By 8:30 am, Brenna had already eaten breakfast and was down for the count.
I knew she was tired, because this girl never voluntarily rests!
But they, once again, did really well. Only minor arguments over which movie to watch and minor melt downs over little things.....all chalked up to being stuck in the car for so long.
Josh said he had decided that we would just sell the car and all fly home...... And I was pretty much on board with his idea. The thought of doing this trip again on the way home made me nauseous.
But ALAS!!!! We finally saw this sight a little after 2:30!
Oh the squeals and giggles from the back seat were worth every long hour spent in that car!!! I was still in awe that we were able to do this for our girls. A once in a life time trip that we had been dreaming of and planning for so very long. It was finally here!!
I expected to be able to look around and SEE the different Disney parks as we were driving in. But that was not the case at all. I had no idea that it was so spread out. I guess I had it pictured to be similar to driving down I30 past Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor and being able to see them on either side of the road. NOPE! We couldn't even catch a glimpse of a ride. It was crazy....and a little disappointing to be honest. I had been in that car for 2 days, and now I was IN Disney World with no sign of DISNEY in sight......
We went straight to our hotel room to get checked in and unloaded. We stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside. It was a really nice resort, and we were very pleased. I'm sure there were fancier resorts with bigger rooms that we could have stayed at....but let's face it- all we needed was a place to shower and crash. That's about all we did there! I would have been happy with an air conditioned room at the Motel 6 with a shower! ha! (I soon discovered that air conditioning, a shower, and a bed were the only things important to you after a day at Disney)
The one thing that I wasn't crazy about is how far we had to haul our stuff to get to our room. The resort is spread out (which is nice), but there aren't cart's sitting around to load your stuff on and get it to your room once you drive over to where your room is. So we had to carry it all back and forth. No- it wasn't super far, but it was far enough to be a slight pain. But I am pretty sure that this view by our room made up for it!
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| So beautiful and peaceful! |
The good part of the resort being so spread out is that you really never saw "crowds" there. You saw people, but you were never shoulder to shoulder to someone. And you could get to and from your room easily. I never felt like we were at a crowded hotel with lines. That part was great! Because after a day of standing in lines at Disney...crowds were the last thing you wanted to see at your resort!
As soon as we got some stuff settled, we put on our tennis shoes and mouse ears and headed over to catch the shuttle!!
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| Let's do this!!!! |
We decided to do Epcot on the first half day since we weren't sure there was much there to keep the kids interest for a whole day. Josh gets all of the credit for planning this trip for us. He spent countless hours on the computer researching the best ways to do Disney and get the most out of it. He also worked with a Disney planner that helped him plan our whole trip. I STRONGLY suggest this!!! We felt pretty prepared going into this trip thinking that we had it all mapped out and knew what to do. Oh my were we wrong! It took us that first day and part of the next day to figure it all out....where to eat, what our dining plan covered, how to find places to eat (can you tell that was our biggest issue that first day??), how to work our fast passes, and basically just how to navigate! I can't even imagine how lost we would have been without all of the research we had done and all of the planning Josh had done with the help of our trip adviser. I expected it to be like Six Flags....(I know- I keep comparing it to Six Flags...but in my defense that's really the only theme park experience I had)--where you go in, get a map, and then just move around the park and run back and forth as needed. HA! OOPS! Not at Disney! One does not simply "run back and forth" at Disney World! It's so much bigger and more spread out than you realize.
So- back to Epcot!
The girls got excited to see the big ball as soon as we got inside!
Our first-of many-selfies!
We headed straight over to the new Frozen ride because we had it fast passed. It opened that very day and we had a fast pass to ride it! But since we were running a little behind, we hurried to find it and get to it. But once we walked up, we quickly found out that the new ride was shut down. WHAT?? Wouldn't you think that the newest ride with the most hype at Disney World would have been tested and fool proof before it's grand opening in the middle of their busiest season??! Guess not.
They told us to not trade in our fast pass, but to keep it and if the ride re-opened that day then they would honor our fast passes. So we crossed our fingers and walked around "Norway".
We just happened to stumble upon none other than Princess Elsa and Princess Anna!!!! So we got in line to meet them! We had two very happy little girls on our hands! We only had to wait about 30 minutes, which I didn't think was too bad considering that it was ELSA AND ANNA! That's like every little girl's dream is to meet Elsa and Anna! The girls complained a few times about being hot and sweating. So I started praying a lot. I knew we were in for a very long few days if they were ALREADY hot! But in keeping it real...I was praying for me as well, because I was already hot too!
But our waiting paid off! We finally got inside (where the air conditioning was!) and our princesses got to meet 2 of their favorite princesses.
Anna was first!
I absolutely loved how the characters took TIME with each child/family. I had it in my head that we would see them somewhere and get a quick autograph and snap shot and that would be it. But all of the characters took time to talk to the girls, hug them, ask questions, and make them feel so special. Macie was a little leery at first and stand off-ish. But it didn't take her long to warm up and be all over it!
Elsa was next, and she was just as beautiful as you would imagine!
I LOVED that this was their first experience with a princess. It was absolutely perfect.
We did several things that day, and rode as many rides as we could.
Ariel was a fun one!
Brenna and Josh rode 90% of the two person rides as partners because...MACIE CLAIRE! Oh that girl. She is such a Mama's girl. I am her comfort zone. And while I do LOVE how much Macie needs/wants me, I feel bad for Brenna. I don't ever want her to feel left out because I ride with Macie. It has nothing to do with picking one child over the other. It just has to do with avoiding the epic Macie Melt Down. Luckily I was blessed with a very understanding and sweet 9 year old who just goes with the flow and is happy to get to ride! My children balance each other out so well.
Supper was a slight fiasco. We decided to eat at peak supper time, therefore everything we saw was packed. And we didn't have formal reservations for this night since we didn't know what we would be doing or how the day would go. Most of the quick service places didn't have anywhere to sit either, and we were HOT and just needed a place to sit with a big ole glass of water. So we finally settled on the only place we saw that had a seating area. But we were new to the whole meal plan thing and didn't know how to order or what came with what.... So we were confused and frustrated. The guy taking our order wasn't super helpful either, so that made it a little worse. I think Josh and I were both worried the rest of the week would be just like this. Luckily that night, we researched our meal plan and what we could and could not order and were more knowledgeable the next day. Our servers were also much more helpful for the remainder of our trip! Crisis avoided!
Later that night we decided to ride the new Soarin' ride. Mary Ly had told me all about it and raved about how wonderful it was and that they were redoing it. I really didn't know much about it other than it was supposed to be awesome. So we decided to skip the fireworks that night and ride it. I am SO glad we did! It was a 4D ride that took us around the world. I can't even really describe it. It was amazing! And all 4 of us enjoyed it. I think it was my favorite ride of the whole week!
We had about a 30-40 minute wait to ride it, but it was in the AC so- SCORE! We played Heads Up and took some pictures while we waited.
We all loved it!! Even if Macie was hanging on for dear life!
We rode a couple of other things that evening and ended with a ride in the big ball of history. The girls were not impressed, but it was fun to look at the ball and know that we rode the ride INSIDE of it!
We called it a night and were in bed by about 11 or so. All of us were worn out! And we still had 3 more days to go....
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