We are finally getting around to posting about our trip to Disney World we took at the beginning of January. It took a long time to go through all the pictures, and then when I finally did, the girls were hit by a horrible cold. Of course after they were just about healthy, I got it, and being heavily pregnant, my body just didn't want to help me get rid of the cold as it was too busy giving everything to baby. I'm finally back to normal now and ready for everything I had been postponing.
We were adventurous (crazy?) and decided to drive down to Disney World. It was a 12.5 hour drive, before breaks. I thought for sure the drive there and back would be awful before we went, but actually it was quite painless. On the way down we used two days driving, but probably would have been just as well off doing it in a single day, as we only drove a couple hours the second day. It's nice having a big, comfortable van with plenty of room for everything and everyone, not to mention the overhead DVD player that got used much of the ride. Waking the girls up at 4 AM to get on the road was a little difficult, but we told them it would be a fun adventure since they could be in the car in their pajamas and fall back asleep. Nate managed to stay awake (fortunately) and we made it to the North Carolina border shortly after 7AM when the girls officially woke up. As good as the girls were travelling that day, we actually cancelled our hotel reservation in favor of a different one that was a few more miles down the road, right before we got to Florida.
A little before lunch time on Sunday we met my parents, who had a much shorter drive up from Miami. We had lunch with Nalina, Marty, Auntie Chuchuen, and Aunty Fong, at their restaurant in Orlando and enjoyed seeing them and catching up. We were also stuffed with delicious Thai food from the restaurant - yummy.
That evening we headed to Disney Springs to walk around in the rain and take in the sites/decorations. It was also at this point that we found out my mother forgot her camera charger, so no more pictures from her camera for the trip, which was a bummer.
At the T-Rex cafe with their fancy animatronic dinosaurs:
Outside the Lego store with Lego Snow White and Dopey, Lydia's favorites:
Our hotel was great as we stayed in a 2 bedroom suite. There were two separate bedrooms, each with their own bathroom (one king bed room for my parents and one room with two queen beds for the four of us), as well as a living room and kitchen set between the bedrooms. It was basically a 900 sq ft apartment in a hotel with an included large hot buffet breakfast. I think everyone liked the convenient set up and the good breakfast.
On our first day we headed to Hollywood Studios. When I was planning the trip, I wasn't sure if the girls would most enjoy rides, meeting characters, or going to shows. As it turns out, I think characters were the biggest surprise hit and they filled their autograph books with only a couple pages to spare by the end of the trip. Lydia was adorable at our first character-greet and gave Sorcerer Mickey lots of kisses, and even at one point pinched Mickey's nose. He made kissing sounds and gave her Mickey kisses too. Nate and I really love this next picture:
There were a couple more characters to meet that day. Doc McStuffins:
Minnie Mouse:
This was the one day we made the mistake of going back to the hotel for Lydia to take a nap. Karina, Mormor, and I stayed at the park and did a bunch of stuff, while Nate, Mimi, and Lydia went back for her nap and for Snoopy to get a potty break. Between travel to the hotel and getting Lydia down, it wasted way too much of the day. The rest of the week we had Lydia take a nap in the stroller and things went more smoothly. I would just tell her it was time to take a nap and she was pretty cooperative falling asleep and it didn't waste half the day. Mimi still went back to the hotel to let Snoopy pee and feed him, but he would get back before Lydia woke up, so it didn't waste the whole day at least.
A couple pictures around Hollywood Studios, while Karina, Mormor and I went to shows, walked around, and hit the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground:
My favorite thing at Hollywood Studios was the Toy Story ride. My mother surprised me by saying she liked the Star Wars ride best.
On Tuesday we headed to Magic Kingdom (we went there on Thursday too). The day started out as a disaster as we got there early and ran to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride. I figured the girls would like the ride since they love the dwarfs and Snow White. I had also managed to obtain Fastpasses (ride reservations) for that ride for later in the day and on Thursday, which was no easy feat. However Karina screamed and cried hysterically the entire ride, terrified, and certainly did not enjoy the kiddie rollercoaster. Lydia didn't like the ride either. We spent a long time after the ride trying to convince Karina that we wouldn't go on any more scary rides like that. Needless to say, we cancelled the Fastpasses and made someone else's day when they found them and avoided the extremely long line to ride. We went on Winnie the Pooh next, which was a hit. The line had lots of fun play areas to enjoy during our 15 minute wait.
Meeting the Little Mermaid:
It's a Small World ride:
I don't think we took any other group shots of all 6 of us. I thought this one turned out well:
The Magic Kingdom is full of kiddie rides and there was no shortage of fun things to do and rides to go on.
Three Rapunzels in one picture:
The characters all did a great job making the girls feel comfortable and excited. They seemed to have lots of scripts of things to say in character to kids. Karina was just in awe most of the time and had a big grin on her face and would smile and nod as the princesses talked to her about something relevant to their movie. Karina later commented to Nate that she used to think the princesses were pretend and after going to Disney World, she learned they were real.
Karina was upset she couldn't wear her Cinderella dress meeting Cinderella, but she could only pick one outfit for the day.
We had lunch in the Beast's castle at Be Our Guest. It was very difficult to get reservations as it is the most popular restaurant in all of Disney World. Here we are just outside the restaurant:
Meeting Woody from Toy Story, while Lydia was taking a nap:
The nighttime celebrations at Magic Kingdom were beautiful, but crowded. Cinderella's castle was set to look like Elsa's from Frozen:
Lydia was shouting and jumping up and down as she saw Dopey and the other dwarfs during the nighttime parade show. She was so excited and had a huge smile on her face.
The Christmas decorations were still up throughout the park despite it being the second week of January. It was all very pretty.
The rest of the week to come in later posts in a couple of days.
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