Animal Kingdom Spring 2014

For our third Disney trip, we headed to Animal Kingdom. It was a Friday in early May, so the crowds weren’t too bad, but to me Animal Kingdom always feels pretty full.

Once again, we arrived at opening.

The kids got their maps and talked with a cast member about a spider.

Jonathan, Rosemary, and I high-tailed it directly to Expedition Everest. Rosemary was very excited about this ride. The first time, she rode it with me.

Then, because the lines were so short, she rode it again with Jonathan.

That’s Rosemary and Jonathan in the front seat coming down the drop.

She conquered Everest!

Meanwhile, my parents and Charlotte and Ben had checked out some of the animals near the safari. We rode Kilimanjaro Safari next and it was great, so many animals were out first thing in the morning.

We took the train over to Rafiki’s Planet Watch.

When we got back to the main part of the park, we got some BBQ for lunch and the kids filled in some of their Wilderness Explorer books.

We don’t usually stop for characters, but the line for Tigger and Pooh was really short. As we were walking up to the beginning of the line, Charlotte saw Pooh and started running after him calling, “Wait for me, Pooh!” He didn’t, but she did get to give Tigger a high five.

We took the kids into the Dino Bones area for a little playtime. Jonathan went off with the big kids and I kept up with Charlotte.

Did you know she’s quite the ham?

We caught the Nemo show. Rosemary wanted to ride the Dinosaur ride, so Jonathan and I took her on that while my parents took Charlotte and Ben to Bug’s Life. After Dinosaur, Rosemary and I rode Primeval Whirl. Along the way we filled in more of their Wilderness Explorer books.

Our last fast pass of the day was for Kali River Rapids. Ben and Rosemary were very excited about this one. Thankfully, none of us got super-soaked, just wet enough to have fun and get cooled off a bit.

By then, we’d ridden all that we set out to ride, so we worked with Rosemary and Ben to get more of the WE badges.

Rosemary and I snuck in one more Expedition Everest ride since the wait time was less that 5 minutes right before the park closed.

And on our way out, they got their WE badge. They didn’t fill out their entire books, but they got quite a few badges that day.

Charlotte was tuckered out by the end of the day. My parents waited with her a bit while she slept so we could get badges with the older kids.

Another open till close Disney day. Oh, so tired, but so much fun.

Epcot-2014

We ended the month of February with our second Disney trip, this time to Epcot with my parents. And this time we stayed at a condo that night so we didn’t have to drive all the way back to Gainesville at the end of the day. This was our first trip as a family to only Epcot. We weren’t sure how the kids would like it compared to the Magic Kingdom, but it certainly was a hit.

This time, we were there even before the park opened. We were in line when the music played and confetti cannons shot to start the day.

Most of us made a bee-line to Test Track while my mom and Charlotte headed over to get us our Fastpasses for the day. Ben wasn’t the biggest fan of Test Track, but Rosemary liked it enough to ride it again with my dad while Jonathan rode Mission Space. Ben and I met up with my mom and Charlotte in Innoventions.

They enjoyed the emergency preparedness puzzle.

When we met up again, Jonathan rode the Sum of All Thrills and we watched his legs dangle from the simulator.

Rosemary, my dad, and I then rode the mild side of Mission Space before we headed over to the Land to ride Soarin.’

This one, Ben liked. He and Rosemary even got to ride it twice since my mom went on it after we did. We also ate lunch there, rode the Listen to the Land boat ride, and watched the Timon and Pumba movie.

Before heading back to the World Showcase, we rode Figment and Nemo. The kids really enjoyed looking at all the fish afterward…and seeing Bruce.

On our way to the World Showcase, we stopped by and tried some of the international Coke flavors.

The kids’ picked up one of the Phineas and Ferb cell phones. They were excited about the missions.

We headed over to Mexico and spent about an hour on the first mission. It took a couple minutes to get the hang of what we were supposed to do, but once we did, it was super cool.

After Mexico, we headed to Norway, rode Maelstrom, then did that mission as well. Charlotte fell asleep in the stroller so my mom sat with her.

For the last part of the mission in Norway, they had to find a sword. They pointed the phone towards the waterfall, pushed the button and the water stopped, revealing the lost sword.

Rosemary and Ben enjoyed the train set.

I think this little guy could watch trains for hours.

Walking through Italy

 

We watched the American Adventure then grabbed some dinner. It was dark by the time we finished and we still needed to see half of the World Showcase. Mom and Dad went on ahead while we stopped at a few places with the kids.

When Rosemary turned 6, we had stopped in Japan and she remembered the kimonos. (We read A Pair of Red Clogs in kindergarten and she has wanted a kimono ever since). She wanted to look at them again and this time one of the cast members asked her if she would like to try one on. Rosemary picked a beautiful pink kimono and the cast member helped her put it on over her clothes. Rosemary was so excited.

Isn’t it so pretty?

We stopped in the French pavilion. Rosemary tried on a beret.

And we enjoyed some pastries.

From there, we caught a most of the Canadian 360* movie, then made a dash to meet my parents at the front of the park to ride SpaceShip Earth.

We caught a few minutes of the fireworks then headed out to the car as the parked closed. Another long, enjoyable, memory-making Disney day was in the books.