Since one vacation diary with all the pictures I wanted to include was going to take far too long to put together (not to mention read) you'll be treated to have to suffer through two. Tonight's will focus on the first half of our vacation, spent at the home of all things Mouse, aka Disney World. Grab a pair of mouse ears and a Dole Whip, Follow me below the dingledoodle squigglie dKosagnocchi dividerthingie fold after a word from our sponsor...
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I've been to Disney World twice prior in my life: the first time was when I was 13 or 14, and my godmother took me with her family to be the "same age as daughter" person (ergo why another cousin went, too... four kids means parents can enjoy some time alone :-)), the second six years ago when my sister got married and invited us to share in their 'honeymoon'. Neither time did I get to plan or decide what was going to happen, where we'd stay, etc. There's something awfully nice about planning your vacation... even if going to Disney requires a sort of military devotion to logistics, planning, advance scouting and a bevy of apps designed to make your life easier and spent in as few lines as possible!
Back in June when I planned this vacation, a direct flight at 7:30am on Saturday, the day after your kids finish an exhausting two weeks at Audubon camp including a sleepover by your youngest, sounded like a great way to get the party started early. Pro-tip: 4:30am wakeup was, in fact, too early. That said, arriving at your hotel (the Animal Kingdom Lodge) at 11:30 and finding your room is indeed ready was really nice. Disney does customer service extremely well IMHO; never did a request or question get treated with anything other than the attitude that it was the Most Important And Sensible Question Ever. We had a "savannah" room upgrade, which meant...
The view from our balcony.
I have to say I've never been so eager to look out a hotel room window as I was during our stay, because I never knew if I'd see a giraffe, a zebra, or some other animal. We watched a while, then put on the most insidious device ever created to separate you from money while simultaneously making ALL of your vacation easier:
The Magic Band
It is a room key, charge-to-room card (with all purchases sorted on the itemized list at checkout by who purchased it), ID, FastPass (a way to avoid horrific lines by signing up in advance for a time window to ride attractions, and skip the regular line). It's seemingly unbreakable, identified to you personally so cannot be used if stolen, and waterproof so you can swim with it. It meant we didn't have to carry money or credit cards. It also made buying things as easy as waving your band at a machine and entering a PIN. Thanks to the K's for being responsible shoppers and NOT abusing the privilege.
We spent the first day mini-golfing then hanging out at Disney Springs, a food and shopping destination not in a theme park, so that everyone can visit as often as possible. We also introduced K2 to an activity we suspected he'd love: Pin Trading. Everywhere on Disney property... resorts, parks, everywhere you see the Disney logo: there are pins available for sale and trade. K2 bought (it's Disney, of course there was buying) a starter lanyard and pins and went off to make his first trade. As it turns out he was very keen on trading, and came home with a lovely assortment of pins.
He traded with the cashier (all Disney employees with pins must trade if asked)
When exhaustion finally hit long before Top Comments posting time, we turned in so we could get up early and enjoy our first park day at the Magic Kingdom. The MK is the 'default' theme park; the one with the castle and princesses and everything you see when you think "Disney". We wanted K2, who had never been before, to see that first. He wasn't too sure about this whole "park thing", so part of our bribery arsenal was an interactive game on premises at MK, called
Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. It has everything a 10 year old could want... cards with characters and skills/strengths, a scavenger hunt to find the portals, and those ubiquitous Magic Bands keyed in to register your playing. It was FUN... even if wandering around in the heat and humidity was making us melt. Here's what it looked like at one of the portals:
Key it open with your band, see a video, cast a spell. Lather, rinse, repeat :)
I won't bore everyone with a zillion pictures of things far better photographers than I have captured on
film pixel (plus my images of the castle illuminated with fireworks and the light show came out terribly), but I do want to share one from the ride my family subjects me to with glee:
It's A Small Earworm
My apologies. If you need relief, please check
here.
We spent the next day at Animal Kingdom, which was easily the most magical hottest most humid place on earth. An employee shared that when Animal Kingdom was build, the surrounding landscape was designed to eliminate breezes, so that it would be as 'hot and humid' as Africa. Which led me to one of my only gripes about that theme park... Africa is NOT a freekin country, people. It is a continent, with an astonishing breadth and depth of cultures, climates, biomes, experiences and histories. Animal Kingdom Park is, erm... not. It's what you'd expect in colonial exploration visits guided by Englishmen in pith helmets.
We enjoyed the 'safari' experience, seeing a wide variety of animals (everything except lions, who were hiding from the weather, I assume) including this wonderful family of giraffes:
Baby giraffe and family!!
Casa Brillig split up for much of the Animal Kingdom (and Hollywood Studios, which we visited that evening) because K1 and I enjoy death-defying drops and roller coasters up to a certain point (if g-forces can make my brain turn to mush faster than a Trump speech, I'm not riding it) while Mr. Brillig and K2 do not. I can heartily recommend Expedition Everest as a fantastic coaster, because who doesn't need to flee a yeti on a backwards-traveling coaster in the dark! We all reunited to see the Lion King show. When K2 first came home, he loved that video. I mean LOVED it... I watched it for something like once or twice a day for two solid months. The flashbacks notwithstanding, I thoroughly liked this show:
Fun AND air-conditioned interior. Win win.
Our last park day was spent at Epcot, which is a park with an identity crisis. One half is full of rides and attractions, the other completely separate half is a look at a variety of countries making up the
World Showcase. We took the advice of good friends and spent the first part of the day in Future World (Where Mr. Brillig helpfully rebooted a terminal that was out of order):
Who needs Disney Magic Techs when a capable computer scientist will do :)
We spent the second half in World Showcase nibbling our way through the countries. The only reason we didn't come home rounder than when we left is that each day we walked somewhere between 6 and 9 miles. Yeah. Vacation can be excellent for your fitbit stats!
Our last day in the Disneyverse was totally different. We went to the Disney Campground area, which unbeknownst to most people has horseback riding, something Casa Brillig always manages to find on vacation. After a nice relaxing trail ride, we ate lunch there then as a family took an archery lesson. I will never, ever be mistaken for Katniss, that's for sure. K2 essentially had his own personal instructor after it was realized he's 10 and not so good with the safety instructions! K1 and Mr. Brillig, on the other hand, were brilliantly capable. We came home from that, checked out the wildlife outside our window, and went down to an African-inspired buffet at the on-site restaurant Boma. It was a favorite of our Disney-experienced friends, and I left stuffed and happy. It is a sign of how good it was that I forgot to take pictures.
My impression of Disney?
- Yes, it's expensive, and I wish there were ways around that. I do appreciate they let you bring food in (no alcohol or glass, and no wheeled coolers) so you can save on meals. We read a lot on economizing and it did help, but hopefully ticket prices won't escalate so much every year. That said, we knew we weren't going camping when we saved up for this, and we came in at what we estimated.
- The staff Cast Members are fantastic. I have no idea how everyone seemed to appear at their posts, ie no one in the Wrong Uniform for That Area ever appeared. Maybe it is magic. But they keep the experience incredibly good.
- Both kids had a great time, making it worthwhile for this parent. This is the last vacation we'll take with both children still 'kids' and it was a lot of fun.
- Don't ever think doing three theme parks in three days is a good idea. Just. Don't.
And lastly, don't think that a single day is enough to cull through 850 pictures to get what you want for a Top Comments diary. Thanks to my intrepid collaborator and friend BeninSC, who waited til nearly the last moment for me to queue this!
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From JBL55:
Great pun (by Uncle Cosmo) makes a great point!
From Village Vet:
From out in the wilds where Village Vet lives comes another Top Comment submission. You have been warned.
In Jen Hayden's diary "Kansas Secretary-of-State Tries to Block Release of Voting Tapes after Statistical Anomalies Noted," libera nos left this punny comment.
Sincerely, Village Vet.
From indycam:
Lily O Lady flagged this yesterday for Top Comments, indycam submitted the flag today (which we GREATLY appreciate!), this terrific comment by detroitmechworks. (Ed. note: Last night's TC diarist (BeninSC!) missed it totally, but, it is #2 in tonight's Top Mojo! Most deserved!)
From brillig:
I'm submitting this fine graphic comment by jasonhouse, destined for tomorrow's Top Mojo! (149 comments deep in the diary, and with 134 recs already at the time of this submission!
on iphone so using this as placeholder for formatting it tonite, which I will take care of :-) (Ed. note: no, I will take care of it! __ BeninSC. #neenerneener )
(Diarist note: I know better than to try to edit this now :-). Thank you Ben!
Top Mojo for Monday, Aug. 24, 2015, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you
mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary
FAQing Top Mojo.
1) Yes, thank you to diarist by Clio2 +124
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5) Police who lie in their official capcicty are by KYrocky +99
6) and hey , be happy that we didn't by indycam +87
7) Dont you think we should tolerate a little by xxdr zombiexx +86
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12) "an affirmation of oligarchy": by nuclear winter solstice +73
14) The Arch City Defenders should be credited by Phoebe Loosinhouse +72
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16) "I can't believe we still have to fight for this by Angela Marx +70
17) In 1991 I worked as an escort at Planned Parenthoo by voracious +69
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28) That He Does by JekyllnHyde +61
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28) And who gives a damn about whether by deben +61
2015-08-2 Top Comments with Pictures, courtesy of
jotter!