Disney Departure Day

It’s time to go home. I’m ready. And I’m not. You know the feeling.  We decided to have breakfast in the food court that last morning and boy, what a zoo. Every other morning we had an assortment of fruit, yogurt, cereal and oatmeal that we just fixed in the room. Man that was the way to go!! The food court was crowded, loud and of course expensive.  But it was good to experience it once on the trip.

Because we were utilizing Disney’s airport transportation service, we were at the mercy of them for travel times to the airport. That meant a long wait in the lobby for our bus, that was filled with plenty of balloon fun.

Of course we were at the airport really early too and then our flight was delayed a bit.  It was naptime, but everyone chilled pretty good in the airport.

The flight home was full and I had to sit in the row behind Matthew and the kids this time. But it was okay…before we knew it we were back home, safely on the ground in Raleigh.  Welcome Home!

Disney Day 5: Animal Kingdom

Our last day in the parks…sniff, sniff. I must say it was a little harder to drag out of bed that morning.  As a result we were a little later getting to the park than usual, but we were still there for opening. Just a little further back in the crowds.  Animal Kingdom seems to have fairly narrow walkways so being in that crowd with the double stroller was hard. This was the first day we had really run into crowds too….lots of school groups everywhere. I was very tired of tie-dyed shirts by the end of the day!!!  This was also by far the hottest day, with temps in the 80s. All I can say is thank goodness it wasn’t like that all week!!

We still had a great time though! Our first attraction of the day was the Kilimanjaro Safari.  That was a really neat ride and we saw lots of animals. There was a little storyline that the Jeep driver went along with, and trying to explain what a poacher was to Will and Avery and then further explain how it was all pretend because there weren’t real poachers in Disney was at least a week long conversation!! 

We saw lots of neat animals.

 

One of the funnier experiences on the safari is what a giraffe was blocking the road a few trucks in front of us. Will loudly announces to the trucks behind us that there was a giraffe blocking the road. Well, guess what. The giraffe moved. Ha!! Everyone got a good laugh out of it and the poor giraffe’s ears have probably never been the same since!

A few more shots of animals.

After the safari, we headed towards Expedition Everest. I ran ahead to get Fast Passes. Matthew and the kids stopped to pose for a pic with some of the Jungle Book characters.

Expedition Everest….

Will got to ride it 3 times!! Twice with Matt and once with me. This boy loves coasters!!!

While the boys road Everest the last time, Avery and I headed over to Dinoland, where we ran into Pluto and Goofy. Oh she was in love!!  When it was her turn, she walked right up, looked up and Goofy and sized him up, and then proceeded to walk right past him over to Pluto!! Goofy was crushed!! Pluto noticed and then pretended to walk away with Avery, upsetting Goofy even more!!!  I had to jump in and hug him to make him feel better!  She did eventually give him a hug though and Pluto and Goofy were nice enough to sign Will’s autograph books too!

After the character visit, we headed to the Boneyard playground. Oh my. This was by far Avery’s favorite attraction I think. And it was a playground!!! Albeit a fun playground!! Lots of slides and tunnels and such. There was even a dinosaur bone dig area.  This place was pretty nice because it was tucked in a back corner and had a nice breeze. The first time we played in it, it was nice at least. When we made it back a little while later with hot and sweaty kids, the little rocks posing as sand got stuck EVERYWHERE. Poor Avery had to be taken to the restroom and cleaned up b/c it had gotten all in her shorts!!

This tall, curvy yellow slide was the highlight of Avery’s trip I think. And let me tell you, it took a lot of effort for a 2 year old to get up there too! Rope ladders and bridges, etc….but she kept doing it over and over. The first time Matt went with her and came down the slide behind her. Poor guy….it is a pretty tight slide and one part of his body was in one curve while another was in another curve! But man, Avery loved it!! One time she came shooting out, head over heels…..that scared her for about 5 minutes, and then she was right back up there.

We found a nice shady bench back on a trail to have lunch.  After lunch the boys went to ride Kali River Rapids while Avery and I hung at the playground.  We were all hot and tired by this point and it was really crowded, so we decided to call it a day.  The kids cried and cried as we were leaving. 

We decided to do one more excursion and go on a monorail ride before going back to the hotel. That was fun but man, everyone was worn out.

That night, we had a big dinner at Mickey’s Backyard BBQ. More on that in a separate post!

Our last night in Disney was a late night getting to bed but everyone was beyond satisfied with the trip.  It was bitter sweet going to bed that night, but I know we’ll be back again soon.

Disney Day 4: Magic Kingdom Take Two!

Back to back days at the Magic Kingdom for us, which was great because the kids, especially Will wanted to go back. We intentionally didn’t go to Tomorrowland the first day so Will was itching to do some of the rides over there, including Space Mountain.  We actually split up this morning. I had not slept much the night before because I was up worrying that Avery wasn’t having a good time so as much as I wanted to do things with Will, I knew Avery needed to enjoy Disney her own way for once because in all honesty, a lot of our trip so far had been geared towards Will.

The boys headed off to Tomorrowland where Will rode Space Mountain over and over, the Speedway and Astro Orbiter.  Avery and I made our first morning stop at the Princesses. She saw Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty), Belle and Cinderella. I just love these pictures because you can tell just how we excited she is.  She was over the moon in awe of them. Belle even had her twirl around in her dress.  She was so star struck she could barely speak to them.

After the princesses, we headed over to see Tinker Bell and the boy fairy. I still don’t know his name, although I guess I could go look it up or look in the autograph book.

While over in Adventureland, we hopped on the Magic Carpets of Aladdin and we had a Princess Jasmine sighting. Yeah, she was not very friendly.  On our way over to meet up with the boys, we walked past It’s a Small World and Avery asked to ride it again. So of course we did.  

We found the boys and Will and I headed back to Space Mountain while Matt and Avery did the Speedway. Will has this amazing ability to somehow know where all the cameras are on the rides. So he is smiling at the cameras, arms up, having a good ol’ time on the coaster. And then there is my picture. I’m hunched over, eyes clenched shut, holding on to the bar for dear life. Too funny.  Space Mountain was really nerve-wracking because there is one rider per seat, so Will was in front of me. And the ride is in the dark. I spent most of the ride worrying that he had flown out!!  Seriously.  Later than night Matt and I were talking about it. Evidently Matt had been worried too b/c the first time they got on it, Will put his immediately put his legs ON TOP of the bar that holds you down. Geez!!!

Avery really enjoyed the go-carts, surprisingly.  I love how you can just see her big red bow when she is in the car!

At some point, Avery and I ended up back alone. Maybe the boys were back on Space Mountain. There was no wait all morning!!  Avery and I rode the People Mover, which is basically a bench on a conveyor belt through Tomorrowland. She liked it at first, until it went inside Space Mountain in the dark. And she freaked out!!! I loved just sitting down and moving in the breeze, even if I had to hold her and Duffy for part of it!

We also played in an arcade. I think we may have found the cheapest entertainment at Disney World. Skee ball was only a quarter a game!!!

Before we left Tomorrowland, Will and I rode Buzz Lightyear and we all saw the Monsters Inc comedy show. That was really funny and interactive. Although Will was mad he didn’t get up on screen!!

A picnic lunch……and then back over to Frontierland for the boys to ride Splash Mountain again.  The ride actually broke down, TWICE, while they were on it. Evidently this happens a lot.  After that ride, we took the train back around to the main gate and headed back to the hotel. 

We had had our first and only break-down of the week on the bus ride back to the hotel, quickly followed by a nap!

We wanted a little bit more of a low key afternoon. We rested a while in the room and then headed to the pool for one last splash.  We actually only made it to the pool twice during our stay. Of course we would have liked to have gone more but we weren’t there for the pool. Plus, it was fairly cold (in the low to mid 70s) most of the week. Which was WONDERFUL for park touring.

We shared a pizza by the pool. At this point the kids started telling knock knock jokes, which they are AWFUL at doing so, but they think they are SOOO hilarious. We had the table next to us bent over in hysterics, just b/c of what the kids were saying. Maybe one day I'll do a whole post on their knock-knock jokes!

Off to bed for one last day in the parks. I am getting sad that the end is drawing near.