Disney World Recap

East Coast Driving Trip 2015 - Days 20-22

Two parks, One day (Wednesday)
Adventurous, right.
We made it to Animal kingdom for rope drop and were in line for the safari before we knew it.
Lots of wonderful animals to be seen... some much closer up than others.

On the Safari Ride

Up close :)

people on a behind the scenes tour

From here we decided to split up. The boys went to ride some rides and the girls tried out hands at becoming a "Wilderness Explorer" from the movie UP. With our guide book in hand and a map of where all the badges could be earned... we were off.
With 4 badges earned we reconnected with the boys and did a few things together, including letting hubby have a run at Everest.
At this point we were thinking of lunch and moving on to park number 2.

Coconut Mocha Frappachino :)

We lunched at Pepper Market, which I always enjoy. The food is fine, but I like the space and the quiet - it's rarely crowded. Plus, at this point in time, its kind of a tradition.
Then we went to the studios to finish up our day.
With stunt shows and rides to keep us busy, the afternoon went fairly quickly. We split up again before we left the park for the Frozen Sing-A-Long, which was very enjoyable, but not the boys' cup of tea.

Frozen Sing A Long

I happily picked up two more YAH mugs today!! I am starting to get concerned for how we will get them ALL home :)


Epcot, or "let's see if our fitbits can catch fire" (Thursday/Friday)
Despite it having fewer rides than most other parks we have visited, Epcot is the biggest for walking... and walking, and walking. Oy.
The first day this whole trip that my feet have hurt -so that should tell you something.
We all enjoy Epcot and this trip was no different. We did see the circlevision movie in China, which we haven't done since the kids were old enough to remember.
And we returned to Epcot on Friday. After some pool time at our town home and checking out.

A fun day in Epcot

enjoying being a family

Our last hotel of the trip.... home soon! 

Tonight we sleep at the airport. It's better than it sounds. It's the second time we have booked a room at the Hyatt in the Orlando airport. Very convenient and a very nice hotel. This works very well if you have an early morning flight (as we do), or are coming in the night before a cruise.

The Magic Kingdom

East Coast Driving Trip 2015 - Day 19

Today was our full day at the MK!
And I had a special treat planned for myself, a spa pedicure in the afternoon.

We used the FastPass+ system and TouringPlans.com to try and get to all of our "Must Do's" in the allotted time we had today. The morning went well and when it was time for lunch, I left the family and hit the resort monorail to find the Senses Spa at Disney's Grand Floridian.

Look at those storm clouds... glad I'm going to the spa :)

This little guy was on the wall outside the spa

I can't speak to much to what Hubby and the kids did while I was away for just over 2 hours. But I had a downright loverly time.
The spa at the GF is located off to the side of the new Villas. It is decorated very nicely and goes very well with the feeling of the GF resort.
When I checked in they asked for payment, and gratuity is already included. Once that was done, I was shown to the lockers and relaxation room. Given my oversized comfy robe and left to relax.
About this point I realized I hadn't had lunch yet and took a small bowl of nuts and dried fruit to go with my cucumber water. Funny the things that make a spa, a "SPA" :)
This also gave me a chance to get my body temperature regulated... it wasn't crazy hot out, but it was sooo humid I was just dripping before I arrived. Lucky for me, here I had a chance to rinse off and cool down. By the time my pedicure tech came to get me, I felt a million miles away from the Magic Kingdom.... and come to think of it.. That makes this place much more magical :)

The service was great, it lasted an hour and a half and I was given a small bottle of the polish I choose to take home - delightful.
Now it was time to rejoin the family.
I don't know if it was true or not, but the MK seemed even more crowded now than earlier. We met up and were able to ride a few more things, before calling it a day.

Waiting in line for Buzz Lightyear 

Dancing Fish... cause everyone needs this kind of joy in their lives. 

Great train! And yes, I didn't take enough pictures today - sorry.

Dinner tonight was at Noodles and Co. and then we hoped to come back to the town-home to swim before bed... but we got rained out. Hopefully we can plan it better tomorrow.

I got my first Starbucks/Disney You Are Here Mug today, and I LOVE IT!!!
Hopefully more to come!

Our longest driving day yet!

East Coast Driving Trip 2015 - Day 18

We woke up this morning in Alabama.  This is all kind of hitting me today. How many states we have seen/been to on this trip and how they are similar and different. So apparently it's a day of reflection? but mainly a day to drive. We drove from Opeklia, Alabama to Orlando, Florida.
And on the one hand we made it safely and without incident... on the other - it was a long day.

Alabama highway

Georgia Peaches

Rain, coming into Florida (the Sunshine State) 

Add to the 7 hour drive... that includes assorted stops for meals and grumpiness, an evening in the Magic Kingdom for a few rides and the fireworks show and you have some very sleepy, slightly whiny people on your hands. Considering how much we did today, we were in good spirits, but you could tell, there by the end... happiness was becoming more elusive.
The family who decided it would be cool to ride the PeopleMovers and scream (yes SCREAM) at every turn, almost killed it all for us. Hey, we are fun loving folks, but don't hurt my ears.
We can already tell there is a huge difference in crowds this trip verses our last in January. But we knew that going in.

We had our first "celebrity sighting" today. Our first ride of the evening at MK was the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.  We entered the line behind a group who had a personal tour guide - which usually means they they want a special type of Disney experience and are willing to pay for it (some would say, people who have more money than time, choose this option). Anyway....I am pretty good at remembering faces... names, not so much. So, in passing, I saw a face that was very familiar. Nothing else stood out as familiar or even fitting the face. The people around her didn't make a case for my thinking I recognized this person. Then I glanced at her bag... this was not a bag just anyone could afford. It was a high end designer bag... I have no idea how I know this... I just do. So I quietly said something to hubby... "Doesn't that women, in the overalls, look just like Idina Menzel? Her hair seems wrong but boy, her face looks soo much like her." He looked over, subtlety (we are nothing if not discreet) and said, yeah, maybe.  Well over the course of the next little bit, random tidbits of info popped into my head or hubby's and before we knew it, we were both absolutely positive it was her. [Editor's Note: The final piece of information that clinched it was that she told me that the woman in question had some kind of gold henna tattoo on her hands, then I found this tweet on Idina Menzel's twitter feed.] No, we didn't stalk her around the park. Yes, we did check her twitter feed to see if she would own up to being at Disney. And Yes, we both smiled really big, when they played her "Let it Go" with the fireworks show - wondering if she was watching and could hear everyone singing along. What must that be like?  It was a fun diversion and we hope she had a magical time.

The town-home

Yay, it has a kitchen :)

We made it!!!!

Google Photos, "Stylized" this one... not bad

Fireworks!

Ok, back to our town-home (we recommend All Star Vacation Homes if you need to rent in Orlando). Good Night.

Note:
In my first post I said this was our longest trip ever... I meant in the number of days we would be adventuring. Not in distance traveled - we will see for sure when it all wraps up, but we believe our 2012 road trip will still be the longest distance traveled.

Its almost like being there ;)

Stats:

Miles today: 468

Miles total: 2553

States Total: 13 (+Florida)

Running (walking) with Disney - Day 11

Our last day :(
Home :)

Hubby and I woke up early to the sound of fireworks??? Oh, yeah, that's how they start the races... so we quickly realized the half marathon was starting.
At first I thought, no problem... I will just go back to sleep... HA!
So the fireworks go off for each corral... tee hee, silly me. [Editor's note: The WDW Half and Full Marathons have corrals from A-P, so it was fireworks every 5 minutes or so for an hour and a half]

Then we remembered they were live streaming the race... oh bother.. now I need to see what I am hearing. And now it's all over... I am awake and thinking of coffee.
So we grabbed a laptop and found the live stream. It was fun to watch the last half of the corrals go and now we knew when to expect the fireworks to stop.

Once everyone was off and running the rest of the family started to wake.... we took it easy and planned on breakfast in the room with some fresh things picked up from Goods to Go to supplement.

Beyond breakfast it was time to pack up and get checked out.

Sooo, Owners Locker - are you ready to hear more?
It's a big plastic purple box, It lives in Orlando at a storage facility and we can fill it with the things we don't want to carry back and forth. They great people at "Owners Locker" bring it to wherever we stay when we check in, and then come back and pick it up when we are done. Awesome!
We have known about it for years, but never felt we had a need for it.. but we changed our minds.
With hubby going out once a year for races and then the whole family coming every other year in addition to that... there are items we could leave in our locker. We didn't think it would be enough to save us a checked bag. But there are items we seem to buy every trip and then have to throw away when we leave... now we can pack them up in our purple box and have them next time - YAY!!!

And boy did we pack it! Wow, the whole trip, we kept thinking of items we wished we had and then decided... hey, lets put that in our owners locker!
Plus the things we already knew we wanted to take to leave in the locker... 'cause we never wear our Mickey ponchos at home :(  - We filled it up and dropped it off at Bell services to be picked up later that day.

Once we were packed we loaded up and headed to the Poly.
I talked hubby into one last table service meal and you never have to twist my arm to eat at the Kona Cafe. We were able to get lunch reservations, so it was easy enough.

We really didn't have plans after lunch, but we had several hours before our flight. During lunch hubby had a great idea to rent a boat and enjoy Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon... sounded perfect. After we ate, we hopped on the monorail - we got off at the Contemporary and headed to the water. Our time our in the pontoon was great fun.

After a short monorail ride back to the Poly we remembered the new Dole Whip window!!!
Gotta have one... and why not share :)

Well, that ate up our extra time, so to the airport we went.
We picked up food to eat for dinner. The flight home was uneventful... which was a nice change of pace :)

Cool plane... this one isn't ours, its headed to Canada

Running (walking) with Disney - Day 10

10K and our last EARLY morning.

This morning was very very early for Hubby. The 10K started at 5:30, which translates to leaving the room before 4 am.
The kids and I didn't follow him to cheer. We talked about it, but ultimately decided keeping kiddos happy while watching and waiting for dad might not be easy :)

Hubby had a good race and returned back to the room to shower and recover, before a Character breakfast at 9:30...  its amazing how long the morning lasts when you get up before 4 ;)

Nice bling!

We had a nice leisurely breakfast with Pooh bear and friends.
Our little lady discovered a new love of Croissants.

On a side note... on our previous visit to the MK our little lady lost her camera. It was a new camera she had purchased for herself with Christmas money. We thought she had lost it on 7 dwarfs mine train... that it might have fallen out of her purse pocket and into the seat pocket, when she put her bag in it.
The day we lost it we popped into guest services twice to see if it had been turned in.. nope. But we were given the number for the big lost and found and told to call the next day. I forgot to call - I knew they kept cameras for a while, so as long as we checked before we left to go home - if it was turned in... we could still get it back. But really what was the likelyhood of all that?
So, this morning at breakfast I remembered!!! CALL LOST AND FOUND.
After we ate I found a quiet place and made the call. And they had her camera. They asked some questions to determine if the camera she was holding was really ours... how old was the person who had taken the pictures... when I said she was 8, the cast member was pleased. Apparently you can tell by the subject matter? Also asked who might be in the pictures and what landmarks might be pictured. Once she was comfortable with it being our camera... it was labeled with our names and set in the front for pick up from the Lost and Found at the TTC.

The kids and I had plans to ride some stuff and maybe shop... hubby planned to tag along... then go get a massage.
We enjoyed the park til early afternoon. Then hubby headed out - he planned to pick up the camera and then go to his massage. The kids and I stayed a bit longer then grabbed a bus back to the room.

waiting for his favorite attraction in MK... no joke. 

Hi Ho, Hi Ho.. down the hill we go.

Meeting Elsa

Dinner tonight was pizza in the room, and it was delivered shortly after hubby returned from his massage. Good timing.

Using our new books to learn to draw characters. Forgive the unmade bed :) 

Running (walking) with Disney - Day 9

Race Day - 5K and Kids races

Today is the day I have worried over, prepared for, and over thought, for months and months. It's finally here and it's Freezing!

How on earth could I have planned for that?

38° in Florida, when just days before I was thinking I should have packed shorts.

Well 38° was when I woke up. Over the morning it warmed up to the low 40s.

Anyway. The cold weather was our main obstacle. Yes, the race started early: 6:15 am. And yes there were 10 thousand people... But the kicker for both kids was the cold. And just when you thought you were getting used to the cold.... The wind would pick up.....oh dear me. My sweet boy was fairly certain this was the worst plan we had ever had.

If you've done big race events like this you know about queuing into corrals. This was originally a concern of mine for our sensory sensitive kiddo. But today the only way to stay warm was to be packed in like sardines. And he did it. Mostly burying his head into me or dad. He even wanted an arm around him. So clearly cold trumps all.

getting into the corrals

walking toward the start line

But the race started and our corral went. And he did great. We walked with our friends and it was so nice.

Hubby and our little lady had a faster pace, Running and walking. They finished about 15 mins before us. And then met us at the finish line.

Stopping for a pic about halfway around

Woooo Hoo! Almost done! 

Somehow for the race itself, we weren't really cold. But the walk back to the car it hit us again. Bbbnrrrrrrrrrrr

Back in the room warm baths or showers followed by a second breakfast was a good way to recover.

Next event today was the kids races. And the lady was ready!

It was neat to watch and she had a good time. She did the 400 meter dash and the Mickey mile.

Pic in front of the 5K sign

with her 5K medal

View of the track - Kids Races

There she goes!!!!

Chillin at ESPN Sports 

After all the racing was complete for the day, we headed to Animal kingdom.

We had a short to do list at AK, and we were ahead of schedule.

Great animal viewing on the Safari today! 

Look! We are still on our feet!!! Help us!  

Braving Expedition Everest

We enjoyed the animals and the rides at Animal Kingdom for about 3 hours. Then it was time to eat dinner... and we were hungry. 
Pasta was calling -- to Noodles and Co we went. 

The weather was nice, but really never got warm today. So I guess this is winter in Florida?

We were heading to bed early tonight. We were up early today, but hubby is getting up earlier tomorrow to run the 10K.
Night night.