The new face of Disney

Here are the professional photos that were taken on the first day at the Magic Kingdom park opening during the song and dance number. I downloaded them from the photo pass site and next to each picture (seriously each picture) was a signed release. I guess Disney has done this once or twice and does not want to get sued :)

Day 3- Animal Kingdom

We started Tuesday out at 1900 Park fare for breakfast. They have different characters for breakfast and dinner the breakfast characters are Alice, the Mad Hatter, Mary Poppins, Tigger and Pooh. Of course we know which one was Lucy’s favorite! She pitched a fit when Tigger left the table next to us and took a short break instead of coming to us Andy had to ask the waitress when she thought he would be back. The breakfast food was better than their dinner selections at least in my opinion, my favorite was the lobster egg benedict.

After breakfast we went to the Animal Kingdom. Lucy fell asleep on the way over and she woke up half way thru the Kilimanjaro Safari ride. Some of her favorites today were Nemo live on stage and playing in the bone yard while the “big kids” rode Mount Everest she also really liked Mickey’s Jingle Jungle parade.

Tired but hungry we headed over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Jinko. Our waiter there was awesome, the food was good but not our favorite of the trip (but still really good) they had a lot of unique selections, like a spicy beef eggroll and a cheese plate from all over the world. Muv got a flourless chocolate cake that was a big hit with both of us :).

Day 2- Epcot

We woke up bright and early in our two story hotel room :) and headed out to eat breakfast with Mickey Mouse at Chef Mickey’s. This was one of the best breakfast’s in my opinion (some others in the group disagreed) the characters took their time with the girls and the food and service were really good. We did have a problem when we arrived, our pager didn’t work and we sat patiently for 20min waiting, when we finally went up to ask they said they thought we left.

After breakfast we took the monorail to Epcot. We got in line to enter the park Brian was the first to try to get in with his card and guess what; yep you guessed it, the card didn’t work. HAHAHA. So over to guest relations we march. A very nice man helped us and gave us 4 super fast passes for any ride anytime at Epcot. They worked GREAT all day I don’t think we stood in line once. Lucy loved Nemo and Figments Imagination. Her favorite thing all day though had to be the candy necklace I gave her and playing in the bushes with Evelyn!

For dinner we ate in Norway at Akershus with the princess. I was a little apprehensive about Lucy and these “characters” they weren’t in big fluffy suits. After the first one she figured out they were okay to stand by and snuggled with just about all of them. Everyone really enjoyed their food and the girls of course loved the princess. At the end of the week we decided this was our favorite princess meal, the characters took their time and we never felt rushed like at Cinderella’s table and the food was better than at 1900 Park fare.

Day 1- Let the Magic Begin

Our plan for the morning was to wake up and get ready while my mom and dad got us checked into the hotel and got our “keys to the world”. After that we were going to drive over to the Wilderness Lodge and take the boat to the Magic Kingdom since we were eating dinner at Whispering Canyon that night.

Here is what really happened.

I get a frantic call about 30 minutes after I get up.
My mom: “They are out of tree houses, what should I do?”
Me: “What do you mean they are out of tree houses, we have had this booked for over a year!?”
My mom: “I don’t know, they overbooked them.”
Yes, it was a great call to start off the vacation. So my mom and dad ended up getting our keys without an assigned room and the hotel was going to try and work it out during the day while we were at the park 

Needless to say we were a little upset but we decided not to let it get us down and have a great day at the park. We took the boat from Fort Wilderness over to the Magic Kingdom; it’s one of my mom’s favorite things to do.

All the adults had matching shirts. They were Christmas trees made from the girls handprints with Mickey ornaments with everyone’s name and on the back was a top ten list as to why we were wearing the shirt. Number 1 reason was “It makes mom happy.” Both girls matched as well.

As we entered the park we were approached by a Disney photographer and two employees carrying clipboards asked if they could take our pictures during the opening of the park for promotional purposes  We would be able to get the photos later, for free, but we needed to sign a release. HOW COOL!!!!

After the opening song and dance we stopped to take a few pictures in front of the castle and then we were onto the rides!!!!

One of Lucy’s favorites was Dumbo, she learned to say it and always made the elephant sound when she saw the ride.

It’s a Small World and Winnie the Pooh were some of the favorites.

We had lunch at the Crystal Palace. Lucy LOVED the characters! Tigger was her favorite. She tried to chase him across the restaurant at one point. For some reason she kept trying to touch the characters hineys, I am not sure what the deal was with that, especially Piglet (just writing that for future memory). In fact, she actually ran to the next table to touch his hiney a second time (future black mail material).  The whole room key mess-up came into play when my dad went to pay for lunch with our meal plan. Our key did not work!!!! Fortunately, the manager stepped in and worked it out.

That night we ate at the Whispering Canyon and celebrated my brother Brian’s 30th Birthday. It was really great food with a cute theme. However, yet again when I went to pay our keys were invalid and they would not take our meal plan!!!! What the heck, urrggg. The manager overrode it yet again.

When we got to the hotel their solution was, they had “upgraded” us to a grand villa. Still 3 bedrooms but 4 bathrooms instead of 2 and no bunk beds (everyone would have their own bed with no blowups mattresses). We were disappointed because we had looked forward and planned for the tree houses but in the end it worked out very well. So we all headed up to the villa and guess what, our keys did not work!!!!!! We called the front desk, no one ever showed up. Eventually we got into the room, but the key fiasco would rear its ugly head all week.

 We decorated the room with a Christmas Tree and stockings and went to bed. It was a long day!

A series of unfortunate events that turned into a magical vacation

The day before we left for Disney I was like a chicken with my head cut off. Evelyn spent the night with us the night before and I took the girls to the bounce place to play and get some energy out so they would take good naps that afternoon. I don't know what I was thinking taking them by myself while school was out for winter break. Evelyn got in the middle of one of the bounce houses and would not come out and all Lucy wanted to do was go down the HUGE slide (How do you moms of 2 do it?!) :( I dropped Evelyn off with my dad around 11am and went with my mom to Walmart for some last minute stuff, Lucy fell asleep in Walmart. So much for me getting stuff done while she napped. Andy's mom (Muv) bought Lucy an indoor trampoline for Christmas that Andy needed to setup.  I asked him if he wanted to start on it, he replied it was no big deal because it would only take him 30 minutes after Lucy went to bed (MEN) :( My goal was to be in bed by 9pm, needless to say at 11 the trampoline was still not put together and the car was not packed. Andy and I crashed into bed about 12:30 with car packed and big toys together.

We woke up at 4:30 and were out of the house by 5 in great spirits ready for vacation. Lucy slept till 8:15, she watched movies, listened to her music, and took another nap. She was a very good passenger!

We arrived at Downtown Disney around noon ready for lunch. We ate at Ragland Road, which is an Irish pub and it was YUMMY. Lucy liked sitting on the high window benches and flirting with people as they passed.

We spent the day shopping. Lucy went into the world of Disney and was overwhelmed, I think she picked up ten different stuffed animals at one time, but when she laid eyes on baby Tinkerbell that was it! Over the past month she has been obsessed with Tink (or FLY as she calls her) I have never been a Tink girl, but I sang her, "you can fly" and she has been in love ever since.

When the other groups made it to town we all meet at the hotel. My mom is DEATHLY afraid of snakes. The hotel we stayed at the first night had the world largest python waterslide. Yes, my mom was not happy.

We all ate dinner at Fudruckers that night and fell asleep dreaming of a magical vacation, little did we know what waited for us in the morning.

We are back!

We are back and my house looks like Disney threw up! So I will try to post about the trip tomorrow.

Here is a picture from our first day!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! We leave in the morning and I can't wait to see Lucy's face when she meets Mickey!