Sheep Guarding Llama

For our first day in Walt Disney World, our first real day that is, we took the girls to Hollywood Studios.  This is our only day scheduled in this park.  We slept in this morning, as you can imagine.  We’ve had almost no sleep leading up until now for around a week and with the drive and the late night in the Magic Kingdom last night – we were just beat.  So we slept in very late and just took our time getting started this morning.

Our first stop of the day, and our one big set event, was not a ride but was getting lunch at the Hollywood & Vine where they do a Disney Junior character meal.  Both girls love Disney Junior so this worked out really well as they were excited to meet characters that they really know well.  The food was really good too.  This was our first meal in Disney this year (other than the quick sandwich last night) and it was quite good.  We were ready to eat too being so late in the day.

After the hectic meal, as character dinners are always a big, stressful deal, we went to our one really stand out favourite Hollywood Studios ride: The Great Movie Ride.   That is one of the best rides in all of WDW and it is strangely hidden away in Hollywood Studios with all of the boring stuff.  We rode it and Liesl just had so much fun.  She thought that the whole thing was great and insisted that she was never scared at all, even though some parts of the ride are a little intense, like the shoot out scenes.

Next up was the Journey of the Little Mermaid stage show.  It is a mixture of puppeteers and live action performers.  It is pretty short but excellently done.  Dominica had not really remembered it.  The girls thought that it was cool.

Next up, Disney Junior… Live on Stage.  Another live show and it was quite good.  The girls really liked this too.  We all had to sit on the floor, though, so it was decently uncomfortable by the end.  It was entertaining and the actor who starred in it did a very good job.

We used our FastPass+ for the first time (it is new and exclusive to the Magic Bands) with Toy Story Mania.  Liesl loved this, she did really well playing this three dimensional, full motion video game ride.  I was really impressed by how well she was able to get into the game and she scored really well (it keeps track of points.)  I think that she scored around a 37,000.  Pretty good for a four year old on her first time on any ride like this, let alone this particular one and her first time playing a shooting video game.

Liesl wanted to see the Walt Disney Museum called “Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream” so I took her through that while Dominica took Luciana to deal with changing a diaper.  Liesl liked it and wanted to stop and look at each of the exhibits.  She was so cute.  And the Disney girl watching over the exhibits sneaked over and gave her stickers because she was so good.

Next was Muppets 3D.  This did not go over so well.  The girls do not like the Muppets nor are they interested in 3D movies.  And we had a pretty long wait before the movie started and the “show” that they do in the waiting area is not entertaining at all. It is supremely boring, actually, so the girls wanted to bail on the movie before we even got into it.

We did the Great Movie Ride again because the girls were getting restless and it was the one thing that Liesl really loved.  We lucked out that we managed to get the “other” experience on the ride – for those unaware, there are two different “paths” that you can take through the ride.  The stories don’t diverge too much but they do change a little and it made it a lot more interesting.  Normally it is years between us getting to see the two different shows.  This, I think, is the first time that I have seen both of them in one day.  This time too, we were directly under the Alien and what wasn’t scary at all to Liesl the first time was surprising the second time and she screamed very loudly.  It was hilarious.

We skipped tons of rides because we were tired and we did not want the girls to be upset about everything.  So by early evening we were on the long bus ride back to the resort, the Pop Century.  Our hotel room is in the 1980s section.  We decided that we were so ready to just hang out in the hotel room that we just used a quick service meal from our meal plan to get food from the resort’s fast food court.  I got the salmon burger which was very good, I highly recommend it.

We were in bed early.  Probably before ten.  Maybe even before nine!  We were completely worn out but our first day was a success.  A good starting meal and at least one classic ride that Liesl loved.  Luciana is definitely much less excited about the rides than Liesl is, but we are really here for Liesl this time.  We didn’t want to miss her being around five to really get that early, magical experience that you can only get when you are still young enough to not be completely sure which things are real and which are not.  Although even in the really realistic parts of the rides that a lot of kids get fooled by, she did not have the slightest problem knowing that it was all pretend and that none of it was real but she still really enjoyed it.

Tomorrow we are off to the Magic Kingdom.  We have to be up early because we have a now regrettably early breakfast planned at the Polynesian Resort.

We only made a small amount of the long drive from Houston to Orlando last night. Today is our real driving day. Many miles to go. About ten hours of driving to do today and the family needs to stop often. Luciana, at least, after having seen the doctor yesterday is feeling much better.

We drove all morning and then not far from Tallahassee we stopped for a morning nap at a quarter till eight in the morning. We slept in an Econolodge for several hours. We got up and were on the road around noon trying to get down to Disney so that we could make it to the Halloween Party tonight.

We were not on the road for very long when the rains, which had plagued us last night, picked up.  At one point the rain was so fierce that we had to stop driving altogether and rest at a rest stop.  We could not see the road!

We made it, although it was a struggle all day. I was very tired when we got to the Pop Century to check in.  It was nearly eight in the evening.  We parked the Acadia and got checked into the hotel. We got our room, 9163, and got the girls into the room. I stayed in the room with them while Dominica worked on getting stuff out of the car that we would need for the week while in Disney.

The hotel is decent. Definitely one of the value resorts. We stayed in the All Star Music, a similar level resort, when we were here in 2009 for Liesl’s first birthday. No surprises for us. There was, however, a strong odor of something rotting right outside our hotel door that lingered the entire week. Liesl will probably never forget that smell.

We were not in the hotel for very long before we made our way to the Magic Kingdom so that we could attend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party there. We scheduled this trip around making it to this, the very last night of the Halloween show and to stay just long enough to make it to the first night of the Christmas show – both were shows that Dominica has always wanted to see so this was a chance to get them both out of the way so that she will hopefully not feel any need to see them again.

We made it on to Main Street, USA and Katie, who had driven up from Tampa (we saw her just two days ago in Austin) joined us there to watch the castle illumination and fireworks show. That was okay although not actually very interesting. The video projected on the castle was kind of neat but just high powered projectors, nothing really special and fireworks are fireworks and not something that I particularly enjoy. The girls seemed to enjoy it but were getting restless.

After the fireworks were over we went into Fantasyland and gave Liesl and Luciana there first real taste of Walt Disney World. Their first ride was the Tea Cups which we had to do tonight because only Katie could take them on that ride. My vertigo and Dominica’s nausea preclude us from even making the attempt. Katie rode with them twice, the girls thought that this was great fun.

Then we took them on Cinderella’s carousel. Katie took Liesl and I took Luciana for a spin on the wooden horses. They loved that too. Maybe even more than the teacups.

We went to Liberty Square and while there we watched the Halloween parade go by. And we tried to get some food. Katie and I stood in line for half an hour to get the special “Halloween Party only food”, part of the big draw of these events. After waiting for half an hour, I was told that no, I could not use my snack credits for the special event food. So I tried to pay with room credit and I was told that the hotel credit was not attached to the Magic Band that I was wearing. I had the backup credit card style thing that the hotel told us to keep “just in case” but it did not work either. Dominica had thrice made sure that our credit card was attached to the Magic Band and not having to carry your credit card into the park with you was, we were told, a key benefit of the system. If they can’t figure out how to get you food or allow you to enjoy the things that you are paying for already, it is a pretty big failure. I was not happy at all after that. Disney’s response was simply “sorry, you can’t buy food here for no fault of your own and we aren’t going to accommodate you even though we are the ones failing.” Not impressive.

We then went to the dance party where the girls and I danced to overly loud music in Tomorrowland out on the street for probably half an hour, maybe longer. While we were there dancing Dominica went and got dinner, veggie sandwiches, from Cosmic Ray’s and we ate out in the public area before loading the girls up into the stroller and calling it a night. We are all so tired, we need sleep. Katie has a long drive back down to Tampa and we just need to get to bed so that we are able to be functional tomorrow. Tomorrow is our real first day at Disney and we want the girls to be able to enjoy it.

We were asleep in no time tonight. We have two double beds so Dominica and I will be taking turns with Liels and Luciana all week. The girls really miss me so fight over who gets to sleep with me. But we will be just alternating each night, probably.

One really awesome change that has happened since the last time that we were in WDW is that there is now free WiFi in the hotels and all through the parks. What a difference that makes. Now we can stay in contact all of the time. And we can use FourSquare, Facebook, Flickr, email, etc. while we are in the parks. That is really great.

Today was an insanely busy day.  Dominica and I got up this morning in Austin at the Holiday Inn.  We packed up and checked out early in the morning.  The drive from Austin to Houston is about three hours.  That was pretty easy.  We got there in good time and pretty much immediately dealt with finding a walk in clinic that could see Luciana.  She has been horribly constipated for weeks and is getting in more and more danger.  She needs a doctor to check her out at this point.

We ended up spending hours at a clinic.  It took forever.  No idea how it could possibly take so long.  They did determine, though, that nothing was “really” wrong and the doctor was able to clean her out.  And as much as it hurt at the time, in less than thirty seconds she was feeling so much better and for weeks she would keep saying how the doctor made her better.  It was, apparently, a very positive experience for her.

From there it was back to the Grices’ and immediately getting ready for trick or treating over at the Toccos’.  Liesl is dressed up as Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty and Luciana is dressed up as Snow White.  They were adorable and Luciana was so excited about being Snow White.  It was adorable.

The family all went out trick or treating for about an hour, maybe more.  The girls had a ton of fun.  I made it about halfway but I hurt my heel and we decided that it would be smartest if I went back to the house before I did some damage and could not walk around Walt Disney World tomorrow.  That would really suck.

After trick or treating it was a rush to get changed, get in the Acadia and hit the road.  Tons of driving to do tonight.  We are seeing how far we can make it on the road to Orlando!  It was probably ten by the time that we left.  The girls will be able to sleep.  I have to drive all night.  It is over fourteen hours of highway time from Houston to WDW.

Dominica was up and in before me today.  She and Danielle ended up having to set up camp and work in the cafeteria much of the morning.  Danielle ended up working pretty much all day.  I was in pretty early, around eight.  Not bad for the last day here.

Today felt much more busy and pressured.  Probably because there was so much going on.  And by mid-afternoon Dominica and I learned that Luciana was not feeling well and we were under a threat of having to potentially pack up and run to Houston at any moment.  We spent at least two hours at the end of the conference dealing with that.  She ended up improving a little so we were able to stay but we are likely having to deal with that tomorrow and we are definitely missing the “morning after” breakfast tomorrow morning.  That sucks as that is always a fun time to wind down and just enjoy being in Austin as we attempt to leisurely work our way back to wherever we are going.

Tonight, for the first time ever since I have been to Spiceworld, because  of the location of the new venue, we did not go directly to Touche’s but instead hit the Luster Pearl where we spent the evening.  It was a very different atmosphere but it worked out pretty well.  We all hung out outside and it rained a bit, but it was fine.  The big advantage was that it was so ridiculously close to the convention center that everyone was able to walk there in just a few minutes.

I called it a night on the early side, as did most everyone.  There were only a few people left after me and I headed back probably around midnight.

We have to be up and on the road to Houston early tomorrow.  Luciana needs to see a doctor.

Got up nice and early, less than four hours of sleep, and it was off to SpiceWorld.  This is my fifth time here.  I started in 2009 and have not missed an event yet in Austin.  Today is my third time speaking at Spiceworld a main speaker and my fifth or sixth time speaking overall.  Plus I’m speaking twice today.  So my total might be as high as seven times.

I got in early and spoke to vendors this morning, I managed to spend quite a bit of the morning with Dominica which was a nice change from last year.  I didn’t attend anything, I don’t believe, before my first panel discussion.  That was pretty early in the day and I feel went pretty well.  I received good feedback on the talk, at least.  From what I can tell, my session this morning was not recorded.  It appears, like almost every session that I have ever done, to have not been recorded.  I’ve since looked for the recording and found none.

I attended some sessions and lunch, which was not up to par with previous years, and then had my big talk near the end of the day.  The Q&A with SAM in the ballroom.  Sadly, once again, the recording was botched and only nine minutes of my hour long session got recorded, so you only get the warm up and not the actual talk.  Nothing of substance or value was captured.  I am seriously depressed about that because I got just tons and tons of amazing feedback and really wanted to get to see the session to see how I did and I wanted to use it for training and career stuff.  I really needed that for some training things that have asked me to submit material.  It turned out that no video was captured and just a few, mostly worthless, minutes of audio.  And my dad didn’t get to watch it live either and was waiting on the recorded session.  In the future I will definitely not speak without doing my own recording, it just isn’t worth it.  They’ve lost something like six out of seven sessions that I’ve done!

The party after the sessions today was okay but way, way too loud and so there was no way to hang out or have fun.  The whole time was just an attempt to escape the volume.

After that party was over we were thankful for the quiet walk to the moderately quiet Touche’s on sixth and the evening began.  Dominica made it out tonight and stayed out to walk home with me around two thirty.