Disney 2012: The Truly Magical Kingdom (Part Two)

After a good break, we were ready to go back to the Magic Kingdom.  We spent most of the afternoon in Adventureland, exploring the Swiss Family Treehouse and riding the Jungle Cruise and Aladdin's Magic Carpets (watch out for the spitting camels!).





Dole Whip snack - yum!


We got a quick dinner at Columbia Harbor House and found spots for the Main Street Electrical Parade.  The parade is one of my (and my mom's) favorite memories from my first trip to WDW when I was a kid, so we were glad to see it again.

Cinderella


Captain Hook!  (One of the kids' favorite shows right now is "Jake & the Neverland Pirates", and Captain Hook is one of the characters - they were excited.)


The Castle was so beautiful with the Christmas lights.


Hoping to beat the crowds before the fireworks ended and the park closed, we started making our way out of the park.  It was still a madhouse - we were at a standstill for quite awhile.  Eventually the cast members got the crowds moving and we were able to weave our way through some of the stores on Main Street past the main crowd.  We took the boat back to the hotel which turned out to be a good decision - we had a terrific view of the fireworks show as we were leaving.  Perfect end to a great day!

Disney 2012: The Truly Magical Kingdom (Part One)

November 13th - Magic Kingdom day!



We got up early, gave the kids a snack, and took the boat over to the MK for our 8 am breakfast reservation at Crystal Palace.  When I made reservations at the 180 day mark, my grand plan was to grab one of the first reservations so that we could be done with breakfast by the time the park opened at 9 and be the first ones into the Fantasyland area.  I did get one of the first reservations, but shortly before our trip Disney changed the hours that day to open at 8 am to give annual passholders a chance to see the New Fantasyland.  I was a little frustrated, but it turned out to not be a big deal at all.  The crowds ended up being lower than anticipated, and we were still able to beat the crowds since we were let in a little early for our reservation.





The Crystal Palace was fantastic - we all enjoyed the yummy breakfast, but the interactions with the characters were absolutely priceless.

Waiting to get in, autograph book ready!


The first character up was Pooh.  Claire was thrilled, and Will was still a little unsure but enjoyed the attention.


Next was Eeyore - at this point, Will felt comfortable enough to get out of his chair for a hug.


And then came Piglet - and the moment Will fell in love with the characters.


It was the neverending hug - I thought we were going to have to pry him off.  I was just melting from the cuteness, and at that moment, all of the hours spent planning were totally worth it.

The final character at breakfast was Tigger, and he was so fun.  As he was signing our book, the music for the character parade around the restaurant was starting.  Kids were welcome to join in, and Tigger took Claire's hand and let her lead the parade with him.  She was so happy and proud, and we were all thrilled for her.





We were done by around 9 and were still able to beat most of the crowds to the rides on our list.  On our way we saw Peter Pan.  We were too late to get in line for an autograph and a photo, but he saw how excited Claire was and gave her a hug before he left.  Claire was then ready for the Peter Pan ride - she liked it, but Will thought it was a little scary (dark).


So, next up was an easy one with no wait - It's a Small World.


First of what ended up being 4 rides on the carousel - anytime we were nearby, Will would say "I want to go ride a horse!"


The Mad Tea Party


Dumbo!


Tomorrowland Indy Speedway - Claire loved it, but Will was really upset that he was too little to drive


Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin




Tomorrowland People Mover


We had lunch at Casey's Corner (hot dogs, corn dog bites & french fries) before our afternoon rest time.  Naps went much better that day!

Disney 2012: Day 1

November 12th - Our first day at the parks!  We got up early, ate breakfast in our rooms, and took the bus to Epcot.  We got there about 20 minutes after the park opened, and after making a quick stop in the photo shop to get my PhotoPass card, we were ready to get started!



We walked over to The Land Pavilion with the plan of getting Fast Passes for Soarin', but the return times were during the time we planned to take our afternoon break.  It was one of the few things on my list that we weren't able to do, but it just didn't work out.

Our first ride was Living with the Land, a boat ride about agriculture that takes you through Disney's greenhouses - it's more interesting that it sounds.  :)

First ride!


We all enjoyed it, and it was an easy ride to start off the kids.  Next was The Seas with Nemo & Friends - the posted wait time was a little long, but we weren't sure if we would make it back to that area so we got in line.  Fortunately it moved quickly and we were on in about 20 minutes.  We had time for Turtle Talk with Crush, a really cute interactive film featuring the turtle from Finding Nemo.  It starts out as a movie, but then the on-screen Crush starts interacting with the kids in the audience - asking and answering questions.

We made our way to Norway in the International Showcase for our lunch reservation at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall.  The food was really good, but the best part was interacting with several of the princesses.  We met Belle (Beauty & the Beast), Ariel (The Little Mermaid), Mary Poppins, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and Snow White.  Will was still a little tired from no nap the day before and the excitement of the trip, so he wasn't sure about meeting any strangers, but Claire was into it from the beginning.  She would sit on the edge of her chair in anticipation anytime a character would get near the table and quickly get her autograph book ready.  I realized after we left the restaurant that I had accidentally turned off the auto focus on my lens, so the pictures are a little blurry, but you can see how happy she was!











After lunch we had time to ride Maelstrom, another boat ride (that was a little scary - trolls!), before it became obvious that it was time to go back for a nap.  Will crashed in the stroller before we were even out of the park.


After shorter than usual naps, we decided the best course of action would be to take it easy that night and get to bed early before our big day at the Magic Kingdom.  Our hotel had a boat that went directly to the Contemporary Resort.

Arriving at the resort


Checking out the boats on the dock


We rode the monorail's resort loop, grabbed some dinner at the Contemporary, and turned in early for Day 2.  It was a good day - we figured out some of the logistics of visiting the parks, got the kids used to the crowds and the lines, and were able to ease into the trip.

Disney 2012: Getting There

November 11 - Will's 2nd birthday, Granddaddy's birthday, and the day we left on our vacation!

For weeks, Claire and Will had been excited about getting to ride on an airplane.  It was Will's first plane ride, and Claire's in over 3 years (so she has no memories of her last trip).

Watching the planes


Ready to go!


Checking out the plane brochures, wearing one of the Mickey Mouse shirts I made for her the night before we left


As we got ready to take off, Claire giggling uncontrollably and just kept saying "I'm so happy!"  My dad said that seeing how thrilled she was just to be on the plane was worth the trip.

We were able to fly directly from San Antonio to Orlando.  The flight was during the kids' regular nap time, and I had high hopes that they would sleep on the plane, but they were just too excited to sleep.  They did well on the flight - the portable DVD player that we brought definitely helped.  We had a little turbulence which made Will a little nervous, but Robert was able to reassure him.  Since then, when Will sees a plane or talks about the trip, he says something about the plane being bumpy, but that it's okay.  :)

Once we arrived in Orlando, we got our luggage and made our way to the Magical Express, Disney's shuttle service.  It took awhile to gather everything up and get to our bus, but it went smoothly.  We were all hungry by the time we arrived at our hotel, Wilderness Lodge, so Robert took care of the luggage, while the rest of us went to get something to eat.  The quick service restaurant in our hotel, Roaring Fork, was the only thing we didn't really like about our hotel.  The dining area was too small for a hotel this size - at peak times, it was super crowded and hard to get a table.  The food was pretty mediocre, and you had to stand in separate line for hot meals and cold meals (salads, sandwiches, etc.), so it was kind of a hassle, but we were able to get everyone fed and up to bed without too many meltdowns.  I was glad that we were able to get a decent night's sleep before our first day at the parks.

Disney 2012: Planning the Trip

We went to Disney World!  It was a great trip - lots of work, but totally worth it.  There is so much I learned, and I wanted to blog about it so I can remember for future trips - and to have a quick reference for friends who might be interested.

Ever since Claire was itty bitty, we had been talking about taking her to Walt Disney World before she started school.  This past spring the topic of Disney came up one day at Little Gym, and I found out that a couple of moms took their families every year and had lots of advice.  One of the things I was surprised to learn was that they all recommended making reservations at least 6 months in advance - the restaurants/character meals open for reservations at the 180 day mark, and some book up quickly.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love to research - I was excited to have a new project.  I started checking out Disney travel guides from the library to start learning the basics and figure out which guide I liked the best before I paid for one.  After spending lots of hours looking at crowd calendars and reading hotel reviews, I narrowed down our hotel choices to the Contemporary, the Polynesian, or Wilderness Lodge.  About 7 1/2 months out, the less expensive rooms at the Contemporary & the Polynesian booked up - that made the decision for me!  I booked rooms at the Wilderness Lodge, and got online 180 days before our stay to make reservations for character meals (more on those later).  It was surprising how quickly the spots went, but I was happy with what we got.


Some of the best resources I found:

• My favorite travel book by far was "The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World".  Lots of detailed reviews of everything.  They also rate each ride by age group and note anything that might be frightening for kids, which is so helpful when traveling with young ones.
• The "Unofficial Guide" has a companion site, touringplans.com, that is available by subscription, and it is totally worth the extra few dollars.  The site has suggested itineraries, detailed crowd calendars that use historical data to predict overall levels and levels by park and an extremely useful message board in addition to containing reviews of all the restaurants, menus, hotel information, etc.  It is perfect for a data junkie like me.  It was important to us to go during low season and at a time that it wouldn't be really hot, so we it helped us decide to go the week before Thanksgiving - one of the times that usually have the lowest crowds all year.
• Mousesavers.com has tons of money saving information, including information on typical discounts offered by Disney (dates they were good for, dates the discounts were released, etc.).  Once the bulk of the planning done, I kept an eye out for any additional discounts.  A couple of months after I made our reservations I was excited to find that Disney released an offer of free dining during the dates of our stay.  I called and got our reservation changed over, and we were able to each have a table service meal, a counter service meal, and a snack every day of our stay for free - big savings!  Mousesavers also has an "ultimate packing list" that you can download, and I customized their huge list for our trip. 
• Gardengrocer.com is a grocery delivery service that has great service and reasonable prices.  I placed an order with them a week before we left, and they delivered everything to our hotel before we arrived.  Bell services kept the cold stuff refrigerated and delivered it to our room after we checked in.   I got a case of water, diapers, milk, yogurt, apple slices, cereal, snacks, disposable bowls & spoons, and a few other things - we were able to eat breakfast in our rooms a few days and have foods the kids were used to, which was really nice.  Would definitely use them again.
• Disney PhotoPass - If you think you might want to purchase some of the photos taken by the park photographers, preordering their PhotoPass service is the way to go.  We were eating at a few restaurants that offered photos with a character for sale, and they were all included on the PhotoPass Plus.  I also thought that getting a pass ahead of time would help me make sure I got some photos of the entire family, and that I would be in more than a few since I'm usually behind the camera.  I did the preorder, and they sent a voucher that I exchanged on the first day for a card.  Anytime we took a photo through Disney, they would scan the card, and then after our trip I was able to download all of the pictures.  It's not cheap, but definitely worth it if you think you will use it.
• Strollers - We ultimately decided on taking two single strollers rather than our double.  We checked our bigger stroller and used the smaller one at the airport.  The first day we just took our bigger stroller to see how we did with just one, and we never needed the other one.  We came back to the hotel after lunch for naps every day, and with that break, Claire was fine walking.  She rode a few times when it was crowded or when we were in a hurry (or when Will just wanted to be carried), but I think she would've been fine walking the entire time.  Disney has strollers for rent, but a lot of people rent from outside companies - they have really nice single and double strollers available, and they are a lot cheaper than Disney.
• One of the suggestions frequently mentioned on the message board for an inexpensive and fun souvenir is taking change for the penny press machines.  I got a little tube on mini M&Ms and stacked quarters and pennies inside (each pressed penny is 51 cents, so I alternated 2 quarters and a penny).  Claire and Will both loved using the machines and picking their designs, and we got them a little book to hold their pennies.  It was really fun, and every night they liked going through the book and looking at their pennies.

There is so much more info out there, but these were some of the things that worked out well for us.

2012 Christmas Lists

We've had several people ask us about Christmas lists for the kids, so here are some suggestions.  We are so blessed to have so many people think of us during the holidays!  If there is something specific you would like to get for them, just let me know and I can cross it off of the list.

Claire:
Little Mommy Doctor Mommy doll
Fisher Price Medical Kit
Soccer goals (something like this or this)
Toy cash register
Silver glitter Toms
Headbands
Gift cards to Gap/Old Navy, Janie & Jack, or Children's Place for clothes

Will:
Little Tikes Easy Score Basketball set
Skip Hop monkey backpack
Toy Story Buzz Lightyear talking figure
Toy Story Woody talking figure
Imaginext Toy Story walking Rex
Plastic animal figures
Wooden trains to go with his Thomas the Train set (he has Thomas, Percy, Flynn, & the caboose)
Gift cards to Stride Rite or Nordstrom for shoes

Would be great for both of them:
DVDs - Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Cars 2, Ratatouille, Secret of the Wings (with Tinkerbell)
Lincoln Logs
Lego Duplo sets (Target has some "Cars" themed ones that look fun, but they would like any of them)
Membership to the McKenna Children's Museum
Membership to the San Antonio Zoo
Ten visit pass to Morgan's Wonderland

Glamour Girl

Claire had another "first" recently - her first time to wear makeup.  One of her friends from school had a birthday party at a local kids' salon that included dressing up, a hair style, makeup, a visit from a "princess", a fashion show, and a dance party.  I was planning on having her pass on the makeup, but she was so excited that I couldn't say no.  She had such fun picking out colors and loved dancing around with her friends.

For the fashion show, one of the hosts asked each girl her name, age, and what she wanted to be when she grows up.  They shared this info during the little show, and Claire said she wanted to be a mommy.  :)  A couple of flashes went off when I took her picture with my phone, so it is way overexposed, but I still love how you can see her huge smile.  It was fun to watch my shy girl enjoy the spotlight.

Dance party!

The salon has a few special car chairs for little kids to sit in during haircuts (Will likes the Lightning McQueen chair, and Claire usually chooses the jeep).  Before we left, C and one of her friends climbed in a car and pretended to go for a ride.  I wasn't so sure how I felt about this little flash forward!

Halloween 2012

Halloween just gets more fun every year.

This year both kids had some input into their costumes.  For Will, I narrowed it down to a monkey or a lion, and he picked monkey - "I be monkey for Hal-ween!  Oooh oooh ahhh ahhh!!!"  Claire and I looked at costumes in a few different stores, and we agreed on a butterfly costume for Gymboree - except that she didn't want the wings.  We decided that she would be a "butterfly fairy", complete with wand and antenna headband.

The kids' school held their annual Halloween parade the morning of the 31st.  Although it wasn't on a day the kids normally attend school, we were able to bring them just for the parade so they could participate.  They started with the older kids first.  Claire was smiling her trademark big smile as she came out - she was so excited!


C with 3 of her buddies from her class.


Will wasn't as sure about all of these strange people watching him.


Will spotted me after his first circle around the parking lot and wasn't sure if he wanted to continue.  I asked him if he wanted to walk with Claire, and he decided that was okay.  Claire was so proud to lead him around - such a good big sister!




That afternoon Claire was too excited to take a nap, which was disappointing since I wanted her to be able to stay up a little later than usual.  We had an errand to run, and she promptly fell asleep in the car.  I put on a movie for Will and drove around for awhile so she could sleep - it was just what she needed to be ready for her big night!





After a few pictures, we took off in the wagon.  Our neighborhood does a pizza party in one of the cul de sac's before trick or treating starts, and we ran into our next door neighbors who have kids about a year older than ours.  We were able to trick or treat with them which made it even more fun - Claire loved running around with Ellie, and we enjoyed catching up with our neighbors.



We went to several houses, and they did such a good job politely accepting their candy.  We went back to our house when it started getting dark and let the kids enjoy a little of their haul.



Claire had just as much fun passing out candy as she did getting her own.  When the first group came, she showed us that she does listen to us sometimes when she told the kids "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit!"  Robert and I nearly lost it - so funny!  We told her that she didn't have to share that advice with any other kids.  At one point, she thought our bowl was getting a little low and dumped some of the candy from her bag into the bowl.  We loved that she was so happy to give candy away.



Happy kids and happy parents - it was a successful night!

Guts and Glory

Anthony Bourdain is a chef/author/tv personality that I enjoy, and his tour "Guts & Glory" stopped in San Antonio a couple of weeks ago.  Even though I knew we would be busy getting ready for our vacation, I didn't want to miss a chance to see him live.  My favorite part was the Q&A - he definitely has an opinion about everything, and I felt like he was more "real" when his remarks weren't as prepared.  He is entertaining, but we could've done with less cursing - it was a lot, y'all!  We did have a good time and enjoyed a night out together among the San Antonio hipster crowd.  :)

An article from our local newspaper's blog about the show is here.