Day 7: Relax at Coronado Springs resort

 We actually got to sleep in this day and started packing some.  We ate breakfast at Pepper Market and used up the rest of our snacks at the gift shop.  :)  I think we only had one quick service left after breakfast, so we had planned to use it for lunch before we left.  Poppy and Cita had about 5 QS left, so we had enough for everyone.  We finished up our packing and were out of the room at 11 am.  We didn't have to be at the airport until after 3 for our 4:40pm flight.  It had warmed up again this day, so they wanted to swim.  It was probably mid-70's, so I let Roy and the girls swim while we watched.  Emily loved the slide at this pool!  We noticed a fun little playground, so they played on this for a while.

 Then, we used up our free tokens in the arcade.  They had a great time in there!  Around 1:00, apparently they have kid's activities each day. We were too busy each day to do any of this, but they really had fun dancing, hula hooping, and playing a water pass game.  We missed out on a campfire and movie under the stars there too. I'll have to remember all this if we go again.

 We let them play until the last second.  We ordered our food poolside and got theirs to go.  We made it to the airport right on time.  Here are the girls worn out from their action packed week.  We went back to the frigid cold.  In fact, we've been snowed in/iced in for almost a week now.

It definitely wasn't a relaxing vacation, but one day I bet it will be!  At this point in their life, it was all about the magic, characters, and princesses.  I know we achieved most things on our lists.  I definitely feel there are advantages to staying on Disney property.  I absolutely loved the magic bands and we managed to avoid minimal lines (except some of the characters) on a busy week.  Until the next time!  I think I'm going to the beach next vacation.  :)

Day 6: Magic Kingdom

Our last view of the drive into Magic Kingdom.  This was Thanksgiving Day!  Such an exciting time to be at Disney World!We decided to sleep in a little and eat breakfast at the park.  We heard Starbucks was considered a "snack" on the meal plan, so everyone got in line for that and the girls and I headed to the line to meet the Fairies.  Most of the things left for today were some characters that they wanted to meet and a few rides again.  The wait for the fairies was about 30 min.  grr

Next up, was Tiana.  She was so sweet!

W
 I mentioned to my mom that I had wanted portraits done of the girls last time we were there, so she decided to get it done as our Christmas present!  The place was right across from Sleepy Hollow, on my list of good eats in the park.  We got a couple of yummy waffles.  The sitting took a little while, luckily we had a great view.  We got to see Dream Along with Mickey show again.  The portraits are such a treasure!

 Our fast passes to Buzz Lightyear ended at noon, so we hurried over there when they were done with the sitting.  They almost didn't let us in b/c we were a few min. late and the worker did let us in.  The ride ended up breaking down a few minutes just when we got on, but it got back to running very soon.  It was a fun ride, not as fun as Toy Story Mania though.  Next up was meeting Rapunzel at Fairytale Princess Hall where we had a fast pass+.  The place was really neat inside and it had Cinderella's slipper in there.

 We loved meeting Rapunzel and Snow White was in there too!  She asked the girls about what they liked to paint.

 Emily wanted to go on Barnstormer (small roller coaster) since the first day, so we got a fast pass for her and Roy to ride on it.  She loved it!  My parents took the girls on Dumbo, then the train ride while Roy and I went on Space Mountain.  Scariest ride ever!  haha  Our plans were to do the Riverboat ride, Tom Sawyer island, and President exhibit but once we met up with my parents we only had time for the Hall of Presidents.  We had a late "lunch" reservation at Ohana which was at the Polynesian resort.  We went on the monorail to the Polynesian. We were all very hungry at this point and the plan was to not eat too much since we also had a late dinner reservation at "Be Our Guest".  The food was SO good at OHana that it was hard to leave much room.  I think everyone enjoyed it even though they didn't have typical Thanksgiving dinner.  I was bummed they didn't do the kids activities b/c they were so busy, but the girls still had a great time!

 We made it back to the Magic Kingdom in time for the last street party.  Emily's favorite thing, I think!

 We checked on the riverboat again, but it wasn't leaving for a while.  Ella wanted "It's A Small World" again, so we went on that first.  We decided to forget about the riverboat since we took the ferry back to the Magic Kingdom after OHana and decided to use our fast pass to visit Mickey at the Town Center even if we had to go back to the entrance (working off our lunch).  It was a great experience seeing Mickey b/c he could talk!  He was very interactive and did some magic for us!

 Next, we had them change to their princess dresses and used the fast pass to Storytime with Belle.  It was such a neat experience!  Emily loved being in the play.  Ella decided not to be in it, but went up there to get a picture and bookmark from Belle.

 We had a little bit of time before our dinner reservation, so they went on the carousel again and we saw Philharmagic again!  Finally, it was time for "Be Our Guest" dinner.  

 View from afar.

 It was really neat going inside of the castle because one person is given a candle as they walk in.

 We were in the "rose petal" room.  It was so lovely!  The dinner was pretty good.  I think everyone got the Thanksgiving dinner but me (I tried some of Emily's).  The food was pretty good, but loved the presentation of everything!  The dessert was really neat too!  I don't know how I even ate this meal.  ;)

 At the end, you could meet the Beast.  Ella was a little scared of him.

At the end of our dinner another magical moment appeared, the end of the fireworks show was going on and we got to see it right above us.  It was an "awe" moment for sure!  After that, we saw the projector show again then decided to head out b/c Ella fell asleep.  Emily wanted to go on the Peoplemover again, but we decided to let her do her last shopping while the Electric Street Parade was going on.  The castle was sparkling as we were leaving.  I'll miss this place!  It truly is magical!  Emily wants to go every year.  I really wish we could.  I would like to go again in a couple of years, but we will see!  We still had one day left of relaxation before our plane left at 4pm.

Downtown Disney

We thought we'd leave Animal Kingdom a little sooner than we did, but we left around 7 pm.  Ella fell asleep on the bus and we all needed to stop by the resort to change.  There was a cold front that moved in to FL that day.  We had to cancel the water ride at Animal Kingdom because it was too cold.  :(  Ella was not budging, so Roy said he would stay in the room with her.  He's not a big shopper anyway.
Poppy, Barbara, Cita, Emily, and I decided to head out there.  Emily and I hadn't had dinner, but we thought we'd stop in at one of the places at Downtown Disney. We went in a neat toy store and I got some neat Mr. Potato Head pieces that I can use at work.  Because of all the fun we were having, once we made it to Earl of Sandwich it was closed.  :(  We got on the bus around 11:00pm.  ha!  It was a fun night!

Emily at the Lego store.  Everything was made out of legos.

 At the toy store with Cita and Barbara.

 The dragon was made out of legos!

 We ran into this store where Bibbiti Boppiti Boutique was in Downtown Disney.  They had a cook magic mirror that she enjoyed seeing herself as each princess.  We also went to Goofy's candy store and Emily picked out a few things in there.  The cake pops were a "snack"  and I enjoyed mine as my dinner!  I'm glad we made it there even for only a couple of hours.  It was freezing at this point, so we were ready to get back to the resort.   This was Barbara's last night here so we were trying to make the most of it.  She was leaving at 6 am.  :(  We still had 2 days left.  Next up, our last day in the parks and Thanksgiving day:  Magic Kingdom!

Day 5: Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom was also very close to our resort, so we only had a 5 minute bus ride.

 Our first stop was The Lion King show!  We got fast pass+ to it so that we would be close and Emily was picked to go up with the cast.  I think she was in heaven!  It's a great show, a mini-Broadway version of The Lion King.

I promised the girls to get their face painted.  They had them at other parks, but I thought Animal Kingdom would be a fun day to do it!  Emily picked a holiday theme, Candy Cane girl and Ella had lots of different choices, but ended up with Rainbow Rainforest.  They loved it!

 We went on the Safari ride, which is always fun.  We were very close to some animals.  We saw a giraffe munching on the trees.  We also went on a little walk around to see the gorillas and other animals a little after the safari. We had a lunch reservation at the Tusker House.  It was pretty neat inside since we were in "Africa".  The food was a little different, but definitely found some good food.  Donald was the greeter.  We saw Safari Mickey, Safari Goofy, and Safari Daisy.  It was our only time to meet Daisy this trip!  We saw her around more last time we were at Disney.

 They have a little parade for the kids were the had instruments.  They had a great time here!

After our hike to see the gorillas, we went on the train to the petting zoo area. Rafiki's Watch.  The girls were given a scavenger hunt book where they earned badges when they completed each page.  This was a huge hit!  They have items they could get all over the park, but we just found out about it.  

They met Rafiki while looking at the animal hospital part and earning some badges while Poppy waiting in line for them.  :)  They enjoyed petting the animals, especially the hog.  It was feeding time, so then the animals were too busy to be petted.  We decided to head back to get a spot for the Jingle Jungle Parade.

The parade was pretty neat!   I loved the bubbles that came out of Donald's float (I believe it was his).  After the parade, we had fast passes to Mt. Everest ride.  We only had 3 and it was a big roller coaster, so it was Roy, Poppy, and I.  It was a smooth roller coaster and we enjoyed it!  Next, we saw the Nemo The Musical show.  We got there right when it started so we had back row seats and it wasn't too comfortable, but the show was very good!  I love musicals!  It was getting late, but the girls got excited when they saw the dinosaur rides.  We decided to give the ride Dinosaur a try, but Cita and Ella decided not to go on it b/c it was dark+bumpy.  Good choice!  It was a very bumpy ride.  Emily wanted to ride on the Primeval Whirl (little roller coaster), so she and Roy rode that while Ella and I did the Triceratop Spin (similar to Dumbo).  Everyone was getting hungry, but Roy and Emily were still in line for the ride so Poppy, Cita, and Barbara went to Flame Tree BBQ which was on my list of must-tries.  It closed an hr before the park, so I didn't get to try it.  They weren't impressed.  We decided to leave so that we could head to Downtown Disney even for a couple of hrs. 

 Last look at the "Tree of Life".  So beautiful!