Disney World 2011

We took a family vacation to Disney World this month. We spent five exhausting days exploring four different parks with four kids, two strollers, and at times... eight ponchos. Yup. It rained. Especially the last day we were there. And I mean, rained with no let-up. Not even for a minute. But... we still managed to fit in everything we wanted to do, and have fun!

We started out by taking a late flight to Orlando, having a potential emergency at the airport when Georgia and her backpack got sucked up an escalator, (so scary,) riding a shuttle bus to Disney's Grand Floridian, and not getting our kids in bed until 1:30 in the morning. We managed to head out for the parks a little after 10:00 the next morning.

First, the hotel. It was very pretty. We were glad that we were able to stay there. The kids had fun swimming in the pool, sitting in the hot tub in the rain, dancing to the live band and piano music, and watching Disney cartoons in the areas they were set up in the lobby.

The kids loved walking along the boat dock that was just outside our room, and because the Grand Floridian is just across the lake from the Magic Kingdom, we had an excellent view of the fireworks at night.

It was also very nice that the monorail runs right through the Grand Floridian. We were able to hop right on without even folding up our strollers to get to the Magic Kingdom and Epcot.

The hotel from the monorail car.

Epcot.

We were all pretty tired the day we did Epcot. We did love the rides that we went on, all the kids LOVED Sorin', and Wally loves anything big, fast, and with a good drop off, but the kids were not big fans of World Showcase. It is actually really neat. But, we heard, and saw more than just our kids whining about walking through it. So, I was glad we did Epcot the first day. Just to see it, and move on. Epcot also inspired us to use two strollers, as much as that sounds like a nightmare. But when three of the four of our kids were requesting rides at the same time, it was worth the hassle.

Look, we are in Paris!

And in the U.K. we saw Mary Popcorn (Georgia's interpretation of Mary Popins.)

Magic Kingdom

We hit the Magic Kingdom bright and early the next day.

I kind of tricked Will into going on Big Thunder Mountain. He tends to be cautious, and most of the time, that means he misses out. So I told Wally, Will, and Georgia we were going on a train ride. By the time the lap bar was pulled down, Will had figured out that this was going to be more than just a leisurely train ride. He turned around in his seat to face me with a worried expression, and said, "Mom?!!"

I told him not to worry about it, and when he is scared to just scream, meaning when we were going fast, or downhill. Will promptly turned back around in his seat, and began screaming before we had even finished pulling out of the station. So funny!

Georgia on the other hand. Could not get enough. The bigger, badder, faster, and scarier the ride, the more she loved it! She was a huge fan of Splash Mountain!

Even Will went on this ride again when Del and I did the baby swap pass, so I guess my trick was worth it.

Oh, how I love Wally's face in this picture!

I really tried not to be too big of a meanie, and we bought our kids treats. Here you can see the lovely. white flour, whip cream topped, Mickey shaped waffles with strawberries we bought.

And here, you can see that my kids ate every single strawberry off of the top of that waffle, and would not touch the rest. Even though I cut it up for them. But, they moved on to the strawberries on the next one. I think we were all  more than sick of the food by the end. 

Walker was an unpredictable mess basically the whole time. One minute he loved it, the next, he hated it all. That was to be expected, because he is kind of like that all the time. He is just a handful. But he was a huge fan of all the rides he could go on.

Just not the line you had to wait in to get to them!! So much fun for mom and dad! He would scream "Wide, Wide!!!" (Ride) REALLY loud and angrily, and try to run between people's legs to get to them.

Del is good at coming up with games for the kids in long lines. Like this one, when Small World broke down about five times after advertising a three minute line.

"How Many Seconds Can You Hold Yourself Up On A Railing?" was a hit!

The line was worth it, because Georgia loved Small World so much, she could have eaten it up!

Magic Kingdom is my favorite park, but it felt the most crowded by far. The crowds feel thicker at Disney World, than at Disney Land. We were able to get on everything we wanted to however, so maybe it is just a space issue.

Animal Kingdom

The rain started at Animal Kingdom, but luckily, we were in the Nemo show for a lot of the storm that passed over. Unfortunately, our jackets, hats, and blankets were not, and we lugged around a big wet mess of clothes the rest of the day.  But Nemo was very cute.

We went on a safari!

Walker, yelling "dog!" at every animal we saw.

The kids said, "Take a picture of the bamboo, Mom." So here ya go!

We practiced our drumming skills.

Wally could not get enough of Expedition Everest, and rode it three times in a row. It was cute. Look out for the yeti! And yes, I did a lot of screaming.

Georgia cried because she was not tall enough, and Will ran the other way!

Everyone love Dinoland. Especially when dad started winning stuffed animals!

After the dinosaur ride, Georgia and Will had to play dinosaur for a while. Notice the fingers... those are dinosaur hands. That is the give away as to what they are pretending.

We got pretty wet at Animal Kingdom, but little did we know that it was NOTHING compared to the rain we would have at Hollywood Studios the next day.

Hollywood Studios

At first Walker refused to wear a poncho. Then, I think he realized just how wet he was getting. Then, it didn't matter, because we had been in the pouring rain for so long, there was no chance of escaping being drenched. We were glad we at least got a few days of good weather in. And, we did manage to see pretty much everything we wanted to, even in the rain.

Georgia and I were terrified of The Tower of Terror. But that did not stop her from going on it...twice!

There are a lot of shows to see at Hollywood Studios. A nice break from the rain.

We woke up at about 3:30 the next morning to catch our early flight home. So we said goodbye to Mickey for now.

I am so glad we were able to take our kids to Disney World and make those memories together. Thank you Del, for the trip, for your help, and your hard work!