Sam's Disney Favorites - revised and expanded!

Magic Kingdom. A small path around the castle gives you this great spot - and no strangers in my photo!

Splash Mountain and The Great Thunder Mountain Railway, in the Magic Kingdom, are my favorite sort of roller coasters. Splash Mountain follows the adventures of Brer Bear, Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox from the Disney movie Songs of the South. It is a roller coaster shaped like a log boat that goes through and around a mountain and we see the characters trying to catch the rabbit and put him in the pot! Brer Rabbit always escapes by outsmarting them. The song "Zipadeedoodah, Zipadeeay" plays at the end of the ride. I must have ridden it six times, and the best time was when we were in the front of the boat because we got sprayed more and we saw better!

Editmom's note: Due the the general excitement of being in Magic Kingdom, and the General Maxime who kept us moving from one high-interest Fast-Pass ride to another, there are no photos of either of these attractions. Even though we did them multiple times on multiple days.

• Some of our time in Magic Kingdom was spent eating, and I guess you can see why! Snack credits bought these for us at the Main Street Bakery. Best cinnamon roll ever.

My favorite park is Typhoon Lagoon, a water park with a huge wave pool and awesome body slides and rides. It's biggest slide is called Humunga Cowabunga. It's huge, it's fast, and it's steep! Typhoon Lagoon has Crush'n Gushers, which are like roller coaster tube slide that hold two people at a time. There is a long lazy river that brings you all around the park, so you don't have to walk far between slides. There is a kid's part called Ketchakiddiecreek where we can spray people and run around smaller slides, pools and fountains. They serve lunch at a place called Typhoon Tilly's and kids get their lunch in a bucket with a shovel so that you can play in the sand. The sand was cool and the water was hot. All around the park they play the Beach Boy's and calypso music. If you are planning to go to Disney, this is a must-see!

Editmom's note: There are no photos of the water parks since we left the camera at the hotel those days to avoid it getting lost or wet. Last time there were Photopass photographers in the water parks and we got photos that way, but this time they were no where to be seen.  

 

My favorite ride was Soarin' at Epcot, a ride that makes you feel like you are hang-gliding over California. The ride is always full and always has very long waiting lines, so you should get Fast-passes for it or go early in the morning. Or go early and get a Fast-pass, because you will want to do it again. By the afternoon the wait-time is over an hour. Who wants to wait in line an hour at Disney?

Editmom again: No Photos of Soarin' , an inside ride, or near The Land Pavillion where Soarin'  is found, in large part because the place was crawling with tourists who wouldn't move out of my photos. 

Walt Disney has some quite thrilling rides like Expedition Everest in the Animal Kingdom. Everest was scary. The ride is long, and you are inside and outside. People scream the whole time.  The wildest coaster in Disney, and I did it!

Sam and Max in front of Expedition Everest - the roller coaster is in the mountain. We took this at park closing when we were being ushered out of the park by a cast member who wouldn't let us any closer. Upside: no strangers in my photo.

My parents gave me a budget to spend on souvenirs, but I wasn't able to. They sold shirts, weird foam Mickey's and lots of toys. Many of the toys were too young for me. I did buy a little bit of legos at Downtown Disney, where they have a small store (a bigger store is being built). They had a lot of themes, but not a lot of variety in each theme. The salespeople were annoying in that store.

The gift shops maybe sell crap, but if you go you'll have an experience you'll remember for life.

Examples of Sam's idea of crap. Photos are more like Jillian's idea of stuffed animal heaven.

Trick to getting no strangers in my photos: get to where you're going really early. Like fifteen minutes before it opens. With my early risers this trick is a piece 'a cake.