Off Topic, But I Couldn't Resist

Or
Isn't He Cute?

I know I'm supposed to be offering up details of our trip to Disney World, but as I was going through the photos, I found one of my nephew that I can actually post on my blog.  Further to preserving the magic, it doesn't show his face, but OMG, isn't he cute?

This is when he first learned to sit which was only a few weeks back.  Now he's crawling and pulling to stand and my sister is Freaking Out.  This boy is gonna be running and she is gonna be exhausted.

But he is soooo cute.
Makes you think of Dr. Seuss books, doesn't it?

Preserving the Magic

Or
What You Won't See

One of the phrases that became a running joke during our trip was, "That's Not Disney!"  Eg. Bat Junk.  I have some truly awesome photos of the giant bats, but they're somewhat pornographic.  No need to put that up here.  This is family programming, people.

The other was "Preserving the Magic."  We first heard it on our Hotel Safari.  The weather was predicted to go down to zero overnight so the keepers had to put the giraffes in the barn.  That meant we wouldn't see them on the Savannah during the evening safari that we had booked for an obscene price and a unique, up-close experience.

Dani to booking agent: "Is it worth the price?"
Booking agent: "Are you ever going to Africa, Dani?"
Dani (thinking I am such a sucker):   "No.  Okay.  Here's my Credit Card Number."

So we're on the truck and they're telling us the giraffes are not out and we're all getting frowny faces because it is cold and we've paid real money and then the guide says, "But we are going to take you into the barns to see them.  This is not something Disney does.  They like to preserve the magic, but in special cases like this [read: when you've paid real money] we allow it.  But you can't take a camera in there."

They then unloaded us into a barn and warned us not to spook the animals and we all walked in and had seventy foot giraffes loom over us and lean down to eat out of the trays that were right in front of our faces,  human eye to huge eye, with only a chain link fence between us.  It was pretty awesome.

Not that you'll believe me, because we weren't allowed to take photos.  Which brings me to my own brand of 'Preserving the Magic.'  It is becoming more and more difficult to maintain privacy on the internet, but I do try to preserve my husband's and kids'.

Note: my daughter doesn't necessarily afford us the same courtesy.  She has already posted some of our photos to Facebook, but this is different and so I won't be showing any photos of any faces but my own.

Here is the view from our balcony showing that I was not the only one to enjoy it.  Hubby and son did too.

 
Point of Interest: You can't really see it, but below them is a fenced in area that we asked about during the safari.  The guide explained that when the built the first lodge, they put all the fire exits into the savannah--where the animals are.  Duh.  So they had to build a 'boma' to keep the humans and animals separate.  They fixed that when they built the second lodge, Kidani village.

Note: we walked over to Kidani and even though it's a bit brighter and newer, we were happy with our choice at the main lodge.

We did a lot of walking on this trip.  My daughter brought a step counter and by the end, we calculated that we had walked approx 45 km on our week long vacation.  We are SO HAPPY we waited until they were teenagers before taking this vacation.  I saw people dragging little ones, pushing strollers....  Oh the work!

And they were fine with us taking a 'down day' to visit Downtown Disney which turned into a tour of several resort areas outside actual pay-to-get-in parks.  We took a stroll around the boardwalk which I assume replicates or, um, evokes (?) Atlantic city and/or the eastern beach culture?  Whatever it was, we were enthralled with the attention to detail and the way we were transported from Africa to Murtle Beach in a thirty minute shuttle bus ride.  Here's my husband taking in the fake Eastern seaboard:

My daughter and I were quite taken with this area and decided it was one we would love to stay in if we came back.  And I'm really glad we took a day to check out other hotels and restaurants.  Our lunch at Olivia's cafe was one of our favourites and it was just a nice, relaxing day all around.  Like a real vacation, despite it being our coldest day there.

Here we are deciding where to go next.  My husband kept his hood up much of the day, leading the kids to refer to him as The Dementor.

We ended the day by checking out the monorail, the Polynesian, where we took this photo of pure Disney Magic, and finally snuck up to the top floor of the Grand Floridian to watch the sunset.

Hippo Ballet

Or
Magic really does happen there!

For Christmas, we gave the kids (and ourselves!) a trip to Disney World in Florida.  We rather brilliantly booked it for their 'value season' in mid-February.  I'm not being facetious.  We are genuinely happy with our choice.  We skipped the waterparks and were a little shivery the day the temperature refused to climb above 12 degrees celsius, but for the most part the weather was a wonderful step-up from the snow and freezing temps we left at home.

Note for others debating a trip this time of year: you'll have shorter wait lines and longer patience when you are not overheated.

We also got a deal on rooms at Animal Kingdom Lodge.  After I'd booked it and begun looking at maps of the area, I was a little concerned.  Animal Kingdom is about as far from everything else as you can get.  This turned out to be fine for us because we're basically recluses, our kids were old enough to have patience with longer shuttle rides, and we're all nature lovers at heart.  We loved looking onto the savannah from our room and I loved the sunrises off our balcony--which was less popular with the teenagers who cried "close the curtains!"  We had a stunning full moon rise there one evening too.  Made us feel just like we were in Africa :)

I'll write a few more posts to be published later this week, but wanted to get these photos up because this was one of my peak moments.  Worth the cost of admission--which ain't cheap!

To set the scene...  It is our first day, first park (Animal Kingdom.)  We've already done the Kilamanjaro Safari which is a 'ride' at the park.  A rather pithy driver with an under appreciated sense of humor took us around their savannah.

Note: This is not to be confused with the safari we did later in the week through our hotel's savannahs.  This safari is one that anyone visiting Animal Kingdom Park can do.  We saw giraffes and elephants and hippos and learned that hippos don't actually swim.  They can hold their breath for ages and walk along the bottom of waterways.  For those of you who have never watched the Kratt brothers, hippos are one of the most dangerous animals in Africa.  They are highly territorial.  On our safari, we saw a few pair of hippo nostrils, but were more impressed with the 'bask' of giant, salt-water crocs.  (Yes, the collective nouns is a 'bask' or a 'float.'  I looked it up.)

After that we took a walking trail.  Don't ask me what it's called.  The one where you see the giant bats I think.  There were a couple of walks and everything you see is amazing.  Anyway, we came up to a window into an aquarium and we gave the colourful fish a passing glance, but the moving rock in the background caught our eye.

Look close and play the Jaws theme in your head.

My daughter had already filled our camera, but I had my iPhone so started snapping.

Note: I dragged my laptop all the way to Florida and did not do a lick of writing.  However, the laptop was invaluable when it came to downloading our photos and the hotel had a laptop safe so it was worth the extra weight on my shoulder (considering I had to run twenty gates with it, trying to make our connection on the way home.)

Back to the hippo.  I was in awe.  I mean, these are killer animals.  Don't believe me?  Look at the expression in these eyes.  Die.

They're probably still angry about Fantasia.  I mean, they're working their reputation as a Bad Ass for centuries then Disney outs them as frigging ballet artists.  To give Walt his due, these animals are crazy graceful underwater.  As this behemoth swept past, I thought I was watching a performance of the Sugar Plum Fairies.  And really, doesn't he/she look secretly happy while taking an en pointe stance here?

It was a fairly magical moment.  More on our adventures in the next few days.