February 16th, 2010 | Filed under: Travel | RSS Feed
Ming’s birthday, which also happens to be Valentine’s Day, had again come upon us but unfortunately Ming was out of town on a trip, bummer right? No, not quite. Luckily she was in Orlando at Walt Disney World so I flew on out to be there with her for her birthday weekend! While preparing to go both Ming and I felt a little weird looking at the park maps and deciding which parts of the Disney kingdom we’d go visit, it had that odd child-like feel to it which was great! Ming was in Orlando for two weeks, with her birthday weekend there in the middle, so I grabbed a red eye Friday evening so I could be there in time for Saturday morning the day before her birthday.
Saturday February 13th: Disney World’s Magic Kingdom
My first flight left San Francisco at 7:30pm bound for Los Angeles where I’d have a brief wait before flying on to Orlando. The flights were nothing special, relatively drama free and they had me landing in Florida at around 6:00am, well before Ming’s normal wake up time. After a sleepy cab ride I was checking myself in at the hotel (Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek) and nodding off to sleep for a few more hours. We lounged around the room until the early afternoon when we finally hopped up and got on our way over to the Magic Kingdom itself.
We caught the hotel shuttle bus over to the Magic Kingdom’s parking lot, then the monorail from there to the park gates themselves. We made our way into the park and strolled our way down main street walking right towards Cinderella’s Castle. We’d decided to start off in Tomorrowland as we wanted to check out Space Mountain, unfortunately we got there and found that it was out of service! What?! Disappointed, we started to ponder what to do when we got in touch with a coworker of Ming’s that was also there and we decided to meet up (Greg and Theresa). The three of us took in the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, a stand-up comedy show featuring various characters from the movie. Naturally I was on camera as part of it, and naturally in doing so embarrassed those around me. Good times!
Looking down Main Street towards Cinderella’s Castle in Disney World’s Magic Kingdom
Entering Tomorrowland
After the Laugh Floor we all wanted to leave Tomorrowland and instead head over to Adventureland (it all sounds so exciting doesn’t it?). We made our way over, grabbing some tasty churros to snack on before getting in line for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Waiting for Pirates gave us our introduction to a common trend, long lines for just about every ride, ugh. We waited in line well enough, joking and talking, and it all made the hour or so wait go by <sarcasm>quickly</sarcasm>. Unfortunately the wait was “rewarded” with a ride we all found less exciting than our memories told us it would be, with the odd Jack Sparrow (remember, the movie came after the ride) animatronic figure thrown into the mix. Sigh, it just wasn’t as neat as when we were kids.
Ming, Theresa and Greg enjoying the tasty churros
Pirates behind bars on the Pirates of the Carribean
After Pirates of the Caribbean Greg and Theresa parted ways with us, they were heading off for dinner and a night out, we were going to hang out in the Magic Kingdom a bit longer. By this time we were hungry and Ming had repeatedly been talking about the giant turkey legs they served and once we found ‘em we bought one each. Oh man… So delicious, until a point, after which they’re kind of gross – lol. We chowed down the turkey legs and went off to get on the Thunder Mountain ride but were disappointed and put off by the two hour wait, we weren’t going to do that so off we went to check out Fantasyland instead.
Ming and her turkey leg
Me and my turkey leg
Once in Fantasyland we paused for a coffee/hot chocolate and watched the tea cups go ’round a few times on the Mad Tea Cup Party ride, to me it’s one of those classic “Disney” rides. After that we strolled along and decided we’d take the next ride, however cheesy/childish/whatever, that had a short line. Sure enough we happened upon Snow White’s Scary Adventures with next to no line, we joined the queue and were soon taken on a cute ride through the story of Snow White.
The Mad Tea Party ride
Snow White herself (yes, we rode on Snow White’s Scary Adventures)
After our Fantasyland visit we decided to head over to Tomorrowland for another look at Space Mountain as we really wanted to go on that ride in particular. We got there only to be disappointed by a two hour wait just like Thunder Mountain, lame. But then an angel appeared, ok really just a young girl asking us if the two of us were hoping to go on Space Mountain. Duh, yes! She then offered us two fast passes that her family wasn’t going to use and they were good right then! So instead of a two hour wait we had a twenty minute (or so) wait and we absolutely loved the ride! Our thanks go out again to that girl and her family!
Space Mountain was awesome, but we were too cheap to actually buy the photo
After Space Mountain we waited for a ride on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin (a fun shooter style rider) and then decided we’d head back to the hotel to hang out in the lobby bar, have a drink or two and a snack. It had been a fun afternoon in the Magic Kingdom but I was ready to go as was Ming, so we waited in one last annoying line before boarding the monorail back to the parking lot. As we did that we realized we might miss the shuttle bus back to the hotel, sure another one would come but not for another hour! The monorail pulled to a stop, the doors open and we ran, and ran, and ran! We made it out to the parking lot and found our bus just in time, the doors were closing as we were sitting down in our seats. When back at the hotel we lounged in the lobby bar, had a few drinks/snacks, watched the Olympics and hung out until it was time to sing for Ming, the 14th had officially arrived! Happy Birthday Ming!
Walt and Mickey in front of Cinderella’s Castle at night
Sunday February 14th: Happy Birthday, Happy Valentine’s Day, Gong Xi Fa Tsai and Disney World’s Animal Kingdom
It hadn’t been midnight long when Ming got her first birthday surprise, one that was even a surprise for me! We got back to our room to find a bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us courtesy of some coworkers of Ming’s, how nice! But her birthday really hit in earnest the next morning and we started the day with some room service breakfast and Supercross races on TV! Of course it’s worth noting again that it was Valentine’s Day, and to top it off it was also Chinese New Year (gong xi fa tsai!). We particularly enjoyed the PowerPoint presentation sent to us by Ming’s father, it was a sixteen slide show accompanied by music.
Four of the sixteen slides Ming’s father sent us for Chinese New Year
After a lazy morning in our room we made our way over to the Animal Kingdom park where we planned to spend the afternoon and once again hang out with Greg and Theresa. Ming and I got there first and decided that we wanted to ride on the Dinosaur roller coaster so we booked off quickly to get ourselves a pair of fast passes that we’d use later in the day.
Ming & I out front of Disney World’s Animal Kingdom
Ming out front of Disney World’s Animal Kingdom
After getting our passes and a snack (hot dog, fries, soda – naturally) we met up with Greg and Theresa and wandered around the park a bit. We were all in a strolling mood so we left Dinoland U.S.A., walked through Asia checking out monkeys and the Maharaja Jungle Trek, then on to Rafiki’s Planet Watch where we waited to take in the afternoon parade.
Ming (rockin’ her birthday button!) and a tapir
Rawr, a tiger
Ming and her birthday button with the tiger pen in the background
The Tree of Life (not a real tree y’know…)
We didn’t have to wait long for the parade to come by and it was a healthy mix of interesting, cheesy and entertaining – I’m glad we waited and watched it. It featured the usual cast of characters as well as number of cool human-powered vehicles, some dancers and more. After the parade passed by we again parted ways with Greg and Theresa as they were heading off their own way and Ming and I were going to go on the Dinosaur ride with our fast passes!
Baloo leads the parade …
… and then came Goofy …
… and then Donald …
… and then Pluto …
… and no Disney parade is complete without Mickey! (doing what with his hands?!)
As we walked to the Dinosaur ride we realized we actually just wanted to head back to the hotel and laze about before going out for a birthday dinner, but first we had to return the karma we’d benefited from just the night before. We walked over to the Dinosaur ride and found a couple that was walking up to the stand-by line with a quoted wait of over an hour. We offered them our fast passes and they were quite happy in return, in fact the guy tried to offer me the last half of his bag of peanuts, I said no – lol.
After leaving the park we went back to our hotel and lounged about in our room for a few hours, we had a late dinner (10pm) that night at Blue Zoo, a nice seafood restaurant Ming had heard about. Our dinner was delicious, we took our time and enjoyed a great dinner, some wine/beer and of course dessert before returning to our room for the night. It was a great birthday but it had to come to an end, and all too soon (at 6:40am the next morning) I was on a plane heading back to San Francisco. The trip was a lot of fun, Happy Birthday Ming!
