Day 6 (morning) - Hollywood Studios

So we decided to change our original plan for Tuesday when we heard Monday evening there were big storms headed our way.  We figured Hollywood Studios had a lot of indoor activities and would be good for a rainy day.  Luckily we were able to get last minute breakfast reservations at Hollywood and Vine at Hollywood Studios, so on Tuesday morning, we bought some ponchos and headed over.  Excellent decision!  First of all, this was a delicious buffet breakfast.  Their cheesy grits were wonderful (as was the rest of their food).  Second of all, we got to meet some of our favorite Disney Junior characters.  First up was June from The Little Einsteins.

 Then Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates came by.  Talk about a dream come true for Mia!  She loves pirates and Jake is one of her favorites!

 Big hugs for Special Agent Oso.

 Handy Manny stopped by too.

 Silly, happy girls hanging out while waiting for Voyage of the Little Mermaid to start after we ate breakfast.  This was an interesting combination of live actors (like Ariel), puppets (the fish) and movie.  It was pretty neat and the girls enjoyed most of it though they were a little freaked out by the HUGE Ursula octopus who comes out.

 After that show, we headed over to Disney Junior Live on Stage (by the way, it had stopped raining; we were dry the whole day - yea!).  This was a big hit.  It starts with a human narrator who takes us to Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse where puppet characters from that show come out; they are planning a surprise birthday party for Minnie, and they need help.  They learn lessons along the way from other characters: The Little Einsteins, Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Handy Manny.  It was a really cute show that I'm glad we saw.

 Mia was captivated.

 Lily was super excited to catch some gold dablooms from Jake!

 After this show, we watched the Muppets 3D show which was pretty cool.  It cracks me up to watch Mia in a 3D show!  We had a few minutes to spare, so I made the girls "meet" Lightening McQueen and Mater.  They didn't want to, but they were good sports and did anyways.

Finally, it was time for us to redeem our Fastpasses to Toy Story Mania.  I had heard how this ride will have a long wait (it was almost 2 hours when we got there at 12:15), so the best route is to get a fast pass as soon as you can.  Ryan left our breakfast about 15 minutes after the park opened at 9 to go get these, and they were already halfway sold out for the day.  I thought that was crazy until we rode the ride.  It was amazingly awesome!  All five of us loved it as we tried to score points and compete against one another.  Mia loved it so much, she pitched a big fit about having to get off the ride; she really didn't want to.  I would absolutely love to ride this again too!

 

This was really everything we wanted to do at Hollywood Studios, so we headed on back to the hotel for a small snack of fruit and cheese (we were all pretty full from breakfast) and then take a nap.

Day 5 - Magic Kingdom

On Monday, we decided to spend the day at the Magic Kingdom.  We decided to wait until Monday to let the weekend crowds head home.  This was a great decision as we barely had to wait anywhere.  We were there when the park opened, and we headed straight back to ride Flight of Peter Pan because we had heard how long the line gets later in the day.  Mia wasn't a huge fan, but the rest of us enjoyed it; how can you not love flying over London?  After this, we went on It's A Small World.  The girls especially loved this.  Lily was singing right along with music (sorry if you have it in your head now), and they were pointing out every detail.  It seemed to fascinate them which was fun to watch.  After that ride, we jumped on the carousel for a quick spin.  We all rode in a row which was fun.

 Finally, 9:05 arrived, and it was time for breakfast inside Cinderella's castle.  I'll be honest, I think I was the most excited about this!  I have heard so much about it, and it was an experience I really wanted for my girls.  For the record, I was right.  It was awesome, and we all enjoyed it!

 

As soon as you walk in, you meet Cinderella in the lobby.  She asked the girls how they were doing, and Lily volunteered "we have mice in our house."  Um...no, we don't.

 We waited a few minutes after that picture and then we were called upstairs.  As soon as we arrived, they gave us a yummy platter of different pastries and strawberries while we looked over the menu.  The girls had the kids' breakfast of french toast sticks, eggs and bacon, Ryan enjoyed the cream cheese stuffed french toast with bacon and fruit while Liz and I both dined on "steak and eggs" (filet mignon over a chipotle-caramelized onion frittata with rosemary-lemon roasted potatoes).  The girls were also given magic wands and wishing stars.  Just before we started eating, they were given instructions on how to wave the wands and make a special wish.  It was cute to see all the kids around the restaurant doing this.  Soon after our food arrived, the princesses started making their appearances.  They went to every single table and spent a couple of minutes with the kids at that table.  It was great to get this individual attention. 

 

First up was Sleeping Beauty.

 Then we talked to Snow White.

 Next to stop by was Ariel.

 Last up was Jasmine, who told Mia she liked the little Abu on her shirt.

It was time to try out the new Dumbo area.  As you wait, you actually go through a neat little playground that the girls had fun on; it allowed the adults a little time to sit down too.  Soon it was time to ride.

 

Mia was ready to take Ryan on a ride!

 Lily assured me she had her elephant driving license. 

 After Dumbo, we headed over to Goofy's Barnstormer ride.  This was going to be Mia's first roller coaster ride.  She is such an adventurous child that I was sure she would love it.  Here we are getting ready to go.

 I was wrong.  You can see by the look of terror on her face that she hated it.  Sorry Mia.  It may be awhile before she tries another roller coaster!

 We thought meeting some beloved characters would be a nice change of pace from that ride.  Again, wrong.  Mia was apparently still a little shook up, so she refused to go up to meet Daisy.  Lily wanted to meet her though.

 Mia joined us a moment later though so she could meet Minnie too.

 We could see the girls fading quickly.  It has been early and jam-packed morning.  We decided to take the train around to Main Street (the girls really liked that) and then headed back to nap.  Once everyone had rested for awhile, we made our way back to the Magic Kingdom.  We saw the line to meet Mickey Mouse was only 5 minutes long, so we went in to meet him in his "normal" clothes.  Both girls were all smiles for this.

 Finally, it was time for the ride the girls had been wanting for days...the teacups!

 Just after that, we were able to meet Merida, star of Brave.  While the girls liked the movie, they love her game on our iPads.  Merida is a fun-loving spirit, and she was happy to chat up the girls.

 After meeting Merida, Mia learned to use a bow and arrow.  She was really close to getting the bulls eye!  The girls also colored a picture here; they always love that.

 As we walked, the girls couldn't resist trying to get the sword from the stone.  No luck.

 We decided to stop for dinner at Pinocchio Village Haus.  We were able to score a table right at the big window that looks over the beginning of It's A Small World, so the girls loved it.  They waved to each of the boats as it launched, and they would get so excited when people would wave back.  After dinner we went over to see the Philharmagic Show.  Both girls loved this 3D show where Donald wears Mickey's sorcerer hat and goes through lots of famous Disney scenes, like flying with Jasmine and Aladin.  I'll be honest, my favorite part was just watching Mia as she tried so hard to grab the objects that flew near her; she cracked me up!

 

Next, we made a quick souvenir stop.  The girls wanted to spend the rest of their birthday money that had been saved.  Mia bought this cute Minnie that spins and her dress lights up.

 Lily went with the light-up Sleeping Beauty.

 We made our way back to Main Street and enjoyed a little popcorn snack before the SpectroMagic Parade started.  Both girls were thrilled to see Tinkerbell leading off the parade; they love her!

 We loved all these floats and characters, but I didn't want to fill up this blog entry with those pictures.  I had to put in the Peter Pan and Captain Hook boat float though.  Even though Mia didn't like their ride a whole lot, she loved their float!

 We stayed in our place on Main Street after the parade and waited a bit for the fireworks to start.  Mia watched the show with Liz.

 Lily kept her hands over her ears, but watched the show with me.

 What a great way to end a very fun-filled day!

Day 4 - Animal Kingdom

We decided to spend our first full day at Disney at the Animal Kingdom; we thought maybe on a Sunday, it wouldn't be as crowded.  I think that was a good plan.  When we got in, we headed straight to the Kilimanjaro Safari.  It can be truly amazing as a tour bus takes you through a huge area where animals roam all over the place.  This giraffe really was this close; he walked right in front of our bus!

 Mia watching the elephants.

 Zebras are my favorite!

 There were lots of other cool animals too, but I didn't put all their pictures up here.  We love this ride, so we actually got Fast Passes when we first went in, so we immediately returned and rode it again.  Smart thinking, right?

 

After the second safari ride, we headed over to Camp Minnie Mickey where we met Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Baloo with King Louie.  I made a rookie mistake here.  I was taking pictures with my phone as the kids walked up to the characters, but then stopped taking them so the Photopass photographer could get really good ones of them together.  I didn't realize it was totally okay to take pictures of them posed and then let the photographer take them.  So, the pictures I have with these characters aren't so great, but we'll get them with our pictures yet to be scanned in.

 They were both pretty excited to meet the two mice.

 We could see we had a pretty tired camper on our hand (see picture below which was on the bus ride), so we headed back to our hotel for lunch, hotel exploring and a nap.  Good call on our part.

 When we headed back after nap time, we decided to go see The Lion King show which was pretty cool.  We all thought the monkey acrobats did a great job.

 After the show, we let the girls use some of their birthday money to pick the souvenir of their choice.  Lily picked this sweet little baby Simba.

 Mia loved her light up princess hat!

We headed over into Dino Land where we ran into a picture spot with Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger.  I didn't even take any pictures here since I was relying on the photopass.  Whoops.

 

We explored Dino Land a little and I watched the others ride Triceratops Spin ride which I think was a hit (it's very similar to Dumbo which we all love).  Everyone was starting to get hungry by this point, so we made our way to the Rainforest Cafe.  It was a pretty good dinner; we all enjoy that restaurant (at least, once the girls get used to the rainstorm that comes every 20 minutes or so).  Mia liked that her chicken nuggets were shaped like dinosaurs.

This was a fun and pretty easy-going first full day.  We definitely needed this slower paced day since Mia didn't seem to be feeling great yet.  Overall, a great day though!

Art of Animation Hotel

We loved our hotel!  Disney recently opened their new value resort called The Art of Animation, and it's perfect for families.  Look at this adorable picture that greets you when you arrive.  There are also pictures of Ariel, Simba and Lightening McQueen.

 The lobby is amazing.  They have all these sketches over all the walls.  Really pretty cool to see.

 We stayed in the Finding Nemo area of the resort.  This amazing mural was on the wall...Nemo everywhere!

 Our room was awesome.  Look at this adorable wall decoration of Dude Crush.

 This table and chair was right when you walked in the door.  The girls thought it was awesome that this was also a murphy bed that pulled out.  Mia enjoyed sleeping in that bed at night while Lily slept there for a nap each day.

 Just past this was a bedroom with large bathroom.  To the right of this was another full bathroom and a living room with a sofa (that converted to a bed for Liz and Lily), tv, dressers, hanging space and a little kitchenette.  Honestly, this was a great room for our family; we would gladly stay here again.

 

I love the fixtures around the hotel.  This was just outside our hotel block.

 Dude Crush was across the pool from us; he's awesome!

 The seagulls at the end of the hotel amazed the girls (and a lot of others too...).  Every time we passed they tried to get them to say "Mine, mine!"

We also took a quick peak around the Cars area of the hotel.  Welcome!

 We all love Mater.

So glad we choose this hotel!