Thursday, August 5, 2010

Disney Days 3 & 4-Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios

Day 3 Magic Kingdom
On Wednesday, we slept in a little bit, knowing we were going to be at Magic Kingdom pretty late! That park is absolutely mind-blowing! So many of the rides were wheelchair friendly-and I don't mean that we could wheel right up to them and transfer E onto one of our laps-I mean he rode the rides in his own wheelchair!

The Buzz Lightyear Ranger Spin in Tomorrowland was the first ride we hit-while we waited for our Fast Pass time for Space Mountain. We cheated and got 4 Fast Passes for it, knowing I and Parker would not ride it-but so Brian and Hailey could ride twice in a row-or if they didn't want to, pass it along to a stand-by rider in the 75 minute wait line! Then we hit the Astro Orbiter, the Transit Train, and the Carousel of Tomorrow. We spent the first half of our morning in one section of the park! Oh, and I did ride Space Mountain with Brian-not a bad ride at all! Pretty cool in the dark-I can't see the upcoming crazy turns and drops so I wasn't anxious with anticipation! I mostly rode it because my husband said if I didn't at least ride it-people's opinions of me would be shatttered-meaning they wouldn't think I was as big a bad-ass as I have most people convinced I am!

We then made our way around the park and hit the Tea Cup ride(me, Parker and E), the Dumbo ride(again, the chicken trio) and the Carousel(yep, us three again) while Brian and Hailey rode the Runaway Train and Splash Mountain. Once over on that side of the park-we climbed the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House, did the Jungle Safari Boat Tour-wheelchair accessible for E! the Haunted Mansion ride (Parker clung to Hailey during this entire ride once the first ghost jumped out at him!) and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The Pirate ride was very cool-little boats which we rode in with Ethan sitting on the seat between me and Brian all underground and dark. Not so cool when the boat went down a nice little hill and splashed into the water below in the pitch black dark-which we weren't expecting-by then Brian had put E on his lap-and it's a good thing, or he might have ended up on the floor!

We hung out and watched the electric parade and the amazing Summer Nightastic Fireworks-and it almost made me cry! Watching the incredible fireworks show with the family-the whole while Ethan squealing and laughing at them. I told Brian if that had been the only thing we had been able to do while there-I would have left happy! For me it was the icing on the cake of this trip-and worth the whole thing!

I was so looking forward to the It's a Small World ride-but it was closed for refurbishing! Drats!


Day 4 Hollywood Studios
Fun-though not as kid ride friendly as Epcot or the Kingdom.
We got some good advice from one of the Magic Kingdom Cast Members who used to work there who told us to go straight to the Toy Story Midway Mania ride because all the fast passes would be gone by 11am-and he was right! When we wheeled up to the ride and asked about wc accessibility, the guy told us he could stay in his chair-but we had to wait in the 115 minute stand-by line. I was not down for that-neither was E in the 93 degree heat. As I stomped off saying that was ridiculous-he couldn't wait outside in that heat-another Cast Member grabbed me and asked if we had the Guest Assistance Card-which we did! She kindly pointed out that the other guy should have directed us in through the exit right to the handicap loading area and she apologized and told us she would educate the other guy on that! Thank goodness for her-otherwise we would have missed a very fun ride! Ethan's first trip on it he sat between Brian and I and did ok-his second trip he stayed in his wc and I sat beside him-however, I forgot to straighten his chair up from the leaned-back position, and the first turn it tipped backwards and poor little E was staring at the ceiling with wild eyes trying to figure out what had happened! It was so back heavy from our bags and his O's and feeding bag! I just about died as I grabbed his chair super fast and sat him back up! I couldn't straighten his chair up then or his face would have hit the pop gun, so I just put my foot on the front wheels to stabilize it, and when we were moving, I held it up with my arm-thank heaven's it was a pretty short ride!

We also enjoyed the Back Lot Tour, the Little Mermaid show, the Disney Animation Show, the Prince Caspian show, the Great Movie Tour Ride, The Muppet 3D Show, the Star Wars Endor Trip ride, and of course the Tower of Terror and the Rock-n-Roll Roller Coaster. The last two were Brian and Hailey rides in case you couldn't tell by the names?!?!? Parker tried to tell us he was going to ride the Tower-but as we approached and could hear people's screams, ummm he changed his mind!

We met a couple of other special needs families from overseas who also had kids in wheelchairs, whom we sat and chatted with for a while! The one family from England had an older daughter who loved the Dumbo ride-and refused to get off of it-her Dad had to pick her up and drag her off! The Mum made a comment much like I have said about E-"As long as she's happy the world is right. But once she's not-the world will know about it!" Sooooo Ethan-speaking of which-he had a complete meltdown today when we stopped entertaining him to actually sit down and eat that the wonderful waitress brought him a light up ice cube in a dish which changed colors-it kept him busy and quiet long enough for us to eat!

Like I have said before-the Cast Members were so wonderful, the parks so accomodating, so much more than I ever expected! We will surely bring the kids back here again in a few years! I was worried Ethan wouldn't get to do anything-and I was so wrong!

We love Walt Disney....
for his dreams have made ours come true!

The parade at Hollywood Studios with the green army men from Toy Story-dancing and singing
In front of the Streets of America-the New York skyline in the background


Tower of Terror-not a Kari or Parker kind of ride....


Now, this was my kind of ride-and Ethan's -he loved this ride too-and it had a wheelchair accessible car too!



The inside of the Toy Story Midway Mania ride-from the handicap loading area



The back side of the castle at night during the Summer Nightastic Fireworks show!



So many rides at Magic Kingdom were wheelchair friendly-this was the Jungle Safari boat ride


E sportin some new Mickey shades

The Buzz Lightyear Ranger Spin ride-Ethan rode with Brian on this ride in his wheelchair in a special car and he LOVED it!

Cinderella's Castle when we first arrived at Magic Kingdom










1 comment:

  1. Your trip sounds truly magical, just as Walt Disney intended!!

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