Best.Trip.Ever (part 3 with tips)

day 6 - back to the future...umm, I mean Hollywood Studios

While planning our trip we left our "day 6" at the parks open (we were thinking we would be back at Animal Kingdom)  However, because we missed meeting Lightning McQueen and Mater on our Sunday and Playhouse Disney, we decided to head back there before leaving.  You see, after six days straight at Disney parks, this is what you children may look like....  (you can see Trae's Pluto hat was glued on and Addie Lynn had the "I'm tired but looking cool in sunglasses" thing going on)  FYI: while taking this pic on our tram ride in, I have mouse ears on.

 

 Onto our favorites of the day!  Here is the favorite thing of the kids: Eating at the real Pizza Planet from Toy Story.

arcade time followed these pics

I just had to stop on the street, I felt like I was on a movie set, kids are over taking pics at this point.  Here we hit are only Disney disappointment!  We came to see Lightning McQueen and it so happened he was out for a "drive"  (They were recording the Christmas Parade for abc in Magic Kingdom that day)  Any other day of the year he would have been there at Lugi's tire shop.  BUMMER!  Exhaustion is soon to follow.

 
 Everyone amped up when we enterd Playhouse Disney - this was super cute, and super fun!  HOT DOG!

 

Now we have arrived at our most life changing Dinsey experience.  It truly rocked my four year old son's Trae's world.  The Indiana Jones stunt show.  Let's just say after seeing this he has now watched all the movies, he has a whip, and he finds lots of treasure all over the house.  He is slightly obsessed.

Everyone wanted (and needed) one last Mickey Mouse Ice Cream (here the boys sample the cookies and cream sandwich kind)  Us girls stuck to the good ole favorite we know and love.

 Clearly on our tram ride out exhaustion and insanity has set in, yes, it is time to go home!

 Eli is super great though, again, he believes he is on an oversized golf cart.

 See, I told you!  Here is our little Indiana Jones.  Now, we planned on stopping at a hotel on the ride home.  We stopped after hour number three for dinner and to stop but everyone was in a super mood so we hopped back in the car and kept on driving.  All three kids fell asleep so we made it the whole ride home!  :)

As promised, here are my best Dinsey tips and tricks:

- If you go during free dining make reservations at character meals. 

- Learn all you can, so you don't waste time.

- Do not overplan.  Pick several things that you for sure want to do that day, everything else, just follow the kids lead  and don't stress it.  Most of the time we had a couple rides in mind, a parade, and a dining reservation.  Everything else just worked out!

- DO split up Magic Kingdom into two days. 

- Our one regret:  Not planning a day of rest in the middle!  It would have been so awesome to hang at the resort one day with nothing to do but rest!  You will be tired!

- DO wear comfy shoes!  Tons of walking~!  I let the kids wear thier comfy shoes with everything!

- Pack layers - it was SUPER hot our first three days there and SUPER cold our last three days. 

- DO get info from people that have went!  I am so thankful to all my pals that helped me and DIS boards and allears.net

-You CAN go pretty cheap -We stayed on a value resort (All Star Movies) and had free dining, plus we went in the "off" season.  It did work out good that Addie Lynn and Eli were free for everything. 

Tips for traveling with a baby and young kiddos

- check out the baby care centers at each park!  There is a place to nurse, change diapers, let big kids potty and watch cartoons while you tend to the baby.  WE LOVED these and they helped SO MUCH!  Addie Lynn was quite obsessed with tiny kid's potty at the Hollywood Studios baby center.  I joke we went back there on our last day so she could use it again (seriously, this made her day).

- The babies can ride TONS of rides.  I felt like he didn't miss anything!

- Take advantage of BABYSWAP!  IF there is a height restriction, just go up to the greeter at the ride, ask for a babyswap, SO I would take the older two on a ride then RJ would get to take them again without waiting!  FABULOUS! 

- Talking to a mom with little ones down there we joked how we both love going to dinner and nice resteraunts and how here you can enjoy that with children all around.  Seriously, kids can be kids. 

I really loved our trip and I will cherish it forever.  This week as things would go wrong I would look at my husband and say "I wish we were at Disney!"

Thanks for reading!  I hope you enjoyed our little Dinsey trip blog.  Have a MAGICAL day!  :)

Best. Trip. Ever (part 2)

day 4 - wild times at Animal Kingdom

The night before Animal Kingdom we had a great night's sleep, to bed early and slept late, so we were refreshed and ready for the day ahead!  We began our day with the Safari, our favorite site were the hippo's all huddled up in the water.  Reminds me of myself.  All big and cuddled up with the family.  Life is good.

Then we boogied on over to Camp Minnie Mickey to meet some characters with little to no wait time!  They all made a huge deal out of the kiddo's Christmas duds!  I think Goofy spooked Addie Lynn a bit.  Super props to Minnie Mouse who spent forever with us!  She LOVED Addie Lynn's dress and kept making kissing sounds at the kids.  Eli chewed on her nose for about 3 minutes. 

Loved some Minnie Mouse! 

After the AMAZING lion king show, we stopped for a Mickey Mouse Ice Cream.  I swear they taste better when eating them in Disneyworld. 

Now, onto the Jingle Jangle Parade and yet ANOTHER MAGICAL MOMENT.  So, we have great seats for the parade.  Kiddos are decked out in holiday gear and seriously tons of people IN the parade (dancers, characters, float people) are STOPPING (during the parade) to tell Addie Lynn how precious her dress was.  Mickey even took a minute to get her attention and pointed at her dress and waved super big!  It made her feel so special! 

I love this pic.  My Trae is a dinosaur lover, and knows a , TON about them.  This was his favorite spot EVER - Here they can did for fossils, play in excavation site, slide in hidden slides - all up Trae's ally!

Walking around in Asia, the kids were just being too cute!  I had to stop and get  a couple of shots.

I feel in love with DinoLand.  It reminds me of a Route 66 retro style theme-I love how this video turned out!

These pics crack me up!

day 5 - back to the Magic Kingdom

As we planned, we returned to Magic Kingdom to conquer the second half of the park:  Adventureland and Frontierland.  I knew the Christmas parade would be filming the next day for ABC, but I didn't count on all the set up and rehearsals the day we were there.  That made things a little wild.  We ended up heading back into Fantasyland to ride Peter Pan (loved it) and all of the baby humans insisted on riding It's A SMALL WORLD again.  By far their favorite ride ever (I agree it is very cool to look at, although I get the creepy vibe from the fake doll people)!

 

Another ride they loved was in Tommorrowland called The Peoplemover, basically it just cruises around going inside some other rides.  RJ and I believe Eli thought he was on a big golf cart. 

 My Snowpeople.

 Trae got tired of walking so we shoved him in the stroller too.  Hey, it worked.

 This is what children look like towards the end of a Disney trip.  They are totally sucked in.  (as I took this I had mouse ears on)

 Yet ANOTHER picture as we are heading back in our room (we have about 300 of these) Kids LOVED it!

Okay, okay - so many of you know I love my husband, but what do I love even more?  Beating him at something!  Please take note of my total domination in the Buzz Spin *we ALL LOVED this ride, it was defiantly worth riding again and again!!!!

Best. Trip. Ever. (with kids)

Okay, so I'm a bit of a traveling gal.  I've roamed around in Korea, Spain, France, Italy, Bermuda, Jamaica, and all around the good ole US of A.  Since we have had our sweet baby humans this rambling around has pretty much came to a hault, with the exception of a beach or mountain trip here or there.  Listen, having three babies in four years is pretty serious work.  So, in the spirit of celebrating our family being the complete party of five that we are, we packed up our three bambinos and headed to the happiest place on earth, Disneyworld. 

I must admit going into this trip I was a sceptic.  Sure I love Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, watching movies and the music of Dinsey, but I was far, far, far from being the mom with mouse ears and singing "It's a Small World" as I'm pushing a giant double stroller around the parks trying to make my fastpass times and being sure to remember to grab my babyswap pass once we are in.  By the end of the the trip we were all decked out with ears and repeating small world for the 800th time - and loving it!   Here is a peek at our MAGICAL week!  (by the way I now believe in fairy dust, cause we had some going on)

Going in to this I must admit, I did my homework (thanks to several Disney veteran friends and to the DIS discussion boards)  I had made reservations at all the right places, planned where to go each day, and reseached what rides my little people could (and could not) ride - I was not about wasting time!  I only had a couple things in mind I wanted to do as "must do's" each day - everything else was up in the air!  I must say we covered some ground!  We were shocked what we accomplished with three little people. Also, must give props here to having a super bunch of kids that were willing to roll with it 95% of the time, and when they weren't we just stopped, took a break, and had a Mickey Mouse Ice Cream (this made everything all better for even me). 

day 1 - the drive down

- after taking about two hours to get out of the house, we began our drive down, it looked a little something like this.... Eli (7 months) sleeping....Trae (just turned 4) reading.... Addie Lynn (2 1/2) coloring....

I must admit, we were shocked when we made it six hours with only one stop to potty and eat.  They were fabulous!  We stayed on Disney at All Star Movies Resort - TOY STORY building of course.  Check in was a tiny pain, but after that was straightened out we quickly made it to our first park....

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS  

The first part of the fun began on the tram.... Notice we are decked out in our Gamecock gear...  Gotta keep it real.

Now, keep in mind our sweet girl Addie Lynn is very shy at times (only in public) She was very scared at Halloween of anything in a costume so we were expecting some being scared of characters.  Now, we lined up along main street for the "BLOCK PARTY PARADE"  Little did I know that the bear from Toy Story 3 would be right in our face for the event.  Not a great move.  Check out her first character scare here.... While I was filming, I had no idea he came right twards her!  Ooops!

Other favorite parts of the parade included Mr. Potato Head dancing with Trae, The Incredibles, and Monsters Inc (my fav)

 

Highlights of the day included Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage (we had front row seats) It was awesome!  Kids LOVED it!

Total highlight of the day was the Osbourne Spectacle of Lights, totally fun and fabulous!

 (I LOVE this video of it, especially Addie Lynn picking her nose halfway through)

day 2 - Magic Kingdom here we come!

So, this day was all about the rides, I knew we would be spending two days in MK so I divided it up.  Today we conqured FantasyLand, Toontown, and Tommorrowland.  Highlights of the day include... that first peek of the castle (yes, I did get a little weapy) VERY MAGICAL MOMENT!

breakfast at Crystal Palace was amazing!  The chacters were fabulous!  Among my favorite pics are this grin of Trae's and the family pic of all of us (and YES Eli LOVED them!)

In Minnie's House (Addie Lynn had on a Minnie dress, passed to us by my friend Samantha - people complimented her all day!)

Another highlight to this day was to see the castle at night, so breathtaking, not to overlook it is all decked out now for Christmas so lights and decor is everywhere!  Lots of cheer!  :)

 As mentioned earlier, we stayed at All Star Movies in the Toy Story building so every time we walked in and out of our room we were taking pics!  :)  We loved the 40 ft BUZZ!

 
FYI - this was after a 12 hour day at Magic Kingdom! 

day 3 - Epcot is a world of it's own! 

Okay, so some people say never do Epcot with young ones and some say it is great - my vote is GREAT!  We had several more than magical moments here, and plenty of rides kids could do!  My only regret was we didn't spend another day to go back and tour the World Showcase. 

First amazing moment - we walk through the doors to see a line for Stich (Trae was so excited) Stich spent so much time with him, he took his autograph book and ran!)  lol  This was one of Trae's favorite parts!

The Nemo Ride and Turtle Talk with crush was awesome!  This is usually how we rode when we split up (if I wasn't feeding Eli while on a ride)!  :)

 

We also came across Pocahontas (stunning gal)  She spent lots of time with the kids as well!  They loved this since we let them watch the movie on the ride down.

 

Now, we come to one of THE MOST MAGICAL PARTS of our trip!  I think this was worth IT ALL!  I had set up dinner at Akershus (Princess Storybook Dining)  Whatever you do at Disney, you must do character meals.  SO WORTH it with kids, double worth it since we had free dining.  First,I got Addie Lynn all ready, then when we walk through the door we were greeted by a photo with Belle (they will give you a set of photo's as a gift before leaving)

Once we are seated the princess have a processional, watch this video to see how this was a great moment for our princess Addie Lynn! 

This was pricelss, and yes, I cried!  It was so sweet, she ran back to me so excited she was shaking!  :)  Then the princesses came around one by one and took great time and care with each child, SO PRECIOUS!  Here is how it all unfolded, first Cinderella grabs Addie Lynn's hand and they go dancing around the place, upon returning she teaches the girls how to bow.

 Then the individual greeting begin.  First Sleeping Beauty comes around and makes a huge deal out of Addie Lynn being dressed up as Ariel, she calls her over and tells her a "secret" - Ariel will be SO excited to see her and she was!  She asked Addie Lynn "Are you a fast swimmer like me?"  and Addie Lynn said "No, I'm not."  LOL

 Super fun day at Epcot!  One last pic in front of the "big golf ball" - Trae said before leaving.