A Very Magical Vacation

We had a wonderful vacation to Disney last week. It was really a vacation for me - no cooking and no laundry! Heaven. We decided to fly down about a month ago and it was the best decision we could have made. Though it was a little tricky getting 5 suitcases, 4 kids and 2 strollers checked in it was well worth it. The kids all did great on the plane. Thank goodness. My mom and bff, Erin, met us at the airport in Orlando. I'd like to say the start to the trip was exceptional but it wasn't. We had to wait a while to catch the Magical Express to get to the resort. Then, upon arrival at the resort, we had to wait forever to complete the check in process. I guess their key card machine was broken. Whatever..all I know is that we were starving and wanting to get settled. Luckily, these were among the worst parts of the trip. Finally we got checked in and headed to our cabin. Our luxurious accommodations were the Cabins at Fort Wilderness. It was a bit rustic and secluded and kind of a pain to get around - there were lots of buses, trains and boats (and approximately 750 stroller take downs and set ups). But, all in all it worked well for our family. We got all our luggage into the cabin and headed out to find the bus to take us to the boat to get to Magic Kingdom..the first stop of our magical vacation. I won't bore you with a complete play by play of the entire week but I will highlight some of our favorite things.

Sunday: Magic Kingdom - Ate dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern..yum! Rode Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain.

Monday: Hollywood Studios - Toy Story 2 ride is so much fun - a definite highlight for the girls but you have to get Fastpasses super early for it. Apparently they run out by 11am. Paul and I rode Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith Roller Coaster - So much fun. The Aerosmith one was probably my favorite ride there. We also loved the HSM3 show and the Playhouse Disney show. Dinner was at Chef Mickey's. Turns out Julia doesn't love the characters.

Tuesday: Animal Kingdom - the best, best thing is the Lion King show. Everyone love, loved it. We also loved the safari ride and Paul & I rode the Everest Expedition where he made me sit in the front row. We also all did the Rapids ride where we almost all got completely soaked. Especially poor Emma - she was soaked to the bone. This was not a highlight though the ride was fun. Dinner was at the Hoop De Doo Musical Revue. Loads of fun - the kids loved it and the food was great.

Wednesday: Epcot - Paul, Mom and Lily loved Soarin, We rode the Nemo ride which everyone liked and the Imagination ride which seemed to be more fun when I was 12...At lunch in Japan then headed back for an afternoon at the pool.

Thursday: Emma's 6th Birthday: Magic Kingdom - We had a wonderful day at MK. We started with the big girls getting their hair done at the Bippity Boppity Bootique. I'm sad to say Emma didn't love, love (however, her hair is still somewhat in the style) but Lily totally loved it. We had lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table which was great. We rode a ton of rides - our favorites were Small World and the Peter Pan ride. When we got back to the cabin we went to the Campfire at our resort. They have one every night and we got to roast S'mores and watch a Disney movie.

Friday: Magic Kingdom in the afternoon - We had dinner at the Crystal Palace with Pooh and friends. By Friday Julia had warmed up to the characters and was willing to have her picture taken with the characters. We also stayed for the Spectromagic parade and the Fireworks. The big girls got to help turn the lights out in Frontierland where we were sitting. It was cute! We also loved, loved the fireworks! The best part was seeing Tinkerbell zipline from the castle. Really cool and amazing that Disney does that 7 days a week/365 days a year. Better than any 4th of July show I've ever seen.

Saturday: Back to Epcot. I got to ride Soarin..really fun and Paul and I rode Test Track..other that we mostly walked the countries and ate. The girls to into having their passports stamped so they liked visiting each "kidcot" station. We also had lunch in Norway with the Princesses. The food was different but all the my girls loved seeing the Princesses!

Overall it was a wonderful trip. I highly recommend the Disney Dining Plan especially if you want to do a lot of character meals (which we did). It was easy and plenty of food. In fact, by Saturday we were buying all kinds of random things to use up our snack credits. I can't believe how good the kids were and how cooperative the older girls were. They didn't hardly complain about the walking - they were such troopers. All in all a very magical trip! We all can not wait to go back!