Last Holiday post

This morning we have been madly trying to stuff everything in our suitcases!! Mad Cat Lady has loads of my stuff in her case and mine still only just shuts and weighs a tonne!! I took Little Prince swimming, but the pool wasn't heated and he turned blue within a few minutes. He finally decided he'd had enough and came back to the room for a nice warm bath. Once he was washed, dried and dressed and snuggled up in the bed watching the Disney Channel I had my shower and then blogged for the last time in Florida. We have to check out in a few minutes, so see you real soon :-) When we are back in England, and I've woken up!!!

Last DIsney Day :-(

Today was our last Disney Day, as the hotel shuttles times don't work for us to have any more time at Disney :-( We decided to go to Magic Kingdom - that always feels most Disney to me :-) At the hotel this morning Little Prince was playing with a little Spanish speaking boy, they both had matching Mickey caps and although neither could understand what the other said, they managed to have a great time running round and playing in the dirt!! Boy language lol.

When we were dropped at EPCOT we decided to use the Monorail to get to the Magic Kingdom. We asked if we could sit in the front of the Monorail, and had to wait for the next one to be able to, but we didn't mind. Mad Cat Lady was very impressed with the view, although she did say it was too high up!! Little Prince was thrilled to be a driver and remembered that he would be given a Driver's License at the end, which of course he was.

At Magic Kingdom Little Prince wanted to look at the shops down Main Street, and as they were much cooler than outside (I love air conditioning) we didn't argue. We came out through Casey's Corner, where we bought Little Prince some corn dog nuggets. He wasn't as impressed with them this time, as he was when we visited our American friends and only managed some of them. We then wandered into Adventureland where we rode the Flying Carpets, which made us feel a bit queasy as Little Prince was in charge of wiggling!! After that we went on the Jungle Cruise again, just as cheesy and just as fun as before :-) Next we set sail on the Pirates of the Caribbean, where Little Prince announced he wanted the loo JUST as we got to the front of the queue!! Luckily he managed to wait till we'd been on the ride :-) We found another Magic Photopass Photographer, who captured Little Prince sword fighting Captain Hook - he thought that was wonderful :-) Our next stop was Haunted Mansion, Little Prince doesn't like the stretching room and insists on being picked up and sticking his fingers in his ears, but he loves the rest of the ride. We were feeling a bit peckish so got lunch at Columbia Harbour House, before heading into Fantasyland to ride Peter Pan and It's a Small World. We then walked through the castle and found a spot to wait for the parade. Little Prince played with the hoops provided by the Disney Cast Members again, I think its such a fabulous idea to keep the kids amused :-) I got some great pictures of him playing with the Castle in the background :-) I also had enough time to go and get us all Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Bars, which we managed to get all over ourselves!! Thank goodness for babywipes!!! Little Prince was entranced by the Parade and it was lovely to watch him get so excited as he spotted each new float :-)

After the Parade he was desperate to ride the Buzz Lightyear ride, so we headed off to Tomorrowland to do just that :-) Foolishly I once again let him steer - I had to concentrate HARD on keeping my lunch down!! His next request was to ride Great Big Tomorrow also known as the Carousel of Progress :-)

Me and Little Prince decided to surprise Mad Cat Lady with a trip to the Toontown Hall of Fame Tent to see some Princesses. Despite being promised a play in the shop, and the chance to make a Potato Head afterwards Little Prince didn't co-operate for any of the Princess photos!! He had his eyes shut on them all except the very last one!! He refused to talk to any of the Princesses and hid behind my legs and wouldn't come out lol. The photos are 'interesting' lol :-) I also realised that we had lost Little Prince's autograph book!!! Disaster!!! He was so upset, probably another reason he acted up when meeting the Princesses! I talked to a Cast Member and she advised going to Guest Relations in City Hall and seeing if it had been handed in. I told Little Prince that Mickey would try his best to find his autograph book, and to try not to worry.

While Little Prince looked round the shop afterwards, I went to get our Photopass pictures put onto a CD. We also got three complimentary 5x7 prints and we let Little Prince choose - he wanted one of him 'forcing' the Storm Troopers and one of him with a Power Ranger. I chose a picture of us all holding Tinkerbell for our last print. It took quite a while to sort out the prints and CDs and the Cast Member was so helpful telling me all the different options and things I could do with the photos, he added borders to the prints for me too :-)

Little Prince had been cooped up in the shop for too long and was going stir crazy so we let him run around the kids play area for a while. He found some other boys to play with and they ran around being Transformers and having a great time. We then headed back to Tomorrowland to eat our dinner at Cosmic Ray's (again!). Then sadly it was time to head out of the park :-( Mad Cat Lady bought a Princess pink cat dish that she had been wanting and then we went to City Hall. After quite a long wait in the queue (I should be used to it by now lol) a very helpful Cast Member gave me a number to ring tomorrow to see if the book had been handed in. She also found the international dialing code for me, as I'd explained we were returning home tomorrow. Then she asked me to fill in a form with my name and address and Little Prince's details and said if the book isn't found they will send him a new one, with all the autographs in. What a fabulously helpful lady :-) Little Prince has complete faith that Mickey and his Magic Pixie Dust will be able to find his autograph book, and it looks like Mickey will :-) Thank you Disney :-)

We finally left the park, and ended our visit to Disney :-( But as Little Prince assured me "There's always a next time" :-) I watched the castle for as long as I could as we travelled across the lake on the ferryboat, I was very brave and didn't cry at all. We then caught the Monorail back to EPCOT. A very kind gentleman gave up his seat so that Little Prince could sit down, trouble is he nearly fell asleep during the journey!! He was only just awake when we got off the Monorail, but within seconds he was back to full speed and running down the ramps!! For the first time this holiday he managed to stay awake all the way back to the hotel!! He chattered about his own Meep Language the whole way to the hotel!! Once back at the hotel we got him in bed, but it took quite a long while for him to fall alseep this time. It was only by telling him he would be too tired to swim in the hotel pool tomorrow that we managed to get him to sleep!!

Me and Mad Cat Lady then started to try and stuff everything in our suitcases!! It isn't working!! We are going shopping on I-Drive tomorrow, after swimming and having to check out, and I'll probably be buying a holdall!!! I had meant to pack one, but forgot!! I should have known lol, everytime we come to the States we end up bringing back so much stuff!!!

Random ramblings

I slipped getting off the hotel shuttle the first day and have got a HUGE bruise on my arm, I have to remember to stand so that arm isn't showing on photos!!

I saw a cockroach scuttle from under the toaster to under the microwave at breakfast!! YUK!!!!

Little Prince is loving Pin Trading :-)

Tantrums and tears!!

We followed our usual morning routine, although we are starting later now we are more settled onto Amerian time. Little Prince was excited, he had asked to go on a Monorail to Magic Kingdom. However, as the coach pulled into EPCOT he started whinging that he'd said he wanted to go to Magic Kingdom! We explained that the hotel shuttle only goes to EPCOT and that we have to go to the parks from there. He then said he wanted to go to Studios, but as we walked towards the Disney buses he changed his mind and said he wanted to go to EPCOT!! We had barely passed the bag check area when he started to tantrum and refuse to walk as he DIDN'T want to go to EPCOT!!!! And that was only the start of the tantrums!!

We persuaded him to carry on into EPCOT and to try Ellen's Energy Adventure, which had been closed when we last visited. After a few minutes he changed his mind and started to moan and whinge about going there too. We decided to walk through Innoventions, which cheered him up and he played on the Fire Engine and the other exhibits. Including a fire safety demonstration house. The Cast Member running the demo, asked each child to point out their Mom or Dad and then said "Come and stand here Mom." When Little Prince pointed to me and Mad Cat Lady, the Cast Member obviously jumped to conclusions (!!) and without missing a beat, said "Come and stand here parents." I thought that was a lovley way that Disney just accepts that families are all different and can be made up in diverse ways - well done Disney :-) We queued up for the Recycle game but he found the games very hard and despite us helping him he threw more tantrums and was very hard to handle.

When we finally reached Ellen's Energy Adventure, we sat on a bench to watch the pre-show. Little Prince started to kick and flail around as he wanted to sit on the floor, right over the other side!! It took quite a lot of soothing to calm him down, and I've probably got the bruises to prove it!! Once we finally got on the ride part of the show, he was much happier and said it was great. Although he had to have his blankie as the dinosaurs were too scary.

We were leaving the park when Little Prince insisted that we ride Spaceship Earth again, there was no queue so we didn't argue. The screen in our vehicle kept flickering on and off throughout the ride, which was very distracting during the dark sequences! Little Prince enjoyed seeing himself star on the screen at the end of the ride though. We gave up on EPCOT and caught the us to Studios, hoping Little Prince would be happier there!! Luckily (in the main!) he was!

We rode his new favourite ride, Toy Story Mania before me and Mad Cat Lady insisted we had to stop at abc Commisary for lunch. Little Prince ate better than he has done so far, even though his appetite isn't quite as big as it usually is still. Then we saw some characters, Little Prince and Mad Cat Lady rode Star Tours and we rode Toy Story Mania again (and again!!). We also managed to see the Beauty and the Beast Show, the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and the Art of Animation. Little Prince enjoyed playing with Stitch when he saw him, Stitch was in a very naughty mood (just like Little Prince!!!) and kept trying to run away, picked his nose with Little Prince's pen and licked all the guests!!! Little Prince loved it lol.

The Guest Assistance Pass was a Godsend today, Little Prince was struggling so hard to cope and he would have found queuing for up to an hour (wait time stated on some of the rides we rode!!) impossible!!

When we got back to the hotel we settled Little Prince down to sleep and fired up the computer while watching cheesy TV. I'd got an email from Mr Messy letting me know that LMS has been invited to the next stage of the application process to work at Walt Disney World next Summer!!! I'm so proud of her, and so excited for her too :-) Well done LMS I knew you could do it :-)

Not so long day!!

Today we were off to Animal Kingdom. This is Mad Cat Lady's favourite park, although she hasn't had the chance to visit much of it when here with her husband and boys. We went on the safari first, and had to stop at one point when a baby giraffe decided to investigate the car a couple ahead of us!! Mad Cat Lady was so jealous that it wasn't our car that got such close up views!! Little Prince totally believed that we were chasing poachers (are they bad guys mummy?) and was very worried about the baby elephant missing his mummy. He was thrilled when we finally rescued the baby elephant.

We visited Camp Minnie Mickey and saw all the 'big cheeses' :-) Little Prince kissed Minnie, Mickey, Donald and Goofy and had a wonderful time cuddling them :-) The queues were really short so he coped well with the short waits and didn't get too upset - no broken shoes today lol.

We watched the Festival of the Lion King, which is one of my all time favourite shows. It was as fantastic as ever :-) Little Prince cuddled his Blankie through the show, as he said it was a bit scary, but afterwards he said the show was great and that he was having a wonderful day :-) We also saw the Finding Nemo Musical and again that was fabulous. Little Prince was worried about Nemo missing his Daddy and said was missing his Daddy lots too.

We happened on the parade route being set up, and as it was only about 15-20 minutes away we got some cold drinks and sat down to wait. Some cast members had hula hoops and were encouraging the children waiting to play with them. Little Prince tried so hard to hula hoop, and with some help from a cast member he was thrilled to manage it :-) Then they set up some hoops on the floor to make a hopscotch. Little Prince "helped" to make the hopscotch more difficult and then jumped all round it, to show everyone how to do it. He also managed to skip with a hoop :-) The parade was fantastic. There were no guests on the opposite side of the parade route, so all the characters turned our way and waved to us :-) One of the animal performers stuck his feathered tongue out to tickle Mad Cat Lady lol. After the parade Little Prince was thrilled to bits to be allowed to help pull up the tape on the floor and then to keep the screwed up balls of tape, which he made into a snowman and is safely in my bag to play with later!!

When Animal Kingdom closed we went over to the Park bus stops and said we would get on the first bus that arrived, to whichever park it went to. We ended up at Magic Kingdom :-) We only had time to ride Buzz Lighyear and visit Cosmic Ray's for tea. We caught part of the Dream Along with Mickey show, the bit where Mickey tells Minnie she has always been a Princess to him. I was joking with Mad Cat Lady that Mr Messy never says anything like that to me. Little Prince was obviously earwigging, as he piped up "Daddy doesn't say you are a Princess, but you're a Princess to me Mummy." He got the HUGEST hug for that :-) What a charming Little Prince :-)

We travelled back to EPCOT by Monorail and for once Little Prince managed to stay awake! He told us a long and convoluted story about Blankie going to the moon, but the moon was too small and his rocket fell off and it just got worse from then on!! My head was spinning and ready to explode by the time we got to EPCOT!! We rushed to our bus stop, as we were once again on the last minute!! We waited for about 1/2 hour and no bus turned up!! Another bus pulled in to the next stop, and the driver came over and asked us what hotel we were going to, when we told him he said he had an empty bus and was going past there, did we want to goon his bus?? Me and Little Prince were ready to jump straight on, but Mad Cat Lady was a lot more cautious. She checked that the shuttle would still be free, and wouldn't let us get on until the rest of the queue had agreed to get on too! I am way too niave and would have just jumped on!! Good job she's here to keep me safe :-)

We are now back at the hotel watching a cr*ppy 70's movie on Hallmark as every other channel has US politics. Little Prince is fast asleep in his ready bed and Mad Cat Lady is snuggled in her bed too. And as per usual I'm blogging!!

Another really long day

We have got our routine off pat now, we get up get showered and ready, go for breakfast and then catch the 10am shuttle to the EPCOT. Which is exactly what we did this morning. As we'd had such a long day yesterday, we decided to get the 8pm shuttle back to the hotel.

Today we visited Disney's Hollywood Studios. Little Prince was worried about Tower of Terror, even though he had been assured we would NOT be going on it! Eventually we told him to say "Ner ner we're not riding on you" and that seemed to do the trick. Mad Cat Lady has visited the Studios before, for Star Wars Weekends, but as her husband and boys are Star Wars mad that is all they have done. So most of the park was a complete surprise to her, like the Great Movie Ride. Although that scared Little Prince when our driver got kidnapped, he was very worried she'd been killed!! Mad Cat Lady took him on Star Tours, while I wandered round and waited, I get motion sick on that ride!! Afterwards we got him to play at the magic photo place, and he had his face magicked into Anakin Skywalker! The photo was quite expensive so I didn't buy it. When we got outside we heard a commotion back near the entrance to the ride, and happened upon the Jedi Training Academy. Little Prince was lucky enough to be chosen to be trained and he was hilarious!! He fought Darth Vader and 'forced' the Storm Troopers, Mad Cat Lady got it all on video and I can't wait to see it again! We then went to find Pizza Planet, but got distracted by the Muppet 3D Show, that Little Prince still insists on calling the Muffin Show. We eventually found Pizza Planet and had lunch - pizzas what else?!? We then went off on a mission to find the new Toy Story ride, and it was so much fun :-) Although I had to close my eyes when we whizzed so fast round the corners :-)

We saw the character Handy Manny, and queued up to get his autograph and picture. Little Prince insisted once we were in the queue that he didn't want to see him and got very stroppy about it, he'd done this in previous queues and been perfectly happy once we got to the front so we just jollied him along until it was our turn. This time it seems he meant it about not wanting to see Manny - he hid and wouldn't come out, so we just got the autograph and didn't bother with a photo. However, Little Prince was playing up and dancing round so that Manny couldn't see him and ended up standing on my flipflop and snapping it! I got overly cross with him and told him off, then marched him into the Playhouse Disney Live On Stage show. He thoroughly enjoyed the show, which was completely different to the one we saw last time. After the show I had to hobble around until we found a shop selling adult shoes, where I bought some brown, sparkly Tink flipflops, which were quite comfy until I'd walked round in them for an hour or so and then they started to rub!!

Mad Cat Lady took Little Prince on Star Tours again, and while they rode I caved in and went and bought the photo of Little Prince as Anakin. How could I resist?? We then remembered we had to get the Jedi Academy photos put on our Photopass, we had to queue up and it took ages. We then had to run to get a bus to the Transport and Ticketing Centre, and then a Monorail to EPCOT. However, after we'd sat on the bus for a few minutes we realised that we could get a bus directly to EPCOT and got off that bus and ran over to the EPCOT bus stop. Unfortunately we had just missed the bus!! We stood and waited for ages, well it seemed like a long time!! When it got to 7.55pm we realised we definitely wouldn't get to EPCOT in time for our 8pm bus!! So what did we do?? We went back into the Studios and watched the fantastic Fantasmic, of course!! It was a wonderful as ever, its one of my absolute favourite Disney shows :-) Little Prince spent almost the entire show with his fingers in his ears, but still said it was COOL when it had finished. We spent a while sat on a bench people watching, before going to get our bus back to EPCOT (Finally)!! We arrived back at EPCOT an hour early for the hotel shuttle, so once again found a bench and sat down. Little Prince was at the very end of his endurance and fell fast asleep in minutes. Mad Cat Lady is always amazed at how he does it!! We chatted to the Transportation Greeter, who gave us some bus trading cards for Little Prince :-) Eventually it was time to get our shuttle and luckily the driver didn't ask for our room numbers or anything, as we'd been booked on the earlier bus and weren't sure if they would allow us on!! There were very few people boarding, so it wasn't a problem.

Once back at the hotel, I put Little Prince straight to bed and he hardly stirred and was snoring again within seconds!! So that's the end of our "another really long day"!!

Long long day

Yesterday was a very very long day. We got the 10am bus from the hotel to EPCOT (the only drop off point) and headed straight for Magic Kingdom. We wandered "right down the middle of Main Straight USA" and into the happiest place on earth :-) We first headed to Tomorrowland as Little Prince wanted to go on the Buzz Lightyear ride. I insisted on steering as when Little Prince does he moves so crazily that I end up with motion sickness!! We also rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, which was a lovely slow ride, but I'd forgotten that Mad Cat Lady is scared stiff of escalators and we had a bit of a problem getting down again!! But we made it - I told her it was the only way down, so perhaps that persuaded her!!

Then we tried to persuade Little Prince to go into Mickey's Toontown, but he wanted to go straight to Fantasyland. Little Prince got quite cross that we couldn't find the Pinochio ride, but that's because its in Paris!! He pestered and pestered about that despite us keep telling him that they didn't have one here! We watched Philarmagic - brilliant, but I still close my eyes for the magic carpet ride through Agrabah! We went on Peter Pan's Flight, It's a Small World (my favourite), Little Prince and Mad Cat Lady rode the teacups. We saw the Dream Along With Mickey show, where Little Prince made me cry with a very poignant wish. We went to Liberty Square to the Hunchin Munchin, that's what Little Prince has always called the Haunted Mansion, which is Mad Cat Lady's fave ride.

We wandered through to Frontierland and watched the Splash Mountain drop! That completely persuaded us that we didn't want to ride it, much to Little Prince's disgust. We took his picture locked in the stocks - the stillest he's been all holiday lol.

We entered Adventureland and rode the Jungle Cruise. The jokes are still just as cheesy, but I love it anyway :-) Then we went to the Enchanted Tiki Room, so that tune was in our heads for the rest of the day. We met Peter Pan and got his autograph, then saw Captain Hook and Mr Smee. Then we went on the Pirates of the Caribbean, and drooled over Captain Jack Sparrow.

In amongst all of this we met Goofy, and in the Hundred Acre Wood we met Pooh, Eeyore and Piglet and we saw Buzz Lightyear and Pinnochio but Little Prince forgot to tell him that he had a cat called Figaro too. He says we have to go back and tell him another day.

In the evening we collected our wristbands and enjoyed Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. Little Prince initially loved Trick or Treating and seeing the pumpkins everywhere. But then he got over tired and started to flag, it had been too long a day for him. We cajoled and persuaded him to see Halloween Minnie and Mickey, but he whinged the whole time we queued up. Then we headed over to see the parade. Little Prince sat on the floor and started to fall asleep, we just about kept him awake - his eyes were open at least - for the parade! But as soon as it finished he fell fast asleep. I carried him over to the hotdog place and he slept sat on a chair leaning on the table, while we had a drink. We moved over to the curb, with Little Prince still asleep, to watch Hallowishes Fireworks. It was spectacular!! Out of this world. Not that Little Prince saw any of it, as he slept through the whole thing, not even the huge bangs and crashes disturbed him. Once it was over we made him walk (like a drunk lol) and we headed for the Monorails to return to EPCOT and the last bus back to the hotel. Little Prince managed to just about stay awake until we boarded the bus and then he was completely zonked.

Once we were back at the hotel, we had a quick check of the internet and then went to bed. We slept very soundly until 5am when Little Prince woke up with a bad tummy and diarhea! Once he was ok, I made him get back in bed and he slept till 7.30am, wish it was longer!!