Disney Highlights

It's true what they say, Disney is magical. We had an awesome vacation---I think I speak for all of us---not just Kevin and the girls but my parents also who were with us for the first 4 days (we wished they could have stayed the whole time). The trip overall received a five star rating for sure.

I shall start with--and get out of the way--the bad news. The first bummer was that my camera broke on Day 2. I knew it was a mistake to get it fixed after the drop in Seattle. It has never been the same. In the haste after a hug from Donald Duck, the camera slipped to the floor and had a relapse. My mom did some real magic and fixed it for a while but the old shutterbug died a slow death the next day. So add a new camera to the cost of the trip. I bought a disposable camera (real film!?) but that only lasted me an afternoon. I like to capture it all. Thank goodness my parents were with us because I used their camera for the rest of the trip. Lifesavers!

The next real bummer was the weather for the first half of the trip. Florida (like other parts of the country) experienced record lows last week. Crazy stuff. So the first part of the trip---the days my parents were with us---we spent bundled up and doing indoorsy kinds of things. But it was always sunny so that was all we really cared about. The weather turned on Friday and when we left last night it was almost too hot. (Beggars can't be choosers.)

But even with those little bummers, it was the best trip. The magic began when my friend Dana's mom (who works for Disney) put a call into Mickey to send a big surprise to our room for the girls. They were already impressed with the fact that our luggage just showed up in the room but cards, balloons and candy too? They were totally hooked.

The girls were totally into all the magic of Disney. I think this was a good age to make a first trip. I contemplated making them autograph books but then decided against it. I just wasn't sure they'd be into it. When we got there though it was a whole different story. They were totally into it. In fact, they completely filled their books! What a collection.

The autograph mission actually helped Abby with her character anxiety. As I expected she was totally cool with all the princesses--the photos will show you just how impressed she was by them. But the other characters took a bit of adjustment. Her first character was Goofy (whom she affectionately calls "Goofball"). She offered her book out but as soon as he bent down to grab it she threw it at him and smacked him in the nose. She ran one way, he ran the other. It was so funny! Poor Goofball. They both recovered and we got the signature. When we saw him later at dinner she was still suspicious.... However, ironically, she leaped into a pose with a Zurg statue (villain character from Toy Story). You just never know.

There is a funny thing about Disneyworld and little girls. It must be in the "cast member" handbook to call every little girl "Princess" because everyone we saw addressed them as such. We got the point that they would just sit in the stroller and wave to all their adoring fans. The days they were dressed up in their dress ups they got even more attention (if you can believe that was possible.) Though I thought it would be cool, and was quite tempted, we did not do the Bippity Boppity Boutique. But I had fun being their own personal "fairy godmother" and doing them up princess style. I had the bows of course and had bought some hair glitter at Christmas. Plus the pixie dust that people seemed to be so willing to sprinkle on their little heads---they sparkled every day (and actually went to school with pixie dust still in their hair today!) The boatmaster on the Jungle Cruise said it "was an honor to have you highnesses aboard." Seriously, these girls now believe they are royalty.

We hit all four parks though of course we did not get to everything (guess we'll have to go back!). We loved the new Toy Story ride the best. We got a Fastpass twice and had fun on the 4D game/ride. The 3D movies did not go over well at all, nor did the Haunted Mansion (especially when we got stuck for a few minutes....even I was a little spooked.) Epcot and Animal Kingdom had some really cool kid activity stations that kept them on their toes and I think taught them something. The shows were really good too, especially this phenomenal Nemo show that was like Broadway in Orlando.

We ate well and had fun dining too. I had done quite a bit of research and made advanced dinner reservations (a must I quickly learned in my research) for some fun restaurants. We did a bunch of character meals which was fun...to actually have a conversation with some of our favorite friends: Mickey & the gang; Princesses (x2) plus another night with Cinderella, Prince Charming, the stepsisters and stepmother (she was a scary one!). But then other fun dining where we had to scream out loud for ketchup (and other diners would run it on over so we had more ketchup than we'd ever need!) and did the limbo and swept coconuts around the room.

Our hotel, the Polynesian, was cool and provided an ideal location. One of our favorite evenings was watching the Magic Kingdom fireworks from a hammock on the beach.

But as the song goes, "we had some fun and now it's done".....I can't wait to get the photos all organized. It might take me a while since I have to juggle a three different cameras (our broken camera, the disposable camera and my parents' camera plus a few scanned photos.) All to come. The photos will really tell the tales.