that you must believe in fairies for this to work. Here is a video of Lulu waking up Tinker Bell.

I did not know how long this wake-up procedure would take so I did stop filming. Eventually, Tinker Bell popped up in the little box. She yawned and stretched and then disappeared because she was headed out to visit other parts of the park

Lulu was also presented with this certificate for her Certifiable Magic Moment at the Disney World resort

and she was topped off with some pixie dust before we left the store.

"All you need is faith, trust, and a little bit of pixie dust." Peter Pan

Napmom’s Note: Only one person can wake up Tinker Bell each day. There are no second chances. You must arrive early because there will be dozens of eager moms and girls on your heels waiting to wake up Tinker Bell. Some such visitors arrived shortly after we woke up Tinker Bell. These visitors were told that Tinker Bell had already been woken up but they were given the chance to “call her back” by ringing the same bell and calling out “Come back Tinker Bell” which was still very special!

Disney World. Getting There.

Getting there was more like a clip from a movie entitled, “The Griswold’s go to Disney.” We successfully made it out of the house and to the airport, but that’s when things got crazy. The events went something like this:

4:30 Boarded the plane.

4:35 Napmom sat in gum.

4:45 Napmom realized that she was sitting in gum – and it was a huge blob of gum.

4:50 During take-off, Napmom’s snacks rolled out of her bag, onto the floor, and landed at the feet of the people behind me.

4:51 Fairy Grandmother asked the passengers behind us if I can have my snack back.

5:00 Fairy Grandmother pushed the flight attendant call button, thinking that it was the light.

5:20 Fairy Grandmother negotiated for a free glass of wine because I sat in gum.

6:00 Lulu read through her material and learned that the first person to arrive at Tinker Bell’s Fairy Treasure store gets to wake her up.

6:01 Lulu announced that she would be waking up Tinker Bell tomorrow.

We landed safely and were whisked away to our resort via the Disney Magical Express.

Headed to Downtown Disney where we got a bite to eat and did some window shopping.

Landed back at the resort at midnight-ish. Plan to get to the Magic Kingdom early tomorrow to wake up Tinker Bell.

Away

We are off to

for a cheer event.

We will be back soon!