After some very careful consideration, I have decided to jump back in to the world of Warhammer and play some Warhammer Fantasy Battles. I am quite interested in the 8th edition changes. To chronicle my re-entry I have created a new blog, ...again to Warhammer.
Those with an interest in miniatures gaming, and Warhammer in particular should subscribe to that blog.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
Disney Traditions
Melissa and I have developed some traditions over the years going to Disney World. Different places to sit and relax, places to eat, and other fun little things we like to do. Now that we are bringing the kids along, it has been fun to start new traditions. I found it interesting that two of our most common traditions were not done this trip in favor of two new ones that I think will be around for a while.
I miss greatly what was likely our first tradition, a Magic Kingdom lunch of cold fried chicken and chips at Aunt Polly's on Tom Sawyer Island. I remember the first time we went across to the island only to find that they didn't serve lunch anymore, just ice cream. That was a sad day, but not the first time that a Disney change broke up a tradition.
Our two most common traditions are a lunch at the Columbia Harbor House and grabbing some fudge from Main Street. Columbia Harbor House has a nice upstairs seating area, including some tables near the windows overlooking the path from Fantasyland to Liberty Square. This is a fun place to sit as it is well themed and allows you to look out over the park. The food is mostly fried, but that is ok. Our original tradition with the fudge was to get some fudge and then go sit in the cool darkness of the Main Street theater and relax while watching cartoons. Like Aunt Polly's, Disney decided to change the theater to make it into a store. There is still a movie screen showing cartoons, but there is not a good place to sit. We usually still buy fudge, but either take it back to the room or if it is nice out find a side street on Main Street to have a few bites. We did neither of these on this trip though...traditions are changing.
This trip we had dinner at the Pinocchio Village Haus in Fantasyland. We grabbed a table overlooking It's a Small World, and spent a bunch of time waving down at the riders below. Pizza and pasta is on the menu at PVH, so it is a bit different from Columbia Harbor. Being able to watch the boys favorite ride, and wave was a big hit. We also did our breakfast on Main Street of cinnamon rolls and coffee. This was fun, though it was a bit crowded. We actually "ate" here twice. On a previous night at the Magic Kingdom we grabbed a few danish to bring back to the room for the following mornings breakfast. I think we are going to spend a bit more time on Main Street like this, it was a fun change of pace.
Do you have family traditions relating to Disney?
I miss greatly what was likely our first tradition, a Magic Kingdom lunch of cold fried chicken and chips at Aunt Polly's on Tom Sawyer Island. I remember the first time we went across to the island only to find that they didn't serve lunch anymore, just ice cream. That was a sad day, but not the first time that a Disney change broke up a tradition.
Our two most common traditions are a lunch at the Columbia Harbor House and grabbing some fudge from Main Street. Columbia Harbor House has a nice upstairs seating area, including some tables near the windows overlooking the path from Fantasyland to Liberty Square. This is a fun place to sit as it is well themed and allows you to look out over the park. The food is mostly fried, but that is ok. Our original tradition with the fudge was to get some fudge and then go sit in the cool darkness of the Main Street theater and relax while watching cartoons. Like Aunt Polly's, Disney decided to change the theater to make it into a store. There is still a movie screen showing cartoons, but there is not a good place to sit. We usually still buy fudge, but either take it back to the room or if it is nice out find a side street on Main Street to have a few bites. We did neither of these on this trip though...traditions are changing.
This trip we had dinner at the Pinocchio Village Haus in Fantasyland. We grabbed a table overlooking It's a Small World, and spent a bunch of time waving down at the riders below. Pizza and pasta is on the menu at PVH, so it is a bit different from Columbia Harbor. Being able to watch the boys favorite ride, and wave was a big hit. We also did our breakfast on Main Street of cinnamon rolls and coffee. This was fun, though it was a bit crowded. We actually "ate" here twice. On a previous night at the Magic Kingdom we grabbed a few danish to bring back to the room for the following mornings breakfast. I think we are going to spend a bit more time on Main Street like this, it was a fun change of pace.
Do you have family traditions relating to Disney?
Disney Day 5 - One Last Day
Another late night, and another early morning. What did I say about killing the kids again? We had not gotten a chance to ride on any of the kids rides in the Magic Kingdom because the lines were just too long. Tuesday was early entry at the Magic Kingdom and even though we did not get back to the room till late we decided to get up early to be at the gates by 8:00 am. We skipped breakfast figuring that we could grab something at the parks, and made it in plenty of time for the opening ceremonies.
We headed straight back to Fantasyland, and over to Peter Pans Adventure. It wasn't running. I was pretty sad by this as it is my favorite in Fantasyland. We grabbed a fast pass and went to ride Snow White and Winnie the Pooh. By the time we got back to Peter Pan the ride was open and the line was already at a 10 minute wait. Iain is kinda funny about rides. Going into this trip you could not get him to even consider Peter Pan or Snow White because they were both too scary. I am not sure if this is because we took him on them when he was younger and he got scared or if it is just an odd Iain thing. Not an issue anymore though, because he liked both rides. Liam just loves looking at everything so any ride is good for him. We road Small World one last time before departing Fantasyland for Liberty Square and the Haunted Mansion.
This ride really does scare the crap out of Iain. However, he also seemed to do much better with it this time around. He even joked about the stretching room later. The park was open by this point and we decided it as time for breakfast. We headed to Main Street with the idea of grabbing a nice quiet breakfast at the bakery. We did have a nice breakfast, but man was that place packed. Melissa waited in line and the boys and I scouted out a table. Worked out well in the end. I think we have a new tradition. :)
We headed back to Kidani after our morning at the Magic Kingdom and decided to go for a swim. The pool is really nice, as is the kids area. We played for an hour when I asked Iain if he wanted to try the big slide. To my surprise he said yes. He and I went up, and I went down first. I waited at the bottom and a few seconds later I could hear a WEEEEEEE as he came sliding down on his back. He loved it and he rode about 6 more times. We grabbed a bite to eat poolside before heading back to the room for some napping. Even Iain took a short nap this time, which was good, although not enough.
Our last night at the parks was spent at EPCOT. We went to The Seas first and after the ride Iain wanted to go to the Crush show. For those who have not been the Crush show features Crush the Sea Turtle from Nemo. He talks to an interacts with the audience. It is a very cool show, and all the kids get to sit in the front and ask questions. We were shocked to see Iain raise his hand and hear him ask a question very clearly. We were sooooooo proud of him, mostly because we figured his question would have been about poop. :) We rode on Living with the Land, which I thought Iain would like and he did. Dinner was at the Tangerine Cafe in Morocco followed by the Illuminations fireworks show. Iain decided to through a fit, which made the show less than enjoyable. The park as open for 3 extra hours that night and Iain was ready to ride Test Track. He and I braved the 30 minute line and he seemed to really like the ride. He held on to me pretty tight for most of it. They joke about using a barricade crash test during the ride, but Iain was not sure it was a joke. I had to promise him that we would not hit anything.
We moved on to Journey into Imagination. I love Figment, and I loved the original ride. The new one is OK, but from the lack of any lines (pretty much ever) I have to worry about the future of this ride. I had hoped that Captain EO would be playing while we were there, but it does not open till this Friday. Iain would have liked to see it, as he has been on a bit of a Michael Jackson kick recently. The night wrapped up with a ride on Spaceship Earth. I love this ride because it represents the last of the original Animatronic rides that I remember from the park opening. Horizons and World of Motion are gone and I hope we can keep Spaceship Earth relatively unchanged. I will say that I was disappointed not to see the chariots riding off into the distance in the Rome scene. I hope that is not gone for good.
We made it back to the room a little before 1:00 am and did a bit of packing. It was time to go home in the morning.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Disney Day 4 - Happy Birthday to Me!
Happy Birthday to me, I'm at Disney...
We started my birthday by sleeping in. Last nights late park departure, along with the heat
of our time at the water park took it's toll. I did get a cool rock slice from the boys
that they found at one of the gift shops at Animal Kingdom which was cool. Melissa grabbed
me a birthday button and we headed off to Animal Kingdom.
Iain loves both the Lion King and Finding Nemo shows at Animal Kingdom, and we did not get to see Lion King on our previous visit so we had to go back. We got to the park about 30 minutes before the 1 o'clock showing, and headed straight to Camp Minnie Mickey. The show was good, we sat in the elephant section. I need to mention our lunch, which we had immediatly after the show. In my opinion, the best counter service meal option at Animal Kingdom, and perhaps the entire of WDW is Flame Tree Barbaque. They server a 1/2 rack of ribs with beans and coleslaw. The ribs are really, really good and you can get a sweet and spicy bbq sauce on the side. Love eating at this place, especially since the various seating areas are nicely hidden in the trees. The eatin areas over look the waters around Asia and are covered. People often do not realize that there is seating further back which means you can often get a good seat with very little effort.
We rode on the safari ride and saw Tough to be a Bug before departing Animal Kingdom to head to the room and take a nap. There was not much napping, and the return visit was short as we needed to get to the Magic Kingdom for dinner.
Dinner was at Cinderella's Royal Table inside of the castle at the Magic Kingdom. This is something that, as far as I can remember, I have never done before. We checked in at about 7:45 for our 8:10 reservation. Shortly before, both boys fell asleep (there was not much napping earlier if you recall). The first thing you do is get a picture with Cinderella. Our pictures are pretty funny. Liam is crying and Iain is hiding his face. Oh well. The boys proceeded to fuss until we sat down at the table. Iain was not happy with the kids menu choices and wanted our steaks. Liam ate a little of everything, and a lot of sometings. Infants get complimentary pasta, but he also had his brothers fruit and mashed potatoes, some steak and a bunch of bread. Liam knows how to eat! Princesses are the characters at this dinner and we saw Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Belle and Ariel. Iain was too shy to talk to any of them, he just stared. Liam and I got our pictures take with the princesses though. Dinner ended with a birthday cake purchased by mom and the boys. We were a little full though and just blew out the candle and sang happy birthday. We stayed long enough to catch the 10pm fireworks from inside the castle. This was quite a cool experience, as many of the launchers are on buildings right next to the castle.
After dinner we road Small World (again), and ended the day riding Dumbo. I am pretty sure that was a first for all of us. It is a fun ride, but I don't think I would ever ait more than the 10 minutes we did wait. After Dumbo the park was closed and we walked out in the direction of Liberty Square. We were fortunate to find that the Main Street Electgrical parade had not gone by yet, and there was a huge unbclamied section of rope. We sat down to watch the parade. Iain loved it, especially the Pinochio float.
It was a great birthday, capped off by a suprise goody basket waiting in the rooom for me. Filled candy and rice krispie treats the center piece is a big sized stuffed Mickey. We had to get to bed as it was 1 o'clock and we needed to get up in just 4 hours...
Iain loves both the Lion King and Finding Nemo shows at Animal Kingdom, and we did not get to see Lion King on our previous visit so we had to go back. We got to the park about 30 minutes before the 1 o'clock showing, and headed straight to Camp Minnie Mickey. The show was good, we sat in the elephant section. I need to mention our lunch, which we had immediatly after the show. In my opinion, the best counter service meal option at Animal Kingdom, and perhaps the entire of WDW is Flame Tree Barbaque. They server a 1/2 rack of ribs with beans and coleslaw. The ribs are really, really good and you can get a sweet and spicy bbq sauce on the side. Love eating at this place, especially since the various seating areas are nicely hidden in the trees. The eatin areas over look the waters around Asia and are covered. People often do not realize that there is seating further back which means you can often get a good seat with very little effort.
We rode on the safari ride and saw Tough to be a Bug before departing Animal Kingdom to head to the room and take a nap. There was not much napping, and the return visit was short as we needed to get to the Magic Kingdom for dinner.
Dinner was at Cinderella's Royal Table inside of the castle at the Magic Kingdom. This is something that, as far as I can remember, I have never done before. We checked in at about 7:45 for our 8:10 reservation. Shortly before, both boys fell asleep (there was not much napping earlier if you recall). The first thing you do is get a picture with Cinderella. Our pictures are pretty funny. Liam is crying and Iain is hiding his face. Oh well. The boys proceeded to fuss until we sat down at the table. Iain was not happy with the kids menu choices and wanted our steaks. Liam ate a little of everything, and a lot of sometings. Infants get complimentary pasta, but he also had his brothers fruit and mashed potatoes, some steak and a bunch of bread. Liam knows how to eat! Princesses are the characters at this dinner and we saw Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Belle and Ariel. Iain was too shy to talk to any of them, he just stared. Liam and I got our pictures take with the princesses though. Dinner ended with a birthday cake purchased by mom and the boys. We were a little full though and just blew out the candle and sang happy birthday. We stayed long enough to catch the 10pm fireworks from inside the castle. This was quite a cool experience, as many of the launchers are on buildings right next to the castle.
After dinner we road Small World (again), and ended the day riding Dumbo. I am pretty sure that was a first for all of us. It is a fun ride, but I don't think I would ever ait more than the 10 minutes we did wait. After Dumbo the park was closed and we walked out in the direction of Liberty Square. We were fortunate to find that the Main Street Electgrical parade had not gone by yet, and there was a huge unbclamied section of rope. We sat down to watch the parade. Iain loved it, especially the Pinochio float.
It was a great birthday, capped off by a suprise goody basket waiting in the rooom for me. Filled candy and rice krispie treats the center piece is a big sized stuffed Mickey. We had to get to bed as it was 1 o'clock and we needed to get up in just 4 hours...
Disney Day 3 - How to kill your kids and have fun doing it
Day three turned out pretty interesting. The plan was for Blizzard Beach in the AM followed by a long, long night at the Magic Kingdom (extra magic hours open till 2:00 am). We actually carried through with it, and were at the park until darn near 1 am. Backing up earlier in the day though...
We headed to Blizzard Beach before the opening at 9:00. A partially successful departure had us well prepared for everything except that we forgot Liam's swim shirt. No big deal as Melissa and I had decided we wanted some as well. After some new shirts, a locker rental, and a bit of time to change we hit Tykes Peak for some kid slides and splashing. Liam was not really sure what to expect, but Iain had a blast. He road on the little kids slides a number of times in a row. We finally talked him in to leaving to ride the lazy river, which was a blast. Liam with mom (napping) and Iain with me. Mom and Liam stayed in for a second ride around, while Iain and I tried to find a "big" slide he would ride on. He would not attempt any of the really big slides, but did love Cool Runners. We road it about 15 times. Liam started to look pretty fried, so we had some lunch, changed and headed back to the room.
When we returned we rented a copy of the Power Rangers movie from the resort, and Iain watched it. Liam tried to nap, and tried to eat but instead decided the projectile vomiting would be better. Not surprisingly he felt a bit better after that. A visit from house keeping and the carpet cleaning guy behind us and we left for the Magic Kingdom and a spot of dinner. We had reservations at Crystal Palace, but they were a bit late (8:45) and decided to just eat at Pinocchio Village Haus instead. We got a table overlooking It's A Small World with no problems and ate. Liam downed a lot of pizza crust and some green beans which seemed to make him feel better.
We went to ride Small World after dinner, and Iain did not want to go. Finally he gave us his usual drawn out OK, and we got on the ride in the very front. Short story is that he loved the ride, and that was the first of four rides. He sings along and loves to look for new things he hasn't noticed before. Liam likes it even more I think and dances, points, and talks the whole time. The evening at the MK progressed well and we ended the regular park hours on a sleepy Jungle Cruise. e followed that up with our first extra magic hours ride on Pirates. Iain was scared, but in the end decided it was not to bad.We walked over to Frontier Land to see if we could ride Big Thunder. Iain would not go on but Melissa and I did. The boys fell asleep. We walked over to Space Mountain after, because we had not ridden since the"update". It was a 30 minute wait so we used a baby swap and I waited in line. So disappointed! I am not sure they really updated much that was worthwhile, certainly not worth 30 minutes. Liam woke up while I was on the ride and fussed for mom. He was pretty warm when I got off so I stripped him down to his diaper. He thought that was fun and calmed down. It as a late night, we were all beat, but we had a good time.
We headed to Blizzard Beach before the opening at 9:00. A partially successful departure had us well prepared for everything except that we forgot Liam's swim shirt. No big deal as Melissa and I had decided we wanted some as well. After some new shirts, a locker rental, and a bit of time to change we hit Tykes Peak for some kid slides and splashing. Liam was not really sure what to expect, but Iain had a blast. He road on the little kids slides a number of times in a row. We finally talked him in to leaving to ride the lazy river, which was a blast. Liam with mom (napping) and Iain with me. Mom and Liam stayed in for a second ride around, while Iain and I tried to find a "big" slide he would ride on. He would not attempt any of the really big slides, but did love Cool Runners. We road it about 15 times. Liam started to look pretty fried, so we had some lunch, changed and headed back to the room.
When we returned we rented a copy of the Power Rangers movie from the resort, and Iain watched it. Liam tried to nap, and tried to eat but instead decided the projectile vomiting would be better. Not surprisingly he felt a bit better after that. A visit from house keeping and the carpet cleaning guy behind us and we left for the Magic Kingdom and a spot of dinner. We had reservations at Crystal Palace, but they were a bit late (8:45) and decided to just eat at Pinocchio Village Haus instead. We got a table overlooking It's A Small World with no problems and ate. Liam downed a lot of pizza crust and some green beans which seemed to make him feel better.
We went to ride Small World after dinner, and Iain did not want to go. Finally he gave us his usual drawn out OK, and we got on the ride in the very front. Short story is that he loved the ride, and that was the first of four rides. He sings along and loves to look for new things he hasn't noticed before. Liam likes it even more I think and dances, points, and talks the whole time. The evening at the MK progressed well and we ended the regular park hours on a sleepy Jungle Cruise. e followed that up with our first extra magic hours ride on Pirates. Iain was scared, but in the end decided it was not to bad.We walked over to Frontier Land to see if we could ride Big Thunder. Iain would not go on but Melissa and I did. The boys fell asleep. We walked over to Space Mountain after, because we had not ridden since the"update". It was a 30 minute wait so we used a baby swap and I waited in line. So disappointed! I am not sure they really updated much that was worthwhile, certainly not worth 30 minutes. Liam woke up while I was on the ride and fussed for mom. He was pretty warm when I got off so I stripped him down to his diaper. He thought that was fun and calmed down. It as a late night, we were all beat, but we had a good time.
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