Disney Recap: An Awesome Week!

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Nancy

We had such a wonderful time at Disney World!!

We flew in on Saturday morning and stayed through Friday with 6 day passes to the parks. We stayed at the All Star Music resort – which I would recommend to any family in a heartbeat, and we used the Disney Dining Plan – which I would also highly recommend.

I’m going to do the daily recap here and then tips and observations in another post…stay tuned!

Day 1: Magic Kingdom

As I said, we flew in on Saturday and used the shuttle service provided by Disney to go straight to the resort. We were early (11:30am when check-in time is 3:00pm), but they handled us well. There were 600 people checking out (most there for the night…since it was New Years Eve and all), so our room wasn’t ready, but they found us another one with no problems. Because we used the Disney shuttle from the airport, we didn’t have our luggage yet (more about that in tips), so we dropped off our carry-ons, found some lunch at the resort, and then headed to the Magic Kingdom!

On the bus to the park, Logan and Maggie decided they wanted to sit by themselves.

We hit the park right as a parade was happening!

Watching the Parade:

Our first glimpse of the Castle:

On the Carousel:

We also hit the Dumbo ride, Small world, and the River Taxi to take us to dinner at the Wilderness Campgrounds. We were going to stay at the campgrounds to attend the camp fire and eat S’mores with Chip n’ Dale, but we just couldn’t make it. (Did I mention that we’d been up since about 4:30am to make the flight?)

That night, I stuck them all in the bedroom…sideways on the bed:

It worked that night because they were all so tired they fell right to sleep. The next morning however…that’s another story 😉 The next night we used the couch cushions and put Maggie on the floor; but Logan and Burke woke up kicking each other (and I couldn’t sleep with Mike’s snoring!), so then we ended up putting both Logan and Maggie on the floor with couch cushions, and I slept in the bed with Burke (Mike stayed out on the *very* uncomfortable pull-out couch).

Day 2: Magic Kingdom

We had matching shirts!!

My sister, Sharon, and her family gave them to us for Christmas. They have the hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil monkeys on them and say:

The Zimmer Zoo Takes on Walt Disney World
(What happens in Orlando stays in Orlando)

I can’t even tell you how many comments we got on these shirts! Even people who work at the park said they were clever.

We started our day by having Breakfast with Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, and Tigger. Burke and Maggie were all over it … Logan, not so much at first; he was content watching from his booster chair, but then got into it.

Then we saw Ariel and had to wait in line to see her. Well, Maggie and I waited in line (and then the boys jumped it when we got there 😉 )

We hit the Jungle Cruise, Swiss Family Tree house, the Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean (3 times). We also saw Pirate Goofy.

After lunch, the kids all wanted to go back to the hotel and swim in the guitar-shaped pool.

Day 3: Animal Kingdom

We started the day with a Safari Breakfast with Donald, Daisy, Mickey, and Goofy. Donald was outside – you had to wait in line to get your picture taken with him before you could even go in for breakfast (they then brought that picture around to sell to you…)

We went on a safari after that – which was SO.SO cool!! I took a lot of pictures, but I’m not going to put them in here…perhaps in another post.

We took a train to the petting zoo area, but the kids were fascinated by the elephant statues, so we stayed there for a little bit.

There were a few characters at the petting zoo area: Pocahontas, Rafiki, and Jiminy Cricket. Burke had no interest in any of them though…

And all 3 kids got new hats.

We went back to the main area and walked through a few animal areas. I have lots of pictures (mostly of the tigers 😉 ), but I won’t put those in here either.

We ended up spending a LOT of time at the Dinosaur Play area.

We quickly hit Mickey and Minnie’s Camp and saw Santa Goofy, Santa Minnie, and Thumper before the park closed.

Day 4: Epcot

We walked around a bit and then had lunch at the Coral Reef restaurant – no characters, but you are sitting right beside a HUGE aquarium. And since Burke and Maggie were wearing their Birthday buttons, they each got a make your own sunday dessert.

We went to The Seas with Nemo and everyone got into Bruce. Then Turtle Talk with Crush – which I HIGHLY recommend going to, Living with the Land, Spaceship Earth, and my personal favorite, Imagination (with Figment!)…I’m still singing that song.

The kids were fascinated with the various water “fun” around the park. The Water “up” was a big hit. As was the water that looked like it was playing a game along the rocks.

Maggie got her picture taken with Marie (from The Aristocats).

Logan had said he didn’t want to…and then changed his mind…but this was the best we could do.

This was the only day it rained on us…and it was right about the time we were looking for dinner, so it was all good.

Day 5: Hollywood Studios

We walked around for a bit and saw a Green Army Man from Toy Story.

We then had lunch with Handy Manny, June and Leo from Little Einsteins, and some bear named Oso.

My favorite from Hollywood Studios will always be the Indiana Jones Show 🙂 The kids liked it too!

We took a wrong turn and Mike happen to look over…and then Burke was in HEAVEN. He got to meet Lightnin’ McQueen and Mater! Just look at the glee on his face while we were waiting in line!!

And then boy oh boy…he got to touch them! He was going around Mater … just running his hand along him (even though he wasn’t supposed to), and just the look on his face..! Happy, happy boy.

So of course I had to get a picture of just him with McQueen. The kid LOVES this car.

After that we spent some time at the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground, and went on the Back Lot tour. The Toy Story ride was a big hit – and the only ride all week that we had to get a FastPass for.

We took another wrong turn and ran into Mike and Sully from Monster’s, Inc. And then Annie and Leo from Little Einsteins. (They refused Leo’s autograph since we’d just had lunch with him and gotten it then…)

After that we hit Playhouse Disney Live – where we were chosen as the “Special Family” of the show. What did that mean? Nothing. 🙂 They tried to sit us somewhere in the middle for the best seats of the house (I use “seat” loosely – we were all sitting on the floor), but when the time came to go inside, the kids were loured to the front row. No biggie. The show was based on Mickey Mouse Club House, but had Handy Manny, Little Einsteins, and Tigger and Pooh.

Logan was in absolute awe – Mickey Mouse Club House is his favorite show!

Unfortunately at the end of this day, we were running to try to catch the bus back to the hotel and Burke wiped out. Skinned knee, elbow, and wrist. (I actually thought he’d gotten his head, boy did we get lucky there!) And it turns out that it was all for nothing because they were trying to get a wheel chair on the bus, so we made it with time left over. *sigh*

Day 6: Back to Magic Kingdom

We spent most of our time at Tomorrow Land. We rode the Rocket ships, the people mover, and the Buzz Lightyear ride. After that one, we even ran into Buzz!

We let the kids drive around the race track (OMG, Maggie is *never* getting her license LOL!!)

At lunch this day, Maggie drank some chocolate milk too fast and ended up not keeping it down. Not to fear though, she BEGGED to go on the Tea Cups almost immediately after.

The kids got to sit on Minnie Mouse’s couch – in her house!

Then we saw two lines…one 5 minute wait for the Princesses and one 45 minute wait for the Fairies. Thank God Maggie’s into the Princesses!! We saw Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Bell, and Maggie’s most favorite person in the world: Cinderella.

Maggie was in awe 🙂

I think the biggest hit of the day was the Goofy Roller coaster. Logan was JUST barely tall enough to go on it. The ride was only 2 seaters, so we put Maggie and Burke in one row, I sat behind them, and then Daddy and Logan sat behind me. Before we even stopped, all 3 kids said “AGAIN!!” And I could hear Logan giggling through the whole ride. So…we went again! This time, Burke requested to sit all by himself, so Maggie sat with me and Burke rode the whole way with a HUGE grin on his face. 🙂

That night, we had dinner with Cinderella, Prince Charming, The Step-Mother, and the Ugly Step-Sisters.