Epcot Center

Our third day was spent in Epcot Center. The one thing that we loved about Epcot Center was the fact that waiting for rides was done inside. Very nice! It was nice to get away from the heat somewhat and stand in lines in a building. The ultimate favorite ride of Epcot was Soarin' Over California. Although Andy and I were a bit disappointed that they weren't a bit more creative and did Soarin' Over Florida. But Rachel LOVED this ride. Andy and I each took a turn going on this ride with her. It was so much fun to see her excitement. I was quite surprised that she liked it so much. Unfortunately Audrey was too short, so the next time we go...

Both of the girls also really enjoyed the Nemo ride - we went on that at least twice. We quickly discovered that getting pictures with characters in Epcot was much easier. So here are a few:

A few pictures by "bush" characters:
A picture with the new Disney bear, Duffy:

At some point in the afternoon Andy went on a ride called Test Track - which no one else could go on. The girls had fun playing in the water fountains while we waited for Andy:
Here are the girls having fun at Journey into Imagination:

A family picture:
We checked out most of the countries. We really enjoyed the rides in Mexico and Norway. We enjoyed a film in France. While in France we were able to grab a picture of Rachel with Sleeping Beauty (Audrey was sound asleep):

She's awake now and happy!
Here's Rachel in Japan:

We enjoyed dinner in Japan - the girls love chicken and rice! We also really enjoyed a candy-making demonstration. We watched this lady make all these figures (the unicorn was requested by Rachel):

Outside the Nemo ride:
Inside the aquarium area after the Nemo ride:
A quick picture of Rachel as we headed out of the park:

A picture of the girls and I. Andy went to fetch the stroller and caught us snuggling by a fountain as we waited for him to return...

We headed back to our hotel and were able to watch the Epcot fireworks from the balcony of our hotel room. :)

Animal Kingdom

Our second day in Orlando was spent in Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom didn't exist when I went to Disney World years ago, so it was a first for all of us. This day was a very low-key day. It was nice! The park closed by 7 PM and we had plenty of time to do and explore all that we wanted to. We enjoyed several shows that day - It's Tough to be a Bug, Festival of the Lion King, and Finding Nemo Musical. Not only were the shows good, but they were a nice break from the heat! Here's our day in a nutshell:

We first went to the Maharajah Jungle Trek. We walked through the jungle and saw different creatures - our favorites were the massively huge fruit-eating bats and the tigers. I was glad we did this first before it got to toasty. Here's a picture of the girls in the jungle:

Audrey and I then checked out some more animals belonging to the ape family while Rachel and Andy went on the Kali River Rapids. Luckily Andy did a good job of shielding Rachel, so she didn't get too wet... Andy then went on Expedition Everest (which none of the rest of us could ride). He really enjoyed this roller coaster and went on it several more times throughout the day. While he was on the roller coaster the girls and I explored and found some characters to take pictures with:

We then met up at the Kilimanjaro Safari. The girls and Andy went on the safari while I had fun people watching! :) The girls enjoyed seeing all the different animals on their safari ride. I believe they went on quite a bumpy road in a truck like this:

Somewhere we fit in some lunch. We then discovered the Triceratop Spin in Dinoland - think, Dumbo ride, but you're riding triceratops. The girls loved this ride and we went on it several times throughout the day. I made the mistake of sending Rachel with Andy on the Dinosaur ride - think Indiana Jones, but with dinosaurs... It was a bit intense for her. Andy had a very scared, sad girl on that ride. Sorry, Rachel! :( The girls still talk about Rachel going on the Dinosaur ride and crying. So, yeah, I should have done my homework a bit better on that one...

The girls really enjoyed The Boneyard in Dinoland - basically a dinosaur-themed playground. Their favorite part was the tunnels and then the water:

They would have spent a lot more time playing around in there, but we were hoping to catch a parade, so away we went... On the way to the parade we took a picture in front of Discovery Island:

We then found a nice shady spot and enjoyed the parade:

Although we probably enjoyed more watching Audrey's excitement as she pointed, danced, clapped, and blew kisses...

After the Lion King show, which we thoroughly enjoyed, the girls enjoyed playing on some drums:

We managed to get a family picture with Thumper and his girlfriend:

The girls and I headed back over to Dinoland to ride Triceratop Spin (while Andy did another Expedition Everest run). On the way we ran into Pooh and his friends...

For some reason Eeyore was just too much for Audrey...
We also couldn't resist a picture with Pluto and Goofy in Dinoland:

As you can see, character pictures happened a lot more often in Animal Kingdom. If we did wait for pictures, the longest we waited was 5 minutes... We then decided to not eat dinner in the park and headed to Downtown Disney that evening for dinner and some shopping. We of course had to stop by a Disney store to pick up a few souvenirs for the girls. By this time they were asking for things, so we got it over with and didn't have to worry about shopping while in the parks the next 2 days. And we had to grab pictures of the girls outside the store with Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty (no line here, either!).

Once again, we enjoyed our day. Animal Kingdom was fun!

Magic Kingdom

Our favorite park was definitely the good, old classic Magic Kingdom. We spent 2 days having fun in Magic Kingdom. There were lots of rides that we repeated several times and the girls loved it. Our first day there, Monday, wasn't too busy so that was really nice. We utilized the Ridemax program to plan out our day and it worked out well for us.

Here are the girls riding the parking lot tram, anxious for their first Disney experience:

As we walked into Magic Kingdom we headed straight back to Fantasyland where was spotted Pinocchio before anyone else did. The girls were thrilled!

Dumbo ride! I believe this was our first ride and quickly became the favorite. We repeated this ride (along with other variations) several times...

We got a lot of rides in the first 2 hours we were there. The girls loved Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan. They were not fans of Snow White (I think the Haunted Mansion was less scary to them). The carousel, of course, was a hit. We also went to a show called Philharmagic, which Rachel enjoyed and Audrey tolerated. We repeated it on Thursday though - we quickly became fans of shows during the hot afternoon hours. Audrey did have fun sporting the 3-D glasses before she knew what they were capable of:
Here's Rachel near the carousel working hard to pull out the sword:We headed over to Tomorrowland and tried out the speedway. Watch out, Rachel's got control of the race car!

A picture with Alice before we rode the teacups:

The girls' favorite ride in Tomorrowland was Buzz Lightyear. I kind of wished they had incorporated more of the characters from Toy Story, but I think Buzz is definitely one of the popular characters. As we left Tomorrowland, we grabbed a picture of the girls and I on a bridge with the castle in the background:

On our way over to Adventureland we were able to snag one of the few spots left in the shade and watch "Dream Along with Mickey". The girls enjoyed seeing the princesses.

We discovered Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride in Adventureland, which is pretty much the Dumbo ride...

We enjoyed a little ice cream break in the afternoon:
The girls and I on the Jungle Cruise:
Playing after the Jungle Cruise:

We enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean as well. That afternoon we also watched the Country Bear Jamboree. Audrey really enjoyed this show. It was one of the few shows that she didn't ask when it was going to be over. I think she really liked the bears. We went back to Tomorrowland in the early evening. We did a few rides for the second time. We even did the somewhat dull Carousel of Progress. But hey, there was no wait and it was a cool place to sit for a good chunk of time. That evening we stayed around for the Electrial Parade. Of course we didn't get the memo about having to line up along the parade route at least an hour before the parade began. So the girls watched the parade on our shoulders and they looked awfully cute in their new Mickey Mouse ears:

We then headed back to our hotel. Audrey crashed on the way back to the hotel room. She was exhausted! Totally unresponsive, which is very uncommon for her. And of course Rachel had to pretend to be asleep as well:

Thursday we spent our second day in Magic Kingdom. I was grateful it was our second day, because it was much busier. And really the only ride we needed to go on was Splash Mountain - all the other rides were repeats. We definitely just headed back to the girls' favorites. First off was Fantasyland. Andy made a run to get fast pass tickets to Splash Mountain while the girls and I stayed in Fantasyland. We grabbed a picture with Mary Poppins:

This time we grabbed pictures of the girls on the carousel. We rode the carousel several times that day!

Our Ridemax-scheduled day got a little messed up due to Splash Mountain being closed for a few hours. But oh well, things still worked out. Rachel said Splash Mountain was fun, but she didn't have any desire to go on it again.

Our most unique adventure that day was deciding to duck into Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor. This didn't get great reviews, so we weren't planning on it. But after riding the Buzz ride again and it was the hot afternoon, we decided to enjoy sitting down in a cool place. Well, it didn't disappoint because they were scanning the crowd for a two-headed monster and Audrey was on my lap, so we were selected. We got to answer a few questions about where we were from and the girls thought it was pretty cool to see Audrey and I on the big screen. They also thought it was pretty funny that they thought the Eiffel Tower was in Houston, since they actually know what the Eiffel Tower is and where it is... :)

We did several Dumbo rides again on Thursday. Here's Dumbo, Andy, and the girls:

We hung around until about 7:00 because we had to wait for our fast pass for the Peter Pan ride, which the girls love! After that ride, we grabbed a picture in front of the castle and then headed back to the hotel. We decided to take a quick swim that evening, since we were all tired of being hot and just wanted to enjoy playing.

Andy on the Monorail ride, passed out (pretending to be asleep, of course):

We loved Magic Kingdom. The girls are still talking about rides, characters, parades, etc... Rachel keeps on saying, "When I go back when I'm 6..." Not sure we'll head back next year. Maybe when Audrey is 5 and Rachel's 8... I was a bit nervous about Audrey possibly being too young, but she really enjoyed it and did well. And if you go when they're under 3, they're free! We also enjoyed Epcot and Animal Kingdom. So, more pictures to come...

Orlando Trip

So, we went to Disney World back in May. It turned out to be such a good trip. We were a bit nervous about the 16 hour drive (more like 18-20 hours with stops - you have to also remember you lose an hour going there and gain a hour coming back home). But we couldn't have asked for a better outcome. Audrey did fabulously!!! And Rachel's always easy in the car... We headed out on a Saturday - drove for 2 days, went to the parks for 4 days, and then took 2 days to drive home. I thought I'd put together a few thoughts that might help others who are planning a similar trip.

TIMING. It was hot in May. No rain the whole week, which was a blessing. But it was hot. If I could pick any time of the year (which is pretty much impossible with Andy's job) I would go late February or early March. I think the weather would be decent and all the Spring Break crowds wouldn't be there yet. We did usually go to shows in the afternoon, which helped being able to avoid standing in line in the heat of the afternoon. We did have good timing though. The parks weren't especially busy. Thursday was our busiest day, but luckily that was our 2nd day at Magic Kingdom and it was the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend.

FLYING VS. DRIVING. Believe me, it was tempting... However we saved around $1500 driving. Even with high gas prices, flights were ridiculous as well. I'm sure if you planned your trip more in advance you would be able to get better deals. We're kind of bad about last minute planning... Plus driving added it's own adventure. We got to drive through 5 states, neither of us had been in Alabama or Mississippi, or seen the Mississippi River before. We also got to drive through a lot of swamp land in Louisiana - never done that before!

We took this picture as we stopped at a rest stop on our first day of traveling:

This picture was taken on our last day of traveling on our way home. In Louisiana you can access Lake Charles right off the freeway. There's an area right along I-1o. We grabbed some Wendy's and enjoyed a picnic lunch at the beach. Unfortunately Rachel was the only one who got to enjoy building a sandcastle (Audrey wouldn't finish her lunch). And a good FYI - disgusting bathrooms, walked in and walked right out. However, if you drive to the end of the beach there's a beautiful, clean tourist information building. That's where we went!

LODGING. We didn't bother with reservations while driving. We drove until we were ready to stop each time, which worked out just fine. In Orlando we chose to not stay at the Disney hotels. Even the cheapest was more expensive than anything else. And then you had internet charges, refrigerator charges, and no free breakfast. So, even though we had to pay $14 a day for parking, it saved us at least $60 a day. We stayed at a Marriott Village. Very nice! They do have a shuttle, but they charged $7 a person. Doesn't make sense unless you fly and don't have a car. Anyhow, the hotel was fabulous. Breakfast was great! Our room had 2 double beds, 1 couch bed, a fridge, microwave, and internet access. We liked! There was even a food court at the Marriott Village so when we got in Sunday night and couldn't imagine getting back in the car to find some dinner, we just walked to the food court. Very convenient! They also had a nice pool with beach entry which we enjoyed twice. From our balcony each night (as long as we were home) we could watch the Epcot fireworks show at 9 PM, which was fun. Our last night there we got a combination lightning/firework show. It was pretty cool!

RIDEMAX. This was recommended from a friend who went several years ago. Definitely worth the $16. It's a program that plans your day for you efficiently. Great for us, since we weren't familiar with the parks. The longest we ever stood in a line was 30 minutes and that was because our girls loved the Dumbo ride, so we went on that ride several times each day. If you're more tech-savvy than we are I believe you can even have it on your phone... We're a bit old-fashioned.

FOOD. You can take food in to Disney World, which I had planned on doing. However, Andy looked at me Sunday night when I told him I needed to make a run to the grocery store and told me not to bother!!! :) So, we ate breakfast at the hotel every day. Then we bought lunch and dinner in the parks. Since our girls hardly eat anything, they always shared a kid's meal. And since adult meals are usually always big portions, Andy and I just shared a meal. So, it wasn't that bad. I was actually pretty surprised at the prices. Usually the kid's meal was around $5 and our meal was around $8. Not bad... We also packed lots of snacks, juice boxes, and water bottles (frozen).

CHARACTERS. Our girls aren't really old enough to really care about the characters. I know some kids go around and get autographs and pictures with all of them. I don't think my girls know what an autograph is. So, we got off easy with this one. If we happened to be walking by and the line was short, we'd do it. However, we did discover that Epcot and Animal Kingdom were easier parks to get pictures with the characters. It's just a bit crazy at Magic Kingdom. Also, something I kind of do wish I had noticed before our last night at the park at 7 PM as we were heading back to the hotel... At the entrance of Magic Kingdom there's a fast pass option to get pictures with the princesses. Next time we'll have to make sure we take advantage. When we walked by it was a 45 minute wait - no thanks! And you can dine with characters. An FYI though, if you are considering princesses, book a few months in advance. We were a bit late for that... It is expensive, but I think it would be worth it for my girls. Next time...

PARK TICKETS. We just bought ours through Disney. It seemed like the only way to get a deal was to pay for a package, which we didn't need. Because of the ages of our children we didn't do the park hopper option. It wasn't needed. We had plenty to do each day in each park. If you're going with teenagers, it might be nice. But we were fine without and it saved quite a bit of money.

YOU'RE NEVER TOO OLD. The most important thing we learned is that you are never to old for Disney fun or for the use of their rental strollers (we did not obtain permission for this picture from this unsuspecting, sleeping tourist):
More pictures and fun adventures to come...