AMAZING VACATION

Our family just returned from an amazing vacation to Disney.  My parents treated our family and my sister and her family.  I have been planning this trip for 11 months...so it was a tad crazy to see all my planning come to life...we decided to pull the kids out of school, hoping for a less crowded Disney.  I just think it's always crowded there...I can't imagine what it's like in the summer...with my planning of the fast passes, we really got to enjoy lots of rides.  We also had the Memory Maker of our trip, which we were able to download nearly 300 pictures that Disney Cast Members took of us, which was awesome!!

We stayed at the Beach Club Resort for 6 nights, with the dining plan, and 5 day park hopper passes.  One of my favorite things about this specific resort is that you can walk to Epcot in 5 minutes...such a great perk!!  We used that many times, sometimes even just to take a bus back to Epcot and walk back through to get home.  This trip (our last one was 6 years ago!) we flew in a day early, stayed near the airport, and got to enjoy the resort the first day we arrived there.  The pool was amazing...with a sand bottom, huge waterslide and an expansive swimming area.  The kids had a great time.  Halfway through the week, when the weather dipped down for 56 degrees for the high, they were the only people in the pool enjoying it..and every life guard thought they were completely crazy!!

I'm going to outline my trip here, just for my memories when I look back at our week...

Sunday-Arrival day, pool time, dinner at Chef Art's Homecoming, time at Disney Springs

Monday-Animal Kingdom, lunch at Tusker House (this was a character meal, which is so great to have the characters come to your table for pics and not have to wait in line for them in the park)

Flights of Passage, Navi River Journey, Expedition Everest (my kids went on this 6 times!), Triceratop Spin, Primeval Whirl, Safari, Nemo stage show, Lion King Stage show, Dinosaur

Tuesday-Epcot, lunch at the Biergarten (great great meal, super fun, great theming)

Frozen Ever After, Meet Anna and Elsa, Test Track, Mission Space (over and over and over), Nemo and friends, Soarin', Journey into Imagination, Spaceship Earth, Canada movie, watching the evening Illuminations Show

Wednesday-was our "rest" day, although Jason would probably not describe it as very restful.  We had breakfast at our resort, a character breakfast at Cape May.  Jody bought the kids all matching Christmas pajamas and I was able to cajole my older two to at least wear the bottoms to breakfast.  We walked into Epcot and rode the monorail.  We did relax at the resort in the afternoon and I took kiddos swimming.  In the evening we headed to the Magic Kingdom and rode Peter Pan, It's a Small World, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Buzz Lightyear, and Space Mountain.  We stayed late this evening and watched the fireworks at Magic Kingdom, which NEVER disappoint.  Even a live Tinkerbell flying across the sky!!

Thursday we headed back to the Magic Kingdom.  We had reservations at Be Our Guest for lunch and ate dinner at the Whispering Canyon Cafe.  We continued at MK with 2 more times at Space Mountain, Bennett, Jason and I rode Buzz Lightyear again.  People mover (2 times), Astro Orbiter, Big thunder Railroad, Splash Mountain (at 55 degrees outside), Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Railroad, Goofy's Barnstormer, the Carousel of Progress, and the Tomorrowland Speedway.  I ordered my Dole Whip and LOVED that iconic Disney experience.  It's always funny, the line is SUPER long here, but I knew you could order online, just wasn't sure if you could use your snack credits to eat there.  Well, while standing in line, I ordered online, was able to leave the line and walk right up to the counter and pick up my order...amazing!!

Friday was Hollywood Studios.  Anne, Owen, Ruthie and Bennett were chosen to be in the Jedi Training, which was really fun, Star Tours (2 times), Toy Story Midway Mania, Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, Rock and Rollercoaster, Muppets 3D, Tower of Terror (even Bennett when on this and liked it...he's an awesome kid!).  We ate lunch at Mama Melrose and went to the evening show of Fantasmic, which was probably my least favorite of all the night shows...

Friday night, we went to the Marketplace and cleared out our remaining snack credits, and packed our bags to fly home Saturday.  It was a marathon vacation, but what a great great time, and I hope my kids remember this their entire lives.  Epic!    Stay tuned for posts of my kids' favorites and the flood of pics!!

later...

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Jaime H Hall