Walt Disney World - Animal Kingdom

On our last day at Disney we started at The Animal Kingdom. My cousin and her husband met us there and we had a suprisingly good time. I had heard and read mixed reviews about AK, so I have to say my expectations were low. In my opinion, there are two fabulous attractions at this park and then several other good attractions. It is worth a half day spent there.

The fearsome threesome starting out day 3.

The number 1 best thing about the AK was the 30 minute version of the Broadway musical, The Lion King. I really can not even put into words how fabulous it was. There was singing, dancing, exquisite costumes, fire-breathing, acrobatics, flying, and audience participation. It was wonderful... my favorite thing we watched in all of Walt Disney World.

At the end they call children out of the audience to make music and dance with the cast int he closing number. Olivia volunteered and was the cutest participant!

Another really good and popular attraction was the Safari. You travel in a huge jeep through the African Sahara and see animals up close (much closer than the NC Zoo). Above is the rhonocerus (laying behind the tree - he sort of blends in).

Tons of alligators right below a bridge we were on... you can barely see it but that white speck is someones iPhone that they dropped while on the ride! How upset they must have been!

Giraffe's that crossed right in front of our jeep- we could have nearly touched them.

My favorite. Elephants and there babies.

But, our favorite ride there was the Kali River Rapids ride. We actually rode it twice. The rapids were all round family favorite. No pictures of it though because we didn't want the camera to get wet!

Walt Disney World- The Magic Kingdom

After braving our way through two other parks, we managed to make it to The Magic Kingdom by the end of day 1. We also spent all day on day 2 at The Magic Kingdom. This is by far the best park for 10 and under. But, it is also probably the busiest and has the most strollers!!

Let the Memories Begin...

My kids love characters (more on that later). The twins have not even seen the movie, but they were thrilled to dance with Stitch in Tomorrowland.

After Stitch they moved onto bigger stars... dancing with Goofy in Tomorrowland.

A favorite ride of the boys was the Tomorrowland Speedway. This was the first thing we rode in the park as we waited out our Fastpass return time for the Buzz Lighyear ride.

Another favorite... The Mad Tea Party. This was only one of two rides I could not stomach at Disney.  I sat out and took the pictures!

The Electric Parade... a WDW must! I am wowed by it each time I see it! Tink is pictures above.

Fireworks at the Castle.

The first day we left the hotel at 8 am and stayed at the parks until about 11:30pm. A full day, but LOADS of fun!

Day 2 we caught a show in the courtyard of Cinderella's castle.

After the show at the Castle we danced and shook our tail feathers with Donald, Goofy and friends.

On Day 2 we ended the day with Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Day 2 we left the hotel at about 8:30 am and stayed at The Magic Kingdom all day. We opted out of fireworks and parades that night and headed back to the hotel at 9pm. A full day and we wanted a full nights sleep for our final day.

On Day 2 we rode about every ride at Magic Kingdom... sorry so few were photographed!!

Day 3 we started at The Animal Kingdom (see tomorrow's post about this), and then about 3 we headed back to The Magic Kingdom. We let the kids choose their favorite rides to do again and we rode a couple in the dark! It was extremely fun and ended too soon! I don't know if we can wait 2 years to go again!!!

John and Ethan and my Mom and Isaac on Dumbo. This ride has been moved and redone - with a new type of queue. It was good classic fun and the new queue made waiting so much nicer.

The Magic Kingdom at night - one of my favorite places to be!!

Walt Disney World- Downtown Disney, Hollywood Studios and Epcot

So, this will be the first in many blog posts about our recent trip to Walt Disney World. We went for the second time as a family and had a blast. I am so incredibly blessed by my cousin Tina, not only is she a great cousin and friend she works for Disney and spoils us with lots of perks. Our trip would not have been possible without her and I am seriously, very very VERY grateful to her. Also, a special thanks to my mom who braved the drive and the trip with us, having another set of hands and eyes was invaluable (and she is not too bad at Road Trip Bingo either!).

Just arrived at our hotel. The kids were fabulous in the car. The car ride took us 11 hours.

We left our house at 5:30 am Wednesday morning so that we could get there in time to go to Downtown Disney and see my cousin Tina. Here are the kids outside the giant Lego store. This is a display of a "tourist family" made entirely out of Legos! Doesn't Isaac just blend right in?

The first morning we started at Hollywood Studios. Here is Ethan headed to check - in. Hollywood Studios had several great shows and rides, which I will blog about later.

About to get on Toy Story Mania.

We caught a live 30 minute show of Beauty and the Beast. Costumes and dancing were incredible!

The Little Mermaid.

At the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" Playground.  The kids could have played here for hours - but it was pretty hot and one of the most crowded things we did.

The last thing we did at Hollywood Studios was the Pixar Parade. The Parade was great and my kids loved it (because they love characters). But, after this was over they were ready to head to the main location - The Magic Kingdom!

So, John and I had the great idea that we would try something new- take the boat to Epcot, hop on the monorail, and take the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. We had no intention of going to Epcot (with only 3 days we thought this park had the least to offer the 8 and unders in our group). But, like many "best - laid" plans things did not go as we planned... while on the boat the captain tells us that the boat docks at the back of Epcot and you have to check in and travel through the park to get to the monorail! So our "quick journey"turned out to be much longer. So we traveled through Epcot and the kids cooled off at a water feature, we all cooled off at the Cool Zone, and rode Spaceship Earth.

After about an hour at Epcot we hopped on the monorail and headed to The Magic Kingdom... more on that tomorrow.