Disney World- Day Five!

Friday, September 9th: Animal Kingdom & Magic Kingdom

Happy birthday Becca! Yep, not only did our trip overlap Maggie's birthday, but Becca's as well. If I could've gotten a reservation at Cinderella's castle, I was going to surprise her, but just couldn't make it happen (you can tell I'm disappointed about this 'cause I keep mentioning it). She was happy just to be at Disney World, it's one of her favorite places. :)

Animal Kingdom
We didn't have any character meals this morning and everyone was pretty tired from the very busy week, we decided to start slow this morning. We ate in the room and let the kids play while Daniel slept in a little and got to the park around 10am. We headed straight for the safari, which was probably a mistake b/c it took so long, we could've done several things in the time it took us to do that. I think they were short on guides or something b/c we had to wait to leave on our safari and awhile in the vehicle when we finished. By this time, Daniel was hungry so we got lunch then went on the Everest ride. Again, Will was the only one tall enough, so we had to take turns riding.

Allie being an elephant. Soooo cute!!

Some cute pics of the kids playing while waiting for Daddy & Will to ride Everest:

Next we went to Dino Land and met up with the G family. The rides in that area were ok, so we didn't spend a ton of time there. By this point Daniel was in so much pain, he was ready to go back to the hotel. He was waiting to have a tooth pulled and we thought that was the source of the pain, but since then he discovered it was most likely TMJ. We decided to meet Pocahontas and then head back; the G family had done most everything they wanted and were tired so decided to leave early as well. I really wanted to see It's Tough to be a Bug and the Festival of the Lion King but maybe next time.

It was about 3:30 or so when we got back to our room and Daniel tried napping, but then got up to get something for the pain. Cian hung out in our room for awhile before S&B picked him up to head back to one of the parks- Becca's choice since it was her birthday and she was deciding between Epcot and Hollywood Studios. I think they may have went to both. Since we had park hoppers with our packages, we had the option to go to another park in the same day. There were a few more things we wanted to see and do at Magic Kingdom, so we decided to go back there.

Magic Kingdom, part 2
The rest was just what we needed! We went back to MK and did almost as much as the whole day we were there the first time and certainly more than at AK earlier that day. On Tuesday, Becca, the girls and I chose to do a character meet while the boys did something else, which turned out to be riding Dumbo and the Barnstormer. I was upset to miss these rides, particularly the Barnstormer b/c Jake loved it. I also missed Mickey's PhilharMagic, which I really wanted to see. These 3 things were first up and we accomplished all of them. Loved the PhilharMagic- that and Frozen were my two favorite shows.

We rode the Barnstormer several times, the line was short, so I was able to ride with Maggie and then Jake. Plus, I got to see the fireworks show while waiting for Daniel & Will to ride Space Mountain and then I rode it again with Will afterwards. We stumbled upon a dance party with the Incredibles (a very fun surprise), then rode the PeopleMover which was a relaxing way to end the day and get a view of the park plus inside Space Mountain, which I found really cool. I did want to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train again, but the wait was an hour and we couldn't get a fast pass.

With that, our day ended. We stayed until closing and didn't rush out, it was our last day after all. Tomorrow we head home and our- at least the kids'- very first trip to Disney is over. Just taking it all in. So very grateful we were able to take this trip, it was very enjoyable for us and the kids. Hard to believe, but I even heard Daniel say the words 'next time'. :)

Disney World- Day Four!

Thursday, September, 8th: Hollywood Studios

Though it's hard to rank the parks at Disney b/c they're all fun and have their own theme, I had a feeling Hollywood Studios would be one of my faves. I love movies and the idea of being on a movie lot- which is how the park is themed- seemed really cool to me. It's hard to top Magic Kingdom but I really loved the day we spent at Hollywood Studios. All in all, it seemed like we got the most "done" but still didn't seem rushed and there was so many fun things to do. Again, some of this can be attributed to our getting used to the routine.

Hollywood & Vine
Our final character meal was Disney Jr. Play n Dine and also our most successful. Probably b/c we had a better idea what to do, I didn't mix up the time and we didn't get bad info from the concierge. But we arrived in plenty of time to get into the park, despite the extra time for Daniel to be "randomly selected" for a security check (this happened every day except Epcot). I took some pics of the empty park, which was so cool and we headed to Hollywood & Vine, which was pretty close to the front of the park, so easy access as well. We all went through the buffet and had time to start eating before the characters started arriving, plus the spacing between each was plenty to continue eating. We met Sophia the First, Handy Manny, Doc McStuffins and Jake from the Neverland Pirates.

We got Allie to hug a character! Not a huge deal, just think it's cute she's warming up. :)

We spent plenty of time with each, got hugs, autographs and pictures. It was very efficient, but still enjoyable and the food was good. And what do you know, right as we were walking out of the restaurant, the G family was walking by and we all headed to the Jedi Training Academy sign ups so the kids could participate in the show later that day. See? Most successful character breakfast award. :)

Hollywood Studios
While Becca & I signed up the kids, Daniel & Steve ran off to ride the Star Tours. Our group went on this ride several times throughout the day. In fact, this may be the guys' favorite park just b/c there was so much Star Wars. We met Kylo Ren (who does not want hugs, much to Jake's disappointment) and Chewbacca (who loves hugs), plus we met Olaf after a very short wait. We rode Toy Story Mania twice, saw the March of the First Order, saw several clone troopers, but didn't get an official picture with them, watched the kids in the Jedi Training Academy, rode the Tower of Terror and the Rock n Roller Coaster which was so fun.

Jake really wanted a hug from Kylo Ren, who in turn told Jake the force was strong in him
(because he just kept trying for that hug)

 Jedi Training Academy Pics:

Tower of Terror...we're terrified!

We also saw several shows: Disney Jr. Live on stage (super cute), Beauty and the Beast (ok), Voyage of the Little Mermaid (very enjoyable) and For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration which was amazing! Definitely my favorite show we saw the whole trip. It was hilarious and the songs were great of course. So much fun. We pretty much got to do everything we wanted and a couple things more than once. We had some ice cream at the end of the evening, but did miss the fireworks b/c Daniel & Steve wanted to beat the crowds to the buses again.

Rock N Roller Coaster...classic pic of Will!

All in all, it seemed like we got the most "done" but still didn't seem rushed and there was so many fun things to do. Again, some of this can be attributed to our getting used to the routine. This was a super fun day. Seems like the days we spent most of our time with S&B, we got more done. They were good tour guides and since they know the lay of the land, were able to move us along to the highlights. I can't believe tomorrow is our last day!