Enchanted? Who said anything about this TR being enchanted?*UPDATE*MNSSHP*3/13

[jen22984]

Cast of Characters:

Me – Jennifer: I’m a 26 year old Stay at Home Mom of 2 beautiful little girls and an Air Force wife of 7 ½ years to my wonderful husband. Some of my passions are baking, crafts, photography (now that I have an awesome camera), and planning Disney vacations! I went to Disneyworld once as a small child (at age 2), but became obsessed with any and all things Disney in the Spring of 2009. There was an awesome military ticket deal that coincided with the free dining promotion, so I thought we could definitely swing a short trip. That trip turned into a 7 night trip with my family, my parents, one of my sisters and her then-fiance. Our trip was, mostly, a magical time for everyone, but especially our 2 daughter, ages 2 and 1 years old. The trip was such a great time, we planned to go back as soon as possible, which we figured would be 2-3 years.

DH – Quentin: He’s a 29 year old Instructor in the Air Force. He’s a wonderful husband and the best daddy any little girl could have! His hobbies include working on cars, fishing, football, hockey, video games, playing with the girls, and spoiling all 3 of us! His responsibilities on this trip include: paying the bill, saying “yes dear,” and driving! He’s a kid at heart and loves Disney as much as the rest of us, although he might not admit it!

DD1 – Aryanna: She is a 3 year old DRAMA QUEEN! She loves anything princess and dress up! Her favorite princess is Cinderella! She thinks any vacation means going to Disneyworld and actually refers to Disneyworld as “Vacation” instead of Disney. She loves all roller coasters and can’t wait to be 40 inches to ride Everest!

DD2 – McKenna: She’s a total Daddy’s girl! She is a complete handful most of the time because she is so curious that she is ALWAYS into something! She is our little comedian, always doing or saying something to make us laugh! She is obsessed with Beauty & the Beast and Toy Story and will have one of the best moments in her young life during this trip!

Our Family

Back story of the trip
Our trip started off as a short 5 night stay, using the 4 day military ticket deal that was out. We had planned on going in the middle of August, as we knew we would be moving in September/October and wanted to have time afterwards to get everything ready for the move. At that point, we didn’t know exactly when or where we would be moving, just that DH was up for a PCS this fall. So as we were planning for this 5 night trip, my DH got word that he would be going to Mississippi for 5 months for work because of a move that was going on in the school house that he taught in. He would be leaving at the end of March and would not be back until the end of August. The girls and I went to Ohio to stay with my parents during that time because my younger sister was getting married in May and we weren’t sure if my DH would be able to make it with his work schedule.

So, with this temporary move for him & the girls & I being in Ohio, we decided to just put our house up for sale since we knew we were moving soon. We weren’t able to sell fast enough for our liking so we ended up renting it out. Now that we had no “home” to go back to in GA, we decided to see if we were going to have stay in a hotel for awhile, we might as well get back to planning our Disney trip for the beginning of September. We started looking at a 9 night trip. We planned to go September 3-12th, staying at Pop Century, on the Disney Dining Plan.

A few weeks later, my DH finally got his orders, we would be moving to California, leaving on September 20th! He was able to do most of his out-processing in Mississippi and only had 1 meeting he had to attend in GA before we moved. So, we looked into how much more it would cost to add as many days as we could without arriving earlier. DH’s final meeting was scheduled for the 16th, with the movers coming on the 17th, and us leaving on the 20th for California. We could add 3 nights for right around $300, including hotel, food, and park tickets, so it was a no-brainer. There was no way that we could pay for a hotel and food for our entire family for 3 nights for $300. Our trip was now set for September 3-15th. A few weeks later, we decided that we would leave on the 2nd and drive half way down to give us an extra park day and also do the first MNSSHP of the year!

Our plans now included 10 park days (11 counting MNSSHP) and 1 day at Sea World.

Pictures from our 2009 Trip:

Our entire group with Sorcerer Mickey

McKenna with DH and Drizilla (My mom made the girls dresses that matched the step-sisters and our friends’ daughter that was there at the same time as us, dressed as Cinderella for Cinderella’s Happily ever After dinner at 1900 Park Fare)

Aryanna and Prince Charming

McKenna mad that DH wouldn’t let us spin the Tea Cups faster

Aryanna LOVED the Mickey Waffles at Crystal Palace

Aryanna waiting for the Muppets 3D show

DH, the girls, and I with the characters from UP!

 

[jc040404]

I am sooo excited that you've finally started your TR! I can't wait to read all about your vacation. LOVE all the pics. That one of McKenna on the tea cups is hilarious!

 

[jen22984]

I am sooo excited that you've finally started your TR! I can't wait to read all about your vacation. LOVE all the pics. That one of McKenna on the tea cups is hilarious!

I've got plenty of pictures with McKenna with that face from last year's trip. We actually ended up buying her a Mr Potato Head shirt that said "Don't Make Me Put on My Angry Eyes!"

 

[jen22984]

Day 1

After DH got off work on September 2nd, we headed down to Jacksonville, FL. We ended up not getting in to the hotel until about 8:00pm, and we had planned on being there around 4pm! I attribute that to a certain 2 year old and 3 year old who often need to go potty at different time! I don’t doubt we stopped 15 times that day!

We woke around 7:00am on the 3rd, as that’s usually when the girls wake up. We ate a pretty decent breakfast at the hotel then headed on our way to the place where magic happens! This part of the trip was much more enjoyable! Only a couple of bathroom stops, and we arrived at Pop Century around 12:30pm. I took care of check in, while DH took the girls to potty. It was a quick process, as there was virtually no line and I had already done the online check-in the night before. We were given our 1st floor request, in the 90s building, room 8110.

After checking in, we decided that we would just eat lunch at the Pop Food court because the girls were starving! DH and I weren’t too hungry though, so we just got 2 meals and shared them between the 4 of us. Worked out perfectly! From there, we headed to our room. The girls and I had fun decorating our window & door with magnets and window clings that I had made prior to our trip, while DH brought our luggage to the room. We took a little while to kind of unpack and we were ready to head to the parks around 2pm. We didn’t have any big plans for the day because we knew we would need to leave early for our first ADR!

The girls and their door magnets (that didn’t all make it home with us)

And the window clings

The crowds were not as bad as I was expecting for Labor Day weekend & Free Dining.

DH took off to get FPs for Buzz Lightyear while the girls & I made our way to Fantasyland. Our first ride was a favorite of our last trip (well, for everyone but poor DH…he isn’t big on spinning)…..Mad Tea Party! The girls found it just as fun as the last trip and would end up naming it one of their favorites of this trip! It was listed as a 0 minute wait and we walked right on!

Next, we headed to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It showed a 10 minute wait, but we were on in about 4-5 minutes. From Pooh, we headed to Toon Town for another of Aryanna’s favorites from last year….Goofy’s Barnstormer! This year, McKenna was tall enough for it as well! The wait time was listed as 10 minutes, but we walked on 2 times in a row! After Barnstormer, Aryanna asked if we could ride the race cars, so Indy Speedway it was! I rode with Aryanna and DH rode with McKenna. Both of the girls wanted to steer and we all had a pretty jerky ride. McKenna ended up face planting into the steering wheel going around 1 curve and sported 3 bruises on her face for the first few days of our trip! I actually thought I had whiplash when I got off because from my neck all the way down my back hurt! After about 10 minutes though, the pain was gone. While we were in line for Speedway, I had noticed that the hairbands I always use in the girls’ hair were not holding up in the heat, 1 of them in each girls’ hair had snapped. Of course, I hadn’t thought to bring any extras into the parks so I went in search of some in a gift shop. Ten minutes and $8 later, we were the proud owners of a pack of elastic hairbands with Mickey heads on them! From there, we used our FPs for Buzz! There was no wait and we all had fun battling Zurg, despite our horrible scores! I never have figured out that ride, I can never tell which little red dot is mine! Aryanna had requested to ride Haunted Mansion next, so we headed back through Fantasyland towards HM. McKenna saw the carousel and just HAD to ride it though, so we made a pit stop, then we were back on track to HM.

When we got off the ride, Aryanna had another request – “to NEVER ride Haunted Mansion again!” She was NOT a fan at all! McKenna had fallen asleep in the stretching room and was still sleeping so we made the decision to just hope on the monorail and head over to the Grand Floridian for our dinner ADR. We knew we would be really early, but we also knew that McKenna needed her nap and figured we’d just relax in the lobby until it was time for us to join Cinderella & Prince Charming! We ended up checking in around 6:20 for our 7:00pm ADR. We were told it would be about 30 minutes, but we were seated in less than 5 minutes!

McKenna sporting her bruised face!

I have a feeling that 1900 Park Fare will be our first ADR for many more trips to WDW! It was the perfect start to our trip last year. We had a party of 9 and were seated at a huge table right beside where Cinderella & Prince Charming have their dance. It was the highlight of the night for the girls to get to dance with Cinderella. This night however, would not be THAT magical! We were seated in a side room towards the back. We still loved it though, especially the strawberry soup. We had a great waiter and saw all of the characters pretty quickly. McKenna was not digging the step-sisters or Lady Tremaine, she wouldn’t even get up to see them after Drizilla left, so we thought maybe it was a bad choice to do a lot of character meals.

Love this picture of Aryanna & Anastasia!

Then, as soon as she spotted Prince Charming her eyes lit up! She declared that she was “going to kiss Pence Charming!”

The most magical part of the night happened next! She gave him a HUGE hug and kiss and then stuck her foot out so he could see her “glass slipper.” It was just the cutest thing!

From dinner, we headed back to Pop Century for an early bedtime. McKenna laid claim to her “bed” and was not happy when she was told that she would be sleeping in the bed with her sister instead!

Nexy Up -- “Lion Kingdom” and a big first were in store for us on Day 2!

 

[jen22984]

Day 2
DH had been wanting to get back to Animal Kingdom since our trip last fall. We were only able to spend 1 day there last year and we didn’t see a whole lot of what we had wanted to. This trip we had planned 2 whole days and 1 half day to spend there. Aryanna was excited to go on the safari again as it was one of her favorites last year. She kept asking me to get out our planning folder so that I could show her what day we were going to “Lion Kingdom” so she could see the animals!

We woke again around 7:00am. After a quick breakfast of granola bars, we got showered and dressed for the day. We headed out to the bus stop for Animal Kingdom at around 8:15 and made it to AK in plenty of time to watch the opening show.

Leaving for Lion Kingdom!

On the bus

Waiting for the park to open, while DH took McKenna to the bathroom

Opening ceremony

Tree of Life

From there, the girls and I headed to Kilimanjaro Safari while DH ran to get FPs for Kali River Rapids. Not too much later, DH joined up with us and we got in the line for our 2 week long safari! The wait was not long at all, maybe 10 minutes? Because I had been trying to pack my park bag pretty light, I had just brought my point & shoot Olympus camera instead my big camera. This turned out to be a mistake! I had only had this camera for a few weeks and hadn’t had much time to really figure out the settings, therefore I didn’t get a lot of good pictures, even though we were able to see a lot of the animals up close on this ride. Home from our 2 week safari, we walked the Pangani Forest Exploration Trails. We saw the cutest baby gorilla, but somehow the pictures I took of it, got deleted or lost because I cant find them anywhere!

After that, we took the Wildlife Express Train up to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. We were able to see the doctors doing surgery on a duck to try to figure out why it hadn’t been gaining weight. We also ran into Rafiki himself, as well as Pocahontas and Jiminy Cricket!

Once again McKenna wasn’t too sure on the characters

But she finally came around to Jiminy Cricket!

Once we had seen all of the characters, we went outside to the Affection Section, where the girls loved being able to brush the goats. We even found one with a hidden Mickey shaved on his back!

We decided that it was time for lunch at this point. Our plan all along had been to go to Flame Tree Barbeque, as it was one of the best quick service meals we had last year. Sadly, it was closed the entire time of our trip so we had to find a new plan. We quickly decided that we would try the Yak & Yeti counter service. It was delicious! Again, we only ordered 2 meals and split them amongst all 4 of us because we had seen how big the serving size was. Even with ordering 2 meals, we had plenty leftover. Our last stop at AK would be Kali River Rapids. Neither of our girls would be tall enough for this ride (or so we thought) so we were just going to ride it quickly, using our FPs then leave for the girls to take their naps. As it turns out, Aryanna was tall enough! I could have sworn that it was 40” last year, but it was 38” so she was plenty tall enough. Sadly, McKenna missed it by about 1 inch! Aryanna was so excited to ride it. She rode once with DH while I hung out with McKenna on the bridge watching the monkeys. Then it was time for me to ride it with her! We had so much fun. She loved telling me all about her ride with Daddy while we were walking back the path to get on again. After this ride, she would declare that “Kayleigh’s River Rafts” was her new favorite ride!

It was about 1:00pm now, so we headed back to Pop so the girls could nap! We all ended up taking a nap, which would come in handy because we had planned a late night tonight to watch the fireworks. We woke up at around 3pm, changed clothes, and headed back to the bus stop. This time we were headed to Magic Kingdom!

 

[jen22984]

Day 2 - Continued
We had no plans and not a lot of time before we needed to get to dinner so we were just wandering around. We came upon a short line to meet Ariel & Prince Eric so we hopped in it. On our way to dinner, I had stopped to take a picture of something (I cant remember what it was) and my camera said that the memory card was not correctly formatted! WHAT?! I didn’t have another memory card with me, and I really needed one for the rest of the night so we headed out to find one in a gift shop on Main St. Sadly, I never did recover the pictures from that memory card so I have no pictures of the girls with Ariel & Eric.

We had a dinner ADR at Tony’s Town Square at 5:35. We checked in at around 5:15, and were seated at around 5:30. The girls didn’t mind the wait because they had the Lady & the Tramp movie playing (which was one of their new favorites) and a lot of coloring pages to keep them entertained. Dinner was great and the chocolate cheesecake was one of the best desserts I had all week!

McKenna was obsessed with the bone from DH’s lamb (at least I think it was lamb)! She tried to eat it for at least 15 minutes!

After dinner, we decided to headed over to ride the Magic Carpets. We had planned on riding it the day before, but the line was longer than the girls wanted to wait. After that, I had one request….to watch PhilharMagic! Its one of my favorites! McKenna didn’t remember watching it last year, so it was great seeing her reactions to everything!

Waiting in line for the Magic Carpets

First Magic Carpet ride

Then it was time to find snacks and a seat for the parade. We found a great spot, right in front of the Hall of Presidents and the girls made friends with the little boy sitting next to us, which passed the time really fast! We loved the MSEP!

From there we headed back over to Main Street to find a spot to watch the fireworks. We didn’t get a really good spot and Aryanna was getting cranky (their normal bedtime is 7:30pm and the fireworks didn’t start until 10pm so both girls were really tired)! She ended up falling asleep during the fireworks.

We headed back to Pop to go to bed as soon as the firework were over, but we had a long wait at the bus stop. We finally got on the 4th bus back and were in bed right around 11:45.

 

[jc040404]

Great updates, Jennifer!! LOVE McKenn'a sleeping spot. She's too funny! The moment with "Pence" Charming was too sweet. I loved how she held her glass slipper up to him!

I never realized they did anything special for opening at AK. What happened? I think we've only managed to get to that park early enough once and didn't see anything.

Sad about your memory card issues, but I'm glad that you didn't lose a bunch of pics. Hope you were able to see Ariel & Eric again!

Did you all see Spectro last year? I'm glad that MSEP is sticking around so that you got to see it, but I so wish it would go away already! I liked Spectro sooo much better, despite the song always getting stuck in my head!

Can't wait to read more about your trip!

 

[jen22984]

Great updates, Jennifer!! LOVE McKenn'a sleeping spot. She's too funny! The moment with "Pence" Charming was too sweet. I loved how she held her glass slipper up to him!

I never realized they did anything special for opening at AK. What happened? I think we've only managed to get to that park early enough once and didn't see anything.

Sad about your memory card issues, but I'm glad that you didn't lose a bunch of pics. Hope you were able to see Ariel & Eric again!

Did you all see Spectro last year? I'm glad that MSEP is sticking around so that you got to see it, but I so wish it would go away already! I liked Spectro sooo much better, despite the song always getting stuck in my head!

Can't wait to read more about your trip!

She absolutely loves Pence Charming! For the first few days after that, she would run around saying "he kissed my cheek momma, pence charming kissed my cheek!"

AK's opening isnt anything too exciting. They (Mickey, Minnie, & Pluto) just came through on that truck thing and talk about the adventure they are going to have today and then invite you to come with them. Then the park opens. The girls loved it though!

I am still hoping that I can recover those pictures! We did see Ariel again, but never Ariel & Eric together (except in the parade).

No, sadly we didnt see Spectro last year! Thats the rough thing with going with a lot of other people. Everyone else was always ready to go back to the hotel for the night. We only managed to see 1 nightime thing the entire trip (Illuminations). This time was much better because, even though the girls were still ready to go back, they were find ot just ride along in the stroller while we did other things if they were too tired.

 

[Dina Monster]

I'm on board! Hey Air Force family! My DH and I are both AD. We are in Tucson.....where it almost never rains! Nice TR so far. How come you guys didn't stay at The Shades of Green?

What place is it where you get to see meet Cindy's Step Family?

 

[jen22984]

I'm on board! Hey Air Force family! My DH and I are both AD. We are in Tucson.....where it almost never rains! Nice TR so far. How come you guys didn't stay at The Shades of Green?

What place is it where you get to see meet Cindy's Step Family?

Welcome!!! We have some AD AF friends stationed in Tucson, as well as some other friends that live in the area! We just PCSed to Vandenberg, we're liking it here so far!

We didnt stay at Shades of Green because we got a better price staying at Pop (and it included all of our meals). Plus, we stayed there last year with family and we really liked it!

We saw Lady Tremaine & the Step-sisters at Cinderella's Happily Ever After dinner at 1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridian resort. You can also see them in the Fairytale Garden in Magic Kingdom!

 

[jen22984]

Day 3

So far, each day Aryanna had asked us if we were going to get to ride the “toy story shooting ride” so today was that day! DH and I got up at 6:45 and got completely ready before we woke the girls around 7:30. We got them dressed and headed to the bus stop with granola bars in hand. We wanted to be early to DHS so we could get TSM FPs and ride early in the day because we had planned to leave the park around noon, to go back and swim or take naps.

I believe it was right around 8:30 when we arrived at DHS. After the opening show, DH headed to get us all TSM FPs while I took the girls over towards the Playhouse Disney show. I dealt with a lot of attitude from Aryanna while we were in line, because she didn’t want to stand in line. We hadn’t really had to stand in many long lines so far, so she wasn’t really used to it. Soon enough, DH was back with our FPs and they opened the doors for the show. We got seats right at the front, towards the middle-left hand side. The show was a huge hit with McKenna (because she didn’t remember it from last year). Aryanna liked it, but not as much as she had the first time she saw it. After the show, we got in line for character autographs. Annie & Leo were out, as well as Handy Manny.

Our plan had been to go see Voyage of the Little Mermaid after we were done there, but it was down. We waited in the little gift shop for a few minutes to see if it was going to start up soon. Finally, it did! When the show was over, we saw June & Quincy were out and headed over to get their autographs. The girls were starting to get hungry now, so we headed to Pizza Planet for an early lunch.

It wasn’t quite time for our TSM fast passes and we didn’t know what to do next. We looked over the map and decided that it would be a good time to head over and watch the Beauty & the Beast show. This was one of my favorites last year and I knew the girls would like it because it had been their favorite movie lately. It was a hit! McKenna sat mesmerized the entire show! She had been in love with the beast all summer so she was thrilled to see him! I don’t have any pictures because at this point, my camera battery was almost dead because I forgot to charge it the night before.

Then, it was finally almost time for our TSM FPs!!! When we got over there, there were still FPs available so we grabbed another set because we had planned on coming back that evening for Fantasmic! While we waited the last few minutes before we could use our FPs, Aryanna took the camera and took some pictures of the TSM building.

Some of the pictures that Aryanna took

McKenna on TSM

After TSM, we headed to the animation building because the girls wanted to meet Lotso. We also saw Mr. Incredible & Frozone because their lines were short and we didn’t meet them last year.

At this point, it was pasted the time we had planned to leave and we didn’t think we’d have time to go back to the hotel for naps, so we decided to just head to Epcot and just relax while the girls napped in the stroller. We took the boat from DHS to the International Gateway at Epcot. It was a nice leisurely ride and McKenna got a great nap. She stayed asleep for probably 30 minutes after we got to Epcot, but Aryanna never fell asleep. When McKenna woke up, we started to head towards Japan because we had a 4:10 dinner reservation (again, early because we had planned to see Fantasmic that night and wanted to make sure we were back to DHS early). On the way towards Japan, we saw some of the girls favorite characters (what I am saying, they all seem to be there favorites as some point). They saw Sleeping Beauty and while we were in line, we met another Aryanna! She was the first Aryanna we ever met, since then we’ve had a family member name their daughter Aryanna as well. Then we saw Marie. And finally, the Beast!! McKenna was just in awe! She couldn’t take her eyes off of him!

We got to Teppan Edo right around 3:45 and were seated almost right away. We loved this meal last year, and it was just as good this year. The only thing was that it took forever for our chef to come out because one of the ladies that was seated at our table didn’t understand what she could & couldn’t get with the DDP. By the time our food was done, Aryanna took 2 bites and was falling asleep. So, I spent the rest of dinner trying to eat while holding a sleeping 3 year old! Not fun!

When dinner was over, we decided that we just didn’t feel like staying up late for Fantasmic. Since Aryanna was sleeping in the stroller, I took a little time and got 2 pearls from the pick a pearl place. Then, we decided just to go back to Pop. We went swimming for awhile and then went to bed early (around 9pm).

 

[jc040404]

Love Aryanna's pics!

Seeing McKenna sitting on the TSM ride just made me feel like a bad mom. I always hold Blake! She does okay alone on there? I think I might be treating my baby too much like a baby.

Looks like you had a great day, even if you did miss out on Fantasmic. It's so crazy to me that McKenna loves Beast as much as she does. My guys were both afraid of him!

 

[jen22984]

Love Aryanna's pics!

Seeing McKenna sitting on the TSM ride just made me feel like a bad mom. I always hold Blake! She does okay alone on there? I think I might be treating my baby too much like a baby.

Looks like you had a great day, even if you did miss out on Fantasmic. It's so crazy to me that McKenna loves Beast as much as she does. My guys were both afraid of him!

Yep, she does fine sitting there. I never even thought to hold her, she is so into being a BIG GIRL. The first time we rode this year, she walked in, sat down, and tried to pull the lap bar down herself! I cant really think of any rides that we held her on this year (except the carousel). She doesnt do well playing the game as far as scoring goes, but she has fun!

We really did have a great day! I really wish that we could come back soon, but I know it will be awhile now that we are so far away! Blake & Andrew are going to be so grown up before we see them again....unless of course you guys NEED to visit Disneyland (which you do)!

 

[jen22984]

Day 4 - Part 1

We had a super early morning this day. DH & I were up around 6:10 and we woke the girls around 6:45. Today was one of the days they had been waiting for. We were having breakfast with the PRINCESSES!!! The girls were beautiful in the dresses that “Sleeping Beauty” had left for them the night before.

We left our room at 7:10 and were at the bus stop by 7:15. We had planned to be there early because we did NOT want to be late for our ADR at Akershus!!! At the bus stop, we waited and waited and waited some more! By the time an EPCOT bus came at 7:50, there had been 7 buses for Magic Kingdom, 4 buses for DHS, and 3 buses for Animal Kingdom!!! We were not going to make it!

The girls waiting for an EPCOT bus

By the time we got to Akershus, we were about 10 minutes late for our ADR but we were still seated in the first seating.

We got a nice little table on the left hand side a little past the food line, over by the window. It was the perfect spot in my opinion! We were the 3rd or 4th stop for the princesses once they came out of the little side door. The food was normal buffet choices, the girls each had their own favorite. Aryanna loved the bacon (as she always does) and McKenna loved the fresh fruit! Soon enough, we had met all of the princesses and finished our meal. It was time to head out and ride some rides!

DH headed over to Test Track to grab a FP because he was the only one that wanted to ride it. I took the girls and headed to Soarin’ to grab 2 FPs. On the way there, the girls saw all of the characters in the Character Spot so I promised them that we would come back as soon as we got the FPs. The line wasn’t too long once we made it back to see the characters. The girls loved seeing them all, especially Minnie & Goofy!

The girls dancing together

From there, we headed to Nemo! The girls absolutely LOVE the birds that say “Mine, Mine, Mine!” They go crazy whenever they hear them! When we got out of our clam mobiles, Turtle Talk was getting ready to start so we decided to go there. McKenna ended up getting fussy and DH took her out of the show early. Aryanna, however, was so intrigued! She got called upon to ask Crush a question, but blanked. Later she told me she wanted to tell him she had a butterfly necklace.

It was time for our Soarin’ fast passes, so we headed in to take our flight to CA! The girls were not tall enough so we had to take turns. The standy by line was only 30 minutes, so we had figured it wouldn’t be quite as long for the FP line. The girls and I found a seat on a bench to wait while DH rode, then the plan was I would ride next. Over an hour later, DH comes out! The girls were grumpy because they wanted to ride something, so I didn’t take a turn. Instead, we headed over to Living with the Land. The line was long, but it moved really fast! The girls love any boat ride, so it was a hit!

McKenna getting measured for Soarin’, we knew she was too short but she insisted on trying!

Daddy & Kenna in line for Living with the Land…Love this picture!

 

[jen22984]

Day 4 - Part 2

After Living with the Land, the girls decided they were too hot in their princess dresses so we got them changed. When we came out of the bathroom, Chip N Dale were out so we hopped in line to see them. Then we headed to Innoventions to get out of the heat while DH went to ride TT. Both girls thought that the Velcro frogs were the best thing ever and we spent a good 45 minutes in there!

The girls were really ready for naps at this point (probably more than ready since they were up alittle earlier than normal) so we headed back to Pop for naptime!

After we all had a good nap, we headed down to DTD for alittle shopping and dinner. We ate at Earl of Sandwich and I have to say it was AMAZING!!! I was really hoping that we would make it back there this trip, but we didn’t! When we were done eating, we decided to head back to Pop and go for a swim. We wanted to be at MK early the next morning so we needed to go to bed a little early!

 

[jc040404]

What a great day!! LOVE the pic of Aryanna with Cinderella. Love the pic of the girls dancing and that last one with McKenna and Quentin.. okay, maybe I just love all your pics!

The bus business sounds awful. I don't think we'll ever bother with those things at all! Glad you didn't have any trouble with breakfast when you finally made it there.

And frog room = super evil. The boys love it, but I can't seem to go a day without getting a piece of velcro frog stuck to my sock around here now!

What'd you get at Earl of Sandwich? I need more dining details! I'm trying to break us out of our WDW food routine.

 

[jen22984]

What a great day!! LOVE the pic of Aryanna with Cinderella. Love the pic of the girls dancing and that last one with McKenna and Quentin.. okay, maybe I just love all your pics!

The bus business sounds awful. I don't think we'll ever bother with those things at all! Glad you didn't have any trouble with breakfast when you finally made it there.

And frog room = super evil. The boys love it, but I can't seem to go a day without getting a piece of velcro frog stuck to my sock around here now!

What'd you get at Earl of Sandwich? I need more dining details! I'm trying to break us out of our WDW food routine.

Belive it or not the buses werent that bad. We only had problems with EPCOT buses, 2 times out of our 12 day trip. I was so frustrated though! Sometimes we did just drive though (just a few) because it was easier!

I agree with the velcro frogs! They are everywhere here too!

I got The All American - (roast turkey, buttermilk ranch, cranberries, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, and buttermilk Ranch) I didnt think I would like the cranberries but I did! It was really delicious! Quentin got the Hawaiian BBQ - (ham, grilled chicken, Hawaiian BBQ sauce, Swiss cheese and pineapple). He said it was good but I didnt try it. I'm not sure what the girls got? I thought it was ham & cheese, but I dont see that on the kids menu?

 

[jen22984]

Day 5

Day 5, found us back at Magic Kingdom! We had wanted to be there for rope drop so we were up around 7, however, the girls were not so perky this morning and we didn’t get out of the room until about 8:30 and didn’t make it to MK until about 9:05 so we missed rope drop. We weren’t too upset, we’d be back a few more morning this trip and we’d just try to make RD another day! We stopped for a few minutes to take some pictures of the Halloween decorations.

Then made another stop to take another picture of the Castle. My plan was to get a couple really great shots of the castle to use as decoration in the girls’ bedroom at our new house. I probably took 500 pictures of the castle over 12 days!

I just really liked these guys!

The girls wanted to head to the Tea Cups first, so we headed over for a spin on those while DH headed over to get us FP for Peter Pan. When we got over to them, McKenna changed her mind, she wanted to meet Alice & White Rabbit first! McKenna was so excited to see them and kept pointing to where they were at on her shirt. Then, we hopped on for our ride! I really think that those tea cups were the ride we rode the most during our trip! The girls just love spinning them!

We headed to Winnie the Pooh next, for a ride through the Hundred Acre Wood. It was a great ride as always! Then the skies started to look like this:

So we headed inside for another chance to watch PhilharMagic! We sat beside a couple who had never seen the show before. When it was over the commented to us on how well behaved our girls were in the show and also that they loved watching them react to the 3D images!

It was now time for our FPs for Peter Pan. The girls didn’t really have much to say about the ride, because they were too busy looking at their shoes (that they realized, glowed under the lights). The girls decided they wanted to ride Snow White’s Scary Adventures next, but on the way over there, we saw Peter Pan and Wendy out signing autographs so we jumped in line to meet them first.

Then we took a quick ride on the carousel before we headed to Cosmic Ray’s for lunch. I think we just hung around there for awhile, maybe rode Tea Cups again. The next thing in my notes is the parade so I know we wasted time doing something, but I’m not sure what! But soon enough we were watching some of our favorite characters in the parade!

After the parade, we headed over to watch Storytime with Belle. It would be ending during our trip and we missed it last year so we really wanted to make sure it we were able to see it on this trip. The girls loved it, but Aryanna was a little sad that she wasn’t picked to participate.

When it was over, we decided that it was naptime.

 

[jen22984]

Day 5 – Part 2

The girls were starting to get grumpy, so we headed over to our favorite, in park, nap place. Innoventions! McKenna fell asleep on the way to the monorail and Aryanna fell asleep shortly after going through the turnstiles at Epcot (she was making herself stay awake so she could use her ticket and go through). They napped for awhile in Innoventions while DH & I just sat and relaxed. It was nice.

Soon enough, it was getting close to our ADR time, but the girls were still sleeping. We decided to take the boat across the World Showcase lagoon. The Canada stop was closed, so we got on at Mexico and enjoyed the ride over to Germany. The girls were STILL asleep when we got to Tutto Italia! I checked in alittle before 6pm for our 6:05 reservation. They were ready for us right away, so I went outside to wake the girls. McKenna was easy to wake up but Aryanna was a grump! She was not ready to wake up. We had a wonderful dinner….one of the best of our trip!

After dinner, we were just hanging around to watch Illuminations. We needed to pass alittle time before it was time to find seats. The posted wait time for Soarin’ was only 15 minutes, so I jumped in line for that while DH took the girls on Nemo again. Once we met up afterwards, we headed out to find a seat.

We ended up getting a pretty good seat between the 2 stores at the front of the World Showcase lagoon. We had a lot of time still before they started so I looked around in the shops for a little bit while the girls did a lot of this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

I’m sure they were quite entertaining to the people around us! Soon the show started and the girls were in aww! They just love fireworks (so much so that last night while trick or treating Aryanna kept asking when the fireworks were going to start!). When they were over, we headed back to the bus stop and back to Pop so we could head to bed.

We would be sleeping in the next morning for the first time on our trip….Or would we?

 

[jc040404]

Thanks for the Earl of Sandwich info! I don't think I'd go for cranberries, but that sounds like something John likes to make after thanksgiving. I reeeeally need to plan a DTD day. We finally managed to stop over on this year, but it was just to run into the World of Disney store to not find what I was looking for and leave. Someday..


Another awesome day!! I love how McKenna pointed out the characters on her shirt. So cute!!

Too bad that Aryanna didn't get picked at Belle's show. Don't let her forget how many times Crush wanted to talk to her though! Andrew's been dying to ask that turtle something.. anything! He's never been chosen though.

I love that Aryanna asked when the fireworks started during trick or treat! That so sounds like something my guys would do.

I'm going to guess that you didn't actually sleep in.. but I can't wait to find out what you did next!