FLASHBACK FRIDAY--Disney Vacation Day 2!
Seventy-nine days ago right at this moment we were boarding our flight home from Disney World. Fresh from the trip, I couldn't wait to go through the 2000 or so photos that I took on our vacation and to share with our friends and family all of the details of the trip. Flash forward 79 days, 1 enormous first birthday, 3 weekends out of town, 1 weekend scrapbooking at a hotel in town, Easter celebrations, 40+ workouts, 55+ loads of laundry, 600+ minutes practicing reading with Jaden, 44 hours spent at kids' gymnastics and dance classes and a WHOLE LOT of other commotion in what is our daily life....and here I am :)
Seventy-nine days later I am still just as excited as I was back then to share these photos, memories and numerous tips along the way. Seventy-nine days later I'm ready to find myself some kind of job (hmmm...I guess my availability would be 12am to 5am? Sleep is overrated! ha!) so that we could save up quickly for another Disney trip. Seventy-nine days later and just this morning my friend Lori, who taught me everything she knew about Disney World before we embarked on our trip, has just landed in Orlando for her own Disney adventure with her sweet little family. Ahh, 79 days later!
Today I'm going to share about Day 2 of our trip. Remember Day 1? I forgive you if you had to just refresh yourself. It's been awhile :) Day 2 of our trip was our first day heading into the parks. We were going to Epcot, and everyone was excited and refreshed despite Bristol having a terrible time sleeping in the hotel crib (poor thing DESPISED that crib for some reason, even though she was as close to our bed as she possibly could get without being in it!). The sickness Jaden had been fighting the day before was a distant memory and we couldn't wait to board the boat from our hotel to ride over to Epcot.
As we left I enjoyed playing with some settings on my camera that I'd just learned about in my Photographic Society class. Here is our hotel as we boarded the boat:
and here's Jadie-girl sitting with me in the outside part of the boat:
While I highly recommend the hotels, such as ours (Swan / Dolphin resort) that have boat access to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios, I'll let you in on something we didn't realize (and that confused us for a moment that first day!). When you arrive at Epcot, you arrive at a small side entrance in England in the World Showcase. We expected to arrive near the front entrance and to see the giant ball and instead, we entered through quiet streets of the Countries side.
Using a map (Tip #1: Grab multiple maps AND show schedules each time you enter a park. You never know when one map might get lost, ripped by a child, etc!) we found our way to the West side of Future World. Future World opens when the park opens; World Showcase does not open until noon. Scott immediately ran to get our first fastpass--to Soarin'. The fastpass system at Disney is WONDERFUL and proved to be very useful to us. The rides which have fastpass access are noted on the park maps and all that you do is have one member of your party take your park tickets to the front of the ride and scan them to receive one fastpass per member of your party. Then, you go back to the ride during or after the time stated on your fastpass and you are granted access to the front of the line for that ride. Genius system!! My Tip #2 would be to get fastpasses at Epcot to Soarin' and Test Track. Since we were spending two days at Epcot, we planned to do the entire West sides of Future World and World Showcase on this day, so we did not worry about fastpasses to Test Track until later in our trip (plus you are limited to how often you may obtain fastpasses; once you get your first fast pass it tells you at the bottom of the pass when you will be allowed your next one.)
Anyway, while Scott got the fastpasses, I made some notes on the park map and show schedule. I highly recommend doing this at your first chance each day in a park (or the night before using show schedules available at http://wdwent.com/ (click on the park you're planning to visit at the top of the page and that week's show schedule will be available). Each day I would circle the rides and attractions we didn't want to miss and circle the best show times and meet & greet times for characters we wanted to meet. Taking five minutes to plan and strategize helped us to hit every single thing we wanted to all week. (Tip #3!)
Fastpasses in hand, Scott met back up with us and we purchased autograph books for Jaden and Sienna (Tip #4, BUY autograph books for the kids--they are a priceless souvenir! And buy the one with the most pages if you're staying more than a day or two in the parks--we filled our first book in the first day and a half.) We had heard that first thing in the morning was a great time to visit Mickey and his friends (Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Goofy!) at their meeting spot across from Innovations West. We waited about 15 minutes in line and then our girls got to meet all five characters within 7-10 minutes. It was the most exciting way we possibly could have kicked off this trip for them. They were awed and excited!
Next, it was time to turn in our fastpasses for Soarin' and we couldn't wait to ride! In the same building as Soarin', there is a very tame but interesting boat ride called Living With The Land. Since Bristol was too short to ride Soarin' (Tip #5--know how tall your children are so that you can plan riding strategies accordingly, and so that you don't get to the front of a ride and experience the disappointment of your child not being able to go on.), I took Sienna on the ride while Scott, Bristol and Jaden rode Living With The Land. Soarin' was FANTASTIC and I highly recommend!! You feel like you're flying over and through all sorts of terrain from the ocean to orange groves. While you're not moving fast, at times it seems like you are because of how the seats move ever so slightly and the screens in front of you make you feel you're flying. Sienna LOVED the ride (keep in mind she's only 4) and would've ridden again. Jaden, however, chickened out when it was her turn. She's like that (ahem, so was her Mama back in the day!). I urged Scott to go on the ride by himself since Jaden wouldn't go and he loved it too. Meanwhile, I took all three girls on Living With The Land and then took them to the bathroom while we waited for Scott's ride to finish. Tip #6: Each time you see a restroom and it's convenient for you to pop in for a potty break, DO SO. It's better to take the kids more than enough times than to hear "I have to go potty REALLY bad" just as you are close to boarding a ride! Thankfully, restrooms are abundant at Disney :)
After our first few rides in Epcot's Land Pavillion we were ready to move nextdoor into The Seas with Nemo and Friends. This building housed MANY fish and other sea creatures, a Nemo ride which was perfect for family members of all ages and a short, cute show called Turtle Talk with Crush (the little turtle from Finding Nemo). All in all, it was similar to a mini-trip to an aquarium. While the areas around the different fish tanks were filled with people, it was by far not crowded and there was no line for the Nemo ride. If we visited during a more crowded time I would consider skipping Turtle Talk because while cute, it's not a "must see." It's a Q & A session between the children in the audience and an animated Crush and is totally customized with each audience, the questions the kids ask, etc. What I would not skip though--a photo of my kiddos in Bruce (also from Nemo!) the shark's mouth!
Once we'd explored everything in The Seas we headed back outside and started thinking about lunch. On our way to a quick service dining restaurant we met up with Chip and Dale. I personally have fond memories from my childhood of the evening show with Chip and Dale at Fort Wilderness, so these two lil guys have a special place in my heart! They were so sweet with the girls.
We ate lunch at a place called The Electric Umbrella which was perfect since it had space both inside and out to sit and a good variety of sandwiches and other quick foods to eat. One great thing about Disney is that the children's meals include plenty of healthy and varied options, so you don't have to worry about your child eating chicken nuggets for 21 meals straight during a week's stay down there. I'd definitely recommend The Electric Umbrella as a quick service meal.
After lunch we let Jaden and Sienna pick out their first souvenir of the trip. They were anxious to get their hands on some mouse ears and who could blame them--mouse ears are what Disney is all about! We wanted to wrap up our morning and head back to the hotel for some down time (Tip #7--it never hurts to make time for a rest during some or all of your days at Disney! Especially when you have easy access to and from your hotel!) before we presented the second big surprise of the week to the girls. However, we couldn't leave before capturing a family photo in front of the famous Epcot ball and fountains, admired some of the pretty flowers and met Duffy the Disney Bear (their Cruise line mascot, not pictured here), Mary Poppins and Alice.
We were happy to see how well Bristol warmed up to Alice. The masked characters such as Mickey Mouse made her nervous and scared, but friendly unmasked characters like Alice were fast friends to Teeny B!
Scott, Jaden, Sienna and Bristol all napped for over an hour in our hotel while I hung out briefly and then met my mom and her friend Mark once they arrived to meet us. They had lunch in the same restaurant in our hotel we'd had dinner at the night before and I enjoyed an ice cream sundae while they ate. Tip #8 would definitely be to not worry one bit about indulging a bit on a Disney vacation. You walk SO much that you end up burning more calories than you eat. I ate dessert at least once everyday, and had a variety of foods both healthy and not, yet came home weighing less than when we'd left.
Anyway...once it was time for everyone to wake up and head back to Epcot for the rest of the day I instructed my mom and Mark to sit by this fountain at our hotel that we would walk right past on our way from our hotel room to the boat. The girls had absolutely NO IDEA that they would be joining us for some of the vacation.
We got the kiddos all ready to go and started walking. As we were walking Jaden ran right up to the fountain, as I knew she would. My mom sat there nonchalantly and you could see Jaden do a double-take as she spotted her Grammy. Still not convinced it was her, Jaden started looking at the water until my mom stood up and said something. Then Jaden was shocked and super excited!!
Sienna and Bristol were still half asleep, but later joined Jaden in being very excited for Grammy Pammy and Mister Mark joining us on our dream vacation.
We boarded our boat and got back into Epcot after a short ride. Our evening plans were to explore the countries on the West Side of the World Showcase and to have dinner in France at Les Chefs De France. Using the strategy I'd laid out earlier that day and with the help of Mark who stood in line for one set of characters, we were able to meet Belle, The Beast, Aladdin, Jasmine, Tigger, Pooh and Princess Aurora all before dinner!
My Tip #9 is to use the number of adults you have to your advantage. If someone is willing to wait in line for a character or to save seats at a show while the kids explore another area, ride a ride or meet with another character, then do it!! It will help to maximize the number of magical experiences the kids have during their Disney stay. And along with this, it never hurts to have an extra adult or two or five along for the trip. The kids love having extra attention and it could give the parents a chance to have a Disney Date!
Dinner at Les Chefs De France was delicious. Enough said :)
My mom and Mark didn't have dinner reservations with us that night, so they had a quick service meal that was also delicious--fish and chips from England. I tried a bite and gave them two thumbs up! If you're in England and looking for an adult beverage (each of the parks besides the Magic Kingdom has alcoholic beverages), the pear cider available at the little beer stand outside of the Pub was very yummy.
After dinner we walked around a little before the fireworks show at 9pm called IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth. Epcot is beautiful at night, although we learned the tough way that many of the Future World attractions close early (in our case they closed at 8pm). The countries of the World Showcase were all hoppin' though with live music, lots of people walking around, and all shops and attractions open. At our kids' ages, the countries weren't very interesting other than the characters they could meet in some. To Scott and I, however, there were many interesting shops and things to look at.
IllumiNations was a beautiful show that night. Jaden hates fireworks, but we thought it was worth her whining a bit to see the show. In the book The Unofficial Guide: Walt Disney World 2012, I read about the best places for viewing the show and I'll definitely admit we did not choose to stand in one of the recommended areas. We chose instead to stand on a bridge between England and France which was close to where we would exit to board our boat back to the hotel. We thought we saw everything well enough though and everyone (even Jaden would have to admit!) enjoyed the show. Well, I guess Bristol was asleep at this point in the Baby Bjorn, but everyone else enjoyed it :)
We got on the first boat back to our hotel and I enjoyed once again playing with my camera along the way. I love this photo of the Swan hotel at our resort:
Day 2 of our Disney trip was as perfect as it could've gotten. We were all tired and went to bed pretty quickly after we got to our room because we had to be well rested for another fun day with a third big surprise the next morning!
Seventy-nine days later I am still just as excited as I was back then to share these photos, memories and numerous tips along the way. Seventy-nine days later I'm ready to find myself some kind of job (hmmm...I guess my availability would be 12am to 5am? Sleep is overrated! ha!) so that we could save up quickly for another Disney trip. Seventy-nine days later and just this morning my friend Lori, who taught me everything she knew about Disney World before we embarked on our trip, has just landed in Orlando for her own Disney adventure with her sweet little family. Ahh, 79 days later!
Today I'm going to share about Day 2 of our trip. Remember Day 1? I forgive you if you had to just refresh yourself. It's been awhile :) Day 2 of our trip was our first day heading into the parks. We were going to Epcot, and everyone was excited and refreshed despite Bristol having a terrible time sleeping in the hotel crib (poor thing DESPISED that crib for some reason, even though she was as close to our bed as she possibly could get without being in it!). The sickness Jaden had been fighting the day before was a distant memory and we couldn't wait to board the boat from our hotel to ride over to Epcot.
As we left I enjoyed playing with some settings on my camera that I'd just learned about in my Photographic Society class. Here is our hotel as we boarded the boat:
and here's Jadie-girl sitting with me in the outside part of the boat:
While I highly recommend the hotels, such as ours (Swan / Dolphin resort) that have boat access to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios, I'll let you in on something we didn't realize (and that confused us for a moment that first day!). When you arrive at Epcot, you arrive at a small side entrance in England in the World Showcase. We expected to arrive near the front entrance and to see the giant ball and instead, we entered through quiet streets of the Countries side.
Using a map (Tip #1: Grab multiple maps AND show schedules each time you enter a park. You never know when one map might get lost, ripped by a child, etc!) we found our way to the West side of Future World. Future World opens when the park opens; World Showcase does not open until noon. Scott immediately ran to get our first fastpass--to Soarin'. The fastpass system at Disney is WONDERFUL and proved to be very useful to us. The rides which have fastpass access are noted on the park maps and all that you do is have one member of your party take your park tickets to the front of the ride and scan them to receive one fastpass per member of your party. Then, you go back to the ride during or after the time stated on your fastpass and you are granted access to the front of the line for that ride. Genius system!! My Tip #2 would be to get fastpasses at Epcot to Soarin' and Test Track. Since we were spending two days at Epcot, we planned to do the entire West sides of Future World and World Showcase on this day, so we did not worry about fastpasses to Test Track until later in our trip (plus you are limited to how often you may obtain fastpasses; once you get your first fast pass it tells you at the bottom of the pass when you will be allowed your next one.)
Anyway, while Scott got the fastpasses, I made some notes on the park map and show schedule. I highly recommend doing this at your first chance each day in a park (or the night before using show schedules available at http://wdwent.com/ (click on the park you're planning to visit at the top of the page and that week's show schedule will be available). Each day I would circle the rides and attractions we didn't want to miss and circle the best show times and meet & greet times for characters we wanted to meet. Taking five minutes to plan and strategize helped us to hit every single thing we wanted to all week. (Tip #3!)
Fastpasses in hand, Scott met back up with us and we purchased autograph books for Jaden and Sienna (Tip #4, BUY autograph books for the kids--they are a priceless souvenir! And buy the one with the most pages if you're staying more than a day or two in the parks--we filled our first book in the first day and a half.) We had heard that first thing in the morning was a great time to visit Mickey and his friends (Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Goofy!) at their meeting spot across from Innovations West. We waited about 15 minutes in line and then our girls got to meet all five characters within 7-10 minutes. It was the most exciting way we possibly could have kicked off this trip for them. They were awed and excited!
Next, it was time to turn in our fastpasses for Soarin' and we couldn't wait to ride! In the same building as Soarin', there is a very tame but interesting boat ride called Living With The Land. Since Bristol was too short to ride Soarin' (Tip #5--know how tall your children are so that you can plan riding strategies accordingly, and so that you don't get to the front of a ride and experience the disappointment of your child not being able to go on.), I took Sienna on the ride while Scott, Bristol and Jaden rode Living With The Land. Soarin' was FANTASTIC and I highly recommend!! You feel like you're flying over and through all sorts of terrain from the ocean to orange groves. While you're not moving fast, at times it seems like you are because of how the seats move ever so slightly and the screens in front of you make you feel you're flying. Sienna LOVED the ride (keep in mind she's only 4) and would've ridden again. Jaden, however, chickened out when it was her turn. She's like that (ahem, so was her Mama back in the day!). I urged Scott to go on the ride by himself since Jaden wouldn't go and he loved it too. Meanwhile, I took all three girls on Living With The Land and then took them to the bathroom while we waited for Scott's ride to finish. Tip #6: Each time you see a restroom and it's convenient for you to pop in for a potty break, DO SO. It's better to take the kids more than enough times than to hear "I have to go potty REALLY bad" just as you are close to boarding a ride! Thankfully, restrooms are abundant at Disney :)
After our first few rides in Epcot's Land Pavillion we were ready to move nextdoor into The Seas with Nemo and Friends. This building housed MANY fish and other sea creatures, a Nemo ride which was perfect for family members of all ages and a short, cute show called Turtle Talk with Crush (the little turtle from Finding Nemo). All in all, it was similar to a mini-trip to an aquarium. While the areas around the different fish tanks were filled with people, it was by far not crowded and there was no line for the Nemo ride. If we visited during a more crowded time I would consider skipping Turtle Talk because while cute, it's not a "must see." It's a Q & A session between the children in the audience and an animated Crush and is totally customized with each audience, the questions the kids ask, etc. What I would not skip though--a photo of my kiddos in Bruce (also from Nemo!) the shark's mouth!
Once we'd explored everything in The Seas we headed back outside and started thinking about lunch. On our way to a quick service dining restaurant we met up with Chip and Dale. I personally have fond memories from my childhood of the evening show with Chip and Dale at Fort Wilderness, so these two lil guys have a special place in my heart! They were so sweet with the girls.
We ate lunch at a place called The Electric Umbrella which was perfect since it had space both inside and out to sit and a good variety of sandwiches and other quick foods to eat. One great thing about Disney is that the children's meals include plenty of healthy and varied options, so you don't have to worry about your child eating chicken nuggets for 21 meals straight during a week's stay down there. I'd definitely recommend The Electric Umbrella as a quick service meal.
After lunch we let Jaden and Sienna pick out their first souvenir of the trip. They were anxious to get their hands on some mouse ears and who could blame them--mouse ears are what Disney is all about! We wanted to wrap up our morning and head back to the hotel for some down time (Tip #7--it never hurts to make time for a rest during some or all of your days at Disney! Especially when you have easy access to and from your hotel!) before we presented the second big surprise of the week to the girls. However, we couldn't leave before capturing a family photo in front of the famous Epcot ball and fountains, admired some of the pretty flowers and met Duffy the Disney Bear (their Cruise line mascot, not pictured here), Mary Poppins and Alice.
We were happy to see how well Bristol warmed up to Alice. The masked characters such as Mickey Mouse made her nervous and scared, but friendly unmasked characters like Alice were fast friends to Teeny B!
Scott, Jaden, Sienna and Bristol all napped for over an hour in our hotel while I hung out briefly and then met my mom and her friend Mark once they arrived to meet us. They had lunch in the same restaurant in our hotel we'd had dinner at the night before and I enjoyed an ice cream sundae while they ate. Tip #8 would definitely be to not worry one bit about indulging a bit on a Disney vacation. You walk SO much that you end up burning more calories than you eat. I ate dessert at least once everyday, and had a variety of foods both healthy and not, yet came home weighing less than when we'd left.
Anyway...once it was time for everyone to wake up and head back to Epcot for the rest of the day I instructed my mom and Mark to sit by this fountain at our hotel that we would walk right past on our way from our hotel room to the boat. The girls had absolutely NO IDEA that they would be joining us for some of the vacation.
We got the kiddos all ready to go and started walking. As we were walking Jaden ran right up to the fountain, as I knew she would. My mom sat there nonchalantly and you could see Jaden do a double-take as she spotted her Grammy. Still not convinced it was her, Jaden started looking at the water until my mom stood up and said something. Then Jaden was shocked and super excited!!
Sienna and Bristol were still half asleep, but later joined Jaden in being very excited for Grammy Pammy and Mister Mark joining us on our dream vacation.
We boarded our boat and got back into Epcot after a short ride. Our evening plans were to explore the countries on the West Side of the World Showcase and to have dinner in France at Les Chefs De France. Using the strategy I'd laid out earlier that day and with the help of Mark who stood in line for one set of characters, we were able to meet Belle, The Beast, Aladdin, Jasmine, Tigger, Pooh and Princess Aurora all before dinner!
My Tip #9 is to use the number of adults you have to your advantage. If someone is willing to wait in line for a character or to save seats at a show while the kids explore another area, ride a ride or meet with another character, then do it!! It will help to maximize the number of magical experiences the kids have during their Disney stay. And along with this, it never hurts to have an extra adult or two or five along for the trip. The kids love having extra attention and it could give the parents a chance to have a Disney Date!
Dinner at Les Chefs De France was delicious. Enough said :)
My mom and Mark didn't have dinner reservations with us that night, so they had a quick service meal that was also delicious--fish and chips from England. I tried a bite and gave them two thumbs up! If you're in England and looking for an adult beverage (each of the parks besides the Magic Kingdom has alcoholic beverages), the pear cider available at the little beer stand outside of the Pub was very yummy.
After dinner we walked around a little before the fireworks show at 9pm called IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth. Epcot is beautiful at night, although we learned the tough way that many of the Future World attractions close early (in our case they closed at 8pm). The countries of the World Showcase were all hoppin' though with live music, lots of people walking around, and all shops and attractions open. At our kids' ages, the countries weren't very interesting other than the characters they could meet in some. To Scott and I, however, there were many interesting shops and things to look at.
IllumiNations was a beautiful show that night. Jaden hates fireworks, but we thought it was worth her whining a bit to see the show. In the book The Unofficial Guide: Walt Disney World 2012, I read about the best places for viewing the show and I'll definitely admit we did not choose to stand in one of the recommended areas. We chose instead to stand on a bridge between England and France which was close to where we would exit to board our boat back to the hotel. We thought we saw everything well enough though and everyone (even Jaden would have to admit!) enjoyed the show. Well, I guess Bristol was asleep at this point in the Baby Bjorn, but everyone else enjoyed it :)
We got on the first boat back to our hotel and I enjoyed once again playing with my camera along the way. I love this photo of the Swan hotel at our resort:
Day 2 of our Disney trip was as perfect as it could've gotten. We were all tired and went to bed pretty quickly after we got to our room because we had to be well rested for another fun day with a third big surprise the next morning!
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