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Disney - a few final thoughts

Favorite Part of the Trip:
Nina: meeting Cinderella, and having lunch with all the princesses
Elise: meeting Mary Poppins
JC: Soarin'
Ann: Just watching the girls have so much fun with everything... and especially seeing Nina up on stage for Storytime with Belle

Best Meals:
Best food: Le Cellier
Best character meal: Hollywood and Vine
Best "Wow factor" meal: Cinderella's Royal Table
Best counter service meal: Earl of Sandwich

A few Thank You's:
To Andrea, our wonderful Disney travel agent!
To Lyndsie, for making the adorable Minnie Mouse tee shirts!
To Jen, for making the cute coordinating Minnie hairbows!
To Tour Guide Mike for loads of great advice!!

And a few Odds and Ends and thoughts on things...

• We used all Disney transportation - Magical Express, buses/monorails/boats to the parks, etc., and that all worked out great! No frustrations that you might expect with long waits, too many stops, crowded buses, etc. (with the one exception of our bus ride to Downtown Disney the very first day.)
• September is a GREAT time to go!! After Labor Day, the parks really weren't crowded at all.
• There is a dancer in the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom who looks exactly like Patrick Dempsey! We seriously started to wonder if he works there in the off season when he isn't filming Grey's Anatomy! The resemblance was uncanny!
• I'm so glad we opted to take our own strollers rather than rent. The strollers were worth their weight in gold to have on the walks to and from bus stops, in the resort, in downtown Disney, etc. I think we really would have regretted going with the rental strollers that are only available in the parks. Also, having a bright pink stroller makes it really easy to spot your stroller in a sea of navy blue ones!! Compact, lightweight umbrella strollers are a must on the buses!
• We loved the Disney Dining Plan! We got it for free in a promotion, but even if we had paid for it, we definitely would have gotten our money's worth out of it. It took us most of the week to learn all the ins and outs of using it (for example, all your counter service meals include dessert, but most places will let you choose any side item instead (so you could grab a bag of chips or fruit bowl to take with you for later), and even though the rules state kids have to order from the kids menu, at Wolfgang Puck Express, they told us we could have ordered one adult pizza instead and let the girls split it to only use one counter service credit rather than two), but that's OK. At Ohana's, we got a kick out of seeing the guy at the next table staring at his bill shaking his head back and forth, and grudgingly pulling out his credit card while we just signed the receipt and didn't worry about the total at all! Ahh.. the beauty of the dining plan!

Disney - Day 7

We started off our last day with Mickey waffles at the resort, then went for a swim, ate lunch and headed to the airport on Disney's Magical Express Bus. Our travel went smoothly, and we are glad to be home safe and sound!!

Disney - Day 6

We have been eating breakfast in the room every morning (we brought cereal with us, and just bought milk when we got here), but Port Orleans French Quarter is pretty well known for their fresh beignets, so we knew we couldn't end the trip without a breakfast of yummy beignets. They got a thumbs up from us, and here is Nina covered in powdered sugar.

For our last day in Orlando, we decided to make a quick trip back to MGM for one reason, and one reason alone... the Doodlebops.... yes, for those of you who know of the Doodlebops and are shaking your heads wondering why on earth we would actually choose to go see the Doodlebops, I guess it is just one of those sacrifices we make for our children! For those of you unfamiliar with the Doodlebops, they are a weird, irritating pop band for the preschool set. Unfortunately for us, Elise loves them. They were doing three days of concerts at MGM, so off we went.

We arrived just in time to get to the concert and get pretty good seats. Here are the girls waiting for the show to start.

We just wanted a short park day, so after the concert, we hit the High School Musical Pep Rally one more time and then got in line to see Sully and Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc.. Nina LOVES the movie Monsters, Inc. and was the one who requested to see the characters. Elise hates the movie and wanted no part of it. By the time we got to the front of the line though, Nina freaked out since Sully was so big, so Elise agreed to get in the picture on JC's back. Considering JC is about 6'5, you can see in the pic that Sully is HUGE!

After a good lunch at Toy Story's Pizza Planet, it was back to the resort for naps. Dinner reservations were at Ohana's at the Polynesian Resort. That was great. The food was really good, and we had a primo table location right in the middle of the restaurant, near the windows. We had great views of the lake and the castle at Magic Kingdom. Elise and I even joined in the hula lessons! Ohana's was definitely a nice change of pace from some of the busy character meals we've been doing.

Here are the girls showing off their hula skills after dinner

After leaving the Polynesian, JC wanted to check out the other monorail route, so we took the monorail to Epcot and back. That was neat because it loops all the way around Epcot, so we could look down and see the whole park from above. JC and Elise got to ride up front with the driver and learn all about how the monorail works, so that was a big highlight for them! It ended up being a later night than we anticipated though, and poor Nina was wiped out!!

Favorite Part of the Day:

Nina: High School Musical Pep Rally

Elise: Doodlebops Concert

JC: Riding the monorail with the driver

Ann: Buying flip-flops.... Real estate on my heels and toes was getting scarce because of all the bandaids covering up blisters. I have bandaids on top of bandaids. I couldn't stand it any more, so I am now the proud owner of a pair of oh-so-lovely, very overpriced Tinkerbell flip flops!!

Disney - Day 5

Whew! We survived our last big day in the parks. It has been a fun, but exhausting week. Today was Animal Kingdom. We really enjoyed pretty much everything we did there. This is the one place though where I have to say I'd probably do something differently than Tour Guide Mike's instructions if I were to go again (otherwise, he's been spot-on with everything!). He had us do the Kali River Raft Ride early in the morning. The girls LOVED this ride, and we loved having no wait. We even got to just sit in the raft and ride a second time immediately without getting in line again. That was a great perk. Unfortunately, Elise and I were on the side of the raft that got absolutely drenched. I don't think we could have gotten any wetter if we had jumped in a pool with our clothes on. Elise thought this was hysterical for about 15 minutes and told everyone we saw, "I got completely soaked!!!", but once the novelty wore off, the wet clothes just gave her something to whine and complain about all day long. I have to admit, walking around in wet clothes all day wasn't a picnic for me either. I think in hindsight, I'd do this ride later in the day! Anyway, it was fun nonetheless! The Safari ride was neat too. The Pocahontas show was a real treat. It doesn't have the glitz and pizzazz of the bigger shows, but it was really cute and sweet. The girls are very into Pocahontas since she is their 10th great-grandmother, so they loved that one. The Lion King show was spectacular! Wow! Lunch today was at Pizzafari which we all liked. We found a table in the back in a deserted section outside, and it was so quiet and peaceful.

In order to maximize our naptime, we decided to catch a cab to our dinner reservations at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary Resort instead of doing the bus/monorail combo. That worked out well. It was fun to see the Contemporary and see the monorail whizzing right through the middle of the building. Dinner at Chef Mickey's was OK. The food was mediocre, and the character interaction wasn't as good as at Hollywood and Vine. The girls absolutely loved getting to see Mickey and Minnie though, so the meal was a hit overall; however, I don't think I'd go there again. We had completely finished our meals (except for dessert) before we saw any characters, and Goofy did two rounds of our area of the restaurant, skipping our table both times. Elise had the saddest look on her face when we told her we'd have to leave without seeing Goofy, so we asked our waitress to track him down for us. Anyway... as character meals go, we definitely enjoyed Hollywood and Vine much more. We took the monorail and bus to get back to our resort, and we loved riding past each of the hotels on the monorail line just to get a peek at each one.

Mousekeeping has arranged the girls' dolls and stuffed animals on the beds in different ways each day, so the girls always get a kick out of seeing how things are set up when we get back to the room. Today, we had the added bonus of a towel clown on the bed. They went nuts over that!!

Favorite Part of the Day:

Nina: "The flying ride" - "The Triceratops one?" - "No, the flying ride" - "Peter Pan?" - "No, the flying ride" - "Oh... Soarin'?" - "Yes" - "That was yesterday, Nina... I'm asking about your favorite part from today... dinner with Mickey and Minnie? The River Ride? The Pocahontas show?" - "No, none of those were my favorites. I liked the flying ride." So... Nina's favorite part of today was a ride from yesterday. :)

Elise: Kali River Rapids

Ann: Lion King show

JC: Pizzafari

Disney - Day 4

Our third day in the parks was Epcot. This turned out to be a little bit more relaxing day which was a welcome change from the busy first two days. We hit Soarin' first which was everybody's favorite! We all enjoyed the Nemo ride, aquarium, and Turtle Talk with Crush too. A second ride on Soarin' was a must as well. We had lunch at Sunshine Seasons simply because it was close when we were all hungry.





Dinner was Le Cellier Steakhouse in the Canada section of World Showcase. We couldn't figure out why everyone raves about the cheddar cheese soup as none of us were crazy about it. JC and the girls each ate 1-2 bites, and then the waitress offered to bring them different appetizers! I ate about half of mine but would have been happier if I'd realized I could have not eaten it and gotten something else instead! The steaks, however, were fantastic... truly the most perfectly cooked, most tender steak I can remember having in a long, long time... perhaps ever! We can't recommend the soup, but the steaks were superb!

Outside LeCellier with Kenai and Koda from Brother Bear!






The Canadian Chocolate Mousse dessert, and Nina working on her make-your-own-sundae




Favorite Part of the Day:
Nina: Soarin'
Elise: Soarin'
Ann: Soarin'
JC: Soarin'

Disney - Day 3

We set out for the Magic Kingdom on day three. Elise's jaw dropped open when she saw the castle from the window of the bus! She was in awe. The girls enjoyed all of the rides we went on. Nina declared both Peter Pan's Flight and the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh "super-duper fun!" The only bust was the Mickey's Philharmagic 3-D Movie. JC and I enjoyed it, but Elise said it was too loud, and Nina said it was too scary. We definitely could have skipped that one.

We had just enough time to go to Belle's Storytime in the Fairytale Garden before our lunch reservations, so we decided to hit that. Both girls were chosen to take part in the story. Much to our surprise, Nina ran up on stage without even looking back at us! Elise got nervous about this one though and decided to sit it out. Nina did a fantastic job in the role of Chip!!!

One of the perks of being in the show was being first in line for pictures and autographs! That was a welcome relief since our seats for the show were in the hot sun!

Of course, lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table in the castle was the main event for the day (week?), and the girls loved that! The food was eh, but the girls were really into the magic of it and seeing all the princesses, so that was definitely a big hit. Elise declared her Ariel dress "too itchy" and demanded to take it off in between the portrait with Cinderella and lunch. Nina adored being Sleeping Beauty through the whole thing though. The princesses in attendance were Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Mary Poppins, and Fairy Godmother (not sure how those last two qualify as princesses, but they were fun to see regardless!).

After an exhausting day at Magic Kingdom, we voted for just eating dinner at our resort and then a little swim after dinner.

Favorite Things:
Nina: Being in Storytime with Belle
Elise: Watching Nina in Storytime with Belle
Ann: Watching Nina in Storytime with Belle
JC: Watching Nina in Storytime with Belle