"...And Nobody Knows Where the Face Painting Is" - An October 2014 Trip Report

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Day One: Saturday, October 4, 2014
I woke up about 4:15 am from a fitful night of barely sleeping. I reached over and found my wife Jennifer as awake as I was. We smiled and cuddled for maybe five minutes before our little Matthew started his plaintive wailing as he does every morning. At 17-months-old, he has always been an early riser. For once, 4:30 am was not too early to get up. Jenn and I jumped up out of bed and pulled him out of his crib. We told him that today was the day that we were going to Disney. He smiled. He did not understand, but we did.

We quickly got him dressed and started packing the last minute items while our 6-year-old daughter Rachel slowly woke up. She sleepily stumbled out to the dining room table where we were placing all of the luggage to find special gifts my wife put together of a stuffed Pluto for Matthew, a stuffed Lady for Rachel and many small books and toys for the plane ride. She was overjoyed, and we were, too. I hopped in the shower and ran out to McDonald’s to grab breakfast for everyone. With a quick stop to put gas in the car, I brought a sack full of carbs home to the family. We devoured it, packed the car and hit the road.

One thing to remember for this trip report is that Jenn and I had spent the past ten months avoiding carbs and sugar like the plague as a part of our keto diet. As a result, I’d dropped fifty pounds since Christmas and Jenn had lost twenty. However, the week of Disney we were letting ourselves off of the diet. Dreams of bread and candy danced in my head as we drove through the rain in the dark to Detroit Metro Airport.

We had never taken Matt on a plane before and we were a little nervous about taking a 17-month-old on a two-hour flight. Jenn planned very well, though. We had plenty of snacks, books, toys and a wealth of apps for the iPad to keep him entertained. Both he and his sister did great and we were down on the ground in Orlando before we knew it.

Starving, we ate a quick lunch at the airport before finally getting on the Magical Express on our way to check into the Art of Animation Resort. Matt finally fell asleep in my arms on the bus ride, and I sat with a smile on my face watching the video on the bus. As we passed under the Disney World sign, the bus erupted in applause. About 15 minutes later, we pulled up in front of the resort and a wave of elation passed through me. We were here! We were really here! After planning this vacation for 229 days, I had begun to believe it was never going to happen. But now it really was, and I couldn’t have been happier.

Dragging our carry-on luggage, the folded up stroller and a groggy toddler with us, we checked in at the online check-in desk. With a bit of adjustment, we got our stuff in order, got Matt into the stroller and headed out through the main building for the first of many walks down to the Little Mermaid section of the resort and our room at 9646. Taking in the sights and sounds of the Big Blue Pool, we were all very happy to have finally arrived.

For the record, the Art of Animation Resort is fabulous. The theming in all of the areas is very well done. As we walked through the Lion King section, I got a great kick out of watching both Rachel and Matt light up as they encountered another set of characters along the path. The Little Mermaid section and the Flipping Fins Pool is also very nice. The room was just what we needed. We had rented a crib from a local operation called A Baby’s Best Friend and it was delivered shortly after our arrival. It took no time at all to set-up and fit perfectly in the corner of the room by the TV and the bathroom.

It was probably the best $90 we spent the entire trip. Matt slept soundly in it the whole time with very little complaint. We’ve tried pack n’ plays for overnight stays before, and he just hates them. He doesn’t sleep much, and we sleep even less. For a week at Disney, that just wasn’t going to fly. Thankfully, the crib was great and everything went smooth with delivery, set-up, take-down and pick-up. We highly recommend it as an option for parents with toddlers.

After we got things situated in the room, we changed into our swimming suits and went down to the Big Blue Pool for some fun! The pool was absolutely perfect for our 6-year-old: Fun music and games and a good mix of shallow and deep areas. Matthew wasn’t a huge fan, though. I think it was too loud and busy for him and he didn’t seem to enjoy the splash area at all. He spent the whole time avoiding the water jets instead of getting wet. So, we tried to take him in the zero entry end of the pool and of course, he promptly fell right in. He has tubes in his ears to prevent infections, so we scooped him up and got him out of the area to a little bit of screaming.
Thankfully, he loved the little playground area right next to the pool. That calmed him down and both kids had fun with the slides until we started getting hungry. After a few more slides, we walked back to the room and changed for dinner. We decided to stick close as the early wake-up and travel started to catch up with us. So we went down to the Landscape of Flavors food court and found a nice seat in the Lion King section.

We can’t say enough good things about the food court. We’ve stayed at Port Orleans Riverside twice before, and for a moderate, its food court is not any better. In fact, the variety of seating themes (all four movies from the resort are represented) and the variety of food choices was better at Landscape of Flavors than at Riverside. We got Mac and Cheese for the kids, and I think Jenn got the Mongolian Beef Stir-Fry. I got the Tandoori Chicken with the Naan Bread. The chicken was just fine, but the Naan Bread was incredible. Having just endured 10 months without bread might have had something to do with that, but it was very yummy.

Once we were finished with dinner, we went into the Ink and Paint Shop store and proceeded to splurge on all the things! Actually, we were fairly precise in our purchases and got mostly useful items. I found the Grumpy Disney World T-Shirt I had seen online that I wanted and picked it up, along with some cool flip-flops and a nice hat for the trip. Jenn and Rachel each got a hat, too. Rachel’s Minnie Mouse hat came with matching sunglasses. Rachel promptly lost these the very next day somewhere. Oh well.

Matthew decided he absolutely needed a Yoda bobble head that talked. Like a fool, I bought it for him. Yoda never shut up for the next week. One of the first things I did when we got home was to take the batteries out. Yoda will never speak again. Do or do not. There is no talk.

With our shopping over, we strolled around the different areas of the resort before heading back to the room. We got Matthew bathed and into bed at his normal 7 pm bedtime. Since he hadn’t really napped much, we hoped he would sleep in the next morning. We hope that a lot, usually to no avail.

Jenn was pretty tired, too, so she volunteered to stay in the room with Matt while I took Rachel down to the Flipping Fins Pool in our section of the resort. This pool is a lot smaller, quieter and just generally more our speed. I had fun just spending some time one-on-one with my 6-year-old Little Mermaid. She pretended to be Ariel and I did my best King Triton impression. We swam for about half an hour before something happened that had never happened to me at Disney before: I got cold. The air probably dipped down to the low 60s with a breeze. For the first-time in my life, I got goose pimples in Orlando.

So, we got out, gathered our stuff, and ran back to the room. We did our best to change quietly behind the curtain in the bathroom in the half-light from the bathroom. We managed not to wake Matthew. After kissing Mommy goodnight, Rachel and I climbed into the other twin bed and went to sleep, visions of Cinderella’s castle dancing in my head.

 

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Day Two: Sunday, October 5, 2014
Surprise, surprise, our little 5 AM alarm clock didn’t let a little thing like flying to another state stop him. Shortly after five o’clock, Matthew stood up in his crib and announced he had a wet diaper, that he was hungry and that he was done with this whole crib business. I was almost immediately excited to get to the Magic Kingdom, so I didn’t mind that much. I got up with him, changed his diaper, got his shoes and jacket on and put him in the stroller. We walked out into the chilly dark morning and left the girls to get some more sleep.

I pushed him down to the main building when I discovered the one flaw in the Landscape of Flavors food court: It doesn’t open until 6 AM and doesn’t serve hot food until 7 AM. Well, so much for my typical pot of coffee before six. To kill the 45 minutes until coffee, I took Matt over to the playground area in the Nemo section. That didn’t last long because without two adults to man the top and the bottom of the slide, it took about five minutes before Matt banged the crap out of his face. Time for Plan B.

We went over to the Cars section which he had liked on our post-dinner stroll the previous evening. That’s when Matt discovered his absolute favorite attraction at Disney World: a bunch of rocks on the side of the path. He spent the next half hour making piles of rocks while I surfed my phone on the resort wi-fi and counted the minutes until coffee would be served.

At five to six, I put him back in the stroller and headed back up to the main building. We got distracted by a Cast Member who was power washing the walkway by the pool. Matt thought it was so cool. Eventually, we got up to the food court as they were unlocking the doors. I got him a banana and a blueberry muffin for us to share and I filled my mug with coffee. We sat at a table for awhile until Matt made it clear he was bored. So I grabbed a couple bagels and a milk for Rachel, refilled my coffee mug and Jenn’s and we headed back to the room.

Jenn was already showered and Rachel was in the bathtub when we got there. We crammed down our light breakfast and got ready for the day. We loaded up my backpack with all the essentials and stuffed the stroller full of whatever would fit. After spraying down with sunscreen, we walked down to the buses and got on one of the first Magic Kingdom buses of the day. There were a lot of likeminded early risers, so I wound up having to stand.

This revealed a major flaw in our stroller design. The latch was flimsy to begin with, but after we stuffed every nook and cranny of the stroller full to the brim with stuff, it no longer worked at all. I was trying to hold the whole thing together with just the strength of my hand, but it was starting to unfold every time the bus braked. Thankfully, we had bought a Munckin travel diaper changing kit that had a heavy duty strap with a clip on it that we used to secure the stroller together. Turned out to be one of the most useful items we bought for the trip and it is was only like $15. It wound up helping us change diapers all week, and keep our stroller from falling apart. Good deal.

It wasn’t long before Cinderella’s castle peeked out in the distance. It was great watching my daughter light up at its sight. The bus parked and we scurried off to the early entrance for those with morning restaurant reservations. This was the first time we had ever scheduled morning reservations, but I don’t think we’ll ever do it any other way now. It is so magical walking into the park with hardly anyone there. The sun had come up on a perfect day without a cloud in the sky. We were all giddy as we walked up Main Street to the castle and our reservations for Cinderella’s Royal Table.

We parked the stroller and got in line for our photo with Cinderella. We pointed out Gus and Jacque hiding in the rafters to the kids as we waited. We also discovered the trick that kept Matt occupied in every line throughout the trip. Jenn let him use her iPhone to play the Peek-A-Boo Kids app we had purchased for $1.99. It worked all week. It was worth so much more than two dollars.

After our pictures with Cinderella, we went upstairs for breakfast. What a wonderful experience! The room is gorgeous, the food is great and I can’t think of a better way to start a morning in the Magic Kingdom. Every time a new princess enters the room, there is a royal announcement and the room applauds. Our daughter was all smiles the whole meal. Her brother made it clear real early that he was not excited about meeting princesses. All week long, he liked the characters in costume but was absolutely frightened of the pretty girls in make-up. That’s my boy, I guess.

Jenn took him down to the bathroom to change his diaper and let him run around out in the area by the castle while I stayed with Rachel to meet a few more princesses. As it got close to 9 AM, we went downstairs and joined up with Jenn and Matt. It wasn’t long before the cast members dropped the ropes into New Fantasyland and the race was on to Enchanted Tales with Belle! We rushed with all of the other families who had gathered after breakfast trying to be the very first into Belle’s cottage. It turned out we were second, but it didn’t matter because you need a group of 20 before they let you in for the first performance. So, we really didn’t need to rush, but it was fun anyway.

After a bit, enough people joined the line behind us for us to move into Belle’s father’s workshop where the magic mirror opened up and took us to the Beast’s castle. What a cool effect! We walked through the door and met up with the Wardrobe to get dressed for our parts. I’m not sure how they make her look so real, but they’ve come a long way in the animatronics engineering at Disney. I got picked to be a knight and Rachel got selected to be the Beast!

We went into the drawing room for the performance. I guess the animatronic Lumiere was really cool, but I couldn’t really see him as I had to stand in the front corner of the room to play my part of a suit of armor. Oh well, that’s the life in show biz…

Rachel had a blast as the center of attention dancing with Belle. Matthew seemed to enjoy watching it from the back with his Mom. All in all it was very fun way to kick off our day in the Magic Kingdom.

With that done, we headed off to the Little Mermaid area, bypassing Gaston’s Tavern for the time being. We wanted to ride the Little Mermaid ride on stand-by as we were using our Fastpasses for other things when the park got more crowded. The wait time was posted at 20 minutes when we arrived, but we really walked right through the queue and on to the ride. Let me say, this was one of the rides we were most looking forward to riding while we were planning this trip. All of New Fantasyland had come about since our last visit and we were excited about all of it. But, since our little girl is such a Little Mermaid, this ride really took the cake when we were researching/daydreaming about our first time in New Fantasyland.

Unfortunately, it didn’t really live up. It was ok. It just wasn’t that spectacular. It didn’t seem to have the magic of the older rides nor did it have any special pizzazz for a new ride. It was just sort of there. Matthew didn’t really like the dark parts of the ride either. Oh well. You can’t win them all.

Thankfully, afterword we used our first Fastpass to meet Ariel in her grotto, and that was exactly what our Little Mermaid wanted. She was positively star struck. It was very cute to see, especially in her Little Mermaid dress that her mom had made for her. Rachel has always complained about the store bought princess dresses that they are itchy. So, Jenn made her three dresses for the trip with no itchy factor at all. Yay, Mom!

After that, we ventured into the Storybook Circus area. It was past 10 AM now, and there was still hardly anyone in the park! It was also a lot cooler than we had expected. When we were planning, we had envisioned the kids clamoring to get into the splash area by the Casey Jr. trains, but it was a little chilly for that. We rode Dumbo and I took Rachel on Barnstormer. Both kids enjoyed Dumbo, but Rachel hated Barnstormer. She adamantly told me she did not want to ride any more roller coasters. Ever. I told her she’d probably change her mind in a few years. We will see.

After Barnstormer, it had warmed up enough for Rachel to play in the water at Casey Jr. Matthew was still completely not enthused about getting wet, though. Thankfully, he played with the magic wand his sister had gotten at breakfast while she splashed. We had her take her dress off and had her swimsuit underneath for an easy transition. Once she was done playing, Jenn took her into the nearby bathroom to change and I changed Matthew’s now overflowing diaper. Let me state for the record just how happy I am as a father that every single Men’s Room at Disney is outfitted with ample changing station areas. I’ve been too many places where this isn’t the case. It is frustrating. Disney knows what it’s doing, though, so I shouldn't be surprised.

With everyone fresh and dry, we left the Storybook Circus area and shoved off to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Matthew had started to get cranky and we found out why on our way over to Winnie the Pooh. He fell soundly asleep in his stroller, something he never does. Apparently all of the action and lack of napping over the past few days caught up with him and he passed out completely at 11 AM. We decided to have Rachel and I ride Winnie the Pooh with our Fastpasses while Jenn pushed Matthew around.

That is when we first discovered there was an issue with Rachel’s Fastpasses. Her band wouldn’t scan at Ariel’s Grotto, and now it wouldn’t scan on Winnie the Pooh. Thankfully, the cast member let us through and we had a fun ride together. Afterwards, she went back on with her mom and we hoped her band would scan this time. It did not. The cast member looked up her itinerary to find it was blank! She had no Fastpasses at all even though I had stayed up until midnight two months prior to get all of our Fatspasses ready for the trip (and still couldn’t get one for Anna and Elsa, but I digress). Again, the cast member let her through and she had another great ride with her mom while I pushed sleeping Matthew around the gift shop.

After Winnie the Pooh we headed over to the Rapunzel bathroom area to look for Pascal and keep busy while Matthew slept. After we found Pascal hiding in an upstairs windowsill, Jenn and Rachel went on It’s a Small World as the stand-by line was fairly short. I pushed Matthew back over to the nearest Fastpass kiosk in Fantasyland next to Mickey’s Philharmagic to try to sort out Rachel’s issues. After waiting through the line, I was told I needed her Magicband in order to do anything. So, that was a pointless twenty minutes. If you can’t tell, we weren’t exactly wowed by the Fastpass+ experience. I’m sure they’ll eventually get the kinks worked out…but that didn’t help us.

I went back over to It’s a Small World and met the girls coming off the ride as Matthew woke up from his impromptu hour nap. I explained that we needed to go back over to the kiosk to sort out Rachel’s Fastpass issues, but we were starving at that moment, especially little post-nap grumplepuss. So we went over to Columbia Harbour House for lunch. Jenn took the kids and sat down and I waited in an interminable line for food. I love Columbia Harbour House, but I got unlucky and wound up in the slowest food line I’ve ever seen at Disney World. Thankfully, this was an anomaly and we got it out of the way early on this trip. Eventually I got my kid’s Mac and Cheese meals, and the chicken and fish for Jenn and I and scurried over to my starving toddler.

Everyone wolfed down everything in nearly complete silence. We were hungry, and the food at Columbia Harbour House continues to shine. It’s one of the best counter service restaurants on property and hands down the best at the Magic Kingdom. Do yourself a favor and work it into your plans if you can.

With everybody fed and happy, Jenn and I discussed our options for the afternoon. Originally, we had planned to ride Peter Pan after lunch and head back to the resort for a nap. However, since Matthew had just napped, we decided to stick around for the parade at 3pm and just ride it out through dinner that evening. The first order of business, though, was to get Rachel’s Fastpasses worked out. We went back over to the kiosk next to Mickey’s Philharmagic and waited in line once again. Once we finally got to the front, they scanned her band and my band before asking to scan Jenn’s band, as well. After some more waiting and fumbling around with the app on one of the machines to no avail, I was taken over to the side by a cast member with an iPad.

Jenn took the kids over to the carousel in the meantime while I spent far longer than I expected getting to the bottom of the issue. It turns out that because Jenn had been the account that we’d purchased our resort tickets through, she had been the person assigned to control the kids’ itinerary. So, while my account had been connected to her, I had not been given permission to change Rachel’s Fastpasses. So, back in August when I had waited until midnight to make our Fastpass selections, I should have been logged in as Jenn and not as me. I did not know that, nor was I informed at any point in the process. I made our selections for our “Entire Party” not realizing that only was referring to Jenn and I and not the kids. Since Matthew was under three, it didn’t matter because he just rode with Jenn and I no matter what. But Rachel had her own itinerary and it was completely blank. So, one by one, we had to go through and add her to all of our Fastpass selections for the week. What a painstaking process.

Thankfully, the cast member was very professional about the whole thing and worked very hard to get it all corrected. As an apology, he gave us all a full day Fastpass to meet Tinkerbell after asking what other things we might want to do. That was very nice of him and I applaud his efforts. I do not applaud the Fastpass+ system, though. Like I said, they’ll work out the kinks eventually, but I didn’t want to spend 45 minutes adjusting my daughter’s Fastpass selections while on our first real day at the park. I thought the idea of the Fastpass+ system (at least as it was billed to guests) was to spend less time attempting to get on rides at the park. This was not how it worked out.

Anyway, with all of that done, we decided to hop into Mickey’s Philharmagic as the show was about to start. This movie is still a lot of fun. Matthew loved it, even though he wouldn’t wear his 3D glasses. Apparently a blurry Donald Duck is all he needs. He absolutely loved the bubbles and the water and everything about it. It was a nice way to wind down after the unexpected hassle at the Fastpass kiosk.

After that, we went over and rode It’s a Small World as a family on standby. Matt really liked all the animals. I just liked being on it with my family. There is something about the classic rides that just can’t be duplicated by the new attractions.

It was getting closer to parade time, so we headed toward the front of the park to use our free Fastpass to meet Tinkerbell. We had gotten very lucky with the weather. No clouds, nice breeze, low 80s. It was perfect. But, being from Michigan, we were starting to feel the sun just a bit. We stopped and bought a large Mickey Mouse cup of iced tea and some ice cream. When we got over to Town Hall, Matt needed a change, so I took him to the bathroom while Jenn and Rachel met Tinkerbell.

After that we relaxed on the porch outside of Town Hall, sipping water and eating caramel corn from the nearby Confectionery waiting for the parade to begin. If you’ve never done this, let me recommend giving it a shot. The people watching at the center of Main Street USA is pretty good. It was also nice to get off our feet and relax in the shade for awhile. Matt and Rachel ran around and played while we relaxed. It was a good afternoon.

As the parade traffic started to pour in, we ultimately left the shade of the veranda to get a better view along Main Street. We were not disappointed. The Festival of Fantasy lives up to its name. One of the best parades with some of the coolest floats (and dragons) I’ve ever seen. It was worth skipping our resort downtime.

After the parade, we went over to Peter Pan for our Fastpass (plus? minus?) ride. This ride is such a classic. It was a lot of fun despite the ride breaking down for a few minutes toward the end. This actually seemed to happen quite a lot this trip. Not sure if the rides are getting older or America is getting fatter, but something is going on. Anyway, It was fun to ride in our pirate ship as a whole family.

We had less than an hour before our dinner reservations at Tony’s Town Square at that point, so we made our way back toward the front of the park and got some water and took a rest at Casey’s Corner. By the time we got down to Tony’s, the day’s activity was starting to weigh on all of us. For the record, it is important to go back to the resort to rest in the afternoon. Of course, it’s also important to see the afternoon parade if you can, so choose wisely. It’s easier to stay all day on your first day in the park than it is your last.

We got seated fairly quickly at Tony’s and we thankfully got to stay in the air conditioned indoors right next to a big window. We could continue to people watch on Main Street while being completely comfortable. I ordered the NY Strip Steak. I forget what everyone else had, but the steak was good. I wouldn’t say Tony’s had the best food of the trip, but It was pretty good. It was just nice to eat on Main Street.
After dinner, it was time to head back to the resort. Matt started to get pretty cranky, so we headed to the bus and an early bedtime for him. This time, Jenn took Rachel down to the pool while I stayed up in the room with Matt. I was almost asleep by the time they came back. It had been a terrific first day in the parks. We couldnt wait to see what lay ahead!

 

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Day Three: Monday, October 6, 2014
Monday began with Matthew sleeping in a little later, which for him meant 5:40 AM. That may sound early, but when many of your days begin at 4:40 AM, 5:40 seems luxurious. Jenn got him out of his crib and changed his diaper and the three of us snuggled in bed for 20 minutes until Rachel got up and joined us. I ran down to the food court and got coffee, bagels, and bananas while Jenn got the kids ready. After our light in-room breakfast, we set off to the bus stop for Epcot and our real breakfast with the princesses in Norway.

We caught the first bus to Epcot and took our time getting pictures in front of the giant ball before heading back toward World Showcase.

We had another perfect morning weather-wise and it was so nice to be in the park early with so few people in it. When we got to Norway, there was a huge line as they were having difficulties with their reservation system. It took a long time to finally get seated for our 8:15 reservation. Thankfully, there was a lot to look at and places to run around for the kids while I held our place in line.

Once inside, Rachel got her picture taken with Belle and we chowed down on the buffet. Mmmm, smoked salmon. Once again, Matthew was terrified of every princess who came by the table. He’s our special guy. We got a nice picture of Rachel in her Snow White gown with Snow White before paying the bill and heading back into Future World for park open.

Our first stop was the Imagination pavilion to use the restroom and ride Figment. Rachel loved it and wanted to ride it again, but Matthew found it a little scary, so we skipped a second ride and walked down to the Living Seas.

We had a great time in the aquarium. Matt once again found the Nemo ride to be a little scary, but he loved watching the fish. We got treated to a special show of the dolphins as they performed tricks. Rachel got to talk to one of the cast members in charge of the dolphin training for a ong time. It was a great experience. After some time playing in Bruce’s Sub House, we headed over to the Land for lunch and a ride on Soarin’.

While Rachel was on Soarin’ with her mom, I watched Matt in the Sunshine Seasons seating area while he did his best to climb on every chair and crack his skull open. Of course, I got a work related phone call and spent the better part of half an hour talking about all the stuff I was trying to forget while on the trip. Such is life in the age of smart phones: You never get to leave the office completely.

Jenn and Rachel came off Soarin’ and Rachel was all smiles. As much as she had dislike Barnstormer, she loved Soarin’. I did my best to let the current crisis at work go and went on Soarin’ with Rachel on our rider swap. She talked me through the whole ride, letting me know it wasn’t going to be scary. It was pretty hilarious. The ride itself was just like I remembered. It’s just a pleasant ride. Rachel absolutely loved it all over again.

We met back up with Jenn and Matt and ate a nice lunch at Sunshine Seasons. After lunch, we almost rode Living with the Land, but decided the line was just too long and went back to the resort instead. We took a nice swim in the Flipping Fins Pool and a nice nap upstairs for Matt. Of course, I spent some of that time sending emails in regard to work. The 21st Century vacation.

About 4:30, we headed back to Epcot and rode Spaceship:Earth with our Fastpasses. We didn’t really need the Fastpass, but we got on very quickly. The ride broke down twice while we were on it. Like I said earlier, it was sort of a running theme. Anyway, it was a fun ride and Rachel love it. Matt was indifferent.

After that, we fed the kids some mac and cheese at the Electric Umbrella. We had 6:00 reservations in Mexico, but figured both of the kids would prefer a nice counter service meal, and we were right. This saved us money and complaints when we got to the San Angel Inn. This is my wife’s favorite restaurant for the ambience. She has a thing for what we have decided is “Outside Inside” where the Imagineers make it look like an outdoor environment inside a pavilion. Mexico does it better than anyplace.

We had a nice meal (I had the catch-of-the-day, I don’t remember Jenn’s meal) while the kids munched on chips and colored. It’s such a nice place for dinner. You can almost imagine you’re in Acapulco without the heat or the Montezuma’s Revenge. After dinner, we rode the Three Caballeros ride. Matthew absolutely loved it. In fact, all of us absolutely loved it. Its probably the Lill family’s favorite ride. We immediately rode it again.

After the ride, we walked out into the darkening dusk of World Showcase. It was packed because of the Food & Wine Festival, but we didn’t care. We saw the Chinese acrobats perform in China. Matt loved it and clapped along with the audience at every stunt. Then we stopped in Germany so I could completely shirk my diet at Karamel Kuche with a caramel pecan bar.

We leisurely made our way around World Showcase while Matt fell asleep in his stroller.

Our initial plan was to stay for Illuminations while he slept, but Rachel started to fade at about 8:30 PM, so we instead decided to skip it. We headed back to the front of the park and our beds. All in all, it was a great day at Epcot.

 

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Day Four: Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Matt must have gotten quite a bit of sleep in his stroller, because he was right back at it Tuesday morning at 5 AM. This time it was Jenn’s turn to walk him around outside while I stayed in the room with Rachel. I was up, though, and decided to just take a shower and get ready for the day. Rachel was still sleeping by the time Jenn got back with Matt and our coffee.

We got everybody ready and on the bus to Animal Kingdom for our 8:15 reservations at Tusker House. Of all the breakfast buffets we’ve been to, the food at Tusker House was the best. Great variety and high quality. Very cool setting, as well. And, it’s nice to get to meet all the heavy hitters like Donald, Mickey and Goofy while munching on a tasty sausage. Matt really loved meeting Mickey and Donald. As long as they weren’t princesses…

After breakfast, we hopped on Kilimanjaro Safaris with our Fastpasses. We had a great early morning ride with lots of active animals (except for the ions which I don’t think are ever active). Matt and Rachel loved all the wildlife. After that, we took a walk through the Pangani Exploration Trail as we waited for the next Lion King show. Matt took the opportunity to fall asleep in his stroller. Maybe if he hadn’t gotten up at 5 AM, he wouldn’t have been so tired.

He slept all the way to the stroller drop-off for the Lion King. We thought he would wake up when we took him out. He didn’t. We thought he would wake up when the loud show began. He didn’t. We thought he would wake up when everyone in the crowd applauded and sang along. He didn’t. He slept through the whole show based on his favorite movie and woke up as we were leaving the theater. Oh well, his sister saw it and it was very impressive. Probably our favorite stage show on property.

Rachel was itching to ride something after the show, so her mom agreed to take her on Kali River Rapids while I pushed Matt around the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Matt really enjoyed watching the tigers where we spent a long time until his wet mom and sister joined up with us. Rachel absolutely loved Kali River Rapids and begged me to go on it with her. Getting soaked is not my favorite thing, but who can refuse their daughter at Disney World? We went on and got wet before heading out of the park for lunch back at the resort.

We spent the afternoon swimming in the pool and relaxing before heading to Downtown Disney for a little shopping. We bought a few things at the big Disney store and I got my watch resized. I had purchased the watch at that store in 2006 on our honeymoon, but since I had lost forty pounds, it was hanging loosely off my wrist. The ladies in the jewelry department took out a few links for me so it fit better, and they did it free of charge! You have to love Disney service.

We ate a nice dinner at Earl of Sandwich and Rachel and I got an amazing dessert at Goofy’s Candy Company. We each made our own candy creation at the counter. I got white chocolate and walnut covered pretzel rods and she got a milk chocolate covered Mickey marshmallow. All year as I avoided sweet after sweet, I dreamed of that day and the deliciousness of that decadent candy. It did not disappoint.

We packed it in early that evening, as we had some laundry building up and Matt was getting real cranky. Of course, he could have solved all of that by sleeping in a little, but that’s just not his style. I stayed with him in the room while Jenn took Rachel down to the Big Blue Pool and did a load of laundry. Thank you, Jenn!
After that, we went to sleep to prepare for our second day at the Magic Kingdom.

 

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Day Five: Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Matt slept fairly well (5:40 AM again - you take what you can get) and we snuggled in bed with him after we woke up for 20 minutes before I headed down to grab some coffee and bananas. We got ready and headed off to our second day at Magic Kingdom. We had 8:15 reservations at Crystal Palace this time. Another fabulous breakfast buffet and all of Matthew’s favorites. He was so excited to meet Tigger.

We also ran into a friend of Jenn’s from back in Michigan and her family. It’s a Small World as they say… We actually started to run into them over and over as the trip progressed. One of those random pieces of magic that only happen at Disney.

After breakfast, we strolled into Adventureland and walked right on to the Jungle Cruise. Interesting to note that the head of Pixar, John Lasseter, got his start as a tour guide on the Jungle Cruise. I doubt the cast member we had will ever make it that far, but she was funny. The kids loved all the animatronic animals. Like I said before, there’s just something about those classic rides.

After the Jungle Cruise, we walked over to the Magic Carpets. We had a Fastpass for it, but didn’t really need one that early. Matthew absolutely loved the Magic Carpets. It was probably his favorite ride. He just smiled and laughed the whole time. He liked it so much, we decided to use the Fastpass and ride it again. While we were waiting to get on for our second ride, Aladdin and Jasmine showed up to take a ride. We got to meet them as we got off. What a nice surprise.

Still smiling from the Magic Carpets, we were just in time to join the next show in the Enchanted Tiki Room. Both kids loved that show, but I think Rachel liked it even more than her brother, especially the pretty cockatoos. They really stumbled on to some timeless attractions originally. The kids adored every minute of it.

After that, we walked by the Pirates of the Caribbean. We had originally thought we weren’t going to ride it because Rachel used to be scared of dark rides like that, but now she was begging to go on! So, we parked the stroller and strapped Matt to his mom. I should mention here that we brought a wrap to keep Matthew secure while on the rides. However, I didn’t like wearing it because it felt pretty feminine. I admit that was my hang up and I shouldn’t have cared...but I did. That meant, I forced Jenn to wear him on all of the rides. This is the ride where I felt really bad about that.

The ride itself was really cool. We had never been on it since the movie renovations. They did a good job incorporating the new elements with the old. It was fun and Rachel really liked it. Matt seemed to like it, too. He liked it so much, he peed right through his diaper all over his mom. I felt terrible. That should have been me. Thankfully, it didn’t appear to be too noticeable and we started to laugh about it. We took some time putting pirate hats on and calling the ride the Pee-rates of the Caribbean. We are sometimes about five-years-old humor-wise.

With that done, we left Adventureland for Frontierland and our Fastpasses for Splash Mountain. When he had been planning the trip, we showed Rachel all sorts of Youtube videos about the various attractions. The one she was most excited about was Splash Mountain. She kept talking about it and couldn’t wait to ride it. So she and her mom went on while I took Matt down to the little play area underneath the queue to wait.

They came off the ride with Rachel in tears and Jenn completely exasperated. Apparently, Rachel had hated it. She spent the whole time worried about the drop at the end and kept whining about it. Not the greatest of experiences. It was starting to get real hot, as well. We had been lucky with the weather, but it was starting to get into the high 80s, which for those of us from Michigan is just a little too much.

We stopped for a Frozen Fruit Bar and a chocolate banana in the hopes that would make everybody happier. It didn’t really work out that way. The kids were starting to show signs of just being too tired from all the excitement. Jenn took them over to a shaded stroller parking area and I got everyone a big thing of ice water from Pecos Bill’s. That’s something to remember: All the counter service restaurants will give you ice water for free. You just have to ask. Next to the $2.50 for a bottled water, that is a good tip.

We hydrated in the shade for a bit before the time window for our Seven Dwarves Mine Train ride came up. Rachel flatly refused to go on, but Jenn and I still wanted to ride it. Jenn took the kids to do some browsing at the stores next to the castle while I hoofed it over to the Mine Train. I got on pretty quickly for it being so new and rode with a nice gentleman from Tennessee. It’s a really cool ride, with terrific views of the park as you come out of the tunnels. The animatronics are amazing, too. As much as I wasn’t wowed by the Little Mermaid ride, I was completely impressed by the Mine Train. Two thumbs up.

I texted Jenn when I got off and found that they were in the air-conditioning over at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe. I joined them and we got some lunch while Jenn went to take her turn on the Mine Train. It was a good and necessary lunch. Everyone cooled down and hydrated and stopped crying. Jenn came back equally impressed with Seven Dwarves. With everyone feeling a little better, we decided to take off and spend the hot afternoon in the pool at the resort.

We tried to put Matt down for a nap, but he refused. So everyone went swimming. Well, Rachel went swimming. Matt sat on the patio of the pool area pulling wood chips out of a planter and making a mess. He covered himself in wood chips and even managed to cut himself a little with one. He is a gremlin.

After the pool, we took some showers and got ready for our dinner at Be Our Guest. Rachel put on her Belle dress and I accidentally dressed Matt to match. Pretty cute for not having planned it. We took the bus back to the Magic Kingdom and made our way to the Beast’s castle.

We were really looking forward to this and it did not disappoint. What an unbelievably beautiful restaurant. We got sat in the ballroom, but we walked all over to see everything. It looked just like the movie in every way! We loved the snow falling outside the windows in the ballroom. The food was good, the dessert was amazing. The Beast walked through the restaurant as they announced he would be meeting guests in the drawing room.

Once we finished up dinner, we went and met the Beast. Rachel got to dance with him. This meant on this trip she got to dance with Belle while dressed as the Beast and also got to dance with the Beast while dressed as Belle! That’s pretty good.

After that, Jenn took the kids over to check out Gaston’s Tavern while I ran to grab a fourth Fastpas for us from the kiosk. I managed to get a Pirates (Pee-rates) Fastpass that started in half an hour. Finally, the Fastpass system seemed to be working in our favor. I went over to Gaston’s and met up with the family. I got to hold Belle in my lap on Gaston’s chair which was nice.

While waited for Fastpass window, we watched Mickey’s Philharmagic one more time. The kids loved it once again. Matthew laughed and laughed at Donald. Afterward, we walked over to Pirates (Pee-rates) as the sun set. By the time we got there, night was fast on its way. We were going to use our Fastpass, but Pirates was closed for the moment with a mechanical problem. Did I mention that happening a lot? I did? Ok, well there you go.

We went over to the Tiki Room to kill some time while they worked on the problem. The kids liked it just a much a second time. When it was over, the line at Pirates was moving again. We used our Fastpass to get almost all the way up to the ride...where the line completely stopped again. Matt was starting to fade as it was past his regular bedtime. We decided to bail before he started screaming. We stopped by the Fastpass kiosk to grab a new one for Buzz Lightyear. By the time we made it over to Tomorrowland, Matthew was asleep in his stroller. Jenn pushed him around while Rachel and I used our Fastpasses to get on Space Ranger Spin.

I tried to lose to her...but it’s just too easy to score. She got upset that I won and I had to remind her that it was just for fun. Parenting never ends, no matter where you are. Matt woke up when we got back to them. We gave him a sucker which made him happy and went on the Tomorrowland People Mover. That was a lot of fun. I had never ridden it at night. The park is very pretty all lit up.

After that, we spent a little time dancing with the Incredible’s dance party. We asked Rachel if she wanted to stay for the parade and she did. She really wanted to see Tinkerbell fly over to the castle. So, we went and found a spot to watch and began to wait. Matt fell asleep again and we shared some drinks from a nearby cart. After about half an hour, though, it became apparent that Rachel couldn’t make it. She was getting too sleepy. Maybe one day we’ll stay long enough to see Wishes, but this trip it was not in the cards.

We took the long crowded walk out of the park, but by doing it when we did, we avoided the huge rush of people after the parade. We rode back to the resort with two exhausted kids and some sore feet. The trip was beginning to take its toll, but all in all it was a fun day in the park. The Magic Kingdom at night is truly beautiful. We made it back to the room and collapsed, thankful that we had an easy morning planned the next day.

 

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Day Six: Thursday, October 9, 2014
We had planned a character breakfast for every morning of the trip, except for our day at Hollywood Studios. This was our morning to sleep in and leisurely eat breakfast at the resort before going to the park. It didn’t really work out that way, though, as Matthew decided it was time to get up at 5:15 AM. I changed his diaper and put him back in the stroller to get his loudness out of the room.

We spent the morning playing with stones over i the Cars section and running around in the grass. Eventually it got to be close to 7 AM, and I took him back over to our room to collect the girls for breakfast. We ate a nice breakfast in our PJs before going back and getting ready. We rode out to Hollywood Studios for park open.

Either we missed park open there, or there was no park open. I’d never been there early enough to know, but there didn’t seem to be any sort of special performance to open. They just started letting people in.

This sort of speaks to Hollywood Studios in general. It’s just not up to par with the other parks in my opinion. It’s sort of blah and doesn’t really have that Disney feel. Oh well, it does have some things inside, it’s just not our favorite.

We hoofed it straight back to the Frozen Sing-A-Long and we managed to get into the first showing. We thought we’d be singing along with actual actors and actresses, but aside from the two narrators and some lackluster performances from some of the movie’s characters, we mostly watched clips of the movie with the words on the screen like a glorified version of the DVD’s special features. Jenn and I were a little disappointed. However, we did it for Rachel and she loved it. So, I guess it was a success. Seemed pretty bland to us, though.

After that, we rode the Toy Story ride where I once again failed to lose to Rachel and she threw a fit afterward. Come on. There are lots of places to throw a tantrum. Disney World is not one of them. We put her in a timeout on the side of the path in the Midway area until she calmed down. Like I said, parenting never ends.

Finally, we went over to the Muppet theater for the 3D movie. It was fun, but it is no Mickey’s Philharmagic. It is showing signs of age. We think it may be time to incorporate elements from the new Muppet movies and do an update. Still, it was cute and we had a good time.

After that, we went over to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground, but Matt fell asleep on the walk over. Jenn sat on a bench with Matt asleep in his stroller while Rachel blew off some energy in the playground. I ran over to Star Tours to use our Fastpass. I love Star Wars, but the prequels were lame. And, aside from Darth Vader, everything on my ride was from the prequels. I was had to ride it with a par of nine people from the UK who might have been the rudest individuals I’ve ever seen at Disney World. They were so upset that their daughter wasn’t tall enough for the ride, they were yelling and swearing at the cast members like it was their fault that the measurement stick was too big. Not the greatest of experiences.

I got back to the playground to find Matt still asleep and Rachel still having fun. I got a nice picture of her getting off one of the big slides. While that movie may be fading into history, the playground is still awesome, giant Kodak film canister and all.

It was getting close to time for lunch at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater so we headed over there to wait for our reservation. Matt woke up from his nap hungry and thirsty, but we got sat fairly quickly and got our food as fast as you can expect. What a cool restaurant. We had a blast watching the old movie trailers. Rachel got to sit in the driver’s seat and was so happy to get her driver’s licence. I had a gigantic bacon cheeseburger that was just burger perfection. Oh, the glorious carbs...so many carbs.

After lunch, we headed back to the front of the park to go back to the resort. We stopped at Keystone Clothiers on our way out. If you've never been in this store, check it out. It has really nice adult clothes that you just can’t seem to find at other stores. I found a nice gray polo shirt that was better than all of the golf shirts I could find elsewhere.

We went back to the resort for more swimming and one more load of laundry. Also, more wood chips for Matt. I think he liked that better than the pool itself. After a relaxing afternoon at the pool, we got cleaned up for dinner at Cape May Cafe at the Beach Club Resort. We took the bus back to Hollywood Studios and caught the boat over to the Beach Club. The kids liked the boat ride. We had another perfect evening. Bright and sunny and not too hot. Perfect for a little boat trip.

We got to the Beach Club in plenty of time for our 5:30 PM reservations. When he had come with just Rachel back in 2011, Cape May was our favorite meal of the trip. It’s an amazing buffet with all-you-can-eat crab legs, shrimp, prime rib, chicken - you name it, it’s there. We loved it in 2011 and it was just as good in 2014. Unbelievable food. For the price, you can do a lot worse at other restaurants on property. The kids liked it all, too. Rachel is a little champ at eating crab legs. Definitely her mother’s daughter.

After dinner, we took a walk over to the boardwalk to get some ice cream at Seashore Sweets. The evening was just perfect as the sun dipped below the Yacht Club resort across the water. We had a nice breeze and a great view as we sat in the gorgeous courtyard of the Boardwalk Resort munching our ice cream. Matt loved his ice cream, too, though he wound up wearing quite a bit of it.

This was probably my single favorite moment of the trip. When I look back on it as my kids grow up and this trip fades into history, I will always remember my kids at this age munching on ice cream in the most Magical Place on Earth. These are the moments you go hope to have when you plan the trip. You can’t predict where they’ll be or what you’ll be doing, but they are the moments that stick with you and put a smile on your face years later.

After we finished our ice cream, we cleaned Matt up as best we could and headed down the boardwalk to look at some of the shops. When we came out of the art store, we ran into another piece of Disney magic. A street magician was just beginning his performance right there on the boardwalk. We pulled up and watched his show. Rachel was amazed by his tricks. He did some rope tricks and a balloon trick with an audience members cell phone getting placed inside the balloon before moving on to card tricks. I got asked to select a card. I pulled the Ace of Spades. As he wound up the trick, he correctly guessed the other three cards audience members had selected before pausing on mine. He had me check the time, and the card was folded and stuck between my watch and my wrist! It was a cool trick. Rachel was amazed, and she got to keep the magic card. Of course, she lost it....or did it disappear?

Matt was starting to get pretty sleepy as the sun went down, so we grabbed the boat back to Hollywood Studios. We cruised back through the dark looking at all the lights on the water. What a great dinner and evening. We caught the bus back to the resort from the Studios to get some rest. We had one last day in the parks the next day, and everybody fell asleep soundly.

 

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Day Seven: Friday, October 10, 2014
We awoke for our final day in the parks around 5:30 AM to our Matthew alarm clock. Neither Jenn or I really had the energy to walk him around, so we just snuggled him into bed with us and managed to snooze for a bit while we let Rachel catch up on some sleep. Eventually, we got up and got ready for one more day of excitement. We were all a little sad that the vacation was coming to a close, but I think we were all a little excited to get back to our own beds, too.

That morning we had 8:30 AM reservations for the character breakfast at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian. To put it mildly, Jenn is a bit of a fan of Alice in Wonderland, so we were looking forward to meeting Alice and the Mad Hatter. I was also looking forward to riding the monorail, just because it is cool. It’s almost a ride unto itself, even if it’s just public transportation.

We took a bus to the Magic Kingdom and hopped aboard the monorail to the Grand Floridian. The greatest part about the monorail ride (besides the awesome views of the Bay Lake area) is that you can take the stroller on-board without having to fold it up! After a week of doing that everywhere we went, it felt like pure luxury to let Matthew ride i n his own seat for the trip. Holding a squirming toddler on every single leg of every journey gets old.
We arrived at the Grand Floridian in plenty of time for our reservations. It’s such a pretty resort. We like to visit every trip, but I don’t think we would ever spend the money to stay there. It is perfect for a day’s visit, though.

We got a very nice family picture as a part of our breakfast reservation that actually became our Christmas card.

The buffet at 1900 Park Fare is just your typical breakfast buffet. It’s nothing exciting, but we got the chance to see Pooh and Tigger again which Matt was very excited about. He just loves Tigger! He is not a fan of Mary Poppins, however. He screamed bloody murder when she came near. I just don’t get it, but like I said, he’s our special little guy.

Finally, Alice came around which was the whole reason for going. Jenn showed off her beautiful Alice sleeve tattoo. Alice was flattered. Matt didn’t like Alice, either. Jenn took him to the bathroom to avoid the Mad Hatter altogether. I think that was wise. Rachel met him, though, and thought he was hilarious.

After breakfast, we took a little tour of the Grand Floridian’s second floor. I peeked into Citrico’s which I had never seen before. Even empty, it looked pretty nice. Maybe one day we’ll eat there...probably once the kids are a little older. We also stopped at the Commander Porter’s menswear store mainly to ask if there was a monorail that ran in the opposite direction. The answer is no. It goes clockwise around the bay, and that’s it. Commander Porter’s is a nice place to get questions like that answered. If we were unfortunately laden with wads and wads of money weighing us down, it would also be a great place to shop. However, since we are not swimming in pools of cash, we merely said thank you and headed out to the monorail.

Our plan for the final day was to spend the day in Epcot for the Food & Wine Festival. This gave us the opportunity to ride the monorail all the way which is something we’d never done. You have to change at the TTC station, but it is a very quick and enjoyable ride. After a week of bus travel, a nice smooth train is a good change of pace.

Our first order of business at Epcot was to do some shopping at MouseGears and take care of all of the gifts and final souvenirs we needed. While Jenn and the kids took their time browsing, I ran over to Mission: Space for my solo Fastpass to Mars. I hadn’t been on Mission: Space since our trip way back in 2006, but it was just as much fun as I remembered it. I got to be the pilot this time around, and I executed all of my maneuvers flawlessly, thank you very much.

When I was done, I found everyone still browsing in MouseGears. In case you were not aware, this is one of the best stores on property. It has nearly everything you can find at the big store in Downtown Disney, with less shoppers and some Epcot specific items you can’t find elsewhere. Rachel and Jenn got really nice PJs, we found a great birthday present for the young son of our best friends and we got Matthew some darling bath toys of Mickey, Goofy, Donald and Pluto. He plays with them every night. Rachel also got a Minnie Mouse make-up kit out of which we did not get as much use. The make-up was fake and the brush was flimsy and broke almost immediately. Well, you win some and you lose some.

With all of our purchases in tow, we strapped them to the stroller and headed over to the Land Pavilion so Jenn and Rachel could use their Fastpass for another ride on Soarin’. While they rode, I pushed Matt around in the stroller and he fell sound asleep. I took the opportunity to head back to the front of the park and get a locker for our big bag of merchandise. I got back to the Land just as Jenn and Rachel were coming out. Rachel loved Soarin’ for the third time.

We entered World Showcase on a mission to get Rachel’s face painted. All week, we had told her we would let her get her face painted later. We kept looking for an opportunity where we weren’t immediately going to wash it off in the pool. Well, we had put it off long enough and it was now time. On Thursday, we had been told by the cast members at the face painting kiosk at Hollywood Studios that there was face painting in World Showcase by Germany. So, we went to Germany. There was no face painting, but there was a whole lot of extra beer salesmen for Food & Wine. We made our first mistake by asking one of them who obviously wasn’t a permanent Epcot employee where the face painting was located. He told us it was in Morocco, so we set off for the other side of World Showcase.

It was starting to get very hot. This was the brightest and hottest of any day of the trip. By the time we made it to Morocco, we were tired and ready for a break. Unfortunately, there was no face painting in Morocco, either. This time, we asked a few more Food & Wine employees who had no clue until finally finding an actual cast member who told us it was in the African Outpost...the African Outpost that was on the other side of Germany where this whole thing began.

What a mess. We really should have figured it out before walking all over, but then we never would have heard Rachel’s best joke of the trip. While on our way back to Africa, we stopped into the nice air-conditioning of the American Adventure pavilion to take a rest and to get Rachel a cheeseburger. While we rehydrated with lots of water and soaked in the cool air, Rachel remarked, “The Food & Wine Festival: Where everybody’s drunk and nobody knows where the face painting is.” Jenn and I cracked up. That sentence has become legendary in our house as indicative of our daughter’s sense of humor. She is the sharpest six-year-old I know.

With Rachel fed and Matt still napping in the stroller, Jenn and I stopped at Via Napoli in Italy for a couple slices of pizza. That’s when Matt woke up starving and proceeded to eat half of our pizza! That was okay, though, as there was more than enough and it was so good. If you’re looking for a quick bite, you can do a lot worse than the pizza window at Via Napoli.

After lunch, we finally made it back to the African Outpost and Rachel got her face painted. I entertained Matt with all of the ESPN balls that inexplicably covered the African trade store while his sister got expert attention. I get that World Cup soccer is a big deal in Africa like many other places, but I don’t automatically picture a FIFA soccer ball adorned with the ESPN logo when I think of the African continent. It seems like they could have put some more actual African merchandise there, but oh well. It kept Matt busy.

Rachel was ecstatic with the way her face turned out, so it was worth the money and the effort in locating it.

We stopped in China afterward to meet Mulan and I wound up buying even more things for the kids as they wilted in the sun. Rachel got a cute panda bear umbrella to keep the sun off of her and Matt got a chinese dragon puppet that he just had to have...that he has never cared about since. Oh well.

With Mulan met and the new items purchased, we decided it was just too hot. It was time to go back to the resort and get out of the sun for awhile. We stripped everybody down to their underwear when we got back to the room and let them cool off while Jenn and I packed up. This is never the most fun time of the trip, but it is necessary. Unless you want complete chaos in the morning when you fly out, it’s best to spend some time getting organized and packing the room up the day before.

After a couple hours getting that stuff done and vegging out in front of Mickey Mouse cartoons, we got everybody dressed again for one final jaunt into the park. We went straight to the Land Pavilion when we got back to Epcot to feed the kids at Sunshine Seasons and use our Fastpasses for Living with the Land. The kids loved Living with the Land. I don’t know what it is about that ride, but Rachel loved it when she was three and Matt loved it, too. There must be something about hydroponics that appeals to young children.

They wanted to ride it again, but we had reservations for our final dinner at Chefs de France. This was another restaurant where we fed the kids ahead of time and I’m glad we did. Jenn and I were not entirely impressed with the food or the service for the price. It wasn’t bad, but in World Showcase there are so many options, this is not one that we’ll likely take again. Still, I’m glad we did it. The France Pavilion is really nice. We got ice cream for dessert from L’Artisan des Glaces that everyone loved.

We pushed our way through the crowd afterward, but things were quickly becoming too crowded for us. The Food & Wine Festival, especially on a Friday night is crazy. If we were there without kids, it would have been fine, but at the end of a long week with two tired kids, we took it as a sign to get going.

On the way, I took Rachel on one final ride on the Three Caballeros in Mexico.

She told me she was sad that it was over, but that she was happy, too. I told her that was the feeling ‘bittersweet’. She thought that sounded right. She’s such a good kid.

We headed out of the park as the sun started to dip below the horizon and took one last post-park bus ride back to the resort. I took Rachel down to the pool for one final dip. She pretended to be Ariel and I pretended to be King Triton and we had a niced daddy-daughter hour before I finally was able to talk her into getting out. She told me, “I have that bittersweet feeling again.” I told her so did I. Then I hugged her, we went upstairs, got changed, and slept one last time in our resort room.

 

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Day Eight: Saturday, October 11, 2014
We awoke for another day of travel just like every other day with Matthew standing up in his crib and crying. We changed his diaper and set about getting all of our last minute items packed and ready and everyone showered. With all of our luggage, we made our way down to the food court for breakfast. As we neared the end of the meal, we went over everything to make sure we had it all. Our luggage was packed to the gills, but it seemed we did have everything...except for the ticket to get our car out of the parking service we used! It was back in the room. So, I took one more walk down to the Little Mermaid section of the Art of Animation Resort, located the ticket in the little Disney coupon booklet I had mistakenly disregarded as trash earlier, then hoofed it back to the main building. We loaded up on the Magical Express and left the World behind.

Thankfully, Matthew slept the entire plane ride back to Detroit and we had no incidents at all. We made it back to the house where all of our pets were super excited to see us and us them. We were even more excited to see our beds, but don’t tell the animals that. It was an amazing trip filled with wonderful memories. We already can’t wait to do it again. And, now, I’m getting that bittersweet feeling…

Until next time, have a magical day!

 

[dglilbit]

Great report! Thank you for your great notes. I took my own notes as I've just started planning our first ever family trip to WDW!