Disney World Day 5- Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom is our family's favorite park at Disney, so that's were we decided to spend our last day. As we entered the park, people were lining the streets marking their spots for a parade. 

Mickey's Once Upon A Christmastime Parade was starting soon. For the first time on our vacation, we were going to have font row seats. So we sat down to wait for the parade to begin. It was a great way to end our magical trip. The Characters were giving the kids high fives and waving to them, they felt very special. 

 

Kieron had finally decided that the characters weren't so bad. He was dancing and screaming every time he say a character. 

The rest of the day we spent just taking our time and enjoying everything magical about Disney. We road some of the favorite rides. Spent the last of the kids gift cards that their uncles gave them. Ate way too much food and then called it a day.

We had an amazing Christmas vacation with family, that will never be forgotten. It was great to get away for our crazy life in Idaho and enjoy our family. Now that we're back the kids want to know when we are going back. Every day Xander asks if we are going to the castle. 

Disney World Day 4 - Hollywood Studios

On our 4th day in Florida we visited Hollywood Studios. It was the coldest day we had there, a low of 55. I know that's not bad for December, but the rest of the week was in the 70's. We were a little spoiled. Enough about the wonderful weather, back to Disney World. We start the morning off with some Disney Jr characters at Hollywood & Vine. There we met June from Little Einsteins, Handle Manny, Special Agent OSO, and Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. This meal was planned for Xander. He loves Mickey, Donald and even the princesses, however he loves, no he's obsessed with Jake and the Neverland Pirates. He even had to wear his Jake shirt, so he could show it to Jake. The boy was nothing but smiles the whole breakfast.

After breakfast we watched Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show. Sam and the boys' mouths were open from the car chase to the cars flying through fire. They loved everything about the show. There was even a guest appearance from Lighting McQueen.

Hollywood Studios is all about the shows. There is always something going on whether its street performers or a shorten version of the Little Mermaid. It would be very hard to see every show in a day, so we saw ones that the kids would love. One of the events had a lot of popular Disney Channel songs sang in a live performance. The girls were singing to every song and even got to dance with the singers.

One of the many parades.

Character Spottings 

The Incredibles - Wreck-It Ralph - Monsters Inc.

One of the main things that I was sooo excited about was The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights with millions of glittering lights perfectly synchronized to holiday music. It was amazing, the video below doesn't do it justice. 

After this amazing light show we attempted dinner and this is how it went.

So we got our desserts to go and headed back to the resort.

Disney World Day 3 - Magic Kingdom

We started our morning with breakfast at Crystal Palace. There we were visited by Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet. I'm not sure if we ate there for the kids or for Sam and I. Xander hasn't even see a Winnie the Pooh show. So, yes it was for Sam and I.

The park was pretty calm that morning, compared to the day before, I'm sure. We were able to knock out a lot of must see, according to the kids. Within a few hours we had ridden Splash Mountain, Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride, seen Tinkerbell, Periwinkle, Tiana, Jesse, and Woody. And of course Xander's must do ride, the train all around the park. 

 

 Character Spottings

I love Disney's Magical Moments. The girls weren't sure about the poses the photographers wanted them to do. Now that they see the pictures, they are so happy that they listened. Janika and Kylie love these pictures.

Storytime With Belle

Storytime With Belle has been added since we last visited. Disney has created an amazing interactive experience with Belle. They take a group of  about 30 into Belle's home that has a magic mirror that took us back to the time Belle and the Beast first met. We walked through the mirror and we were in the castle. There the kids in the group and a few adults were given characters and help Belle tell the story. Sam was a Suit of Armor, Xander silverware, Janika Miss Potts, and Kylie was the Beast. Kylie was not happy about this at all. She wanted to be a girl character. The cast promised her it would be worth it and it was. Kylie got to be part of the whole play and at the end she danced with Belle. If you ask her now what her favorite part of Disney World was, she would say being the Beast and dancing with Belle. 

Once again my favorite part. I loved the reflection of the amazing castle in the water.

 Dinner was a luau at Spirit of Aloha. There we enjoyed Polynesian food and dancing. The kids were in awe the whole time. Kieron was dancing to the drums the whole time. The dancing made me have flash backs to growing up and watching the Tongan families in our church perform their traditional dances. The favorite dance was the fire dance, all I can say is WOW!

Disney World Day 2 - Epcot

 Christmas morning was nice and relaxing, the kids sleep till 10, which never happens. I think we wore them out the day before. Santa did make a stop at our hotel and left costumes,

Janika - Tiana    Kylie - Ariel    Xander - Woody   Kieron - Buzz 

After taking our time getting ready we headed out to Epcot. You might be thinking why Epcot and not Magic Kingdom the most magical park in Disney World. Trust me that's were I would have been. But before we left, we heard that Magic Kingdom was so packed on Christmas day they close the gates and don't let anymore in, so crazy busy. On the way to Epcot we past the MK entrance and sure enough it was closed and it was only noon.

In Epcot we visit many countries and enjoyed each one. We loved France mainly because of the food. Their desserts were AMAZING! In our tour of the countries we did't run into very many characters, however we did find Mary Poppins.

Christmas dinner was very magical for the girls. They ate dinner with the princesses at Akershus Royal Banquet. Once again the food was wonderful, but the atmostsphere and seeing the girls faces with each princess was the best. Dinning with the characters is the way to go, no lines. they come to you.

Epcot is diffidently not the place for rides, they have very few. Though the ones they do have are pretty good. My favorite is Soarin', you hang-glide through parts of the country. Some of the other rides/attractions that we went on were Test Track, The Seas with Nemo & Friends, Turtle Talk with Crush, and the Land.

 

Every night at Epcot they have a fireworks show called IllumiNations. It's done over the lagoon of the World Showcase, and its amazing. It had everyone in awe, even Kieron.

Disney World Day 1- Magic Kingdom

Our 1st full day at Disney World was Christmas Eve and we spent the day at Magic Kingdom. We started our day with breakfast at Chef Mickey's. There we had a excellent meal with visits from Mickey Mouse and all his friends. Xander was sooo excited to see some characters, I think that's what made it real for him. Kieron on the other hand didn't care for them at all. As you can see in the pictures he wasn't to sure about the whole thing. 

On Main street we enjoyed the magic of Disney and found a little friend, Tinkerbell.

Character Spottings 

Disney added a new Princess this year and we got to meet her. Merida from the new movie Brave. She had the same spunky personality in person as she did in the movie. The girls loved her, but Xander was  crushing on her. All he talked about was Merida that day. After meeting Merida the kids were able to shoot a bow like Merida.

We also were able to find a few more characters a round the park. 

Buzz Lightyear, Ariel, Minny, Daisy, Goofy, & Donald.

Prince Eric's Castle was added as part of the New Fantasyland. Disney also added the Beast castle.

Rides

Space Mountain, Prince Charming's Carousel, Little Mermaid, and Winnie the Pooh,   

At Be Our Guest in the Beast castle we had and amazing Christmas Eve dinner.

Guess Where We Went.

For the past month the kids have been excited about going to Arizona for Christmas. They had been counting down the days till we would go on the "Big Big Plane", as Xander would say. Finally the day came and our bags were pack. After unloading the bags from the van we pulled the kids to the side and told them that we weren't going to Arizona, we were going to......................

DISNEY WORLD for Christmas.

 After along day of flying we finally made it to Florida. We stayed at the Port Orleans Resort on the Disney grounds. The resort's theme was of course Orleans but also had lots of thing from Princess and the Frog. The Girls loved it. After checking in we asked the kids if they were ready for bed. Can you guess what their answer was.....NO. We knew that was going to be the answer.

We headed to our favorite park, Magic Kingdom, to meet up with Sam's brothers and mom. We arrived there just in time to watch Cinderella's castle light up.

Amazing!!!

We also enjoyed a few rides before calling it a night at 1 am.

Mad Tea Party (Teacups)

 Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin