Where Dreams Come True!

Disney World Video

I put together the pictures from our WDW vacation on YouTube(click on link above to view). I accidentally put 2012 in the title of the slideshow and didn't catch it...oops! There are 160ish pictures that I trimmed from 500+ that I took. What can I say, I tried to narrow them down! We had a great time. The weather was still very warm until Saturday and Sunday. Crowds were great until the weekend as well. I want to be as detailed but I'm also tired, so here is my short version of what we did and some "must-do's". Of course I'll leave something out but maybe not!

We got an earlier flight on Tuesday(September 27) than originally planned, putting us in Orlando at 10:55am. We stayed at the Port Orleans-French Quarter and they let us check in as soon as we arrived. We all took naps and headed to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party that night. Kids had a good time trick or treating at the Magic Kingdom but LG was petrified by the characters until day 3. Turning point came at Hollywood Studios when she saw Phineas and Ferb(one of their fav morning cartoons). Hilarious! We also were able to ride some rides that night.

Wednesday: Went to breakfast EARLY at O'Hana and were at the MK by 8:45 for "rope drop" aka when the park opens. You have to do this! Makes the most out of your day. Back to resort by 2:00 for naps. Had 5:40 dinner reservations at 1900 Park Fare with Cinderella, Prince Charming, Lady Tremaine, Anastasia, and Druscilla(Step-mother and step-sisters). Loved this one!!!!! Very entertaining experience. Didn't leave hotel in time enough to be at our reservation. Opps! Took over an hour to get there with stops and transfers to the Grand Floridian. Note to self. Back to MK that night for rides. It was not busy at all on this night and we were able to walk on most of the rides. Didn't even use "Fast Past" until later in the week. It helped that Landry Grace was RIGHT AT 40 inches and could ride a lot of rides that had height requirements. This didn't come into play that much at MK but it did in the other parks. Got home that night around 10:30....no problem putting kids to bed.

Thursday: Up at 7:30 for breakfast(we chose to eat a snack at the park on this day) for Animal Kingdom. Park opened at 9 and I think we got off the bus around 8:40. They were already letting people in by the time we got to the gate. To me, this is a park you can visit once and get it done in a half day. We went to the safari ride first and it's always cool. We then hit some walking trails and spotted lots of animals before heading to Expedition Everest where Jake took a ride on his third roller coaster ride of the trip. Last we hit the 3-D attraction "It's Tough to be a Bug". Um, NO GO if your kids are scared easily. LG was ready to G-O on this one. We left AK around 1:30ish.
Home for naps and back at Hollywood Studios for that evening. We did 50's Primetime for dinner and it was great! The whole cafe is decked out in 50's(of course) style and the waiters treat you like "family". We kinda had a dud but the kids wouldn't have caught on anyway. Food was really good. Rode the #1 attraction Toy Story Mania. Totally worth the 35 minute wait(one of the longest waits on the entire trip...not bad!). Saw Phineas and Ferb. Rode Tower of Terror....scared the kids but didn't scar them for life;) and did a few more things.

Friday: Up early again(7:30) for a trip to Epcot. We REALLY enjoyed this day because of all the characters we got to see with little to no wait in line for autographs. Highly recommend it! Last time we went, we didn't feel like we had time to do Epcot bc there wasn't much for the kids. We were wrong(but it helped that LG was 40 inches). Soaring is the #1 ride there...awesome! We rode this one twice and did get fast passes(which allows you to come back at a certain time and go to the front of the line with little wait time). You are in a simulator hand gliding over the state of California. So cool! Lots to do for the kiddos. Don't forget to try out Test track. We stayed there until 3 that day and then went back to the resort. Since our dinner reservation wasn't until 8 that night, we had time to take advantage of the resort pool. The kids had been dying to swim so it worked out great. We did O'Hana a the Polynesian for dinner and it was REALLY good food. Another that I recommend. We also were able to catch the fireworks at 9:30 from our dinner table. That was fun! Got to bed late again. We never made it to bed before 10 the entire trip, so we slept in until 8:18 ish the next morning.

Saturday: Got to Hollywood Studios around 9:30 and went directly for fast passes at Toy Story Mania. They(fp's) go quickly. We did a lot at HS and I love this park! One of my favorites was the Beauty and the Beast show. Great! Lots to do here. Left at 4 ish and went back to resort for late naps. We decided to hit the MK that night since they were open until midnight. Saturday was a celebration for Disney's 40th year in business. It was C-R-O-W-D-E-D. Every line was long but we made due. We hadn't ridden the tea cups or race cars at that point so we made sure to do it that night. It's a Small World ride was ridden every chance we went to the MK and Peter Pan's Flight was my kids' favorite. Didn't get to bed until after midnight.

Sunday: LAST DAY! Slept until 9:30. Matt took Jake fishing(he was dying to go and since we were there for 5.5 days we had time to fit it in...that was nice) and then rented a two-person bike that we all rode around the neighboring resort. Then went back to room to go back to MK for the afternoon. We ended our trip with dinner at Cinderella's Castle. LG fell asleep in the stroller around 4(dinner was at 6) and when she woke up, it wasn't pretty. It took her a good hour to get back to "normal" and we missed a photo op with Cinderella at the beginning of dinner. There's always next time.

Left on Monday.

Wish I could elaborate more but I'm exhausted. Please excuse any errors. I'm spell checking and going to bed. I'll continue soon!