Disney

"Ryder Cup Week" as it was known in Chaska was a week long break from school due to the Ryder Cup being hosted at Hazeltine Golf Club. We decided to take the opportunity to go to Disney World, when we thought the rest of the United State's would be in school. This wasn't quite the case, the parks were a lot busier than we expected and the weather was quite warm too.

We took off right away on Saturday making one layover before arriving in Orlando.

On the plane.

We found our way to the "Magical Express" at the airport and let Disney worry about finding our luggage and getting it to our hotel room.

Magical Express

We settled into the hotel, enjoyed the baseball themed pool nearest our room, ate some supper, and enjoyed a movie out on the "football field". While it snowed on the "Tigger Movie" bubbles fell down on our heads. We did discover that we could see fireworks from one of the parks from the balcony of our hotel, not right outside our rooms, but just around the corner.

Day 1: Hollywood Studios

Our first day at the parks, we headed to Hollywood Studios. We started the day with the "Tower of Terror". Gavin wasn't up for the ride. Wyatt was, but just once. Wyatt wasn't tall enough for the Rock 'N Roller Coaster and Gavin wasn't ready to ride that either, so just Fred and Jacob rode that while the rest of us took in "The Great Movie Ride". We watched the "Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular" and the "Voyage of the Little Mermaid:. Since I had a FastPass for Fantasmic that evening, I couldn't book anymore FastPasses, so we waited a while in line to ride "Toy Story Midway Mania". Fred, Gavin, and Wyatt headed back to the hotel first, while Jacob, mom and I went to watch "Beauty and the Beast". Then we headed to the hotel for a swim break before going back to Hollywood Studios for another ride on the "Toy Story Midway Mania" and then enjoying "Fantasmic". We sat down close to the water for this electrical parade and show and got misted on for most of it. Wyatt didn't like the big dragon towards the end, so he and I moved up towards the back.

Storm Troopers at Hollywood Studios.

A "Trader" with the boys.

Goofy and the boys.

Waiting to ride our favorite ride - Toy Story Midway Mania.

The boys with and Army Man.

Waiting for the "Stunt Spectacular" to start.

Mom and I with a giant Scrabble board on the ceiling in the Toy Story line.

The boys with "Jesse" in the Toy Story line.

Fred and I, see we had a lot of time in line for this ride.

Day 2: Magic Kingdom

On Monday we headed to the Magic Kingdom. We started with a ride on "Aladdin's Magic Carpets" and then took a "Jungle Cruise" and then a different cruise through the world of "Pirates of the Caribbean". We then made our way across to Tomorrow Land and checked out the "Stitch's Great Escape" which had us in the dark most of the time complete with mist and stink gas to complete the experience, even the boys were not fans. We enjoyed the "Monsters Inc Laugh Floor". Everyone else checked out the "People Mover" while I tried to figure out a glitch in our FastPasses. We then checked out the "Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin", hoping it would be as fun as the "Midway Mania" ride at Hollywood Studios, but it wasn't quite the same. We rode it multiple times anyway as it gave us a chance to compete with ourselves. We got FastPasses booked for "Tomorrowland Speedway", but some rain and lightening moved through, so we made our way to "Mickey's Philharmagic" show. After getting a ride on the "Speedway", the boys decided to wait in a long line for the "7 Dwarves Mine Train" roller coaster. While they did that, mom and I rode "It's a Small World" (since Fred said he would not ride that) and "Under the Sea" (Little Mermaid) rides and tried to find some alcohol, but had no luck. We were about done by then and couldn't find it in us to find a spot and wait for the "Electrical Parade". We did see parts of it as we made our way out of the park. 

Rafiki from Lion King

Group photo in front of the Cinderella's Castle, complete with crane.

On the flying carpets.

The boys in the jungle.

Cruise selfie.

The boys with Buzz Lightyear.

Mom and I, both a little wet, on the "Under the Sea" ride.

Day 3: Blizzard Beach & Disney Quest

We went to one of Disney's waterparks called Blizzard Beach on Tuesday. It was fun and great weather until we finally got mom in the lazy river and got about 2/3 of the way around before they announced that all water rides would be shutting down because of inclement weather heading in our direction. About 2 minutes later it started to rain and about 2 minutes after that it was pouring and lightening.  I left mom with the boys while I went to find Fred who had stayed back by our stuff while we lazed on the river. We got reunited to spend some quality time under a cabana, which mostly sheltered us from the rain, but not so much the wind. When the rain finally let up, we made our way out of the park to catch the bus back to the hotel. 

That night we left mom back at the hotel to enjoy a hot bath and some down time, while we went to Disney Springs to check out "Disney Quest" Disney's 5 floors of video gaming and virtual rides. There was barely anyone there and we got to play skee ball and Nascar racing to our hearts' content.  

Day 4: Epcot

On Wednesday, we headed to the "Big Golfball" (aka Epcot). We got a lot done right away at Epcot; "The Seas with Nemo & Friends" ride, "Turtle Talk with Crush" interaction, "Soarin'" ride, and "Living with the Land"ride before heading to  the "Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival" presentation. By this time the boys had been asking to eat for a couple hours and we made our way across the lake via boat to Japan for shrimp (Gav's new favorite). We also got a shwarma platter from Morocco to share and creme brulee from France. We did some shopping in Morocco and mom found some beaded pillow covers that she loved. We ate fish and chips in England and watched the Canada movie before getting to finally ride the "golfball ride" (aka "Spaceship Earth") and explore the fun in "Project Tomorrow".  We went back to our hotel to cool down in the pool before heading back to Epcot. Once back at Epcot, Jacob and Fred checked out "Mission: Space" while the rest of us re-explored "Project Tomorrow" - Wyatt hadn't gotten enough of the "Body Builder" challenge the first visit. Then it was off to check out the "Test Track" - we got to design our own cars and take a crazy ride around the test track. We then circled the lake/globe again testing out different foods (many of which were there as part of the Food & Wine festival). We thought about staying for the nighttime fireworks over the lake, but again we were ready to head back to the hotel. 

Morning selfie with that golf ball in the back.

Mom and the boys. Look - Jacob is taller now.

Living with the Land ride.

Fred's family was in Germany at the actual Oktoberfest, so we had to show that we were also in "Germany" at "Oktoberfest", we skipped the beer and opted for desserts from Italy instead.

Day 5: Sea World & Wyatt's Birthday

We spent Wyatt's birthday at Sea World. It started out as a gorgeous day and there weren't too many people at the park. However, the roller coasters at this park are mostly the ones where your feet dangle and you have to be quite tall to ride. So, Wyatt couldn't ride any of the big ones. He did enjoy the "Journey to Atlantis" splash coaster.  And while the big boys took a ride on a big coaster, we checked out some aquariums. We got to watch the Dolphin show, see the manatees and sea turtles, and enjoyed the Shamu show from the "soak zone" before getting warned about approaching weather. We found some lunch and a canopy before the rains hit. The canopy wasn't rain tight and the boys needed a poncho for a while. When it cleared up we went to visit the penguins in Antarctica (brrrr). Then while the big boys went to check out the bigger roller coasters, mom and I took Wyatt to the smaller rides. He was stuck in line for the roller coaster over there and refused to get out of line while they released the locked in riders and tested it before letting more kids ride. We checked out the Sharks and Dolphin nursery before heading back to the hotel to chill for the evening. Mom tried to talk Wyatt into cupcakes to celebrate his birthday, but he decided on an orange "dreamsicle".

Sea World selfie, this one shows mom the most of all the selfies I took that morn.

Wyatt in an aquarium.

The dolphin show, I did not get pictures of the Shamu show as we were busy getting splashed by the big whales.

Lunchtime hideout.

Penguin habitat.

There was time for swimming and treats at the hotel that evening. We ventured over to the big pool at our hotel for once.

Fred and the newly 6 year old.

Wyatt and his birthday treat watching a little of the movie before bed.

Day 6: Animal Kingdom 

Friday we made our way to Animal Kingdom. We started with the "Festival of the Lion King" show. Then went on a hike down "Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail" and began the challenge of being "Wilderness Explorers". We took a "Kilimanjaro Safari" and saw all sorts of animals including giraffes, elephants, and hippos. We took the "Wildlife Express Train" to get some more "badges" and funny thing is the boys missed getting their hand-washing badge - we had to get over to Mt Everest for our "Expedition Everest" FastPass ride. The wait for lunch was long and tables were sparse, but we got refueled before checking out the animals on the "Maharajah Jungle Trek" and heading back for another ride on "Everest". We cooled down and relaxed during a showing of "Finding Nemo: the Musical". We got a few more badges in DinoLand USA. Then we went to ride the "Kali River Rapids". I donned my poncho and rode with the boys. I stayed fairly dry thanks to my poncho on the first ride, but when I put up my hood before the second ride, I dumped all that water from my hood right down my back. We rode a third and final time. We checked out the "It's Tough to be a Bug" show, everyone was brave enough to sit through the whole show this time (as opposed to 5 years ago when Gavin and I left after the first couple minutes). We found what we thought was a great spot to watch the "Tree of Life" lighting and enjoyed some food and mom and I shared a drink. We finally figured out that the light show only showed on the one side, and we were not on that side. We made our way towards the exit, pausing to watch some of the light show on the tree.

Pre-Safari Selfie. 

Safari selfie.

Jacob, Gavin and a thirsty elephant.

Hikers. 

Me, Wyatt and a giraffe!

Mom and me.

Fred and the boys.

Everest

Family shot.

Bugs!

Tree of Life

Back side of the light show.

Day 7: Magic Kingdom, Blizzard Beach, & Disney Quest

Finished up Magic Kingdom (showing up on the 45th anniversary, yeah! more people, eek!) riding the train around to Splash Mountain. Then again around to Fantasy Land, we rode the "Barnstormer" roller coaster before walking over to Tomorrow Land. We waited in the regular line for "Space mountain", then did the "Buzz Lightyear" ride once again, The boys got in another ride on the "Speedway" and then the boys used their FastPass for "Space Mountain". We headed out to have lunch back at the hotel and then off to Blizzard Beach for the afternoon.

Walt Disney Railroad.

Fred and Gavin on the "Speedway".

One more picture at the Magic Kingdom.

He's six now, time to beef up I guess.

We spent the afternoon at Blizzard Beach and a rainy evening at Disney Quest. Mom and I got sushi and soup at Wolfgang Puck Express before joining the boys for games. 

Ready to head home:

Bye-bye All Sports Resort.