Disney World

Last week we went on a wonderful trip to Disney World.  This was Emily's first Disney trip and it was better than I imagined.  We left last Wednesday, the 16th, and returned on Sunday, the 20th.

We planned the trip through a Disney Travel Agent, a friend of mine from high school.  We stayed on the Disney property and got a great package that included park tickets and a meal plan.  By the way, the meal plan is a great deal!    We also had two great friends go with us.  Eric and Erin are Disney experts.  They used to live in Orlando and know so much about each Disney park.  They planned our activities in Orlando.  It was great because they know what rides to do at what time so we were able to do everything we wanted to do without waiting in too many lines.  Jeff and I were able to concentrate on Emily and not worry about what we should do next.  Thanks Erin and Eric.

I was amazed with how well Emily did on this trip.  We had long days.  Most nights she didn't go to sleep until 10:00 or 11:00 and we were up by 6:30 or 7:00 most mornings.  She did so great!  Jeff started with two rules for Disney. 

#1 No crying at Disney and #2 If you aren't in the stroller you have to hold someones hand.  We couldn't believe how well this worked.  She had a few moments of wanting to cry and whine and Jeff would remind her about rule #1.  She would calm herself down. If she heard another child crying she would comment that they didn't know the rules:)  We were so proud of her!!!!!  

  We all came home tired and a little sick but we felt great while we were at Disney. 

Emily was very excited about her trip and we literally counted down the days until we left for Disney.

Emily had her bag packed on Monday.  What was in her bag you might ask?  Well, a baby, a foam rocket, princess lipstick, jewelry, 3 books, and her new "Tangled" doll.   She was so excited to pack her own bag to take on the plane.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Wednesday morning we woke up early and put the last few things in our bags, dropped Barney off at the vet and headed to the airport.

On our way to the airport.

In the airport there were snacks...

Her v reader kept her busy waiting to board the plane...

On the plane we had a Dora movie:)

After our plane landed in Orlando, we took the Disney Magical Express to our resort.  This was great, they pick up your bags and bring them to your resort for you.  Our bus took us to our resort.  We stayed at Port Orleans: French Quarter.  Emily's favorite part was the plastic coins they give you to throw in the fountain.

That night we did a character dinner at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort.

This is Emily on her way to dinner with her autograph book in hand.

The dinner was with Cinderella, Prince Charming, the step sisters and the stepmother.

This was such a great dinner.  It was a buffet where  Cinderella and Prince Charming are announced and they come in and dance and some kids are able to dance with them and then they along with the other characters make their way around to all the tables. 

The first character to come to our table was the stepmother.  Emily used to be afraid of her but not anymore.  She just said her face looked strange:) 

Then step sister Anastasia came to our table and stayed for quite awhile.

Then she called her sister, Drizella over to talk with Emily and they stayed a really long time.

Let me tell you, they stayed at our table for a long time.  They said the other tables were boring and they wanted Emily to be there every night.  Emily was just eating her dinner and talking to them.  They asked if she would be having a party for her birthday.  She told them that she was going to have a princess party and they asked if they could come.  So we'll see if she remembers that in August.  They stayed in character so well and at one point were fighting and she was telling them to stop fighting and to get along.  Some of the time we couldn't even hear what they were saying but they just kept talking.  We were all amazed!!!  Then they very loudly called Prince Charming over and over again until he came over.  Everyone in the room was looking at us.

Finally, someone came over to get them and so they left and went to other tables.  It was hilarious. 

Then Cinderella made her way over and spent a very normal amount of time at our table. 

Here is some video.

Before we left Emily was able to dance with Prince Charming.  He asked her to do a spin and she tried to teach him a tap move, "shuffle hop step".  It was so funny.

Then Anastasia asked her to lead the parade they do around the room with the children.

It was a great night!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Hollywood Studios

The next day we were off to Hollywood Studios.  This is a great park but it has a lot of shows and not many rides.  Emily was excited about the rides but once she got to meet some characters and see some fun shows she was just fine.  Here are some of the highlights of our visit to Hollywood Studios: we went to see The Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Muppet Vision.  We went on the Toy Story Mania ride which was fun.  Emily got to meet lots of Disney Friends.

Emily was so excited to show Minnie that she was on her dress:)

Emily also had fun playing in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground and we ended the day with Fantasmic! 

Emily's first Disney park was so fun.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Magic Kingdom

Here is Emily up early and ready for a magical day!

We arrived early and got to see the park open.  The characters are brought in on a train and they have an opening show.  This was so wonderful!  It was worth getting up early for this.

We are there early enough to have some breakfast on main street and head over to Fantasyland to ride many of the rides before they got crowded.

Cast members were blowing bubbles outside all of the rides...Emily was in heaven.

One of her favorite things was the playground outside of the Winnie the Pooh ride.  We made two visits to this...once was not enough.

We also went to see Mickey's Philharmagic which Emily enjoyed a lot.

Of course, we met many more characters.  Some we got to see again. 

I was so excited that Emily and Minnie wore the same colors on the same day:)

Emily loved kissing the character's noses!

Even though we had gotten to the park before it open Emily was able to make it for "Wishes"  the fireworks show and she was able to see Tinkerbell fly.  Then we got on the bus to go back to the hotel.  This bus was very crowded so we all had to stand.  Emily stood and held on to Jeff's leg.  She didn't complain one time.  I kept saying, "my feet hurt and I want to get off this bus" and then I realized that my 3 year old who had been going strong all day wasn't making a peep.  So I decided to be quiet:)

Our day at the Magic Kingdom was truly magical!!!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

 Animal Kingdom 

We started out the day with a Chef Mickey breakfast.

Emily made a Mickey with her grapes.

Then we went on the safari ride.

Emily got to spend some time playing some African instruments.

We went to see Bug's Life and Emily got to see some real bugs.

Then we got to see more characters.

We went to the Dinoland part of animal kingdom.  Emily was really tired at this point.  We rode the dino's which she enjoyed but her favorite part of Dinoland was the playground with the big slides and the huge sandbox.  We ate lunch at in Dinoland and the kids meal came in a sand bucket with a shovel so the kids can play in the sandbox.

We also went to see the Finding Nemo musical.

We had a good time in Animal Kingdom!

After we left Animal Kingdom the adults had a dinner reservation at a restaurant in Wilderness Lodge and Emily went to play at the childcare center at the same resort.  Emily was so excited to go and play with other children.  She had a blast playing and doing art.  When she left she got a lollipop.  Then we went on a boat ride as we made our way back to our hotel.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Sunday morning we woke up very early for our bus to take us to the airport.

The magic ended when our flight was delayed leaving Orlando.  So then we missed our connecting flight in Atlanta.  We were scheduled to be home at around 1:30pm instead we got home around 6:30.  If we had to be delayed it was better for it to happen on the way home and our bags made it home too:)  Emily did great with the delay.  She fell asleep before the plane took off from Atlanta.  So did Jeff, he was starting to feel pretty bad on Sunday.

We had the most wonderful trip!