Animal Kingdom

When deciding which 3 parks to go to (and which to skip) I got several different opinions on Animal Kingdom. Some loved it, some thought it was a waste of time and others went over there (with a park hopper pass) just for one or two of their rides. Knowing the kids love animals we decided to do Animal Kingdom this trip. And we are SO glad we did! We loved it.



On the advice of a friend we made the safari our first FastPass. It was the perfect time because almost all the animals were out and about. The driver made the ride so fun and it really did feel like we were on an African safari - complete with driving through a river. ha! We saw The Lion King which was an awesome show, the kids played in Dino Land and then we had a huge rainstorm which they of course played in too. After the rain we went back to the safari because we'd heard the animals come out after the rain. It was so so awesome. We had rhinos practically next to the jeep and had to wait for animals to clear out of the way. We were all so giddy during that ride with all those animals! It was so much fun :)

We also met Mickey and Minnie here - in their safari gear! Owen was SO excited to meet them but when the time came  he got nervous and decided not to be in the family picture. Mickey went over to him and convinced him to get into the picture. I was so happy he was able to get him in the pic and Owen felt pretty special getting a private chat with Mickey Mouse himself! I love, love, love the way the family pics turned out with M&M :)

 We walked around the pretty foreign "lands" to see the plants & animals. We ended up leaving the park around 7 because we'd seen everything and thought it'd be nice to end our trip a bit early to get back, rest and pack up before heading back home.

We were driving straight through to Virginia instead of staying a night in between. The kids did crazy good for it being a 15 hr drive. Thank the Lord for minivans because it gave everyone enough space to not get on each others nerves. Ha.

I have to say this was honestly the BEST vacation ever. We all had such a great time, the kids were at perfect ages and it was awesome to see the magic through their eyes. We were thankful to have my mom there to have one kid to one adult too. Whew! I can't wait to go back!!

Hollywood Studios

Day two we headed to Hollywood Studios...in our own car instead of taking the hotel bus. It made life much much easier to just park and get all our gear out instead of go from bus to bus to monorail. We had reservations at Hollywood & Vine to dine with the Disney Jr cast so we shopped a bit in the stores and got the lay out of the land before heading into breakfast. This place was delicious. And Sofia the First, Jake (the Neverland Pirate of course), Doc McStuffins and Handy Manny all came to visit with us throughout the morning. Owen is a HUGE Jake fan but was still pretty nervous around the characters so we got a few cute pics of him but he was mostly just staring and not smiling. ha. Morgan loved seeing all her favorite tv friends and everyone ate a yummy breakfast.

Next up was the Frozen parade. This was fun except like any parade at Disney it was hard to see. So I had Morgan on my shoulders and Jarid had Owen. They had "ice skaters" in the street, dancers and of course Kristoff, Sven, Elsa and Anna waving to the crowd. And singing...oh the singing!

This was by far the hottest day and we felt like there was not as much for the kids to do beyond shows. they do like shows but got a bit bored waiting for them and we got HOT walking around since so many places won't let you take in strollers - and someone was always napping when when had time to kill. The last thing you want to do is wake a sleeping toddler so walking outside it was! Next up was the Frozen sing along. This was so much fun. They encouraged the kids to sing as loud as they could and they sure did ! Hand motions and all :)

Next we saw a Disney Jr Live show which all the kids liked and it was nice and air conditioned! Ahhh. After that was the Little Mermaid show and that was super entertaining. Then there was a dance party in the street, meeting some fun characters like Wreck It Ralph and Venelope, a few rides, lots of walking around and taking in the whole Disney experience.