RailRider

^ You can add Dollywood to that mix.

Giant Ferris Wheel, Table Service Restaurant / Improved quality in food service.

Some of the best Photopass shots of the day. Really a nice feature at the Disney parks. They take the pictures by professionals and you are not harrased when you enter the park. Some turned out really great. Photo shoot in front of the castle. Seriously what kid wouldnt love this? All in all we had an amazing day at the Magic Kingdom and the exciting part was we were going to be back in the park in a few short days. I was amazed that even with a somewhat crowded park we never waited more than 5 minutes for a ride. Completed everything on the schedule plus more and still had time to kick back and relax. Wonderful day in all. Tomorrow will bring a new adventure. Thanks for stopping by and I think I finally have the new boards figured out. Stay Tunned. There is a Mouse in the Kitchen...

Now that we have returned after our afternoon break it is time to catch the ELP. Tink leads the way. We will catch up with these mice latter. Peter Pan Everyones Favorite Dragon Last shot of the night. Before I upload some photopass shots, I must say the new Wishes is amazing. The video projections of guests photos is amazing and I swear at one point the castle launched like a rocket. I may try and upload the video I took if I can ever get the new board software figured out...

The Royal Table awaits at the Kingdom Wednesday, May 4th. Today was our first full day spent at a park and what better park to visit than the Magic Kingdom. Lots of excitement and magic were awaiting us at the Kingdom, everything from an early morning breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table, Flying Elephants, Main Street Electrical Light Parade, and the newly redesigned Wishes. I must admit that after our wonderful trip to Disneyland I was very excited to visit the bigger castle, although I knew the experience would be much different. We were at the park prior to opening and were able to watch the park opening ceremony. Honestly if you don't have smile on your face at this moment than something is wrong. Great way to start the day. The best entrance to any park. Yes I have a princess on my hands and she knows how to use it to her ability. Seriously this is the pose she struck. I am concerned... Time to head in to the Cinderella's Castle for a royal breakfast. I must admit I was very excited to dine inside the castle. Whose excited to see Cinderella? Side note, since we drove to Disney it gave Zoe the perfect opportunity to watch all of her favorite princess movies. The challenge is can we meet all of them on this trip. Have you been keeping track? Cinderella! Thank you Ebay for allowing us to purchase this DVD since it is in the vault. Up the spiral staircase we go to the royal dinning hall. Magic Wand in Hand! Zoe agrees breakfast was very good. I have always been happy with Disney Dinning, especially the character dinning. I have always enjoyed how they cater to the parents. Who will be the first princess out? Might it be a favorite from our trip to Disneyland? Anyone remember? Sleeping Beauty!!! Up Next Jasmine! Whos Next? Last but not least, Belle! Cinderella's Royal table was an awesome experience, great internaction with the Princesses and they really take the time to converse with the kids. Up next flying elephants. Her favorite ride that she still talks about. I am affraid I have a Princess on my hands. . Teacups. Slightly Dizzy after this one. By 11:00 we had ridden everything in Fantasyland. We grabbed some lunch over in Liberty Square, rode the Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain and a few other rides and headed out of the park. Time for our afternoon break back at Coronado Springs for some swiming, relaxing and a quick rest. We reentered the park around 5:00 after a nice 3 hour break from the park. Time to catch the ELP and Wishes and do some shopping along MainStreet. Everyone needs a Mickey Ear Balloon.

^ Yes I did notice the changing walls and made sure to point it out. Also the light fixtures have a great bird like shape to them. Really a well done resturant and we may or may not attend next time. The short ribs were a little too bold for me as well, but I would go back for the Wild Boar. We may be half way through but there are some great moments coming up. Thanks again for everything

Lions, Tigers and Yetis! Tuesday, May 3rd Finally it was time to visit our first park, Animal Kingdom! During the planning stages of our trip I used sites like Tour Guide Mike (Thank You Jesse, I still owe you a Bombay and why not some ribs as well for this) Undercover Tourist, and a few others to plan what parks and what days. Once the parks were laid out I made a schedule for each park, broken down in to 30 minute intervals, key attractions, Fast Pass Grabs and all kinds of key events for the day. Now some would say that I may have over planned our days at the parks, but I can tell you not having a plan is even worse. During our entire trip we never waited in more than a 5 minute line and were never one of "them". You know "them," the yelling, crying, waiting in line families that have very little fun or magic at Disney. If you would like to see my planning in greater detail I would be more than happy to send the Excel file for the entire week. I learned that planning is key, it was confirmed with our Disneyland trip and even more so with our trip to the World. First park day was spent at the Animal Kingdom, mainly because it was a light day for the park and I only wanted us to spend half a day at a park. We were not ready for the Magic Kingdom yet. Also we had reservations this evening for Jiko at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Seemed like a great themed day to me. The Animal Kingdom as many know is Disney's foray in to the Animal and Rides combo park. We were mainly excited to adventure in to DinoLand (seeing as Zoe loves Dinosaurs) and the Kilimanjaro Safari because she loves animals as well. First ride of the day was Dinosaur! Seeing as everyone else fought for Everest, we grabbed our Fast Pass Sets and headed to DinoLand USA to enjoy it by ourselves. Kido loves the movie and the ride was great as well Triceratops Spin! Safari Goofy and Pluto! Load up the car and lets go! Where can I find a Yeti around here? I was hoping Zoe would grow the needed 4 inches in time to ride. We only got 2, ohwell. I also forget to mention to the wife about the backwards travel on Expedition Everest. Ooopppss. Its a Bugs Life. Great family friendly 4d adventure After knocking out the majority of the park it was time to grab our Fast Pass sets for Kilimanjaro Safari and then have lunch at Tusker House while we waited. The Safari is a great attraction and Zoe absolutely loved it. We had some really close ups of her favorite animals. Hippos, Rhinos and Giraffes. Can you see the Hippo? This guy is a decoy For the ones right next to the Safari vehicle Ever pet a Rhino before? The closeness of the Kilimanjaro Safari makes it a great attraction, especially when the young one loves animals. Pocahontas, makes for a happy Zoe. Wanted to also share some of our great Photopass shots. We were able to split this cost with a second family we knew were traveling at the end of the month. Quite worth the cost. Postcard? All in all a great day at the Animal Kingdom, caught the Festival of the Lion King show on our way out and were back at the resort by 3:30. We got in some more swim time before dinner that evening at Jiko at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Jiko has a great African flare to the menu so it was a very fitting end to the day. The Wild Boar appetizer I had was very good, with just a slight hint of gaminess. Had the Brazed Short Ribs for dinner, good but it did not compare to the overall experience at California Grill. We really enjoyed our evening dinners because not only were they an amazing break from the parks, but they let us explore the other Disney Resorts. Guess where we are staying next time? Thanks for stopping by and come back because tomorrow we will dine with some of Zoe's most favorite people. Zoe and the Royal Table...

Thanks again for the kind words. Sorry I only have one food picture which I will share later, I will leave those photos up to you Regarding sharing too many pictures with Zoe or in your case Miss Rae as the main subject. Disney too me is a place for children to experience real life magic and I think pictures of them express that better than words ever could. I love seeing the expressions on their face as they experience new things and grow up ( I always think of the AK pictures of Miss Rae with the same animal print mickey ears on). Too me that is what Disney is all about so I try and tell the story through their eyes and who wants to see the same pictures you can get on any website out there? Thanks again for all the tips and advice and Im glad you followed the trip on Facebook, I enjoyed your feedback during the trip. Very cool.

We Dinned with Dinosaurs... Monday May 2nd. Our first official full day at Disney, what to do first? When planning the trip I figured it would be best to start or Disney World leg of the trip rather slowly, since we put in 13.1 miles running and over 11 hours driving the 2 previous days. Best place to start in my book was a relaxing day strolling around Downt Town Disney, lunch at the T-Rex Cafe, a relaxing afternoon in one of the many pools at Coronado Springs and then capped off with a Disney Signature resturant for dinner. Tonights choice would be the California Grill, because it was night for Wishes at the Magic Kingdom and I thought a nice dinner overlooking the Magic Kingdom would be a great way to start the trip. Down Town Disney is a great shopping hub and entertainment complex at the World. Anything and everything Disney can be found along with some other unique retailers. Also after our previous days travel and the 13.1 miles already on the legs we needed a relaxing day. No need to go to a park today, spend too much time in the heat or over exert ourselves. I think this is one area folks can go wrong when doing Disney. They try to do too much too soon and too fast. Pace yourself, I know everyone is excited, but Disney is really more like a marathon than a sprint. I have begun to figure this out more so after completing training for the half marathon and many extensive conversations with Avatar. (Thanks again to Jesse for sharing his wealth of knowledge and passion for Disney with me, I get it now!) Lots of flowers at DTD Who doesn't love pen trading? New Lego displays since I was here last time. Snow White Toy Story Still love the Dragon Epic! Somebody loves princesses! We will meetup with these laddies again. We had lunch at the T-Rex cafe, awesome place and perfect since kido loves dinosaurs. Think of the Rainforest Cafe, but with Dinosaurs. Very cool experience indeed. This is the only meal we paid for at Disney World, everything else was covered under our dinning plan package. Highly recomend Disney Dinning. Love the entrance Lots of great animatronics inside and different themed areas. The bar area with giant sea creatures The grill is on fire. Giant Triceratops Ice Cave We sat next to the Peache's (Ice Age reference made by Zoe) After an early afternoon spent at DTD we headed back to the resort to relax at the various pools before we ventured out for dinner at our first Signature Disney resturant. Since we were using the Disney Deluxe plan, I had made reservations for us at a number of Signature resturants. Mrs. RailRider and I love nice dinning on vacation and this plan seemed like the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the various signature locations Disney has. Our first Signature evening would be a late dinner at the California Grill, which sits atop the Contemporary Resort and overlooks the Magic Kingdom. I made the reservation in conjunction with the evenings Whishes Fireworks Display. The kind folks at Disney Reservations were a great help in securing this reservation. This was an amazing way to start the trip, with a birds eye view of the Kingdom and some great Fireworks. Also the soundtrack for Wishes is piped in to the California Grill, really a nice touch. We got our table, ordered our appetizers and main course and then outside to the deck to watch the show. The Shushi here is quite good, the Spicy Kazan Roll was amazing. The meal as a whole was exceptional and cannot wait to go back. Through in the amazing view of the Magic Kingdom and Wishes and the California Grill is just an awesome option at Disney. I believe our meal for 3 topped $200 for the evening, but the dinning plan covered it all. Even better. Highly recomend the California Grill. All in all this was the perfect way to spend our first day at Disney and really got us in the relaxed vacation mode. Stay tunned because tomorrow we head to our first park and kick off the... Thanks for reading. Lions, Tigers, and Yetis...

Thanks. I also had very little interest in running a half marathon, did not sound like my idea of fun. I must say now that I have done it I am ready for another. Never something I thought I would or could do. You may change your mind.

2 record breaking water coasters cool, but interesting. Not sure how I feel about this, but it is quite obvious the waterpark is the main attraction and feature of Holiday World.

Really know how to instill a sense of safety and security with quotes like that.

Where were you Sunday May 1st? 5/1/2011 started off as any normal day after running a half marathon and making the remaining drive to Disney World. Normal enough, Up bright and early to make the drive from Nashville to the Happiest Place on Earth. We had made reservations for the Coronado Springs Resort and were partaking in the Deluxe Dinning Package. The next 7 days would be spend at Walt Disney World with the Coronado Springs as our home away from home. Who knew that our first night would start off so memorable. As we were relaxing in the room, ice on our sore muscles, getting ready for our first full day at Disney, the News Broke>>> Osama bin Laden Dead... Works I never thought I would see, let alone now, at the start of this trip. Our phones were ablaze with the news, social media going crazy, the resort was buzzing. We went outside just to soke it in and it was conversation on everyones lips. One of those events that you will always remember the moment the news broke. Where were you? Besides the earth shattering news we spent the evening relaxing at Coronado Springs. We had booked a Deluxe Water View room that overlooked the main lake on the property. Coronado Springs is one of the more spread out resorts on property, but has some of the nicer amenities. Amazed it is only a moderate resort. Our first evening we dinned at the Maya Grill at the resort. I would describe it as Mexican Fusion, very contemporary but rooted in Mexican culture. Since we were partaking in the Deluxe plan, we had quite the meal. Amazing food and the Ribyee tacos were amazing. The Dig Site pool is huge with ancient Myan Pyramid Waterfall as the centerpiece and the Jaguar water slide is a really fun adventure for adults and kids. We spent many an afternoon break here. If you are a swiming family, we are, this is a huge plus. Now on to various pictures of the resort throughout our stay. El Centro... The main hub of the resort The Dig Site Pool from afar Another Shot of El Centro A small sampling of the size of Coronado Springs Hammocks abound 2 of my favorite people My little girl is not so little anymore Yes Zoe managed to snap this picture. Awesome! Tomorrow we spend our first full day at the World in Downtown Disney while our legs recover, we dine with Dinosaurs and wrap up the evening with a birds eye view of the Magic Kingdom's Wishes Fireworks while dinning. Stay tuned and thanks for stopping by. Up Next, And We dinned with Dinosaurs...

Yes the Delta Demon was a very fun ride. I hope someday they get the Turns up and going and some think SoB is nightmare of a project.

The Country Music 1/2 Marathon... So how does one decide to run a 1/2 marathon, no less 1 day before going to DisneyWorld for the week? This is a great question and I still wonder about it myself. The truth of the matter is that Mrs. RailRider and I were looking for something to do together once the weather turned cold during the Fall and the Winter and like most we could stand to be in better shape. I also should mention that my wife has always wanted to run a marathon, especially the Country Music Marathon because of all the great live bands along the course and Nashville is just an awesome city. This seemed like a perfect opportunity with the marathon scheduled for Saturday April 30th and early May is an awesome time to visit DisneyWorld. Perfect Combination! 13.1 Miles, yes that is right 13.1 miles was ahead of us come April. I have never run let alone walked that many miles in one day... We used the entire Winter and early Spring to train and did we ever. We joined the YMCA and put in 30+ minutes a day on the treadmill or eliptical and we also incorporated heavy bag work in to our training. Our training lasted through the Winter and eventually we were able to get outside in early Spring and start going on longer runs. We also joined WeightWatchers during our training and followed a healthier eating plan. I am still amazed what we were able accomplish in about 6 months. I lost 30 pounds and the wife dropped a solid 20. The time spent training and working out was very theraputic for the both of us, great stress relief (especially the heavy bag work) and also a great way to continually build our marriage. Now the only question was would the training pay off. We arrived in Nashville a few days before the race so we could attend the health expo and also take in some of the city and sights. Nashville really is an awesome town and has recoverd quite well from the floods. (I am still extremely upset that Opryland is no more) The day of the race we were up and on our way to the start line by 4:30am, the race started at 7:30. Had to park at LP Field (home of the Titans) and then be shuttled to the start line on Vanderbilt's campus. Once at the start line the adrenaline was through the roof. We were both ready to go, but knew we had to pace ourselves and not burn out too early. Especially seeing as how Nashville is quite a hilly city and the temps were going to climb in to the 90's towards the end of the race. Did I mention we were running with 35,000 of our closest firends? The Finish Line at LP Field Great views throughout the course of Nashville and great bands every mile. The Mass of humanity at the start line. All 35,000 of our friends Rooting us on near the finish line. Well the good news is we finished in 3 hours 16 minutes, well under our goal time. No injures and only a few blisters to deal with. Well I just finished my first 1/2 Marathon now what? Congratulatory Hug. I'm alive, upright, and uninjured! We Made it! Lets go to DisneyWorld! Well we finished the race and ran a strong event, very proud moment for the both of us. Ive always been athletic but this was completely different, quite challenging but very rewarding in the end. Now its time to go back to the hotel, rest, and getting ready to head to DisneyWorld the next day. Stay tunned for the next update... Where were you when???

Yes the title says it all. A Marathon followed by the families big trip to Walt Disney World, for Miss RailRiders first experience at the World. So how does a trip like this get put together, who wants to run a marathon and then go to Disney World, and will Disney World produce the same Magic that Disneyland did? Great questions and hopefully they are answered within this trip report. The premise for this trip originally started with the desire to go back to a Disney park after our amazing trip to Disneyland and California Adventure in 2010. Knowing that Little Miss RailRider (Zoe) is growing up so fast and how much the Magic was real to her we wanted to create more Magic sooner rather than later. So in the early Fall I began planning our first trip to the World and this also lead to one very interesting development/addition to our vacation. Lets run a Marathon on our way to Disneyworld! We actually ran a 1/2 Marathon, which is still 13.1 miles (wow!). Why a Marathon and before Disney? Simply put the Mrs and I needed to do something to get back in shape, both physically and spiritually. Life has thrown us many challenges and it was time that we did something for ourselves and for our family. Training for a half marathon was going to be challenging for 2 individuals who have done little to no running, but the reward was going to be enourmous. So we set our sights on the Country Music Marathon in Nashville TN on April 30th as our goal. This is where our trip will start, I hope you stop by often to follow our journey and experience the Magic. Marathon, Magic & a Mouse Overview Saturday April 30th - Country Music 1/2 Marathon, Nashville Sunday May 1st - Arrive at DisneyWorld, Coranado Springs Monday May 2nd - Downtown Disney Tuesday May 3rd - Animal Kingdom Wednesday May 4th - Magic Kingdom Thursday May 5th - Disney Studios Friday May 6th - Magic Kingdom Saturday May 7th - EPCOT Stay tunned, much sweat went in to this next entry...

^ Well Said. As with any group or minority the outspoke outlandish minority receives the most coverage and publicity. Unfortunately the "normal" majority is not exciting or controversial enough to sell news or make headlines...

The orientation of the wearer of said shirt does not matter, yet the content of the said shirt does.

Unless it is a busy day at the park and then the Causeway can be a nightmare to traverse as folks try to enter the park.

Thanks for posting the article Terpy. I am a unitholder of both FUN and DIS and it has been quite the ride with both. I hold a few other related stocks and have formed my own kind of amusement industry mutual fun, hahaha I bought in to FUN when it was hovering between $12 and $13 a share prior to reducing and then cutting off dividends. Today the stock is hovering around the $20 to $21 range and the dividend has been reintroduced. I bought in the DIS when the stock was around $23 and currently it is in the low $40s. Owning park stock changes your perspective on how you view parks, their opperations, and the business aspect of things. You not only want to see parks do well because of your love for them, but also because you have a real vested interest in their success. You take a little more pride in the parks and enjoy your time more, but I have also become more critical when I see things that do not make sound business sense. I say if it is something you love why not own a piece of it.

The Breakers is nice for its closeness and also if you get a lake view room. I also have a thing for older hotels or resorts like the Breakers, the history aspect is pretty cool. Also The Breakers during Halloweekends is nice as well. The SandCastle Suites has probably the nicest rooms at the point and the walk is not that bad to the park. Also the beach access is nice.

Just more reasson that the park at the Highlands needs to become reality. Seriously though I am thankfull there were no serious injuries. I like Camden and have enjoyed my visits, but am amazed it is still opperating after all these years.

Thanks all, fixed the link.

This article is well worth reading, not only for the humorous banter, but also the historical attractions listed. 6 Most Terrifying Theme Park Rides Ever Built Enjoy!

The future is looking bright for FUN, but I hope this is a long term destination and not a quick layover on to bigger and better things. Hopefully Mr. Ouimet can have a meaningful impact and effect change throughout the parks and company. I have great hopes for Cedar Fair and it should be interesting to see how the stock holders and the market reacts over the next few days?