Orlando Epilogue

We thought we were a little off season – after US Thanksgiving and before Christmas – but the parks were fairly full. Not packed shoulder to shoulder, but pretty full. There were strollers everywhere, but it is quite understandable as young children are just not up to covering all that ground. Darren wore a step counter and counted between 20,000 and 25,000 steps per day most days. Also ubiquitous were scooters. They were way more common than we are used to in the general population.

We could not have coordinated our activities without the use of WhatsApp on smart phones and WiFi in the parks. We were often all together, yet everyone was able to go their own way and do their own thing.

The kids all stood up really well. The boys, being a little older, never missed a beat. The twins wore out a few times, but rarely broke down. As noted earlier, Louisa held up really well under the circumstances. The boys seemed to enjoy almost everything. The Twins especially liked meeting characters and pin trading. They found a lot of the rides intimidating and a bit scary, but there were a few that they enjoyed repeatedly.

It would have been nice to see more of Darren’s crew, but our intention from the beginning was to be facilitators for everyone else to have fun. The boys were quite independent and able to do anything they wanted to do, so the Victoria Four rarely needed us. On the other hand, the Matlocks, with more and younger kids, one of them still napping, and one or both of the others occasionally intimidated, needed backup for them to do any adult rides and even some kids rides.

I purchased the Memory Maker package. This permits unlimited downloads of photos taken by Disney photographers throughout the parks and photos taken on some of the rides. We had several photos taken on our first day in Hollywood Studios, but neglected to use it much after that. It is a good feature, but we should have taken more advantage of it.

Disney and Universal have money printing machines. They create stories and characters from fairy tales and other media and sell movie tickets. Then they build attractions based on the movies so people will visit the parks. They can charge pretty much whatever they want and people will still come. They build hotels to house the visitors and sell innumerable souvenir items. What a business model!

Friday 8 December 2017 Orlando to Regina

We departed on time and arrived a little early. The twins once again really enjoyed watching cartoons on the bus. Our flight home was on WestJet’s Mickey Mouse plane. 

The twins were once again absorbed by their tablets. Louisa traveled less well on this flight than the one to Orlando. She was quite restless and cried a few times. It was hard to get her to settle. She really has been a trooper though. Despite having a cold, teething, having her sleep cycle disrupted, and being confined to a stroller for much of every day, she has mostly been in good spirits. 

Annabelle fell asleep in the limo on the way home. Charlotte was awake, but barely. We arrived home about 9 PM.

We had left our house keys at home, planning to use the garage door remote to enter the garage and leaving the walk-in door unlocked. Unfortunately, we had not told Ron Sprung, who was taking in our mail, about our plan. He had gone into the garage for a snow shovel and automatically locked the door out of habit. So we were locked out of the house. Fortunately, the limo had not yet left and we got a ride to Laura’s and picked up her key.

Once inside, we found that the house was cold – 54 F, 10 C. A call to Laura and Brett revealed that they had had this problem before. Sometimes after a power failure the furnace needs to be reset. With that and the fireplace on, we warmed up in a few hours.

Darren’s Victoria crew are staying near the airport tonight and returning home tomorrow. Carla and Tyler are staying for another week.

Thursday 7 December 2017 Epcot

Carla and Tyler got an early start again, but returned for breakfast. The rest of us were more leisurely as we had a Princess breakfast at 10 AM at a restaurant on the boardwalk near our hotel. The twins were quite excited to meet the characters. I was surprised that the boys seemed to enjoy it also as they did not know the characters. Louisa was not at all excited to meet her prince. One of the big kids met a princess also. Breakfast was excellent.

After breakfast it was off to Epcot. Our favourite ride here was Mission: Space. It had a less intense option and a more intense option. Celeste opted for the less intense. Later the boys convinced her to try the more intense. She did not enjoy that one as much. Another ride popular with the rest of the gang was Test Track. The boys, especially Justin, also liked Living with the Land, a boat ride through large greenhouse-like rooms with commentary about modern farming practices and improving yields while conserving resources. Justin was quite interested in the science. Soarin’ was another flying ride. It is an older version of some of the best new flying rides.

We did not meet for lunch, as we had eaten a large and late breakfast. For supper we met at the Biergarten in the German pavilion. This was my suggestion many weeks ago when we were planning the schedule, but I had no idea how well it would turn out. It was our last night, with a great buffet meal and an entertaining atmosphere. It was a great way to wrap up our week. 

The icing on the cake was the fireworks show at 9:30 PM. We had been watching and listening from a distance on our hotel balcony all week and it had become old hat. But being there was quite spectacular. As good a display as I have ever seen. I had suggested to Laura and Brett that they take their three sleeping girls back to the hotel as they would likely be startled by the noise, but, no problem. They slept right through a very noisy show.

Today was overcast and a bit cooler than it has been, but still pretty comfortable.

Wednesday 6 December 2017 Disney Magic Kingdom

Today we did Disney’s Magic Kingdom. Carla and Tyler got an early start as usual. Today was very warm and sunny.

We rode a couple of the classics: the Jungle Cruise (or Jingle Cruise at Christmas) and Pirates of the Caribbean. Most of the rest of the group rode the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Space Mountain while we minded the twins - we took them on the Aladdin Magic Carpet ride. (That night they slipped a certificate under our door for riding three mountain rides.) We rode the lame old People Mover with Carla and Tyler, but it was nice to sit down. We hardly saw Darren’s group all day. They quit in mid-afternoon and went back to the hotel for the pool and water slides. Carla and Tyler did too. We stayed with Matlocks until about 5 and rode another classic - Small World. Not the most exciting ride for us adults, but the twins were quite mesmerized by all the doll characters. Back at the hotel, we stayed with Matlock kids while the others went back for more rides until late.

Around mid-day Laura and Brett took the twins to meet Rapunzel and Tianna, to buy princess dresses, and then to a parade. 

We all had lunch at the Columbia Harbor House. The gang that left the park early had supper at the Yacht Club hotel across the lake from our place. We and Matlocks picked up a snack before we left the park.

Tuesday 5 December 2017 Universal Studios

Today we did Universal Studios, and then Islands of Adventure. We did the Spiderman ride (very good 3D and vehicle movement), the Jimmy Fallon ride (ride okay, but pretense and preamble kind of weak). I rode a teacup type ride several times, some with the twins, some with the boys. Another big hit, literally, was the Ball Factory, in which you shoot others, especially Grandpas, with nerf type balls. There were many other vacuum-cleaner type blowers doing many other things, plus a climbing structure and a slide. Charlotte played in here with us for a while, but it was too noisy for Annabelle. Eventually Charlotte also left and the twins played outside in a small water park under Grandma’s supervision. Meanwhile the adults were riding the thrill rides. One of these was the Hulk roller coaster, which looked pretty formidable.

Today we all gathered for lunch at the Leaky Cauldron in the Harry Potter section of Universal Studios. We all had supper at Bubba Gump Shrimp, just outside the park, and then returned for more rides. The last event before they started herding us toward the exits was the light show on Hogwarts castle. 

Our shuttle was scheduled for 8:30, but we called him in half an hour early as they were herding us toward the exit and we were all pretty pooped. Annabelle and Louisa both fell asleep in their strollers and remained asleep on the shuttle and right into their beds in our suite.  Charlotte was close, but hung in there. The boys, as usual, had plenty of gas in their tanks.