http://www.daisybakes.ie is her new website which she will be adding to over time with details of her wedding cakes, celebration cakes for birthdays, christening. also creating cupcakes! love them!

Based in Lucan west of Dublin city, she would be happy to create your perfect cake for any celebration in Dublin or the surrounding counties (Meath, Kildare, Wicklow)

Suffice it to say that we had a fantastic holiday which was capped by a very special moment on our last day. We went to Hollywood Studios, went on our favourite rides, went into the Playhouse Disney show which was our sons favourite, bought some last minute presents and starting walking out of the park.

We were just about to walk through the exit turnstiles when a cast member stops us and asks do we have a minute. Sure we said, thinking it was going to be a “how much did you enjoy Disney” type of questionaire. So we followed him into Guest Services, but didn’t stop there, went through another door and into a big VIP suite, plush leather couches, deep carpet, very tasteful.

Cast member asks us to sit down and “someone” will be into to see us in a minute…. Ok… not exactly sure what was going on but 2 minutes later, a knock at another door into the room. In walks another cast member leading Pooh, Eyore, Tigger and Stich into the room. 5 minutes of pictures with the characters just for us!

A perfect end to a perfect holiday… Which is why we are now planning to go again in May 2009!

Our son goes nutz! We stand there with jaws dropping!

Again up early, this time even early enough to see the pre-show routine (not that it worth getting to the park early to see it!) Once the rope dropped we made our way over to Rock n Roller Coaster and got some single rider runs in, 4 (2 each) in 20 minutes, not bad for peak tourist season! Also picked up some Fast Passes here.

Next we made our way up to Toy Story Mania and tried to improve on our scores here. Not much joy! I had the pleasure of having my son with me and we spent more time making faces at mum/wife than we did actually playing the game! Still great fun though.

Next back down to Tower of Terror and a fun time screaming! By this time the crowds had really arrived (10am) so was time to use those Fast Passes at Rock n Roller Coaster   Really love walking past those queues!

A quick snack and we wandered up to the Backlot tour, bit of a queue here so had to wait a while. This is a show that brings you through the making of some special effects, quite a good show with lots of water cannons, flames, explosions and the like!

Close by is Backlot Express which serves up assortment of burgers, hot dogs, salads, chicken strips, sandwiches etc decent prices, quick service and hit the spot!

Image via Wikipedia

Today we decided to go all out, so no mid day break even though it was extremely hot! Next over to Muppet Vision 3D, our son loved this show, we do too, plus it is a very nice break in seats with air -con! so a good chance to cool down and relax. Just loves those 3-D glasses and trying to reach Kermit and all the characters he thinks are just in front of him.

Star Tours followed and of course we lingered too long in the shop afterwards and came away with Lightsabers, Boy are we going to regret getting those!

Next we were going to queue for Indiana Jones (Epic Stunt Spectacular!) but it was closed… not good! At this stage we’re close to the exit so we decide to head over to Epcot! gotta love those multi-park tickets. We decided to drive over rather than take the Disney buses as we were going to stay for the fireworks and go home from there.

My Nokia Navigator phone worked wonders here as yet again we forgot the map! gotta love GPS.

Image via Wikipedia

Today is Disney Hollywood Studios or MGM Studios as it used to be known. We like this park! First things first, this is where Playhouse Disney Live on Stage is, if you have a young child you’ll know what this means Mickey Mouse clubhouse, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins etc! This is the  must see show for our 4 year old, we could miss anything else but not this. So once in the park, check out the show times and arrange everything else around it! We decided on the 9:40 show (it lasts for 22 minutes) which gave us enough time to pop down to Rock n Roller Coaster.

Rock n Roller Coaster is the second fastest ride in WDW, Test Track being the faster. Description of the site from Disney is “Aerosmith’s having a backstage party across town and you’re invited. Ready to brave the LA freeways? Zoom from 0-60 mph with the force of a supersonic F-14, take in high-speed loops and turns synchronized to a specially recorded Aerosmith soundtrack and zip through Tinseltown in the biggest, loudest limo you’ve ever seen. ” It’s brilliant! Fantastic ride and even better it has a single rider line which means you can skip the line even at the busiest times you’ll wait no more than 10 mins to get on. Another tip, when you get into the preshow room go stand beside the door on the left, that is the exit into the “loading” area.

Time came to get back to PlayHouse Disney, no FastPasses for this so you need to ensure you line up reasonably early, 10-15 minutes before start should be enough, it takes quite a large crowd. During the show you get Mickey and Friends, Handy Manny and his Tools, My Friends Tigger and Pooh and last but by no means least Little Einsteins. You are sitting on the floor so be prepared, although there are a small number of benches at the sides away from the stage. This is a good laugh, good story with singing and dancing for all! 22 minutes of pure fun.

As a side note, Handy Manny does a Character photo op outside at the character location.

We next headed up to Star Tours, this is a Star Wars themed ride, nice, getting a tad old, needs some updating but enjoyable. If into STAR WARS try to get to Studios on a Star Wars weekend. All things Star Wars, autographs, characters, even Storm Troopers gaurding the entrance when you arrive.

Toy Story Mania is new ride, added as the Pixar story becomes more and more part of Disney. This ride is a moving target shooting game, where you are “firing” your shooter at 3-d targets. A great game, lasts 5 minutes and loads of fun. Make sure to Fast Pass it as soon as you can as the queues get very very long for this one.

Muppet Vision 3d is another great show, always go to see it! Has Kermit, Miss Piggy and all my favourites. Al’s Toy Barn is close by which is the spot to catch Woody & Buzz for photos

Lunch time called, we just happened to be walking past Hollywood & Vine and were feeling rather warm so a cool air-con lunch sounded like a plan. So on the off chance there were seats available we checked! There was. Excellent! We’ve found this to be quite true of most places that they do actually have seats available, maybe with a little wait. We had not planned on this one so we wandered in and found that it was actually a character dining at lunch (breakfast too but not dinner) and it was Little Einsteins and Jo Jo! Our 4 year went nuts!! He loved it! It may be $25/adult, $15/child but so so worth it.

On our way out we went back to Rock n’ Roller Coaster and also the The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror This is 13 storeys of scare factor, you are seating in a “phantom” elevator which shoots up 13 storeys and then drops all the way down and back up again. When you enter this park you can hear screams, they are from here and they are live, no recordings needed. This ride has gotten much better over the years, its typically 3 drops can be 4 but each drop will be of different distance and each experience is different.

Love this park, we did more and we will be back on another day on this holiday, but now time for some pool time, dinner and then some “relaxation” time in Downtown Disney or more commonly referred to as “retail” therapy…

We made our usual early start and got over to Animal Kingdom just after it opened. Even at this hour Animal Kingdom was crowded. It is a very different experience than that at the other Disney Theme parks, smaller roads, not as smooth underfoot and somewhat difficult to navigate with a stroller.

Image by malweth via Flickr

Did the “Kilimanjaro Safaris” first,  if its hot the animals take shelter so best to get to see them first thing in the morning so head straight for here first. Actualy got to see quite a few and even had a Lion up close (well he was behind a ditch and various other barriers but close enough to get a good view. Worth seeing, plus its kinda educational!

Character greeting spots, best place to go to is the “Camp Minnie-Mickey Greeting Trails”, we skipped that here, the queues were quite bad.

Kali River Rapids was our next stop, be prepared to get very wet! Great fun!  Basically a raft ride down over rapids with water gushing everywhere. Plus there are spots along the way where folk get to squirt water at you! A word of caution, if you do this when it is not so warm, you should either bring a change of clothes or wear a rain jacket as you really do get quite wet.

Expedition Everest up next! Best thing about this ride, for us, was the Single Rider Line. Normal queue was over an hour, fastpass was gone very quickly but on single rider line, you walked up, waited 5 mins max and on you get! It is a fantastic roller coaster, really worth it.

After a while in the heat in  Animal Kingdom you will begin to notice a difference to the other parks, there are not as many opportunities to get out of the heat and into a air conditioned environment. We found it tough going with out son, who was begining to get quite frazzeled so we decided to head for the exit.

Along the way we got on TriceraTop Spin which himself loved and there was various other “arcade” games which we spent some time at but then hot the exit. Not my most favourite of parks and the heat really killed  it for us on this day, didn’t get to do “Its tough to be a bug” (excellent but a little scary for young kids) Finding Nemo – The musical (again supposed to be excellent) and various other shows and animal “petting” etc.

Maybe next year if it is somewhat cooler but this heat was a killer and all we could think of was getting back to the villa and jumping into the pool!

That evening we headed to Downtown Disney, dinner at WolfGang Puck Express (really nice and efficient), spent some time wandering around the shops and then a stop at Ghiradelli’s for my wife and son to indulge in their ice cream heaven while watching the little girls coming and going from Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. I headed over to the Pin Trading stations, always fascinated by this and the wonderful range of pins available and the enthusiasm of the collectors and then to Goofys Candy shop my indulgence! Jelly Belly!

Two days of disney and time for a break. Our son is fascinated by rockets, spaceships, astronauts etc. so time for a break from Disney and we head over to Kennedy Space Center.

KSC is about 45-50 miles from Orlando, took us over 1hr to get there with traffic & roadworks etc  $38/adult, $28/child full information here 

Quite a few static rockets and exhibits, the Shuttle Launch experience is somewhat interesting but if you are looking for an exhiting “thrill” then skip it…

The Imax movies we had to skip as it soon became apparent that trying to keep our 4 yr old quiet on this particualr day was not going to be easy, but they are rather fantastic movies.

Kennedy Space Center bus tour is worth going on,. We didn’t do it this time, but you do get to see a Saturn V up close and personal and the International Space centre components.

To catch the tour, all the movies and see all the various exhibits you need the best part of a day. If you are interested in Space, exploration etc then go other wise skip.

Animal Kingdom tomorrow, bright and early once again!

Our second day we knew would be tough, had a good nights sleep but today is the day jet lags hits so we decide to take it easy. Women, unfortunately, for relaxation like to go shopping…not sure how that works but hey gotta suck it up…

Walmart is just down the road so we saddle up in the SUV and head on over. An hour spent walking the aisles and we hadn’t gotten through them all, sheez, they build ‘em big. Eventually we do get stocked up and head back to the villa and stash all the goodies away. We’ve no intention of cooking at all on this holiday but you do need some essentials, water, fruit, oreo cookies

At this point I have to say I’m loving my phone, a Nokia 6110 Navigator which has a GPS.  Loving it! Maps are accurate (using Nokia maps) directions are good and easy to understand and we haven’t gotten lost at all! Still have a map as backup, as you never know but hey technology works!!

Magic Kingdom today, we have dinner booked for the Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom, its a character meal so looking forward to seeing the reaction and getting the photos. Dinner is for 6pm so plenty of time to laze around the pool, except for we decide to wander over to Magic Kingdom aand laze around there instead.

Its hot, very hot today, plenty of sunscreen on and water at the ready, we decide to head up to Frontierland and check out the rides there. Just as we arrive the Toy story parade is moving along, this is a small parade with the characters singing and dancing but great for the kids to see and you get to interact more than with the large park parades.

Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad are the biggies here but of course the queues are 1hr long and all the fast passes are gone… and its only 1pm… We’ll come back early another day to grab these. Timing and planning your trips to Disney does take some thought as there is nothing worse than hanging around in a line in 90f heat for 1hr.

Best option we found on this and previous vacations was to hit the parks early i.e. opening time, leave at midday for a few hours to recover and relax and then go back for the evening.

Anyways, once inside we head for Tomorrowland as the “Speedway” had been spotted earlier and had to be treid out by our son who was entranced by the idea that he would be driving a car! Bit of a line before we got in but its good fun espcially trying to “crash” into the wife who was inthe car ahead of us.

After Speedway we went for Buzz Lightyear “Space Ranger” Spin, this is a good “shooting” game with little laser guns attached to the cabs that you sit into. Lots of Buzz Lightyear stuff to be seen and examined before and after the ride.

Time for some fun for the adults! Space mountain height restriction meant it was just Wifey and myself could go on it, it has a single rider line  so we went in separately, walked straight up, pass all the people in the queues (love that feeling!!) and then just wait for a single spot to open up which happens quite quickly.  the ride itself is showing its age and is getting quite rough and “jerky” not the Space Mountain of 5 years ago at all.

By this point, it was getting dark outside and nearly time for the Fireworks, so we made our way down to the castle found a good spot, bought some ice cream and settled in to watch the fireworks. Found this on YouTube. Enjoy

Booked a pool home for this reason. The plan was to get into the parks early, while cooler and less crowded. Stay around until 12noon or 1pm and the then head back to the villa or more precisely the pool, grab some food, some rest and laze around or in the pool for an hour or two.

Then once refreshed hit the parks again around 3 or 4, by this time many of the folks that that been there since morning are leaving and it gets less crowded. As far as I know, pretty much all the Disney tickets allow you to exit the park and re-enter the same park on the same day. Plus at this time of the year the parks stay open quite late (except Animal Kingdom) so its good to take a break.

Definitely need to keep hydrated, we found freezing bottles of water the night before and bringing them into the park helped quite a bit and much cheaper than buying in Disney! Despite all the dire warnings you’ll see on websites you can bring your own drink & food into Disney and it does help cut down on the cost.

Pop into the shops when ever you can (not to buy anything!), or the underrated exhibits/attractions, they are air-conditioned and can be a very welcome break from the heat.

Main Street, Magic Kingdom at the opening is a wonderful place to be. Most of the staff are out of their shops in their costumes welcoming you to the park. If you’ve arrived early enough you’ve seen the opening ceremony with Mickey and co arriving on the steam train, its worth the early start if your children love  Disney characters.

We’re here with our 4 year old so we’re taking it slowly, decide first to head to Dumbo, had an idea he’d like the flying elephant ride and boy were we right. Success!

Next Peter Pan ride, loves the book, its a short ride but has all the characters, again success! Mickeys Philhar Magic was next, why it is not called Donalds PhilharMagic is beyond me! Kinda odd for himself, the idea of wearing the large glasses for the 3-d effect took him a while to get used to. But he loved the music and the various antics that donald gets up while Mickey is “away”.

Mickey Mouse is a particular love so we have to go and see where Mickey lives. Over to Toontown to see Mickey and Minnies house, while there discover that you can actually get a photo op with Mickey and Minnie pretty much all the time. Get there early, the queues get quite long as the photos take a while. They do Photopass and your own camera. this is in the Judges tent. Other characters especially the various princesses (Aurora aka Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Cinderella ) show up in the princess room, needless to say our 4 yr old son had absolutely no interest in the girlies!

Goofys Barnerstormer is a cute little rollercoaster in this area, a good introduction for the young uns

By this stage it was getting pretty hot and we’d been in the park for 4 hrs so time for a break from the park and from writing this! See y’all for the next entry