Our Disney Trip 2009

Saturday we spent the whole day at Animal Kingdom. Since we had already ridden the Safari, we didn’t rush. We slept in a little (as long as our kids would let us. They are early risers!) and had stopped at the Pop Century food court for a delicious breakfast.

At the entrance to Animal Kingdom, we stopped and met Flik and Meeko. Then we went through the RainForest Café gift shop and posed for pictures with their various statues. Did you know there is a secret entrance to Animal Kingdom outside the gift shop? It was a great way to beat the lines.

We stopped for a popcorn snack and bought a Kids Discovery Club kit. Jacob wasn’t the least bit interested in seeing The Lion King, so Jason took Emily again. Jacob and I hung out and fed the ducks then we went to meet his favorite characters.

First up was Goofy. He patiently waited his turn and then marched right up to him and gave him a huge, sweet hug. He posed for a quick picture, said fair well and went off to find the next character trail. He repeated the same routine with both Mickey and Minnie. It was wonderful.

We began to make our journey around Animal Kingdom to the various Kids Club stations. Emily learned so much at each station and she learned how to direct us towards them by following the map. We even found a couple trails that took us up close to the Tree of Life while looking for the stations.

We had lunch at Flame Tree Barbeque and it was delicious except for the ducks that kept pecking our feet. We did find a table that offered an awesome view of Expedition Everest. After lunch, we did the Maharajah Jungle Trek which we did not enjoy at all, and stopped to play drums in Africa.

Next up, we boarded the train to the Conservation Station. If you have time, this is a really fun place to go. There is a petting area where my kids had a blast brushing goats. This is also one of the only places to meet Jiminy Cricket. We were not expecting to see him! We also found Pocahantas. And I mean found her. She was blending in with the willow tree! We also had to see Rafiki before we left. Emily was just as excited to meet him as she was the first time.

We timed our trip back from the Conservation Station perfectly. For those that didn’t know, Mickey’s Jammin Jungle Parade starts and ends in Africa. We waited for the end and we were able to grab a seat right up in the front. All the characters in the parade spotted our kids and waved. This thrilled Emily. She loved feeling so special.

We decided to go see Finding Nemo before the park closed. Jacob had not enjoyed watching any previous shows, but we thought we would give it a try. I ended up having to leave the show 5 minutes into it. It will be nice once Jacob is old enough to have more patience.

For dinner, we ate at the Pop Century food court again. Looking back, wow we ate there a lot. At least the food was delicious!

Sunday morning was the first of 2 days at Epcot. We got there for rope drop and I sent Jason to grab fast passes for Soarin’. The kids and I took the opportunity to see Daisy and Stitch with no lines! After we met up with Jason, we decided to go into the Character Connection and see the Fab 5 who also didn’t have a line! We couldn’t pass up some loving from our favorite characters. On our way out, we saw Mary Poppins in the lobby!

The Sea Pavillion was next on the list. Let me just say, the “Mine! Mine” birds outside the pavillion are so funny! We had a blast yelling at them. Since everyone was elsewhere, we were the first family on Under the Sea with Nemo. The kids were so fascinated by all the sea life. And it was fun to try to spot Nemo. We stopped by the aquarium and saw the diver feed the fish. It was so incredible!

Finally, it was time to see Talking with Crush. You don’t want to miss this! Emily took a seat up by the front and Jacob stayed with us since he can’t behave yet. The kids took turns talking to crush and Emily informed him that she lived in a brick house. He was like “Dude! A brick house!” She still talks about that! At one point, all the kids were suppose to practice saying “Dude!” Well Jacob caught on quickly and was screaming it. Crush said “Dude! The little dude in the back had got it. Dude!” We were all rolling.

We went to ride Soarin’ next and we did a child swap so we could both ride it with her. While we waited on Jason and Emily to ride, Jacob and I got a delicious muffin. It was nice to be able to have a snack while we waited. Emily came off the ride raving. “Snorin’ was so awesome! We were snoring through the clouds and over the city.” We didn’t bother telling her it was Soarin. We were too busy laughing.

Jacob was running thin on patience so we decided to head over to Test Track so Jason and Emily could ride. We did a child swap in case I decided to try it too, but after more consideration, I decided I just wasn’t interested. Maybe next trip. We also stopped in the child care center for a breather and a diaper change. We met the nicest cast member who was on a one year work visa from Australia. She was nearing the end of her year and she was really starting to get home sick. She told us some interesting stories about life in Australia.

I went and signed Emily up for the Kim Possible Mission before we headed into the World Showcase. Up first was Mexico. We rode the 3 cabellarios ride which was really neat. Jacob started begging for money though as soon as he saw it was a boat ride. But I was out of change and had to try to get him interested in Donald instead. It didn’t take long before he was fully engrossed in the ride.

We also got to meet Donald again. He had on the biggest Sombraro and I got one of the cutiest picture of the kids. All Jacob wanted to do was hug him.

Next up was Norway. We had a few minutes to kill before our reservation at Askershus so we decided to ride Malestrom. I hadn’t planned on us riding it and I thought it would be a rather lame ride. I was surprised to discover that it was my favorite ride in all of Disney!

The princess lunch was extremely stressful. It began with hostess who didn’t know what they were doing. They sent us inside the lobby to wait and after 15 minutes we went to check on the reservations. They had called our name 11 minutes prior but they called it outside! After they call your name, you line up for your picture with Belle. We were hot and irritated, so we only sent Emily up to be in the picture.

We were seated next and we got a nice waitress who began to tell us our choices. At this time, we noticed all these people who began to chant the theme song from Norway at the top of their lungs. It turns out that it was Norway’s independence day and quite a few Norweigans decided to celebrate very loudly.

We picked out some food from the bar and the princesses began to come around to the tables. Emily was excited to meet Aurora. She had declared Sleeping Beauty her favorite princess because she wears a pink dress. Snow White was really sweet and kind and as soon as Ariel came to the table, Emily asked her why her hair had changed from when she met her when Ariel was a mermaid. Ariel told her that she has human hair as a human and mermaid hair as a mermaid. Haha!

The entrees and desserts arrived as well as the picture with Belle. I was surprised that it was free. Emily was so excited to meet Cinderella again, but she never came. We ended up having to tell the manager.
But unfortunately, we were not given any priority and had to wait another 20 minutes for Cinderella to make her rounds with the new diners. It was very frustrating. The manager did give Emily an exclusive pin for the trouble which we appreciated.

Before leaving Norway, we rode Maelstrom once more and Emily defeated a giant troll! She was so proud of herself. We stopped in China and got another bag of candy. We had decided to try to buy candy from each country. We had already bought some in Mexico and Norway. We also spotted Mulan and ran over for a quick picture.

But by now it had started to drizzle. We sought cover under an awning and Emily entertained everyone by playing the drums. It was a lot of fun even in the rain. It was then time to pick up Emily’s Kamunicator for her mission. Jason and Emily had a blast solving the mission and I walked Jacob around America and was able to get him to take a nap. Until this band started playing loudly and woke him up. Oh well. At least he was in a better mood.

Our energy was really starting to lag at this point. We found a playground that had been set up for the Flower and Garden Festival and let the kid

s play. Unfortunately the rain began to fall harder and we decided to start heading back to the front of Epcot.

We stopped at Club Kool to taste all the different flavors of Coca Cola beverages from around the world. Emily and Jacob both enjoyed most of the flavors but they spit out the Beverly. I didn’t even taste it because I had been forewarned. We also spent about an hour playing in Innoventions. Jacob gladly welcomed the opportunity to be out of the stroller for a while.

Emily wanted me to ride Soarin with her before we left. We still had our child swap ticket from earlier so we decided to head over to The Land. We parked the stroller and I left the bag of candy, the kids change of clothes and my touring notebook in the seat of the stroller and we headed inside. We were also toting a backpack. We kept that with us.

We rode Living with the Land first. It was really kind of boring and it was hard to keep Jacob on his seat. He was getting irritated with us. So Jason decided to get him something to eat while Emily and I rode Soarin.

And of course, I was scared to death. It’s really irritating having this fear of heights and not being able to enjoy everything my daughter does. Emily kept leaning forward in her seat itching her leg, and I kept freaking out thinking she was going to fall to her death. But the ride was a lot of fun. Next time I will ask for the back row. They had put us in the front!

Emily and I also ate dinner after the ride. It was pouring outside and we were trying to wait out the rain. Finally it reached the point where we were too tired to wait anymore and ready to get back to the hotel. We went to get the stroller and our bag was gone! Someone had got into the stroller (which was parked up against the wall with 2 strollers in front of it and the stroller parking was attended by a cast member.) We were very upset and felt so violated. We informed the cast member who looked at us with shocked eyes and told us to call lost and found. Of course lost and found never got the bag. It was lost forever. And with it, Emily’s picture with Belle from the restaurant.

We headed back to the resort with broken spirits. Disney was the happiest place on earth, things weren’t suppose to be stolen.

After a good nights sleep, we felt a lot better. We were glad they had just taken the bag and not the stroller too. We began to look on the bright side and have a better attitude about the whole thing. (Although we still kind of wished the person that stole the bag would choke on the candy. That’s kind a mean though.)

We decided to go to Hollywood Studios for rope drop on Monday so we could have the opportunity to ride Toy Story Mania. I sent Jason after fast passes while the kids and I waited and browsed the various gift shops.

Emily and I decided to go and see The Little Mermaid while the boys went off to see Playhouse Disney Live again. The show was a lot better than I had expected. I would of liked to see it a couple more times if we had the opportunity.

We still had a little time after the show before we had to meet up with the guys. We went into Annimations and met Sorcerer Mickey. They also had these neat computers you could draw on. We met up with the guys and told them about the great fun we had had, and of course we had to go back and do it again!

Finally it was time for us to go ride Toy Story Mania. I was excited to see what all the hype was about. The ride did not disappoint! Even though Jason ended up beating me, I had a great time. I can’t wait to return and ride it again and again and again! After the ride, Emily met X. She finally got all of the Little Einstein’s signatures! She was so proud of herself. She got so many signatures on the trip that she filled up her home made book and 2 Disney books!

We headed to the Grand Floridian for the Unbirthday Tea Party at 1:30. Emily was so excited to get to party with Alice and the Mad Hatter. Parents weren’t allowed, so we went to the café for lunch. We also stopped by the gift shop and found a small tea pot shaped plaque with Alice and the Mad Hatter on it. We got it for Emily to commemorate the event. She loved it!

We had dinner reservations at The Garden Grill in Epcot for dinner. We had just enough time to go to the private meet and greet for Visa card holders. This is located in Innovations West. We were the only ones there. When we entered, we rounded the corner and we saw Minnie Mouse! Goofy and Mickey were hiding behind the décor! Jacob immediately ran to hug Minnie and they ended up in the floor together. He would not let her go! Emily was having a blast playing with Mickey and Goofy and I had so much fun watching them have the time of their lives. Mickey was getting so jealous of all the love that Minnie was receiving and was able to convince Jacob to let her go for a minute to get a hug himself. Goofy tried to get Jacob’s attention, but it was Minnie who had his heart. We ended up with 10 whole minutes with them and a 100 amazing pictures!

We went to the Garden Grill and it was so crowded! Jacob and I went to check in for dinner and Emily and Jason rode Soarin’. We finally met up together and got a seat. The dinner was so worth it! It was the best

meal we had at Disney. The vegetables were grown right there in Epcot and tasted so fresh and delicious. The restaurant was neat because it rotated. And we got the more attention from the characters that we had received at any meal! Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale came by our table twice! It was so fun. Mickey and Pluto even got into a sword fight! I went out of my way to find a manager and let him know how wonderful the meal and environment was.

After the meal, it was raining and we were tired so we headed back to the resort. I had added an extra night to our trip while we were there, so we were excited to have an 8th full day in the parks.

The weather on Tuesday did not agree with us. It was drizzling The kind just enough to annoy you. We decided to end our trip in Magic Kingdom and the kids were so excited to ride their favorites again. Fantasyland was the first stop of the day. We rode Peter Pan and Pooh twice and even managed to fit in a final ride on Dumbo. We ended up riding it 3 times and never waited more then 5 minutes. That was a major accomplishment!

Since it was drizzling, the parks were not overly crowded. We rode the Tommorwland Super Speedway which the kids really enjoyed. But Emily kept rear ending Jacob. At least she won’t behind the wheel of a real car for a while!

We also stopped in Toontown. Jason took Jacob to ride Goofy’s Barnstormer while Emily and I went to meet the Princesses. The line was only 5 minutes long! Emily was excited to tell Belle, Auora and Cinderella goodbye and how much she
enjoyed her trip.

Our final character meal was at Crystal Palace. The food was really good and the kids were excited to see Pooh and his friends. Tigger bounced for us and Eeyore wrote an extra long birthday message to Emily. We even got to participate in their parade. It was so fun and a great ending to our trip.

We went back to the hotel and rested for a while and then decided to head to Downtown Disney for some last minute shopping. We drove our van. It was absolutely miserable! It poured the entire time we were trying to shop. We got soaked to the bone! Next time, I think we will go the first day of the trip if the weather is good.

Wednesday morning we were all sad to leave Disney. But we were so thankful we were able to leave before all the rain moved in. It rained non stop for like 2 weeks in Orlando after our trip. Thank goodness we went when we did.

We had the time of our lives on our trip. It was worth every dime we paid. The kids are still talking about it months later and we are all itching to go back. We are already planning a late Spring 2010 trip!