Our Disney Adventure
Our Disney trip was absolutely magical. It sounds like a cliche, but the whole family truly loved it! Serenity was just the right age to enjoy dressing as a princess every day, and she was thrilled every time someone called her Princess. I had a plan of going when Serenity was around six, and again when Maia was six, but we may have to plan another trip sooner than that because everyone had such fun! I'm so grateful my Dad could go though, because having one adult per child made a big difference!
Our first day was mostly travel, but the kids were already excited. Donovan kept saying, "Are we going to dis'a'ney yet?" I love how he says it, with the extra syllable. So cute. And Serenity said as soon as we got into our hotel, "Thank you for bringing us to disney mama, I love it!!" As she jumped from bed to bed. We stayed at the Caribbean Beach resort hotel, and I loved it. Our room was close to the biggest pool, which I think was really important. This particular resort is so huge they have six different bus stops, so staying close enough to walk to the playground and pool made it perfect. The pool is styled like a pirate ship and a Spanish fortress. The kids adored the water slides, and even Donovan did the big slide at least twenty times! Eric and the kids swam at least a little every day in the afternoons.
Day two was our first day in the Magic Kingdom. Serenity's reaction at the end of the day was priceless. She said "Everyone keeps calling me princess! I have had a magical day! Magicgreatsomeriffic!" She especially loved the Voyage of the Little Mermaid. She wanted to do it over and over again. Which was fine with me. It's a nice slow ride on a seashell where you get to watch animatronic scenes from the movies and listen to the music. DZ liked it too, and Maia was fascinated. I think we ended up doing it four times =)
Our primary goal for the Magic Kingdom was to see Elsa and Anna from Frozen. We weren't able to get a fastpass, and I'd heard that the lines could get insane. Up to three hours! We had to wait an hour and a half, but I was prepared. I brought sketchbooks, markers, and tons of stickers from the dollar store. The kids decorated pages with stickers of various Disney characters, and by the time the line was over they had an awesome autograph book all ready to collect signatures. And the princesses admired their work, which was really special. =) I couldn't hear everything Elsa and Anna said to the kids, but Serenity said Anna was quite the talker. She said that Serenity and "tiny Elsa" could practice snow magic with Elsa and she and DZ could have warm hugs. =) Anna encouraged everyone to come over, and promised not to throw snowballs. She also said Maia liked her snow boots. Maia crawled right over to Anna and just stared at her. It was so cute! Maia was just barely crawling before Disney, but she got much faster during our trip and even started to stand!
Donovan's favorite thing was the sword he got from Cinderella's table. He also loved Prince Charming's carousel. After he got the sword, he rode the carousel for the fifth time, waving his sword and yelling "charge!" Perfect =)
The parade was awesome. I wish I'd gotten better pictures. Serenity loved Rapunzel's float, Rapunzel's hair wrapped all around a boat with Flynn and Maximus swinging on an anchor. DZ was happy to see Maximus.
We had a fancy lunch at Cinderella's table. I was really glad we did! It was nice to sit in the cool and relative quiet, while princesses came to visit us at our table! We got to see Snow White, Jasmine, Aurora, and Ariel. Jasmine asked dz about his roar and talked about rajah. said roar! Dz was fascinated by her costume and touched some of the dangly beads at her waist. They compared shoes. Gold vs light up jaguars. So fun!!! Serenity loved waving her magic wand and saying "bibbidi bobbidi boo" to make some magic wishes come true. Character dining was really awesome!
After the parade we snuck in to see Tinkerbell before leaving for the day. Tink said the autograph book was flitteriffic. She also said "I look good here!" when she got to her picture. She also admired Serenity's cape, and said she needed to tinker her own cape that won't get caught on her wings. Serenity offered to share her long elsa cape so that Tink would have a cape. She mentioned it several times, once when asking to come back to Disney again =)
Besides the Voyage of the Mermaid and the carousel, the kids also rode dumbo which dz loved especially!
Disney Day Three
We had an extra magic hour at Hollywood Studios on Day three, and we also got another character meal at Hollywood and Vine! These were all the Disney Junior characters. Meeting Jake was the thing Donovan talked about most in the days leading up to our trip, so we got him a Jake costume to be his special outfit for the day. It was so worth it! He loved that everyone pointed to him and said, there's Jake! And meeting Jake was so much fun. Jake jumped in surprise to see dz dressed as jake. It was funny and sweet. We also got to see Sophia, Doc McStuffins, and Handy Manny. Serenity was so into the dancing :) she twirled :)
The Toy Story Mania ride was worth the hype. Everyone wanted to go again after our fast pass until I explained the hour long wait. You pull a string to shoot darts or paint or ring toss. A tiny bit of spinning around, way fun!
We visited Oaken's Trading Post and everyone chose their souvenirs from the trip there. Serenity got Elsa gloves, a tiara and purse. Donovan got Sven. I got a picture book =) At the trading post they had a snow playground. So the kids got to make Ice castles and sand castles in the same day :) Only at Disney.
Disney jr live was fun too! Maia nursed and napped but serenity and dz popped bubbles, pretended to be tick-tock croc to scare hook, caught paper dubloons as they fell.
Dz was tired so serenity and Eric enjoyed the little mermaid show and the rest of us headed for home a bit early. We rested and enjoyed our resort!
Disney Day Four! Back to the Magic Kingdom. I was a little worried that our last day would wear us out, since we'd already checked out of our resort and would be in the magic kingdom until it was time to head to our plane, but it worked out well! We started the day in Tomorrowland, and we were the only people that did. So we got to ride Buzz Lightyear three times in a row with NO lines!!! I love that. It was such a fun ride and both kids adored it. They also rode the Astroglider. Being in rockets and flying around the planets was the perfect ride for them =) Then we had some fastpasses so we headed back to Fantasyland.
Our first fastpass was for Enchanted Tales with Belle. Serenity had worn her Belle dress, so the castmembers there said "Welcome home Princess Belle." She loved it! And she got chosen to play the Beast in the Enchanted Tales, which she was hesitant about at first, but then she got into it. She roared really well. And then she realized she got to actually dance with Belle! So fun! DZ was chip and so he got to be part of the story too. Then we headed over to Peter Pan's Flight. That was a really fun ride, but I was so glad we had the fastpass because the line was so long for a really short ride.
After the rides, we split up for a bit. Eric and DZ were going to ride the carousel, but it was closed so they went to meet Merida! DZ loved her! She was in the garden. He gave her a big hug! Serenity and I went to see Rapunzel. The line was supposed to be just 20 minutes but I think it was longer before we got back to the group. Rapunzel was great though! We had her sign DZ's book and told her he was on the carousel. She told us the carousel horse looks like her friend Maximus. =) Cinderella asked Belle if she had any stories for her. =)
We had a nice lunch at Pinocchio's restaurant. Then we walked slowly through Adventureland. We had a fastpass for the flying carpets, which was my favorite ride =) I liked the view, and Aladdin has always been one of my favorite movies!!! We got to see Aladdin and Jasmine walking through adventureland while we were on the ride. Then, we did a pirate treasure hunt! They have adventures set up like the one we had at the Great Wolf Lodge. The kids got to follow a map and their Magic Bands activated each point of the treasure hunt. They loved it! We would probably have wanted to do that more but little legs were getting tired and Eric's foot was achy. So we headed for Main Street. We found the perfect place to rest and recover. Dad even got a nap. The waiting room for Tony's Restaurant had comfy chairs, air conditioning, and Lady and the Tramp on the tv. Serenity and I went to see Tinkerbell again while the boys rested. While we waited Serenity drew a picture of Tinkerbell, which she gave to her. Tinkerbell admired it and put it on her shelf! So cute!!
It was nearly time for us to go, but we got to do one last thing. We got to watch the parade again! It was even better this time, because we watched it from the steps of the Main Street Theater. Serenity could see without me lifting her, and we were high enough that we got a great view! I wish now that I had more pictures of the parade, but honestly, at the time, just watching the parade with Serenity was absolutely perfect. We were both delighted and thrilled at each display! And Serenity said as we were walking out chattering together about the day, "Oh, I need to say one last thing. THANK YOU for bringing me!"
