Waiting on our taxi in the lobby of the Hilton.
We had some excited girls!
We didn't get to drive under the Disney World sign on Friday night because we headed straight to our hotel in Downtown Disney, so we were excited to see it Saturday morning!
I had already done online check-in for all of us, so we just dropped our bags off and headed to the monorail for a late breakfast at Chef Mickey's {10:50am}! We did not like the food last time, but it is a fun character experience for the kids, and I feel like you have to do it at least once, so I wanted the Heys to get to do it. The girls were so, so excited when they spotted some characters out and about as we walked in. We fixed their plates, and then the characters started coming by shortly thereafter.
Becket was excited at first and then tried to flee. Mickey had a firm grip on that hand :) {And I loved these outfits but it drove my crazy that their shirts constantly rolled up.}
SC showing her ears to Minnie
Donald!
Pluto!
Goofy really made them laugh!
Sinclair got SO tickled when Goofy was being silly with the autograph books and pen.
Twirling their napkins.
As soon as we got the stroller, SC jumped in so fast and immediately requested that the seat back be reclined. :) She loved the stroller last time, and I was hoping she would nap just as well in it this time. {But it was not to be- she only napped three times in it. Better than nothing, I suppose.}
I made us a stroller sign again and made one for the Heys as well. John, our resident stroller-getter in the park, highly recommends having a sign. I'm sure I said this last time, but you have to park your stroller in certain spots every time you get on a ride, and when there are a sea of strollers that all look the same despite having a small name tag on the bag, so these big signs make it a lot easier to find your stroller. We rented from Kingdom Strollers again, and I can't recommend them enough!
{I didn't remember to take a picture of it until it had been crushed and rained on a few times.}
SC was not feeling the picture.
Does it surprise anyone that Craig spotted the speed boats for rent and immediately got one? Sinclair loved it!
The Hey's room was ready fairly quickly {I think around noon}, so we got the girls changed into their bathing suits and the dads took them to the pool. I sat around their room hoping ours would be ready soon so I could move our bags over, but unfortunately it wasn't ready until 3:20. I was pretty annoyed even though it really didn't matter. I just couldn't figure out why the Heys was ready 3 hours before ours and no one had been coming or going from what would be our room. Oh well.
The girls had fun swimming, but I could tell SC was getting tired. So I wrapped her up in some warm towels, got myself a beer, and strolled her around the resort while she napped.
Loved seeing Cinderella's castle peeking through in the distance.
We got cleaned up and headed out for the Fort Wilderness Campgrounds for Mickey's Backyard BBQ. This is one of the times we got bad travel info. I expect to sometimes be told the wrong things by Disney people on the phone, but I expect people actually working at the resort to know how to get us where we needed to go. We got wrong directions THREE times! It was beyond frustrating. We could have just taken the monorail or a boat from the GF to MK and then gotten on another boat for the campgrounds, but instead we took the monorail to the TTC where we were told we could catch a bus {wrong} and ended up having to take a cab from there. BUT all was forgotten once we got there.
We had to ride another van to get back to where the dinner was. I thought the campgrounds were beautiful and would love to have looked around some more. Sinclair was excited as soon as she spotted the barn and horses. :)
We got in line to meet Chip and Dale and Goofy before dinner.
Sinclair was a little apprehensive at first but warmed up pretty quickly.
SC was not feeling Chip and Dale, even though she really loves them.
Curran getting autographs.
After pictures, we all lined up to wait to be seated at the restaurant. They just have one dinner seating time, and it's 6:30pm. And they only do the Backyard BBQ certain nights of the week.
Mom, Dad, and Walter were flying in that afternoon, and we spent a lot of time discussing their travel plans. The issue was that their plane got in too late to ensure that they could ride the Magical Express {a free shuttle service provided by Disney and you don't even have to go to baggage claim- they do that for you and deliver your bags straight to your room} to the hotel and still get to dinner on time. We talked about them just taking a taxi, but ultimately decided that the best plan was for them to take the Magical Express straight to Ft. Wilderness for dinner. I worked hard to make that arrangement for them because they don't normally split up the travel like that {their bags would still go straight to the hotel on the express going to the Grand Floridian}. The Disney people on the phone made it clear they were doing me a big favor by arranging this for them. I gave my family instructions ad nauseum to make sure it was all clear. And what did they do? Collected their own bags {instead of letting the shuttle people do it}, took a taxi to the hotel, and were at least 45 minutes late for dinner. And just to clarify, they understood the plan. They just decided to go against it. It was at that moment that I realized I needed to let go of trying to make sure everyone else followed the plans because people were going to do what they wanted to do. :)
Anywho, the girls had a BLAST at dinner, and I thought the food was pretty good. It was an all you can eat buffet of hot dogs, hamburgers, BBQ, mac and cheese, corn on the cob, beans, slaw, etc and dessert. It also included unlimited soft drinks and adult beverages, so for the price I thought it was a pretty good deal. The hamburgers looked gross to me, but I thought everything else was good. It's in an open air pavilion, and we were talking about how we were shocked not to see one single bug the whole time! It's Disney World, so it doesn't really surprise me. :) We had a great time and I would highly recommend this even though it's pricey. It was a fun way to start off our trip!
They had a couple of hosts, and then Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, and Goofy came out and danced. It was cute.
Then all the kids hit the dance floor, and I was so glad ours were not shy about getting out there.
SC loves her a Mickey bar. She had at least one every day. My Disney parenting philosophy goes something like this: give them whatever they want in order to avoid a meltdown. At all costs. Even if it's ice cream for lunch. And then again for a snack.
When my parents and brother FINALLY got there, someone was super excited to see them!
More dancing. Love Sinclair's face.
Then the sweet daddies got out there, mouse ears and all. :)
The finale was cute and patriotic. :)
Mickey and Minnie posed for pictures afterwards, but the line was so long and we were ready to go. We hopped on the boat to MK, and then either took another boat or the monorail back to our hotel {I can't remember}.
There was a brass band that played each night on the mezzanine, and the girls loved watching them play and making requests!
Then we found a nice, breezy spot on the lagoon right outside of our room to watch MK's fireworks.
It was a great way to end our first day, and we were all looking forward to spending the next day at Magic Kingdom!
1 comment:
Love the daddies with their girls!!!
Post a Comment