Our Disney Vacay - Day 3

With one full day of Disney experience under our belts, we woke up Thursday ready to do it again! So after baths, breakfast and waiting to catch the Disney bus, we were back at Magic Kingdom for another fun-filled day.

We headed to Mickey's Toontown Fair, where I guess if you were a 3 year-old would probably be one of the favorite parts of your trip! This is the part of Magic Kingdom that really showcases the Disney characters and their "lifestyles". We got to see Mickey and Minnie's houses, meet the Mr and Missus in person and ride Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster.

We walked through Mickey and Minnie's houses, which were really neat. Tristan's favorite room at Mickey's house was the game room...no surpirse there, he kept wanting to go in and play the games! He also loved Mickey's workshop where al of Mickey's giant tools were hung on the wall and there was a model of his house. The whole place was really neat and the Mickey's garden even had life-size cactus statues of his friends...bet you wish you had that at your house huh?

Tristan absolutely LOVED meeting Mickey and Minnie and actually got to do it twice that day. The first time I took him by myself since Parker was asleep in the stroller and he was grinning from ear to ear with excitement, he could hardly contain himself. As we waited in line, he kept looking up at me and grinning, then he'd start jumping up and down. And as our turn approached to go into the area where Mickey and Minnie were, he got more and more excited. Then the door opened for us to go in, and he saw them and told me "Look Mommy, there's Mickey!", all with a huge grin! Then he got their autographs, a bunch of hugs, and of course some pictures, one or two which Mommy got to be in too!!

After visiting with Mickey and Minnie, we headed back over to Frontierland so Tristan and Mommy could ride the big roller coaster one more time (we had picked up our FastPasses when we first got to the park that day). Once again, hardly any wait in the Fast Pass line and Tristan absolutely LOVED the ride (and so did Mommy!), and asked for more when it was over!

If you enlarge the picture, you can see my head and the top of Tristan's head behind the lady in the nright green shirt near the front

After the roller coaster and some lunch, and an awake Parker we headed to the last area of Magic Kingdom, Tomorrowland, where we encountered some of Tristan's favorite rides at the park. Tomorrowland seemed to have quite a few rides, which is what our kids like to do, so it made for a great afternoon/evening.

We rode every ride we could, but Tristan's favorite ride was Buzz Lightyear's "Shoot-Shoot" game...it was actually pretty darn cool, and I must admit Victor and I had a pretty good time on that one. We each sat with one of the kids in cart/coaster thing and each person had a gun to shoot targets as you were moved through the Buzz's outer space and the cart kept score for each person. It was a lot of fun, but since I was so busy shooting and racking up my score, I didn't take any pictures of that one!

Everyone also liked the rocketship ride way up high in the air...we took an elevator way up top, and got to get on little rocketships that went around in a circle. Parker liked this one a lot!

Another favorite was of course the race cars. Although, I will tell you I am 100% sure I don't need to ever drive with either one of kids behind the wheel again...they were horrible drivers, lol!!!!! But, they had lots of fun!

After riding lots of rides and eating some yummy Disney popcorn (amusement parks always have the best popcorn, maybe it's all that butter!), we stood in a really short line and got to meet Buzz Lightyear himself! Ever since the trip, Buzz has become a favorite character of Tristan's.

At that point, it was starting to get dark and the crowd was dwindling, so we decided to go back over to Toontown so Parker could meet Mickey and Minnie. We got into Mickey and Minnie in no time and Parker was ecstatic....I think he might have been more excited that Tristan was. He took them his book to get signed and loved taking pictures with them...in the next few days, he became quite the pro at picture-taking with the characters.

Since we still had some time before the park closed, and we were in Toontown, Tristan got to ride Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster a *few* more times. Actually, he rode like 7 times in a row! Since it was nearing closing time, most people had headed up to secure a place near the castle to watch the fireworks, so practically no one was out in the park which meant no line for us! This was heaven for Tristan, for like 4 times in a row he didn't even have to get off the ride and get back inline, he just got to keep going, and with Disney's Parnet Pass, Victor and I could switch off who was riding with him while the other one stayed with Parker. Unfortunately, Parker was about an inch under the minimum height requirement for that ride and I once again we were having too much fun riding the roller coaster we didn't snap and pics:(

So, after a ton of turns on the roller coaster and an official goofy's Barnstomer Frequent Flyer card, we hit up a gift shop to pick up a souvenior or two and started to head out of the park for the day.

Day 2 of Magic Kingdom was great...we had our bearings down and we got to finish seeing the whole park. And we even managed to get a family picture somewhat in front of the castle, and everyone was looking at the camera!!!!

Stay tuned for the next post all about Animal Kingdom!

Our Disney Vacay - Days 1 & 2

As promised, I am FINALLY getting around to posting about our vacation to Disney...I guess we just had so much fun there that we have been trying to stay as busy as possible since we returned so we don't have to think about how much we wish we were still at "The Happiest Place on Earth"!

Seriously, we had a wonderful time and Disney truly does a great job at making your trip "magical"! Now, don't let me fool you, it wasn't all roses. Traveling with 2 young children and staying in a hotel for 7 nights is no "magical experience"...we had out share of temper tantrums, fights, and disagreements, and I'm not just talking about the kids! BUT, despite all those "fun" family dynamics we had a wonderful time and can't wait to plan out our next trip to "Mickey's house" (Tristan's name for Disney)...hopefully for Parker's 3rd birthday!

And since I took so many pictures (I know, you're shocked, right?), I have decided to break our trip into 3 posts, so as not to inundate you with pictures! Although, I may not have achieved that goal since I just finished uploading all the pictures for just this post and I think it's somewhere near 100...major picture overload ahead! So if you are ready to see a lot of pictures and read all about our trip to Disney, then go ahead and keep reading, and scrolling down!!!!

We woke up at the crack of dawn that Tuesday morning to start off our vacation, and to our surprise the kids were both very pleasant that morning...it may have been that we woke them up after we were already dressed, everything was packed, their clothes were picked out and all we had to do was get them dressed and hop in the car so that they didn't have time to think that they were getting up 3 hours before their normal wake up time, but I'dlike to believe that they were just excited about heading off to Mickey's house!



We got to the airport, got checked in and went to our gate, all with perfect timing....not too much of wait to board but not running late, perfect! Tristan was super excited about getting on a plane, he hasn't been on a plane since he was about 9 months, so in his eyes this was his first plane ride and he couldn't wait to take off. Since we flew Southwest we got to board pretty early with the family boarding and could pick out a seat close to the airplane wing. Tristan was excited. So, off we flew to Houston where we had a 2 hour layover...which actually turned out to be the best thing ever! The kids were able to wake up that morning, take a short plane ride, arrive in the Houston terminal and burn some energy off there running around the place, all so they could sleep on the longer flight to Orlando!

Both kids slept almost the whole flight to Orlando, which was absolutely wonderful! We used Disney's Magical Express Service to get transported to our hotel (totally recommend it if planning a trip). After we got checked in to the hotel, we freshened up a tad bit and headed over to Epcot where we had reservations at The Garden Grille for Tristan's birthday dinner. We had a little time to kill before our reservations so we checked out the Innoventions area of Epcot which are two big buildings with lots of different games and experiences that showcase new technologies that the kids can see and touch.

Tristan encountered his first of many "favorite" gamesat Epcot, the Piggy Game! The game is probably geared towards kids a little older that Tristan since it helps to teach you about saving money for the future by learning about saving and investing and inflation and deflation (just might be a tad bit over a 3 year old's head), but he didn't care! He loved to take the piggy bank that you get at the beginning of the course and put it in each "game" of the course...we heard about the Piggy Game every single day from then on out!

So after a couple of rounds of the Piggy Game we headed over to the Garden Grille for our dinner reservations...Victor booked them back when we bought the trip since we wanted to make sure we got to dine with the characters on Tristan's actual birthday. And it was well worth it, it was a huge hit and is another of my recommendations...we found out it was one sure-fire way to have a pleasant meal with two small children! Both kids were so excited to see Mickey, Pluto and Chip & Dale that there was no arguments about eating or fits because they were ready to go. The excitement on both of their faces as the characters came around and personally visited with them at the table was absolutely priceless. Tristan could could hardly contain himself he was so excited and Parker loved the characters and especially giving them hugs and high fives. Both kids quickly learned to hand over their autograph books to get them signed...it was like getting a huge star's autograph for them!

Tristan even got a little pirate treasure chest birthday cake with a candle for his birthday. So, of course, we sang to him, which he loved! And Chip and Dale and Pluto made one more pass by our table to wish our little boy a happy birthday! One funny thign about Chip & Dale is that we couldn't tell them apart and I guess Tristan couldn't either, or maybe he didn't even no there are two different chipmunks because the whole time he just called every chipmunk "ChipnDale"!!!

So after a very successful, and fun, dinner, we left the restaurant with two very happy children to go see a little of Epcot and watch some of the nightly fireworks before heading to the room for some shut eye!

The next day was our first full day at Disney and we of course decided to spend it at Magic Kingdom...I might have forgot to mention that we had park hopper passes so we were able to visit all the parks while we there.

We got to Magic Kingdom just in time to see most of the daily parade that comes down Main Street. Victor and I both totally thought Tristan would LOVE the parade, which he did later, but I think he was completely overwhelmed at first. I guess if I was a 3 year old and just walked into a huge amusement park and giant floats with music and characters were parading before my eyes with tons of people standing to watch them, I might have been a little scared too!

After the parade ended we headed on into the park and of course, stopped for a traditional picture in front of the castle...as you can see Tristan still wasn't completely warmed up to the whole idea yet!

And since we were right by the castle we happened to catch the Mickey and Friends stage show that goes on throughout the day. It was a great little 20 minute show that showcased a ton ofthe characters complete with a little fireworks display and smoke at the end! Tristan was till not being his normal excited self and decided he'd rather watch the show from afar but Parker stayed right up front and LOVED the show.

Afterwards, we headed over to Adventureland and Tristan got back into his normal groove. We rode a bunch of rides, inlcuding a safari boat ride, Aladdin's Magic Carpets, Pirates of the Caribbean and so much more. This was definitely right up the kid's alley. And Disney makes almost everything accessible for the little kids...Parker was able to ride a good majority of the rides, and he loved it all!!!!

After adventuring through Adventureland we moved on to Frontierland where Mommy and Tristan got to ride some of the big kid rides while Daddy (who is not a fan of rollercoasters and such) stayed with Parker, who take a little nap in the stroller. Disney has a great system called FastPass set up where you can swipe you admission card and get a ticket for a ride that gives you a time to come back between and you don't have to wait in line. It is the best thing ever dreamed up! Not all rides have a FastPass option but on the ones that do, it is so worth it, it was amazing walking down a separate aisle passing tons of people in line for rides...I still to this day, don't know why they just didn't get FastPasses!!!

The rides were great and Tristan was just tall enough to meet the minimum height requirement for most of the big kid rides! He got to ride the biggest roller coaster he's been on yet, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. He LOVED it and when we stopped, he said "I want more"...we didn't ride it again that day but got FastPasses to ride it again the next day. We also rode Splash Mountain and got drenched...one piece of advice, don't sit in the front on that ride, unless you want to get wet! My hair was nice and straight prior to that ride and afterwards, not so pretty!


(We're in the front row)

After going on our thrill rides for the day we rejoined Daddy and Parker, who woke up, to take the train all the way around Magic Kingdom and headed over to Fantasyland to get on some of the more traditional Disney rides. Oh, and Tristan passed out for a little while in the stroller...the only day of the whole vacation that he napped.

The sun started to set as we toured around Fantasyland and the castle lit up in preparation for the nighttime fireworks. We took the boys on the ride everybody knows, It's a Small World, and they were both mesmerized. Since it was getting later in the day, the lines really dwindled down and we got to ride it a couple of times and didn't have to wait a bit. We also saw Mickey's 4D Philharmagic movie, which was amazing and puts all other 4D movies to shame and then we took a couple spins around on the carousel, which was by far Parker's favorite ride. For the rest of the trip if we passed by the carousel, or even got within eyesight of it, Parker immediately started pointing and screaming. Needless to say, we took a lot of turns on that carousel ride!

After we rode as many rides as we could (with no waiting!) we headed up to Main Street to catch the fireworks show and spotted Mickey and Minnie. They were part of a special event that was going on and as I was snapping a few pictures, I recognized Samantha Brown fromthe travel channel (she's the woman in the green dress in the picture below) and realized they were filming something for the show. As hard as I tried we didn't get to be on TV...just kidding, I just took some pics because I was being a total tourist!

We watched the fireworks show and then headed back to the hotel to get our first of many late night bedtimes...I don't think the kids went to bed before 10 p.m. any night we were there, and that was after being out all day! But it was well worth it!

So, that completes the first installment of our Disney vacation, hopefully I you are not on picture overload because I still have 5 more days to go! And, yes, I really did narrow down the pictures from the amount I actually took...but don't worry, as each day went on I took fewer and fewer pictures!