Disney World Day 5-Our LAST day!!

So the weather on this day was BEAUTIFUL!!!!  That worked our great since it was planned to be our beach day.  I took all the kids in to Magic Kingdom for a bit first thing in the morning.  We arrived at the park just before 9 am and headed right back to Frontier Land.  We all rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad two times, followed by Splash Mountain (which Kyle hated) and then Pirates of the Caribbean. Here are a few pics from our moring out.

By the time we finished those rides it was almost time to meet Mike who had gone to pick up a rental car so we could go to the beach.  So we headed out to meet him and piled in the car.

It was about an hour drive to Cocoa Beach.  We were all so excited for some time in the sun on the beach.  Here are a few pics of the kids playing in the ocean.

After playing in the ocean for several hours, we headed over to the humongous Ron Jon shop for souvenirs and headed back to Orlando.  Pretty much everyone fell asleep in the car.

We grabbed some McD's on our way back into town, went to the hotel to change and headedd back to Magic Kingdom for the evening.

We were able to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Pirates of the Caribbean again and then we watched the fireworks as we headed out of the park.

We had an early morning with a 7 am flight so we hurried and got everything packed up and went to bed.  It was so hard to believe our trip was over.

We woke the next morning at 4 am got everything into the car and headed off to the airport.  We arrived back home in the early afternoon.  Everyone was pretty tired.  I walked in to my bedroom shortly after getting home and this is what I saw.

Jacob and Kyle were both crashed on the floor in my room.  I thought it was pretty funny that of all the places in this house, they both chose the floor.

Well, we had a wonderful trip.  We are already starting to plan our big trip for next year.  We are hoping we can somehow save enough money to take the whole family to Hawaii.  I so want the kids to see t his wonderful place that I love so much and to meet all the family we have there.  So we will see what we can do.

Disney World Day 4- Rain Rain and More Rain!!!

On Day 4 our plan was to hit Disney's Animal Kingdom, but we woke up and it was pouring.  So we hung out in the hotel hoping every hour that it would clear up.  It didn't.  At about 2 we decided to head out and brave the weather for a bit hoping we could catch the rides at this park and  maybe see some animals and head back for the evening. So we headed down and caught the shuttle over to the park.

Outfitted head to knees in ponchos and some of us using umbrellas, we entered the park.  I ran over to Expedition Everest to get our fast passes hoping we could come back and ride it in a little while.  Mike took the kids over to wait for the Lion King show.  I met them there and we went in for the show.  It was really bright and fun.  They sang and danced and even the kids got pulled in from the audience for part of it.

It was a really cute show. After the show we headed over to the Kilimanjaro Safari Ride. It was a fun ride and we got to see lots of animal despite the rain.

  After the safari we went over to ride the Dinosaur ride.  It was awesome!!!  The kids loved it so much.  And since there was nobody in line when we got done, they let us ride again without even getting off the ride.  I guess that is one advantage to a rainy day at the park. (It was the only one)

We were blessed (hah!) with some really heavy rain for a little while and even some thunder and lightening. We headed across the park to try and ride Expedition Everest only to find that it was closed because of the lightening.  BUMMER!!!  We were all looking forward to riding that one.  So we headed in to watch the 3D show "It's Tough to Be a Bug"  this one featured the characters from Bug's Life.  It was a fun little 3d or really 4d movie.  It sprayed water, scented the room, and even gave you the feeling that bugs were crawling underneath your seat. (Kyle hated that part).

That movie is in a theatre underneath the big tree that is in the center of the park.  The tree was truly amazing.  It has carvings of animals all over it.  I wish we would have had more time to look at it all, but the rain was getting to be too much so we decided it was time to leave.  We had all had enough of the rain.

We decided to eat in the park at the Rain Forest Cafe.  We have never eaten in one of those restaurants before so it was really fun to see it.  Dinner was yummy (though very expensive) and when we were done we headed out into the rain to wait for the shuttle.  Thankfully we had a little bit of shelter to help keep us out of the elements, but we watched the lightening and listened to the thunder that sometimes was too loud and too close.

We arrived back at the hotel about 7 pm and had a nice relaxing evening in the room watching television.  We also made out plans for the next day.

Just ONE MORE DAY!  WOW it went so fast!

Disney World Day 3

On day 3 our plan was to hit Magic Kingdom.  When I woke the kids at 7 to get ready and head out for the bus, Kyle would not budge.  I could not wake him for anything.  So Mike decided to hang out in the hotel with Kyle for a bit and let him sleep.  (he ended up sleeping until about 10:30) I packed our lunches and we were off.  We caught the 8:30 bus and arrived at the parking and transportation depot about 9 only to find that the monorail into magic kingdom wasn't working so we had to take the ferry and there were lots of people waiting for the ferry.  We managed to get on the third ferry and headed in to the park.

The plan was to hit Tomorrow Land and Fantasy Land this first day, that would leave Adventure Land, Frontier Land and Liberty Square for our second day in Magic Kingdom.  So we went right to it. I ran right in a got our fast passes for Space Mountain and then we went in lone for Buzz Lightyear.  The line was short and we basically walked right on.  Next we rode Space Mountain.  It is a favorite for everyone but Ryan.  He chose to sit this one out too and waited for us at the exit.  After Space Mountian, I fas tpassed Buzz Lightyear, then we headed to the Speedway.  It was about a 20 minute wait, so we waited in line and enjoyed driving our own cars.  This year everyone but Kyle was big enough to drive by themselves.  Our next ride was the Carousel of Progress.  There was no line and we needed something short to take up the little bit of time waiting for Mike and Kyle to arrive.  It was an interesting ride and fun for the kids to see all of the advances we have had intechnology in the last 70 years.

We met Mike and Kyle at Buzz Lightyear and Mike took all the kids except Kaylee on again. While they rode, Kaylee and I ran over to Peter Pan to get fast passes. Have I mentioned how much I love the Fast Pass Service.  While other people are waiting in 45 minute or longer lines, you walk right in.  We went back and met Mike and the Kids and he took all but Ryan on Space Mountain.  As they were buckled in a preparing for launch, Kyle got scared, but her was brave and stayed on the ride and LOVED it!!!

Our next little adventure was a 45 minute wait in line for Winnie the Pooh. It was our longest wait of the whole week.  If I could have, I would have fast passed it, but we already had Peter Pan and couldn't get another.  The ride is so cute and in the line area they had things for the kids to play with so it wasn't too bad.  After Pooh Bear, we hit Snow White followed by It's a Small World.  Believe it or not, we have accomplished all of this before lunch!!!!

We went to eat our lunch and then we rode Peter Pan.  After Peter Pan we went to see Mickey's Philharmagic 3d show.  It was a cute show and the kids really enjoyed it.  We decided since we had already accomplished all of our plans for the day that we would go ahead and hit the Haunted Mansion in Liberty Square this day as well.  We LOVE Haunted Mansion.  It is always a hit.  When we came out it was a 4:00 and we noticed darkening skies and decided we needed to start heading out.  I took the kids for one last ride on Buzz Lightyear using the fastpasses from earlier in the day while Mike hit the locker to retrieve our belongings.  When we met up again a few minutes later near the entrance of the park he said that the area was under a tornado warning.  We could tell with the darkening sky that something was definitely headed our way so we hurried to the monrail.  Just as we got to the monorail station, the storm rolled in.  The wind picked up like crazy and the rain came down HARD!!!!  We even saw a little bit of hail!  We were glad to be under the cover of the station which was filling up very quickly as more and more people came in wetter and wetter.  We caught the train and headed to catch our bus.  SO the weather made us cut the day a bit short, but we still accomplished all we wanted to and more!  We had a GREAT day!!!!

That night we ate dinner at the hotel restaraunt and did some laundry. The wet clothes from Monday were leaving a funky musty smell in the hotel room.  It cost us about $16 to do two loads of laundry, but the room smelled much better after the wet clothes were out, so I guess it was worth it.

We got the kids to bed and I spent a little bit of time planning the schedule for the next day and then it was time for us to sleep too.  Another day gone by, why does vacation time always go so fast???

Here are a couple of pics of our day.

Disney World Day Two

On the agenda for day two was Hollywood Studios.  We headed out and caught the 8:30 am bus to the park and were excited because it actually WAS NOT RAINING.  There were clouds in the sky, but no rain and thankfully it stayed that way for the entire day.

We started off our day getting fast passes for The Tower of Terror which said to come back about 9:45.  So we headed over to the Rockin Roller Coaster.  Kyle was about 1/4 inch too short to ride so I got a parent swap pass and Mike took the others on the ride.  Kyle and I walked around and waited for a bit until they came off the ride.  Ryan decided at the last minute he didn't want to ride it.  He is not a big roller coaster fan, so we met him in the gift shop.  Everyone loved the ride.  Then it was my turn.  It was AWESOME!!!  I was able to take Kaylee, Tiff and Jake back through with me so they got to ride it a second time.

After that we all went over to Tower of Terror.  We all rode it and it was really fun.  Next we went to the Chronicles of Narnia Exhibit.  It was interesting.  We went for fast passes for the Toy Story Mania ride and even though it was only 11:00 am, our return time was for 8:00 pm.  YIKES!!!  The line was 90 minutes long so we just fast passed it.  Next we rode the great movie ride.  It was a fun one even though the kids only knew a couple of the movies in it.  The next thing we did was the Back Lot Tour.  It was fun to see how they do some of the effects when they make movies and also fun to see some of the real props used in some of the movies we have seen.

We took a break for lunch. Once again I had packed lunches for us.  We headed to the lockers and sat outside to eat.

After lunch we went to watch the Indiana Jones Show.  We are all big fans of those movies and it was a really good show. Following the show we spent a little bit of time letting the kids play in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground.  It was cool.  The grass was all really tall and so were the bugs and stuff, just like if the kids had been shrunk.

After this playtime, Mike took some of the kids back to the hotel for some pool and rest time.  He took Kaylee, Jacob and Kyle.  Kyle was really tired.  Ryan and Tiffany wanted to stay and do more stuff so we stayed.  While the others swam in the hotel pool, we went to the Sounds Dangerous show, the Lights Motors Action Stunt Show which was amazing!!!!, and the American Idol Experience.  I so wish that Tiff were just one year older this trip so she could have tried out for the American Idol Experience (they have an age 14 minimum).  She would have blown away the competition, at least in the show we saw.  It was fun, but would have been more fun if Tiffany could have performed in it.  Next we went to the Muppets 3D show, ate pizza at Pizza Planet for dinner, and walked around the One Man's Dream exhibit while we waited for Mike and the Kids to come back.

Finally it was 8:00 and we could ride Toy Story Mania.  That is one of my favorites in the whole park.  It is so fun to ride a ride that is comepletely interactive.  We all wished we could ride it again, but with the line being 100 minutes long, there was no way we were going to wait in it.

Kaylee and Tiffany wanted to ride Tower of Terror again, so they went off to that ride and the rest of us waited in line to watch Fantasmic.  Mike, Kyle and Jake didn't feel like sticking around for the show, so they left and went back to the hotel.  The rest of us waited for the show and it was so worth it.  It was really really good!!  With the show over, we rushed out of the park to catch our bus back to the hotel.  We got back to the hotel just after 11 pm.  So our day was over 14 hours long.  It ended up being a beautiful day, NO RAIN!!  And we all had a really great time.

Here are some photos from day two.