We're touring Disney like a 3 year old (2TRs in 1!)- UPDATE 5/18 pg. 46

The Breakfast at Tusker House always looks so good, but I definitely agree that it is a pain they won't add photos from most of the character meals to your photopass

I love how happy your DD always is to see the characters, she is such a cutie:goodvibes
 
Yay for Tusker House! It really is a nice place to eat. And that juice is SO good!

Aw..I just love all the pics with your little one and all the characters she got to meet. But my favorites? The ones with Chip 'n Dale. She just looks like she was having a ball!
 
Seriously great character mojo!

I have always wanted to try Donald's breakfast at the TH. It looks like a lot of fun!
 
Awesome pictures! :goodvibes your daughter is such a inspiration
it would be great if everyone would have that carefree attitude like
when we were younger!! :) I can't wait to hear more about your
trip!! And I say you seen more characters before leaving AK!! ;)
 

Aww great update!

Your Tusker House pics have me so excited to be having breakfast there later THIS MONTH :cool1:

As for the little one making her way to the front...well that's not all bad. Being assertive will be an asset as she gets older :thumbsup2

As always, the pictures of her are adorable. Definitely among the cutest kiddos on the Dis :cutie:

Aww, thanks! We think she's pretty cute too! ;)

Ooh, that juice will taste so good in the warm weather!

We had an ongoing joke about how she always managed to scoot her way up to the front of the parade lines to be right next to a character. Too bad she is not assertive at other time, only when Disney characters are involved.


You are lucky..my DD5 still wakes at 6 no later than 6:30 a.m. even on the weekends. :eek:..she starts kindergarten in September, watch then she will try to sleep late:laughing:

Love the pics of her with all the characters but especially Chip & Dale. They are so much fun. I am glad you mentioned that the pics with Donald at Tusker House are not included with the prepaid CD.. We will be doing Tusker House this visit and are excited..:banana: never been there before either.

Well, she only seems to wake up at her normal early time when I want to sleep in and has a knack for sleeping in on the times that we are counting on her waking up early. Of course.

Yes, I wish I had known that not all of the character meal PP pics are included with the prepaid cd. We had gotten confused because the princess dinner at Akershus includes that picture with Belle. :confused3

We really enjoyed the Tusker house breakfast. I thought there were a lot of options and of course, loved the juice! :thumbsup2


Oh, the juice alone is worth going to Tusker House for, so yummy!! Glad you guys enjoyed it. I love the pictures of your DD stading with her autograph book and waiting for the next character to come :goodvibes I think it's so great that she enjoys them so much.

The Chip and Dale pictures are beyond adorable, we've always had good interaction with them too.

I know! The juice is so good! I tried out a simliar juice here that I found in the amrket, but it wasn't the same. Must be the disney atmosphere too.

She enjoys every character and is already naming all the characters that she wants to meet this month. Too bad we are only going to be there one day and top on her list.....Rapunzel. I am going to need some serious pixie dust to get that to happen.


Great character pics! I also have a special fondness for Chip and Dale. When DBF was pushing me around the parks when I had to use the wheelchair, C&D came randomly up to give me high-fives (not once, but twice during our trip!). It was very sweet and is one of those nice Disney memories :goodvibes.

Yes, I always think Chip & Dale are cute and fun to meet with. That sounds like a nice moment yourself! I would have been grinning if that had been me.
 
Haha, I used to sleep like your munchkin too and end up in the weirdest positions. In the middle of one night, I woke up with one of the threads from my comforter wrapped around my toe. It was wrapped in such a way that I couldn't undo it, and my mom had to get up to do it for me. She was like, "How in the WORLD did this happen?!?" It was really tight! I used to always wake up on the floor too because I fell off my bed often. Haha, eventually I'd wake up as I was almost about to fall. Other times, I'd be like, "Just embrace it ..." and I'd grab a blanket on my way down.

I've never eaten at a Minado ... not yet! A lot of my friends have, but I'm nervous about that because I don't like the pressure! I recently went to Sushi Village for a friend's birthday party. This buffet required checking things off on a list, and the stuff was brought to the table. There was sashimi on it, so what we should have done was go all out on that! But my side of the table really likes rolls too, so we got full on rice (but we did order a plate of sashimi afterwards though!).

YES, Maleficent is so scary now because of KK. I didn't like her beforehand either, but now it's terrifying! Part of me wants to go up to her in the parks though and take a picture with her with a scared look (that won't be too difficult to do!). I wonder if the CM would know what's going on if people asked her things regarding KK.

How cute that your DD wanted a picture with the Ariel and Eric!!!

I must still be a little kid because I like bubbles too! When I do the dishes, I try to squeeze the dish soap bottle to get a bubble to come out and float in the air. If I'm with someone, we watch it until it pops and then we go, "Aww ..."

I could totally get a haircut at WDW next year! I know it's not healthy, but I only cut my hair every 2 years to donate (I know it's supposed to be trimmed constantly, but I don't really get split ends like I used to when I was in HS). The following year is a cut year for me, but I need my hair long for the wedding. My mom was like, "Cut it the day after on Sunday and then leave for your honeymoon on Monday." Haha, I could totally have them cut it there although what I'd do with the hair all day long is beyond me ... that'd be weird! Do they only cut dry hair there?

I love how the characters don't seem to think twice about inappropriate hand positions. They're probably so used to it especially with the size of most of the people they take pictures with! Plus, since the kids don't even realize it, I like that the CMs don't point it out or move the hands because then it would draw attention to it.

LOVE the picture of your DD waving as the parades goes by not just because of her expression but because of your husband's expression too!

I'm so glad you liked Flying Fish! It's one of the possible places we might want to eat for our Disneymoon. We know we won't really get a chance to eat at all these places later on, so we want to enjoy it now.

How nice to have a hot chocolate to go! Makes sense! I don't remember it being that cold when we were there, and that was only a week later, right? Never mind, I lied. Haha, I had my heavy hoodie on at MK!

Haha, your "They are just so cute and snuggly looking. Who could be afraid of those two?" comment about Thumper and his girlfriend made me laugh because I was thinking, "ME!" And that means I, of course, would be intimidated by Brer Bear! Howard and I have an inside joke about him now though. It literally started on Saturday when we heard a song at church (some of our dancers in our coffeehouse were taking a break) rapper sounded like Brer Bear! It'd be hilarious if we could find him for a picture, but I totally might chicken out. He is rather cute though!

Hi Rachel! You get your own reply since it's so long! ;)

I totally love your story about you falling off the bed all the time as a kid. I used to share a room with my sister and she used to fall out all the time, too. I would always wake up because I would hear the thud but she would still be asleep on the floor. :rotfl: and she never seemed to injure herself either. The one time I fell out of bed, I scraped my back up on a nearby kid chair. Go figure.

We enjoy Minado every once in a while, but will usually go during lunch because otherwise it is twice as much in cost. And then I feel obligated to try to each that much when I am there. And you definitely get full on the rice and they keep an eye on your plates to make sure you aren't wasting the rice. youw ill get charged a fee if you leave too much food on your plate( i.e. are too wasteful). Although dinner may offer sashimi ?:confused3

oh, Maleficient would totally freak me out to see her in person now. I have never seen her out and about, but have never been to the parks during a special even either. The only "villians" I have seen out are Captain Hook and the Queen of Hearts.

There is a phone number for harmony barbershop, so maybe you could call and ask them if they can do the Locks for Love thing? Oh, and they did wet her hair before they cut it. I don't think I posted all the pics of the haircut. Just the highlights.

Haha, I totally forgot about your rabbit phobia! How funny. I guess you wouldn't find them all cuddly then. I hope the pictures didn't traumatize you!
 
The Breakfast at Tusker House always looks so good, but I definitely agree that it is a pain they won't add photos from most of the character meals to your photopass

I love how happy your DD always is to see the characters, she is such a cutie:goodvibes

aw, thanks. She does get so excited to meet the characters. She also continues to talk about it all the time at home. People who say 2/3 years old is too young are wrong. She totally remembers her favorite moments and interactions!

We were confused about the TH breakfas photo op since the one at Akershus is included in you PP.


Yay for Tusker House! It really is a nice place to eat. And that juice is SO good!

Aw..I just love all the pics with your little one and all the characters she got to meet. But my favorites? The ones with Chip 'n Dale. She just looks like she was having a ball!

hi Tink! We enjoyed the TH breakfast and I like that you are usually full for so long after the character breakfasts. I could definitely drink a lot of that juice!

She was eating up all of the interactions. She loved that they noticed her sparkly Minnie Mouse sweatshirt because she loves it herself!


Seriously great character mojo!

I have always wanted to try Donald's breakfast at the TH. It looks like a lot of fun!

Yes, we got lucky with some of the character lines. And she also has eagle eyes and can spot a character a mile a way.

the breakfast was fun and delicious. There was more offered there than at the Hollywood & Vine Playhouse breakfast.


Awesome pictures! :goodvibes your daughter is such a inspiration
it would be great if everyone would have that carefree attitude like
when we were younger!! :) I can't wait to hear more about your
trip!! And I say you seen more characters before leaving AK!! ;)

You may be right about seeing more characters before we left AK. ;)

She is so totally happy and in her element at Disney that you just can't help but smile around her, at least we can't. Like I said, we are also extremely lucky that we have been able to make a few trips to Disney so we have the luxury of not going completely commando in the parks.

The summer has been busy but I hope to get another update in soon.
 
Once we finally made our way out of Camp Minnie Mickey, we decided it was some time to see some attractions. Our last trip, we were able to see the Lion King show and thoroughly enjoyed it. However, we have never seen the Finding Nemo show so we decided to make that our next stop instead of revisiting the Festival of the Lion King.

We left Camp Minnie Mickey and headed over to Dinoland, USA. We didn’t get too far in our walk before our little girl begged us to stop. What do you think caught her eye? Of course, it was another character friend! Pocahontas was out with her little creature friend Meeko.

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I had a page all set for Pocahontas, but I think Meeko had to use a blank page. I hope he was okay with that.

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I love that she is so excited to see Pocahontas but has never seen the movie or heard the story. Her only association with Pocahontas? She hears her songs on our Disney cd in the car.

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Meeko got a nice big hug.

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I guess she wanted to stick by Meeko for a little bit as Pocahontas worked on the book.

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Quick photo with Pocahontas while Meeko worked on his name.

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These animals are just so clever, able to stand on two legs and write their names!

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We finally made our way over to Dinoland, USA and just made it into the next show. The timing was perfect. We got great seats and didn’t have to wait too long. I didn’t get a chance to take any photos in the auditorium as our little munchkin was taking up space on my lap. It was fun to look for Nemo in the bubble walls on either side of the stage though. What a great way to help pass the time waiting for the show to start!

Like many of the other Disney shows we have seen, we enjoyed Finding Nemo. I have to admit that I still found it a bit hard to forget about the people moving around the puppets though. If you’ve never seen it and liked the movie, I think it’s a great show.

After we left the auditorium, we walked around Dinoland a bit. We came across the Tricera-top spin and our little munchkin surprised us by saying she would like to give it a whirl!

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Well, we weren’t going to say no to that. She is definitely not a thrill-seeker, so when she asks to go on a ride, we don’t question it, we go with it! She decided to sit with daddy in the front and I would sit behind them.

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I think someone is excited!

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Surprise, surprise, someone actually seemed to somewhat enjoy it!

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Apparently she had a death grip on my husband, though. That was expected since she had a death grip on me during Dumbo. I still took it as a good sign, though! Yay! Progress!

After our spin on the dinosaurs, I couldn’t resist one last photo in Dinoland.

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And our little girl had to have one herself.

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We then wound our way over to another area of the park that we have never visited before. Rafiki’s Planet Watch.

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We took the nice little train ride over to the Conservation Station. The train ride was neat because you sat facing out instead of the direction the train was traveling. You basically sat looking out the “window” the whole ride and it was so cool to see it all as you traveled. You also got to see where many of the animals were kept once the park closed.

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We didn’t know what to expect inside, so we wandered around looking at the various displays. I thought there was a lot of nice information inside and it reminded me a bit of visiting the reptile room in the Natural History Museum. We were able to walk around and take it all in. Of course, our little one has eagle eyes and spotted a new character with no line at all. And she was off!

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She loved Jiminy Cricket. Even after the encounter, she kept popping back near him and saying, “Mommy, look! It’s Jiminy Cricket!” I think she would have gotten back in the line and see him over and over again if we had let her.

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He even got a kiss good-bye.

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We then stopped to listen to a little session on armadillos. Sorry that the picture is a bit off center, but that was taken by our little one.

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We then headed outside to the “petting zoo” area. I was happy to see that there was a nice big hand washing station right before you excited as well. Our little girl was perfectly content walking around and petting the various animals. Or even just hanging out with a goat.

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After the petting zoo area, we walked over to hear about some other animals. These animals required a personal “handler” to accompany them.

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I even got in on the action and went up to feel the snake myself.

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It was so soft and smooth! It’s definitely neat, but I don’t think I’ll be getting a pet snake anytime soon.

We then decided it was getting late and we were hungry so we headed back to the train station to catch a ride back to the main part of the park. Our friends were also driving up to Orlando from Miami and we were expecting to meet up around 3pm for lunch. Our Tusker House breakfast had filled us up nicely so we only needed to stop for a little lunch for our munchkin and maybe a snack or two for us to tide us over until we met up with our friends.

Do you think we made it out of the park without anymore character greetings?

 
How cute she got to meet Pocohantas and Meeko! Although, I do have to say, that Pocohantas is disappointing. I remember meeting her when I was younger, and her "friend" was absolutely gorgeous and looked exactly like Pocohantas.

Rafiki's Planet Watch! It's a hidden gem. We only finally did it a few trips back after all the years we've been going to WDW. The part where she met Jiminy Cricket reminds me of when my Dad and Sis were in line to meet him. There were two ladies in front of them having this discussion:

"Who is he?"

"I think he's a grasshopper. Jiminy Grasshopper."

:rotfl:

So now, we always call him Jiminy Grasshopper.
 
I can't get over how many characters you found on your visit! The pic with Jiminy is so cute! :cutie:

YAY for braving Triceratop Spin! I'm sure as she grows she'll be braving more and more rides.

I'm betting you didn't leave the park without running into more character friends :)
 
Sounds like a great day so far! Tusker House is yummy. I still get the biggest kick out of your dd's pictures. there is just nothing like the excitement and happiness shown in a true smile!
 
How cute she got to meet Pocohantas and Meeko! Although, I do have to say, that Pocohantas is disappointing. I remember meeting her when I was younger, and her "friend" was absolutely gorgeous and looked exactly like Pocohantas.

Rafiki's Planet Watch! It's a hidden gem. We only finally did it a few trips back after all the years we've been going to WDW. The part where she met Jiminy Cricket reminds me of when my Dad and Sis were in line to meet him. There were two ladies in front of them having this discussion:

"Who is he?"

"I think he's a grasshopper. Jiminy Grasshopper."

:rotfl:

So now, we always call him Jiminy Grasshopper.


We met up with another Pocahontas later in our trip and I thought that one looked a lot more like Pocahontas. This one was nice, too though.

I agree with you - Rafiki's planet watch is a hidden gem! We visited it at least twice on our trip. Plus, it's so much nicer to visit Animal Kingdom when it's not 100 degrees outside.

Love your Jiminy Grasshopper story! :rotfl:


I can't get over how many characters you found on your visit! The pic with Jiminy is so cute! :cutie:

YAY for braving Triceratop Spin! I'm sure as she grows she'll be braving more and more rides.

I'm betting you didn't leave the park without running into more character friends :)

We certainly got lucky with charactersr this time around. Maybe because it wasn't as crowded and not as hot. I didn't even take pictures of the characters that we came acorss that she didn't want to meet, like the fairy Godmother, the Stepmother and Stepsisters, Peter Pan, etc. There were so many out and about this trip!

Um, if our recent trip to Storyland is any indication, I think our little one will continue to stay timid around thrill rides. Oh well.

You may be guessing correctly about character interactions....


Sounds like a great day so far! Tusker House is yummy. I still get the biggest kick out of your dd's pictures. there is just nothing like the excitement and happiness shown in a true smile!

Aw, thanks, I'm glad because there are still more to come of her! She really is just super happy in Disney World. Who can blame her?;)
 
Your daughter is practically throwing herself at Ol' Jiminy. Did she knock him over? Too cute! She really is fearless.

I love the Nemo show. I think its my favorite in all of Disney. Once I learned they sing all that life with a backing track I was so impressed.

Great update!
 
Your daughter is practically throwing herself at Ol' Jiminy. Did she knock him over? Too cute! She really is fearless.

I love the Nemo show. I think its my favorite in all of Disney. Once I learned they sing all that life with a backing track I was so impressed.

Great update!

Haha, no she didn't knock over Jiminy, but I'm surprised she didn't. She does run at the characters at a pretty fast clip.

The Nemo show is definitely something I think people should experience at least once, especially if you like the movie.
 
So when I last left off, we were winding our way out of the Animal Kingdom park. Our friends were supposed to be arriving in Orlando pretty soon and we had plans to meet up for a late lunch/early dinner. Of course, as you are probably guessing, our little girl can hardly pass up a chance to meet a character when she sees one, even if she has already seen then before. Who do you think caught her eye this time? Some furry friends that typically reside in the Hundred-Acre Woods, that’s who.

They are pretty cuddly and Pooh just screams “hug me!”

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She definitely got a bear hug from Pooh!

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Next up was Eeyore, the one we had missed out on earlier in the trip.

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Waiting patiently while he signs her book.

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I think he is just as cuddly.

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Last, but not least, was bouncy Tigger. Our little girl never minds waiting in line when she can see a fluffy character in her line of sight.

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Getting engulfed in another hug.

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Tigger sure is tall!

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So once we said goodbye to our three friends, we FINALLY managed to get close to the front of the park. But then, it was me who made us stop for some pics. Heehee. I had to sneak in some photopass pics.

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I always try to get as many family pics as I can while I am in Disney. Where else do you have a photographer willing to help out?

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Well, I guess our little girl was still in a silly mood. She asked us to take some photos of her on the way out as well. Only this time she decided to pose like an elephant.

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Then it was time for her to strike one of her patented “Jessie” poses.

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Then we finally made it to our car. Our friends had just arrived to Orlando and were just getting checked in to their hotel. So we took a drive to let our little one nap while we waited for our friends to finish settling in. We ended up at a favorite neighborhood of mine – Celebration, Florida. We drove through the neighborhood pretending to pick out which houses we would like to stay in and imagining what it would be like to live in this “quintessential American town.”

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Not the best picture, but I was leaning out of my window trying to get the picture. Unfortunately it doesn’t do the little town center any justice. I find the whole area so cute and pretty!

We also stopped back at our hotel to pick up some things.

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Then we met up with our friends for a yummy meal at Red Lobster. Sigh, readers to my last TR will already know of our love for the cheddar biscuits. The seafood dishes aren’t too bad, either. But seriously, y’all know that I go for those yummy biscuits.

Once everyone was satisfied and had a nice full belly, we parted ways. The boys had a game to go to, and we were going to have a girls night at Downtown Disney.

When we first booked the trip and planned on meeting up in Orlando, the guys started researching tickets to a NBA game. They were hoping to catch the Heat, but that didn’t work out. So instead, they got tickets to see the Magic (for about a tenth of the cost). So this is how the guys spent their night.

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Us girls headed off to Downtown Disney to do a bit of shopping and wandering around. We boarded the ferry from Port Orleans for the ride over to DTD. I have to say, it’s a bit spooky to ride the ferry in the dark. I just kept imagining alligators and snakes in the waters. But we made it over to the other dock safely!

We stopped to say hello to a friendly giraffe that was just hanging out away from Animal Kingdom.

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I have to admit that we spent most of our time in the Christmas store looking at ornaments. Both of us have traditions of buying an ornament on vacations or trips. We also have always traded ornaments every year, another tradition that we have. So needless to say, we were all in a flutter in that store with all the different options. My little girl found her own way to amuse herself.

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That ornament found it’s way back home with us once my best friend saw her trying on the mini princess hat.

We wandered around some shops – World of Disney, Trend-D, Goofy’s Candy Shop, and stopped off for some hot chocolate at Ghiradelli. I have to say that for it being just us girls, we were successful in not spending too much money. I was hoping to find a cute “park bag” because I had forgotten to pack mine in the chaos of our departure. The one that I had thrown in was not working out at all. I was hoping for a fun Dooney & Bourke bag, but they weren’t stocked as well and I wasn’t completely sold on them. So I ended up for a much cheaper Disney bag – the “I love nerds” line. RachelNinja will know exactly what I am talking about!

One last photo to end out the night.

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And then we headed back to the hotel to meet up with the boys. It was time to get some sleep because we had a big day at the Magic Kingdom ahead of us!

Coming up: Magic abounds at the Magical Kingdom and our BIG Jessie moment!

 
What? You rather spend your evening at DTD instead of a basketball game? :rotfl: Can't say I blame you!

More cute character pictures (stationary and living)!

I would love to visit Celebration. It's always on my list and I never get there!
 
Haha that elephant picture was too cute!! :laughing:
That sounds like a lovely night! I know what you mean about those Red Lobster Biscuits! Dang... they are SO good!!!
What a great girls night! I'm glad you had fun!
 
What? You rather spend your evening at DTD instead of a basketball game? :rotfl: Can't say I blame you!

More cute character pictures (stationary and living)!

I would love to visit Celebration. It's always on my list and I never get there!

Um, especially considering I am not a big basketball fan? Yes, DTD it is! Now, if it was to watch an NFL game, I may have decided differently. :rolleyes:

Never fear, more character pics to come over the course of the rest of the trip!

We love driving through Celebration. It was a bit wierd though because it looks so perfect and we barely saw people out and about in the yards. It was almost like driving around a movie set or something.


Haha that elephant picture was too cute!! :laughing:
That sounds like a lovely night! I know what you mean about those Red Lobster Biscuits! Dang... they are SO good!!!
What a great girls night! I'm glad you had fun!

Hi Jess! I'm telling you, my gal has more poses everyday. I hope she continues to love Disney so I can take a mother daughter trip with her one day!

We don't have Reb Lobster near me up here, the closest one is in CT, I think. So when we are near one, we try to get our cheddar biscuit fix!
 
I would have picked going to DTD too! Sounds like everyone had a good evening. I'd love to drive around Celebration one day, but we just never rent a car when we're down at Disney! Some day though...it looks so nice and quaint!
 
I would have picked going to DTD too! Sounds like everyone had a good evening. I'd love to drive around Celebration one day, but we just never rent a car when we're down at Disney! Some day though...it looks so nice and quaint!

Haha, I actually don't think I was ever even given a choice. I think it was just assumed that me and my BFF would not want to go to the game. Rightly so.

I think driving around Celebration became part of our routine whenever our little one napped. it's really pretty!
 












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