theDIBB Guidebook

**wizzo** · 18 Oct 11, 08:19 PM

Paul (wizzo)(It’s me typing this) Same as every year, Author, Photographer, Sherpa & Accountant
Lynn (Lomaddy) – Mother, Shopper, Proof Reader and Crowd Control.
Lauren (7) – Growing up way too fast. Swimmer, Golfer and thrill rider.
Maddy (4) – Small but packs a mighty punch. Is now tall enough for Splash and BTM!
George (Grandad) – Recently retired professional tea maker.
Marie (Grandma) – Grandchild spoiler and a top notch shopper like her daughter.

Index
Pre-Trip Report
Days 0 & 1
Day 2

Day Three – 24th September 2011 Magic Kingdom

Day broke at 5:30am for Lynn and I (Still no sign of Dawn!). The little “darlings” awoke at 6:30am, which isn’t too far from their normal time at home really. Prettifying done, we were out of the door by 8:30am. As most of you are aware they’ve split Magic Kingdom’s car parks into two, Heroes and Villains. This morning we parked in the Villains sections and more specifically Hook 78. It was a bit weird to be honest not seeing the usual Goofy or Minnie, although obviously they are still on the other side of the car park. The kids were in luck and the chalks were out, so did some Halloween related scribbling. We caught the ferry over and it looked a lot like this…….

I bet you've all got this exact same photo! I know I've taken it at least 4 times!

First glimpse of the Magic...shame about the blokes putting the fairy lights up!

We walked into Main Street at 9:20am (nearly 4 hours after I’d first opened my eyes! ) and broke with tradition opting for the long walk to the Haunted Mansion in favour of our usual Philharmagic.

The girls tried to "borrow" a fire truck.

I take this one in the exact same spot every year

I didn’t note why we had this change to the normal routine but I seem to remember that the kids wanted to see the new endings on the HM and also because Maddy was desperate to do Splash Mountain for the first time so it was on the way. Everyone really liked the new improved cemetery in the queue on Haunted Mansion, a big improvement.

Continued...

**wizzo** · 18 Oct 11, 08:19 PM

Next we made our way over to Splash stopping along the way for some tom foolery and arty shots.

Splash was a virtual walk on and Maddy loved it. She’s a determined little “so and so” and for the last couple of visits she’s had to hear Lauren enthusing about these rides and being too small at the time it hasn’t gone down very well I can tell you! So now she’s over the 40” mark she’s determined to make the most of it and show her sister up wherever possible too (more on that to come). Then we fastpassed BTMR (we didn’t actually use them in the end) and headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean which was no more than a 5 minute wait.

Once back in the scorching sun we decided to cool off in Mickey’s Philharmagic. Still enjoy this attraction, never get tired of it and with 90+ degrees of heat and even more humidity outside it was lovely.

It was now lunchtime and everyone was hungry apart from George who was feeling a bit under the weather. We made our way over to Cosmic Rays where we the remaining adults without “The Three Bob Bits” had burgers and fries (Lynn and I also shared a side of Chilli Cheese Fries – always a favourite! ) and the kids had nuggets. Apologies for the lack of photos once again, as with previous trip reports, we do get better at remembering so bear with me!

Stuffed full and hot we decided to call it a day. We’d always planned for this to be half a day in MK because it was a Saturday and by 1pm the crowds were really building.

By 2pm it was cozzies on and we spent all afternoon swimming. Not a great deal to say about an afternoon swim. Maddy made a friend in the pool, a little girl her age and asked to go swimming every morning and night after today “but only if that little girl is there”. Sadly they must have left as we didn’t see them again.

Maddy's best friend... who she only met once!

The other notable highlight was that Maddy used a snorkelling mask for the first time and it’s gone a long way to curing her of the fear of putting her face in the water that all little kids get.

Like Hitchcock (that's nothing to do with swimming trunks) your author makes a brief and fleeting appearance.

Maddy's first snorkel

Anyone ready for You Tube versions of the above?

Lauren and I walked down to the Golf Pro Shop on the resort to have a look in the shop for golfing apparel for her (you may remember last year she had her first lesson here) but it was closed early. One of the Assistant Pros was telling me that Disney Golf had been taken over by Arnold Palmer Golf and that all the Directors of Golf at WDW had been given the boot. Not like Disney to sub-contract anything, so read into that what you will.

Tea (I mean dinner for all you southerners) was to be Raglan Road but with George still feeling under the weather and Lauren being a lazy lump, Lynn, Maddy and I caught the boat to DTD to get sandwiches for everyone from Earl of Sandwich.

Notes are sparse on what we had specifically but I do know we had a round of Strawberry Shortcakes for dessert. Once again it’s a big fat ZERO on the photo front! It’s embarrassing to think back at us stuffing our faces and then coming up for air and saying “s*%t we haven’t taken photos again!” It’s all about priorities I guess!

While Lynn fell asleep………..I mean put Maddy to bed, we were treated to a cracking electrical storm centred somewhere over Lake Ocala. There was just a single HUGE thunderstorm towering thousands of feet into the air and although you couldn’t see much coming out of the bottom of it, it was like “Wishes” at the top. Flash after flash throughout the cloud each within a second of the previous one. Not something you’d see at home and we stood outside and watched it for ages.

Some TV was watched and bedtime was around 10pm.

So where's Perry?

Tomorrow Epcot.

Tartan Tigger · 18 Oct 11, 09:04 PM

Sounds like a great day.

**MOUSEMARSH** · 18 Oct 11, 09:27 PM

OK I admit it I have several Phots of the GF

Isn't it amazing that kids always make friends with people they have never met before. Our DS was just the same in CB and POR. Looks like you had a fab time so far.