Disney World

We had our first family vacation May 18-27.  We went to Disney World!  The kids had been excited and counting down the days forever.  It was just the best!

May 18 our plane was supposed to leave at 6:15 but it kept getting more and more delayed.  It finally left at 10:15pm.  Sam's phrase for the whole trip was "when in the holy moly world will we.." whatever, like "get there."

We got straight onto the Magical Express, which took us to Pop Century.  We finally got to bed after 3am.

DAY 1.  The next morning we slept till around 9 and then rented a Suburban and drove about 2 hours to Clearwater Beach.  I wanted to go to the gulf side for nicer sand and warmer waters.  We ate first at Frenchy's.  We had our first taste of gator there!  The grouper was the best!  Then we went across the street to the beach and the kids went crazy!  They loved the sand and ran all around and made sand angels.

They enjoyed swimming too - Sam was nervous at first that there might be jelly fish but he got over it.  They didn't like the taste of the water or how it stung their eyes.  I think they liked the sand the best.  Hunting for shells, building sand castles, and burying each other.

We headed home on the early side so we could get rested up for Disney World!  The kids all slept sideways in a shared full size bed.  We had an adjoining room with Noni and Uncle Josh, while Pop Pop enjoyed his own cave where he could snore away.

DAY 2

We woke up bright and early to be there by rope drop.  It wasn't too bad waking the kids up this morning - there was excitement in the air!  I'm glad we got to see the "pre-show" at the Magic Kingdom.  They sang "Good Morning!"  and danced and then the train rolled in carrying our favorite characters.  It all reminded me of my Grandpa and I got a little teary.  He loved Disney!

We walked in with a plan.  Oh yes, I had a plan.  I had been emailing my new friend Melanie (she is a Disney expert) for months and months and she helped me with basically all of our decisions and made us an awesome touring plan.  Did you know that Disney was not really a vacation, but an adventure?  An experience!  And I suppose you could just go and wing it but that is not my style.  If I do something I want to do it right.  Especially when it's something we are paying quite a lot for and likely won't do again for a few years at least.

Anyway, per our plan, we headed to Fantasyland first and got fast passes for the ever popular Peter Pan ride and then got in line for Dumbo - another classic.  Dumbo got three thumbs up and three "can we ride it agains."  Then we rode Peter Pan and it was met with the same reactions.  We might have done another ride after that but I can't remember for sure, but then we needed to head over to the Contemporary Resort and had brunch at Chef Mickey's.  There was all kinds of food there.  Mickey shaped waffles, omelets, pastries, fruits, bacon, sausage..... on and on.  And the Fab Five came around to every table to say hi and take pictures.  That was nice because then we were under no pressure to wait in a long line in the parks to see them.

After brunch we grabbed fast passes for Space Mountain and rode some other rides.  The kids were VERY excited to ride Space Mountain.  This is what we have been eating our veggies and drinking our milk for.  To grow tall enough (44 inches) that they could ride.  Woo hoo!  We all zoomed past the suckers waiting in the regular line (fast passes are awesome!) and boarded.  I was praying through the whole ride that they were enjoying it.  I was most worried about Sam because he's not crazy about big drops.  This doesn't really have big drops but it is very fast and of course, you can't see anything because it's in the dark.  It got three thumbs up and three "AGAINS!"  Before the trip was over we probably rode this 4 or 5 times.  They're still saying it was their favorite overall.

 We rode many other rides and saw the Monsters Inc show which was really funny!  Sam was a little nervous to ride the Astro Orbiter since it was up high.  But really it's just like another Dumbo (and Magic Carpets and Triceratops Spin for that matter).  He ended up doing it and loving it.  There was really nothing they didn't all love.  We rode "It's a Small World" twice during the trip.  This is Noni's favorite and Julia really liked it too.  There are lots of "triplets" throughout the ride and we had fun pointing them out!  

The kids rode the teacups alone because no adults in our group enjoy spinning that much.  We used our first snack credits on some yummy cool treats!

While waiting for the "Magic, Memories, and You" show, Shane & I went over to Casey's Corner for "the best" hot dogs  and brought them back for the kids.  They really were yummy hot dogs and they had hot cheese sauce for the fries which will always make me happy.  We watched M, M, & Y and it was just about the coolest thing ever!  The castle transforms before your eyes with different colors, pictures of guests from that day at the park... it's hard to describe but all very magical.  I may have gotten a little teary here too :)  After that the "Wishes" fireworks show started and of course it was awesome too.  The kids fell asleep in their strollers as we made our way to the bus to our hotel.  So that was fun.  Lugging two strollers, bags of stuff, and three heavy sleepy kids onto a bus!

I know the kids are 5 1/2 but I cannot imagine doing this trip without strollers.  We rented a double and a single from a place called Kingdom Strollers.  They were so nice that it actually made me wish we still used strollers at home.  They were so easy to push and had lots of pockets and cup holders.  We were also able to get cases of bottled water from them.  They delivered all of this to our hotel for no extra charge!

DAY 3.  May 21 we went to Epcot.  

For the rest of the trip it was hard to drag the kids out of bed.  But once they were up they were fine :)  Once in a while they'd catch a catnap in a stroller and they'd almost always fall asleep as we were walking out at the end of the day.  So anyway, we got fastpasses for Soarin' and then went over to ride Nemo and look around the Seas Pavilion.  We saw Turtle Talk, with Crush from "Finding Nemo" which was really cute.  We rode Soarin' (very cool ride) and Mission Space.

There are hidden Mickey's everywhere in Disney World and the kids, especially Julia, really loved seeking them out.  This one is in one of the huge aquariums in the Seas Pavilion.

Then we headed to the World Showcase part of Epcot and got lunch at the French Bakery.  YUM!  We were on the dining plan where you got one counter service meal, one snack, and one table service meal every day for every person.  We thought it'd be perfect - we brought breakfast bars for the mornings and then ate at the parks.  This turned out to be a TON of food though!  A counter service meal includes an entree (good sized) and a side or two, a drink, AND a dessert.  A snack can be pretty huge too.  A table service meal includes an appetizer, entree, sides, drink, and dessert.  While the food was very good, we were all getting tired of feeling like we had to eat AGAIN.  Something I never thought I'd feel.  I enjoy food :)  The best part of the dining plan was letting the kids get treats.  Normally we would limit it because they're too expensive but it was fun not feeling like we had to say no all the time.

So the bakery was yummy.  We were really after the desserts but the regular food turned out to be very good too.  It was fun strolling around the World Showcase, and even though my pal had told me all of the cool things to see in each country, looking back through our touring plan, I realize that we missed a lot.  I think it's just so overwhelming when you're actually there!  We met Snow White in Germany, Princess Aurora in France, along with Marie from the Aristocats.  We stopped at Club Cool where we could sample soda from around the world for free.  Some were good and some were disgusting.  Beverly.  yuck.

Sam fell asleep in his stroller so he missed out on going on Maelstrom, which broke down while we rode!  We had dinner in Japan at Teppan Edo.  It was good but Shane and I agreed that our local Wasahi is better!  We had to wake Sam up for dinner and he was a little grumpy.  He only wanted to sit by me to eat and he told me, "you're my pacifier!"  That night we saw Epcot's night time show, Illuminations.

DAY 4.  May 22 we went back to the Magic Kingdom.  We started off at Splash Mountain.  I really wanted a picture of all 8 of us in the log.  It took some bribing convincing to get Sam to ride, as he does not enjoy big drops.  He was a trooper for me and we got a great picture!  We rode a bunch of other things, saw Mickey's Philharmagic, which for some reason I wasn't that excited about but I found that everything I thought would be just "eh" was actually awesome.  Not that I thought much would be "eh!"  The Enchanted Tiki Room which was probably the only thing in all of Disney World that none of us would ever feel the need to do again.  There were a handful of 3D or 4D (4D means they splash water on you, blow wind, and create smells) rides and shows and every time Julia put on the 3D glasses she would say (before the show even started), "wow, it looks like things are coming RIGHT AT me!"  

We had lunch at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe and it was pretty good.  It was GREAT because it was air conditioned.  The first couple of days of our vacation the heat really wasn't that bad but it got hotter and more humid as the trip went on.  Then the girls had appointments at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.  This is in Cinderella's Castle.  Little girls go and have fairy godmothers-in-training do their hair, nails, and makeup.  You can buy a princess dress there or you can bring one from home, which is what we did since we have princess dresses coming out the eyeballs.  They got their hair pulled up (it looked so tight it'd be painful but they didn't complain) and had little tiaras.  It was darling!  They even got to take home makeup and nail polish.

Right after that, Sam had an appointment at the Pirates League.  Shane decided to join in as well and they both got made up as pirates.  They got the eight eye look.  They got pirate names - Sam was Jonathan Damploather.  They took a pirate oath and then got to go back into a secret room and get a treasure.  The pirates there kept teasing the girls that they were going to steal their tiaras and told them that they smelled like princesses and pixie dust and that it made them sneeze.  So funny!  Sam LOVED having Shane do this with him!

Around 6 we had reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table.  I think this is the most sought after reservation and really hard to get.  So hooray us!  It was great because the girls were all fancied up from the boutique.  We went in and got to meet Cinderella herself and get a picture with her.  You get copies of the pictures included with your meal.  Then we were seated and the princesses started coming in and making the rounds.  They visit with each table and chat a little and pose for pics. 

 Also the girls got magic wands and Sam got a knight's sword.  They all got "wishing stars" and got to have a little wishing ceremony.  Precious!  

 

We got front row seats for the Electrical Parade that night.  We all loved it!

Another exhausting day!

DAY 5.  May 23 was Animal Kingdom.  By this day I realized there was no point in wearing makeup.

We all rode Expedition Everest first and we rode it twice in a row.  I really appreciate the time of year we went.  The lines were not long anywhere!  I could tell a real difference though once we hit the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and I decided then to never go back during a peak time.  It was so much more enjoyable when the crowds were lower.

 We did the Kilimanjaro Safari which was cool and saw the Lion King show.  We rode Dinosaur which I had heard could be pretty scary.  It was SO cool and the kids were not scared a bit.  They are fairly fearless but I can totally see how people can get scared.  

We saw the "Finding Nemo" musical.  This was my favorite show in all of Disney World.  We had great seats, right next to the stage and the kids loved it.  We had lunch at the Flame Tree BBQ which was VERY good.  I enjoyed Animal Kingdom more than I thought I would.  We saw and did a lot there but I know there are things we missed even still.  

We had dinner at Ohana at the Polynesian resort.  It was probably our favorite table service meal of all.  All you can eat meats and sides.  Yummy pineapple bread... everything was very tasty.  There were hula dancing lessons and coconut races to entertain the kids!

The park closed at 7pm and we considered going to another park that was open for longer but decided it would be a good night for the kids to get to bed early.  Even though they still seemed full of energy, I thought once they got in bed they'd fall asleep right away.  Noni, Josh, and I went to Downtown Disney and let Pop Pop and Shane put them down.  They ended up being pretty wound up and didn't fall asleep till after 10!  Grrr!  

We had lots of fun walking around Downtown Disney.  I wish we would have been hungry because it looked like there were lots of yummy snacks.

DAY 6.  May 24 we went to Hollywood Studious.  Sophie had been asking for days if today was the day to ride the Tower of Terror.  Finally!  Shane ran to get fast passes for Toy Story Mania (one of the most popular rides ever) and we took the kids over to the Jedi Training Academy to sign  them up.  Here's Sam - excited to have his ticket saying he's "in!"

Then we saw the Disney Jr. Live show. 

 This was really cute! It had a storyline that featured the main Disney characters, Little Einsteins, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Handy Manny.  I imagine this will be too young for our kids on our next Disney trip, but they really liked it at this age.

 

 We rode Toy Story Mania and I can see why it's so popular!  You ride through a gallery of midway-style games  - you aim and shoot at all of these targets and compare scores at the end. 

  Sam is really competitive and kept telling Noni that he was going to "out-score" her!  She'd tell him his score and he'd repeat it SO enthusiastically!  "Thirteen THOUSAND!!"  

We had lunch at the 50's Prime Time Diner. 

It was a cute and fun place and my family had eaten there years ago.  We had good memories of it and wanted to do it again.  The waitress called Sam "Sparky."  

 

Then we got in line for the Tower or Terror.  Sam didn't want to go so he and Noni saved us some seats for the Beauty and the Beast show.  In line we got our first and only downpour of rain and got soaked to the bone.  

The ride was fun and we convinced Sam to do it the next time.  He said he liked it a "tad" which means he really did like it but didn't want to admit it.  Sophie liked it a lot but I think she expected even more drop than there already was!

The kids did their Jedi Training.  A group of kids all got to go on stage and were trained by a Jedi master.  Then they each got to battle Darth Vader himself!  Jules has always been a fan of Darth (why??)  so she was really excited.  As with all things Disney, this was really well done and such fun to watch!  The kids were lucky to have gotten to participate. 

 Shane, Josh, and I rode the Aerosmith roller coaster - coolest ride ever!  

 Here's a random shot of stroller parking.  Before you get in line for a ride you park your stroller amongst a sea of others.  People just leave their belongings there and everything.  Sometimes you'll come off of a ride or out of a show to find a cast member has moved your stroller just to organize a little. 

We had dinner at Mama Melrose which included special seating tickets to Fantasmic at 9. 

 We went and got seated at Fantasmic and the seats were ok, but off to the side a little and a big bar blocked the view a tad.  We got a tip that there were about 14,000 people in the park that day and that the Fantasmic theater area held 10,000.  It was a full house and there would be a later show as well.  So it seemed smarter to take advantage of shorter lines and then get better seats at the later show.  Great idea!  We got to ride Toy Story Mania again and some other things as well.  

Then we were able to get perfectly centered seats for Fantasmic, which was another one of my very favorite shows.  The kids had seen little promos for the show and they had shown Mickey shooting sparks from his hands.  They were very impressed and they all agreed that there was magic at Disney World.  It was another late night but worth it.  I can't get enough of pictures of my kids sleeping in strollers!

 DAY 7.  May 25 we went back to the Magic Kingdom.  This was the Friday of Memorial day weekend and you could really tell a difference.  Much longer lines!  We finally got to try some Dole Whips for a snack.  They lived up to their reputation!  We saw the Dream Along with Mickey show at Cinderella's Castle.  It was so cute!  I really think the shows were my favorite part of the trip! 

 We had lunch at the Columbia Harbor House and it was very good.  We had had reservations for Via Napoli in Epcot that night but had cancelled it a couple days before.  We were already overbooked on our dining credits and decided to skip this one.  I had wanted to try it because it sounded cool - they import special water just for the crusts for their pizzas.  Shane kept making fun of it - "special pizza water."  We'll have to catch it next time. 

The kids got to try to pull the sword from the stone.

We rode some favorites..

 We got to meet Rapunzel, who was very chatty and told the kids a story about how her chameleon, Pascal had licked the icing off of her cupcake earlier that day.

 We used our park hoppers and hopped over to Hollywood Studios because Sam was bummed that we had missed out on playing at the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" park last time.   Shane hooked us up with some frozen Cokes in cool R2D2 cups.

 We did the Aerosmith roller coaster again, and Toy Story Mania too.  We caught the Indiana Jones stunt show and the Backlot Tour.  We got to meet Darth Vadar.  We didn't even know that was going to be a possibility but we were happy to find it!  Julia got to give him a hug!  

Then we ate at Pizza Planet - based on the restaurant from the Toy Story movie.  They had pretty good pizza and extra good chocolate peanut butter Darth Vader cupcakes.

DAY 8.  May 26 we started the day at Epcot again.  

 Lines for Soarin' were way long and even the fast pass line was about 40 minutes.  And this was arriving at rope drop!  We rode Imagination with Figment the dragon and on our way we stumbled across Tinkerbell, Sophie's fave!  

 We explored Epcot a little more and then had lunch at the French bakery again because we loved it so much the first time.

  Sam and Julia rode Mission Space again but Sophie didn't want to so she got herself drenched in the jumping fountains.  She had so much fun! 

 We also went over to the Boardwalk resort because we had heard they had a great bakery so we picked up some treats there.  

We took the monorail to Magic Kingdom and rode the Goofy roller coaster again (the kids loved this one) while Shane ran to get some fast passes for Space Mountain.We wanted to time it right so we could ride it after our dinner reservation.  We were pressed for time and had to make it over to Fort Wilderness for the Hoop Dee Doo Revue.  We took a ferry over there and I think that was the first time the kids had been on a real boat.  What I remember most about that day was the heat.  We were dripping by the time we got there.  It was a very cute show with all you can eat ribs, fried chicken, sides, and very yummy strawberry shortcake.  Oh and all you can drink beer and sangria!  We had great seats and the kids thought the show was really funny.

 After the show we wanted to hurry back because our fast passes for Space Mountain were going to expired.  They had mercy on us and let us on anyway.  Thank goodness!  It was our last night and this had been the kids very favorite.  

We rode some other favorites and then noticed that Big Thunder Mountain had a line!  It had been closed our whole stay so we joined the line and then were immediately told that it had been shut down again.  So we were going to do Splash Mountain again and then THEY shut down too!  Boo!  I'm pretty sure that Aladdin's Magic Carpets were the last ride we rode before heading out.  On the way out we stopped by the Main Street Bakery because we still had like 30 snack credits to use up.  We had brought some tupperware containers on our trip because we figured we'd bring some goodies home.  We were like kids in a candy shop just picking whatever we wanted!

DAY 9.  May 27 we had considered going to Disney one last time but the kids hadn't gotten to swim at the hotel yet and we needed to be leaving by 2:45.

  So we ate breakfast at Pop Century and then let them swim.  We went to the hotel shop to burn through the rest of our snack credits.  The kids pretty much picked any candy items they wanted which was just so fun!  

I'm glad we did the dining plan but I'll have to do some serious thinking next time we go as to whether or not we'll do it again.  We were just so tired of eating!  

And yes you save money if you actually got an appetizer, beverage, sides, and dessert with every meal.  

But we wouldn't normally!  I do think we probably got our money's worth at the character meals though, as they get very pricey.  And it really was fun feeling like we were really splurging for the kids and letting them get desserts and not making them share a snack.  So, we are still enjoying the treats that we brought home!

We rode the Magical Express back to the airport and our flight left on time.  The kids were very sad to be leaving.  

So was I!  It had been a very tiring trip but just SO fun!  Looking back, I see there are still so many things that we didn't even get to.  Hard to imagine!  I think Disney is addictive.  I can't stop thinking about it and I can't wait to go back!  We are hoping for Christmas of 2014.  Let's start counting down!