Mormor, Karina, and I went to Tom Sawyer's Island while Lydia was taking her nap. Here's a decent picture of us on the raft that Tanja took.
Our last day at Disney World, we went to Epcot Center. That day was pretty rainy most of the day, which put a little bit of a damper on things, but the girls were as cooperative with it as we could have hoped, which made things nice.
The girls were excited to meet Chip and Dale, and I relearned how to tell the difference between the two. Chip has the black nose (the mnemonic is that his nose is the color of chocolate chips).
They were able to meet Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy yet again, and of course they both were thrilled.
They liked playing around a shark playground and thought it was so silly to peek their heads out of a shark's mouth and pretend they were being eaten.
We finished the night, and our trip, by going to the World Showcase with exhibits and areas dedicated to many countries. And of course, they had Disney characters to meet in countries that would be appropriate. Princess Aurora/Sleeping Beauty greeted us in France.
Aladdin and Jasmine were in Morocco... It would seem that Disney isn't aware that Aladdin came from Arabian Nights, which, as you would expect, most people agree was set in the Middle East. Morocco is on the Western coast of Africa, a continent away from the heart and center of the Middle East. I was busy with Lydia taking a nap while Karina met these two, otherwise, I may have been tempted to get them involved in a geography question (though they probably would have been prepared and just brought up that they had their magic carpet that brought them to Morocco).
Tanja and I in front of one of the many Christmas trees they still had up.
We ate dinner at the Norway restaurant, Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. This was one of the Disney Princess storybook dinner experiences and featured five princesses rotating through the restaurant interacting with all the diners, and then taking all the kids around the restaurant parade-style while parents elbowed each other out of the way to try and take a picture. As excited as the girls were with all the characters all week, even though this was definitely a splurge, it was one that we felt was worth making. They had a large Norwegian buffet table with various cheeses, cold meats, seafood, etc. in addition to whatever meal, drink, and dessert you ordered. It was very tasty food in a beautiful setting, but was obviously theme park expensive. Belle greeted us as we entered.
Then came Snow White, Cinderella, Jasmine, and Ariel.
I love how excited both the girls are in this picture:
One of Lydia's comments that she kept bringing up with Ariel was that she had legs (instead of being a mermaid). She is obviously very observant.
Here we are in front of the trolls inside of one of the Norway gift shops.
Tanja has a Norwegian aunt named Laila. We thought this sign advertising a perfume named Laila was funny, since it proclaimed that Laila was the Essence of Norway.
The girls liked banging the drums at an African outpost.
Winnie the Pooh and Tigger were our last characters in England, and they did not disappoint.
I really felt sorry for the Tigger character. Before it was our turn, there was a guy in his 20s who apparently has made it a regular tradition to find Tigger and bounce with him. Tigger was worn out and had to go get a drink before coming back and meeting us. Of course, Karina and Lydia wanted to bounce with him too, and he was great to go just as high energy with our girls. I have to figure he loses a lot of weight every day he is working as Tigger.
So that's a wrap on our first family vacation to Disney World. Our girls did really well, all things considered. I wouldn't mind going back when they are older and more willing to go on some of the rides more intense than Winnie the Pooh (and we can focus on things other than which character we are going to meet next), but there is definitely something to be said with enjoying a visit to Disney World by watching it through your kids' eyes.
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