Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Disney- Epcot continued!

When we got back for our mid day break we took some pictures because we were always getting to our resort in the dark!  This is the kids outside our room - we had a nice view!
Andrew loved this statue of Rafiki
He just kept saying over and over how cool our hotel is!  
I am sure he will always remember it.
They were so excited to try out the pool!
They hadn't been swimming in a while and they just loved it!  It was such a nice break from the parks and a good way to cool off a bit.  The weather was unusually warm the first couple of days we were there and we were hot by the afternoon!
After swimming Kerigan took a nap and we got dressed for our dinner back at Epcot!

We loved walking around and looking at all the decorations for Christmas
Ga Ga and Papa joined us for dinner too.  We loved having them along with us!
I wasn't sure what to expect with this dinner, but it was one of my favorite meals.  It was in Norway at the Akershus Royal Banquet Hall.  Before being seated you get your picture with Belle.
Kerigan was just in complete awe, I just loved watching her interact with all the princesses.  She was so happy.
Sometime during your meal the princesses come around and get all the kids to parade around the restaurant with them.  Look who got involved in the conga line!  Ha!  Andrew liked to pretend he didn't like it, but he ate it up!
This was so funny!  We knew Craig's aunt, uncle and cousins with their families were going to be at Disney at the same time, but we hadn't really planned on meeting up with them.  As the kids were doing the conga line, we ran into them!  What are the chances we would have reservations at the same place and time!?  So funny!
 Andrew and Cash- 2nd cousins.  These boys are the same age and always enjoy seeing each other at big family gatherings!
This Cinderella was by far my favorite princess the whole trip.  I think we met 3 different Cinderella's- Ha.  This one was so sweet and took so much time with us.  She loved Kerigan's necklace and just kept talking to her and hugging her.  Kerigan still talks about Cinderella and how she liked her picture on her dress, and her necklace.  It was magical.
Actually all of these princesses were awesome.  We all enjoyed this dinner so much.
Kerigan wore her dress with several princesses on it this time, since we were meeting a lot of them!
We didn't know Mulan would be at the meal too!  So we met her twice this day- ha!  The characters were funny because if we didn't have them sign the book they would say "Oh!  Did I already sign it?"  Like they knew earlier in the day or at another park it had been signed by "them."
 Kerigan loved getting special princess pink lemonade!
Can you tell how much these kids love their Ga Ga?

We had saved our fast pass for Spaceship Earth for after dinner.  Spaceship Earth is a ride that goes inside the Epcot ball.
Andrew wanted to ride with Ga Ga and Kerigan wanted me, so that left Papa and Craig riding together!  Ha!  The ride was a little boring (although the kids liked it), until the very end.  They had taken our picture at the beginning and we didn't know why.  The cars you rode in had little screens in them and at the end it asked you some questions and then made a little movie with the pictures!
We were dying laughing!
Andrew was behind us and he was just cracking up the whole time.  It was a good laugh!
Then at the end it put them up on the screens and you could have them emailed to you so of course we had to do that.  More laughs!
Simply beautiful at night.

Again, we left before the fireworks- the kids were just exhausted.  Even after our break and nap during the day!  Craig practically had to drag me out, I wanted to stay so badly!  But I just kept telling myself next time when they're older we'll stay!  Because we will definitely be back!

Next up- Universal Studios!

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Disney Day 3- Epcot!

This was another amazing morning.  The park opened at 8 and buses run 45 minutes prior to park opening, so we were ready to go at 7, waiting for the bus at our resort after an early bite to eat for breakfast.  A man came by and told us the bus would be here in 15 minutes, so Craig thought he had a minute to run into the gift shop to buy some sunglasses (I've never met anyone who loses and buys more pairs of sunglasses than my husband, I swear!)  Meanwhile, the bus showed up about 3 minutes after he left and it wasn't going to wait.  So the kids and I hopped on!  Ha!
We arrived before 7:30.  They were actually letting people in the park!  I couldn't believe it.  They brought us to another rope and told us they were letting a select few in to ride Test Track early.  It was a huge stroke of luck, as that was one ride I hadn't gotten a fast pass for.  We kept texting daddy who got on the next bus, but he had trouble getting in as they only opened for a select few!
It was absolutely the most incredible ride and we loved it the most of anything else there.  You go in and design your own car!  Andrew just loved doing this.
It was so interactive and the kids were completely engaged.
Kerigan's car- we were just lucky they let her ride, since she just barely hit the 40in requirement.  It was meant to be!  If they hadn't let her, we wouldn't have been able to take advantage of the early access, since daddy wasn't with us!
We rode it twice before they finally let daddy in! (And those sunglasses came at a hefty price!  Missing out on Test Track- I'm not sure he thought it was worth it!  Ha!  And let's just say we didn't split up much after that!)
I had never seen anything like it, they didn't even make us get out of the car to go another time!  They just kept letting us go over and over.  We only got off once to pick up daddy and have him go through the car design with us!
You could look in a mirror and see your car (by the 4th time I knew this was coming so I had my phone out to take a picture!)  I love the kids faces!
Andrew by his favorite character- Stitch
After Test Track we went over to Mission Space.  Kerigan wasn't tall enough for that one so daddy took Andrew while we got a rider swap pass.  Let me tell you about how great those things are!  If someone in your group isn't tall enough for a ride, you get a pass for up to 3 people to ride again and go through the fast pass line!  So Andrew always got to go twice.  And sometimes, if we had fast passes and Kerigan couldn't ride, we would switch her magic band with Andrew's after he used his, so Andrew would actually get to go 3 times!  It worked out really well.  Except for some rides I wanted her to ride (like Soarin) and they wouldn't let her on!
She didn't mind waiting at Mission Space- they had this neat play area right outside the exit where kids could play!  She loved it!
Andrew getting ready to ride!
When we went back for my turn to ride with him, I didn't particularly enjoy it!  It was the only ride I can say that about the whole trip!  You are in a small simulator with bars over your shoulders and it is very confining.  I am not claustrophobic at all, but it made me feel really uneasy.  I couldn't wait to get off!  Andrew loved it though!  But I can safely say I will never ride it again!
We had some time to kill before our next fast pass so we waited in a short line to meet some characters! One thing I kept saying about Epcot is that I really liked it, but it didn't particularly "feel" like Disney to me.  I felt more like we were at a really big Science Center or something.  So I enjoyed the characters because it brought the "Disney" back in!
Kerigan did so good with all the characters.  She was a little apprehensive about a couple of them, but she usually warmed up to them.  We got so one of us would just take her hand and walk her up there, then she would be okay if I stepped back to take a picture.
Goofy giving fist bumps!  Ha!
Her favorite!
Then we walked through a few of the "countries" they have around the lake and met Mulan in China.
At each of the parks they had this big, beautiful Christmas tree up.  It was fun to see them all and especially lit up at night!  
We joked that they were the only trees bigger than our Christmas tree at home!  Ha!
We made it back to the rides for our Fast Pass for Soarin!  It is one of my favorite rides!  Andrew was cracking us up because we had to take our shoes off if we had flip flops on so Andrew thought that was really fun!  Ha!  This ride is one of my favorites in all of Disney.  I got to go twice because Kerigan couldn't ride but I was bummed because I know she would have loved it.
Next we rode the seas with Nemo- the kids loved this one!
They took turns riding with Ga Ga and Papa, or mommy and daddy.  Andrew was happy it was his turn to ride with them!  Ha!  They were the favorite choice!
They had a little play area after the ride that the kids loved!
After that we decided to take a break and go back to our resort to swim since we had lots of time before our special dinner that night.

Epcot Part 2 coming up!

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