Disney 2016- Day 4

Once again, that alarm came early. But it was our last day at Disney, and we had gotten in a little bit of relaxation the evening before, so we got up and moving with less resistance than the previous morning.
SIDE NOTE: Many people told us to go to Disney early, then go back to the room during the middle of the day (aka: heat of the day) and rest, and then go back and stay late for the extended hours each park offers for guests staying at their resorts. But when you get to Disney, you feel this need to go as fast and hard as possible so that you can see as much as you can. It was hard for me to stop in the middle of the day and say "let's trek back to the hotel (a 30 minute process) and then trek back to the park later." That felt like such a waste of valuable time in my mind. So we didn't do that. Looking back, I wish we had. I think it would have made the trip much more enjoyable for all of us. We wouldn't have felt as worn out at the end of each day. Oh to know then what we know now.....
Back to our last day. We decided to go back for a second day at the Magic Kingdom. When we were planning the trip, we really felt that there would be more that the kids would enjoy and want to see at Magic Kingdom, and we were correct. There were several rides that we didn't have time for the first day there, so we had our list of things to do and see for day 2.
As we walked into the park, we noticed an airplane writing in the sky...

How cool is that?? I loved it, and the kids thought it was super neat that a plane can write things in the sky.
The first character we stumbled upon was Mary Poppins. We had seen her the first day, but she was leaving just as we were walking in. So this time we were quick to get in line so that we didn't miss out again!

The girls were excited to see her, but not nearly as excited as their Mama was! It took a lot of restraint for me not to have MY picture made with her! Because... MARY POPPINS y'all!!! I grew up on this movie. I can still quote most of the words, and I know I can still sing all of the songs! (ok- maybe "sing" is a long stretch. I know all of the words though!) But in an effort to not embarrass my husband to no end, I did not have my picture made with her.
We rode several things this day. But here are some of the highlights of what we did...

Macie loved getting to drive me around the track. I got a glimpse into the future, and let's just say that if her driving skills don't improve in the next 10 years..... she WON'T be getting her license at 16.

This is the best picture I got of Brenna driving her Daddy. From what I heard, her driving skills were no better than her sisters.

SPACE MOUNTAIN! Macie was thrilled that she was tall enough for this ride!
It broke my little dare devil's heart when she wasn't tall enough for something. Luckily she was tall enough for almost everything at Disney!

For lunch we ate at Belle's castle. It was such a neat place! At dinner, it is a formal dining experience. But at lunch it's considered quick service. The kids were not impressed with the food at all, but Josh and I liked it. And it was inside and air conditioned! God Bless the inventors of air conditioning.

That afternoon, Brenna and I decided that you just can NOT go to Disney World without eating a Mickey ice cream! So even though we were not hungry at all, we managed to work our way through one of these sweet treats. Notice how I am leaning forward?  It's not the latest craze at Disney...I was trying to keep my rapidly melting ice cream off of my shirt! 

Ariel! We had seen Ariel the princess, but had not yet seen Ariel the mermaid. Ariel was Macie's #1 person that she wanted to see. I was so glad that she got to have her picture made with her.

After a day packed with treats, souvenir shopping, rides, and more characters, we decided we had seen all we needed to. We had ridden everything the girls wanted to ride at Magic Kingdom, we were hot, and our feet ached from the last 4 days. So we all took a vote and decided to make dinner reservations in our hotel restaurant, and do some swimming one last time.

We realized we still had several snack vouchers on our meal plan, so while Josh took Macie to go get an ice cream cone, Brenna and I hit up Starbucks! She was so proud of her Grande Vanilla Bean! 

Then we headed to the hotel to put on our suits and chill by the pool for a bit. When we got to our room, we found that the housekeepers had had some fun with our animals, blankets and dolls once again! The girls were THRILLED!

These guys greeted us at the window!

Blankey bows!

And Lindsey (Macie's beloved doll) was chilling on their bed, wearing Minnie Mouse ears and holding the remote!
The girls posed with her to show the light show on the head board. They loved to turn on the lights at night and watch the firework show. It totally fascinated them.

After we swam and chilled by the pool for a while, we got dressed and went to dinner at about 7. The food was good, but the best part was that the girls decided to try cornbread!

Josh and I told them that cornbread is Pops' favorite food, so they decided to try it... And they LOVED it! They both insisted that we send Pops a picture of them eating cornbread.
While at dinner, Josh asked the girls if there was ANYTHING AT ALL that we hadn't done that they would be sad about not doing before we left. Macie shared her Mama's need for some sleep and was good with just going back to the room and going to bed. Girlfriend was TIRED. I felt her pain. But Brenna was giving Josh's question some serious thought. And eventually she said "We didn't ride the Rockin Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios." And her Daddy said "Ok. Let's go back and do that." I was pretty sure I heard my feet cry out loud. Josh told Macie and I that we could go to the room and go to bed while they went. But I've never been one to want to be left out of the fun- no matter how tired I am! And after some convincing, Macie was all in for a trip back to Hollywood studios at 9pm.
So after dinner, we were off! Josh and Brenna headed over to ride Rockin Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror, and Macie and I headed over to see the Muppets 3D adventure since she wasn't tall enough for the Rocking Roller Coaster. The show was cute, and we had the theater almost completely all to ourselves!

After this show, Josh and Brenna were heading to the Tower of Terror, so I convinced Macie to go to the Great Movie Ride with me. Epic Fail. The line didn't look long, but it took FOREVER. And once we were in, we were kind of committed. Josh and Brenna finished way before us, and I kept thinking "surely this won't take much longer". But after about a 30 minute wait, we got on the ride. And while I enjoyed the "ride" (it was more of a tour than a ride), Macie did not. It was about the history of movies and followed chronological timing of movies and how they were made. And the "tour" took about 15 minutes- which was a long time for a very bored and tired 6 year old at 10 pm. But we finally made it out. Alive. And with minimal whining.
When we met up with Josh and Brenna, they insisted that I go ride the two rides they just finished. Brenna declared them the best rides she had ever ridden and was very eager to get to ride them again with me! So Josh took Macie and they went off to ride Toy Story again while B and I tackled Rockin Roller Coaster! And I will admit, the rides were fun! Rockin Roller Coaster was the better of the two in my opinion, just because I am not a fan of free falling, and that is what Tower of Terror does at the end. However they were both fun. I think I enjoyed them the most because of how excited Brenna was about it. I love watching my kiddos have fun and enjoy themselves. It makes my heart happy.
Eventually, it was time to head out. The park closed at 11, and we had closed it down!

This is where I need to re-emphasize that I should have taken everyone's suggestions to go back to the room and rest in the middle/heat of the day and go back to the late hours at the park when it is only open to Disney resort guests. It wasn't crowded at all! The two roller coasters that we rode would have been super long and hot waits during the day, but we waited 15-20 minutes for each one and the temperature was comfortable. Unfortunately we didn't do this until the very last night, so we couldn't go back and re-do our trip. But I assure you that if we were to do this trip again, we would take a break and rest in the middle of the day and go back and stay until the park closed. I think some of them were even open until 2am! I highly doubt we would have made it to 2am, but I am sure that the lines were much more reasonable for the popular rides at these times.

We had an absolutely amazing time at Disney world. The trip of a lifetime! Our kids were at just the right ages. Macie appreciated the whole "magical" aspect of it yet was old enough to ride almost all of the rides. Brenna was old enough to appreciate the 4D rides and things of that nature, but was still young enough to enjoy the princesses and characters. Both girls carried their own small backpacks with their hand held fans, a sweat rag, sunshades, a couple snacks (starburst were our lifesaver during the afternoon stretch), and their autograph books. This helped the load in our backpack tremendously. Both of them walked the entire way. We never had to carry them (MACIE), and we never had to rent a stroller and push over 100 pounds of kids all over the crowded park. Such troopers I tell ya! Good, broken in tennis shoes are a must for anyone at Disney!!

Other tips for anyone planning a Disney trip?? Well- first of all- know that I am no expert! But there were a few things that made the days a little easier. Josh (the REAL planner in our family!) printed out several "Disney packing lists" for me to look over and get ideas from. The number one thing I got from those lists? Those people must have taken a U-Haul to get all that stuff there!! gesh. I am an over-packer, but some of those lists were extreme.
Here are a few things that I think made our trip a little easier....
Water bottles- We have two large HydroFlasks, and we filled them both with cold water and ice each morning and carried them with us. Bottled water gets expensive for the amount you have to drink to stay hydrated. So we started with this and then bought cold bottled water to pour into them as the day went. They added some weight to the backpack, but it was worth it.
A good backpack- Josh and I (mainly Josh) carried one backpack and traded off carrying it.
Portable phone charger- You use your phone for everything at Disney. There is an app (that is a must) that keeps your itinerary, schedules your fast passes, and basically tells you everything you need to know about Disney. The app is a MUST. But when you are using it all the time, as well as taking pictures with your phone, you can go through a battery before you know it. We even went through both phone batteries and a whole back up charger one day. So 2 might be an idea if you are on your phone a lot.
Light snacks for the lines- I packed fruit snacks, pb crackers, and starburst. The starburst were great! Gave the kids something to snack on while we waited. And I'm not above giving my kids a slight sugar rush to get them through the day... I kid....except not.
Old Iphones- both of our kids have an old Iphone that they play games on. I let them pack them in their backpacks for the lines. They used them some, but not as much as I thought they would. Disney does a great job at making sure you stay entertained in most lines. But they did come in handy a couple of times to divert their attention from how hot or tired they were.
Battery operated fans- (with extra batteries) oh my- this may be my #1 must have item!!!! And go ahead and spend the extra money to buy the good ones at Wal-Mart...don't buy them at the dollar store. I bought 2 there, and they broke the first day.
A power strip and extension cord for the room- by the time you plug in your phones, ipads, extra charger, and whatever else you plug in at night (in our case- we travel with a fan wherever we go!) you run out of plugs! I thought this was silly when I read it on one of the packing tips- but it came in SO handy to have it all plugged in one place.
Different types of socks- if your socks rub a blister, then you are going to want a different type of sock the next day that doesn't touch the same spot. I learned this the hard way. I only packed Macie one type of sock, and it was the wrong type. (bandaids are a MUST!)
First aid kit- These are things you don't want to have to buy in the gift shop. And I'm not sure where the closest Walmart was- but I didn't see one close. I took lots of bandaids, ibuprofen (we all took some at night for our legs), and anything else you think you might need. It actually came in very handy.

That's really all I can think of that we couldn't have lived without. Of course we over packed. The ponchos we looked all over town for were eventually returned because we never wore them. But I had numerous people tell me that they were a life saver for them.  But these things I listed were essential for us. We took cereal and poptarts and ate breakfast in our room, which was a huge time and cost saver.

And as we packed up the next morning to "head to Aunt Bit's house", the girls were sad that our vacation was over.....But they had NO IDEA what was actually in store for them.......

Disney 2016- Day 3

Boy oh boy- I can assure you that one of the worst sounds I have heard in a long time was the sound of my alarm going off at 6 am on Thursday! There were tears involved in getting up that day...but luckily the kids didn't cry..
BUT we had a surprise for the girls that morning- We had booked breakfast with the princesses!!! I had asked on facebook if the kids should wear princess dresses or not, and almost everyone said YES! So I packed their Elsa and Anna dresses for them to wear to breakfast. Let's just say...they were not thrilled about my desire for them to wear these itchy dresses to our undisclosed location. Both kids complained. The. Whole. Morning. Looking back...why didn't I just say OK, and let them wear regular clothes? We were all too tired to deal with itchy dresses. I knew this! But my fear was that every other kid at the breakfast would be wearing princess dresses, and if I didn't make the girls wear them, then they would be upset when they didn't have them on. We shall call this "Mom fail #1" for the day. Oh well- lesson learned! And my advice....if your kid doesn't want to wear princess dresses...don't make them! Everyone will be happier if they are comfortable and not complaining. And there were several other kids there not wearing princess dresses, so they would not have felt left out.
Back to our day...
We headed out about 7:30 in our itchy princess dresses to catch the shuttle. This is how Macie Claire felt about getting her day started.

She eventually perked up, but it took a while!
We got to Epcot just in time and got in line for our breakfast reservations. The girls still had no idea what we were doing. I will add- that next time we will just tell them what we are going to do and not make it a surprise. I think that the anticipation of knowing where we were headed would have made it more fun for them. But Brenna finally figured it out as we were standing in line what we were doing, and they were both excited!
As we got in the door, Belle was standing there for a photo op for everyone. The girls informed us that they had already seen her the day before when they stared in her play. But I told them that we didn't have her autograph in our book, so we should probably get it! And I did some serious explaining that since she sees so many kids in one day, that she wouldn't remember them from the day before....

From there they took us to our table and told us we could go to the fruit and muffin bar. Josh and I enjoyed it, but the girls just picked at it a little. We eventually got a plate of eggs, sausages, and bacon. Once again, the girls picked at it. It wasn't great food, but it was good.
As we ate, the princesses came around one by one to sign autographs and pose for a picture. The lighting was awful, so our pictures aren't great. But we did check some princesses off of our list!

Cinderella!

Snow White!

Aurora!

And the highlight for Macie...Ariel!

They even had a "parade" that the kids cold walk around in.

Can't you just feel their excitement??? See it in their eyes?? Me neither.

While I am very glad we went and experienced the princess breakfast- I can safely say that it isn't something we would do a second time if we were to go back. The girls enjoyed it, but not to the extent that I thought they would.
From there, we went back to the hotel to change out of our princess attire. We were then ready to go to Hollywood studios!

Miss Hollywood herself was ready to go! Thanks Aunt Bit for her cute shirt!

 Josh had done some research and had us fast passes for the Toy Story ride and the Frozen Sing along show. The Toy story ride was broken down when we got in line, but we waited it out and it turned out to be so much fun! It was a 4D interactive ride, and the kids loved it as much as the adults did!
The Frozen Sing Along show proved to me just how great of a Daddy Josh is! It was a room full of little girls singing their hearts out to "Let it Go!" ok ok- It wasn't just the little girls singing... I may have been joining in too. I can't help it!

The actors were so good.

And at the end of the show- it SNOWED!! Technically it was just bubbles, but it was so neat!

And after a Frozen sing along, the logical thing to do next was meet Olaf!

Warm hugs!!

We rode a few more things at Hollywood and talked with the girls about our afternoon plans. We had booked them an appointment at the Bippity Boppity Boutique for that afternoon. But it was at the one at Downtown Disney, the shopping area. So we would have to leave, go change back into the itchy dress up dresses, and go over to the boutique pretty quickly. We gave them the choice of keeping that appointment or staying at Hollywood studios. They chose the boutique! So we made plans to leave early enough to go do that.
But first there were a few characters there that we hadn't seen yet!

Pluto! He had to hold his ears out so that they didn't cover the girl's faces!

Macie was so excited to see Doc McStuffins! But this is when I realized that my Brenna is growing up... She was a little too "big" to have her picture made with Doc. 

The first thing she told me was to send this to Maylee and show her that she met Doc McStuffins!

Brenna did deem Princess Sofia worthy of a picture though! 

From there we headed straight to the hotel to get ready for the Boutique! Once again- I had heard that kids needed to wear their princess dresses to the boutique. But this time I did give them the option of wearing them- they decided to take them with us so that they didn't have to wear it there! So we did just that!
We found this in our room upon our return! Our cleaning ladies loved to leave the kids toys in different lay outs! The girls thought it was way too cool. I felt like I was back on a cruise ship!

So we packed up and headed to the front to catch the bus to Disney Springs. This is where the day went south....
We waited for a while and no Disney Springs bus had shown up, and our appointment was approaching. So we decided our best option was to just pay for a taxi to get us there so that we wouldn't be late. Sounds simple enough, right? That's what I thought.
Our taxi drops us off at Disney Springs (aka- Downtown Disney), which was an area I hadn't really studied and knew nothing about. It looked like a big outlet mall. We started walking and looking for a map. None to be found. So we walked some more- except faster because we only had about 15 minutes until our appointment. Finally we stopped and pulled it up on our phones on google maps. It turns out this place is a long strip with no way to get from one side to the other without walking straight through.

See the big parking lot on the top left of the picture? By the West side? That's where our cab dropped us off. See the buildings on the top right of the picture? Past the Marketplace? The furthest one is where the Boutique was located! It was a bazillion degrees. We were already tired and our feet hurt. And we were running late. BUT BY GOLLY THIS IS GONNA BE FUN! My oh my. It wasn't pretty. Our phones were telling us that it was a good 2 miles to the boutique from where we were. Tempers were short. Kids were whining. I considered passing out from the heat and humidity so that I could ride in an AIR CONDITIONED ambulance, but decided the time I would have to lay on the hot concrete wasn't worth it. So I forged on. I only wish I was exaggerating.
But by the grace of the Lord above, we made it! Only a couple minutes late, still married, and with 2 living children. I was sweating so bad that I was 100% miserable and not in the mood for a "fun" experience. Lucky for our kids, we love them. So Josh and I both put on our happy faces and pretended to be excited.
I got the girls dressed in their oh so comfy princess dresses (insert sarcasm) while we were all still pouring sweat. Jealous yet?? But it did brighten our mood when the Fairy God Mother appeared like magic in our dressing room mirror! This was a definite turning point in this experience. And then we waited for it to be our turn...

Smiles had returned to all of our faces by this point. Mainly because our internal temperatures had fallen somewhere below the boiling point.
Finally they called both girls back and led them to their chairs where their princess transformations would soon take place!

Each girl got to pick their hair style from a list. And the styles they chose fit their personalities perfectly. Josh and I got to sit on a couch an watch as they both enjoyed the pampering of getting their hair, makeup, and nails done! It really was the neatest experience!!
Watching these sweet smiles almost made us completely forget the chaos of getting here! I said almost.

See that hair sticking up like Alfalfa from The Little Rascals? That is a good visual of how much GOOP they put on Macie's hair. I've never seen anything like it in my life. I had no idea how I was going to get it all out!

In true Macie fashion, she picked a hair style that included a crown.

Brenna chatted it up with her stylist the entire time. Go figure.

My sweet princess

After they were done with their pampering, the stylist sprinkled magic fairy dust all over their hair. (also known as glitter dust). And then they paraded them around....

And took them into the special photo spot....

To say that they enjoyed this was an understatement!!!! I am so glad that we made this appointment and kept it. If I could give advice on the Bippity Boppity Boutique it would be to book EARLY and make sure you can get into the one inside the Magic Kingdom- which is located inside Cinderella's castle. That would have been ideal. But since we didn't know about it in time, we had to do this one. The experience was the same, I have been told. But it would have been nice to do it inside the Magic Kingdom. My second tip would be to make the appointment for first thing in the day. That way they get to enjoy being "made up" for the entire day as they go around the park. Because we had to take what we could get, ours was at 3:30 in the afternoon. So they really didn't get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked for the price we paid. Yes- it is a hit to the ole' pocket book. But it is so worth it to watch them be pampered! I would cut somewhere else to do this. It's kind of a once in a lifetime thing. I don't think we would do it a second time, just because they have already experienced it. But I do think that every little girl that goes to Disney should get to experience it at least once!!
Our princesses and their Prince Charming!

Princess close-ups:

I would expect nothing less than for Brenna Grace to choose a hair style that involved crazy hair colors. The teenage years frighten me with this one, y'all.

See how shinny her hair is?? GOOP! So. Much. GOOP! But I honestly don't know how they would have done it otherwise. And it did look SO adorable on her!

From there we decided that we would cancel our reservations for dinner that we had and get reservations at a restaurant in Disney Springs since we were already there (and did I mention hot and tired? Yes? Just checking!)
So we made reservations at Paradiso 37, Taste of the Americas. It was on the water, and looked like a neat atmosphere. In my opinion, it was "ok". Not bad but not amazing either. I think my opinion of it had something to do with it not being very cool inside and the sun shining in my eyes through the whole meal. Man- I sound like I had a horrible time... I really didn't! But after you put your feet and legs through 8+ miles a day for 2 days in the June heat, you need simple things like good air conditioning to fully enjoy a meal! We were all just thankful to be sitting down and relaxing. 
We discussed the remainder of the night while we were sitting at dinner. I think it was a unanimous vote to call it a day in the theme park department. We just needed some DOWN time if we had any desire to keep going the next day. So we voted to spend some time in the hotel pool that evening!
Now- here is why I suggested that you make your Boutique appointment for early in the day.... we spent money on this experience (which I don't regret at all!!) and 3 hours later, they were about to jump in the pool and wash it all out. Poor planning on our part. But the thought of floating in the pool and relaxing for a while made me totally ok with it!
The kids had seen the pool on the day we got there, and had wanted to go down the slide they saw since. And my feet and legs were very happy with me for the break!

It turned out to be a great evening- just what we needed to revive us and get us ready to do it again one last day!