Never A Dull Moment: Disney World (finally)

I have been gone so much this summer that this has taken me forever to start a blog on Disney World. I will start by saying that it was an incredible trip. We had a fantastic time and wouldn't change a thing. We had a blast being together as a family and spending uninterupted time together. The kids were amazing and so much fun to be with. We did just about everything that Disney had to offer during our 10 days in their Magical world, and we hope that we created memories that the kids will remember forever. This may end up taking a few post over a few days because I literally took 500 pictures and choosing my favorites is almost impossible. Anyway, without further delay... Disney

Day 1

Day 1 started bright and early for us much like the day before did. To get to Orlando, we took the 6AM flight out. To save you some time doing the math, we had to get up about 3AM in order to get to the airport, park and check in to make the flight. We arrived in Orlando, boarded our bus to the resort and were there by about 3PM. We were in bed early knowing that the next day was going to be fantastic. Thursday we woke up, got dressed and headed to Chef Mickey. This was the perfect way to start out the trip! The food was amazing and were able to meet Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Goofy as they came to our table. They were the first to sign the kids autograph books (or Yearbook as Brock calls it). We had a great time and it got us off to a fantastic start. After breakfast and a short ride on the monorail we arrived at the Magic Kingdom. We were all so excited to be there! As soon as we entered Chip and Dale were there greeting people so we were able to see more characters which is so exciting. We spent that whole day doing everything there was to do in Magic Kingdom. We rode everything we saw and it was great fun watching the kids take it all in. That night we stayed and watched the electric parade which was amazing only to be followed by the most spectacular fireworks show I have ever seen. Claire loves fireworks so getting to watch her watch the fireworks was a real treat. Here are a "few" of my favorites from Day 1.

These pictures are from Chef Mickey (I highly recommend this Character meal!)

We finally made it to the Magic Kingdom!

Day 2 - We went to Typhoon Lagoon so obviously there are no pictures of this day. I will tell you that our family loves to go to water parks, and this one was amazing. Disney does not scrimp a penny on the extras at their parks and this park was no exception. Our favorite part of this park was the wave pool. Every few minutes a 7 ft Tidal wave would come and it was hilarious! You would think that it would at least intimidate the kids but it didn't, they loved it! We would have to hold on to them for dear lives and we would all come up sputtering and laughing only ready and waiting for the next one to come. That night we went back to Magic Kingdom to eat at the Crystal Palace. The food here was fantastic and the kids were so excited to get to meet Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore or "Sweet Eeyore" as Claire calls him.

Day 3 - On day 1 while we waiting for the electric parade we found out that the weekend was Star Wars weekend at Hollywood Studios. Brock has spent the last few months obsessed over Star Wars so we knew that this was going to be something really special for him. I did my best to find out all that I could about the day and what all it offered so that we wouldn't miss anything he might want to see. We were told that if you got there early that you could get a fast pass to meet people from the movie. I was thinking that we would meet "characters" from the movie, so we got there bright and early only to find out that they were the actual people from the movie dressed as themselves (such a letdown for non-Star Wars junkies). However, we were not disappointed as we were able to witness a whole sub culture of the universe. There were people (grown people) dressed in full Star Wars garb. Mind you it was 100+ temps and they are dressed in all black, robes and boots, WHO DOES THAT? Anyway, other than 1 altercation with one over-zealous man who wanted Anakin's (the Character, not the actor) autograph and thought he would be able to jump in front of Brock after we had been standing in line (IN THE BLAZING SUN!) for over 30 minutes. He quickly found out that he was wrong and proceeded to the end of the line. Anyway, on to the fun stuff.... Brock loved this day! He not only got to see Darth Vader, Anakin, Storm Troopers, Ewoks, and several other characters from Star Wars, but he got to meet 3 of the Power Rangers! They were hilarious to watch as they would go through a range of moves in order to get into their pose for the picture. However, the highlight of the day was the Star Wars parade. We found a great seat and got perched an hour early so that he could have a prime seat for the parade. I am so glad I did because he was absorbed in it. The parade was led by Mickey dressed as a Jedi, along with Minnie as Princess Leah, Goofy as Darth Vader and Donald as a Storm Trooper. It only got better from here as they had Storm Troopers, Darth Maul, Captain Rex and all the people that I have no idea who they are! They even had a working R2-D2 that he really wanted to get a closer look at. It was so fun to watch him see his favorite characters come to life right before his eyes. Then if that wasn't enough, he got to meet the Power Rangers. Unfortunately the blue ranger wasn't out there when we were there, but he met Red, Green and Yellow (not really interested in Pink). I am going to have trouble choosing my favorite pictures for this day! It was a fun day for the mother of a boy!