Disney Adventure 2015 - Day 4

Wow! a 10.5 hour day at the Magic Kingdom. We got to the bus stop about 8:00 and arrived at the Magic Kingdom about 8:30. It was an Extra Magic morning so we went right in. We took a long, long walk to the Dumbo ride. This is one of my daughter's favorite rides and I thought we should do this while the lines were short. We did it twice for the lines were very short.

Then we went to the Mad Tea Party and rode the tea cups. It has been years since I've been on this ride.

I also suggested it would be good to do the Pooh ride, too, while the lines were short.

By now our tummies were hungry so we went to Gaston’s Tavern. My daughter got an orange juice, I got coffee, and we shared one of the big cinnamon rolls. 

 As can be seen the cinnamon roll is huge and easily can be shared by two people.

After our coffee break we went to the Small World ride.

Our next ride was on the Liberty Belle. 

 This is always a very pleasant ride.

Now it was getting time to head toward the Crystal Palace for my daughter's Pooh adventure. When my daughter was five years old we went to Disney World for the first time. At that time, while this may be hard to believe compared to how things are done now, one hardly saw characters. One day, right by the train station we met Pooh, and Pooh has been her favorite ever since.

As we were cutting through an arcade we came across a Fast Pass+ station so we got some Fast Passes for the afternoon. 

Then off we went to the Crystal Palace and she met all her friends.My favorite picture turned out to be the one of she and Tigger. 

 

The food was good too. Our server had a name tag that said she was Cali, Colombia.My daughter was born in Colombia so she is always happy to meet someone from that country.

We had time after our Pooh Adventure to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. We were in line about 25 minutes for this ride and saw all the little alcoves that have been created to keep us interested as we wander through the lines.  

Our next ride was the Jungle Cruise. We had a fast pass for this so we got on quite quickly.  

When done with this ride we walked through to Frontier Land and found a good place to watch the afternoon parade. 

Then we took a long walk to Tomorrow Land. We thought we would ride the People Mover again, but it was stopped for maintenance. So we took a beverage break for a few minutes.

Our next destination was the Peter Pan ride. Again we had a Fast Pass so our wait was short.

After this ride we walked to the Pinocchio Village Haus for supper. We got flat bread pizza. On the dining plan we also were entitled to two desserts. We got chocolate ice cream and shared that and decided to take the second dessert, a piece of chocolate cake, back to our room. (I actually ended up eating this after we got home. It was a well-traveled piece of chocolate cake.)

Then we took the long walk through the park back to the bus stop. We could see the bus to our resort sitting there. We were still about 50 feet away when it began to pull away. I waved at the driver and oh good luck! The driver stopped and waited for us to catch up. We were really dragging when we got back to our hotel!

Disney Adventure 2015 -- Day 3

We woke up about 8:00 AM and started our day with showers and coffee in the room.We went to El Centro and went to the Pepper Market for breakfast. We had breakfast sandwiches and orange juice. Then we took the bus to EPCOT. 

Our first stop was the Universe of Energy. 

 After this show we decided to walk to the World Showcase. Our first stop was Mexico. We did the Gran Fiesta ride. Continuing around the circle we found not much is happening in Norway now. It is being remodeled to be Arendelle so it can be headquarters for Frozen. However, it is a good place for a coffee break. We shared the chocolate pretzel.

Then we walked to China. We saw the film, Reflections of China. We had to wait a few minutes for the film and before seeing it the person who introduced it explained the pavilion is a reproduction of a 14th century temple found in China. Walking in I realized I had never before looked up and noticed how beautiful is the dome.

Then we walked over to the boat dock and took it back to Future World. From there we walked to the Seas Building. We did the Finding Nemo ride. 

We walked next to the Coral Reef Restaurant. We had a fine late luncheon. We were seated very near the aquarium window. We saw all kinds of fish and also sea turtles – and one human. 

Following luncheon we went to the Talking Turtle Show. I don't know how Crush sees the audience; I enjoy particularly his wry sense of humor.

Next my daughter wanted to ride the monorail, so we exited the park and took the monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center. From there we took a second monorail to the Magic Kingdom. Then we walked to the bus stop for our resort and arrived back there shortly for a rest. 

At 7:00 we went back to the bus stop and took a bus to El Centro. First I went to the Concierge and made some plans for Friday night. Then I asked for another copy of the reservation for our lunch with Pooh tomorrow. What a surprise—the computer said we were to have been there today, even though I had asked for Thursday. The person who helped us on Sunday night had made a typing error. The Concierge helped us get a reservation actually for tomorrow, Thursday. My daugher  was happy because she really wanted to see Pooh at lunch. And I was happy when a few days later the bill arrived and found we had not been charged for being a no-show on Wednesday. 

We went to Café Rix and got yogurt parfaits and filled our drink mugs. Then we went back to our room and we both crashed again in bed. I told my daughter in the next morning that she had kept me awake with her snoring!

Disney Adventure 2015 -- Day 2

We were tired and slept quite late. I can see now that my children are adults we are using a whole different schedule than when they were young! We got to El Centro about 11:00 looking for breakfast. However, the Pepper Market we found is closed between 11:00 - 11:30 while it turns over from breakfast to lunch. Cafe Rix was open though and we got orange juice and muffins and went to sit down at a table in the sunshine by the lake.

Then we went to the bus stop waiting for a bus to EPCOT.

While there I noticed the nearby palms were apparently in bloom.

We waited and waited for a bus to EPCOT,  and finally decided to take one to the Magic Kingdom and ride the monorail from there.

We arrived there and used the ferry boat to cross to the Ticket and Transportation Center.

Then it was up the ramp to the EPCOT monorail. A train pulled in and the driver got out and said, "No loading." Soon a public address announcement told us some maintenance was needed on this train and we would be away in about 5 minutes. Well, to make a long story short -- after waiting 25 minutes we gave up and went down the ramp and up the Resort Monorail. As we left on the Resort Line I could see all the other waiting passengers were being sent away too. Glad we started out for a different plan.

By this time it had changed from sunshine to rain and we didn't have our raincoats for I had no idea we would be needing them when we left our room about two hours earlier.

On the Resort Line I found it would stop at the Contemporary Hotel, so we got out and went to shop and plunked down the money for the raincoats. Then we went down to the bus stop for this resort and waited until an EPCOT bus arrived.

When we pulled into EPCOT I said to my daughter, "We finally got here." The woman across the aisle said, "Yes, it's been like the Amazing Race."

Our first ride was on Spaceship Earth. Even at this time in the afternoon we had to wait in a moving line for about 15 minutes. I was very surprised about just how crowded the parks were on the first days of our visit.

I noticed the script has been changed for this ride to make it more understandable for the computer/smart phone age. For example we stopped for a few seconds by the scene showing Jewish and Muslim scholars at study after the Roman library at Alexandria was burned. The voice over called these scholars the "first back-up system."

Near the end of the ride one answers questions about how one wishes to live in the future. My daughter answered the questions but my face was captured for the picture.

The muffin was long gone so we went to the Electric Umbrella and got a bite of lunch.

Our next stop was the Land building. The ride includes a trip through the greenhouses. I was surprised this time to see orchids in the green house.

I was even more surprised when it was explained that one can eat these orchids.

Now we walked to the big gift shop looking for some socks. My daughter was wearing some new shoes and the socks her group home packed were too thick for these shoes. But no luck.

We observed the monorail was running again so we exited the park and took the monorail to the Ticket and Transportation Center. When arriving there we found the rain was coming down and we needed to put on the rain coats. We took the Resort Monorail to the Magic Kingdom and then took a boat to the Wilderness Lodge.

We stopped first at Roaring Forks to have a beverage break. Then we went to the gift shop in the lodge and found socks.

Soon it was time for our supper reservation at the Whispering Canyon Cafe. We were seated at a lovely table by a fireplace. This was a lovely place on a cool, rainy evening. I pulled out my camera to take a picture and found the lens was extended out as far it would go and it was acting dead, dead, dead. I was quite upset.

We had a lovely supper. By the end of it I decided to try something. I pulled the battery out of the camera and then reinserted it again. That solved the camera problem.

Once done with supper we went to the bus stop for this resort and took a bus to Downtown Disney. Then we found the bus back to Coronado Springs.

When we arrived at the room, the door lock looked funny. It had printing all over the area where one was to touch the Magic Band. I called the hotel front desk to tell them something was wrong. They were sending out someone to help us. But I tried the Magic Band and the door opened. Once in the room the desk phone quickly rang and the operator was acting if we were safe. I assured her we had gotten into the room.

The next morning I opened the door to check the weather and found the lock over lying on the ground. Just couldn't see it in the dark.

So this ends our day when many things went wrong!

Disney Adventure 2015 -- Day 1

After our late delivery of luggage -- see the previous post -- we slept in a bit late. We decided to go directly to Animal Kingdom and have breakfast there. So we were off to Bus Stop #3 and soon arrived at Animal Kingdom.

We walked slowly towards Pizzafari, our choice for breakfast.

My daughter particularly liked to see the parrots.

 We arrived at Pizzafari and enjoyed breakfast. Then we began to walk towards Africa.

We stumbled upon a performance by the Tam Tam Dancers of Harambe, and enjoyed their music.

We found we had to wait only 10 minutes for the Safari ride. Again we enjoyed it very much.

Our safari driver said we were lucky to see the bongos (shown above) because they were called the ghosts of the forest.

I always learn something on the safari ride. This time I learned that a group of hippos are called a bloat. I think that is a great word!

I also like to see the zebras.

 Next we rode the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch. Once there we saw an exhibit about the cotton-top tamarind monkeys. They live only in Colombia and since my daughter was born in Colombia she was thrilled to learn about this. Disney Conservation is working to save these monkeys from the illegal pet trade.

Back in Africa we went to the Festival of the Lion King. We did not have a Fast Pass for this. However, we were able to wait in a sheltered place and because we were almost the first ones in the Stand-by line we were able to have a front row seat. I think we ended up with better seats than if we had a Fast Pass.

We really enjoyed the show as always.

By now we were running out of energy due to the late night before. We decided to go back to our resort.

We both took a nap.

About 3:30 we headed off for the Magic Kingdom.

This view always makes me think I'm really at Disney World.

We rode the steam train around the park. Then we went to Tony's Town Square Restaurant for our supper. I had the cannelloni stuffed with ground beef and sausage. It was very good.

My daughter really enjoyed her strawberry sorbet for her dessert.

After our meal we went to ride the People Mover. Then we went back to the Main Street bakery and got coffee latte and sat down on the curb to wait for Electric Parade.

Here are a couple photos from that.

We then decided to go back to the resort. The previous late night got the best of us.

Leaving the Magic Kingdom here was our view of the train station.

From St. Paul to Disney World

My older daughter, who has a number of disabilities, and I recently spent a week at Disney World. My daughter can't speak effectively so every night when we returned from our daily adventures I was busy writing her "story" so she can share her experiences with peers and staff in her group home and day program.

Now I will try to catch up with my blog.

We left on Sunday, February 22. The temp outside the door was right at 0 (-17 C ). We walked to the nearby 10th Street Station for the Light Rail. Our wait was only 2 minutes. Then we rode the Green Line to the Downtown East station where we needed to transfer to the Blue Line. Our wait there was only 30 seconds. We were indeed lucky on a cold day.

The airport station is underground. From there we took an elevator up to the mezzanine level and walked about 50 feet to another elevator. Once we arrived there we walked about another 100 feet to the Blue Tram. This takes us to small check-in area that serves those arriving on the train. I was told that because I have Elite status with Delta that we could go through a special security line. That was accomplished quickly. Then we began the long, long trek to Gate G-19. Once in that neighborhood we sat down at a table for the Mini-Bar.

Here one orders using an I-Pod at the table. We got Diet Cokes and an order of French Fries.

On the day before we left I took my daughter for a haircut, but also surprise. I had booked a professional manicure for her.

Here's a picture of her purple nails -- purple being the only good color according to her -- along with the French Fries.

We boarded our plane and had access to a window seat that my daughter enjoyed. The sky was clear to the group for a very long time. And it was snow covered.

Looking out the window, I found a scene very much like my blog background.

Our flight was comfortable and uneventful. Soon we were taking the long walk to Disney's Magic Express. We were directed to a bus to take us to our resort, Coronado Springs.

Once at the resort we checked in and then made dinner reservations for a couple of evenings. We then went to the Pepper Market for supper.

After our supper we asked Bell Services to take us to our room. We were told it was a 10 minute walk from El Centro and now it was dark. I don't like trying to walk to a new place in the dark.

Within our room we found a Mickey towel.

However, our luggage had not arrived from the Magic Express service. At 10 PM I called Bell Services and was told our luggage was at the resort and would be delivered in another 30 minutes. However, it was 12:45 before the luggage arrived.

My daughter had packed some pajamas in her backpack, so she was sound asleep. I just crashed out wearing my clothes on top of the bed and dealt with the reality of unpacking and getting organized the next morning.

Spring is Coming??

This morning I woke up about 6:45 AM and amazing, there is some daylight at that time of day. My bedroom and living room windows both face east.

The sun is still rising in the southeast sky and so it is hidden from my view by other buildings in downtown Saint Paul.

The view above is more towards the northeast. The curved street on the bottom of the photo is I-35E entering into downtown Saint Paul.

Both of these pictures show steam -- condensed water vapor -- coming from chimneys. That is always a sign that it is really, really cold outdoors and that is true. This morning around 7:00 AM the outdoor temperature was -10 (-23C). When I came home last evening at 8:30 PM the temperature was just at 0. I'm heading to Florida on Sunday and right now even Florida is cold.

But soon the sun has to win, right???

Walking at the Mall of America -- again

On Saturday I got up early and drove to the Mall of America for the walk sponsored there by the Twin Cities Volkssports Club. This is an annual event, supported by the Walking Company Store. Smart of them as this time I took a good look at their shoes and may be back there some day for some shopping. The volksmarchers were only part of the people walking here early in the morning. Many, many people show up there for walking. Mall walking is popular here in the winter because one could do good distances without having to deal with cold weather or snow and ice on the sidewalks.

I have done this walk many times now and it's getting hard to find anything new. But I decided i would try to find some new things, or things that were quirky or strange.

I liked the pillow that I saw in the window of the Creative Kidstuff store.

The sign below caught my attention. One thing I truly dislike about this mall is that often I drive around longer trying to find a place to park than the drive between where I live and the mall.

No, I don't use Twitter to find a place; I usually take the light rail which totally eliminates having to find a parking place. However, at 7:30 in the morning finding a place to park was not a problem, but when I left at 10:15 the parking ramp was full .

The sign above was over hand sanitizer. I find it interesting that now stores feel it necessary to provide this-- and it's particularly ironic that we have a cohort of the population that is very germ phobic but at the same time is rejecting vaccines which protect against very much more dangerous diseases than one might find touching something at a shopping mall.

Bloomingdale's pulled out an anchor tenant at the MOA. During this walk I noticed the third level of this space has now been turned into an Exhibit Center. This center right now has a Barbie exhibit, a CSI exhibit, and a Star Trek exhibit. I couldn't figure out from the sign if this is a free area or if one must pay a fee. The signage did speak to getting tour reservations. Well, it will have to be something more interesting than these three shows before I try to try to learn more.

I passed the above video a couple of times. Two thoughts -- I much rather walk and see things than do such a timeless exercise - and secondly, what does this have to do with Verizon products? That is the store in which the video plays in the window.

A fun part of walking of Level 3 is seeing the decorations from the bars and restaurants on Level 4 from a different perspective.

And Level 3 also provides a good view of the robot in the Lego Store.

This walk counted in my distance book and the event book. I also am starting a Walking the Louisiana Purchase book. This book requires one to do a walk in each of the 15 states that have area that was purchase by the United States from France and now known as the Louisiana Purchase.

In a post from a recent Nebraska adventure I wrote about going to the Lewis and Clark Museum in Nebraska City, NE. For readers in other countries -- Lewis and Clark were sent out by President Jefferson to explore just what the United States had purchased.

I'm getting anxious for better weather outdoors to start doing some walks in other towns and parks. Come on Spring!