I'm going to attempt to blog about my Disney vacation day by day. We had a wonderful time, but it was a lot to remember, so here goes.
Day 1: Epcot. T-shirt of the day - Army Strong. We got up EARLY Tuesday morning and were on the road by 4:30 AM. We stopped only for breakfast and gas and checked into our resort by noon. We started using the dining plan right away and had lunch in the food court of the hotel. At the time we thought it was pretty darn good, but after comparing it to all the other places we ate, it was only ok. LOL Carter bought a trading pin in the store - Stitch dressed up as Elvis. He was then on a mission to find more Stitch/Elvis pins. We then made our way to our first park visit: Epcot. They met stitch right away, so that was fun, even though he wasn't in Elvis garb.
The first ride we rode was Spaceship Earth and we were able to walk right on, so that was a wonderful start to our trip, and kind of a sign of things to come as we were able to walk right on to several rides throughout our week's stay. We then did Mission: Space, which turned out to be one of the boys' favorite rides. We were at Epcot during the International Flower & Garden Festival, so there were many topiaries of Disney characters throughout the park. Carter even found a Hidden Mickey on a giraffe and he was hooked. A Hidden Mickey is an image of Mickey Mouse concealed in the design of a Disney attraction (ride, resort, etc...). After finding this one on the giraffe, Carter was hooked and asked every waitress we had if there were any in the restaurant we were in. Speaking of restaurants, we ate at Le Cellier in Canada Tuesday night and it was FANTASTIC!! I had a mushroom covered filet mignon and it was to die for! They brought the kids cool birthday desserts also. We initially planned to celebrate Carter's birthday while there since it was his birthday month, but at checkin we decided we could just as easily be 'celebrating' both boys' birthdays; we just couldn't come in March when it was Chad's. So, they both wore a birthday button all week and got special desserts everywhere we went. We hung out at Epcot until dark for the fireworks show. It was raining terribly and I was pretty miserable, but the show was good.
Day 2: Magic Kingdom. T-shirt of the day - Donald Duck. Wednesday was Magic Kingdom day, but we only had the morning there before we had lunch reservations at the Sci-Fi Diner in Hollywood Studios. We had to move fast.
We were there at opening and followed the Touring Plan from The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and http://www.touringplans.com/tp2/UG2_index.php?PageID=14 . It seemed to work out good for us. We were able to ride Peter Pan, Winnie The Pooh, Buzz Lightyear, It's a Small World and see Mickey's Philharmagic all before 11:30, which is when we caught the monorail to Disney Hollywood Studios for lunch. The Sci Fi Diner was pretty neat. Your table is a car and they are all lined up facing a giant movie screen, just like you're at a drive in theater. They show old cheesy sci fi clips on the screen. The food was good. LOVING the dining plan since we would never have eaten at these places without it ($75 lunch is not in our budget). We rode Star Tours while at DHS and then the boys built their own lightsabres. They each had $25 to spend and that's how they spent it, but I was happy with that. Chad's begging to buy 'junk' up until this point was making me crazy! Carter still had birthday money left so he also bought that Stitch pin I told you about and a smaller lightsaber later in the week. After lightsaber buying we took them back to the room and then went BACK to Magic Kingdom to finish our our day there. We met Pluto upon our arrival back at the park. Then we went to the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse, which was ok. There were a lot of stairs. LOL After that we rode Pirates of the Caribbean, which we were able to walk right onto. We loved that one and rode it twice in a row since there was no wait. We also went to Tom Sawyer's Island which was a LOT of walking and I was SO done! But it was pretty cool I guess. The final ride for today was the Jungle Cruise which was a ton of fun. Our guide was AWESOME, so funny and perfectly timed. We had a great time on that and would have loved to have ridden it at night as we were advised by many. It just didn't work out for us to do that. We ate dinner at Cosmic Ray's and it was the BEST deal for a counter service. There are 3 different lines: 1 for hambrugers, 1 for salads and sandwiches, and 1 for ribs and chicken. Charles and I both got the ribs/chicken combo and it was a TOn of food. Chad got an adult hamburger. One of the clerks there told us that kids could get an adult counter service sometimes, even though they're supposed to order off the kids' menu. From then on out we ordered for the kids from the adult menu for counter service meals. It worked out great and allowed us to sometimes share meals. Cosmic Ray's is definitely the best dining plan value for a counter service meal...that and Wolfgang Puck Express which I'll tell you about later. It got dark as we were leaving Magic Kingdom and it is just absolutely beautiful at night. Indescribable really.
We never got to see the parade or fireworks at MK, which I regret, but choices have to be made and it just didn't work out for us to experience that part of the magic. I am glad I got to see the castle at night though. Simply beautiful. We went to the resort pool tonight and the kids had a blast. The large pool area was set up like a fortress, with 2 water slides and canon squirters. I heard it was open 24 hours, but we didn't test that theory. We left by 11:00 each night.
Day 3: Animal Kingdom. T-shirt of the day: Goofy. We started today (Thursday) with a character breakfast at Chef Mickey's. The food was really good, but we regretted giving up our morning for it since it made us miss being at the park at opening. But I had been told that breakfast was better than dinner, so there we were. The characters come around to each table for photo ops, so that was nice, but I prefer the characters be in regular dress, not in chef aprons. Oh well. It was fun. Goofy loved our shirts. :)
At Animal Kingdom my favorite ride was Dinosaur! It was scary for Carter, but he still enjoyed it. I thought it was GREAT! Expedition Everest was another fun one. It goes forward AND backward and was scary and fun. Kilimanjaro Safari was pretty cool. That was where you take a safari truck through the animal reserve and see the animals up close and personal. Our guide wasn't the best, but it was fun to see the animals. We had a giraffe cross directly in front of our truck. It's Tough To Be a Bug was a GREAT show; definitely go see it. Finding Nemo: The Musical was a fantastic show! We all loved it! Festival of The Lion King was definitely worth seeing, but not as good as Nemo we didn't think. You can't beat a Disney show though! After leaving Animal Kingdom we went back to the room to let the kids swim while I researched where we were going to eat dinner. We decided to go to Downtown Disney and eat at Wolfgang Puck Express for a counter service. It was delicious! If you go, I highly recommend the creme brulee for dessert. It was divine! Downtown Disney was a ton of fun, too. There was a DJ playing music and interacting with the crowd with dances, etc. Carter especially loved it. The Lego store was huge and very reasonably priced. We were actually surprised at how reasonably priced everything seemed to be (well, maybe except for food).
Day 4: Epcot. T-shirt of the Day: Orange Disney 2009.
We went back to Epcot today and tried the touring plan. We felt like it was a little backwards this time. It told us to go directly to Soarin' and get a fastpass and then go ride Test Track. There was no wait to ride Soarin', but there was a ton of people getting fastpasses and then a wait to ride Test Track. Oh well. While Charles went to get the Soarin' fastpasses the kids and I went into Character Spot and I'm glad we did. We got some great character pics and didn't have to wait in line long at all.
I would not have waited in line later in the day, so I recommend this: when you get there at opening, send someone to get fastpasses at Test Track, you and the kids go into character spot while he/she does that, and then you meet back up and go ride Soarin'. Soarin' and Test Track were both awesome rides! We rode Test Track twice and would have loved to have ridden Soarin' twice, but the wait was just too long. We, of course, rode Mission: Space again today. Turtle Talk with Crush was a lot of fun, but Honey I Shrunk The Audience was lame I thought. Maelstrom in Norway was a fun ride, but the movie afterwards is LAME. We thought it would be educational, but it wasn't. When we went through Japan today there was a station where you could choose an oyster and the lady would open it up to find a pearl inside. The kids begged to do it, so I let them choose one together that I will later have put in a setting for myself. It was a lot of fun and the kids' oyster produced the 2nd largest pearl that we saw while standing there (out of about 12 I guess). It's very pretty and I'm going to have it put in a ring setting. Dinner tonight was at Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge. Chad fell asleep while waiting to be seated. It had been a long week by this point. This restaurant was really different and a lot of fun. If someone needed ketchup the server would yell out that they needed ketchup and everyone in the restaurant would deliver their ketchup to that table. They did pony rides around the restaurant every half hour. Carter participated, but Chad didn't. There was a ton of food and it was pretty good.
Day 5: Disney Hollywood Studios, Star Wars Weekend. T-shirt of the day: we didn't match, but the kids worse Star Wars costumes.
Today was my favorite day. There were Star Wars characters all over the parks, which made for some great photo opportunities. We were supposed to leave the park and have dinner in Japan at Epcot tonight, but we decided early on that we wanted to stay for the Hyperspace Hoopla at the end of the day (SOOO glad we did) so Charles was able to get us a walk in table at the Sci Fi Diner for lunch. Anyway, we went immediately to Jedi Training and Carter got picked for the first show. They picked 30 kids out of the audience for each show and gave them a little class on how to be a Jedi. Then each child got to fight either Darth Vader or Darth Maul. It was a lot of fun. Carter fought Darth Vader in the first show and then, thankfully, Chad got chosen for the second show and fought Darth Maul.
Chad is in the gray pants.
They got Star Wars Tooth Tunes toothbrushes for their efforts! I thought that was a great prize since those things are expensive. :) While we were waiting to be seated at the Diner Chewbacca walked by and I got a great shot of him looking at Carter.
Anakin said he felt better standing next to another Anakin rather than a bounty hunter.
We saw R2D2 rolling by and Charles noticed that the guy controlling him was trying to look like a guy just standing around watching. We watched the Indiana Jones Stunt Show and I thought it was just ok. There was too much talking I thought. The Lights! Motors! Action! show was pretty good though. I still thought there should have been less talking, but it was definitely fun to watch. Toy Story Mania was a great ride and we were so thankful to a family that gave us their fastpasses because they weren't able to stay long enough to do it. At the end of the day we watched the Star Wars Hyperspace Hoopla and it was FANTASTIC! The Star Wars Characters had a dance off and it was so much fun to watch. I am so very glad we stayed to watch.
Day 6: Typhoon Lagoon. T-shirt of the day: Kids At Play (our playgroup).
Typhoon Lagoon is awesome. The kids stayed in the wave pool most of the day and just loved it. At Typhoon Lagoon they have nachos that count as a snack on the dining plan, so that worked out great. Chad had a giant turkey leg that was YUMMY also. I got sunburned today so that was no fun at all. :( We ate dinner at Wolfgang Puck Express tonight to use up our last 3 counter service meals. We decided to stay one more night in Orlando so we could do Blizzard Beach tomorrow, so we got a room at the Marriott and it was awesome! We stayed on tehe 20th floor overlooking the beautiful pool area.
Day 7: Blizzard Beach. T-shirt of the day: Cars for the kids. We woke up and got room service today, something we've never done, but it was sooo good. I was afraid the food would be mediocre and possibly even cold, but it wasn't. It was fantastic!
Blizzard Beach was also a lot of fun, but I think everyone preferred Typhoon Lagoon. I find it hard to choose because the kids actually did other things outside of the wave pool at Blizzard Beach and I thought that was fun. We spent tonight (Monday night) at a hotel overlooking the beach in Treasure Island, FL. Charles and the kids went out at night to catch crabs and then went to the beach Tuesday morning while I packed us up. We left at 11:00 AM to go to the Florida Aquarium before getting on the road to come home.
A cute little turtle.
The Florida Aquarium was ok, not as good as the Georgia Aquarium at all. But there was an otter there that was playing with Carter and it was so very cute. It would swim when Carter ran, like they were racing, stop when Carter stopped and followed him around. Carter loved it!
After we left the aquarium we visited the SS American Victory and then made our way home, getting in around 1 AM Wednesday morning.
All in all, we had a wonderful vacation and I'm so glad we went. I am so thankful to Disney for offering the fantastic military deal that they did. Charles got a 5 day hopper with water park option for FREE and for the kids and I it was only $150 each. The 5 day hopper by itself would have only been $99. It was $25 extra each to add park hopper and water park option. Plus, we got 40% off the room rates at the resorts. I already had our 2009 vacation planned and ready to book to go to Jamaica when this deal opened up and I couldn't pass it up. They had not done a deal like this since 2003 so I wanted to take advantage of it while we could. We'll probably do Jamaica next summer though. :) The dining plan ended up being a great deal for us I thought. I spent $510 for all of us to have the dining plan for the 5 days we'd be at the parks. All of our eating expenses added up to $850!! Granted, we wouldn't have eaten at the expensive table service restaurants if we hadn't been on the dining plan, but it was nice to be able to enjoy those meals and it was REALLY nice to have it all already paid for and not have to worry about money for food. I would do the dining plan again. But, alas, we are on to new adventures. I'm not saying we'll NEVER go to Disney again, but we want to see what we haven't seen before, so spending the money on Disney again would be a tough decision for me to make. But never say never. We did have a wonderful time and Charles is all about going back. But there's so many places we haven't been - Jamaica (the kids have never been), Hawaii, Europe (the kids have never been), California, the Pacific Northwest, Arizona, our love of PA, New York City, Las Vegas, Alaska....
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