Disney Day 4

On Wednesday morning we had reservations for the princess breakfast at 10:30. The breakfast was at Epcot, and we decided to get there early enough to give time to get fast passes for Soarin' before the breakfast. While Jonathan and Phillip took off for those, we happened upon the character spot. Since the park had just opened there was only a 10 minute wait. It was all in an air conditioned building (a major plus) and all of the main characters were set up for visits. It made it easy just to see everyone in one place. Even though we had breakfast with them on Sunday, Payton wanted to visit again. 

I love the smile on her face in these pictures. As you can tell, she had warmed up some to the characters. Next we stopped at the request of others (a-hem) to get her a princess dress. She chose Cinderella and we picked out a tiara to go with it.

Next we headed over to the breakfast where we were greeted by Belle.

All of the princesses made their way to the tables.

They had a princess procession where all of the girls danced around the room with the princesses. Payton was pretty shy during it of course. I took a video on my phone which she watched at least 100 times while singing along before she accidentally deleted it. Yes, we had tears. She was devastated.

I had to include this picture of Harper because this kid was so into her strawberries. Every time she would run out or I would try to take it away, she would begin screaming, and I mean screaming. After letting her eat 5 or 6, Jonathan finally cut some up to take with us so that we could get out of there.

Two tired princesses. The adults then cashed in their fast passes for Soarin' which is like a simulated hang glider. It was pretty neat. We caught Nemo and Turtle Talk before heading out. Everyone was getting tired and hungry at this point.

We left about mid afternoon and decided to rest up the remainder of the night since it would have been so late by the time we got naps and headed back out. We have one more day to go!

Disney Day 3, Round 2

After some rest time we headed back to Magic Kingdom. The first stop was the race cars. I think everyone loved this. Me, Harper, Mom and Karen stayed behind and let all of the boys ride (plus Payton). 

Next up was the tea cups. This was left up to Daddy since Mommy doesn't do circles.

Another ride on Dumbo with the pretty lights at night.

Of course back to the carousel.

Again, since it was pretty late we were able to get on several rides without a wait that normally have very long lines. We went to the Buzz Light Year where you ride on a cart wearing 3-D glasses and it's like a video game where you shoot. Jonathan was so into it that I grabbed Harper and we just watched him go to town.

We just happened to walk out in time to see the fireworks.

We then got fast passes and switched out watching kids so that everyone could ride Space Mountain. Although we didn't plan on watching the Electrical Parade again, it happened to be starting as we were walking out. Since Chase hadn't seen it, we found a spot right at the gate to watch it and we were able to shoot right out without getting in too much of the chaos.

Disney Day 3

Since Monday was low key, we were up and ready to tackle Animal Kingdom when they opened. We went straight b

Disney Day 2

On Monday we decided to head to Hollywood Studios. There was a tropical storm hovering over Florida during our trip. It provided some showers on Monday and Tuesday for us. Other than that, we enjoyed the breeze that came along with it. However, Monday was pretty miserable. We got a little late start at Hollywood Studios due to the late night at Magic Kingdom the day before. The big things that I heard about there was the Disney Junior show and the Little Mermaid Live. We headed to the Disney Junior first while Daddy stayed outside with Harper since she was snoozing. This show incorporated all of the favorite Disney Junior shows like Mickey Mouse, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Toodles had to help throw Minnie a surprise birthday party and all of the characters helped along the way. Payton absolutely loved it! She especially loved when Jake's treasures (gold tissue paper) came out of the sky. We couldn't leave until she had accumulated as many as possible. Unfortunately, while we were in the show a huge storm came, leaving Daddy, Harper, and our strollers soaking wet. We trudged on going to the Little Mermaid show because I knew she would love it. We had actually gotten fast passes before the Disney Junior show so we really didn't wait too long. Payton did enjoy it. We grabbed some lunch and then tried to go the Buzz Light Year ride. Since the wait was almost 2 hours and the next fast pass wasn't available until 8:30 p.m. we decided that would be a must do for our next trip. We walked about, ate lunch, and came to the conclusion that it was too miserably hot, humid, and muggy to go on any longer. We went back to the house.

We actually stayed at two different places while down there, so Monday was the day where we switched. Due the weather, we ended up just taking the day to move all of our things, check out the new resort, and grab some dinner at the burger bar at the resort. We decided to rest up for the following day at Animal Kingdom and back to Magic Kingdom. It really did work out that we were able to purchase tickets for 5 days so we didn't feel like we had to push it when the weather was bad or the kids were too tired to enjoy it. Unfortunately, I don't really have any pictures from this day since it was somewhat uneventful and the rain was in full swing. 

Disney Day 1, Round 2

Since we got started so early Sunday morning, we went back to the house that we were staying at around lunch time. We kind of kept with that schedule throughout the week. It worked out because that way we could eat lunch at the house and not pay astronomical prices for food. Our girls love a good nap, so we nestled in for a 3-4 hour nap before heading back to Magic Kingdom that night. Our goal was to see the electrical parade.

Payton was delighted to see the castle illuminated in pink!

The past several months, Payton has continued to say that she wanted to see Ariel at Disney World. We took off to try and catch her, only to find that she already gone for the day. She decided that she wanted to wait for Tinkerbelle instead. 

After that we rode the Jungle Cruise and Aladdin's carpet ride a few times with little to no wait. We decided to wait for the 11:00 parade so that it would be less crowded. Since we came back in the park a little after 7 and already saw people staking out spots for the 9:00, we didn't want to waste our whole night waiting on that. Instead, we used that time to take advantage of no wait lines while everyone else was seeing the parade.

We finally headed over and got a spot in front of the castle. They had a light show on the castle a little before the parade. It really was very neat. The pictures dont' do it justice.

Love this face! This is her watching the light show loving every minute!

Finally, we saw the electrical parade and Payton loved every minute. Luckily, little bit fell asleep so we weren't wrestling her.

Before we could get out of the park we had two tired girls on our hands!

Disney Day 1

We left Chef Mickeys and rode the monorail over to Magic Kingdom. We got there before the park opened, so we got to see all the characters come in on the train!

 First view of Cinderella's castle up close!

This had to be Payton's favorite ride of Disney. Go figure! Yes, I'm talking about the carousel. It was our first ride of the Disney trip. Since we got there right at opening, we went straight back to the Fantasyland (I think...) where all of the kiddy rides are to try to catch them before the lines started up. Within 1 hour we had ridden the carousel, Peter Pan, It's a Small World, and Pooh. All of which typically have very long lines! I can't say enough how much it benefited us to get to the parks early. In our case the crowds weren't bad, the temperatures were cooler, and kids were in better moods. It was a win-win situation that definitely made it worth it to get up a little earlier.

I told you our little girl started walking on the trip...

Riding Dumbo with Daddy for the first time. There many more to follow throughout the trip. Near Dumbo they also had a new Goofy roller coaster. It was a kiddie roller coaster, but it was still pretty fast. Payton seemed a little hesitant down the first hill, but she was okay after that.

We took the train to the other side of the park and spotted Pooh and Tigger. We figured we would stop while we were right there. It seemed like a great idea until they had to take a water break. I truly can't imagine wearing those costumes in that heat. We had to wait a bit, but it was worth it!

About this time we figured it was time to head back for naps.