The Mackeys: May 2008

Dinner with Royalty

We had a lovely dinner with Cinderella, Prince Charming, and the Wickeds (step-mother and step-sisters), who were not cruel to us as Allison had feared.

Meeting one of the (funny) wicked step-sisters. We had fun asking them questions and enjoying their vain responses.

Cinderella and Prince Charming share a dance.

A Princess-in-Training watches Cinderella in awe.

Three beautiful princesses

Sarah savors her choolate dessert

David is excited to meet Prince Charming in person!

Allison enjoys some magical strawberry soup.

Daddy enjoys something fruity

The Wicked Stepmother sternly makes us laugh

Disney Hollywood Studios

We had a great time at Disney Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios). There was a lot of fun stuff. Our favorite place was a "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" playground where we were smaller than bugs and blades of grass! The kids climbed, slid, and played on it for over an hour and never got bored.

Another really cool thing was the stunt show. We learned how car chases are choreographed for movies, and how the cars are rigged, and how some of the stunts are done. It ended with a really cool car chase and explosion - cool!

We saw several other shows: The Little Mermaid stage show, the Muppet 3-D Movie, and a film about how characters are developed for animation. We also saw some cool characters walking around and got to meet the Incredibles! David was shy, but Allison loved meeting Mrs. Incredible.

When we got back to the dining hall at our hotel, the kids were selected to hold "Do the Hustle" signs while the staff (and a few guests) did the dance. Afterwards the kids got trading pins for their participation, and their mom thought it was funny.

Disney Animal Kingdom

We loved our day in the Animal Kingdom. It was our first time there. We started off with an African-style character breakfast in the Tusker House with Donald and the gang.

Allison tries her hands at the African drums...

Mickey takes a break from his safari to hang with us.

Mommy and Sarah share a laugh

We are excited to meet Donald and Daisy Duck

David does his best Donald Duck impersonation

Waiting in line for our African safari. Thank goodness for the Fast Pass -- we sailed through the long line.

I see animals!

In search of ice cream...

More Fun in the Magic Kingdom

We spent a second day in the Magic Kingdom. Daddy, Charlie, and Sarah got up early and went to the park at 8:00 for "Extra Magic" hours, so they got to go on a lot of rides before we joined them a couple of hours later. Amazingly, the children lasted all day, with Charlie, Sarah and I riding Space Mountain at midnight to close down the park.

We got splashed on Splash Mountain (but at least this day we knew to have dry clothing to change into... well, except for Daddy, who is now the proud owner of a Splash Mountain T-shirt which they conveniently sell, along with towels, at the gift shop at the end of the ride). Grandpa wisely decided that one day of wet clothes was enough, so he joined Granny and David on Cinderella's Carousel and It's a Small World.