Disney Vacation Day 5

We ate at Chef Mickey's during our last Disney vacation and decided that it needed to be on our list again this year.  I had a hard time getting reservations, but when an opening finally became available I snatched it up! We got up and headed to the Magic Kingdom so we could grab a ride on the Monorail over to the Contemporary Resort when the restaurant is.

The characters have a certain path they take around the restaurant, so you are supposed to keep an eye out if you head to the buffet.  We are always in our seats when one comes to our table.  For some reason we were skipped twice - once here and once at the Tusker House.  We were sitting at our table with autograph books out, and Goofy walked right past us. It was Mickey at the Tusker House.  In the end all of the characters found their way to our table and the kids have a book full of autographs.

For our second day at the Magic we headed straight for the fairies. We had to wait about 35 minutes, and while I am not a fan of waiting in long lines, the fairies do a great job interacting with the children and it's a fun experience.  This year we met Tinkerbelle and her new found sister, Periwinkle.

The girls were able to pick our their favorite rides for us to do again, but we added the race track onto our adventure today.  The girls were able to drive and they loved it.  Kayla, Brooke, and I were behind Macy and Marc. Macy was weaving all over the place, so we were very thankful for the guide line under the car that makes you stay on the track. ha! At one point I said something to Kayla about Macy's weaving (and not that Kayla was doing much better driving in a straight line) and when we look up at them Macy is leaning our the side of the car looking at us! No wonder she couldn't stay on the road!

We returned to the resort with three tired little girls, but we still had one more surprise up our sleeves for the evening...

Disney Vacation Day 4

The next day we found ourselves at Epcot. We had breakfast with the princesses and the girls were SO excited.

I know the girls don't care, but I am wishing I had packed some shoes other than their tennis shoes to wear with their princess dresses.  I just didn't want to keep up with another set of shoes after breakfast. Oh well!

 

Ariel is Brooke's favorite princess. She was in awe. :)

Just like her sisters a couple of years ago, Brooke had a special birthday cupcake delivered to her. She was completely caught off guard and loved being able to blow out her candle. Then she proceeded to only eat the sprinkles off of the cupcake.

The girls enjoyed searching out all of the hidden places to get a stamp in each country. Along the way we encountered some scary Vikings.

Meeting Mulan.

Visiting with Jasmine and Aladdin is always fun.

We stumbled upon Marie.

Visiting Canada for a family picture.

After dinner we had some time to kill before the fireworks show.  Since we went to Disney during their slowest season of the year the parks close earlier and they only do fireworks at the Magic Kingdom a couple times a week.  If we wanted to see a fireworks show we had to stay at Epcot until 9:30.  This was the latest night for the girls, but they were troopers. We spent some time riding the Nemo ride and chatting with Crush from the Nemo movie.  There is a decent aquarium area set up in the same building, so the girls were able to enjoy the sea creatures during our wait. They were even swallowed by a shark, but thankfully they are okay.

Brooke was so tired she fell asleep.  I don't think she squeezed a nap in this day so she was so tired.  So tired in fact that she fell asleep DURING the fire work show and slept until we got to the car. We couldn't believe that she could sleep through all that noise! And of course she was wide awake when we got back to our room.

Disney Vacation Day 3

We started our day at Animal Kingdom with a visit with Pocahontas. She is a very lovely lady. After spending a few minutes with her we headed to the Lion King show.  My pictures didn't turn out great because there is the lighting wasn't the greatest, but it's a great show.

We enjoyed lunch at the Tusker House with Mickey, Goofy,and Daisy.

 

The Kilimanjaro Safari is great because you can see so many animals up close. We really were this close to the hippo below. And we were able to see first hand a "hippo helicopter" as Chris and Amanda referred to it on their blog.

Sisters watching the parade.  Brooke was asleep, so she missed it.

Kayla enjoyed making a plan of what she wanted to do each day.  One of the things she wanted before we left the Animal Kingdom was to get a picture in front of the tree.

The Animal Kingdom closes earlier than the other parks, so we took this evening as a chance to visit Downtown Disney.  Kayla really wanted to eat at the Rainforest Cafe so we made reservations.  After dinner they went shopping to spend their money that had been burning a hole in their pocket since we arrived in Orlando. Kayla chose a stuffed Belle doll and a stencil kit. Macy chose a Minnie princess and a bracelet.  Brooke chose a Bambi and a bracelet. They are always so excited to pay with their own money. After picking out a Christmas ornament from Nini we headed back to our hotel for the night.

Disney Vacation Day 2

Hollywood Studios was another fun day for the girls.  While there aren't many rides, we did enjoy quite a few shows.  Kayla even said that she enjoyed the car stunt show the best. Marc was thrilled to hear that. ha!

Beauty and the Beast is always a fabulous production.

Indiana Jones stunt show

Brooke fell asleep during the car stunt show.  The LOUD car stunt show. Poor girl is used to her naps.  Macy was so excited to be holding her sleeping sister's hand.

My little Minnie Mouse.

We enjoyed the Fantasmic show. The scary parts don't seem to bother our kids. 

     

After Fantasmic we walked around the back area of the park where there were TONS of lights.  I was surprised, but thankful, to see the nativity as the first thing when you walked in. 

I have no idea what Macy is doing here, but I love it.  That's my girl!

Disney Vacation Day 1

We had a fabulous time at Disney World a couple of weeks ago. We went at a perfect time of year when it wasn't really crowded.  The lines were generally 20 minutes or less with many lines less than a 5 minute wait.  Can't beat that!  I have so many pictures to sort through, and I really don't have time for editing and cropping them right now.  Busy month!

Storytime with Belle in the new Fantasyland was super fun for the girls.  

 

 

We had the free dining plan with our vacation.  We didn't use this last time, and while I knew there would be a lot of food, I really had no idea. We opted to use most of our sit down service meals for character meals.  While the backgrounds in the pictures aren't quite as pretty when it is fellow diners, but it's a small price to pay for not having to wait in lines to see the characters. Our first meal was at the Crystal Palace.  The girls practiced their hula-hooping skills while we were waiting.

 

 

Can't pass up a carousel!

 

The Dumbo ride moved since we were there a few years ago.  Now they have a really cool waiting area and two dumbo rides to help speed up the waiting. 

 

The Barnstormer. I just love this picture of Kayla and Macy. Marc is telling the girls to hold their hands up and I am telling them to hold on tight and not let go.  Guess that's what a mama is supposed to say. ha!

We didn't ride the Toy Story ride last time, so we made sure to stop by this time.  I got so aggravated with Marc on this.   You have to shoot at these X's all around you.  There is also a lever that you use to turn your seat around to shoot more X's.  Marc would NOT leave that lever alone! As soon as I would get myself lined up he would whip me around. I told him I would not be riding that again with him. The second time we rode it I went with Kayla and Brooke. :)

And that wraps up our first day at Disney. The parks closed early most nights due to lower volume of people, so we pretty much stayed until park closing most nights (7-8PM). The girls did a great job with all the walking (and there were just a few stroller fights) and they slept well each night.