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

So, we had 2 full park days left and we had to decide what we wanted to do.  My original plans had given us 2 full days in each of the parks except Animal Kingdom, plus our down day.  Since we ended up with 2 down days with Hailey being sick we had to decide which park would not get a full 2nd day- Hollywood Studios, Epcot or Magic Kingdom.  Or, did we finally want to use our Park Hoppers and split a day between parks?  We decided that the only ride we really wanted to go on at Hollywood Studios again was Toy Story Mania and we didn’t want the hassle of park hopping to just do one ride.  So, we all agreed not to do another at Hollywood Studios.

We arrived at Epcot at 9:24 am   We headed right to Soarin’.  Rich grabbed fastpasses, but since it was still early in the day there wasn’t any wait yet.

Rich and Hailey went on Soarin’ and when they got off it was already time to use the fastpasses.  We hadn’t eaten breakfast before arriving at Epcot and we were hungry, so we didn’t want to use them right then.  Rich got new fastpasses for later in the day (I think they were for around 1:30pm).  Since the current wait was up to an hour, Rich gave our fastpasses that needed to be used right then to some other people who were getting ready to get in to the hour long queue.

I never even knew that Sunshine Seasons served breakfast- but they do!  And it was really good- there were several delicious choices.

Hunter took a little nap during breakfast.

Rich’s breakfast and my breakfast. We actually each ate half of both.  They were both very yummy!

Hailey had french toast, although she still didn’t eat much.  She acted like she was feeling fine and seemed to be herself, she still just didn’t want to eat much.

Then we were off to ride Figment… there is never anyone on this ride.  I have never even seen a line for this ride.  Why is that?  Hailey loves it.  So, we walked right on.

Of course Hailey had to run and dance after riding Figment.

My pretty little miss

After we rode Figment we met up with a friend of mine from high school, Jen and her husband Paul and their son Matthew.  We stood outside Figment and talked for a while.  Then our families rode Figment together.  Hailey and Matthew had to sit together, they were too cute!  After that we decided to do a Perry adventure together.  We went off to China to complete our missions.

Hailey got to see Mulan on our way into China to do our Perry adventure.

Hailey, Mulan and Matthew.  I’m not so sure he was all that thrilled about posing with a princess

Hailey stopped at Kidcot in China.

Working on her mission

China

Once we completed our missions we talked for a bit more with Jen and Paul while Hailey and Matthew played together for a little while.  Then we headed our separate ways.  I wonder if we’ll wait 17 years before we meet up again

It was time for us to our fastpasses for Soarin’ but we never made it back.  Hailey wanted to do all the Kidcot stops and we have never spent much time in the different countries, so we decided to just skip Soarin’.

First we rode the boat ride in Norway and Hailey visited the Kidcot stop.

We stopped so Hailey and Hunter could make a little music.  It was soooo hot and we were thirsty, so when we saw a place that had root beer floats we decided to stop and get some.  I noticed a little counter, so I told Rich we could go stand there for a few minutes and get our straws and napkins.  Well, Rich went to set his cup down on the counter and look what happened:

If you know Rich you won’t be surprised that he said to me, “I blame you for this.”  I tried not to laugh because he was mad, but I found it pretty entertaining that he could come up with a way to blame me that he spilled his drink.  So I suggested he just go back to the counter and explain what happened and that they would probably just give him a new one.  So, while he was gone I took a picture of the spill and had a nice little laugh   Once he had his new drink and was happy again I asked him how it was possibly my fault… well apparently I caused it to happen because I suggested we stop at that counter to get straws and napkins.  Makes perfect sense.

Next we stopped at Kidcot in Germany.  It was really hot out and we wanted to get out of the heat for a little while, so we let Hailey sit and color Duffy.

Next up we stopped in Italy.

We stopped in America and listened to the Voices of Liberty sing- they were amazing!!  Then we watched the show in the American pavilion.  Hunter and I fell asleep and Hailey was almost asleep when it ended.  It’s not that the show is bad- but it was so hot outside and when we sat down in the AC for a few minutes and held still it was just too hard to stay awake.

Then we stopped in Japan

Japan

Then we visited Morocco

Rich took Hailey to France to do the Kidcot stop there while I got in line so she could meet Jasmine and Aladdin.

The view while in line to meet Jasmine and Aladdin

Hailey asked them if they came in on their magic carpet.  It turns out that they did in fact ride their magic carpet but had parked it up on the roof top, where he likes to take a nap.

After that we went to the Kidcot stop in the UK.

Then we were off to Canada.

I love the pretty flowers!

Hailey in Canada

We went to take a quick ride on Figment again before our dinner reservation in France.

The Eiffel tower

We had dinner at Les Chefs de France.  We like to try a new table service restaurant every time we go and this was our new one for this trip.

Hailey meeting Remy.

Remy

Hailey was pretty sure she would not be able to eat her cookie for dessert.

My creme brulee was delicious!!  And I was, in fact, able to eat all of my dessert.

Overall we were all very disappointed in Les Chefs de France.  None of us really liked our dinner (I did like my dessert though) and we were really disappointed with Remy.  After he had been to our table Hailey said, “So when do I get to meet Remy?”  And I said, “That was it.”  We had heard how funny it was supposed to be and he only spent a few seconds with us.  It just was different than what we expected and we decided we would never eat there again.

Hailey asked Mary Poppins if she can say “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” backwards.  And guess what!  She can

We had to do one last Piggy Bank adventure

One last ride on Nemo

Then Hailey did the last Kidcot stop that she had left- Mexico.

She got to all of the countries and was proud of herself for finishing.

We went on the Mexico boat ride and then were talking about heading back to the hotel so Hailey would have time to go swimming.  She told us she would rather stay for the fireworks.  So, we decided we would stay.  We had not stayed for fireworks at all this trip (and I actually really liked it that way!) so we figured we should at least see Illuminations.  We had some time, so we went on the Norway boat ride again.  It actually had a 15 minute wait, and that ride never has a wait!  After the boat ride we all stopped to use the bathroom and then found a good spot to watch Illuminations.

Illuminations

Hunter seemed to enjoy the show… he didn’t cry or act scared of the fireworks.  Every time the fireworks went off he would close his eyes, but he didn’t act scared.

After Illuminations we headed to our bus stop with the masses of people.  It really wasn’t too bad though.

Hailey asleep while we waited for our bus.

When we were getting on the bus I noticed our spray bottle/ fan mister thing was gone   Someone must have taken it from our stroller while we were on a ride.  That is the first time in all of our trips to Disney that someone has stolen something from us.

Hailey’s favorites of the day- Playing with Matthew, riding Figment, seeing fireworks and meeting Mulan and Jasmine.

Since we didn’t go to Animal Kingdom, as planned, on day 6- we decided to go there on day 7.  We decided to eat breakfast at the hotel before we left.

Hailey showing me that it was day 7.  Hailey was still not totally herself, from being sick on day 6.  She ate 1 1/2 pieces of bacon and wouldn’t eat anything else.

Since we took the morning kind of slow we arrived at Animal Kingdom around 10am.

Family picture on our way into the park.

I could tell it was going to be a hot day and Animal Kingdom is always so much hotter than the other parks.  Why is that?  Anyways- I decided we should go on the Safari ride first before it got too hot and the line got long.  So we went there first.  There was no wait.  Here’s a few pictures from our ride:

I always take a picture of the “upside down” tree.

Hunter decided to take a little nap.

The ride has changed since last year- they took the “story” part out of it, and so now it’s basically just a ride to look at the animals.  I kind of missed the story part and Hailey even asked about it.

It was so hot and humid and I was really glad we did the safari ride first.

Next we got to meet Russel and Dug… we had never met them before so we were excited!

When Hailey met Dug she told him she saw a squirrel… he got pretty excited and started looking around for it.

Hailey with Dug and Russel

Next up- we went on It’s Tough to be a Bug.  That is one of my favorites at Animal Kingdom.  I love the end- especially when we have people around us who have never been before and they start jumping out of their seats

Hailey with her bug eyes on.  Hunter sat still during the whole show with his eyes wide open!

Hailey wanted to ride Dinosaur next.

First she rode it with Rich, then she rode with me.  There was no wait at all.  I don’t think she should have ridden two times though because after the 2nd time she looked like she wasn’t feeling too good.  She said she was fine, but I could tell she wasn’t.

Then we rode on Dino-Dumbo… I don’t know the real name, but it’s exactly like Dumbo except you ride in Dinosaurs.  Hunter seemed to enjoy the ride.  Hailey was definitely not feeling good after that ride- going around in circles when it is super hot and humid was probably not a good idea.

It was lunch time and since I was determined to try new places this year- we at Restaurantosaurus for lunch.

I had this Chicken BLT salad- it did not look like the picture they had posted, but it was still quite tasty.  I don’t remember what Rich had.  Hailey had chicken nuggets-but she said her stomach was hurting from the rides and she only ate one of them.

I took this picture of the pin that Hunter had on his stroller, since it was his first visit to Disney World.

Hailey planned out what to do next… she decided we should go to It’s Tough to Be a Bug again.

After It’s Tough To Be a Bug we decided to head over to see the Lion King

While waiting for the Lion King, Hailey met Meeko and Pocahontas.  She asked Pocahontas how many biscuits Meeko eats everyday.  Hailey guessed that he eats 5 each day, but Pocahontas said he eats more like 100 times that.

I love the Lion King show- it’s my all time favorite show.  Hunter really liked it too- he clapped his hands and waved his arms around to the music.  He seemed to really enjoy the show.

A quick pose after the show was over.

Hailey decided she wanted to go on Dinosaur again- so she went on with me and then again with Rich.  There was no wait at all for the ride.  Then she decided she wanted to go see Lion King again, and I would never turn down a chance to see that show!  After Lion King, Hailey and I went to see It’s Tough for be a Bug again.  Hunter had fallen asleep during Lion King, so Rich kept him and let him nap a bit more so he would (hopefully) be in a good mood for dinner.

Then we were off to the Grand Floridian for our dinner reservations at 1900 Park Fare.  Hailey wanted to wear her Tiana dress to dinner, so I got her changed while Rich checked us in for dinner.

Family picture… it doesn’t seem like that long ago that we took our family picture in the same place when I was 6 months pregnant for Hunter.

Hailey in the lobby of the Grand Floridian.  It is just so pretty there!  It seems too formal for kids to stay there though.

Hailey’s Mickey shaped dinner plate… she actually ate a little more at dinner and ate her whole piece of pizza.  Finally she was eating a little better.

First up we met Anastasia.  Hailey asked her if she still takes singing lessons, and she does.  She said she takes lessons with her sister and she also takes flute lessons.

Anastasia talked to Hunter too… he just stared at her like he didn’t know what to think.  She talked so fast and didn’t seem to ever stop to breathe… she was just too funny!!

Cinderella came to our table next- I love how Hailey is looking at her.  She asked Cinderella if she still wears her glass slippers and Cinderella said she had them on and showed them to Hailey.

Cinderella played cars with Hunter- he just stared at her.  Then she gave him a kiss and left a lipstick print on his cheek.  I couldn’t get a good picture of it, but it was too cute!

Hailey told the stepmother that she looked very pretty.  The stepmother said, “Why thank you for the sentiments.  I do work very hard to keep up my appearance. After all how else will I ever find my third husband?”  Then she asked Hailey about Hunter and who he was.  She asked if he got all the attention since he’s a baby.  She told Hailey that when he gets older it will be better and he won’t need so much attention.

Hailey asked Prince Charming if he still had Cinderella’s glass slipper he found.  He said it is on display in their castle so he can look at it and remember the night he met her.  (Prince Charming and Cinderella might want to get their stories straight- HA!  Unless of course he bought Cinderella a new pair of glass slippers to wear and keeps the original at home.  I’m sure that’s how it’s done.)  As he was walking away Prince Charming told Hailey to make sure she holds onto her slipper until she meets her prince.  I thought that was such a sweet thing to say!

Last up was Drizella and she was so funny.  She talked non-stop just like her sister.  Hailey asked Drizella if she had found her prince yet.  Drizella said she had not and got quiet for a minute.  Then she looked over at Hunter and said she saw someone she could marry.

Drizella thought that Hunter’s first word should be “Drizella” so she worked on getting him to say it.  She was so funny and we were all laughing at her, except Hunter- he just stared.  She gave him a big kiss and left lipstick on his cheek too.

Then she said she needed to get a picture with her favorite sister-in-law.

We had a lot of fun with the characters at 1900 Park Fare.  We ate there a couple of years ago and we weren’t impressed with the food, but I actually liked it this time.  The strawberry soup is amazing.  I might eat there just to have that!  The character interaction here was by far the best of our whole trip!

Back at our hotel.  There was full moon that night and it just so happened to be a blue moon (2nd full moon in the same month). That’s the blue moon over Port Orleans Riverside.

Rich and Hailey went swimming for a while.

Hailey’s favorites- Ride- Dinosaur, Character- Anastasia and Drizella

We only had 2 park days left… since Hailey had been sick and we had missed one of our days at the parks we weren’t going to be able to do a 2nd full day at Hollywood Studios, Epcot and Magic Kingdom.  So which park would we pick to skip??

Day 6 started much earlier than I expected it to start.  It started at 12:30am… I heard that sound that no mother likes to hear- and I especially didn’t want to hear it while we were on vacation in Disney World.  Hailey was on her bed throwing up.  This repeated again around 2 am and 4 am.  Finally that was the last time she got sick and she slept soundly.  I didn’t really go back to sleep after the initial time she got sick because I was waiting to see if she was going to get sick again so I could catch it and not have to change the bed again.  Housekeeping was very kind to bring us all sorts of things like new bedding, towels, etc in the middle of the night.

We had originally planned to go to Animal Kingdom on this day, and we knew that was not going to be happening.  Instead I spent the morning doing some laundry.  Hunter was not happy to be spending the day in our room so I took him out and we walked around the resort while Rich hung out in the room with Hailey.  She took a nice relaxing bath and laid on her bed to watch tv and sleep.

While I was walking around I took some pictures of our resort.  Port Orleans Riverside is such a beautiful resort!  Here are some of the pictures I took:

I finally saw the main pool which we had not been to yet.

A fun looking playground, but for some reason it was empty.  Maybe kids don’t want to play on there when they can be in the pool instead.

After I walked around for a while I went back to the room and everyone took a nice, long nap.  Except for me.  I was so tired from being up the night before but I couldn’t sleep because I was too worried.  What if Hailey didn’t feel better the next day?  What if Rich, Hunter and I all got the stomach bug, but all on different days so we would have to miss the rest of our days in the parks?  What if Rich and I were sick at the same time?  What if we were sick on the day we had to fly home?  So as you can see my mind was very busy thinking of all sorts of scenarios.

When Hailey woke up from her nap she was feeling a bit better.  She ate a little bit and kept it down.  She decided she wanted to go for a walk to look at the pool after I showed her the pictures I had taken of it.  She didn’t think she wanted to go in, just wanted to look.  So we went over to the pool and when she saw it she decided she did want to go in.  Our room was probably about a 10 minute walk from the main pool, so we really should have just brought our swimming stuff with us.  We went all the way back to our room and got changed to go swimming.

Hailey going down the water slide.

Hunter all ready to go in the pool.  He loved swimming!  He splashed and giggled and had so much fun.

Swimming seemed to really make Hailey feel better.  She had a great time, jumping in, playing, going on the water slide, etc.  So we just relaxed and stayed at the pool for a while.

We had a dinner reservation at Chef Mickey’s later that evening.  We weren’t sure what to do.  Hailey had eaten some and kept it down and seemed to be feeling better.  She had really wanted to go to Chef Mickey’s and had been really looking forward to it so we decided to go ahead and go.

We got there and I checked us in.  Hailey was doing okay, definitely not herself, but seemed to be feeling much better.

Hunter loved seeing everyone waving their napkins around.  He thought that was pretty funny!

First up Hailey saw Goofy

Hunter thought Goofy was great and kept laughing at him and trying to grab his whiskers.

Hailey and Hunter with Mickey.  There was just no way to get Hunter to look at the camera- he couldn’t take his eyes off of the characters.

Hunter sure did love Mickey’s nose!

Hailey and Hunter with Donald Duck.  Hailey told Donald that he was number 1, not Mickey Mouse.  Donald Duck was quite pleased to hear that   He gave Hailey a high-five.

Hailey and Hunter with Minnie Mouse.  Hailey asked Minnie how many dresses she owns… Minnie started counting on her fingers, but she lost count and didn’t know how many she had.

Hailey and Pluto… Hailey asked Pluto if she could scratch behind his ear- and when she did it Pluto stomped his back leg.  It was so funny!

Hailey didn’t eat much at dinner… Rich called her one chicken nugget that she ate the $19 chicken nugget.  But I was just glad she was feeling better and didn’t think we should push her to eat.

I just thought this dessert was cute, so I had to take a picture of it.

Hailey posing on our way out of Chef Mickey’s.

We walked back over to Magic Kingdom to catch the bus back to our resort and Hailey thought we should go to Magic Kingdom for a little while.  We thought it would be a better idea to get to bed early so she would be back to herself the next day, so we went back to our hotel.  We told her she could go swimming for a while instead.  When we got to our room I called the front desk to see if the slide was still open at the main pool- they told me it was open until 10pm.  It was just a little after 8, so we walked over to the main pool.  We found that the slide was actually closed since the life guards were already off duty   Rich and Hailey swam and played until 9:40.  Hunter was asleep in his stroller and I was falling asleep on the lawn chair since I hadn’t slept much in the last 24 hours.

Finally we went back to our room and were all asleep pretty quickly, hoping that we would all wake up feeling great the next day.