Disney World Day 8 - The Journey Home

We were all exhausted, and I managed to catch Tannah's cold from earlier in the week, so we all slept  in a little before packing up to go home. We checked in for our flight at our resort and then went back to the community hall so the girls could do more "crafts". Tannah missed her projects that she usually does this week. Tannah colored a Tiana mask and Harper colored a Minnie mask, and we played some air hockey.

We went back to Downtown Disney to pick out souvenirs and have lunch. Tannah chose a doll that was half Anna and half Elsa depending on which way the skirt is pulled down. Harper picked out Chip and Dale (although she really just wanted Dale). I got silhouettes of the girls, and I'm absolutely in love with them.

I had promised the girls swimming that day, so we went back to the resort for a quick swim. Harper fell asleep, so she only joined us for the last 10 minutes or so. The girls were so happy in the pool.

As we were waiting for the Magical Express to take us back to the airport, a man working at the hotel gave each of the girls a Disney pin and told them to come back and see him soon.

On the bus to the airport I received a text from my friend telling me that she thought she saw that our flight had been canceled on a screen at the airport. Turns out she was right, so we ended up having to fly standby home and connect through Atlanta. The girls sat together, but not in the same group of seats as either me or Wei-Yand. They asked the lady they sat next to about a million questions. We got on the flight from Atlanta to Chicago and made it there not too long after our originally scheduled flight. Luckily our luggage was already there, so we could go home right away. The snow had already started, so it wasn't a great ride home, but we made it by 1:30 am. It was a long day, but it was such a fantastic trip that I can't complain too much!

Disney World Day 7 - Animal Kingdom

The last time I visited Disney World, Animal Kingdom didn't exist, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I really enjoyed it.

 

 

 

 

 We went right to the Kilamanjaro Safari when we arrived, and that was such a cool experience. We saw aligators, zebras, and our truck actually had to stop for giraffes crossing the road. The girls enjoyed seeing all of the animals.

 

 

 

Next we watched The Festival of the Lion King. What a neat show. It included all of the songs from the Lion King. We had front row seats, and Tannah was selected to participate in two parts of the show. Harper could have been in it as well, but she was being shy. They both got a little nervous during "Be Prepared", but loved it other than that.

 



After the show, we rode the train to Rafiki's animal watch to meet Chip and Dale again and pet goats. I'm pretty sure this was the girls' favorite part of the day. They loved the goats so much and were thrilled to get to see Dale again. Poor Chip didn't get much love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



We went to see Finding Nemo the Musical, which was also great. I was really impressed by what a nice job they did with it.



We ate lunch, then rode the Triceratops Spin and took the girls to play in the Boneyard Dig. They loved this playground and would have stayed for the rest of the day if we had let them.

 

 

 

 

 

The girls met Goofy and Pluto, and we had lunch at Resterauntosaurus.

 





They fell asleep in the stroller, so I stood in the single rider line to ride Expedition Everest, which I really enjoyed.





 

 



 



We went back to our hotel for a few minutes, then went to Epcot to try to get Aladdin, Jasmine, and Snow White's autographs. We didn't have enough time for Aladdin and Jasmine, but we did meet Snow White before rushing off to dinner at Ohana at the Polynesian. Dinner was great, and we had a fantastic view of the fireworks at Magic Kingdom.

 

 

 



Epcot had Extra Magic Hours from 9-11, so after dinner we rode the Monorail to Epcot to ride Spaceship Earth. I met up with my friends for a little while while Wei-Yand and the girls rode Spaceship Earth four more times! The girls loved when their pictures showed up on the screen at the end.

The girls were asleep when we met up on the bridge back to our hotel. It was a fantastic last day in the parks!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The girls got all dressed up to go see The Very Hungry Caterpillar today. Too bad I was an hour off for the time I thought the show started and we showed up 40 minutes late. The part we saw was cute.

Disney World Day 6 - Magic Kingdom

Despite all of my advanced planning, I somehow missed that Magic Kingdom had Extra Magic Hours on Thursday, so the park opened at 8 for Disney resort guests. That made for an early morning, but we made it to the park in time to see Mickey and friends arrive on the train and see the opening show.

We went right back to Fantasy Land to ride Peter Pan before the line got too long. We also rode It's a Small World, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, and met Ariel.

 

 

We rode Goofy's Barnstormer, which the girls tolerated, but didn't really like, and Dumbo, which they loved. Dumbo has a playground for kids to play in while waiting in line. The girls really enjoyed that even though the line wasn't very long.

The girls wanted to meet Daisy and Minnie again, so we went to Pete's Silly Sideshow to meet them, Donald, and Goofy in their circus gear. Daisy pointed to herself, drew a heart with her hands, and then pointed to Tannah. Once Tannah figured out that meant I love you, she was in love. She keeps asking for a picture of her and Daisy with hearts that says, Daisy loves Tannah and Tannah loves Daisy. I promised her I would make a page in our photo album saying that.

 

 

We had a fast pass for Enchanted Tales with Belle, which is a really neat interactive show, where audience members get picked to be a character and help tell the story of Beauty and the Beast to Belle. Tannah got picked to be Chip. I was selected to be a picture frame, and Harper was a dancing plate, but she was too shy to do anything other than stand next to me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wei-Yand grabbed corn dog bites while the girls and I met Merida. The girls loved getting to shoot her bow and arrow, and they both hit the target!

 

 

After lunch, the girls fell asleep in the stroller. We had a fast pass for Seven Dwarves Mine Train, but the girls had been saying they didn't want to ride it. After much parental debate (neither of us could decide if we should make them go on the ride), we decided to bribe the girls. I took the girls to a store and let them pick out whatever treat they wanted that they could have after they went on the ride. Not my finest parenting, but the ride really wasn't that scary, and I was trying to teach them that sometimes we need to do things we're scared to do.

We went on the ride. Tannah said she didn't like it, but Harper said she wasn't scared. Harper picked out cotton candy, which no one liked and got thrown away. Tannah picked out this sour sugar stuff that both girls liked.

 

 

After the mine train, it was finally time for the big event: a fast pass to see Anna and Elsa. Both of the sisters were great. I felt a little bad for Anna because she was up first and the girls were so into meeting Elsa. Anna was great though. She chatted away with the girls about going to Arendale to give Elsa dance lessons.

Elsa was also fantastic, the girls were so happy to finally meet her. The girls wanted to get right back in line to talk to her again.

 

After meeting Anna and Elsa, we stopped to meet Tinkerbell. Tannah kept asking her where Vidia (another fairy) was.

 

 

We tried to go to Epcot to meet Snow White, but the Epcot Monorail was down, so we ended up heading back to our room for a quick break.

We went back to the Magic Kingdom for dinner at Be Our Guest in the Beast's castle. It was a really cool experience, and the girls loved meeting the Beast. He's really tall.



 



The park was closed when we left the castle, so we joined the throngs of people leaving the park.