Disney- Day Two

After a busy day of travel and a big first day at Magic Kingdom, it was nice that our second day was more low key.  We headed over to Hollywood Studios in the mid morning and enjoyed a few activities before lunch.

Toy Story Ride

This ride was dark and you would spin around shooting at different video games trying to get points.  In the second picture you will see how Colin's fever peaked this day, but he held in there!

Next we headed over to the Disney Junior Stage show.  It had a live girl hosting it but the show was puppets that came up from the floor.  We enjoyed Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Doc McStuffins, Sophia the First and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  The kids really enjoyed this one!

Next up was Hollywood and Vine for lunch.  Here we got to meet four more characters.  

June from Little Einsteins

One of our favorites, Jake!

Colin ready for his nap.

Handy Manny

Special Agent Oso

After we all had a good nap we headed out to explore our hotel.  You saw in the previous post all the hotel pictures.  Definitely a fun hotel for kids!

Then we headed inside to the arcade.  Whitney had a blast and had fun picking out little trinkets with her winning tickets. Colin had fun too.

Our hotel had three, themed pools.  We chose the Finding Nemo one because it had a fun splash park and it was the biggest.  

We enjoyed dinner at our hotel and got a good night's rest before the next big day!

Disney- Day One

DISNEY!!!  Our trip was unbelievable and really just perfect!

We started seriously thinking about this trip at the beginning of the year.  We booked our tickets in May and took flight for DisneyWorld September 12-16th.  I have never planned so much for a trip in my life!  My friend Kelly and cousin Lisa gave me mega,super mom tips!  Thanks ladies! And thank you to all the other moms (and Mike) that gave me tips along the way.  I wouldn't have been as prepared without you!  

 We had 3 character meals booked in June and one last minute call in September for Chef Mickey's that we thankfully got!   We ordered our ponchos in case of getting stuck in a thunderstorm which we always just missed.  Fan, spray bottles to relieve ourselves from the 90 degree weather.  Snack food for the hotel and while waiting in line at the park.  Small gifts for the kids that would help keep them from feeling overwhelmed by all the options at the park...Cars toothbrush, new Disney pj's, character autograph book and a toy for each of them at the hotel.  Buying these things ahead of time saved so much money!  Then each kid got a pair of personalized Mickey ears and a gift.

One huge perk was we were the first week that select Disney hotel guests got to try out their new wristbands.  These wristbands were awesome!  Loaded on them were our park tickets, meal plan, credit card and a fast passes.  The magic words here are Fast Passes.  Disney has had fast passes for a long time.  If you got to a ride and there was a long line, you would go to a machine and it would print a ticket that had a one hour time slot where you could come back and skip the line and get right on.  With these new wristbands Tim would go on the Disney app the day before and pick three rides based on our scheduled meals to use the fast pasess for.  We got to skip so many lines and hop right on rides and even cut in line to meet Mickey Mouse in a private room!  You did feel bad as you were walking past the long line but then quickly got over it as you were flying on Dumbo!   And since we went during a low-volume time anyway the lines for other rides weren't bad at all.  Tim and Whitney waited in line for one ride for 20 minutes but everything else was under 10 minutes.  I know for certain our trip wouldn't have gone as smoothly without this fast pass perk!

 Since this is my blog and I can brag about my kids all want, I will!  They were so good!  They really went with the flow and were so well behaved.  Whitney's excitement and enthusiasm was so cute and endearing.  Making us so happy as parents that we could make this magical experience happen for her.  Colin was a champ.  We had to forgo his normal morning nap and had very few complaints about it.  He also had a mild fever the whole time which made our already laid back guy even more chill.  He went on most of the rides and was happy in the stroller just watching the world go by.  At night he was so tired that all he wanted was to be put in that pack n play and if it didn't happen fast enough he would let you know!

 A few days before we left we actually took Whitney to the ER due to a really high fever and complaints about her right side.  We were so afraid it was her appendix.  I honestly thought our trip was going to be cancelled. Thankfully it was just a virus and she was so much better the next day. Tim was also sick the whole time.  He came home early from work two days hoping to shake it but couldn't.  He too had a fever and body aches the first two days.  But he pulled through and luckily we were all able to enjoy the trip together!  Phew that was a close one!

Ok, on to the good stuff.  We took so many pictures and video's so we could remember this trip to it's fullest.  Enjoy!

 Magical Disney

Express Bus Ride 

to Hotel

Art of Animation Hotel

 

 Practicing Animation

Skils

Hotel Lobby

Our hotel room was in the Cars section.

 Lion King 

Little Mermaid

Off to the Magic Kingdom

The Crystal Palace Dinner

Alladin's Magic Carpet Ride

Big Thunder Railroad

Whitney was super brave on went on a small rollercoaster.  She covered her ears the whole time.  Came off smiling but later said she didn't want to go on the fast one again.  When we came home she said it was her favorite ride!

It's a Small World

A family favorite.  Colin danced most of the ride.

Meeting some Princesses

This sums up the first Princess experience.  The kids much prefer the stuffed characters.  Not the talking, real life princesses.  Time to head home for the day!