Disney, Part Two

Our sort-of-last-minute trip to Disney World was so much fun. On our first and second day we played by the pool, went to Downtown Disney, and visited the Magic Kingdom (here). 

We woke up on Saturday morning with a little less pep in our step because we had such a long day in the Magic Kingdom the day before. Both Carson and I get up at a pretty early hour and go to bed early these days, so staying out past 10 was rough! We were still ready to experience Epcot together for the first time. 

I've only ever been to the Magic Kingdom before, and I loved it. To me, Epcot was pretty great and definitely lots of fun to explore and wander around as adults, but it wasn't my favorite of the two. Childhood favorites are hard to beat.

We left the room at just before 8 and got on the bus for Epcot. It was closer to our hotel than the Magic Kingdom was, so we were there and in line for the park to open rather quickly.

Spaceship Earth - the only thing I really knew about Epcot. I'd expected the entire park to be built around this (like Cinderella's Castle), since it's sort of the iconic thing from the park, but since it wasn't, it was fun to spy it from the gates!

We got our FastPasses late in the game, so the "big" rides were all taken and we knew we'd need to book it in order to avoid long lines. Almost everyone sprinted toward the Test Track ride, and we joined them. Our wait was only 10 minutes, and that's with the backpack Carson carried mysteriously coming unzipped and spilling its contents everywhere!

I knew nothing about this ride and thought it would be one of those things where you drive a little motor car around a track - I was wrong. We designed our cars and they were linked to our tickets (we had magic bands instead so they were linked to those). We scanned our bands when we got on the ride and it registered our car and used the specs to customize the ride, sort of. We loved this ride!

Next, we hurried over to Mission: Space. Carson looked like he was taking on the world in this picture as we walked to the ride.

We had a much slower start to our day than the one before. After those two rides (Mission: Space was intense!), Carson decided that he definitely needed to have coffee to get through the day, so we ordered from Starbucks and sat on a shady curb outside (the available seats were in the sun).

We had a FastPass for Spaceship Earth next and had heard that it wasn't exciting but decided to try it out anyway. We actually really liked it! Something happened on the ride and they had to stop it for about 20 minutes. There were cast members walking around looking for someone with flashlights, so I'm guessing someone tried to jump out and explore? We were very thankful that we were in air conditioning, and not at the top of some roller coaster somewhere. This was from our future at the end:

The Flower and Garden Festival was going on, and there were some really beautiful things there. I'm guessing it usually looks lovely there anyway, but some of the arrangements were really impressive! Carson took the camera out and snapped any pictures that could have been taken with my nice camera. I used my phone.

We walked through the World Showcase next and I'm thinking that this would be a place to REALLY explore another time, as we eat our way through. We didn't even have a snack, which was sort of a silly thing not to do.

I did see Mary Poppins in the United Kingdom. As an adult without kids, it feels strange to go up to the characters, so this is as good as it gets.

Beauty and the Beast in France.

Belle

Morocco

Japan

Italy

Germany

China

Norway

Walking through the countries was my favorite part. It didn't seem like there was any intended geographical order to them, which I liked because it felt sort of neat to walk between two very distinct countries.

Here we are at the end of the day. 

We decided to make our day in Epcot short so that we could spend time with everyone at the hotel. With the heat and all the walking, it was a relief to not feel the pressure to stay in the parks. We went for a short swim and then got ready for dinner (we were actually super late getting ready because we stayed in the pool too long). We bussed down to Downtown Disney, and realized that in that time we totally could have walked or taken the ferry.

They'd made reservations for Laela's birthday, which is good because that's the line for people without them.

I took this of the girls as we waited for our table.

This is a restaurant owned by Rainforest Cafe and is supposed to be similar (I've never been there) but with a dinosaur theme. Every 15 minutes there's a "meteor shower" and the lights dim, the dinosaurs move and roar, and lights flash. It was spectacular.

Erin had the waiters sing to Laela, and she beamed.

There was a great sunset as we got out of our dinner.

The girls had been given gift cards to spend, so we hit a store looking for the perfect thing for each of them. It was overwhelming for me, so I can't imagine the pressure of which cute stuffed thing to choose.

This store looked fun - it's for left-handed people.

Here's a high-quality snap of Carson and I waiting for the bus that evening.

And Brooklyn with her baby Marie (from Aristocats - I learned so many Disney characters names this weekend!)

We decided to use our third park day later, so we got to spend time with the family on Sunday. Everyone else went to an appointment, but Kiki got to stay inside and cuddle with Uncle Carson. They watched old Mickey cartoons and then Horton Hears a Who. She's two, but she was so quiet and still. Carson was afraid that she'd get scared when it was just two of us almost-strangers with her, but she didn't have a problem and ended up falling asleep on him.

We decided to walk down and meet everyone at the pool later. Kiki was still not feeling great, so she rested on Carson again and then I held her (holding kids in 95 degree weather is VERY warm) while we waited for the rest of the family to appear.

We swam and played around with everyone, and then RyRy got tired from it all too and fell asleep on Carson. Apparently it was the trendy thing to do.

We decided to walk to Downtown Disney to explore just the two of us and maybe get a souvenir. I also got a Mickey ice cream.

We returned and packed up our things. We were sad because we could definitely have stayed another week or month or something. I got a picture with us and all our sweet nieces before we hit the road.

And then we took some selfies (you should see the ones they took).

It took us four hours to get home and we basically dropped our things in the foyer and went straight to sleep because we were so tired. It was exhausting but so much fun and we'd do it again in a heartbeat. Currently scheming ways to have these guys move closer to us and for us to all permanently reside in a resort setting. Any good ideas on how to obtain some major wealth?

Disney, Part One

Carson went to Disney World for the first time! 

Our sister-in-law was given a free stay in a Disney resort and there was enough room for nine people. Their family plus us two? Nine people. 

So we got time off work (me - summer classes conveniently began for Carson the day after our return), bought Florida-resident Disney passes (serious bonus to living here), and headed down. Disney World is just under four hours away for us which is such an easy drive. If only those tickets were a little more affordable we might become seasonal ticket holders and go down more often... 

We got there and went under the magical arch and were there! Only we could not find Trent and Erin ANYWHERE. With five children, we assumed they'd be recognizable eating lunch by the pool. Nope. Only when we got on the phone and began discussing landmarks did we discover that we'd been told the wrong resort! After that was sorted out, we quickly found them poolside.

Our room wasn't ready, so Carson swam with the kids and Trent and Erin switched off being with me and the two littlest, who had to take naps. Napping at a crowded pool in the sunshine? I'm impressed with these two.

At about 3, we got to head to our villa. We were fine, but after 17 hours of driving from Pennsylvania (and no sleep), Trent and Erin were ready for rest. 

We got settled in. The girls quickly found the resort pads of paper and began drawing self portraits and pictures of us, and enjoying the balcony on our second-story room. 

After some showers, Erin and I walked to Downtown Disney with three of the girls while the others napped. Brooklyn fell asleep in the stroller on the way there but quickly awakened when we arrived at the Lego store.

The men and the other two girls caught up with us and the girls all enjoyed a Mickey ice cream. 

Everyone crashed that night. I think it was before 10 and we were all asleep. 

Laela came in our room at 4am and asked to sleep with us - a new experience for sure. I didn't know what was going on as currently only my alarm and Carson's sleep-talking wake me up. 

Kiki helped me get ready for the Magic Kingdom the next morning. 

Our bus arrived and we piled inside, all excited. 

Erin made the girls these cute ears after their favorite characters, all with details. She should sell them! 

We'd planned to leave the room at 7:45 to get there in time to watch the opening show and get ticket stuff squared away and we did it! On the dot. 

So here's the opening show. They've added more of the recent characters but everything else is just as it was on the Disney sing along video Grandmama  had growing up! 

We raced to get in line to meet Anna and Elsa, but even three minutes after the park opened, the wait was 90 minutes. So Carson and I decided to quickly ride some things with short lines while the girls waited to see princesses (they ended up seeing Cinderella and Rapunzel instead bexause it had a shorter wait).

We did It's a Small World (one of my favs - Carson loved it too!), the teacups, which he really enjoyed making it go fast (Alice in Wonderland and the White Rabbit were in the cup next to ours, randomly), and the Tomorrowland Speedway, which I thought was boring and during which Carson realized driving in a straight line isn't his thing. 

We hit Space Mountain quickly too and by that time the girls were on to new things. We got in line with them to meet Ariel, who was actually very funny. 

We ate our packed sandwiches at a picnic table, famished at 11am. Next, Laela decided to ride Splash Mountain with us, but she called it "The Big Drop". 

The wait said 70 minutes (and since we were there we didn't want to let her down so we stayed) but it was more like 35. 

We sat in the back and I'm pretty sure we squished poor Laela. She couldn't really see anything but was THRILLED the whole time. We were impressed.

And then she realized that we were alone with her and had no kids of our own so she worked the system and got an ice cream and asked for her picture to be taken next to this guy. Way to go, girl.

While we were in line, the little girls and Kennedy were riding things in Fantasyland. When we met up again, Princess Tiana (Laela's favorite) was about to come out so we waited in line. In the mean time, all the little girls fell asleep. Kennedy was so sweet and supportive of Laela's excitement. It was cute to watch her be a cheerleader for her sister, and stand back to let her have the moment.

I almost teared up at how sweet this was.  Laela was in awe and the princess couldn't have been kinder. 

After everyone woke up, we went to ride Pirates of the Carribean. Trent and Kennedy backed out so it was just the three of us again. 

Carson and I rode a few more rides we had on FastPass and found ourselves exhausted, sitting on a curb in Frontierland wondering how we would make it until the fireworks. Apparently we weren't alone in this, and we headed back to the resort for rest. It also saved money on dinner, which was a nice perk. 

RyRy talked my ear off the whole way there, mostly commenting on why uncle Carson was doing this or that. 

Fed and rested, we went back in time to ride the one thing we all had a pass for - the Peter Pan ride. Someone snapped a family picture on our way back into the park. 

We loved the Peter Pan ride - exceeded expectations. Next, we did the carousel. Laela named her horse "Sugar Bear". 

Carson and I had a pass for the Buzz Lightyear ride so we went to do that while everyone else watched the Electric Parade. We couldn't find them when we got out and were so tired that we decided to maybe start heading back. Look at all these people! 

Tomorrowland

A photo pass guy took this with our big camera, which I hadn't used until this picture. 

In our last few minutes in the park, we browsed the shops on Main Street USA.

And got to see the fireworks after all as we walked to our bus!

We were the only ones in line. It turned out that Trent and Erin were one bus ahead of that but we didn't realize we were so close - we thought they were staying! They'd arrived two minutes before we got there and the girls all had jumped in bed immediately and were snoozing away. 

Exhausted, we jumped into bed, ready for our very first trip to Epcot the next day!