Disney through the eyes of Sophia - Part 1

On our relatively recent trip to Disney, Sophia kept a journal of all the things we did on our trip.  When I eventually get around to making a photobook of this trip, I am planning to use her journal to make it.

Here is the tale of trip, through the eyes of Sophia....

Day 1 Thursday March 27 2014 

Today we woke up at 4:25 am! I know what your thinking, how could people do that to Sophia? It wasn't as bad as I thought. Anyway, we drove to Grand Forks and had breakfast at Denny's. I had chocolate chip pancakes and water. We then drove to the airport. Moms suitcase was too heavy so she had to put some stuff in Jacob's suitcase. Then we went through security, which went faster then I thought it would be. It usually takes 20 minutes, but it took 5-10 minutes. We waited a long time before going on the plane. Dad got me and Em a sandwich to share, and a water. We all went to the bathroom, and then got on the plane. When we boarded, it took a long time before we took off. Once we started going onto the runway we went pretty fast. Then we lifted off the ground and were above the clouds! It felt pretty cool. My ears didn't pop as much as I thought they would. I played on my iPad mostly the whole time, the flight was just under 4 hours. When we landed we rented a vehicle that seats 8 (me, mom, Dad, Emma, Olivia, Jacob, Grandma and Grandpa). It was an hour drive from the airport to the house (We rented a house, not hotel). Once we got to the house, we unpacked and went to Buffalo Wild Wings for supper (I got the jungle room).Me and Emma shared two meals of wings off the kids menu. Emma ordered BBQ wings and I ordered honey garlic wings, and Root Beer (which I obviously didn't share). We went back to the house after supper because we were tired from all the traveling. But we decided we could still go into the hot tub before bed. 

Day 2 Friday March 28 2014 

When I woke up this morning I heard everyone (except mom and Emma who were sleeping in, what a surprise!!) in the kitchen making breakfast. By the sound of dad's voice talking to everyone I knew that he knew I was awake and wanted me to get up and help in the kitchen. So I went downstairs (my room was upstairs) and started making breakfast. Once we finished making the breakfast Emma came down as though she knew we just finished the work so she didn't have to do any. While we were eating Dad made a rule that whoever doesn't help make the meal has to clean the dishes. We all agreed except Emma of course. Then mom came down and made her own meal so she didn't have to do the dishes. (Btw, we had scrambled eggs that I made, toast and orange juice which I just love!) to be honest, I don't know who ended up doing the dishes. It wasn't me though. After breakfast we put our swimsuits on and went to the pool. I wanted to get a good tan. It wasn't too warm so we didn't last out there very long. So we went inside to shower off. After I finished showering I played on my iPad a little and had some lunch. We had left over wings from last night with a banana. I played on my iPad some more after lunch and played with Jacob. I then got ready for supper, by then it warmed up a little. Giordano's was on the menu tonight for supper! We all had pizza obviously. The adults shared a deep dish pepperoni, bacon, and mushroom because mom doesn't like anything else, and the kids ordered a split pepperoni and cheese. The kids don't like anything else, I don't know what their problem is! After Giordano's we went to the outlets. I got two packages of loom bands. Pink and white. Then we got Krispy Kreme and went back to the house. Once we got back we ate the donuts and went right to bed. 

Day 3 Saturday March 29 2014 

Mom woke us up early as we went to Epcot today. We had toast for breakfast and left right after. Once we got to Epcot we went straight to Soar'n as that is the busiest ride, and one of our favourites. After Soar'n we went to the Finding Nemo ride and to Turtle Talk with Crush. Jacob and Olivia got called up to speak with crush and Jacob was really funny. After we went on a Norway ride which Olivia complained not to go on. After we went on a Mexican ride that wasn't as good as the others but was still a good ride. We went to our favourite ride next, Test Track! It's where you design your own car and test it! You go on your own car and go SUPER fast! Then we went back to the house. As soon as we got into the vehicle it started raining, as if the rain waited for us to get to a sheltered area. We picked up food from Chick-fil-a for lunch. We all got chicken burgers except Jacob, he got a bun. Once we finished eating we all stayed in our rooms to watch tv and have quiet time because it was raining outside. We all got ready for supper. We went to Carraba's. The wait was very long! They told us 10-15 minute wait. It ended up being a 40 minute wait. We were a party of 8 and they sat 2 other party of 8's. We went and complained and we got our table right away. After that we went to Target. I got Emma a blue eos for her birthday. After that we went home and went to bed. 

Day 4 Sunday March 30 2014 

Today it's Emma's birthday! She is now 13. I'm to tired to write very much so this will be short. We went to Magic Kingdom for Emma's birthday. We had eggs for breakfast, chicken burgers from Mc Donald's for lunch, and went to Long Horns for supper. I had chicken salad there. After we got Emma an ice cream cake for her birthday from Target. Btw, Olivia met a friend from England named Beth, she has the most adorable accent! 

Day 5 Monday March 31 2014 

Today we stayed at home, not doing anything except swimming all day. My hands are all pruned. Like prunes! We went shopping at the outlets. I got cheetah pj shorts, two packs of loom bands (orange and yellow) and Jolly Rancher lipstick that I'm sharing with Emma. 

Day 6 Tuesday APRIL 1 2014 

These days are going by SO fast! Not cool. Happy April fools. Today we went to Hollywood Studios! I went on Rock'n Roller coaster, Tower Of Terror, Toy Story Mania and Indiana jones, which is a show, not a ride. Tower Of Terror is awesome! It was the first time I've ever been on the ride. I was really scared, but excited! I squeezed Emma's hand, and squeezed dad's shorts. Only me, Emma, and Dad went on. Mom went later with Jacob Emma. I wanted to go again but I couldn't. Olivia didn't know what dad's name was until today. She thought it was Nathan but it's Nathaniel. That girl. We went to Cracker Barrel tonight for supper as a joke, but we ended up liking it. I had a burger with fries. 

Day 7 Wednesday April 2 2014 

Today we went to Blizzard Beach! My favourite water park! Its winter themed. It feels strange when I just got away from the cold and back into it. Mom forgot grandma and grandpas passes to get in so Dad went back with them to get them. (My note: Grandma also admits to forgetting the passes, so we've decided to share the blame on this one) While they were gone the kids and mom went to the kid area. There was a zip line, tube water slides, other water slides and icebergs to walk on. When they got back we went on a family raft and went racing on toboggans. After we ate lunch, I had a hot dog. We then went on really big tube rides. There were two different kinds. I went on both. One was in the dark and the other was bright. After that we went on the lazy river with tubes. I pulled everyone along. After we went home. We went to Giordano's for supper. Everyone had the same stuff as last time. We all had left overs as well. 

Day 8 Thursday April 3 2014 

Today mom and Dad went to Universal Studios, or whatever that park is called. It's an adult park so Grandma and Grandpa stayed at the house with the kids. We watched The Aristocats while they were gone. I made a loom bracelet and swam. We had left overs from last night. We swam the rest of the day and went to Outback Steakhouse for supper. I had a burger with fries. Olivia had ceased salad and didn't finish so I finished it for her.matter we got Cold Stone ice cream. I got fudge truffle with Reese's, it was so good! After we went to bed. Btw, Grandma and Grandpa are going on a cruise tomorrow. That was sudden!

Stay tuned for the second half of our trip, through the eyes of Sophia!

Disney Trip 2012 - Days 1-3

Saturday, April 21 - flying day
We decided that we would meet Shaun & Linsay at Mom & Dad's house at 8:30am Saturday morning.  Dad came with us in our van, while Mom went in Shaun &Linsay's vehicle and off we went to the airport.  After dropping us off, Shaun drove our van home for us and Linsay drove their vehicle.  Saved us a bundle on leaving our vehicles at the airport for 2 weeks!

We left on a Delta flight at 11:35am.  Our flight left on time and arrived in Minneapolis shortly before 1pm.  We were supposed to take a connecting flight to Detroit, leaving at 3:30pm and arriving at 6:16pm with a quick layover before our final flight at 7:35pm set to arrive in Orlando at 10:13pm.  We decided that we'd check if there happened to be a direct flight from Minneapolis to Orlando that we could switch to instead.

We found some very friendly gate agents who checked and found room on a direct flight that was set to leave at 5:35pm with arrival in Orlando at 9:45pm.  It would only save us 30 mins, but it would also save us the hassle of another connecting flight - especially with 4 kids!  The only snag was that only 6 of the needed 8 tickets were in coach, 2 of them were in first class.  The gate agent was training a new agent and was willing to change the coach tickets for free, waiving the usual $50 fee for training purposes, but would have to charge $100 per ticket for the first class tickets.  We decided it was worth it.  We figured if we had known ahead of time that we would have an option for a one stop connection with these times, for $25/ticket more, we would've done it.  So we went ahead and made the switch.  Then we headed to Chili's for lunch.  After that we wandered the airport a bit, let the kids play at a play place, picked up some ice cream, looked at a bookstore and then headed to our gate.  The original, friendly gate agent had said that when they assigned the seats, they may upgrade us all to first class for free - so we were really hoping for that!  But when we got to our departure gate, that agent wasn't quite as friendly so we weren't overly hopeful.  Sure enough, they left us in coach and originally we were seated in 3 different rows, 2 seats in each row with 1 stranger beside us.  But when we boarded I asked 2 of the strangers if they would mind switching so we could sit with our kids and they more than happily agreed - I think they were together so it actually worked out better for them too!  The flight ended up being delayed by almost an hour and we left Minneapolis at 6:25pm and arrived in Orlando around 10:30pm.  We had to pick up our luggage at our original flight carousel but it all worked out!

We had found a great deal on a van rental for $429 (for 2 weeks!) with Alamo.  That was only guaranteed to seat 7 of the 8 of us, but previously they had always let us pick virtually any vehicle (including SUV's) so we were hoping it would work out like that again this time, if not we'd either pay for an upgrade to a larger vehicle or Nathan's parents would rent their own vehicle.  When we got there, they let us know they had an 8 seater van that we could use which was actually perfect - less gas than an SUV and smaller for parking.  we squeezed all our luggage in and headed to our house rental at 7708 Comrow Street, Kissimmee, FL with Romancing the Mouse, the same rental company we used on our previous 2 trips, and the exact same 5 bedroom/5 bathroom house we stayed at the first time.  After a late lunch at the Minneapolis airport, we had only eaten snacks on the plane (except for Nathan's parents who had meals offered to them in first class!), we were a bit hungry.  Thankfully the home owners had left muffins and juice for us so we all had a quick snack and unpacked.  It was almost 1:30am (12:30 our time) by the time we got to bed!

Sunday, April 22nd

Today we slept in a bit (around 8:45) and went for breakfast at IHOP.  Then we all walked to the castle playground in our Windsor Hills community to let the kids play a bit - we ended up taking the scenic route on the way there as we couldn't quite remember where it was (we went 4 yrs ago, but not 2yr ago so it had been awhile!), and it rained just a little on our walk back.  Then the kids, Mom and I went swimming while Nathan and Dad went to the grocery store and, after dropping off some groceries for our lunch, to Target to pick up stuff to stock the house.  We had a light lunch of sandwiches and fruit followed by more swimming.  Emma & Sophia's flip flops were bothering both of them so we decided we needed to get them better sandals before heading to the Disney parks the next day.  So, we headed to Prime Outlets (Sophia, Olivia and Jacob all fell asleep on the way) and found Emma a pair of sandals at UnderArmour.  We went to Red Brick Pizza Oven for supper at the outlets (it's kind of a cross between fast food and a restaurant.  It's a large restaurant, but it's counter order and then they deliver it to you when it's done.  They made a mistake on our order (1 large pepperoni, 1 large half meat lovers, half hawaiian, but they forgot the pineapple on the hawaiian) so they brought us an extra medium size hawaiian pizza - good thing cause it wouldn't have been enough otherwise!  We found Sophia some sporty and very comfortable flip flops at New Balance and got Emma some new dressy sandals.  Nathan and Dad had taken Jacob and Olivia with them (Olivia got a sucker as a "consolation gift" for not getting to go with the ladies), while Mom and I took Emma and Sophia.  As soon as we found all our shoe purchases we headed back to the house so the kids could get a decent night's sleep before our first Disney day tomorrow.

Monday, April 23rd

Today Mom and Dad stayed back at the house while we went to Epcot, chosen based on the crowd level predictions from Touring Plans (highly recommended resource!).  We had a bit of a slower start in the morning then planned, but we managed to arrive at Epcot just after the 9am opening time.  We first stopped in a gift shop to pick up their autograph books and headed over to the Epcot Character Spot for the character meet n greets.  Nathan left to ge fast passes for Soarin' and made it back just as we made it to the front of the line.  We saw Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Donald Duck and Goofy at the Character Spot.

Then we headed to The Land where we rode Living with the Land (it's an educational boat ride describing innovative faming techniques.  It seems a bit boring and something kids wouldn't like, but for some reasons our kids really liked it - Olivia rode is last time and it was one of her favourites).  Then we saw The Circle of Life - it's a combination of the Disney cartoon characters Simba, Timone and Pumba and a documentary about taking care of the environment - yup, Epcot is educational!  Then we waited about 10 minutes for our Soarin' fast pass return time to arrive and road that.  Jacob was a little bit scared on this one - but it's definitely one of the favourites for the girls.

It was about 11:15pm by this time and we decided to start heading around the worlds looking for princesses.  Canada is the first land (going counter-clockwise) and we walked around there a bit.  Next we hit the United Kingdom and took pictures at a red phone booth.  We happened upon Marie (the cat from Aristocats) and just missed Belle (in her street clothes) in France as she went on her break.  The girls wanted to wait for her so we walked around France a bit, and then let the kids play at a playground nearby.  We then spotted Aladdin in Morocco so went to meet him, then back to meet Belle and then back to United Kingdom to meet Sleeping Beauty.

We decided to head back and ride Spaceship Earth on our way out of the park.  Spaceship Earth is a slow moving ride that takes you through a history of the world and our advancements in technology and includes an interactive portion where you input where you're from and answer a few questions which personalizes the ending of the screenshow on your individual car.

After leaving the park we picked up from Chick Fil A and then swam in the afternoon.  Our van key was missing a key fob with keyless entry so Nathan tried phoning Alamo to see if we could get one.  They said we'd have to trade vans but we could do that at a location nearby.  So Nathan, Dad and Jacob went to trade it in at a nearby Alamo.  When they got there they said they had nothing left but that the one at Disney World always had lots and to go there.  When Nathan got there he asked if they had the Sienna vans and they said they did.  But they insisted that he fill up gas first even though we had prepaid that originally.  So he went to a gas station and went through the rigamarole of going in to prepay, filling up and returning to the car rental agency.  At which point they said they didn't have any Siennas.  Even though they had just said they did.  Ugh, so frustrating.  An hour's waste of time.

So, they came back and joined us for more afternoon swim and sun.  Then we all got ready to go out but before we left we surprised the girls with American Girl dolls!  We had originally assumed we'd be driving to Minneapolis and flying from there (like our previous 2 trips), but flight prices changed and we flew from Winnipeg instead.  We had originally planned to go to the American Girl store in the Mall of America and let the girls pick out a doll, but obviously, that would no longer work.  The girls were disappointed but I got them to show me which dolls they would order if we just ordered them from home sometime, and then I ordered them, delivered to the house in Florida for a surprise.  They were thrilled!

We went to Carrabbas for dinner, at the suggestion of Lorne and Arla from church and it was fabulous!  Then we did some shopping at Target and came home to get to bed before our day at Magic Kingdom tomorrow.



Stay tuned for "the rest of the story".

Disney - Days 10 thru 14 - Universal, Disney Studios & going home

Click here for Days 1 - 3....travelling and Epcot
Click here for Days 4 & 5......Prime Outlets and Magic Kingdom
Click here for Days 6 & 7.....SeaWorld and Magic Kingdom
Click here for Days 8 & 9.....Aquatica and Animal Kingdom

And finally, today is the last Disney post for Days 10 through 14.

Saturday (Day 10) - Universal Studios Islands of Adventure
Today was sooooo fun! Nathan & I and Shaun & Linsay left our kids at the house with grandma and grandpa (5 kids in total) and went to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure for some adult roller coaster fun! I'm not sure who was looking forward to the day more - us or the kids :)

We made sure to get there early so we'd be there for park opening. We started off with the Incredible Hulk Coaster which was probably the best of all the coasters, except I found it to be a bit jerky and my head kept hitting the restraints. Then we headed to The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman which is a cool 3d ride that we really liked. I had to close my eyes at one part so I wouldn't get dizzy - I'm not good with that kinda stuff. Then it was off to Doctor Doom's Fearfall - I gotta say, the anticipation of this ride was better than the ride itself, and it was really short and not as scary as we thought it would be. Then we trekked across the park to Dueling Dragons which is actually two coasters - Fire Dragon and Ice Dragon - that run simultaneously! At two points during the ride you actually come to within 18" of hitting the riders in the other coaster. It was pretty cool.

The good part of getting there so early was that we hardly had to wait in line at all. The bad part, was that we managed to knock off all 5 of those rides within one hour - and we paid for it. We totally had to sit down and get a drink and rest for a bit to regain our completely destroyed equilibrium!

After a rest, Linsay and I were tempted to go on the Jurassic Park River Adventure ride. We didn't really want to get soaking wet though, so we watched several of the boats come down the ride and noticed that as long as you sat in the very middle of the ride, it looked safe. So we went and it was really fun, and we did not get wet at all! Well, our hair did slightly, but not our clothes. Linsay actually got "spit" on by a dinosaur right in the face, it was funny. Anyway, we got off and managed to convince the guys to go with us (cause they wouldn't get wet), but when we got there the ride had stopped working. We waited for awhile and they ended up giving us a fastpass type ticket good for any one ride in the park.

Our one mistake was our lunch restaurant choice. We had seen a Hard Rock coming in, but we thought it would take too long to go out there, eat and then come back to the park for a couple more rides. So we stopped at the first restaurant we saw which was in the kids area - Circus Magurkus - what were we thinking?! Yeah, it wasn't great food, but thankfully it wasn't too busy either.

After lunch we saw The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad stunt show which was quite good. We walked by the Jurassic Park ride again on our way out but it still wasn't working, so we went back to the Incredible Hulk coaster and rode it one more time using our fastpasses. What a great time!

Here are our superheroes!

Not that we need any :)

Spent a bit of time in the shops and then headed home to swim and then go to Uno's for supper.

Sunday (Day 11) - Disney Studios
Today our "little" family headed off bright and early to our last Disney theme park - Disney Studios.
And Emma & Sophia went on their very first upside down rollercoaster!!! I was so proud of them! We headed straight for the Rock n Rollercoaster and I got a child swap pass while Nathan took Emma on the ride. The rest of the kids and I headed straight to Toy Story Mania to pick up fastpasses to use later, and by the time I got there there was a 15 minute wait just to stand in line to get fastpasses! (55 min wait for the ride itself) Crazy how popular that ride is.

Anyway, I texted Nathan to find out how Emma had liked the ride. I was a bit nervous because it's in the dark (neither girl is a fan of dark rides), and you can see the scary takeoff while waiting in line to get on. But she loved it! That was great because I could reassure Sophia while we were heading over there that Emma had liked it and she would too (I hoped!). Right at takeoff I heard a scared voice yell "MOM!" and so I put my hand on her leg and yelled "You're OK!" over and over for most of the ride. When the ride ended Sophia looked at me and asked "Is that it?" She didn't want it to be over! I asked her if she was scared, or if she had yelled for me, and she said no. Must've been some other kid :) oh well! ha ha.

Then we went to see a bunch of shows - the timing of which was perfect! We headed for the Little Mermaid show (waited maybe 10 mins), when we got out of there the High School Musical outdoor musical had been underway for maybe 2 mins so we watched that.

Then I took the girls straight to the indoor American Idol Experience while Nathan took Jacob to see the Cars characters (which he absolutely loved! He threw a fit when they had to leave, so he didn't get a souvenir there).
The girls LOVED American Idol - Emma was just sorry she was too young to try out to be a contestant on the show. I texted Nathan to go get us seats for the Beauty and the Beast show (like Rainbow Stage theatre production, just shorter) and we headed right over as soon as AI was over. I think we missed the first 30 seconds of that one.

Everyone was tiring out by this point, but we went back to Toy Story Mania to use our fastpasses to get on that ride and we were glad we did - the kids loved it! (Jacob too). It's like a 3D midway ride where you shoot at different targets as you move to different stations in your car. It was fun, but I sure wouldn't stand in line for an hour for it!

After that we headed home for one last afternoon swim and then to Olive Garden for supper.

Monday (Day 12) - flying back to Minneapolis
In the morning Nathan took the kids to IHOP so I could pack. They came back and I think they swam for a little bet yet. Then it was off to the airport. At which point we realized that we couldn't find one of the ipods and 6 of the girls ds games. We eventually figured out that I had left them on the airplane on the way down already. Yep, almost $400 down the drain. Not impressed.

We got to the airport, returned our rental vehicles and went through security. We were waiting at a different gate because it was emptier and I guess we just weren't paying attention to the time, or to the people at our gate. All of a sudden I thought I heard our names being called. We went to go check and sure enough - they were calling our party cause everyone else had already boarded and this was our last call or they were going to leave without us! But Nathan, Emma and Sophia weren't even there, they had gone to pick up something for us to eat on the plane! I immediately texted a frantic message to Nathan that we had to leave right now! Thankfully they were already heading back when he got the message and they were there in the nick of time. Ack!!! WAY too close for comfort.

We checked into the Staybridge Suites (so thankful we changed to a hotel with extra bedroom suites after our disastrous night at LaQuinta on the way down) and headed to Chili's for supper, then came back and swam for a bit.

Tuesday & Wednesday (Days 13 & 14) - driving back home
Tuesday we stopped in Albertville quickly where we realized that Nathan had left his credit card at Chili's in Minneapolis (I phoned and the mailed it back to us). After picking up a few things at the UnderArmour store (runners for $35!! Nathan checked and the same ones were over $100 here) we headed for the City and went to McDonald's for lunch. Nathan's parents and Shaun & Linsay drove straight home that day, but we stayed another night - did more shopping and relaxing and generally just delaying the end of the vacation. Oh, and Jacob got to "ride" a tractor.
We got back Wednesday to a freshly painted house! We decided to have our complete main area redone while we were gone - easy for the painter and for us. Nathan's other sister had gotten in from Alberta the night before, so we went to Nathan's parents for supper (I still didn't have to cook!) after getting a bit of the house put back together and stuff unpacked.

Home sweet home!

Disney - Days 8 & 9 - Aquatica and Animal Kingdom

Edited to add pictures!

Click here for Days 1 - 3.
Click here for Days 4 & 5.
Click here for Days 6 & 7.

Read on for Days 8 & 9!

Day 8 - Thursday - Aquatica!
On our last trip two years ago, we didn't go to any waterparks. This time we decided to do Aquatica - SeaWorld's waterpark.

We had a blast! There are 2 different kids areas. One has several kid-size waterslides (Kata's Kookaburra Cove), and the other has a gigantic water play structure (Walkabout Waters). We set up beside the water play structure and the kids had such a blast!

We took turns going on a couple adult water slides, while other adults in our party watched the kids. That water play structure area made it easy to keep an eye on everybody. Nathan's sister and I went on two rides - Dolphin Plunge (a tube ride that goes through a dolphin aquarium - which happens too fast to actually see anything - rather overrated) and Tassie's Twisters (very fun!!). Nathan and his BIL went on 2 other rides. We also went on both the lazy river (Loggerhead Lane) and the more rapid river ride - both very fun as well. The more rapid one is harder to get out of cause the water moves pretty fast right there. All of us (including Emma and Sophia) went down Taumata Racer several times - where 8 racers fly down the fairly steep slide face first on a mat - super fun! A couple of the others checked out the wave pools as well.

This park was a lot of fun and definitely highly recommended!

We went back to Macaroni Grill for supper, also highly recommended :) Here we are at our impromptu photo shoot upon our return from supper..

The ladies, the men....

and the babies!

Day 8 - Friday - Animal Kingdom

Today we were all up bright and early to go to Disney's Animal Kingdom (this is the only Disney day that Nathan's parents and sister/bil went on with us).

As usual, we got there before the park opened and headed right for Expedition Everest, a high speed outdoor rollercoaster featuring the yedi - Emma & Sophia went on this as well! They didn't like it very much though because the part where you go backwards in the dark made them feel a little off. They recovered quickly though and off we went to the Kilimanjaro Safari, stopping to see Terk along the way. Kilimanjaro Safari is a jeep ride (huge jeep!) through an African wildlife preservation - lions, giraffes, elephants and more to see along the way. After that we took a quick trek through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail (zoo type thing)and then headed to Camp Minnie/Mickey where the kids got Chip & Dale's autograph

as well as Donald's before we saw The Festival of the Lion King in a round theatre - just as good as last time! Fabulous show. We were debating about going on Expedition Everest again (just the adults), but it was really hot and crowded, so we let the kids play in The Boneyard play structure for a few minutes and then we headed home to our pool!

We went to TGI Friday's for supper again today.

Disney Days 6 & 7 - SeaWorld & Magic Kingdom

You can read about Days 1-3 here and Days 4&5 here.

Day 6 (Tuesday) - SeaWorld

SeaWorld was the girls' least favourite park, but that was partly our fault. First thing when we got there Nathan and I, Linsay (Nathan's sister) and her husband Shaun, went to ride Manta, the new crazy fun rollercoaster. You're strapped in sitting down, and then the floor drops and you're tilted forward until you're completely horizontal, so you're flying through that roller coaster! We were the second group to get on the ride that day, but it took a little bit because they had to run a few more test rides before they let us start riding (scared much?). The kids weren't impressed with waiting since they literally had to just sit and wait with Nathan's parents, as there were too many kids and not enough adults for them to go do something while they waited.

Next we went to see the dolphin show "Blue Horizons" at the Whale & Dolphin Theatre. It was absolutely amazing! This was by far the best show at SeaWorld hands down! So many dolphin tricks, constantly something to look at, great people tricks too - diving and some aerial acrobatics as well. If you only see one show at SeaWorld, this is the one to see.
Next we went to see "Clyde & Seamore Take Pirate Island" at the Sea Lion & Otter Stadium. This show was a disappointment for us. I don't know if it was because the dolphin show was so good, or if this one was bad, but none of us really liked it. We kept thinking - it must get better, but it never did. There were 3 actors in this one and 3 animals. The animals did some good tricks I guess, they just weren't as entertaining or spectacular looking as the dolphins. And the show was supposed to be a comedy, but the actors weren't overly funny. We would not go see this again.

Then us adults went on Kraken, the other crazy roller coaster - while the kids again waited rather impatiently.

After this we had lunch. This was a somewhat frustrating experience because they have no lids or straws for their cups. Seriously. Now, I'm all about saving the planet and the whales and what have you, but saving my sanity takes priority at an amusement park. Four kids and no lids/straws makes for an unhappy mama. So, take note and bring your own!

We had to hurry lunch in order to make the Shamu show "Believe" as it was a bit of a trek to Shamu Stadium. We made it a couple minutes late. Also - take note - for all these shows, the soak zone signs are there for a reason - if you don't want to get wet, don't sit there! :) We stayed far away from the soak zones! This show was pretty good, still not as spectacular as the dolphins though. We were sitting fairly far away, so maybe if we had better seats we may have appreciated the sheer size of the whales more, but the tricks itself were just more fun at the dolphin show.

After this we went to the kid section, but by this point the girls were really hot and tired and a bit bored, so I think they maybe did one or two rides before they decided they just wanted to go home and swim in the pool.So, next time, we would skip the adult rides, and probably do more of the zoo type activities which I think they would've liked better - and the dolphin show of course! :)

In the evening we went for supper at Tony Roma's and then went back to Prime Outlets for a little more shopping.

Day 7 (Wednesday) - Magic Kingdom
Today our little family headed out to Magic Kingdom again. We had to take the ferry across cause the monorail wasn't running for some reason. Here's a picture of the castle from the ferry.

We went straight back to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and rode that thing about 4 times in a row. We also collected some child swap passes (cause Jacob couldn't go) to use later when it got busier. We were there early so we virtually walked on the ride all 4 times. Then Emma, Sophia and I went on Splash Mountain (wearing ponchos! Yep, we cheat and are proud of it!) while Nathan took Jacob and Olivia on the Magic Carpets of Aladdin.

Then we headed for the Tomorrowland section of Magic Kingdom which we've never even been in before (it's more boy oriented) and straight for the Tomorrowland Speedway - where Jacob got to drive a racecar (not sure if it can actually be called a racecar considering how slow it went!). He loved it. You can barely see his cap peeking over the driver's seat. Then we headed into ToonTown where Jacob got to ride his first ever rollercoaster (our local mini rollercoaster not withstanding)- Goofy's Barnstormer! He just BARELY cleared the height restriction. He seemed to really like it. The girls loved this ride last time we came to Disney, and they still liked it now - but after riding Big Thunder Mountain, this one felt really short and just not as good (all true!).

We then walked through Mickey's house and Minnie's house which the girls just loved! They're doing a lot of renovations in Fantasyland and ToonTown at Magic Kingdom and I think these houses are going to be taken down.

Jacob also really enjoyed Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh (using the FastPass system is crucial, especially when you have young kids that aren't going to survive constant long waits in line).

After the kids were done with rides, we headed back to the house for a quick lunch, and swimming in the pool! We finally took the girls' hairdo's out after this swim.

We all went to TGI Fridays for supper and then our little family headed back to the Magic Kingdom for some more rides (guess which ones?!) and to watch the fireworks and the parade. Looks who's tired while waiting for the parade!

Since the fireworks were first, the park seemed to empty out a bit before the parade, and it didn't seem too crazy getting out of the park afterwards. When the fireworks are last, the show is over and then everyone heads straight for the park gates. But when the parade is last, it's a long route, and it ends at different times for different people, which makes for an easier exit. Makes sense to me anyway!

Anyway, we had missed out on the fireworks during our trip two years ago, resulting in many tears, so I was determined that we wouldn't miss them this time. It's an excellent show. It starts with Tinkerbell flying down from the castle, it's narrated by Jimminy Crickett with a storyline and music to go along with the fireworks, which at one point are even in heart shapes. So fun!

Disney - Days 4 & 5 Magic Kingdom

In case you missed it, you can find Days 1-3 here.

Day 4 (Sunday) - shopping!
Today we slept in and went shopping at Prime Outlets. I think Nathan fell in love with the UnderArmour store.

We had lunch at the food court, did a bit more shopping, then went home to swim and rest/nap.

Then we headed out to Uno's for supper - hmmm, hmmmm, good. There were a few mistakes on our order - we had ordered two different deep dish pizzas (deluxe for Nathan and pepperoni for me and the girls). Unfortunately she (and by "she" I mean our waitress who was likely in her 60's, by the sound of her voice she had been smoking since she was 12, and her name was Storm. I kid you not.) brought us two deluxe pizzas. Not good for us picky eaters. They brought us another pizza, but it took awhile.

Did I forget to mention that we're not above bribery to ensure a peaceful shopping experience? Nothing like a stroller and a lollipop to keep Olivia within eyesight.

Day 5 (Monday) - Magic Kingdom - Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, Cinderella's Royal Table
This was the day the girls had been looking forward to for a long time! And fortunately I double checked my reservations. I had originally been trying to book everything for Tuesday, but it didn't work out as well as Monday so I had booked Monday, but for some reason I kept thinking it was Tuesday. Can you imagine if we had missed it?! The horror!!!

Anyway, Nathan dropped us girls off at the Magic Kingdom ticket and transportation centre where you have to take either the monorail or the ferry across the lake to get to Magic Kingdom. Then he headed to Kennedy Space Center with everybody else. We took the monorail across the lake and were there early enough to get good spots to watch the welcome show that several actors and characters perform to open up the park.

After rope drop we headed for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. On the way we spotted Goofy and Donald so we made a quick stop for autographs before continuing on. I wanted to make sure the girls tried a medium rollercoaster before attempting Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom. Anyway, they loved it!

After that we headed to the castle for our 9:40am appointments at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique inside Cinderella's castle. Each girl was given an invitation labelled Princess Emma (etc). It had 3 hairstyles to choose from - all 3 girls picked the traditional fairytale princess hair style. We had chosen to do the Crown package which includes hair style, shimmering makeup, nails painted, and a sash for $55. Each girl was assigned a makeup station and her own fairy godmother-in-training who would perform the makeover. They were each assigned chairs beside each other which was perfect for me and my camera :)

They start with the hair - putting so much goop in there that the girls wore that hairstyle for 3 days before washing it out, even after swimming! Next the girls got to select two colours for eyeshadow and a nail polish colour. All the makeup and polish is light and sparkly - very tasteful for children. Each girl gest to keep the eye shadow kit and both nail polishes along with a comb and stickers, all in a pretty pink to-go bag - for touchups throughout the day (or, more realistically - so they can play BBB when they get home!).

All transformations are done with the girls looking away from the mirror. Once they are complete, the fairy godmothers-in-training wave their magic wands over the girls, saying "Bibbity bobbity boo" and sprinkling pixie dust on them - then they twirl them to face the mirrors for the magical and exciting reveal! We went across the street where the girls got their photos taken in a studio - and here they are.
After our appointments, we had about 3 hrs to kill before our lunch reservations so off to the rides we went!

The girls wanted to go straight back to Big Thunder Mountain, but on our way we stopped to get the coveted autograph of Disney's newest princess - Tiana and her prince Naveen (Olivia was thrilled that the prince held her hand!).

Here they are back on Big Thunder Mountain for a couple more rides...

We then went on the Peter Pan ride where you ride on a flying sailboat over the scenes from the movie - another one of the girls favourite rides. And then Cinderella's Carousel a couple of times since it had a short line.

And then it was finally off to Cinderella's Royal Table for lunch.

Going to the BBB or eating inside the castle is the only way you can go inside and see what it looks like. The girls were so excited!

First you go in and meet Cinderella for autographs and pictures near a large fireplace. A 6x8 print of Cinderella's castle, one 6x8 and four 4x6 prints of your picture with Cinderella are included. There are probably 40 different crests scattered throughout the castle - quite amazing.

Once our reservation was called we went up the red carpeted spiral staircase to the second floor which is where the dining room is. It probably seats around 50 tables. Shortly after we were seated the princesses started arriving to royal introductions and applause. Each princess stopped at each table to talk with the kids, sign autographs and pose for pictures. The day we went featured Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Princess Ariel and Belle - I think this is the first time the girls have gotten Snow White's autograph and the first time they've gotten pictures with Belle in her "street clothes".
The food is all you can eat, but plated, so you order your food. Click here for the breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. The girls all had chicken fingers and mashed potatoes and/or rice. I had the pork tenderloin with rice. Drinks are included, as well as dessert. The girls got sundaes with chocolate crowns and I got a huge muffin shaped chocolate cake with a cream cheese filling - it was delicious!! Each girl also each got a wishing star and a magic wand (boys get a sword).
After lunch we saw "Storytime with Belle" - there's a little nook type area by the castle where Belle tells her story with some acting help from selected audience members.

We happened to stumble upon the afternoon parade as it was almost wrapping up. The girls couldn't really see, but I managed to get a few pictures.
We went on a few more rides, including the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. Your traditional ride, and exactly the same as the Dumbo ride (also at Magic Kingdom), but the lines are WAY shorter. Not sure why the Dumbo one is so popular, but it is.

We were going to see "Dream Along with Mickey", a musical style live production with Mickey/Minnie, numerous princes and princesses and other characters (we saw it last time and they loved it!), but it started to rain. Thankfully we had brought along our Dollar store ponchos and the rain started literally just as I was finishing putting the last poncho (mine!) on. I hadn't thought it would rain that much so I hadn't put the extra poncho over the stroller, which turned out to be a mistake. At the bottom of the stroller is where all the BBB and castle paraphanelia was stored (including their complimentary pictures with Cinderella) and I was so worried that they would get wrecked. The pictures were fine - the folder they came in and the BBB invitations are wrecked though. I was planning to stop by the castle and ask if we could get another one, but we never got around to it. After the rain let up just a little, we decided to head to the Winnie the Pooh ride - I figured we may as well wait inside for a ride instead of just huddling under a shelter doing nothing! Most attractions are built with the lines inside for a good chunk of the time. The wait was quite short, and by the time we were done the ride the rain had stopped. And then we went back to Big Thunder Mountain for one more ride - can you tell it was a favourite?!

Then we hurried back to the parking lot where Nathan was waiting to pick us up after a long and marvelous day! We were at the park from 8:40 to about 5:15 that day and we all had a blast - it was so fun seeing how thrilled they were with the magical events of the day.

We all went to Giordano's for supper and then back to the house, all tired out after a fantastic day.