Disney: Day 5

Friday was our last day at Disney. We quickly packed our things in the morning, dropped our luggage off at the front desk, and went to spend our last day in our favorite park: the Magic Kingdom, of course. Though we had to check out of the hotel, we still managed to make it in time for the opening ceremony:

See that lucky family next to Mickey Mouse? Yeah, they get to ride on the train to open the park with all of the characters. I'd really like to know how you get picked for that, because I would so love to do that next time.

Where else to begin but Fantasyland? We had to ride Cinderella's carousel one more time.


Don't you love the way Maddie is scrunching up her nose in that one? She's really having a good time. Dave's boss requested a picture on the teacups:

We rode the teacups, but just for the record we didn't do all of the extra spinning. Yes, we are wimps! Here's a random picture of Madeline. She may weigh less than 20 pounds, but look at those cheeks!

Emma driving her first car. She is being good and paying attention to the road:

We ran into another dance party, and had to get our groove on!




That is a lot of dance pictures, but she had the greatest time. We were there for at least 20 minutes before we tore her away with the promist of more rides. Here's some proof that I was there:

On the Walt Disney World Railroad the circles the park (Emma was hoping to see Mickey, since this was the train he rode in the morning):

After doing all of our favorite rides, we were wandering Main Street in search of something to eat when we ran into these guys:



About 30 seconds after we saw Tigger and Pooh it started to pour, so we decided to have a nice, leisurely, sit down lunch to use up our last meal credit. Around 4 it was time to head back to the hotel so we could catch the bus to the airport for our evening flight.

Now, a quick word about Madeline: for the most part, she did not nap the entire trip, except for Thursday when we went back to the hotel. Rarely she would pass out in a dark ride, but it was 10 minutes or less. Her default position the whole week was sucking on her fingers (which is what she does when she's tired) with her eyes open. Randomly her head would bob and her eyes would close, but she would pop back up within a minute and look around quickly, as if she were afraid she would miss something. But finally, on the bus back to the hotel, she conked out for an hour, and stayed out even as I transfered her off the bus and into the stroller. Like she knew we were going home and it was finally time to sleep:

A fitting end to a wonderful, and wonderfully exhausting, trip.

Disney World: Day 4

On Thursday we decided to check out Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM--I suppose a rift happened somewhere along the line?) In the past, it has not been my favorite park, though there are a few good rides. But we ended up having a great morning. The difference? We concentrated on the shows, specifically the ones for the preschool set. We started off at the Little Mermaid, which summarizes the movie using puppets and movie clips. As we left the Little Mermaid in search of the stroller, I noticed a Playhouse Disney show across the way. (Emma and Madeline are HUGE fans of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.) Of course it was our next stop.


We loved the show, especially how interactive it is (everyone sits on the floor, and kids are encouraged to dance, etc.) Apparently, though I was enjoying things too much to take too many pictures. We also caught the Broadway-esque Beauty and the Beast show. Though the outdoor theater was hot even at the first show of the day (which wasn't until 11:30 am), Emma sat rapt with attention watching the whole thing. Perhaps she is ready to become a patron of the local children's theater. Maddie, though, was more interested in the snacks. :)

Our one miss was Toy Story Mania. We neglected to grab fast passes at the beginning of the day, so the wait was 80(!) minutes, and then the second time we walked by it had broken down. Next time! Otherwise it was a great morning. After lunch, we went back to the hotel for naps, in anticipation of our evening plans. Here's Emma on a random horse as we exited the park:

We all took a nap and then took some time to check out the pool. Emma went down the waterslide all by herself (with one of us waiting to catch her at the bottom). Maddie LOVED the baby pool. It was only 6 inches deep and we didn't have to worry to much about her tendency to drown herself.


After a relaxing swim, we donned our Halloween costumes and went to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. The park is open late, the characters are dressed in costumes, and there are special parades and trick-or-treating. In Disney-fied costumes:

(I'm not pictured, but just in case you were wondering, I had Minnie Mouse ears on. :) The girls loved Daisy's princess dress:

Here is Madeline eating the spoils of trick-or-treating while we camped out for the parade. Please ignore the bruises on my daredevil climber:

I left my nice camera at home so I didn't have to worry about it getting lost or stolen or bumped on rides, so unfortunately the cool villain-style lighting on the castle behind Emma didn't come out in this picture:

Some dimly lit parade shots:


The party was fun, but alas, my crew just isn't up to wild partying yet. We pooped out after the parade. Perhaps next time we'll be up for a little midnight Splash Mountain. :)

Disney World: Day 3

We started off bright and early again. Here we are waiting at the bus stop: Madeline must know what's in store for her as she was eager to climb into her stroller seat.

We started the day at Animal Kingdom. First off was the Festival of the Lion King, which none of us had ever seen before. Both girls loved it! I didn't get any pictures though. While in Camp Minnie Mickey, we found a few friends:



We went on safari and on a few rides, but it was really hot and not a whole lot of animals were out. So we decided to cut our losses and head to Epcot. But first we ran into a fun dance party:


I used to think these dance parties/parades/etc were kind of silly, but Emma really enjoyed them and they ended up being one of our favorite parts about vacation!

We left Animal Kingdom, bid farewell to our friends Sarah and Adam, and went to Epcot for dinner and some more rides. Another busy, fun day that exhausted some members of our party:

Day 2: Princess Edition

As mentioned in my previous post, on our second morning at Disney we had reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table to eat breakfast with the princesses. As you can imagine, Emma was thrilled. She was dressed the part in a beautiful Sleeping Beauty dress (many thanks to Grandmacita for saving us the exorbitant prices they charge for princess dresses in the Disney parks). We were greeted by Cinderella herself:


Isn't that picture great? Emma looks the part of a princess but poor Madeline is a little out of it. Soon after we were escorted up to the actual restaurant where we were seated by a window overlooking Fantasyland. Breakfast was just okay, but who cared about the food? Emma was on the hunt for autographs and hugs. First up was Jasmine:

Maddie figured out the princess frenzy pretty quickly and was begging to get out of her high chair as each princess would come by. Next up was Aurora of Sleeping Beauty fame:



My personal favorite, Ariel:


Last was Belle:

After Belle came by they had a semi-cheesy little "wish on a star" ceremony. Emma didn't really know what that was all about, but she did get a pretty wand, so she was happy. We were really glad that we were able to score a reservation, and while the food was nothing special, both girls really enjoyed the experience, and we loved watching them beam as they talked to the princesses.

Disney: A Magical Day 2

We were up nice and early on Tuesday (surprisingly, my kids woke up EARLIER even though we were in an earlier time zone), ate a quick snack, and headed to the Magic Kingdom. We made it just in time for the ceremony that opens the park:

I didn't have the best vantage point, but Mickey and a lot of other characters ride out on the train to open the gates. It was very festive and got us excited for what lay ahead!

We beelined straight for Fantasy Land. We had a date at Cinderella's castle for a late breakfast, but first we rode:




We finished Fantasy Land in under an hour and headed to the castle to cavort with the princesses--that deserves its own post (perhaps tomorrow?).

After our breakfast, we met up with my friend Sarah, who was kind enough to meet up with us at Disney. Our destination was Adventureland. Emma really enjoyed the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. She watched half of the movie with Dave a few weeks ago (she got scared when the pirates attacked.)

Both girls (though only one is pictured) had fun running around with Sarah's little boy, Adam.

We were in the right place at the right time to recieve pirate training from Captain Jack Sparrow himself. Emma is 4th from the left, in a white t-shirt and pink and green striped shorts.


Dave taught Emma how to shoot:

We ran into Buzz Lightyear in Tomorrowland:

We also hit up a parade and saw a few of our favorite characters:


And we end day 2 with a picture of Madeline. Though she is not in nearly as many pictures, she was an active participant in almost all of our activities (minus a couple of roller coasters). Though she would get tired without naps, she was awake and well-behaved most of the time, probably because there was so much to look at. But, a few times, she was just so tired that we found her like this: