November 2013

Apart from Magic Kingdom (which stands alone in its unparalleled magic quotient), the kids’ favourite park was Hollywood Studios. There is so much to do that it took us 2 whole days to finish all the attractions. I’m going to attempt to fit it all in one post so here goes.

Rule #1, if you have kids aged 4-12, there’s one thing you absolutely have to do – get them enrolled in the Jedi Training Academy.

We first saw this at Disneyland (Anaheim) during our honeymoon; we were like 15 days into our marriage and I remember turning to the husband and saying “one day we will have lots of kids and those kids will be trained in the ways of the force to duel Darth Vader.”

The husband was all “um, ok good plan…”

The limited spots in the training academy fill up fast (like 30 minutes after park opening) so get there at rope drop and start running (I’m serious, don’t walk) to the sign up area. We were sprinting like maniacs and barely made it for the final few spots.

Being one of the youngest kids, Kirsten was struggling with the lightsaber activation during the training session, which led to some really priceless hilarious exchanges with the Jedi Master. But she was so determined to make it work so while the other kids took their turn fighting Darth Vader, she was at the corner practicing her activation move.

Then when it was finally her turn, the Jedi Master was all “ACTIVATE!!” and BB-ZSHOOOO, she did it and the entire audience erupted in wild cheers.

Awesome daughter is awesome.

The husband made a video of the whole sequence, go watch!! That video just kills me dead, it’s so full of win. I’m just a proud momma, I can’t be more proud.

As far as rides go, there are 3 headliners in Hollywood Studios.

1. Rock and Roller Coaster. Brace yourself for the blast off, it’s brutal.

2. Tower of Terror. By far the scariest ride for me. I didn’t dare get on the last time and this round, both Truett and Kirsten could make the height limit so they were all “c’mon, let’s all do it together”. You guys already know what my thoughts are on being challenged by the kids to ride scary roller coasters.

Little did they know what they were in for.

It’s an elevator ride (with seats) that takes you right to the top of the tower and drops you 180 feet multiple times, except that it’s pulled by cables, so it’s worse than free-falling because you’re effectively being yanked down faster than the speed of gravity. Everyone in the elevator seemed pretty calm but I was screaming and screaming during the entire ride like “OHMYGODLETMEOUTHELPPPPPPPP.” It was all very classy and not embarrassing at all.

But hey, achievement unlocked!

3. Toy Story Midway Mania. This is insanely fun and not scary at all, trust me. We rode this like 8 times and every time was more fun than the last.

Ok, moving on to the shows. We’ll get to the end eventually, I promise.

There are tons of incredible shows to watch at Hollywood Studios but the two most stellar ones for me were Fantasmic! and Beauty and the Beast.

You get the laser displays and fireworks and water effects and pyrotechnics in Fantasmic!, which are all great but it’s the story that really gets you. It’s the story about the power of imagination, the triumph of good and the importance of a dream as told through the eyes of our favourite mouse (and all his friends).

Beauty and the Beast? It’s flat out the best rendition of my favourite Disney princess story ever.

Hollywood Studios is the only place you’ll get to meet the Disney Junior and (most of the) Pixar pals. Truett and Kirsten are raised heavy on a diet of Disney Junior and Pixar so they went a little mad meeting Jake, Oso, Handy Manny, Sophia, Lightning Mcqueen, Mater, Incredibles, Ralph, Venelope, Mater, Woody and Buzz, as well as Mickey and Minnie.

We’re almost there! In appreciation of your determination to stick it through to the end, I’m wrapping up with a somewhat obscure fact about Hollywood Studios. If you’re a Disney resort guest, stay for the Extra Magic Hours in Hollywood Studios because that’s when the Disney Junior block party happens.

What’s a Disney block party, you ask? It’s only the most awesome dance party you’ll every go to. If you’ve never seen Mickey dance, all I can say is that mouse has some serious moves.

Disney dance parties are on another level of awesome and best of all, it was relatively quiet so the kids got to spend some quality dance time with all the characters. Handy Manny was leading a conga line and Sofia taught Kirsten some princess dance moves, IT WAS SO COOL I have to stop gushing now.

//The end. Finally!

Since my trip to Disney World 2 years ago, I had one mission in life – which is to indoctrinate the kids in the ways of the walt. I’ve just been dreaming and dreaming and dreaming of the day I’ll finally be able to bring the kids to Disney World.

And you know what they say in Disney? Dreams really do come true.

I’ve been a Disney nerd all my life and over the years, I’ve managed to successfully turn the husband into a converted Disney nerd (yay!) and all my kids and grandkids and greatgrandkids and their greatgrandkids will go through an induction program that will turn them all into full on Disney nerds. Ain’t no two ways about it.

There is no place in the world that’s happier than Disney World. I thought of a dozen ways to say it but it all comes down to this, that Disney is just pure magic.

*I’m going to just apologise in advance because for the next few posts, this blog will be all Disney photo obnoxiousness.

Let’s kick things off with Animal Kingdom. It was the least disney-esque of all the parks for me the last trip but going there with the kids was like looking at the park through new eyes and I’m loving it much, much more.

Right at the entrance of the park, there’s a station for kids to sign up as Wilderness Explorers (like Russell from UP!). Each explorer will be given a booklet and a map to explore all the WE stations around the park – when they complete each activity, they’ll be given stickers badges to mark their achievements.

I’ve never seen Truett & Kirsten so enthusiastic about being wilderness explorers, it was so cute. Although my baby girl couldn’t quite suppress her inner city girl streak.

Me: guys, we’re wilderness explorers today so we’ll have to check our maps for directions ok…

Kirsten: no need lah! Just use the GPS.

The theming in Animal Kingdom is all safaris, trekking and wildlife conservation, taking you from Africa to Asia to Dinoland USA.

When you’re at the Animal Kingdom, these are all the things you have to do.

1. Kilimanjaro Safaris. Pull fastpasses and ride it 2, 3, 4 times.

2. Festival of the Lion King. Easily one of the best shows in Disney.

3. Expedition Everest. This is not for the fainthearted. I didn’t dare to go on at first so the husband and sister went on it with Truett. He came back all excited like “mom it’s so awesome you need to ride with me I will protect you please please please…”

My head was all “NO WAY!!” but when my 5-year-old is telling me that I need to be brave and he will protect me, there’s only one thing left to do – man up and get on the scary roller coaster.

Honestly? It was TERRIFYING. The moment I pulled down the restraint, I was like “please don’t let me die, please don’t let me die.” So there’s this part where you make the epic climb and you’re bracing yourself for the drop and when it reaches the top, you realise that HELL NO the track is broken and you go into panic mode and then you start plunging backwards in darkness and you involuntarily scream like a little girl.

After the ride, Truett leaned in and whispered “actually I was super scared too, good thing I can hold your hand.”

*heart melt* That’s how we do bonding sessions around here.

4. Meeting Disney friends in their safari gear.

I wasn’t quite sure about visiting the two Universal Studios theme parks in Orlando (Universal Orlando and Islands of Adventure), seeing as we already have something very similar back home and c’mon, Universal just ain’t no Disney. Not by a long shot. I was leaning towards spending those 3 extra days soaking up more of that Disney magic instead but I was in two minds about it because The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was beckoning.

The husband and sister and I, we’re all potterheads and the rules are that potterheads have to stroll down the little lanes of Hogsmeade at least once during our brief muggle existence to pick up some Bertie Botts every flavour beans and take a swig of rich, frothy butterbeer (which by the way, is exactly how I imagined butterbeer to taste like – it’s delicious).

In terms of theming, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was splendid.

(Lots of pictures coming up, brace yourselves!)

//Hedwig taking five on a snowman wearing a Gryffindor scarf? Love it!

//And doesn’t Hogwarts look just grand? Within those towers lie the Forbidden Journey, the best ride in all of Universal.

//We had lunch at Three Broomsticks and a drink at Hog’s Head. That was all kinds of awesome.

//I might have actually squealed when I saw the Hogwarts Express.

The kids weren’t infected with potter madness so they were quite bewildered by all our effusive shrieking at random objects like train schedules and butterbeer carts and puking pastilles window displays. (Even the toilets had a looping audio of Moaning Myrtle, how about that?!!)

They were, however, quite interested in Honeydukes, because candy!

Speaking of, I thought of being contrary and trying Bertie Bott’s vomit and earwax flavours so I asked the lady at the counter if it really tasted of vomit or it just had a mildly-flavoured artificial vomitty sort of taste and she looked at me without flinching and said, “100% real vomit. It’s very authentic.”

So I chickened out. I’ve tasted my fair share of other people’s vomit (3 of those people, in fact) so I think imma pass.

In any case, they had fun riding broomsticks and giving snuggle-kisses to pigwidgeon and princess sparkles.

The rest of the park (as well as Universal Studios) was disappointingly, sort of mediocre, languishing in 5/10 territory but I’ll qualify this by saying that if you’re a potterhead, the potter section (albeit a little small) is really cool and it bumps the overall score to a solid 7.

Verdict? If you’re a potter fan, you’d want to check it out at least once. If not, head on over to Disney (OMG DISNEYYYYY!!!) instead.

We’re home!! It’s been one epic trip, probably the best one I’ve ever had.

There’s the post-holiday euphoria crash and the jet lag (which is always worse on the way home) and the general exhaustion but I’m also glad to be home to see my baby, whom I’ve missed so, so, so, so, so, so (*insert many more so’s) very much. I’ve had to spend the last 3 weeks talking to him on skype and watching videos of him on whatsapp and now I know what it’s like to be on the other side of the lens looking at him from afar and you know what, it sucks. I’d much rather be on the side where I get to hold him and kiss him as often as I like. That side is much better.

Also FYI, babies are not meant to be skyped with. I don’t know what’s worse – not seeing him at all and going crazy or seeing him and going even more crazy because he’s so near yet so far and I just want to immediately fly home to feel his baby weight in my arms. These arms are made for holding my baby and they’ve felt so empty the past 3 weeks.

We got back in the middle of the night and the kids couldn’t resist showering their baby with a hundred kisses at 2 in the morning. They’ve been kissing him so much that baby Finn is all like “WHAT’S UP WITH ALL THE KISSES??? RESPECT THE PERSONAL SPACE, GUYS…”

But I think deep down inside, he really enjoys all the attention.

More posts on the trip coming up soon but I have a long to-do list today, of which all 750 items involve kissing my baby till he turns blue in the face.

Sigh. It’s good to be home.

I don’t think I can round up a trip to NYC without talking about the food, which by the way, is ridiculously good (and cheap!). I don’t usually talk about food here but I think the amazing food we ate deserves a mention. There were so many places we wanted to try and too little meals or stomach space to fit them all in.

Imma just wrap up with my top 5 favourite food places in New York (in no order of preference because they’re all tied for top in my book).

1. Balthazar in SoHo

We knew we had to visit the legendary Balthazar, a classy Parisian brasserie in SoHo with incredible ambience and even more incredible food. After our meal, I found out from a friend that this was the restaurant in Sex and the City where Carrie and Samantha got turned away from despite their attempts to convince the girl at the door that they both ‘are kind of somebody’. (thanks Lynn!)

When we got to the place on a Sunday morning, we were initially told (by an equally stone-faced girl) that the wait would be 90 minutes for a table. Then somehow my sister managed to pull some jedi mind trick on this other really nice girl who gave us a seat within 3 minutes.

We tried the scrambled eggs in puff pastry (pretty good) and the lobster and tomato linguine (OMG PARTY IN MY MOUTH!!)

2. Lobster Place at Chelsea Market

Chelsea Market has a ton of great food but only one makes it to the list – the Lobster Place for freshly steamed whole lobsters.

This is a fuss-free lobster place that doesn’t muck around with ambience or any of those fancy frills. They don’t even have chairs, just a couple of high tables where you can stand around while you eat but that doesn’t even matter because the focus is on the amazing lobster.

There’s only one choice, freshly steamed with a slice of lemon and butter on the side and that is all you need.

I have never tasted lobster this fresh and juicy and tasty and succulent all at the same time in my life. In fact, I need me some of that lobster now!!

3. Grimaldi’s Pizzeria in Brooklyn

You can’t not have pizza in NYC and one of the best places for piping hot coal-brick oven pizzas is Under the Brooklyn Bridge at Grimaldi’s.

All the pizzas are given some TLC in a coal-brick oven for that deliciously authentic brick oven taste and this thing is massive, probably big enough to share among 4 hungry adults. We had a ham + mushroom white pizza (without tomato sauce and topped off with extra cheese) that was out of this world.

4. Shake Shack (various locations)

Shake Shack needs no further raving because c’mon, it’s the shake shack. It’s fast food done right – burgers, hot dogs, fries, shakes and custard ice cream. Most of the time, I eat any of the above items from various places and end up regretting once the junk food crash hits.

But the shake shack? It’s fresh and delicious and worth every bit of the calories it contains. Oh yes, it does.

5. Babbo in West Village

Mario Batali’s Babbo is a real gem in terms of food quality and pricing. It’s got great ambience and given the exceptional food quality, we certainly did not expect most of the entrees to fall within the $20+ range.

Babbo was one of our final meals in NYC and it was an amazing place to round up the NY leg of the trip.

*Special honorary mention to the Momofuku compost cookie and cereal milk ice cream, which didn’t make it to the list only because they’re more like snacks instead of a meal. But they were equally yum.

Space captains Truett & Kirsten reporting for duty at the Intrepid, y’all!

Checking out the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum was one of the final things we did in The Big Apple and boy was it a fine way to spend a lovely NYC afternoon.

Especially if you’re a space geek like Tru.

My son is obsessed with all things related to fighter jets and space travel so this was a huge treat for him. An entire museum dedicated to sea, air and space vehicles??!! He got up to see the row of super rad fighter jets set against the gorgeous Manhattan skyline and almost fainted from happiness.

Jets with missiles, jets of all shapes and colors, jets with huge propellors! And copters too!

Truett was dragging the husband everywhere telling him about all the jets and it was so sweet watching them like some major father-son bonding type thing was about to go down.

We also got to see the space shuttle Enterprise, an actual shuttle that went into outer space. It’s retired now, resting at the Intrepid Museum waiting to tell its stories of adventure to excitable kids while newer, techier shuttles take its place in space.

It was extra awesome that they were able to get on board some display helicopters and boats. I mean, reading about fighter jets is great, imagining it in your head is cool and seeing it up close is pretty darn incredible. But it’s nothing like being on board an actual one to fiddle with the buttons and controls like they were real fighter jet pilots.

I didn’t think Kirsten would be into it but she loved it just as much.

Such is the stuff little boys’ (and girls’) dreams are made of.

Turns out that I really love the MET. Much more than I was expecting to. I wasn’t quite sure about the MET at first because I’m not one of those artsy types who can tell the monets from the rembrants but a friend was telling me that I absolutely had to visit the MET and I was all “It’s like maybe #6 or 7 on my list of things to do in New York” and she was like “but it’s the American Louvre!!” and I said “that’s not making it any more compelling for me” but long story short, we ended up going and I am real glad we did. 

We started out at the Ancient Near Eastern Art section on the third floor and just a tip, that’s maybe not the best place to start for a noob.

We were so excited like YEAH ART!! but there were all these really ancient-looking remains (like old pots or spittoons or carpets that I’m guessing ancient asian people threw out) that were only sort of moderately interesting.

Like what is this? I’m pretty sure some pieces are missing from this tile collection and I’m also pretty sure I’ve seen something like it (a complete piece at that) back home along Arab Street.

When we got to the paintings and sculptures though, I was a thousand % sold.

Seriously, photos aren’t going to do it justice. We stood there looking at all these magnificent paintings that were so imposing and beautiful and they have a way of drawing you in if you let it and I could feel myself turning into an art snob like “NOOOOO it’s happening to me and I can’t stop it!!!”

(The kids fell asleep just as we arrived at the MET and they basically slept for 5 hours straight while we were there (thank you jet lag) so we had all the time in the world to explore and take it all in.)

I’m gushing now but it was wonderfully breathtaking.

A connoisseur would be able to tell you about the brush strokes and the composition and form and palette but mostly, what I loved was how each painting made me feel. Some were so profoundly sad and some were lots of fun and some were just so, so grand. We spent almost half a day walking around till we could hardly feel our feet and it wasn’t even enough to see everything.

The other sections I really loved was the armor hall and the Egyptian art.

Oh and the Victorian furniture section too. It was so Downton Abbey that I was half expecting to see Carson appear with a tray of tea.

MET, oh MET, I’ll have to be back for you soon.