Disney's Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom was the third park we decided to visit on this trip.  We almost didnt--in fact, it was planned as our "down time day," but since my friend Amanda had JUST been there in September and said her girls loved it, we decided to try it out and we are so glad we did.

It's not the most popular of the Disney parks, but that's part of the allure. It had some zoo like features, but they also played off of any Disney/animal connection one could imagine.  We scanned the map--and we knew that it was huge, it had to be for all the animal enclosures, etc. but we didn't beat ourselves up over hitting all the attractions.

We had a fast pass for The Lion King Experience first, and I'd heard that the exhibit was closing (I found out later they are moving it to a new, larger venue, but it will be closed for 6 months) so we wanted to see it for sure.  It was great. It was a blend of theater in the round, acrobatics, "scenes" from the Lion King, but acted out, and colorful performers and audience participation, we really enjoyed it.

Next we headed to the animal safari.  We didn't know what to expect, but it was like taking the Columbus Zoo and the Wilds and combining them and multiplying by 10.  It was incredible.  Giraffes, zebras, lions, hippos, alligators, and all 30 feet from you on an open air safari! Several times I asked Eric if the animals were real--they were that close.

As we were trekking around, mapless wanderers, we stumbled upon a bird show of sorts. Lots of trained flying over the audience caught Beanie's attention and the huge bald eagle at the end had Eric's.  They were really beautiful.

Next stop was for some facepainting.

Meeting the famous faces of Disney!

As Brandy helped me plan this trip, she educated me on all the character dinners.  The gist of it is that if you do the Disney meal plan and do character dinners, the characters are right at your table, then you don't have to spend time in the parks in lines, genius! Sign me up!

The girls got to meet almost all of the princesses, a perk for any young girl.

And they both were very into the autograph books that a friend of mine actually made out of Golden books before our trip, and they made SURE the characters used them.  We also met lesser knowns like the Green Army Man from Toy Story, and the Wicked Stepmother and sisters from Cinderella too.

Cora wasn't too sure about why Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald weren't talking to her.  Breakfast at Chef Mickey's was fun, but I think she was a bit frustrated. Amara liked them a lot, and the characters were quite animated with her really.

They all were super kind and posed with the girls--who had worn their princess dresses for the special breakfast--too cute.

I'm really glad we did the character dinners--I saw the lines in the parks for some of the other folks, like Gaston, or Buzz lightyear and we didn't wait for them--maybe next visit if the girls feel like waiting, but for now, they were completely thrilled meeting the Disney staple characters and princesses too.

Disney Hollywood Studios, day 3

Disney Hollywood Studios was our day 3--and we were all starting to hit a bit of a wall, so it was a good place to be that day.  The main attractions were some of the Disney Jr. characters, Beauty and the Beast, muppets, and a little Mermaid show.

The nice part about Hollywood studios was that most of the shows (not too many rides here) were actually shows with people and puppets or characters, so that was engaging and different.  The bad side, however, was that after 2 days or rides, they girls weren't so sure about all the sitting and waiting--even though we tried to prepare them.

We got to see Mickey Mouse clubhouse, Sophia the first, Doc McStuffins and the neverland pirates.  We also saw the Little Mermaid show, and rode a Buzz lightyear arcade game ride they loved--it was a shooting game in 3D.  We also saw a 3D muppet movie!

While Cora took her daily afternoon snooze, Bean and I caught the Beauty and the Beast show on stage, that was pretty cool, even this isn't one of her favorite movies--she enjoyed the staged shows.

Then after some more shows, snacks, and dinners, we stuck around for the Fantasmic show. It was a combination of fireworks, water, other effects, and a lot of floats and choreography.  There were a few scary villain parts where Cora jumped up on my lap, but overall very neat.

The announcer said the amphitheater held 7000 people, and it was packed--so we had another late night in the park, then straight to the tram, then car.  The girls still weren't used to staying up late, but they were real troopers.

The show really incorporated a lot of movies, and again, being Halloween time, focused a lot on the villains, that was cool.

In the good, Mickey wins though, and all was right.  We passed on any of the glowing toys--and the girls really didn't even ask--I was super proud of Eric on all his spending, he really tamed it (at times, haha).

Mickey's Not so scary Halloween party

Our 2nd night at Disney was our night for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, so we decided to take it 'easy' that day.  We stayed at the hotel for the most part--spent some time at the pool, then before we knew it, it was time to get packed and ready!  You could be at the park at 4, so we got there in normal clothes to ride and play for a bit.

It was nice because in addition to being mid-week and not crazy busy, some folks were leaving, as the Halloween guests were coming in, so we got to ride several more rides with our fast passes right away.  The girls loved the Buzz lightyear ride, that spun around and we got to shoot at characters.

We also had time to grab some dinner and drinks as we meandered back towards some of their "favorite" attractions from the day before, lol.

Slushies were a favorite for the girls--even though it wasn't "hot," it certainly wasn't cold, and ice melted in lemonade fast.  They were glad to sit and cheers for a bit.

A special wristband got us into the park and rides, so we all had our special pass as we floated around. We had to make sure to head to the back of the park for the roller coaster, Ariel, etc. and SURPRISE, we ran into Susan and Melissa (Blaies) and hooked up with them for a few minutes.

Katy Perry and Ariel had fun trick or treating, but the lines were kind of long and uneventful, so we just doubled back to the rides again--I can't complain about that!

The whole park was decorated and characters were in costume too.  Even though it's Florida, it's Fall, and it was getting dark by 6 too.  By the time we had hit most of the trick or treat stations, we found ourselves smack upon the fireworks near the castle.  I can saw without question, that was the most amazing fireworks display I have ever seen. The whole 15 minutes was like a finale!! Then at the very end, they sent up fireworks all around the perimeter of the park, so they were literally all around you. It was incredible.  I would go back again just for that--and the soundtrack, because of Halloween, were all movie villian clips.  amazing.

We are not too skilled with night photos, but the decorations were incredible.  The castle was a spooky purple, but still magical, and the DROVES of people there all started to file out after the fireworks.

The pumpkins all were glowing and in synch with a soundtrack song that was playing all down main street.  The girls were all but asleep as the thousands of people (literally) rushed out of there, so we took our time and took in all the sites and characters (most of which who were guests and NOT employees, haha)

As we made our way out the gate, we noticed the girls had in fact nodded off, poor things.  Combine that big first day with a pretty night late for them, and they couldn't hang.

I wish they could have seen some of the cool decorations, but it wasn't worth waking up our sweet little tired girls.

Getting them on the monorail was ok, but on the tram was another ordeal...but they didn't fight too awfully much.

And by the time we got back to the hotel, there were no more wigs, candy bags, and we even lost poor Cora's magic bands somewhere--lucky for us, she was the one person who really didn't need it on the rides anyway :)

First Disney trip: Magic Kingdom

I surprised Eric on his birthday this year with a trip to Disney I had planned back in the Spring.  Little did he know (or I) wait we were in store for!!  We planned our trip for the same time Sarah was on her vacation, so on Monday, we took off, headed south in g'ma's car, and waved bye to Ohio!  The next morning we were in Orlando.  We visited downtown Disney and checked into our hotel to get some recharging for our first day.

Day one was big, the Magic Kingdom.  As soon as we got there, we headed straight for Tinkerbell.  The wait was a bit, but not enough to deter the girls!! After Tink, we headed straight to Ariel's grotto, to ride her ride and ultimately meet her.

We had a learning curve in the park, lots of backtracking, but it'd been since college when I was there last and Eric was just a tiny boy when he had went, but we made the best of it!! We grabbed snacks, caught characters (who signed the girls books) and laughed a lot.  Amara even got to ride Space Mountain with Eric, while Cora took a little cat nap in the stroller!

We did a lot of the 'big things,' we didn't want to miss out on, like Dumbo, the people mover, carousel, etc.  But by dinner time, we had to make it back to Cinderella's castle for dinner with the princesses!  Ariel, of course, was the spotlight, but all the princesses were beautiful and kind.

After dinner, we headed back to the park to take in some more attractions.

Sooner rather than later though, we all started to tucker out--seems we weren't quite ready for our big day, in a good way!  But the good news was we had part of the day to visit for the Halloween Party and we were coming back Sunday too--so we didn't worry too much.  We stayed as long as we could, knowing we had a good hour from the front gate back to the hotel anyway.

When we came back, we made sure we rode the train, which Cora loved so much we made a lap around the entire park on it!

Couldn't leave Disney without mouse ears right? of course they picked their own--and wore them the rest of the day there.

We saw poor Ariel I bet 6 times between the visits and she was always great with them--I think Cora would have been find just riding the Ariel ride and seeing her over and over again.  On our other days, we made sure to ride Small world, meet more princesses, ride the cars, Pirates of the Caribbean, OH and the roller coaster!! I think it was Goofy's Barnbuster--no pics, but they both LOVED it!  It was so fast, but they laughed SO loud the entire time, I loved it.

Whatever the cost or highs or lows, nothing will ever replace all these firsts for Eric and I--even though we know the girls may never remember...

mommy-bean day

For this episode of Mommy-bean day, I won't lie...I strategically planned :)

Amara's school was having a hayride on a Friday at Circle S with her class. It's not her normal day and I wanted her to be able to go, so I had to go with her...so...I took it as an opportunity to set up the whole day and have a go at it.  It was perfect.

We started off at 8:30 at Circle S. It was a brisk day--but she loved seeing her friends and teachers.   We did all the usual stuff--hay barn, doughnut and juice, picked a pumpkin, and with that she was ready to go.

We didn't know how the timing would pan out--so we improvised a bit, but we had an aggressive list for the day--so with one quick call, I got us in for our mani/pedi's and we were set. She'd had mani's with me before, but never pedi's--so that was a real treat.

I also had been wanting to get her hair chalk--Steph had mentioned it to me that she had done it for her daughter Brooklyn, so we hit Bed, Bath and beyond to get some extreme hue chalk, that we tried in the car :)

She wasn't interested in lunch, so we headed over to see Cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2.  She loaded up at the theater on popcorn, gummies, and a slushie, so that skipping lunch really paid off.

Next we had to run out and get a gift for g'ma's birthday--since mommy-bean day happened to fall on g'ma Jackie's birthday!

Last but not least, we headed to Cherokee farms to ride Hollywood at the stables. She loved him--he was 14 and very calm, but she learned how to make him stop and go and turn. Very cool for a half hour!.

We picked up g'ma's bday cake and then to see daddy and sis. We had an exhausting but always fun, mommy-bean day as usual, and just like always, it ends with us planning the next one out. I hope she never tires of them.