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PAGAS
Did you avoid MK on Saturday the 3rd? It was MADNESS. Even the Disney workers said it was the craziest day they had seen - worse than summers.
Much of the blame went to 1) the monorail shutting down (which happened RIGHT when we were to get on so we waited an extra hour and a half to catch a ferry and almost missed our reservation at Cinderella's castle), and 2) Justin Bieber. I know it is part of his job but I hated him with a passion on Saturday after he tweeted he was at Magic Kingdom. Then I heard they let in a whole bunch of folks FOR FREE (could be completely false rumor though). It was crazy, stressful, and if it weren't for Cinderella's Table it wouldn't have been a very magical day (of course we would have gone to another park had we known Bieber would be there... I needed to stay more in tune with the different web forums on those things but had no time - work was crazy that week). Sunday and Tuesday were so much more manageable. And we had a great time at epcot (1/2 day), Animal Kingdom (actually opened and closed it - and went back for a couple hours the next day), and Universal Studios (1/2 day).
Did Finley have any favorite moments? Maddie has been saddling up to whomever will lend her an ear and tells them all about the Haunted mansion ride and space mountain. Oh - she barely made it onto space mountain (is exactly 44") and LOVED it. She wanted to go on it again, crazy kid.
- Paula Deen to 104.1 KRBE's Producer Eric 9/17/2011
Re: PAGAS
That is the day we got there. And we walked into MK right as the parade was going. It was INSANE. They had the area behind Main Street open for people to exit, which I have never seen before. When we were making our way down Main, a girl fight broke out, it was nasty. From what I read, Beiber was a surprise thing, so there was no real way to prepare for it.
I will say we will never go at X-mas time again. Way too crowded, I much prefere Jan-Feb and Sept-Oct. We had a couple good days with smaller crowds, but overall I was not happy with how crazy it was. Our hotel was sold out.
How did Maddie like everything? Did she enjoy Cinderella's castle? Finley loved it. She asked to go back every night there for dinner...um...no!
So Tasty, So Yummy
I honestly think it was our bad luck to pick the ABC Family filming weekend. My coworker went from November 28th through the 1st and said it was perfect and quiet.
Our "schedule" was:
Friday the 2nd - arrive, epcot in the afternoon/evening, Maddie's surprise party in our room. Her cake came out perfectly, btw. The Grand Floridian made it, delivered it to SoG, and they delivered it to our room and had it set up with the decorations i put up while she was in my bro's room playing with her cousins. All was ready to go as soon as we got back to our room. I was going to skip epcot but she was soooooooooo excited to see Mary Poppins that I'm glad we didn't.
Saturday - slept in a little because of being up until 1 or 2 the night before. Cluster F already described above, arriving at Cinderella's castle at 1:00 (our reservation was 1:10 - Maddie was ecstatic and honestly I was too - I was a little short of breath. Taking this reliving my childhood a bit too far, I think, lol). Rest of the day was packed and crazy as you know, plus we were trying to coordinate 10 of us including 2 strollers. Thank God for Cinderella's table to ensure that day had plenty of magic. And while I agree we won't eat every meal there, it was worth it to not have to stand in line forever to meet all those princesses - AND have a big, quality, filling meal to boot.
Sunday - Maddie, my mom's fiance's granddaughter, and I went to MK from about 10-4 while my mom, her Fi, and DH watched the Texans and my brother and his family did their own thing. Around 4:30 all the kids went swimming until about 7ish and then DH, Mom's FI, and his granddaughter went to Hollywood Studios. The rest of us ate at the hotel. M rode space mountain this day and LOVED it.
Monday - Animal Kingdom open-close. M LOVED the Festival of the Lion King and the Nemo show. Everyone except my mom, Maddie, and me left that night. Mom wanted to rest so I took M to MK alone to see the Electrical Parade (missed it Saturday because we were exhausted). We stayed late and rode It's a Small World, Dumbo, and the carousel again and again. I thought this was a 1/2 day park but we had plenty to do. Of course coordinating 10 people slows everything down ridiculously. And the grownups like to ride the rides so things like waiting for the yeti took up some time.
Tuesday - Went to AK as it opened to get character greetings we didn't get to on Monday, and went through the Bug's Life show. I loved it. M and my mom hated it, bwah haha. Especially the simulated roaches crawling under our bums at the end.
Then went to MK to finally meet Rapunzel - a nearly 2 hour ordeal. But mom got fast passes to the Winnie the Pooh ride so we went directly there and then the Monster Laugh Factory that we missed on the other day. Then we all went to Hollywood Studios just in time for the Pixar Parade. We didn't do the Toy Story ride because the wait was an hour and there were no fast passes left. She LOVED the movie history ride (ends with Wizard of Oz, one of her favorite movies), the Ariel show (but she said it was too short) and seeing the Beauty and the Beast show at the end was a perfect ending to our Disneyworld experience.
But then Universal the next day has all of it blending into a blur. I need to get our photo book put together soon while I can remember everything. Thank God the cameras time/date stamp everything in the document history so I can sort pics that way and remind myself of the order of things.
Other than Cinderella's table, what was Finley's favorite part? Oh and when you go when she is still older, I would still recommend the stroller. Every night ended with Maddie asleep in the stroller except Tuesday, and we ended that day about about 6:30.
- Paula Deen to 104.1 KRBE's Producer Eric 9/17/2011