Saturday, June 22, 2013

Disney Magic

The formatting on Blogger with pictures and text drives me insane. But, I'm not going to let that hold me back from posting this any longer.  It isn't going to be perfect and may not be pretty, but oh well.  Here we go . . .


We had the opportunity to take the girls to Disney for the first time in early May. We went to Magic Kingdom and also Hollywood Studios. They loved it! Nik and I enjoyed ourselves as well. My Mom and Uncle Peter joined us for Magic Kingdom. Nik's cousin Melissa, her husband and their son Dominick were able to join us for part of Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studio's.

These princess poncho's that I ordered from Macy's came in handy. When we first arrived at Magic Kingdom, it was chilly and the boat ride over to the park entrance was very windy.



The girls cozied up with the poncho's while they watched our view of the castle as we approached.  They also were invaluable at the end of the night when it got cold.




The girls were very excited as we arrived and I must admit that I was as well.  I have been to the Magic Kingdom about three times, but not since I was much younger (a teenager I think).  Nik had never been to Magic Kingdom at all either.  Cinderella's Castle (although a little smaller than Nik and I expected) was gorgeous.  We also arrived just in time to see the show ending at the castle.
The first attraction we did was Enchanted Tales with Belle.  Some of the audience joined in with a story-telling performance with Belle herself.  Nik was one of Belle's guard's where he got to stand up in front and protect Belle the entire time.  Christina and Gwen sat in front, CC was a picture frame and Gwen was a fork and spoon combo.  Afterwards, they all got pictures with Belle.
My Mom and Olivia even got a picture with Belle.
We loved meeting so many characters at Disney.  My only complaint is that the lighting in all of the rooms is awful for my iPhone camera.  Of course Disney takes their own pictures which come out fabulous, but at $15 per picture, they aren't exactly affordable.

One of the things I loved most about the Magic Kingdom was that we could all go on almost all of the rides together, as a family.  Even Olivia, at five months old, could go on the rides with us.  That made the trip so much nicer because we could all stay together.

We got the chance to meet Ariel.
Olivia was such a good girl the entire time.
It was really nice to spend some time with our cousin Dominick.  The girls had fun meeting their little cousin for the first time.
The girls were excited to get autographs from some of the characters.
They met Rosetta the Fairy and TinkerBelle.
TinkerBelle was quite a character and she talked almost non-stop.  She went on and on about some random things that Christina really payed attention to.  Apparently she said that she only liked to fly in the winter.  Later that night when we watched the end of the night show at the castle, TinkerBelle flew down from the castle and onto the ground (literally, came down on a wire or something).  Christina asked me why TinkerBelle was flying when she said she only likes to fly in the winter.  It was cute.


Just as it was getting dark, it was time for the grown ups to have some fun.  We took turns with the kids so that we could go on Space Mountain.  It was just as awesome as I remembered it!

By the end of the day, the kids were tired but still behaving (suprisingly!).  The end of the night show on the castle was amazing!  Hundreds of people gathered together to stare at the castle. It was like a movie that was played on the castle as well as fireworks above the castle.

By the time it ended, it was pretty late and seconds afterwards, all of the kids were asleep :-)


My Mom and Uncle Peter had to leave the next morning, but we were able to go to Hollywood Studio's with the kids and our cousins.
Hollywood Studio's had some fun things to offer, but we were so exhausted that we didn't stay long.  There were many character meet and greet opportunities that we didn't want to miss though. 
First, we got to meet Handy Manny.
 Next, we got to meet Mickey Mouse himself!
 We also got to see a Disney Live show which featured stories from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sofia the First, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. It was great (except for the part where we all had to sit on the ground - not so fun for me).


Cars were there, so we got to "meet" them as well.  I was surprised by how big they were.
Last, but not least, I think we were the most excited to meet Wreck it Ralph and Venelope. We love that movie and were willing to wait on a pretty big line (and skip the last chance for the Beauty and the Beast show) just so that we could meet them. Wreck it Ralph was HUGE.


As we were getting ready to go and just walking around the park, we found this awesome little spot.  The wall was made to look like the hills in San Francisco.  We all took a bunch of pictures in front of it because it was such a nice backdrop.