Our Disney Vacation - MK Day 3

We spent our last day at the Magic Kingdom again. We explored Tomorrowland, revisited some of our favorite rides, and met more characters. We also stayed and watched the evening light parade again. We had a really good day.

Danielle really liked Minnie's Country House. After Danielle asked me to take her picture again, the lady behind me commented on how nicely Danielle poses. She is a natural.

Riding the monorail to the Polynesian for a nice lunch.

Danielle tried the hula hoop but needs a bit more practice. She had fun.

Jasmine wasn't very friendly, but Aladdin really was. Danielle really liked him.

We had a really nice trip. Danielle is still drawing pictures of Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, and anyone else associated with Disney. Tyler will talk forever about riding Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, and the Test Track. It was a very memorable trip.

I took this picture in the van on the way home from the airport.

Our Disney Vacation - Epcot Center

Like our trip last year, the further into the week we got, the later we got around. A Disney vacation certainly isn't a relaxing one! Because we got around a little later than anticipated, we ran into more of a crowd than we expected.

When we got there, Ron & Tyler hurried over to the Test Track. Danielle and I waited in line to meet Mickey and friends. We met back up afterwards and rode Soarin' and did some other things. Danielle really enjoyed Spaceship Earth last year but they have refurbished it since then and she was less than impressed.

We didn't get to explore the World Showcase last year, so that was a nice treat. We enjoyed dinner at the casual Mexican restaurant. The kids had fun watching the ferry and chasing the birds.

Before leaving the park Tyler convinced Danielle to ride the Test Track with him. I trusted Ron's judgment (big mistake) and let her ride it. She was terrified...but this was the only thing that terrified her on this trip. Not bad!

Our Disney Vacation - MK Day 2

Day 2 at the Magic Kingdom was a big deal for Danielle. We decided to split up early so Danielle and I could wait in line to meet the princesses as soon as Toontown opened. After we met the princesses, Danielle boldly declared she wanted to meet the other characters. She has always been afraid of them, so this was certainly a milestone of sorts! So, we waited in line and she did it! She walked right up to Goofy and gave him a hug. After that, all she wanted to do was meet the characters. She and I waited in line to meet the various characters while Ron and Tyler rode the roller coasters and other "scary" rides. It worked out very well and ended up being a lot of fun.

Here are some pictures of Danielle and the various characters we met on Tuesday. I thought Belle didn't really look like Belle, but the rest were pretty good.

We watched the afternoon parade. The kids enjoyed the pre-parade activities (Duck, Duck, Donald in this picture). Jafar was pointing at Tyler.

Later in the afternoon I about tossed my cookies on the Tea Cup ride. Tyler thoroughly enjoyed making me dizzy.

We also watched Mickey's Philharmagic. It was good and very mild (but too loud, according to Danielle).

We enjoyed the Dreams Come True show before leaving the park that afternoon. It was a good day.

Our Disney Vacation - The Magic Kingdom

We spent a total of 3 days at The Magic Kingdom. We wanted to take our time and really enjoy everything, so we divided our activities across the 3 days. I used the same book and website Dad R used last year in planning our vacation, and once again it worked wonderfully! (The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and http://www.tourplans.com/) We only waited longer than 20 minutes for one ride (Soarin') on the entire trip, not just at the MK. We walked right onto several rides at the MK on the first day.

We got there shortly before the park opened. Right before they open the gates, they have a little show and several of the characters ride in on the train. It sounds kind of corny, but it really did get everyone excited.

We rode several rides and then Danielle and I stood in line to meet Ariel while the boys rode The Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder Mountain. On our way to meet the boys afterwards, we ran across Cinderella's stepmother and Anastasia & Drisella. We saw them last year but didn't actually get to meet them. They were fun. They thought Danielle's bow should stand straight up like theirs, so they bent it up for the picture.

This is why there are way more pictures of Danielle than Tyler. He was less than cooperative when it came to taking pictures.

We took a break in the afternoon and went back to the park for dinner & the light parade in the evening. Disney parades are always worth the wait! Before leaving home, I visited the $1 store and bought several packages of light up bracelets and necklaces. The kids entertained themselves with those while waiting for the parade to start and didn't seem too interested in the $15+ light up toys the street vendors were pushing. We had really good seats for the parade, and it seemed like several of the characters waved directly at Tyler or Danielle. Cinderella blew Tyler a kiss, and he giggled about that for quite awhile. The guy next to Tyler patted him on the back and made a big deal out of it, too. It was pretty funny.

There was a long wait for the bus after the fireworks. Here's another benefit of having a stroller! The kids didn't mind waiting one bit.

Our Disney Vacation - Animal Kingdom

We decided to take it easy the first full day we were there, so we picked a park we knew wouldn't fill our entire day. It was kind of a toss up between MGM (now Disney Studios) and the Animal Kingdom, but we thought there might be a bit more age appropriate activities for our kids at the Animal Kingdom. We tried to pick activities that we didn't experience before, and it actually worked out quite well.


(BTW, I couldn't find the clips to join 2 umbrella strollers, so we purchased a cheap double umbrella stroller for our trip. It cost around $30/day to rent a double stroller at the park. We paid $80 for this stroller and it held up wonderfully, despite our kids being over the weight limit. Although Ron was initially opposed to the idea of using a stroller, it really was a blessing. The kids weren't as tired, we could move around the parks quicker, and we didn't have to worry about losing them in the swelling crowds after the parades. Just an FYI for anyone who is debating taking a stroller to Disney.)

The first show we watched was Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends. The "cast member" asked Danielle to come up and bang the drum to call Pocahontas. It was very cute. She had to say her name and the state she's from, but I didn't catch that part. This video is from the second part. When she hit the drum, it was actually very loud. I don't know why you can't hear it at all on the video. It was a big deal that Danielle could stand up in front of so many people and talk into the microphone! I'm not sure she could/would have done that when we were there last year. She talked about getting to hit the drum the rest of the day. She was so excited about it.



Later on we watched the Flights of Wonder show and took the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch. After lunch we explored Dinoland. Tyler insisted on riding the Dinosaur ride that terrified him last year. He didn't find it nearly as frightening this time (meaning he didn't cry when he got off of it this time).

Later in the day we took the bus to Downtown Disney. This was something we didn't do last time we visited either. We enjoyed walking around and managed to find a nice Italian restaurant to eat at for dinner. The highlight, though, was the Lego store. It was packed with kids around Tyler's age, all wide-eyed and excited, just like Tyler. Tyler saved his souvenir money for the Lego store and opted to play with Legos rather than take an evening dip in the pool.
(All of these are made from Legos.)

Our Disney Vacation

We made it home last night after spending almost a week at Disney. We had a really nice time. Danielle was SO much fun this time. She was enchanted by everything. Age 4 is definitely the perfect age for a little girl to visit Disney. Tyler had a good time, too, but he was still recovering from a week's illness and just wasn't really himself the entire time.

We stayed at Disney's All-Star Movies Resort. It is considered one of their value resorts, and we had heard horror stories about their small rooms and the noise levels before we left. The room turned out to be just right for us, though, and our room faced away from the pools, so we never had a problem with noise. Our only real complaint was that the food at our resort was horrible, but we took Disney transportation to the other resorts when we didn't eat at the park, so that wasn't too much of an issue either.

We stayed in the Dalmatian section. Before leaving on the last day we explored the Toy Story section, too. It was a decent hotel for the money. If we could afford better the next time, though, we probably would stay some place that was connected to the parks via the monorail so we didn't have to rely on the Disney bus system.