Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue, by Jillian

Outside Pioneer Hall, Fort Wilderness Resort, home for 37 years to the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue

 Early in our trip we went to Hoop Dee Doo. The same show has been playing for 37 years, that's a lot!

The show takes place at Fort Wilderness. We had to take a boat from Magic Kingdom to get there. Fort Wilderness has a lodge but is is also a big campground with animals and trails. We were there early enough to walk around.

 Inside the music hall we had a great table with seats that spun around so we could see the stage. We had a great view of the show! Our table was up high she we could see over the tables in front of us. I liked the show, it was funny! It used old songs that we know like "Clementine" and "Red River Valley" and sometimes they changed the words to be funny. The singers were clever. They went around asking people where they came from and then putting that into the song "She'll be Comin' 'Round the Mountain." Like "They come from New York when they come, oh They come from New York - Don't forget to use your fork!" That was my favorite song!

There were six singers, three boys and three girls. There were cowboys and western singers. The audience had to sing and make noise sometimes.

 At the end they sang a song about the desserts and the waiters and waitresses were up on stage. Our Waitress was doing high kicks with big plates of strawberry shortcake. Then they gave us washboards to make noise and sing along.

On the table you can see we drank out of mason jars. The food arrives in tin buckets and the plates are metal like in Western times.

It was worth it to go, and I would go back again, it was so much fun! One lady we met in the bathroom has been going to that show for 13 years in a row!

Hoop Dee Doo ended in time to take the boat Back to Magic Kingdom. While on the dock we saw part of the lagoon water parade, and we got back in time to see the fireworks over the castle. We saw a fake Tinker Bell fly out of the castle at the end.

After that, we stayed on Main Street and had a great spot to watch the Electrical Light Parade.

Fairy Garden

I liked the fairy garden. The fairies don't actually live there, but they come to visit, and I have the proof! I left some little gifts by their houses and when I came back, they were gone!

One day I had a dream that there was a new fairy born. She had black curly hair and a blue dress. When we saw pictures of the fairies who had houses made to look like theirs, I saw there was a new fairy with black curly hair and a blue dress - her name was Marina!

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.

Jillian's Disney: part 2

OK, now where was I?

Oh, yes, theme three is my favorite ride. My favorite ride was a ride where you shoot at a target with a little toy pop-cannon, Toy Story Mania at Disney's Hollywood Studios. You ride two by two in a little car that brings you by different tableau where you shoot like at an old-style arcade, but the screen is a computer. Toy Story Mania was an amazingly good ride.

Theme four, favorite snack. My favorite snack was the paw print brownie, though it looked a lot bigger on the blog we saw on the computer. This snack was at Kusafiri bakery in Animal Kingdom, and while we were eating the parade came by and we had a great spot to watch it. How perfect is that?

Theme five, favorite dessert. My favorite dessert was probably the zebra dome cookies at Boma, one of the restaurants at Animal Kingdom Lodge. I had lots of them.

Jillian pointing to a hidden Mickey  in the rock around the animal enclosure.

Theme six, favorite restaurant: Lotus Blosson Cafe (China Pavillion, Epcot). I really like Udon noodle soup.

There are so may things to chose from it is hard to chose favorites, but I managed!

Desserts et collations:



Mousse au Chocolat de Chefs de France, les portions ne sont pas pour les novices!

À Walt Disney il y a beaucoup de desserts et de collations. La plupart sont sucrés. Comme desserts nous trouvons du gâteau au chocolat, des sundaes, des gâteaux au fromage, des brownies, de la mousse au chocolat, des sorbets, etc...

Maintenant pour les collations nous pouvons aussi en trouvées de bien sucrées et nous pouvons mêmes en avoir plus.  Par exemples de bons brownies, des limonades glacées, des kaki-gori, des crèmes glacée aux ananas (Dole-whips), aux gingembre ou aux fraise et feve rouge, de bons smoothies, des pâtisseries et beaucoup plus.

Je vous joins quelques photos. Appétissant hein? Malheureusement dû à la chaleur je n'ai pas pu en rappporter avec moi pour les partager.

 Gâteau fromage Napoléon au Coral Reef Restaurant

Kaki-Gori au pavillon du Japon.

Quelques desserts du buffet à Boma, Animal Kingdom Lodge, incluant les Zebra Dome cookies.

Walt Disney, part 1

It has been a very busy week here at Walt Disney World and here are a few of my favorite things.

Theme one: favorite place. My favorite place was probably Downtown Disney because of the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique where I transformed into a Disney Princess. I liked it very much because it was fun to be called 'Princess' all day. I liked to say, 'Princess coming through!' and have everybody move.

Theme two: favorite show. My favorite show was a very beautiful show, a show about different kinds of birds, where one bird steals money then gives it back, where another bird catches grapes that were thrown into the air and much more. It's Flights of Wonder in Animal Kingdom!

Theme three: sorry, I am too hot. I think I will go in the pool. I'll write more later!

Cocoa Beach!

After a great deal of visiting, we had a couple of days of sun and sand. Here is what Jillian and Sam had to say about it!

Nous avons eu une journée très relaxante à Cocoa Beach. La réception de notre hôtel avait des '' boogie board '' à notre disposition et nous en avons grandement profité avec les vagues magnifiques. Il y a des vagues qui m'ont fait tomber, tout ce que je voyais étais de l'eau et je sentais mon '' boogie board '' parce que je l'avais par-dessus moi. Nous avions besoin de mettre de la bonne crème solaire parce que le soleil était chaud.

Il y a un magasin qui avait plein de gilet à manche courte de Cocoa Beach. Moi et mon frère avons pu se choisir chacun un beau gilet comme souvenir.

Nous avons également eu la chance de voir quelque chose de très rare. Une grosse tortue qui ne bougait plus. On aurait dit qu'elle était morte mais elle était encore vivante. ~ Jillian

 
Cocoa Beach is great.You have to have a good suncreen here, the sun is harsh.  The water is warm, the sand is soft, and the waves are great for boogie boarding! In two days we spent 9 hours at the beach. We had a blast.

There is a famous surf shop here called Ron Jon's Surf Shop, it is huge. On the beach there was a half-dead sea turtle. It was covered in algae and seaweed. On old man took it and put it in a big hole filled with water. We think he and his wife were going to call people to come and take care of it.

When we walked around the parking lot of the hotel I had the impression half the sate of Kentucky was parked there.

I hope I get to go back to Cocoa Beach some day. ~ Sam