The Royal Day

Cinderella's Royal Table was nothing short of fabulous.

That was a top priority of mine while visiting Disney.  I've always wanted to go into the castle.  The kids couldn't be at any better age to experience the magic of it.

We didn't really have to wake up that early to get them ready and looking their finest.

Of course, while waiting in line people asked if we woke up at 5am to get their hair done.  I didn't go into the explanation that I'm a stylist and it only took me about 10 minutes to whip the hair out.

Lillian could not have been any more beautiful and proper.  She never really showed outward excitement but her eyes were just sparkling the whole time. Also that she let me take 100 hundred pictures of just her so I knew she was into it.

Josiah was a major attraction the whole time up until he changed.

It was so much fun how many people enjoyed, commented, and were smiling when looking at Tonto from The Lone Ranger.  I think he wanted to change partly because of all the attention he was receiving and also because he was uncomfortable.

Cora loved getting dressed up and being made all prissy.

She was wearing Rapunzel's wedding dress.

She really likes all the princess stuff. However, she does not like getting her picture taken and she was being sooo difficult.  The only really good pictures that we have of her are the ones of her with the princesses.  

Lillian in the castle by the mosaic of Cinderalla's ball.

This explains Cora.

Someone in the castle told Josiah that there had never been another Tonto at the Royal Table and that he was a first!  He was so proud of that and it made him feel really special on a day that was heavy on the girly stuff. 

Once I was officially over trying to take the good pictures Cora lightened up.

She was just sparkling the whole time.

I had to book this breakfast out 180 days in advance.  At 8:30am 180 days out there were only two breakfast time slots available. If you plan on doing this planning ahead is a must!

It was fairly pricey for a breakfast, but worth. every. penny.

The Little Mermaid is my favorite Disney movie.

Jasmine was a family favorite. 

Daddy escorting the Princess down the stairs.

Later in the day we were by Rapunzel's tower and we were able to get Cora to give us a smile there.

A few last shots before he took it off. 

This was one of the only Character meet and greets we did.  When we were there we had to choose between meet and greets or rides.  There just wasn't enough time and energy for us to do both. 

This was actually more fun than I thought  it would be and then it made me wish we had done some more of them.  Especially since we had the photopass.  I think we would have gotten a lot of cute candid photos with the kids and characters... next time.

At epcot we just happened to run into Snow white.  I'm bummed there wasn't a photopass photog there.  In the top picture I was cut off, but it was cute because I had the blue shorts on and her skirt was yellow.  I even teared up when I met Snow white. I was emotionally out of control the whole time!

Josiah with his R2D2 mickey ears.  We took them with us on most days.

Add caption

This princess was tuckered out on the bus ride home.

Beach Babies

As you know by now we stayed at The Beach Club villas.  The room accommodations were perfect for our family and with the full kitchen the stress of eating every meal out was gone.

However, the other resorts have the same amenities except for THE BEACH!

As much as we loved going to the parks we spent an equal amount of time at the resort's fake beach.  It was about 2 acres of pools.  We stayed in the fake sand side where it was complete bliss.  The water wasn't too deep to worry, it was warm, and there were lots of lifeguards. The most unfortunate part was we usually got out there a little too late after finishing the parks and didn't have lots of full sun.  

 This was my view (when my eyes were open ;)

Even though Cora could touch in almost the whole area, she and I had more piece of mind with her swim vest on.  She would freak when I'd try to take it off of her.

Jojo had a good time until he wouldn't let us help with his castle and the camera came out.

                                       

 

 Headed back to the villa for popcorn and root beer!

Epcot. Past and Present Disney.

Finally, I'm able to get a post up here.  

I personally think Epcot is great for kids of all ages. 

 When people say it's too science/learning oriented they either haven't  been there in the past 10 years or they don't like learning.  

We had so much fun and once we realized it was a 3 minute walk from our resort it made me wish we had purchased the park hoppers.

This was definitely a park where we very thankful for having the magic bands.  Some of the rides there are wildly popular.

Grant was awesome taking the stroller pushing duty the whole trip.

However, he still walked too fast for me.

Early morning. The sun was directly in our eyes.

The back entrance to the park was empty. 

Lillian and I building her car in Test Track.  

Her and I waited with Cora until Grant and Josiah went through.  

The line to it was incredible.  When we first walked up it was a 15 min standby wait time.  In the time I waited for Grant it went up to 2hours and the fast pass line sold out.  

The experience leading up to the ride was cooler and funner than the actual ride.  

Ariel's ride.

Grandpa and Grandma met us at Epcot.

 I will post more pictures of them once I get my photopass+ on my computer.

 Cooling off.

 One of Josiah's highlights of the trip.

Club Cool: flavors from around the globe.

Even though most of them weren't that great,

 he loved that he had the opportunity for unlimited refills.

 That's a "real" smile

There were some other highlights from Epcot that I didn't catch a photo of.

Soarin' = awesome

We were in line for at least 45 minutes with our fast pass+.  Can't imagine waiting in the probably 3+ hour line for it.  It was cool though.  You hanglided over the coast of California, complete with wind, drops, and smells. Fun!

Turtle Talk with Crush (from Nemo)

one word: HILARIOUS!

Probably one of my favorite moments.  I was laughing so hard.  I literally had tears rolling down my face.  It was an interactive "talk" with the sea-weed smoking, surfer turtle from Nemo.  One of the people he had a conversation with was from Indiana. That was the icing on the cake. 

 It was cool technology and filled with Adult humor.  

Spaceship Earth aka the big silver golf ball

That was my goal of Epcot. To go into the ball.

We were almost in to it until.... wait. It closed.

They had everyone leave the line so we went and took some pictures and on the way to another ride... it was reopened, with no line!

I've always heard that it was a lame ride.  Not much action, but I LOVED IT. 

I felt like I as experiencing the magic of the original Disney goers.  The animatronics were probably very far out and amazing in their day.  It was a great time to sit and enjoy the vision that Disney had when he started on his theme park adventures.  Then it ended with a wonderful backward decent of star gazing.  I was very sentimental this whole trip and this one for some reason choked me up.  

If you go and ride this one. Go with no expectations. Because you might not be on the same emotional rollercoaster I was on and think it was slow and unmemorable. 

It was yet another successful day.