Dec 13 - Hurray For Hollywood!

What is with this Florida weather?!?!? Thankful that we arranged for our New York winter gear to be sent to POR, we rugged up and trooped into the dining hall for breakfast. This is where I insert my shortcut. Yes, it was another early start, we woke up at 630am and made it to Disney's Hollywood Studios for rope drop! We were at the front of the line and had great views but did I remember to take photos? Oh no. Although I maintain that it was simply too cold. One wouldn't want those precious shutter pressing fingers to die of frost bite.

An empty DHS street at the beginning of the day

Disney's Hollywood Studios

We were able to send Malcolm ahead for Toy Story Mania fastpasses and by the time we got there we hopped into the standby line which zoomed along very quickly. The ride was awesome and so much fun! Malcolm scored 153,000 but the selfish man wouldn't reveal his secrets. Rock 'n' roller coaster only had a wait time of 10 minutes, we acquired a rider swap and got everyone through within half an hour. With the arrival of the Kohs, we tried to maximise the morning for Ethel, glad that she was able to experience another WDW park before heading home. Half went on Tower of Terror and the Kohs used our fastpasses for TSM. I waited outside. Here was my chance to take photos! To my horror I had a memory card failure. A combination of panic and frustration washed over me. However, I wasn't given the opportunity to dwell on those emotions as I was swept towards the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Show.

The green men outside TSM

The much sought after ride

Not to be outdone, the new high score for the group by our theme park strategist!

We tried to have a small snack before our late lunch. Some had not so small a snack of the famed turkey leg. We had to say goodbye to Ethel again and hoped that her flight will make it today. Half of us used the rest of the TSM fastpasses and the ofther half took the girls to watch The Voyage of The Little Mermaid. Next on the agenda was lunch at the Hollywood Brown Derby as part of our dining package for Fantasmic. It was gorgeous inside. I loved the understated decorations of the restaurant although I'm not sure why they like it so dark inside. It made it hard to take photos (when I remembered)! I ordered myself some tuna tartare, duck cooked two ways followed by chocolate three ways for dessert. Yummy!!!!

Snack anyone?

A very tired child, who slept through all of lunch

Waiting for lunch

Tuna Tartare

Duck two ways

Chocolate three ways

There was much to see and much to do. We pressed on and went on the Backlot tour. It was nice to rest the legs even though we had only just finished lunch! The backlot at Universal was better but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Sharon and I continued with our Photo hussey behaviour rushing in to join the nearly non-existent line for photos with Mike Wazowski and Sully. Ah...Mike!

Jonah, now awake, on the backlot tour

Mike Wazowski!

We managed to squeeze in Muppet 3D vision. I just love all the jokes! We then had to run straight to Fantasmic to get good seats. What a show it was! A completely immersive experience that only Disney can produce with a spectacular start, amazing sets, seamless transitions, beautiful arrangements of music and of course, a spectacular finish. There were fireworks, water, fire, characters, and everyone's favourite songs. The most precious moments were the children's reaction. We had ecstatic clapping, excited shrieks, and intense concentration trying to spot and then madly wave to characters. I was so engrossed that I forgot to take photos...again!

Waiting in line with our own kindergarten

Jonah ready for some 3D action

We were determined to find the other famed snack, the carrot cake cookie. So we headed towards the Writer's Stop in search for some cookies only to be disappointed by the news that they had sold out. We had to console ourselves with some singing and dancing to the music at the The Osbourne lights. We could have taken some video footage, but was fearful of showing it to our neighbours. Chauvel St might never be the same again!

How could I have neglected to post a photo with my idol, the almight coca-cola!

We went home tired but satisfied after another full day. Malcolm, the sweet man, did the laundry while the family was sleeping. We received more bad news though. The Yeohs were involved in an accident on a Disney bus. The bus stopped very suddenly and young Samuel hurt his foot. So it looks like they will be missing their Animal Kingdom tomorrow in lieu of an X-ray at the local medical facility.

The Osbourne Lights

Dec 12 - Epcot Escapades

I really should create a shortcut to begin my entries..."Today we had an early start". This time we had a 0805 breakfast appointment with the Princesses at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. The food was good and plentiful but dare I say the Princesses were prettier at Cinderella's Royal Table...However, it was still a great way to start the day at the then sunny Norway, even with the obligatory "park pass left behind at hotel" prior to breakfast. Fortunately, thanks to my super pre-Disney training, I managed to complete what appeared to be an almost daily cross country sprint to get to breakfast on time.

Akershus

Norway

The attraction that we went into next was the Circle of Life back at Future World. It was nice to be able to do something with everyone at the same time so I enjoyed it. We then split up with some going to the Epcot Character Spot whilst the others went on a ride. I can't remember which one due to the traumatic event which was about to occur. Sharon and I were allocated the task of getting fastpasses for mission space. The "men" have it all sorted as to maximise the use of the rider swap in combination with utilising our big numbers, so I just follow. A rendezvous point at Innoventions East was made. This was when had our first lost child. One second she was there, and the next she disappeared. PANIC!!! Worse still, it wasn't our own child that we lost! We also had 2 babies and the 2 older boys, so we had to employ a divide and conquer strategy. After combing our immediate surrounds, Sharon sprinted for Guest relations. I assigned the boys to stand at observable watch posts in case Annelise wanders past whilst I stood with the 2 babies in their strollers. It was a saving grace that both stayed asleep throughout the whole drama. The child was thankfully found at Mission space waiting at the ice-cream shop not too long after. The wrist bands were instituted immediately following the reunion of the group.

We walked over to Mission Space. As Ethel had to leave soon for her flight home, Mal and I watched the little ones to give Jason and Ethel a chance to go on a ride together. Malcolm headed towards guest relations looking for Elliot's lost camera while I stayed with the children to watch a drum performance on the streets. Then the winds changed, along with a sudden downpour. We ran (well, as fast as one could run with a stroller and a 3 year old) to the nearest shelter. We left our ponchos and raincoats at the resort! The weather turned cold and stayed cold. Showers would come on and off for the rest of day.

We had a mediocre lunch at Electric umbrella. We farewelled Ethel and the rest of the Kohs returned to the resort. The rest of us headed for The Seas With Nemo and Friends, followed by Turtle Talk with Crush. Turtle Talk was amazing. Crush was so hilarious! It was my favourite attraction at Epcot to date. The men attempted to put Sam and Jonah down for a nap whilst Sharon and I toured in Spaceship Earth to the dulcet tones of Dame Judi Dench. On account of the men's failure, we then swapped. Sharon and I headed for the World Showcase in search of yummy treats to use up some snack credits, becoming photo whores in the process, stopping at every single photopass photographer we came across. What snack to have was a difficult choice. We settled for Germany's Karamelle-Küche and persisted through the horrendous lines. One could not move an inch inside the shop. We walked out with a chocolate caramel cupcake, Wurther's chewy caramel, and some caramel popcorn for the upcoming candlelight processional. The babies, unfortunately, have managed to stay awake despite the LONG walk hence we proceeded with the messy business of sharing the desserts with the young ones.

It was near impossible to co-ordinate all three children to "hang" out of Bruce quickly. This was the best of our poor efforts. If you squint really hard, you might be able to see Jonah.

My favourite attraction!

So close to buying one of these...

Nemo and friends

For my non Disney friends... Spaceship Earth is the "ball"

Wanna come on a holiday in our world anyone?

Maelstrom was up next. We had come full circle back to Norway. The Kimmunicator that Sharon and I had picked up was all in vain. We did not manage to complete one single assignment. Sigh...It was time to meet up with the rest at Coral Reef for dinner. Malcolm and I have decided that we need to develop an allergy of some sort, perhaps to brussel sprouts, so we can speak to the chef at every meal. As Sharon and Kwan chatted away to the chef, we ordered the Land and Sea appetiser which consisted of grilled shrimp with cucumber salad and BBQ beef skewer with creamy polenta, the pan seared seasonal fish with wild mushroom risotto finished for entree and the choc wave cake for dessert. It was yummy!!! Jonah enjoyed looking for Nemo and whales and demonstrated words that we didn't know existed in his vocabulary such as seahorse!

Our dinner venue

The view of the aquarium from our table

Land and Sea

Chocolate wave cake

The dessert Malcolm ordered. I can't remember what it was but it was delicious!

We were then off to World showcase again. We had to rush to make it to the candlelight processional. Unfortunately poor Annelise had diarrhoea and managed to get poo on her pants and so they had to go via the shops for new apparel. It was fortunate that the rest went ahead as the lines were long even for those with the dinner package. It was then that we discovered Ethel's flight had been cancelled! She was stuck at MCO awaiting transport back to the resort. The poor thing was so frustrated at not being able to get home and not being able to enjoy time with the family.

We chose to go to the candlelight processional with Steve Curtis Chapman as narrator. The music was just amazing. It truly was an auditory feast. The arrangement was just beautiful. It was unfortunate that it was freezing and Jonah had fallen asleep with a big poo in his bum. When the show ended, we had to abandon the plans to watch Illuminations and had to change a then screaming child in the cold. The bonus was that we got to watch Illuminations anyway albeit not in the special viewing area that we had entry to. What inspirational music and what a fantastic finale! We tried to beat the rush to resort and hence it was near impossible to take photos! We had to ready ourselves for 1) another big day tomorrow and 2)predicted highs of only 7 degrees and lows of -2. When are we going to find time for laundry?!? We have been so busy that I haven't even had time to have any churros...

Dec 11 - A Birthday Celebration

Today was Epcot Day. Breakfast was a quick and simple fare at Riverside Mill food court at the resort. We tried to maximise what was the last full WDW day for Ethel as she will fly out tomorrow evening. This meant modifying the plan that had been set out by our theme park strategist. We made it to the park in time for the rope drop ceremony. Our dedicated fastpass runner collected our cards in preparation for the stampede toward Soarin. He performed this task with high distinction, managing to collect a rider swap as well in the process. By the time the rest of the gang got there, we were able to walk on to living with the land. And returned to Soarin at a leisurely pace where half the group went on followed by the other half. In the meantime, the first half then collected fastpasses for test track.

We had to veer off the attractions program to find time to shop. It had to be done before 12am so as to be able to use our 20% discount voucher. We could not fight our Asian bargain hunting genes. We bought ourselves some Mickey ears and photo frames which we got delivered to our room. We then had to rush to get to Test track. We had cancelled our lunch reservation for Biergarten earlier. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we were craving Asian food. Yes it had only been 2 days since we left Sydney but that's beside the point! We trekked to Japan for lunch at Yakitori house. It was mediocre Japanese but there was rice, udon and Teriyaki sauce to sate the Asian taste buds for the time being!

Drum exhibition at the Japan Pavillion

"Most" of the gang wearing our matching T-shirts

Our friends headed back to resort but we chose to wander a little through the world showcase just taking in the sights. Being the good chinese, half chinese and almost chinese that we are, we actually went into the China pavillion! The children wanted to try a Kimpossible mission but it ended up being a no go as we had run out of time. We headed towards Magic Kingdom for Lara's Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique appointment at 330pm. We hopped on to yet another efficient Disney transportation system, the monorail. Before long, we had reached our destination, Cinderella's castle. Lara was pampered and made over to a princess by 2 ladies. They put so much gel in her hair that I am sure it would be enough to hold up the Eiffel Tower. The boys thankfully were content going on the carousel and eating ice-cream with Dad.

China

Being issued the Kimmunicator

Listening intently to the mission

Mexico, one of the few pavilions where I remembered to take a photo!

The "ball" as the children describe it

Another view of the ball

Waiting for the monorail

Back to the Magic Kingdom!

Princess Lara awaiting her transformation

A quick dash in to buy a temporary costume cost the King and Queen some dough...(we had to take the T-shirt off before the make-over for fear that it might ruin Her Royal Highnesses hairdo but we had to wait for the Kohs to return for the official Princess costume which we had left in our room. sigh. )

Where dinner will be had...

Ta-da!

complete with Mickey clip

We then walked around Magic Kingdom whilst waiting for our friends. The atmosphere was definitely different with crowds. We finally got to meet up with the Yeohs. And what a wonderful reunion dinner it was celebrating Elyssa's third Birthday at Cinderella's Royal Table. Cinderella just looked absolutely beautiful and royal as she greeted us. We were seated with a view out towards the glass windows toward Fantasyland. We had a great waiter with a fantastic sense of humour. Everything was "royal". The girls loved the princesses. They ooh and aahed, and clapped excitedly as they came out. The "little" princesses were fawned over by the "real" princesses. Snow White and Aurora were especially attentive which made it such a lovely experience. The boys enjoyed their swords. Jonah enjoyed his sword a little too much...Things were getting destroyed left, right and centre.

The food was suprisingly not bad. I had the shrimp salad, fried chicken and creme caramel and enjoyed them all. It was soon time to use the wishing stars. It was so sweet to see the children were wishing so hard on their stars. They barely had time to recover from that experience when the Birthday cake was brought out!

The Princesses...Aurora, Cinderella and Snow White

The Birthday Girl

Much happier with presents being opened!

Jonah, the sword master!

The lovely Snow White

Aurora

Giving the little ones a hug

Wishing hard on that wishing star...

But the night was still young! We ventured into Mickey's philharmagic after dinner. The sight of Jonah trying to grab things things in the air was just hilarious. After the show, all he kept saying was "Donald fell down". We manged to squeese in one more ride on account of Malcolm's fastpass obsession. He got one for Winnie the Pooh just before dinner...

We finally trudged back to the rest but what a trudge it was! The Magic Kingdom was spectacularly lit up with Christmas lights and decorations. The smell of cookies and sounds of Christmas carols filled the air. The atmosphere was simply magical. However, with crowds lining the streets in preparation for the parade, it was near impossible to get out!!!! We also ended up waiting a while for a bus. In the meantime, it was frustrating to see 3 buses zoom by for the french quarter.

A last glimpse of the castle before heading home

With the Yeohs arrival also came the delivery of much needed supplies including downy wrinkle release spray for the cruise, purex 3 in 1 washing sheets, scopolamine patches, fleece lined jeans and thermals for Jonah as well mobile phones and sim cards. The Yeohs had kindly purchased our goods for us on a previous recent trip to the US. Ah, what would we have done without friends!