Day 5 - Epcot!

Our final day.

We chose to go to Epcot on Friday. I was worried because it isn't really a park geared towards little ones, however, we all had a blast! 

We were there during the Food and Wine Festival which is an event that happens every fall. There are snack-sized samples from ALL OVER THE WORLD. It was FANTASTIC!! We saved a lot of our snack credits for this day and we didn't do a table service for lunch and instead ate (and drank) around the world. WORTH IT! 

We started the day with most of the adults riding Soarin' which is a REALLY neat ride in Epcot. I highly recommend it. I wasn't sure how Alice would handle it so she and I did some shopping instead. 


After that, we started in Canada and worked our way through the World Showcase! 

We had nothing on the schedule until much later so we all went our own way. 

Tami, Jon and Travis enjoyed all the drinks and food each country had to offer. They made it all the way to the other end! Mawmaw and Papa tasted their way through the countries as well. 

My Beloved, Alice, Nana, and I took a MUCH slower pace and we never made it past Norway. We stopped to meet Alice, which was a bit awkward again, however, we immediately got in line to meet Mary Poppins and it was completely different. Alice TALKED to her!! AND SMILED!!! Mary is JUST SO MAGICAL!! Seriously. This was enough for me. I got a smiling picture with Mary Poppins. We can go home now. 

We meandered through a few more countries, stopped to have a parasol painted for Alice in France, shopped in China, waited out the rain in Morocco. It was very low pressure and it was a perfect end. 

Before dinner, Alice and I had passes for the Frozen Ever After ride in Norway. It's the EXACT same ride as the Viking ride it used to be only now it's Frozen themed. And I forgot about the two drops until we were on the boat. Ooops. Alice handled it well and let me know that she would like to NEVER do that again. Sure thing, kid. My bad. 

For dinner we ate at Akerhus in Norway. It's a character meal (WITH ALL THE PRINCESSES!!) with traditional Norwegian food. I was worried about the menu, however, it was all delicious! 

AND she smiled with ALL OF THE PRINCESSES!!! Bless it be. She even hugged Cinderella. 


It was WONDERFUL. And COMPLETELY different from our first princess experiences. Again, a perfect way to end the week. 

After dinner, we rode Spaceship Earth and then headed home. We didn't stay for the night show. With it being a Friday, the show would have been later than normal and we were looking forward to going back to the resort. (I've seen the show before and it is worth staying for if you have the energy and the time.)

Meals: 
Lunch (snack credits): Eating through the countries was a lot of fun. Alice isn't an adventurous eater so she mainly ate snacks and a big pretzel. She did eat well at dinner. This park is all about the drinks and you can get traditional drinks in all the countries. With it being Wine and food Fest and the additional countries, the options were amazing. And it's fun! But expensive, so be prepared. 
Dinner (1 Table service): Akershus in Norway. This is a character meal, however, if you are on the Dining Plan it is only 1 Table Service credit which is nice! This is the princess meal I recommend. It didn't feel as rushed, it was an easier wait, and much 'cheaper'. The princesses are great and there's a Princess Parade. Uncle Travis enjoyed walking through the parade with Alice. Bless him too. 

It was a magical week. It was hot and crowded, however, I think we all had a fantastic time! And given some more time, we will all want to go back eventually!! ;)

Day 4 - Animal Kingdom!

This is a day we missed a lot of the actual park. We started out with lunch at Sanaa (1 Table Service) which is at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The food is traditional African food and it was delicious! If you ever get a chance to eat here - do it and order the Bread Service for an appetizer. Seriously, you won't regret it.

After lunch, we headed to the park. This was another uncomfortably hot and crowded day. Animal Kingdom has added so much stuff since our last visit and can be a harder park to navigate. It is a lot of up and down in the landscape with a lot of walking in between. 

We started with meeting Mickey and Minnie!! This is the only place you can meet them together and they are wearing they're safari outfits. SO CUTE!! Minnie gave us all kisses. 

We did It's a Bug's Life in the Tree which I'm pretty sure Alice did not approve of. We headed to Pandora after that. Half of our party rode the flying ride while the other half rode the river. We were on the river ride and I thought it was super neat!! The things The Mouse does with technology! I found it to be impressive. After this, Alice fell asleep so we stalled. I had a Henna tattoo done!



I also found THE PERFECT Disney trading pin for Alice.

Because, yes. 

Stay weird, my child. 

We eventually woke Alice up for a later-in-the-day safari. We got to see several animals and she thought that was neat!! 

We did a quick service meal (I recommend Yak & Yeti) and then headed to the Rivers of Light show. This is a newer show and while it was neat, it wasn't anywhere near as impressive as the Magic Kingdom show. I recommend doing this show before you see that show. 

This was the 4th day of our trip and we were tired and basically over the schedule and just wanted to make it through. Travis did get to ride Everest which is totally worth it if you don't have a kid in tow! It's an awesome roller coaster. 

The day started late and ended early and we missed a lot but we had a good day - and this park serves alcohol!! (The only park that doesn't is Magic Kingdom - unless you eat at a few restaurants that do serve wine.) 

We closed out our trip with Epcot! 

Day 1 - Magic Kingdom!

For the first time ever in all of our Disney trips, we attended Rope Drop. We had breakfast reservations at Be Our Guest for 9:45 and wanted to get in early so we arrived at the park right before 9am and headed to Fantasy Land. The park doesn't actually open until 9am, however, they let you in early and will do a little show that officially opens the parks. After the show, the different worlds are open to the public. 

Our first stop was the Tea Cups! 

All Tami wanted was to ride the Tea Cups with Alice so that's where we started. Alice LOVED it! We rode them twice! She loves spinning super fast. 

Our next ride was the Pooh ride which is a ride through a darkish tunnel type thing with lots of noise and characters. Alice cried the entire time. It is the most scariest ride that was ever created. This helped me gauge how our day was going to go and I could readjust plans as needed. 

We had breakfast at Be Our Guest which is in Beast's castle. This restaurant is a Quick Service meal for breakfast. For dinner, it's a table service and you can meet the Beast. The menu is a bit strange and I thought meeting the Beast might be a bit much, so we went with breakfast. The service was magical - you pick a table with nothing but your receipt and they find you. It's crazy. The Mouse ALWAYS knows where you are. ALWAYS. The food was just okay. It's not a place I will want to go back to but it was neat to eat in the castle and see the different rooms you could eat in. 


After breakfast, we walked around until we found something we wanted to ride. We rode It's a Small World and it's Alice's new favorite. At the end, they have screens that say goodbye and they've updated the ride so now it says good bye to you specifically. Even if you didn't scan your magic band, it knew you were on the ride and where. Mom thought it might have been a coincidence only when my name shows up on something and it's spelled correctly, I know that's not the case. I never got a good picture because I didn't notice until too late but seriously, it's totally neat until you think about how creepy it is. 

We spent the rest of the day riding things or walking around or meeting characters. We had a Fast Pass to meet Mickey. Alice was SO excited!! When she saw him the first time, she lit up!!! However, when it was our turn to meet him, she froze. This is not unusual. This is her norm. But we did get a picture! 

After meeting Mickey, we noticed the line to meet Tinker Belle was short so we met her too! 

  

Her waiting area is super magical! 

By the time we were done, we were in the perfect spot to watch the 2 o'clock parade which was fantastic!! We loved seeing all the characters. Alice waved to all of the characters. She disapproved of the fire breathing dragon but who wouldn't! After the parade, we rode more rides and killed time until dinner.

We had dinner reservations at Ohana at the Polynesian resort. This was the best meal we had on the trip. Hands down. We ate at some amazing places, however, this was the best one. If you can swing it - eat here. It's worth it. Ohana offers a character breakfast, however, I didn't want to make every meal a character meal and I don't like breakfast so we went with the dinner option. Seriously - SO GOOD. 

Rides Alice liked: Tea Cups, It's a Small World, Ariel's Grotto. She also liked going through the tree house.

Rides Alice didn't like: Pooh and Peter Pan. If it was dark and loud - she wanted nothing to do with it unless you could be shooting at something.

Our rides: 7 Dwarfs Mine Train - it's newer and REALLY popular and a FANTASTIC ride. We also loved Thunder Mountain and the Haunted Mansion.

Our meals:
Be Our Guest (breakfast) - just okay. Atmosphere was neat, food wasn't great.
Ohana (dinner) - FANTASTIC!!! I would eat here again in a heart beat. 

On our way back to the bus after dinner, we were able to catch a little bit of the fireworks which was nice because it prepared Alice for the show on Wednesday.

But that's another day.....