We surprised our kids and told them of the vacation the morning we left. While we didn't quite get the "Wow - you are the greatest parents in the world" response, it was close. Sort of. Well, we were excited for our magical adventure!
We actually chose to leave Adalyn at home - she still need naps and has a tremendous fear of large, dressed up fictional characters. It was hard to leave her, but we made a good choice. She had more fun with her cousin anyway.
We were so excited to see the children's reactions to Disney World. They loved every minute of the adventure - and they were good sports too. We pretty much spent every waking minute at one of the parks.
Meeting the characters were their favorite thing to do. (If you haven't seen this movie - go. It's hysterical.) Dad had to work every day, but he was able to sneak off on Monday to come to Excot and Hollywood Studios.
Everything about this place is magical - even the $12 churros! Jeff kept looking for someplace to buy one. We finally found a spot on day #4. Jeff spied a child carrying one and criss-crossed the throngs of people to "ask" the child where he purchased one. The child parent's, seeing a full-grown adult racing toward their child, protectively grabbed the child and pointed to the nearest churro stand. Elated, Jeff ran to purchase a churro. I had no idea he loved them so much!
Jake only liked riding with Uncle Daren. This was Thunder Mountain Railroad. Looks like Jake is enjoying himself!
Juliana absolutely loved the Magic Carpet Ride.
Jake was chosen by Captain Jack Sparrow to be a part of his pirate crew. After much training, he passed! I do think, however, that enjoying Pirates of the Carribean is a requirement. Jake doesn't like that ride, so I doubt he joins the crew!
I had never been here during the Christmas season. The castle was breathtaking at night! Add fireworks, enchanting music and the smell of popcorn and you still can't capture the beauty of this castle.
Here is the castle in the daytime. Apparently, for a few thousand dollars, you can rent a room here. Also, they have a little Princess Boutique. For about $400, you can get a "princess make over" complete with Disney Princess Dress and hairdo. Yeah, neither of those were in my price range! But there were sure a lot of little princesses walking around. I was happy with my $12 Snow White dress. I thought she looked like a princess and it wasn't nearly as expensive!
Daren quickly sneaked a kiss from Minnie. Mickey wasn't too happy!
Disney World is expensive - flights are expensive - food and hotel are expensive. But I would do it all over again to see the look on Princess Juliana's face when she was able to meet the Princesses for the first time. We had a tragic potty accident minutes before this and she is missing something...but I won't say what!Her face is priceless.
Look how happy she is!
Showing Belle how well she can spin her dress.
Here we are sporting our cute Disney attire. Now, before you judge Jeff, Donald Duck himself left this cute shirt for Jeff one morning. (Disney characters left little presents every morning for the children. Their plan worked - they didn't ask for ONE thing in the entire park!) How could he NOT wear it?! We were in Disney World!! Truth be told, he fought me tooth and nails. He didn't want to wear it. Every time I saw him in this shirt, I laughed. At one point, he was wearing his backpack like the old 80's style. That bugs me. So I told him, "You look like a dork when you wear your backpack like that."
He turned to me and said, "You think I look like a dork with this backpack? What about THIS SHIRT!!"
What a good sport! Hmm, I haven't seen him wear this shirt since.
He. He. I still think it is funny.
Juliana on her favorite ride: The Magic Carpet Ride.
On MY favorite ride: Splash Mountain
Juliana was simply devastated that she wasn't big enough to go on most rides despite the fact that she is "growing bigger every day!" In fact, she was milla-centimeters short of the required height. One teenage boy was watching her cry after been told she couldn't go on something and he came up to us and said, why don't you stuff her shoes with something? So we did - we stuffed them with fruit snacks. And it worked!! She was tall enough!!
But after she went on Splash Mountain, she said she was done with the "tall"rides!
Pluto and Juliana showing off their "ears."
We decided to try Magic Kingdom on Saturday - WRONG day to try that! Saturday was the day they filmed the Christmas parade. Several celebrities as well as THOUSAND of girls were there to perform. The park hit capacity at 10 am. There were so many people there that I got extremely irritated. You couldn't' even walk an inch without waiting. That was the worst day. All other days were short waits and no crowds. Plus, with child swap and fast passes, we never waited more than 20 minutes on any ride. We had a wonderful time together! We ate plenty of popcorn, ate plenty of Mickey Nuggets, ride plenty of rides and no one got lost!
We had plenty of Disney magic to last us another, oh 5 years!
