The Happiest Place on Earth: Part III

Last week we had met the Power Rangers and geeked out to High School Musical (ok, I geeked out – this is how sad I am: The Kids Choice Awards are on this weekend, I have convinced the Mud Puddle of what an event they are and am using him to secretly disguise my excitement over the awards – burping and slime and Justin Timberlake OH MY).

So we continued our trek through MGM Studios after the excitement of the Power Rangers, we needed to cool off a bit. The Mud Puddle was in high screech mode at this point, excited to meet everyone of the characters he could find.
First up was Buzz LightYear. He didn’t say anything and the line was pretty short. So we moved onto the section of the park where the Toon Disney characters hang out.

Little Einsteins is a favorite of the Mud Puddle so we queued up to meet them. Now the cartoon version look to be pretty short, but the real life incarnations were pretty big And had giant feet. At one point one of them kind of stepped on the Mud Puddle’s feet. He was not impressed and quickly moved out of their way once the pictures were taken.

The Mud Puddle then spotted Kim Possible (or the actress playing her at the park). Kim Possible is a cartoon character on the Disney channel and is for slightly older kids but he sometimes watches it. When he saw her he got a little red in the cheeks and a smirk formed on his face. I think he has a thing for red heads. We went over and he had his picture taken, looking rather proud of himself.

We moved through the park (I made everyone go into the Narnia exhibit – the Mud Puddle seemed to enjoy it) and met some more Disney characters including Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars. This was the one point in the day when chaos reigned supreme. Up to that point the characters that we met had handlers who had everyone form a line and take turns – very orderly. But because the Cars characters weren’t actual people there was less control over the interaction with them. They paraded to an open spot in the park and the handlers said “Go Nuts” pretty much and boy did they. I was afraid at one point that Mud Puddle was going to get knocked down by some bigger kids so we took a couple of quick pics and moved on.

MGM was a ton of fun and I felt like we packed a full day into four hours. Scott had to leave for the airport so we headed back to the hotel to go for a swim and see him off.

That night the Mud Puddle, my parents and I hit Epcot and the Finding Nemo ride. The ride was great but even better was the interactive Crush show. Crush is the surfer dude turtle from Finding Nemo and they have a fun show at the Nemo exhibit that has him interacting and talking to audience members. It was hilarious and enjoyable for both parents and kids.

We had a really great time (my mom and I had a driving adventure that I will keep to myself – the Mud Puddle wasn’t there so not really appropriate for the blog).We were sad to get on the plane the next morning but know that we will have to go back someday. And yes, the trip managed to restore my faith in all things Disney and Orlando (at least until the next time I have to go for work!)

The Happiest Place on Earth: Part II

So as we left off last time, it was Saturday night in Disney and we were all knackered after a long day.
Sunday we got up and had decided we would go to MGM Studios. Now this is the section of Disney that doesn’t have a lot of rides but has every Disney character you could ever want to meet. The Mud Puddle had his sites set on the Power Rangers, he could not be bothered to even THINK about any of the other characters he might run into.

A few tidbits before I get into the actual story: The weather was perfect – sunny and warm, just what you expect in Orlando. I have a memory from childhood of being forced to wear homemade matching shirts (all four of us) at StoryLand. Anytime StoryLand or a family vacation memory is brought up I remind my mother of the blue and white matching shirts. So my dad, funny man that he is, had bought Joshua, Scott and I matching Disney shirts. Nice. We wore them that day and not only acted like a team but LOOKED like one too. Joshua didn’t seem to suffer any emotional scars from it (the t-shirt had Mickey on it, it was hard to get him out of it).

We got to the park and it became apparent they had taken great pains to make this park parent friendly as well. They had an ESPN set with commentators and activities and athletes around all day. I think Scott would have been happy to hang there all day (heck, I would have liked to as well, Mike Singletary from the 86 Bears was in the house, but we had places to go and Power Rangers to see).

We asked around (Everyone who works at Disney is very helpful and friendly about helping you out) and found out where the Power Rangers would be for a meet and greet. We got to the intersection (it was in the section of the park made to look like a movie set) about ½ an hour before they were scheduled to arrive and much to my delight the High School Musical float and street dance was about to roll on through.

For those of you that don’t know High School Musical is a Disney Channel Movie that revolved around (wait for it) a High School Musical and is filled with teens singing and dancing. It was the highest rated program in Disney Channel history and has become a phenomenon with 12 year old girls around the country. And 35 year old toddler moms apparently.
In my defense, I watched more out of curiosity that for entertainment purposes by my oh my it was sugary pop goodness at its best! Yeah, I enjoyed it and when I saw the street team was headed our way I grabbed the Mud Puddle by the hand and headed to a spot to watch.

He hung with me through most of the singing and dancing and we still do the dance moves from it every so often. With the twelve year old version of me happy, we asked around on where we should queue up for the Power Rangers, located the Red Ranger’s corner and hit the line.

The Power Rangers came gunning around the corner in their Power Ranger car, music blaring. The Mud Puddle’s reaction was PRICELESS. His jaw hung on a swivel and his cheeks started to get red with excitement. He looked up at me with eyes all wide and crazy.

The Power Rangers got out of the car, did some poses and then moved to their respective corners. They signed autographs (the idea of a four year old with an autograph book was bizarre, the Mud Puddle didn’t seem to mind he didn’t have one) and posed for pictures.
And when I say pose, I mean POSE. It can be described best at Power Ranger Vogueing. They were putting their best Ranger moves forward and it was unintentionally funny (to me at least) the Mud Puddle was star struck (if I had ever met Shaun Cassidy I am guessing I would have had a similar reaction). I totally understood how excited he was and it was so much fun to watch.

The Mud Puddle was second in line for the Red Ranger and went up and shook his hand and the Ranger started posing at first the Mud Puddle just stood in front of him all excited but quickly got into the spirit and started striking poses of his own. We decided since we had some more time to spend with the Rangers we would get pictures taken with another one so we queued up for the Blue Dino Ranger. I decided since they were SO good at posing it would only be fair if I got to pose too. Scott was game so the three of us walked up the Ranger – who shook all our hands (and gave me a bit of a bow) and we all got into position. Here was the result.



Right. That is the front runner for the Holiday card. It doesn’t get much more Team Guillemette than that. Guillemette Rangers Power Up!

To be continued… Next time: Does Disney pay out if you are trampled by an Einstein? Is it weird to have a crush on a cartoon character’s real life incarnation?

The Happiest Place on Earth: Part I

So as I noted in my earlier post we spent some time recently in Orlando (what I wouldn’t give for some sunshine right now. As I type this the last grip of winter is raging outside in the form of a snowstorm). I feel that it is only fair that I write about my actual experiences in Orlando with the Mud Puddle as opposed to the events I didn’t witness (maybe I will ask my parents or Scott to Guest Blog and impart their stories of the trip).

I arrived Saturday afternoon out of ATL (business trip) and it was drizzly and overcast. I don’t know if I have mentioned it before – but I HATE Orlando. I called it Whore-lando. I have traveled there SO many times from work it has become the seventh ring of hell in my world. When you are trying to work and you are surrounded by kids who are OD’ing on happiness and sugar, it can get you a little cranky.

I actually thought that this trip might restore my faith in Orlando but I really wasn’t holding out hope. I have trouble with a place you have to walk or drive long ways to get to your destination (example, van ride from the airport to the hotel? An hour) and having to wait in line for long periods of time with a four year old.
But my fears were unfounded as I soon found out.

First can I tell you that when I walked into the hotel room my instant thought was “If the Who were toddlers and were out on tour, THIS is what their hotel room would look like” The Mud Puddle is a typical four year old boy. If you want him to pick something up, clear something off or put something on you need to tell him three times. And if the tv is on you have to tell him seven times.
In a hotel room at Disney World with his grandparents? Forget it. That is not an indictment of my parents but of the level of order obtainable in DW, and the level of order really needed. Why do you have to pick up your dirty socks while you are on vaca?

So I get there and everyone is relaxing from a big day at the park. We talk for a while, I change my clothes and we decide that Scott, the Mud Puddle and I will head back over to the Magic Kingdom to do Pirates of the Caribbean (the Mud Puddle and I are both obsessed with pirates) and grab some dinner. I put on my sweatshirt with the skull and crossbones and Joshua puts on his skeleton sweatshirt, our official pirate gear (Scott left his pirate kit at home so all night Joshua kept telling him he wasn’t a pirate. Aww, poor Daddy, should have made him walk the plank ARRRGH).

Disney is one of those places where you need to be living in the moment and not worrying about the next one or else you are going to have no fun. I am an anal retentive control freak so letting go and enjoying the moment rarely happens in my world. I did manage it though. Given the time it takes to get to the park (get on a bus, get on a tram, wait 15 minutes while the tram does a ‘systems upgrade’, get your bag searched, get a stroller, etc. etc) and then into the line for the ride I think I managed to keep it together fairly well.

It was rainy and dark when we got to the park, it felt just like London! I bought the Mud Puddle a spinner skull light so he could see on the Pirates ride and then we queued up.
The wait wasn’t too bad – 15 minutes or so. And the ride was great. The Mud Puddle thought all of the animatronics pirates were real and so he kept waving to them.

Once the ride was done they conveniently exit you into the gift shop (Disney is nothing if not a shrewd business, no wonder they have taken over the world). I picked up one or two things, curious to see what outrageous prices they were charging and was pleasantly surprised to see things were the same price as you might find in the Disney store.
We bought a bit of pirate booty and headed off in search of dinner.

It took 20 minutes to find a restaurant that had a place to sit down without an hour long wait. Dinner was another pleasant surprise on the wallet – it cost about as much as the three of us having dinner at Friendly’s. We sat and ate, with the castle as our backdrop (every time it changed colors the Mud Puddle made me guess what color it was).

We walked around a little bit more and heard a marching band play down Main Street USA and then headed back to the monorail. The Mud Puddle fell asleep on the way back to the hotel. Probably the way everyday at Disney should end.

To be continued…..In our next installment: Which is geekier – 35 year olds posing with Power Rangers or my unbridled excitement over High School Musical: the street dance?

A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes

We are back from Florida and the Mud Puddle had the best.time. EVER
I will follow up with a proper post (probably next week) but thought I would share some pictures with you now. :)