I'm using this first day of the new year to get caught up on blogging. It's not that I've been procrastinating. It has actually taken me this long to go through and organize all of the photos we took on our awesome vacation to Disney World!
Thanks to an unbelievable Christmas gift from my parents, we got to spend the second week in December in warm Orlando, Florida with Mickey and the gang. It was a long trip there (we flew all the way across the United States after all), but it was worth every minute of travel time.
We flew through Chicago where we met my brother, Josh and then continued on with him to Orlando. My parents had already arrived a few days earlier. We took the Disney Magic Express from the airport to our resort. We stayed in the treehouse villas which are part of the Saratoga Springs resort on the Disney property. Our tree house was 3 bedrooms and very nice. The kids loved it because their room had bunk beds!
After our long day of travel, we got in fairly late. So, after visiting for a bit, we were all off to bed! The next day began our adventure. We hopped on a boat on the river by our treehouse to head back to the main resort where we would catch a bus to the Animal Kingdom. The kids were very excited!
We spent much of the day at the Animal Kingdom riding rides - Expedition Everest for the big kids (me, Dave, Josh and my Dad) and the Kilimanjaro Safari for the whole family, eating ice cream and meeting our first characters!
Jack with his Mickey ice cream bar
Jack and Kate with Pocahontas
Pocahontas gave Jack a big kiss on the cheek!
They also met Minnie Mouse!
After Animal Kingdom we returned to our treehouse to freshen up before heading out once again. That evening we had tickets to attend Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party at the Magic Kingdom. This is a special event after normal park hours which features a Christmas parade, Christmas stage shows, full access (with very short lines) to all of the rides, all you can eat/drink hot chocolate & cookies, and snow falling on Main Street. The best part of the whole night was towards the very end when we happened to walk in a building in Frontierland only to discover Woody & Jessie having a dance party! They are two of Kate and Jack's very favorite characters - that is who they dressed up as for Halloween in 2011. There was hardly anyone else in the room so Kate & Jack got lots of time to hang out and dance with them.
Kate in her new Minnie Ears on her very favorite ride, the Merry Go Round!
A very fun and eventful first day!
The next day we decided to explore Disney's Hollywood Studios. We got to see a cool car stunt show which featured Lightning McQueen and ride some great rides (Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Aerosmith's Rock 'n' Roller Coaster). We also watched part of the Pixar Parade until it started pouring and they had to stop it. We got absolutely soaked. Luckily it was a fairly warm rain and it didn't take us too long to dry once it stopped!
Jack, Kate & Poppa Mark with Lightning McQueen & Mater
Kate & Jack with one of the Toy Soldiers from Toy Story
On our third day there, the guys spent the morning playing golf at the Magnolia golf course while my mom and I took the kids back to the Magic Kingdom. We rode some of the more kid friendly rides and met some more of the characters which seemed to be the kids' favorite part of the trip.
Kate and I on the Dumbo the Flying Elephant Ride
Jack and Kate meeting Ariel - one of the highlights of the trip
Kate, Jack and Grandma Linda on the Walt Disney World Railroad
Once the guys were done playing golf, we meet up with them at Epcot for the evening. Everyone was fairly worn out so we didn't spend too much time there. But we did get a chance to meet Mickey, Minnie & Pluto, Dave & Josh got to do the Mission to Mars ride, and then we did a quick walk around the lake to check out all of the countries in the World Showcase.
Grandma Linda, Jack, Kate & Poppa Mark with Mickey Mouse
On our 4th day, Josh unfortunately had to head back home to return to work. After seeing him off, we decided to take a detour from Disney and head out to Universal Studios. My mom and I are big Harry Potter fans so we wanted to check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. And, as luck would have it, Universal Studios also features the Marvel Super Heroes! So this was definitely the highlight of the trip for Jack!
Here he is meeting is favorite super hero, Spiderman. Spiderman spent a lot of time with him and even signed a special autograph for him. I'm not sure we will be able to top this moment for him for quite some time!
Kate shooting her webs
Jack with the Green Goblin
Kate & Jack with Captain America
Jack & Kate with Wolverine
My mom and I with the conductor in front of the Hogwarts Express in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter
We had a great time at Universal Studios. There was hardly anyone there so we could walk right on every ride. Besides meeting the super heroes, the kids loved Seussville which was a whole area dedicated to Dr. Seuss filled with rides and activities that were perfect for little kids. And then the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was awesome. We explored Hogsmeade where we drank butter beers and pumpkin juice, got candy at Honeydukes, and Dave and I rode the Dragon Challenge roller coaster. Then we went on to Hogwarts where my dad and I rode the Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster and the Harry Potter & the Forbidden Journey ride.
That evening we took the river boat into Downtown Disney for some dinner and to explore some of the shops - mainly the Lego Store!
Jack & Kate with Lego Hulk
On our final day, we began the morning with a character breakfast at the Beach Club. We had a delicious breakfast buffet while being visited by Minnie, Goofy & Donald Duck.
Then we decided to return once again to the Magic Kingdom to ride some more rides and meet some more characters. Kate's favorite princess is Rapunzel and we had yet to spot her.
The family in front of the Magic Kingdom - our first day wearing long-sleeves!
Kate & Jack meeting Merida from the movie "Brave"
When we were standing in line to meet Merida, I happened to overhear someone mention that all of the princesses hang out at the front of the park in the Town Square Exposition Hall. So as we were getting ready to leave, we decided to give it a shot. And boy did we luck out! We got to meet Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and... Rapunzel!!!
Kate and Jack with Cinderella
A very happy Kate, and Jack, with Rapunzel! What a perfect end to the trip!
Jack and Kate in their Mickey & Minnie Christmas jammies heading off to bed before flying back home bright and early the next morning.
We had an amazing trip. So many memories. These are obviously only a handful of the photos I took. If you want to see all 253 photos, visit:
http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=5992988017/a=11937575_11937575/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/
I cannot thank my parents enough for such a fantastic Christmas gift. We will never forget our first Disney trip as a family. Kate is already asking when we can go check out Disneyland and the Disney Cruise. Time to save our pennies!
