Disney trip

Our Disney trip this year was a blast!! We had planned for months, but nothing can ever truly prepare you, lol. We stayed at the animal kingdom lodge and we stayed a day longer this year than two years ago. It was a blast experiencing it all with the kids no doubt. 

The girls loved the rides, no matter if it was the tram to go in, space mountain, or the tower of terror--ok, well that one scared them to death, my bad, lol. But we took in parades and rides and got fast passes and ate and just had a ball. 

The princess dinners were of course a highlight. And we also added in lilo and stitch and a few christmas type activities since we got to go to the christmas party this year. The girls played in the bubble snow on main street at the end of the party and it was literally magical. 

We were even surprised by how much we all enjoyed Epcot center! experiencing all the different "worlds" together and shopping and people watching was super cool. 

I can't put into words how happy it makes me to see these girls being not only sisters but friends. I am praying it stays this way forever and that we can do a few more trips as a family before they don't want to be seen with us, lol. 

Disney princesses on ice

We got tickets to see the Disney on Ice that comes each Winter with the Donato family and about 40 others from Nationwide. Great seats, hopped up little ladies and a LOT of snow to make it through to get there.

Once the show finally started though it was great! Cora loved the Little Mermaid sections with Ariel of course.

Amara liked the parts with Jasmine and the other Aladdin characters, and both girls enjoyed all the lights, treats, kids, and the fun afternoon.

We were really glad we went, and the girls seemed to really like it. Lucky for us they come every year like clockwork!

"Close the gates, the party's over!"

The girls REALLY like the new Disney movie Frozen. (ok, ok, we all like it :)) and we've seen it at the theater twice.  We have the soundtrack, and there are tons of video clips on YouTube, so we *might* have some of the movie memorized already.

Cora--has REALLY taken to it. She knows at least 2 of the songs by heart, and several movie lines--not something I expected from the two year old who has seen it twice. Did I mention she REALLY likes it?

Last night at bedtime after watching a clip--she even rattled off an Olaf quote (to the snow monster) 'all good things, all good things," Eric and I about fell off our chairs laughing, it was SO sweet.

Anyway, one line, "the party's over, close the gates," seems to be of particular interest to her--especially when she's playing in the playroom and with the french doors. Heck, I always wanted French doors as a kid too.  So on this day, with her Elsa nightgown on and her crown and jewels, she was quite in the movie mode.

The soundtrack was blaring in from the living room and we were quoting movie lines and singing songs--it was great.  The movie just won a Golden Globe an is nominated for Oscars and is going to Broadway.  We can't wait, we CAN'T WAIT!! 

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 :)