Florida 2016, Disney Day 2, Magic Kingdom

Our 2nd and last day at Disney was spent at the Magic Kingdom, our favorite park! We woke early again and got to the parking lot around 8, then took the monorail to the entrance of the park. Parking is a bit more complicated here since the lot isn't next to the park.

We got there about 15 minutes before park opening and got to see the little welcome production they do each day! Fun was in the air, and we were ready to rush in and get Steven and the big kids over to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train since we couldn't snag a Fast Pass to that one.

While they were on the Mine Train, I took Thomas and Katie to the Winnie the Pooh ride. They weren't crazy about it.  I think from there we all went over to the Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain area. We found a little toddler playground for Katie to enjoy while the others went on the roller coasters.

Next we made the "great" decision to wait over an hour in line for the Jungle Cruise. It was the one thing Thomas really wanted to do, but the waiting was truly miserable. At least Katie Grace got a little nap, and we played some charades on an iPhone app!

From there we went to eat lunch at the Columbia Harbor House (good chicken fingers and fried fish), then headed over to Tomorrowland where we rode the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin and the People Mover, which was like a train up in the sky. Steven and the big kids then used their Fast Pass for Space Mountain, where the ride got stuck for about half an hour right before they got on!

After that, the boys went to the Tomorrowland Speedway while the girls and I went on It's A Small World. I think both the little ones fell asleep pretty quickly after that and I took the oldest three to one of my favorites, Mickey's Philharmagic, which is an awesome 4D show. Then Steven took the oldest three back to Big Thunder Mountain, their favorite, since they had a Fast Pass for that one. We ate dinner at Pinocchio's Village Haus (pizzas and pastas), and then took some castle photos and made our way back to Main Street to prepare for the parade and fireworks and for Mary Clare to get her silhouette cut-out.

This was the first time we'd seen the Electrical Parade. It was so cute and fun! Katie really liked it.  I also loved the laser show where they project scenes onto Cinderella's castle. That was so cool! I missed it last time when I took the kids souvenir shopping. The fireworks were amazing as always, but Katie was terrified, so Steven had to take her someplace while the rest of us enjoyed our little bistro table with a great view of the castle.

I was glad we remembered the glow bracelets this night, it's always fun to put them together while waiting for the night shows!

And that was the end of our 2016 Disney adventure! A quick but wonderful time, and we still had a few days in Fort Lauderdale to look forward to. To be continued...

Florida 2016, Disney Day 1, Epcot!

Our trip started on a Monday evening, after ballet classes were over. We hit the road around 7pm and rolled into a hotel in Louisiana around 12:30am. I wouldn't recommend it! The next day was a full day of driving from Walker, Louisiana to Orlando, Florida.

We left the La Quinta on Tuesday around 6:45am and got to our hotel in Orlando around 7:00pm. That gave us a couple hours to check out the resort (Wyndham Bonnet Creek), do some swimming, order some dinner, and some of the kids went back to the room to try to watch the fireworks at Epcot (not a great view). We went to bed around 10pm and woke early, grabbed some breakfast snacks at the hotel store, and got to Epcot a little after 8am for their 9am opening!

Here's the resort. The hotel is towards the right, surrounded by the vacation condo towers. There were about 5 pools, some with lazy rivers, some with slides, and one with a big pirate ship! Wish we had more time to enjoy the resort!

We got in line around 8:20 and they opened the park gates around 8:45. Steven and the 4 oldest kids went straight to Test Track, while I took Katie to look around.

We all dressed in our Aggie gear!

She'd been so excited about meeting Mickie and Minnie, but wasn't so sure once we actually got up close!

We did find a playground that was shaded and just her size!

This time of year was the Epcot Flower and Garden festival. Beautiful flowers everywhere!

And even a little butterfly pavilion!

After the big kids did Test Track and Mission Space, and we all went to Turtle Talk and checked out The Seas.

We ate lunch at Sunshine Seasons food court in The Land area (where we were sad to miss Soarin' this year; it was under construction). We did get to see a neat 4D Pixar film festival.

As the hot afternoon came upon us, we headed off to the world showcase section of Epcot. We enjoyed the boat ride in Mexico and watched a 360 degree film in China. I think this world showcase section of Epcot might be best suited for evening, when the heat isn't so bad (it wasn't open in the morning).

Thomas was wiped out and got a nice afternoon siesta!

Germany!

The kids enjoyed watching a little train exhibit.

Daddy had been craving ice cream and I read that the best was in France. The line was long but it was good! Around this time we also watched a movie in the America section, although I think a few of us took a little nap :)

Wish we could've gotten some of these sweet French treats!

We started heading back towards the front to ride Spaceship Earth and let the big kids go on Test Track again.  A few times.

Somebody was getting a little cranky!

By the phone booths in the UK.

The evening came quickly and it was time to go find a spot to watch the firework show! We were the last people allowed in to grab food at the Liberty Inn (counter service in America of the world showcase), and we set up camp to watch the show!

Katie looks peaceful in the photo below, but I think that was the first burst before she started hysterically crying. She did NOT like the firework shows!

We hiked back to the front and even got to witness and photograph an engagement!

It was a fun day in Epcot! We were able to take it slow, and we really enjoyed the rides in the Future World section. I'd been looking forward to checking out all the countries in the World Showcase, but honestly it was so hot and there wasn't really a whole lot to see that was indoors. The Norway ride was closed and the kids were tired of the films. But we liked the Mexico boat ride and the aquariums in The Seas. We had a great time overall and definitely went to bed looking forward to our final Disney day at Magic Kingdom the next morning!