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!