When taking a trip to Disney, it's not for the spontaneous traveler, which is pretty much where I categorize myself. Its months of prep, tons of coordination and getting your game face on.
Getting 11 people to Disney required us hiring a mouse counselor, consulting with neighbors and good friends to get us headed to the Mouse House. It was all done really well and all the hard work paid off! Thanks to all of the people that helped us get our poop in a group!
Tuesday-GET TO DISNEY DAY!!!
Woke up, packed and ready. Julia woke up sick and feeling like crap. Whisked her away to QuickCare and she had a double ear infection. Super great for flying! Poor girl. Met Lou Holtz at the airport, which Damon had no problem going to say hello! He was a very friendly fellow.
Took the Magic Express to our hotel which the kids loved being on a bus. Ha! So cute.
Made it to our hotel late for me to have to phone MY doctor for a prescription at 10:30pm. Yay prescriptions and finding random Walgreens to phone it into.
Wednesday-Animal Kingdom Day
Woke up at 5:30am to take a $50 uber ride to Walgreens to get my prescription. When I got there they couldn't find it and didn't have anything for me. Great. Walked out to get another uber lined up and the pharmacist called and found the prescription sitting on the computer. Phew! So, back in, got the stupid $3 prescription and booked it to Animal Kingdom for our 8am breakfast.
Yay, Animal Kingdom! Such a fun fun fun place for our first day. We started with having a character breakfast at Tusker House. Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Mickey all stopped by for autographs and hugs. It's funny watching your kids take it all in. Julia, super embarrassed but loving it, Henry loving it and Graham, eh, wanted nothing to do with those over sized things in costume.
The park was broke out in countries/different worlds to visit. We went to Africa first to do a safari which was super fun, lots of really great animals (most are at the Omaha zoo) but the vehicle was good and we splashed through some serious pools through the safari. The kids loved it. Afterwards went through a jungle walk with gorillas. Saw a Lion King performance which was a lot of fun and something I probably wouldn't have picked myself.
The big people headed over to Asia for Everest and the little boys and Grandma met Mickey and Minnie, Doug and Russell from Up, then saw Bugs Life which they all loved.
And Everest, well, you know I pretty much loved it! Julia was so funny. She screamed about dying, how her life was ending and then magically got off and rode it another 3 times. Henry on the other hand, one time and done.
Headed to Dino Land which was a fun little place for the little kids. We loved being over here and the lines weren't long and there was just lots of fun things for kids and adults.
Look at those happy dimples.
Ended Animal Kindgom with a trip over to Pandora. Being that I have never seen Avatar, I'm sure that I could have got into it more maybe? Cool, yes, pretty, for sure, awesome to hit up in the evening. One note about Pandora, RIDE AVATAR! Even if you have to wait for 2 hours! It is the most cool ride in all the parks. Hopping onto the back of an avatar flying through the land, feeling the breeze, splashing of water in your face from a giant whale jumping up, riding through surf...All virtual reality at it's awesome-est. So super cool. We also did the Navi River ride which was a boat ride through Pandora and was really cool with all the lights. Now I need to watch the movie. We all had a great and dreamy Disney first day at Animal Kingdom and all agreed it was our favorite park when it was all said and done.
Thursday-Hollywood Studios And Epcot
Up and early to Hollywood Studios. Such a cute little park to walk into. It was set up like a old little town even with a guy driving an old tiny car down the street. How he didn't run anyone over, I don't know.
Toy Story Land is the cutest thing in the world. Buzz and Woody were doing a meet and greet as you walk in and the Slinky Dog ride was running in the back ground. The Green Army guys marching all around. Super cute lights strung all around and just that all around happy Toy Story feeling. One snack stand was a old playskool camper, so cute.
Our fast pass ride for Toy Story was Toy Story Mania where you ride around in a little car and shoot all kinds of things. Graham loved it. Other rides in Toy Story Land, Alien Saucers (we waited 45 min, and wasn't worth it but still fun) and Slinky Dog Dash which was 120 minute wait so we didn't get to do that. Sad. Ate Lunch at Woody's Lunchbox which was pretty tasty. Felt super crowded in there, no place to take shelter from the sun and just packed with people.
Other things we did in Hollywood Studios...Rock N Roller Coaster. That was Henry's favorite even though his face doesn't show it. I felt like I was going to lose my head but I made it out with my head and body parts. Ha. Erin and Julia.
The boys (H, G and Lander) did the Jedi Training and fought Darth Vader. It was really cool and the actors were great, getting the boys set up with the force. That was probably my favorite part about Hollywood Studios. Graham told me earlier he was going to "take him out" meaning Darth Vader. He came pretty close with Henry as a runner up for aggressiveness.
Took the boat over to Epcot for the rest of the day. Whewww. I think we were tired enough here. Love this picture.
Epcot was one place I WISH we would have had more time in. There was so much to see. It was all so pretty and picturesque and I didn't get to do "drinking around the world" as I hoped. Ha. We did get a couple rides in, "Soarin'" and Finding Nemo ride. There was so much more to see and do but we just didn't have the time. Would have really loved Test Track. We had a delicious dinner at La Hacidena De San Angel. Avocado Margaritas. Mmmmm! After Mexico we walked/ran around the world to get to France which was Henry's destination. Stopped for beers in Germany and France. So, three countries I guess is better than none. Finished the night with the fireworks show which was incredible and well worth the stay. Oh, and that lit up Epcot Golf Ball at night, so pretty and amazing to see lit up and close up. I was mesmerized!
Best Valentines Day with all of the people I love. It was so fun!
Friday-Magic Kingdom
Got up again super early to get to MK for early morning magic. This gave us a good start on Tomorrowland. This is where Space Mountain was and we didn't have a FP for that. Got right on in about 5 minutes. This was Grahams favorite ride and I'm surprised he was even allowed on it. Super dark, fast and jerky. Again, thought I was going to lose my head but we all came out alive. My neighbor later told me, "people die on Space Mountain". Okay, jeesh.
Hit up a couple others in Tomorrowland, a Buzz Lightyear ride and Astro-Orbiter. Bam! One land done in an hour!
Afterwards we busted over to Crystal Palace for a character breakfast with Winnie and Friends. This was so sweet and magical! The characters were adorable posed so cute. Breakfast was top notch and just so fun. Graham was pretty cute with Pooh. He didn't love many characters but he ran right up to Pooh and buried his head into him.
Next up was Adventureland which was probably my favorite part of the park. We rode 7 Dwarfs Mine Train, Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain there. We had FP for all but Splash Mountain. Waited in line for 1.5 hours for Splash Mountain and really got to know a family from North Dakota pretty well in line. I mean, what else do you do? Julia and I played "concentration" 900 times. I'm still not sure the wait for Splash Mountain was worth it but it was a fun ride, just no comparison to Everest or Avatar honestly.
We all did a divide an conquer in the afternoon. The Brights were whooped, the Ridley girls wanted to shop and meet princesses and Grandma just wanted to keep going. The Brights could have sat and watched people plunge off Splash Mountain all day. It was funny.
At this point I don't even know what we did, rode Pirates of the Carribean (meh), had dole whips, saw Aladdin and Jasmine, climbed the Swiss Family Tree House, walked more. Rode the Teacups, Dumbo, needed a beer but there wasn't any in Magic Kingdom (lame), ate more snacks and got to the castle for the light show.
The light show was a shit show! I have never seen so many people in all of my life crammed into one place. If you wanted to lose your kids, it would have been the perfect place. The show was so cool, highlighting all of the hit songs/Disney movies and lighting up the castle with scenes and music. Honestly don't even really remember the fireworks because the castle was so cool and constantly changing. Julia said this was her favorite part of Disney.
And that's the Disney wrap! So much fun jam packed into 3 days. I think we were all Disney'ed out and were ready to get away from the masses of people! Cue the 15 passenger van and get us out of Orlando!
Saturday-Let's go to the BEACH!
Hit up one more Disney breakfast to burn at Wilderness Lodge called Whispering Canyon Cafe. It was a great way to end the trip and one of our favorite experiences. Waitresses that threw napkins at us, hollering out for whatever you needed and a stick horse dance party mid breakfast. Great service and funny atmosphere.
Made it to Clearwater in about 1.5 hours in our 15 passenger van! Ha! After we found Anna's emergency Mountain Dew, we rolled in ocean side to see some dolphins jumping and pulled up to Hotel Cabana for a 2 night stay. Once we saw how close we were to the beach, we basically all agreed that we weren't leaving for any more touristy things. Beach and pool on repeat.
Yes, that is bird crap Erin is sniffing. He thought it was applesauce, Anna thought Graham had diarrhea. Spent about 30 minutes laughing about this.
Graham was having a hard time with his built in underwear.
Sunday-More Beach
Beach, pool, beach, pool, pizza, beach, pool. All day. Okay!
And that's a wrap! I loved being with my family and getting to experience this with them all. My mom so generously gifted this trip to us and is something we likely wouldn't be able to afford ourselves. The repayment for her will have to be made up with more trips home to GI and more honey-do's checked off her list from her Son and Son-in-law. We are grateful for these memories, the laughter, and being able to check out of real life and live it with those you love. It was amazing.
