Disney Vacation - Day 3

Day 3 (Tuesday) was our first day at Magic Kingdom, and we had a very special breakfast reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table, which is actually no small feat.  These reservations can't be made more than 180 days in advance, but it's recommended that you book right at the 6-month mark, so I did.  We had a 9:00 AM reservation, which meant we actually got to go in the park before it opened.  It was super foggy that morning, and combined with the empty streets, made it feel a bit like a ghost town!

 We don't take many pictures as a family, so I wanted to take advantage of our photo package.

 We stopped almost every photographer we saw!

Em was ecstatic to finally go into Cinderella's castle!

We opted to skip the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, where Em could have been turned into a princess for the bargain price of $200.  We skipped it 1) because I think the price is ridiculous, 2) because Em can't stand for me to fix her hair, much less have someone pull it into a super tight bun and spray glitter on it, and 3) because it feels a little unnecessary when she brought her own princess dresses from home and was more than thrilled to wear them.

When we first walked in the castle, Em got to meet Cinderella and take a picture with her.

Then we were seated at our table and Em got a wishing star and this magic wand that they used a couple of times during breakfast.

Breakfast was actually delicious, and the castle was really beautiful inside.

 The princesses make rounds and come by every table to meet everyone and take pictures.

Em was so excited she could barely eat anything!

Her tiara kept falling off, and I think every princess helped her put it back on at least once...Snow White,

Aurora (Sleeping Beauty),

Jasmine,

and Ariel (the one with human legs, Em clarified).

As soon as we left the castle when breakfast was over, we ran into Cinderella's Fairy Godmother!  She was very animated, and I didn't hear what she said here, but it must have really taken Em by surprise.

She was very sweet--Em kept asking her where she put her magic wand, hoping she'd pull it out of the air like she does in the movie.

We went to Mickey's Philharmagic show, which was Em's first 3-D experience.

I don't care where we are, the carousel is one of Em's favorite things!

Then we stopped by Fairytale Hall to visit with a couple more princesses, and saw Cinderella's glass slipper!

Em was thrilled to meet Rapunzel, and immediately asked her where Pascal (her pet chameleon from the movie) was--Em met her match!  She finally found someone who talks more than she did!  Rapunzel didn't miss a beat, and told Em a long story about playing hide and seek and forgetting to find Pascal.  Em loved it.

She talked to Snow White about the dwarfs and her woodland friends.

And then we headed for some rides!  She adored It's a Small World.

And why wouldn't she?  Still one of my favorites, no matter how many times I ride it.

There's a new Seven Dwarfs ride under construction that Em wanted to see.

And then we crossed over into the Hundred Acre Wood to see Pooh and Tigger!

 She loved the Pooh ride, which whisked us around in a giant honey pot!

Some of the rides did a great job of entertaining the kids in line during the wait--there are games and TV screens with cartoons playing, which helps when you're not using a FastPass!

We timed the lines just right to meet Peter Pan and Wendy.  This, of course, was a no-brainer for us.

Em really entertained them with her stories--she told Peter that she dressed up like him for Halloween last year, but that she was going to be Elsa this year :).  The two of them traded movie lines, and it was just priceless!

Again, the characters are just amazing--they sure know how to pick the right people!

When there weren't games to play, Em entertained herself by practicing dance moves in line. 

She met the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.

And then we went to Ariel's Grotto to have some one on one time.  This one was pretty popular and the wait was a little longer.  We figured out our strategy pretty early in the trip, and I took my iPad to help keep Em content when we were in some of the longer lines.

Em thought it was worth the wait though, and asked great questions like "what's inside your mermaid tail?" Ariel replied "fish bones."  Of course!

 More dance moves while in line to see Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.

Another great choice here--he stayed completely in character the entire time, and even told Mick as we left "you sir, can go over and admire my statue."  Mick loved it!

Em loved the Dumbo ride, and Mick sat this one out--she liked the ones where she could control how high up we flew!  This was another one where we didn't use a FastPass, but they had a great waiting area where you got a pager and the kids got to play while you waited.  Great idea!

We headed out of the park before it closed again on Tuesday since we started so early and Em didn't take a nap again that day!

We got  back to the hotel and decided to spend some time at the pool.

Here's a cool view of the hotel at night.

The pool wasn't crowded at all, which was really nice.

We stayed at the pool until around 7:30, and then headed back to our room, ordered dinner in, and watched the fireworks from our balcony before getting a very tired little girl in bed to rest up for another big day tomorrow!

Disney Vacation - Day 2

On Monday, we decided to go to Epcot--primarily because Elsa and Anna from Frozen were doing meet & greet times in Norway, and Em really wanted to see them.

We took the monorail and got to Epcot right as it was opening.

We lucked out by walking up to a character meeting spot and finding Mickey,

Goofy,

and Minnie Mouse!  We rode some rides, including Spaceship Earth in the Epcot ball and a few other fun ones before heading over to the World Showcase when it opened at 11:00.

I thought I had done my research and prepared for everything on this trip, but we were NOT prepared to get to Norway and find a four hour wait to see Anna and Elsa!  People had apparently been waiting since the park opened that morning, and when we got there, we were told that the end of the line was for the 3pm meeting!  It was the moment of truth, and we had to make a decision, so we decided to wait.  Elsa and Anna were really the primary reason we went to Epcot, and we knew we'd always regret it if we didn't wait.

The line was wrapped around several buildings and ended in a gift shop (of course!)--we snuck around so Em could have a peek!

We had plenty of time to kill, so Mick and I took turns walking around with Em--she found a fountain to throw some coins in,

met a duck friend who she named Quack Quack,

and had some ice cream!

It got pretty warm in the sun, so Em and I checked out the gift shop to cool off.  Mick even went and got lunch and we ate while standing in line.  We packed a cooler every morning with tons of snacks and drinks, and Em did more snacking than really eating--but that saved us, since at least she had things like apples, peanut butter, and plenty of water.

After only THREE hours, we were almost there!

When we finally made it in, nothing could have been better than the look on Em's face when she saw Elsa and Anna!

She went straight for Elsa and hugged and hugged her.  Mick and I both had tears in our eyes, and the photographer looked at us and said "so I guess it was worth the wait?"  Absolutely :).

The characters everywhere were unbelievable.  I think they know that you've waited your turn in line, and they're not going to rush you at all.  They're so patient and let Em talk as long as she wanted.

She even gave them a very shy (and very unlike Em) version of "Let it Go" from the movie.

We knew we weren't planning to do the entire World Showcase, but China was right next to Norway, so we decided to go meet Mulan.  Em, as you can see, brought a couple of wardrobe changes for each day.  It was so cute how she told all of the princesses how very beautiful they looked.  She's never even seen the movie Mulan, but found plenty to talk about with her.

She loved all of the flowers at Epcot, and kept wanting to smell them (and pick them!).

It really felt like spring--temperatures in the 80s and sunny.

We went back to the park side and Em loved the Nemo ride!

She and Mick even posed with Bruce the Shark!

I think this picture is so cute for some reason.

More flowers!

We went on a new ride called Soarin', which was a hang gliding simulation that was extremely realistic!  We weren't exactly sure what to expect, and Em was pretty scared once we got in, but it was too late to change our minds.  We let her pick out this little Simba lion cub toy for being so brave when we got off the ride. Now that we know what to expect, I'd definitely ride it again (but probably not with Em).

Ready to head home from Epcot after a long, fun day (and no nap!).

We ate dinner back at our hotel and watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from our balcony!  We had a big day planned for Tuesday, so Em needed to get to bed early!

Disney Vacation - Day 1

I have been planning our Disney trip for months--we decided a while back that Em was the perfect age to go, and that we'd take her for her fourth birthday.  Since her birthday gets into Spring Break season and we wanted to avoid the times when schools were out, we landed on the first week of February.  I booked the resort and started making plans.  It seemed like it would never get here, and Em was super excited too, so we talked about it all the time.  

On Saturday, February 1, we drove down to Brunswick and spent the day and night with Mick's parents--we thought it would be a nice bonus for Em to see Grandma and Papa on the way, and it broke up the trip for us since we weren't checking in until Sunday.

We left pretty early Sunday morning and drove the remaining 3 1/2 hours until we were finally greeted by Mickey and Minnie!

The weather was beautiful and in the low 80s--we all got excited as we approached our hotel, the Contemporary Resort.  This is the one where the monorail runs right through the hotel!

We got checked in quickly and headed out to catch the bus to Hollywood Studios for the afternoon.

There were a few things we really wanted to do at Hollywood Studios, but not an entire day's worth, which is why we planned it first.  We saw The Little Mermaid show,

and all week, I tried to grab every Disney photographer I saw for these family shots--we bought the Memory Maker package, which meant every time we had a picture taken, they scanned my MagicBand and it showed up in my online account.  Definitely worth it, since we otherwise wouldn't have any pictures of all three of us!

The first character Em saw was Jake from the cartoon "Jake and the Neverland Pirates."  Not even one of her favorites, but she got super excited to see every character!

She liked Kermit since she got to stand up high to pose for this one.

And then Princess Sofia--again, not one of her favorites, but since she recognized her, she wanted to meet her.

Then we saw Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater.

And Em found some wildlife she liked too!

One of the main reasons we wanted to go to Hollywood Studios was the Beauty and the Beast live show. Em was in love--it was about a 30 minute show with live singing and dancing to all of her favorite songs from the movie.

 

It was really well done,

and we had great seats close to the stage.

We had dinner reservations at Mama Melrose's, which guaranteed a reserved seat at the Fantasmic! show that night.

It started at 7pm, and poor Em was exhausted.  She hadn't taken a nap all day, and fell asleep on my lap while we were waiting for the show to start.

Luckily, she woke up pretty easily and was in a great mood for the show.  We were glad she didn't miss it!  I think the end was her favorite part--all of the characters on this huge boat that sailed through.  By the end of the show, we were all ready to get back to the hotel, and so glad we had Em's stroller!

When we got back to our room, we found this awesome surprise!  Mickey and Minnie had come by and left a gift for Em--it was a signed photo, balloons, a white chocolate Mickey, and Mickey and Minnie dolls!

Em could hardly contain herself, and asked if Mickey and Minnie gave her those presents because she had been a good girl.  We definitely got some mileage out of that throughout the week--it was almost like Santa and Elfie watching her!