Day 5
This was Monday of Thanksgiving week and the crowds really picked up drastically. We have always heard that the holidays were their busiest time, but have been fortunate so far that we could go during their non-peak times. However, with Alex in school now, we had to schedule it around his vacation time. I can totally see why people pull their kids out of school for these kinds of trips now! For the entire day, we were only able to squeeze in 6 rides because the wait on everything was so long. So, we decided to take a mid-afternoon break and went to visit another resort, Saratoga Springs. We had a great time walking around and seeing all the different activities the hotel does throughout the day. We treated the kids to some ice cream and then headed back to the parks. We rode a few more rides, and then finished the evening off with dinner at Tony’s restaurant (themed after Lady and the Tramp) and the SpectroMagic parade. The dessert at this restaurant was by far the best I had the whole trip and I am beginning to drool just thinking about it. We have seen the SpectroMagic Parade several times, but it is still amazing to see. We decided not to stake out a good viewing spot early like we normally do, but lucked into a break in the crowds right outside the restaurant. The people even offered to let the kids come sit in front of them, which I thought was extremely nice.
Day 6
Knowing the parks would be busy, we went in with the mentality that we were just going to enjoy as much as we could and not try to squeeze everything in. We had a slow start to that morning. I am not really sure why we couldn’t get out the hotel door because we were all up early, but for whatever reason it just wasn’t happening that morning. We rode a few of our favorite rides when we arrived at the park and then we took Sydney to see the princesses and the Disney fairies. It was the highlight of her trip and she still asks when she gets to go see the Princesses again. The line was fairly short for the characters, so Sydney waited 3 times that day just to get one more hug! This shouldn’t surprise any of you who really know Sydney, because she really believes that she is a princess. She tells me frequently that one day she is going to live in the castle with Cinderella! And as a bonus, Alex told the fairies that more boys didn’t come in there because they have cooties!
I am not even sure he knows what that means, but it was funny still the same!
That evening we met some great family friends in Downtown Disney for dinner. The Skippers have been friends of the family for several years now and Keith actually officiated at our wedding almost 11 years ago. We ate at the delicious Earl of Sandwich and then were going to ride the new hot air balloon ride, Characters of Flight. We thought it would be great to get a view of Disney World from 400 feet in the air. However, Mother Nature had a different plan when we received Round 2 of rain for our trip. Obviously, they are not going to take you that high in the middle of a thunderstorm, so we opted for Plan B. We checked out the new T-Rex restaurant, which looked really cool inside (although very similar to Rainforest Café), then we head over to the Lego store to let the kids have some fun. We started out building little Lego people and then moved onto race cars. The kids get to build their Lego race car and then take it up to the starting line to see whose is the fastest. We stayed there for about 45 minutes, and then went to explore some of the amazing sculptures built solely from Legos. After the Lego store, we went to the largest Disney store E~V~E~R (I don’t know if that is factual, but any of you who have been to the one in Downtown Disney, can attest that it is HUGE!) The kids were fascinated and a little overwhelmed, so we let them each pick out a gift for someone. Alex chose his teacher, and Sydney picked a friend from school that is going to Disney World in March. After our purchases were complete, we stopped by the pin trading store (the kid’s new Disney hobby) and then called it a night.
Day 7
We woke up this morning to some rain showers, which quickly progressed into a downpour for the majority of the day. And, yes, we still went to the parks in the pouring rain. Nothing, not even the rain, is going to keep us from some fun at Disney. The poor ponchos that we had brought with us had faithfully done their duties for 2 days now; however, they lost the good fight that day and we were all soaked from the bus stops to the front entrance of the park. Of course, Disney is selling ponchos at the front gate, so we drop $7.50 a piece for the Disney poncho and head into the parks. It should be noted that on this day we got a little lesson in supply and demand because the lady in front of me in line said the ponchos were only $4 the day before when there was no rain. Hey, even Disney wants to make a profit people! So, the rain brought some good news because the parks were empty and there was no wait at any of the rides. This was a nice break from the crowds we had experienced the last few days. So, we spent a full day there, rode as many rides as possible, saw the princesses another 4 times for Sydney, and ended the evening when we stumbled across a Dance Party in Tomorrowland. Everyone knows Sydney loves music and loves to dance, so this was a perfect end to our day. The characters came out in shifts and Sydney danced with each one. In fact, she wouldn’t let go of their hands so they lead her throughout the little dance area until their shift was up. After the Dance Party, we called it a night, and despite spending $30 on ponchos, we still left the parks cold and wet!
Day 8
Thanksgiving Day! With park attendance at an all time high, we decided to spend the morning going on a character hunt. I think we did pretty well – we managed to find Snow White, Daisy, Pluto, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Buzz, Woody, Jessie, Lilo, and Stitch! We had each sign the kid’s autograph books and grabbed some pictures and then we were off to our Thanksgiving brunch at Chef Mickey’s. We were in for quite a treat that morning because Alex and Sydney were chosen as Junior Chefs of the Day and got to make cupcakes with Mickey Mouse. It was a perfect thing for our Thanksgiving Meal. They looked so cute in their little chef jackets. So, instead of eating a good, healthy breakfast….they had cupcakes! I mean, who wants to eat fruit and such when Mickey Mouse is giving you cupcakes! Oh well, it’s Disney World, we can let it slide, right? After brunch, we took the monorail back to Magic Kingdom and took in a few more favorite rides and shows for our last day there. Sydney decided to end our trip with a bang….as we were exiting Buzz Lightyear, her pants got stuck in the walking sidewalk and fell to the ground. They had to stop the entire ride and she had to stand there in her underwear until maintenance could come remove her! It was hilarious and something we will never let her forget! The workers said they had never seen anything like that before and everyone got a good laugh out of it; and we got a $25 gift card for our “inconvenience”. I would say I made out good on that deal considering it was a $3 pair of Target pants that got ruined.
We left the next afternoon to head back home. Having only been back a week, I can speak for all of us by saying that we wish we were still there and can’t wait to go back!
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