Disney Trip 2014- Day 2

May 22nd, 2014 Melanie Posted in Disney World, Family, Hailey, Hunter, Me, Rich, Vacation No Comments »

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Hunter loved our balcony and every morning he ate his breakfast out there with Rich.

After breakfast we headed to the boat to take the short ride to Magic Kingdom.

The fairies had a short wait, so we stopped there first.

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 Hunter and Hailey with Vidia.

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Hailey and Hunter with Tinkerbell.

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Hailey doing her pirate look while we waited in line for Pirates of the Caribbean.

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Rich and Hailey on Splash Mountain.

While they rode Splash, Hunter and I waited in line to meet Woody and Jessie.  Rich and Hailey met up with us when it was almost our turn.

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Woody and Hunter

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When it was time for a group picture, Hunter decided he was a bit scared of Woody, so Rich had to join them.

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We love Mickey’s Philharmagic and Hunter was so into it!  He loved trying to catch all the flying objects.

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Hunter and Hailey taking a ride on the Prince Charming Regal Carousel.

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We always have to stop and try to pull the sword from the stone.

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Then we were off to the castle to go the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.

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Hailey had her hair, make up, and nails done.

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All done being turned into a princess

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Beautiful princess

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Then it was time for the parade- Hunter had a great view.

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Hailey waiting for the parade to start.

A few pictures from the new parade, Festival of Fantasy:

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Afterwards we had a little surprise for Hailey.  Anna and Elsa had been having a 4+ hour wait and we told Hailey there was no way we were waiting that long.  She didn’t know that I had gotten a fast pass before our trip to be able to go see them.  So, we waited in line to meet them, but she didn’t know who we were waiting to see.  After about a 2 minute wait they let us in the room to meet Anna and Elsa- Hailey was so excited!

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Hailey and Hunter with Anna and Elsa

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Then they met Aurora.  Hunter asked her where Prince Philip was.  No one told him to ask that, so it was cute that he thought of it on his own.  She told him that Prince Philip was off fighting dragons, which left quite the impression on Hunter.

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Princess Aurora and Hailey

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We stopped to watch Dreams Come True- one of Hailey’s favorite shows.

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One of my favorite views of the castle.

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Rich took Hunter and Hailey on the Tea Cups.

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They all loved the race cars on Tomorrow Land Speedway

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Hunter loved shooting Zurg!

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Hailey always loves to go on the Stitch ride.

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Hunter and Rich on the People Mover.

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Of course, we had to stop for a picture in front of the castle.

It was a great second day!

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Disney Trip 2014- Day 1

May 21st, 2014 Melanie Posted in Disney World, Family, Hailey, Hunter, Me, Rich, Vacation No Comments »

Time for our yearly trip to Disney World!  This year we decided to go in May since I am due to have a baby at the time we usually go (late August).  We have never been before during May so we were really excited to try going at a new time.

The night before we were set to leave we drove to the airport we were leaving from.  It was several hours away and we were not familiar with the area, so we decided to stay at a hotel the night before.  The great part was our hotel stay included parking for our whole trip to Disney World, so we could leave our car there while we were gone and not have to worry about parking at the airport.

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The next morning we got all ready to leave for the airport to go to Disney World!  Hailey and Hunter were both so excited!

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On the airplane… headed to our favorite place.

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Finally at the Orlando airport!  We always stop here for a picture.

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We arrived at the Wilderness Lodge- I love the lobby!!

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Amazing fireplace in the lobby

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We checked out our room

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I loved the shower- so cute!

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The view from our balcony

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Another view from our balcony

It was dinner time at this point, so we went down and ate dinner at the food court- The Roaring Fork.  We were so close to the food court- it was perfect!!  We had to walk a few steps down the hall to the elevator and then a few steps from the elevator to the food court.  Our room could not have been in a better location (well, unless it was right in Cinderella’s castle ;-) ).

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Then we went down to the boat to head over to Magic Kingdom for a little while.

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This was definitely one of my favorite parts of staying at the Wilderness Lodge- we loved the quick boat ride to Magic Kingdom.

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When we got there we rode the train first- one of Hunter’s favorite rides!

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Hailey on Splash Mountain- her favorite ride.

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We all love the Haunted Mansion.

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Rich and Hunter on Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin- Hunter really loved this ride- I’m pretty sure this was his favorite ride.

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Hunter had been asking where Mickey was ever since we had arrived, so we had to stop to visit him.

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We finished up the evening by watching the fireworks before we headed back to our hotel to get rested up for our the next day.

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Disney Vacation 2012- Day 10

October 18th, 2012 Melanie Posted in Disney World, Family, Hailey, Hunter, Me, Rich No Comments »

Our last day in Disney World :-(   We slept in until 8am and then packed up most of our stuff.  Then we went and got some breakfast and ate it by the pool.  We all went swimming for a while:

I was getting nervous that we weren’t going to get everything packed up in time to go, so I went back to our room to finish packing while Hailey and Rich did some more swimming.

One last picture of the building we stayed in.

Once everything was all packed up I called and booked our bounce back offer (free dining).  We decided to stay at the French Quarter for our next visit.  It’s much smaller and we didn’t really like how huge Riverside is.  We stayed at French Quarter a few years ago and really liked it there.

Then we had some yummy lunch and I had a Magic Cookie with my lunch.  It was sooooo super delicious!!

There was a little time to play in the arcade before we had to go.

While we waited for the bus to come to take us back to the airport we looked for Hidden Mickey’s in our lobby and found several of them.  Can you find all of them?

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Sad to be on Magical Express back to the airport.

When we got to the airport, Rich said we could just pick any security line to go through.  I told him I didn’t think so and we should ask someone first since we had never flown Southwest out of Orlando before.  He insisted he was right so we picked a line and waited in it.  Once we got all the way through the line we asked where to go for Southwest… and guess what- we were at the wrong end of the airport.  We had to go all the way to other end and wait in line to go through security again.  Do you know how much fun that is with a 5 year old and a very overtired baby?  Lots… We were able to go through the employee line and skip the longest part of the wait, so that was very helpful.  When we go to North Carolina we were just supposed to do a quick stop and then continue on our way without getting off the plane.  But, there were severe thunderstorms at our destination so we were delayed.  Ugh!  We finally arrived at our destination much later than we had planned.  Then all the buses that came to pick people up to take them to the parking lot were so full there was no room for any people on them, let alone us with all our luggage.  Finally Rich went and got on the bus and went and got our car while I waited with Hailey and Hunter.  It took well over an hour… not fun at midnight.  Then of course there was the 3 hour drive home, while Hunter screamed because he had not been in his car seat for 10 days and was not happy about being in it again, he did eventually fall asleep about an hour into the trip home.  So, the trip home was not a whole lot of fun…

We did have a wonderful trip to Disney this year!  It is certainly much harder to do with a baby but we still had a great time.  I really liked how we took it slower this year and didn’t stay until park closing every night.  It felt much more relaxing than usual.  We can’t wait to go back!!

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Disney Vacation 2012- Day 9

October 11th, 2012 Melanie Posted in Disney World, Family, Hailey, Hunter, Me, Rich, Vacation No Comments »

On our last day in the parks we had an early breakfast reservation at the Crystal Palace so we arrived at Magic Kingdom at 8:30am.  I love arriving in the park before it opens and walking down an empty Main St.

Last family picture at Magic Kingdom for 2012

It just doesn’t get any better :-)

I just thought someday I might be interested in what the prices were back in 2012.  The first time we (just me and Rich) ever ate here was on our honeymoon in 2000- I would love to know how much it was then, but sadly that was before I took pictures of everything.

The Crystal Palace

I couldn’t ask for a better view while waiting for our table.

Our first visitor was Pooh.  Hailey gave him a big hug and asked him if he had enough honey to eat.  He shook his head yes and rubbed his belly.

Hunter just loved Pooh and kept laughing at him.

Hailey asked Eeyore if he was having a happy day and he shook his head yes.

We could see Piglet coming to our table and heard the announcement that the characters would be doing the parade soon.  So, when Piglet stopped at our table I could tell he was in a hurry.  He posed for a quick picture.  Hailey jokingly asked him if he knew there was bacon up at the buffet.  He just shook his head yes and gave no other reaction, which was kind of disappointing.

As he was walking away Hailey gave him a hug, but I think it’s obvious he was trying to rush off.

After the parade Hailey got to see Tigger… they did a couple of bounces together but he seemed to be in a hurry too.

I liked the food at breakfast at the Crystal Palace but I was really disappointed in the character interaction.  Other than Pooh it was pretty obvious that the characters were in a hurry.  I feel like if I have to get up at 6am 6 months ahead of time in order to get a reservation then the characters should be able to spend a little more time.  We said last year that we were going to skip the Crystal Palace on our next trip and I wish we would have actually done that.

Hailey posing by the wishing well.

One of our main goals to get done on this day was to meet Merida.  I had heard that her line gets very long through out the day, so we headed there first thing.

Practicing a little archery while waiting to meet Merida.

Hailey and Merida

Hailey asked me to take a picture of the bears, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have.  I’m glad I did, because I have heard that they are no longer there.

I don’t know if it’s because it was still early in the morning or the time of year but we only waited a few minutes to see Merida… and when we left there were only a few others in line.

Rich and Hailey rode on the Tomorrowland Speedway

Next we saw Alice

Rich and Hailey went on the Tea Cups… I can not do that ride.

Next we grabbed some fastpasses to go on Buzz Lightyear and then went to the Laugh Floor.  Unfortunately Hunter was not in the mood for the Laugh Floor, so I had to take him out.  When Rich and Hailey came out of there I took Hailey to see Stitch.

Next we used our fastpasses to go on Buzz.

At this point the park was starting to get a bit busy.  Since it was the day before Labor Day we had expected the crowds to pick up a bit.  We decided to head over to Splash Mountain and get some fastpasses.  On our way there we stopped and got a frozen chocolate banana.  They looked so yummy, but I hated it.  I just ate the chocolate off.

We went on Pirates of the Caribbean while waiting to use our fastpasses for Splash Mountain.  We actually had a 20 minute wait, which was longer than it had been all week.

When we came out of Pirates of the Caribbean, Hailey’s Tinkerbell stroller was gone.  There was another one there in the stroller parking, but it wasn’t hers.  It was much more worn out than hers was.  Since we bought hers right before our trip it was new and this one was definitely not.  I really wish that Disney did not feel like they had to constantly move the strollers around in the stroller parking.  The mix up (I assume it was a mistake) would have never happened if a Cast Member had not been moving the strollers around.  It was our last day at the park and we probably wouldn’t have kept the stroller anyways (it was cheap and she doesn’t need a stroller unless we are at Disney) but it was still annoying.

The view from the top of Splash Mountain.

Rich and Hailey rode Splash, then I rode with her, then Rich rode with her again.  We had our fastpasses we had gotten earlier, plus the ones that Hailey and I had gotten earlier in the week after we had to walk off of Splash Mountain.  We had saved them for our last day knowing the park would be busier that day. Then Rich and Hailey went on Thunder Mountain Railroad.  While they were on there I got more fastpasses for later for Splash Mountain.  While I was standing at the fastpass machine it just started spitting out fastpasses- I got 9 of them.  Woo hoo!

We went to Mickey’s Philharmagic one last time.

We ate at Cosmic Rays… Hailey was still not eating like herself (since being sick back on day 6), but promised if she could have peanut butter and jelly that she would eat it.  It ended up being the wrong kind of jelly (grape instead of strawberry) but she did eat it, just not very happily.

It was almost time to use our fastpasses at Splash Mountain, so we headed back over there.  Since we had 9 fastpasses and couldn’t use them all within the hour window we gave some of them away.  I waited next to the entrance (which had an hour long wait) and gave them to people who were getting into the line.  Hailey and I rode first, then Rich and Hailey and then me and Hailey again.  What a perfect way to end our trip!

While Hailey and I were on Splash Mountain for the last time, Rich saw this guy walk up like he was going to sweep the sidewalks.  Instead he started drawing with his broom.

The finished Mickey that he made.

The finished Donald Duck that he made.

On our way our we decided to stop for a Dole Whip… the line was pretty long but since it was our last chance we waited.  (Hailey had Cheetos, which she actually ate- yay!) While we waited for our Dole Whips, Hailey saw another child playing with a bubble gun and decided she wanted one.  We stopped on our way out of the park to see how much they were and I was pretty surprised when Rich let her get one for $12.  If you know how cheap Rich is, then this probably surprises you too :-0

Goodbye Magic Kingdom

When we got back to our resort we spent the evening relaxing and enjoying the pool.

Hailey’s favorites of the day: Ride- Splash Mountain, Character- Merida

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