Walt Disney World 2007

With severe Thunderstorm windows given last night, we headed off to Animal Kingdom today all packed up and ready for whatever may come our way.

The morning was quite nice and we made our way right off the Khali River Rapids. It looks like it could be quite the popular ride as we made a long trek through the queue with no one in fromt of us. The first run was fine as the folks with us, wearing ponchos, got the brunt of the water. We stayed on for a second run, all alone this time, and Dad got a full and complete soaking.

We split up to ride Expedition Everest, Victoria took a single ride first, then she and Mom went with our FastPass, then Amanda and Dad. Amanda has been loving the roller coasters and this one was no exception.

We managed to catch another couple of rides before we headed off to some of the conservation projects in this part of Walt Disney World. We took a train to Rafiki's place and saw some interesting insects and reptiles and butterflies along with some very interesting flowering plants. On the trip back our conductor was from Ottawa and we had a good chat with him. He was a CF100 "Canuck" pilot out of Uplands who moved down south about 21 years ago. He and his wife, who was our Engineer at that time, retired and after a year of golfing got bored and started working at WDW for two days a week.

We took the Safari ride and saw some Lions and Cheetahs and Elephants and Warthogs and Rhinos and Hippos and Crocodiles and Antelope and a baby Giraffe and Gorillas. During this time, the skys opened up and a pretty steady rain and thunderstorm. We hightailed it over to the "Dinosaurs" ride, an indoor ride, hoping it would be gone by the time we got out. When we got out the rain was even harder. We were getting close to the end of our day, so we made our way towards the exit. We got the 3D show "It's Tough to Be a Bug" and once we got out it was sunny and warm.

We made our way back to the hotel and changed for the evening. Victoria and Amanda were off to "La Nouba" by Cirque de Soleil and Mom and Dad went off for dinner at "Fulton's Crab House."

It sounds like it is supposed to get cooler as the weekend comes, perhaps even a low around 0C on Saturday. We're off to a Character Breakfast Wednesday morning and the off to Epcot.

Amanda is in the bed across from me fast asleep. She had a great day today, especially considering the overwhelming day yesterday.

Well considering how late our day was yesterday it was a very early morning for all of us today.

We woke this morning around 8 am to some Central Florida liquid sunshine. However it was still warm enough for us to wear short sleeves and even shorts. The rain let up well before noon, so it didn't really impede our day at all.

We spend the day at the Magic Kingdom, pretty much Disneyland at Disneyworld. We hopped on the bus from the hotel and after a short 15 minute ride, we were at the gates. After a stop at the bakery on Main Street we headed into Tomorrowland.

We're not sure if it was the weather or just the day of the week, but the lines were almost not existant. We walked right on to; Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Splash Mountain. Only had to get Fast Passes for Winnie the Pooh and Big Thunder Mountain.

Amanda completed her first "Mountain Hat Trick" today, having gone on Space, Splash and Big Thunder today. She wisely spent Nana's gift of money today on an autograph/photo book and a "My First Trip to Walt Disney World trading pin.

We splurged and bought the girls "My Pal Mickey" a stuff doll with electronics and a radio receiver. He'll provide hints and jokes and comments about things depending on where you are. For example, somewhere around the Pirates ride he told us this joke:

"How much do Pirates pay to get their ears pierced?"
"A buck an ear."

We caught the special "Dreams Come True" parade, just shortly after coming off of Splash Mountain. Amanda brought my old digital camera with her and is snapping photos like mad. She's actually doing a bang up job at it as well.

Mickey was nice enough to let us have his picture taken with the girls at the Toontown Fair.

We wrapped up our first day by watching the fireworks at Cinderella's Castle. Very cool!

We took some fun video today - including a ride on the spinning teacups. That should be fun to watch again.

Hey all it's Victoria here!

So after a long day of travelling we finally made it to Orlando and to our hotel. We are in a Mighty Ducks Resort, and received our luggage shortly after arriving. As you know we got delayed in Toronto because of fuel pump issues in Calgary! Well we got on our plane from Toronto to Orlando and after around 2h 45m of flying we arrived. Got out of the terminal over the tram and then down to our bus. After a very fun bus ride we arrived at our resort. We checked in around 1AM and then headed off to find our room. Luggage was here when we got to our room and was delivered. YAY CLEAN CLOTHES!!!!! Anyway it's definitely been a long day for those of us who have been travelling so hope that all is well in Calgary and tomorrow we're off for a fun day at the Magic Kingdom, of course depending on what time we get up in the morning!

Victoria

We left Calgary about 50 minutes late - rear galley hadn't been filled up, then they had a fuel pump problem and then the paperwork had to be filled out.

So we didn't land until about 3:30 ET which gave us only 50 minutes to make our flight to Orlando.

So after being locked out of the terminal, and the redirected through a glass rat's maze, we boogied our way out of the domestic arrivals terminal into the US connector section. We collected our luggage, made it through US Immigration and Customs and through security in pretty good time.

We boarded the plane first (one of the perks of my Air Canada "Elite" status) and then had another family of four trying to get in our seats.

It seems AC cancelled our seats when someone in Toronto decided our luggage would not make it on the flight. So we got a voucher for some food and now we are hanging out in the Maple Leaf lounge at Pearson waiting for the next flight.

We'll get in a lot later than we had planned, but it shouldn't ruin our first day plans.

We're hoping people will read the T-shirt before they chat up Amanda...