First off, THIS was the vaca I had been waiting for. When I was pregnant, I realized that having having kids would one day mean a family Disney vacation in Orlando. Something that neither J or I had ever done. So, we have been planning for this trip for years. We had decided on waiting until L was 4, but naturally, I got anxious to start planning. As I planned, I realized that December (early) was the cheapest route, and I didn't want to wait another year. Carson had been counting down with us after all, so we decided to surprise them by going early, and by giving it to them as a gift.
I thought and thought about a really cool creative way to tell them, and really came up with nothing. I also wanted SOME time to be excited together, so I didn't want to wait until the airport. So, we decided to just wrap up some Disney themed clothes and their Magic Bands (aka tickets) and have them open them the day before we leave. We would leave directly from our house for OKC, stay up by the airport, and leave our early the next morning. So, we got up on the big day as usual, I took our Danish girls to the bus back to Denmark, I ran, J and the kids did stuff, we all showered and got ready for the day, then we asked the kids if they wanted to open an early Christmas present. OF COURSE they did. While the packed bags waited in the kitchen, the kids each opened their Disney clothes, C was NOT excited, L of course loved it. Then it was on to the magic bands, C opened them and kinda starred, he didn't know what they were so I told him. Lyla jumped up and down and 'woo hoo'd" but C was a little in shock. OH, they had also gotten autograph books with their clothes, you could see his wheels turning, everything was making sense. I told them to go look in the kitchen, they saw the bags, then ran back in to get their books and their clothes. I told them about all our plans, they woohoo'd some more and we took off.
Our first stop was to see Frozen, we knew it would be huge when we got there. I'm so glad we did, b/c it was HUGE. We went to dinner that night, actually, we had a picnic in our hotel room, managed to get the kids to bed and took off the next day.
Travel was fantastic, the kids loved their first plane ride, Disney's Magical Express was 'magical' we got to our room, dumped things off and headed out to Downtown Disney...
I really don't feel the need to document every day, but I would like to do the big stuff.
At DTD, we ate at the TRex Café, the kids loved it, it's like Rainforest (which is also down there) but Dinosaur style. The food was good, atmosphere was fun, and we all really enjoyed our time there AND at Downtown Disney.
While at dinner I was telling the kids (again) about all the places I had reserved for us to eat at. I had planned as many character dinners as I could, but missed out on some 'big' ones, like Cinderella's Table because I booked like one month out or something silly. But J decided to just go on and call the reservation desk and see, and guess what! We could go to Cinderella's castle the next morning for breakfast. Perfect. And that began our DAILY "change all the plans mom worked hard on making" planning session. Yes, every single day we changed something, meals, the rides we wanted, whatever. If I have any advice for people it is, go during a down time, book a couple of things you REALLY REALLY want, like Cinderella's Table, and wing the rest. I know I know. Not the typical surviving Disney advice.
So, the next morning we got up crazy early to head to Magic Kingdom. When we walked in I seriously got a little teary eyed (yes me). Seeing Disney and my families faces seeing Disney, all for the first time was amazing.
Anyway, enough mushy stuff, we were there right when the park opened so we spend the morning before our 10:30 reservation at the Castle, wondering up to characters, there were no lines, and riding every single ride on our agenda for the whole day. boom boom boom. We just knocked stuff out. On our last ride before heading over, we told Lyla that we were going to Cinderella's castle. Her face was priceless.
We headed over to the castle and she was just in AWE!!! She got to meet every princess on her list all in one setting. And we enjoyed that we didn't have to wait in line.
After breakfast, we were a little lost about what to do. Disney in early December is really not crowded in the morning, and so we had gotten through our entire days agenda in half a day. We had seen many characters we had wanted to see, and I had planned on going back to Magic Kingdom for another day, so we wanted to save some stuff. AND AND, we had planned on going back that evening. So, we went and checked out a few more things, had lunch, and decided to head back to the hotel around 2. Side note: When we go back, we will do that every day. Park early until after lunch, then hotel pool until we head back to the park around dinner time. We ate somewhere (I can't remember) and then got to catch the show at the castle that night. Before the fireworks, we caught the Electric Parade from a front row spot. The kids got high fives and enjoyed hot chocolate. Then after awhile, it was time for the castle show. THAT was my favorite part of Disney. I knew there was a good firework show, but I didn't know that there was a light show on the castle. We were ALL totally fascinated. After the show, we headed over to ride some more rides, Tea Cups (we had a ball), rode go carts, and some more stuff, it was super fun. I wish we had gone every night.
The second day at Magic Kingdom, we had Pirates League and BBBoutique. I really recommend doing this with little kids. My kids LOVED the experience and wore their clothes for two days. Even Lyla's hair lasted two days! AND, the cast members were so fantastic with them. One of the cute things C loved, was when he was in the castle waiting on Lyla, the Fairy God Mothers would all shout "Look out! There's a pirate in the castle!" After Pirates League, a Disney cast member who is a photographer at the Pirates Tutorial, who I met through a friend on Facebook, met us to take extra pics of C. They were super cute, and then "somehow" ;) Captain Jack picked Carson to be on stage during the show AND made him be the one who fought him. This may have been the best experience of C's life. He LOVES pirates, and we had to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean ride multiple times.
The rest of the day was spent exploring the part of the park that we didn't hit on Monday, Tales with Belle, Ariel's whatever, the Dumbo ride, etc. That night, we had planned on 'celebrating' C's birthday at 1500 Parkfair (or something) over at the Grand Floridian. While we were a little disappointed in the "celebration" the kids really enjoyed the meal and the entire cast of Cinderella. C even took his first princess picture here. It was a pretty good character meal for only one meal exchange. After dinner, we couldn't make it back for fireworks, so we went back to our hotel to get to bed for our early morning the next day.
The next day began with breakfast with the Disney Junior Cast- Jake is a family favorite- at Hollywood and Vine. The kids LOVED this. The characters roamed around as they do, and had dance breaks throughout the meal. I also enjoyed this meal as far as buffets go. Fresh fruit, yogurt, oatmeal. Good stuff. After breakfast we explored Hollywood Studios. This was probably my least favorite park with little kids, but we didn't ride many of the big rides, rather, we spent most of our time at shows like the Mickey Mouse show, the Little Mermaid and Indian Jones show, and we spent (way too much) time at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. This park is also pretty narrow, so it felt really crowded really early. We ended up going back to our hotel for a bit and returning later for dinner at the 50's café. It was pretty fun, food was good, then we explored a little more before going home.
Day 4 was my favorite overall park day- Animal Kingdom. Once you get IN the park, it didn't feel crowded (can you tell I have crowd issues) and it had a really cool vibe. My FAVORITE was hanging out in Africa watching the African street band while the kids danced. This is the park that has the Lion King show as well. I LOVED LOVED LOVED this show. I could have watched it all day. And, like all the other shows we watched, we were right on the front row, so the kids got picked to be in the ending portion. After that and a few rides, including the Safari, we headed over to the Tuscar House for another, really neat, character meal. I almost cancelled this, seeing how I changed/adjusted almost every single thing we did, but I'm glad we didn't. Lyla was SUPER excited to meet Donald and Daisy, they had yummy beers and really good African influenced food. Again, the really need vibe of Africa was enjoyed by all.
After the Frozen experience we decided it was HOT and we hadn't been to our resorts pool at all, and of course, we were leaving that night, so we headed back for some fun in the sun. For the first time the trip, we dug the kids swimsuits out of our suitcases in public (we had stored our luggage earlier) and went to the pool. Within 10 minutes we realized that we should have done this EVERY DAY and when we go back we will do a park early and leave around 1-2, play at the pool until late afternoon, head back for more evening fun. Anyway, while we were realizing we got a text saying our flight was cancelled, so we booked another night, in another room, at our resort and continued playing in the pool. The next morning, we packed up again, and headed out, but called before we left to verify our flight. There was a huge ice storm in OKC, so there were no flights going out. The lady at Southwest recommended that we go ahead and reschedule for the next day. So we did. BUT, rates at Disney had double the night before for "peak season" so we decided to not stay there, but not before we went swimming some more. SO, once again, I dug into our suitcases in public to get bathing suits. We laid out at the pool and played all day again, until finally deciding to leave for our hotel by the airport. We took the magic express to the airport and a shuttle to our hotel, checked in and headed out to Orlando's City Walk. We had the BEST time going to Margaritaville, and Bob Marleys, and the Universal store and taking silly pics all around. Then the next morning we went to the airport again. And guess what? Flight was delayed ALL DAY! We FINALLY got home to OK around 2am, took a shuttle to our car that was still at the hotel we stayed at on the way out, Josh fought for an hour with the ice trying to get his truck door open and windshield cleaned, but by 3am we were on the road. Got home around 4, and poor Josh was up and at work by 8:30 the next day. Which was suddenly the day before Christmas EVE!?! I didn't even have all my shopping done...
We had a wonderful time and I'm so glad I went when it was still super magical to my kids and all the princesses were the "real" ones. We can't wait to go back and have a 'bigger kid' experience that included Universal and Harry Potter World!
Side note: It has now been 7 months since our trip, but I got it done...
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