Day 5: Hollywood Studios
By day 5, even though kids and parents are going to bed at 9:30pm latest we are all exhausted. When you're on your first trip in many years, staying on site on luxury accommodations you kind of feel like you need to do everything you can because you've paid so much for everything. After all this was our most expensive vacation so far...
We got up a bit later, took time having breakfast and arrived at the park around 9:30am. Tried getting a fast pass for Toy Story around 10am and quickly learned that was too late. Next slot was around 3pm and that was just too late! We didn't want to spend all day at that park. We did the PlayHouse Disney live on stage. Kids loved that. Puppets of their favorite shows singing and dancing.
We also went to a few shows, walked around and had lunch with the characters of Little Einsteins. Headed to Epcot later that day and went to the Seas with Nemo and friends and Turtle Talk with Crush. Dinner was in Downtown Disney at the Rainforest Cafe. At this point there was a tropical storm lingering somewhere nearby and it was drizzling all day. I kept wishing we had proper rain jackets and boots. It wasn't the regular afternoon shower. It was annoying cold fine rain all day!
Day 6: Animal Kingdom
My husband had to leave early to catch a plane that day for a sailing regatta and I stayed back with my 4 and 2 year old! Luckily the other family friends were there so I spent the day with them at Animal Kingdom.
We started by having breakfast at Tusker House. It was incredible. There was so much food, huge variety and the characters were so much fun. Kids got to dance around with them!
It was raining again all day so we went to see the Nemo concert, which is amazing. It's like being on Broadway, only for a shorter show (about 40 minutes). We did the Safari as well, the Lion King show and a few other things.
Back to Saratoga Springs and next day we packed and our Disney Bus picked us up at 11am. It was very sad to say bye to Disney. I left already thinking of planning the next vacation...
At the airport the line was worse than Disney. Had to wait a whole hour at American Airlines to check in. And that was alone with 2 little kids. Made me miss Brazil where it's law that anyone pregnant, with little kids, senior or disabled jumps to the front of the line at airports/grocery stores, etc...
See you soon Disney!
Seaworld, Magic Kingdom and Magic Kingdom again next day!
Day 3: August 17th 2008
No, Seaworld is NOT part of Disney. Believe it or not, a lot of people think all these other parks are also part of WDW.
I know that many Disney lovers out there will never admit they visit the other parks and some will go to dozens of Disney trips but never step foot in in parks that are not Disney owned.
Well, I'm not that fanatic.
But I have to say thought NO ONE matches Disney's customer service and attention to detail.
The family we were traveling with had booked breakfast with Elmo at Seaworld for all of us. The food was not so great but kids had a great time watching the characters sing and taking pictures with them. After breakfast we headed to see the manta rays and then to feed dolphins. They charge quite a bit for the fish to feed the dolphins. Kids enjoyed being close to the dolphins though. We also watched the Shamu show, which saddens me quite a bit. Those beautiful whales in such a confined place!
We also watched the dolphin show. The older kids went to Journey to Atlantis with their dads while the moms stayed back with the little ones. The kids seemed to enjoy the ride and decided to ride it again. By that time it was close to noon and it was so so hot that we took a taxi back to our hotel.
After naps we went to Magic Kingdom. We had a great time in rides like Dumbo, Peter Pan, Carousel, Small World, Winnie the Pooh, etc. We had dinner at the Crystal Palace. The kids barely had time to eat as they were so excited to see all the characters, get autographs and take pictures. It was again close to 9pm so we had to head back to the hotel.
Day 4: Magic Kingdom - August 18, 2008
At about 6am my 2 year old walked in our room and asked if it was time to get up! It was indeed as we wanted to take the 7am bus to Magic Kingdom. We had booked breakfast at the Castle with the Princesses and wanted to be sure we were not going to be late. Disney buses are unpredictable. They say they come every 20 minutes but after waiting 45 minutes one day we decided not to take chances. We got lucky though and the bus came early and we arrived at Magic Kingdom at 7:30am. There were probably around 40-50 people in line. We took some pictures and soon it was time to go in the park.
It was incredible to be walking down Main Street USA and be the only ones there. After a few quick pictures in the park we headed to the castle to check in. We lined up for a few minutes to take pictures with Cinderella and they headed up for the Royal breakfast. Customer Service is amazing. Best thing was that the 2 year old kids did not have to pay but still got a full breakfast! The food was great, kids loved seeing all the princesses and we got to head out to the park at about 8:55. We felt like the whole park belonged to us, no one around! It was amazing! The moms headed to Splash Mountain with the 4 year olds and the dads stayed in Fantasy Land with the 2 year olds. We walked on Splash Mountain, lots of fun then decided to do it again. Well, the second time we got stuck in the ride and it took them about 25 minutes to get us all off. At the exit we got a free fast pass for any ride for that day. During the hour we were gone the dads had gone to almost every ride in Fantasy Land and what's best is that they got the "Million dream Fast pass" for all of us. I wish they still had that promotion. It was so great to get little surprises like that in the park! We got to go on so many rides without wait and without needing another fast pass. We got spoiled!
Magic Kingdom is wonderful as it has over 50 attractions, you can never get enough done!
We did take a break that day but came back later as for kids under 4 this was the perfect park to be.
Dinner was at Crystal Palace. The buffet is just okay in my opinion but fun for kids to be with characters again. Winnie the Pooh and others were a great hit with the family!
By the time we got back to our room it was around 9 and we were all exhausted! The best thing about being in a villa is that there is a washer/drier so we did laundry every day as I had only taken 4 changes of clothes for each of us! I know, crazy! But I wanted to travel light!
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