We left our hotel around 9-9:15 and headed straight to the All Star Music resort where we'd spend the rest of the week! We finished check-in around 9:45, left our luggage and took a resort bus to Downtown Disney. Pictures along the way: trying to get all the kids together before leaving the hotel, arriving at Disney World!!! The kids were so excited, I captured a great video. Then onto our resort to check in and head out to enjoy our first day!
Since the meal plan was part of our package and we had plenty of credits- one per person for each day- I went ahead booked an 11:10 lunch at the T-Rex restaurant, so we headed straight there. While waiting to be called for our reservation, it started pouring rain! Steve & Becca told us to expect plenty of rain this time of year, so I brought all these ponchos for this very purpose but they were still packed up at the resort...
T-Rex was so much fun!! It's similar to the Rainforest Cafe but better in my opinion. Now, that could be attributed to vacation mode, but I liked the food better and the decor was so cool. Every so often the room got dark, thunder & lightning commenced and the dinosaurs started moving and growling. The kids loved it. As did I.
Above: Seeing the dinosaurs move and growl for the first time, complete with thunderstorm sound effects :) Below: Our meals come with a dessert so we used each of our dessert credits to get the chocolate extinction, it was delicious! Check out Allie digging in, ha!
After lunch, we walked around and did a little shopping before heading back to the resort to officially check in our room and unload everything.
We gave the kids souvenir bags- cinch sacks filled with Disney themed things I mostly bought at the dollar store like tissue packs, a toothbrush, glow sticks, candy, a little coin purse with spending money and their hats & sunglasses I got on clearance at the Disney store. The cinch sacks were an idea from a friend of mine so they could carry their hats & sunglasses plus water or gatorade and snacks like crackers & trail mix, all of which we traveled down with. I had no idea that the amount of food on the meal plan would negate the need for these. (We had so many snack credits left, we went home with a bag of treats). You live, you learn. :) I wanted to do these souvenirs so we didn't spend a mint getting things at the park. But we did give them some spending money to get one special souvenir from the park. And we bought a magnet and ornament for family souvenirs while at Downtown Disney. It was hard choosing from all those ornaments! They have a whole store with just Christmas ornaments!! Ornaments have been my souvenir of choice for several years now and most places you go, just a few to choose from, but not Disney.
So, after unloading and opening their bags, we headed out to the Ale House to meet my cousin, Ryan, who lives in Orlando. Dinner was fun and I'm glad we were able see Ryan and meet his girlfriend Selena, where I apparently showed my age. I said, "Selenas" which references the movie about the singer from the 90's who died at a young age. And Ryan's gf said, "yes, I usually have an idea about someone's age by that reference or Selena Gomez..." Pfffttt. Then back to the resort for a little late swimming and rest before our first big day at the parks!
I really enjoyed this day and am so glad we went a little early so we could spend some time at Downtown Disney. The day went by so fast! It's like one minute we were checking in before lunch then it was already time for dinner. Can't wait to start exploring the parks. :)
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