This is going to be a long one because I have a lot to say about our amazing vacation to Disney World. First of all, my parents did a really great thing and treated us to this week long vacation!!!! All we had to do was pay for our flight and they took care of everything else! How great is that!!!! The weather was amazing for the entire week (high in the mid to upper 70s and sunny). The crowds weren't bad and the lines were not long at all. We waited maybe 5-10 minutes at times and took advantage of using fast paces which was great! We had breakfast each morning at the house, had one counter service meal per day at the park and had dinner at the house a few nights when we made it back early enough.
I will do my best to go over a lot of the details from our trip and what made it so special!
We spent our first day at Epcot!
We got a single stroller (from Disney) and the kids took turns using it. It worked out well until about 10 long hours into our day and the kids were just too darn tired. Anyways, we walked in and quickly got to meet Daisy Duck and Goofy. We took a chance on this trip and didn't book a single character meal in hopes that we would be able to meet plenty of characters at the parks since it is a pretty slow time of year so we were happy to be able to meet some characters so easily and fast!
Some of the highlights from our day at Epcot: The kids loved Spaceship Earth and The Seas of Nemo & Friends. I was amazed at how funny Turtle Talk with Crush was. Lucas and I went on the less intense version of Mission Space and Bob did the more intense. Wow, even the less intense was too intense for me! Maelstrom was pretty cool. Our FAVORITE ride at Epcot was Soarin'!!! Test Tracks was closed so that was a bummer.
Later in the day we went all throughout the World Showcase. The kids got passports and visited the Kidcot Fun Stops (which they loved but it was a ton of work for me). Bob and my Dad REALLY loved getting a drink in all the countries. We tried to stay for the fireworks show but only made it a few minutes into the show and had to give up since the kids were exhausted from 12 long hours at the park. Overall we loved Epcot. It would have been fun to do the World Showcase without the kids and I wish we would have gone on Soarin' a 2nd time because it was just so cool.
Day 2 we spent at Magic Kingdom.
For the rest of our trip we upgraded to a double stroller. I know our kids are 5 and 7 and a little old for strollers but it sure made things easy to have a place to put all our stuff and not have to hear the kids complain about being tired.
Our first ride for the day was Space Mountain! The kids weren't so sure about it but Bob and I loved it. I guess we should have warned the kids a little better. We even got my Mom to ride it with us. We spent a lot of the day at Tomorrowland and loved the Buzz Lightyear ride (Lucas met Buzz), Speedway, Stitch's Great Escape (it scared Lucas), and PeopleMover. The kids loved the talking/dancing trash can there...actually they were pretty obsessed with it.
Our first ride for the day was Space Mountain! The kids weren't so sure about it but Bob and I loved it. I guess we should have warned the kids a little better. We even got my Mom to ride it with us. We spent a lot of the day at Tomorrowland and loved the Buzz Lightyear ride (Lucas met Buzz), Speedway, Stitch's Great Escape (it scared Lucas), and PeopleMover. The kids loved the talking/dancing trash can there...actually they were pretty obsessed with it.
We then went over to Adventureland and went on the Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Swiss Family Treehouse and The Magic Carpets of Aladdin. For some reason we weren't totally thrilled with Adventureland but of course still had a good time. We finished off the day in Frontierland. We loved Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the kids had a blast over at Tom Sawyer Island. We had a great day at Magic Kingdom...obviously it offers so much for the kids!
Here is a pic of our whole group in front of the castle. As you can tell, my 2 nephews are not fans of getting their picture taken!
The Christmas lights and the castle all lit up was just amazing!!!
We spent day 3 at Animal Kingdom. Our first ride was Dinosaur which was an awesome ride. We got to ride it twice since there was no line! It was one of my favorite rides!!! We went to the Finding Nemo-The Musical. It was great but it took me awhile to get over the fact that people were walking around holding and talking for the fish. Kinda strange but still a cool show. Next up was Expedition Everest. Lucas and Avery were both just barely 44 inches and boy were they happy they could go on this roller coaster but wow, this roller coaster is no joke. It was one of the best and craziest roller coasters I have ever been on. One of my favorite rides but wow did it make me feel a little sick! Some of the other rides and attractions we liked was the Kilimanjaro Safaris (so cool), It's Tough to be a Bug and the kids had an amazing time at The Boneyard (they could have stayed in there for hours).
Here is a pic of the kids in front of the tree at Animal Kingdom.
The 4 kids on the train.
We all REALLY enjoyed Mickey's Jingle Jungle Parade.
A highlight of our day at Magic Kingdom was meeting some characters. We saved it for the end of the day and the lines were pretty short. I am not sharing the pic yet of meeting Mickey since it is part of our Christmas cards that are being mailed out soon. Animal Kingdom was a great park and we really enjoyed our day!
On to day 4.....it was a BUST for me. I woke up in the middle of the night sick. Everyone else went to Hollywood Studios and I finally got myself out of bed and met up with them around 4pm even though I was still feeling pretty darn sick.
The kids got to meet some of their favorite characters......
From what Bob tells me, they really enjoyed the Indiana Jones stunt show, Star Tours (one of their favorites), the Muppet show, Honey I Shrunk the Kids Adventure, Lights Motors Action Stunt Show, the Toy Store ride, and The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow (didn't love this attraction). Bob was able to get the kids the courage to go on the Tower of Terror and they did well with it and since Addison is 48 inches tall now, she went on the Rock n Roller Coaster and loved it. We ended the night at the really great Fantasmic show!!!
Oh, but before we left we checked out the Osbonrne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. It was so cool and one of our favorite parts of our trip!!!
Our 5th and final day at the parks was spent at Magic Kingdom again.
We spent most of our day at Fantasyland and Liberty Square. We loved the Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan's Flight, It's a Small World (Bob and Lucas were not fans AT ALL), The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (it was just ok), and the Mickey's PhilharMagic show was pretty cool. The kids had zero interest in going on the Dumbo ride. All in all, the Fantasyland area was a little boring for the kids since they kinda seemed like rides more for younger kids. We did get to go on the new Little Mermaid ride in the new part which we really liked!
Since we had time, we went back again to Tomorrowland and went on Space Mountain again (the 2nd time went a little better for the kids), the Buzz ride and Speedway. We never did go to Monsters Inc (not sure why).
We then went to the Dream Come True Parade which was awesome. By then Addison was finally ready to meet her first princess. She feels like she is too old to like princesses but she was thrilled with meeting Merida (from Brave).
Here is a link to the house we stayed at. It was just a few miles away and it was a nice big and beautiful house.
Here is a pic of the room Addison and Lucas stayed in.....
As you can tell, we had a great time. We were at the parks by 9 or 9:30am everyday and stayed until pretty late most nights. We took advantage and got to see and do just about as much as possible. We very much appreciate my parents for taking us on this trip. We made some great memories. I am not sure if we will go back since we have so many places we want to take the kids one day but you never know.
