Trip Report **COMPLETE** The "SURPRISE!!! We're not going to Pittsburgh... We're going to Disney World!!" TR

Hi everyone! My family and I just got back from an amazing week at the Beach Club Villas and I'm going to try my best to do a trip report, because I learned SO much by reading everyone else's on here.

First off, for full disclosure, I realized as I was looking through our pics after we got back, that other than one Lapu Lapu and several Mickey Bars, I didn't take one. single. food pic. My only excuse is that I was so excited to eat all the delicious food that I didn't take the time to photograph it. So if you read trip reports for the food pics, you will be sorely disappointed with my TR.
I did, however, eat a TON of delicious food, and kept good notes, so hopefully that will make up for the lack of pics.

This was our first family trip to WDW. This is our family-

Kevin and me

Calvin and Claire


I (Michelle) went to Disney World in 1994 when I was 14 with my family to the MK, Epcot and MGM Studios. I also went to the MK for one day trips in 1998 and 2005. My husband (Kevin) went to the MK in 1978 as a 5 year old and remembers nothing. This was the WDW experience between the two of us.
I am, however, a huge lover of all things Disney and have been dreaming of taking my kids to Disney World since before they technically existed.
So last summer, I told my husband "That's it. Claire is three and Calvin is five. They are the perfect age for Disney magic. We are going to Disney World next February break". Since I do all of our vacation research, planning and prep (a mutual choice, not because I'm some control freak ), he basically nodded and went along with it. And I'm pretty sure he loves me and knew how important this trip was to me.

So after much research and planning, we decided to rent points through David's to stay at the Beach Club for a week. We also decided to keep it a secret from our kids and to tell them the day before we left. We live about an hour south of Buffalo NY in a frozen tundra called Lakewood. Seriously though, it has been flipping freezing this winter, more so than usual, and I was beyond ready to escape the cold. We told our kids about two weeks before we were set to leave, that we were going to a hotel in Pittsburgh (we were flying out of Pittsburgh) with an indoor pool. They were so excited about this. I couldn't WAIT to tell them we were actually going to Disney World.
But based on my son's reaction when we told them, I think I may have gone a little overboard with the Disney jug we kept on the counter and saving our money up for our "someday in the very far off future" trip to Disney World. Next up is their reaction when we told them...

 

[mishel635]

We headed over to Future World. First up was our Fastpass for Spaceship Earth. I was really excited for this because I remembered it from when I was at Epcot as a kid and I knew Calvin and Claire would love it.

While walking towards SSE, we had our first encounter with a Brazilian tour group. There were at least fifty of them in the standby line, all wearing pink shirts with matching backpacks, and singing songs in a language I did not know. We were outside of SSE for about two minutes in the fastpass line and they sang it twice, which we didn't mind. It was actually pretty entertaining, but I could see how it could get old fast if you were standing in that standby line with them for a long period of time!!

We quickly got onto the ride and other than Claire asking me why it was so dark a few times, the kids LOVED it! I really enjoy this ride as well. Claire loved at the end where we designed our future world with our pictures on the way down. When we got off, we waited a bit to get a turn driving the car game which the kids loved.

Climbing Daddy Mountain in front of SSE

We then headed over to The Land. We had Fastpasses for Living with the Land and Soarin'. First up was Living with the Land which we didn't even use our Fastpass for as there was no line yet! I thought this ride was great. Very tame, but a nice little boat ride that was very interesting. The kids loved it, especially at the end where we went through all the crops. They guessed what a lot of them were, and I told them what the others were. Very interesting.

We got off Living with the Land, and since it wasn't time for our Soarin' Fastpass yet, we decided to watch "The Circle of Life" We all love The Lion King, so I figured this would be a big hit and I was right. (Although I am pretty sure my husband slept through the whole thing. ) I am always teaching the kids about recycling and the environment so this was right up our alley. Afterwards we talked about how we do things at home to help, and I loved that they really got the message.

We headed down to Soarin' where the standby line was already 60 minutes.

We all got inj line thinking Claire was fine for this since they measured her at Star Tours the other day and didn't even question that she was tall enough, but the cast member working at Soarin said she was juuuuuust a hair short. I even told him that she had ridden Star Tours two days ago but he wouldn't let her on. He's the "expert" so I didn't argue, and Calvin and Kevin had already scanned their Magic Bands, so I told them to go on ahead and ride it. The guy who wouldn't let Claire on gave us a "Rider swap Fastpass" so I figured maybe I would go on with Calvin again if he liked it.

Claire and I weren't going to let that get us down though so we got some cotton candy and had a dance party while we waited. There was lots of spinning and twirling going on in "The Land"" that day my friends!!!

Well, we ended up waiting about twenty minutes from the time they got on until they got off, and I didn't want to make Claire wait again while I went on, so we decided to head out. I figured maybe I could find time to get a fastpass on Saturday to go on before we left if I really wanted to. Kevin and Calvin absolutely LOVED it and Kevin said he liked it even more than Star Tours, which had been his favorite ride up until this point.

We headed out of The Land and still couldn't find Claire's sunglasses, and it was getting pretty hot, so I told Kevin I would run into Mouse Gear to get her another pair and he could let the kids get their feet wet in the dancing fountains... I should have known better when I uttered these words. I came out with Claire's cute new sunglasses and found this...

I love that the monorail is in the background of this picture...

It was impossible to be upset that they were soaking wet when they were having the time of their lives... They both said this was their favorite thing of the day!!!

Well, Calvin and Kevin wanted to go back to the resort for some pool time, but Claire and I wanted to keep our plan to walk around the world. (She really wanted to check out the "Frozen store" - the store in Norway where everyone at the MK had told us we could find the Frozen dolls and books) So I used the towel I had been keeping in the bottom of the stroller all week ("just in case" ) and got her as dry as I could. Kevin and Calvin took off for the Beach Club, and Claire and I headed off to walk through all the countries. We also had a lunch ADR at 1:30 for Via Napoli and I was crossing my fingers that they would let us get our meal to go and eat it at the resort...

Next up, a girls trip through the World Showcase!

 

[mishel635]

Claire and I headed off towards Mexico to start out walk around the World Showcase. I knew we wouldn't be able to do a really thorough tour, but I had a few places in mind that I definitely wanted to stop at...

First stop was Norway to see if we could finally find Claire an Elsa Barbie doll. She kept saying she wanted a Frozen book too. She has an Anna doll that she got for Christmas and since then we have not been able to find an Elsa doll ANYWHERE!!!! I was hoping to find the costume as well. However when we got there, we found neither! The Norway store, where everyone had told us to go for Frozen items, was sold out of pretty much everything Elsa!!! Oh well. She did find her Frozen book, and we were able to see Anna and Elsa doing their meet and greets from the Norway store, so she was happy!

Got a glimpse of Anna and Elsa (but only a pic of Anna)

On our way out of Norway, I stopped to ask a Cast Member working near the line for Anna and Elsa how long the wait was, and she stated approximately 3-4 hours. Luckily Claire had no desire to be in line that long. Maybe we will meet Anna and Elsa next trip!

Went through China and didn't really stop for much here. I was hoping to maybe catch the acrobats but they weren't there when we were. Kept on going, and got to Germany. I was hoping to find Karmel Kuche, and I didn't have to worry because you can just find it by smell!!! Oh my goodness! SO good!!!! Claire and I went in, and decided to use up a bunch of our snack credits since we had barely used any yet... We chose several sea salt caramels, some chocolate and caramel covered pretzels, and several cookies- chocolate caramel and German chocolate. Those sea salt caramels were absolutely delicious!!!!!! I wish I would have used WAY more snack credits on those!!

Claire LOVED the Snow White topiaries.

Headed over to Italy where we had our ADR for lunch. Spoke with the girl at the desk, but she said that since they are a table service restaurant they cannot do "to go" meals. I figured this might be the case, but I was still SO disappointed!!!! I guess Claire and I could have sat down ourselves, but I could tell she was getting tired. Luckily because we showed up she said we wouldn't get charged the cancellation fee so that was good at least. I guess Via Napoli is going on our next trip to do list as well!!!!!

I wish I would have taken the time to get more pictures of Italy because it is just so gorgeous.

By this point Claire was pretty tired, although she was happily reading her Frozen book as we went around the world!

I snapped one more quick pic...

I thought about stopping for a Grey Goose slushie in France as that was on my must try list for this trip, but the line was pretty long and I just wanted to get back to the resort...

 

[mishel635]

Claire and I made it back to the resort to find Calvin and Kevin having another lightsaber fight.

The kids rested for a little bit but never actually napped. We swam for a bit in our quiet pool at the Villas. The kids had fun but I told Kevin, "From now on, when we go swimming, let's not mess around." Stormalong Bay is the way to go!

After our swim, we got ready for dinner at Ohana! Grabbed a cab, and arrived just in time to see a firedancer lighting the torches. We were so caught up in it all, that I completely forgot to get a picture. The kids were mesmerized. He lit the ground on fire and did all sorts of crazy moves while not hurting himself... Awesome!

Got our "blinker/buzzer" and only had to wait about 10 minutes. I actually looked around at the shops and food stand that was nearby but didn't get anything. We were seated by the windows in the back so we couldn't see the fire pit from our seats, but they showed us on the way in and the kids loved it!

We were seated and our server Gabriel was great! I ordered a lapu lapu, mostly because I wanted a drink out of a giant pineapple.

It was pretty good, but I think next time I'm going to try one of those beautiful Island Sunrises (I think that's what they're called) that I saw in Tuvalu's trip report! They look delicious!!!!

First up was the salad, which was really good!!! Kevin and Calvin and I finished that off pretty quick!!! (Claire's not really a salad person). The veggies and noodles that came next were even better! Those noodles were SOOOO good!!!!! We were also serenaded during our meal. Claire really loved this, so he actually came back a couple times.

Up next came the meats.... oh my goodness!!!!! Everything was so good!! Even my kids ate a ton of this meat. They normally will eat some, but they couldn't get enough of everything but the shrimp. Kevin and I loved everything, especially the beef. I don't know what they put on all of this, but it was delicious!!! At one point, one of the servers came over with beef, and despite being stuffed, I caved and told him I'd take two more pieces. Kevin declined. He started walking away and then turned back and gave Kevin a few more pieces and said "You were following me with your eyes man... just have a couple more." It was so funny!!!

We were all SO stuffed, but they brought us our dessert. The kids were loving the ice cream sundaes. When Kevin heard them say Bread pudding he actually said to me after our server left, "Seriously? We're going to end an amazing dinner like that with bread pudding?" but I just told him that it was supposed to be really good, and we had to at least try it.

Well, we tried it.... AND we finished it. Oh. My Goodness. That dessert was worth the entire cost of our meal. Seriously, Kevin said it was the best dessert he's ever had. And his mother is Italian and an amazing cook and baker (and I'm not too shabby in the kitchen myself ). He still talks about it.


We decided to take the Monorail since we hadn't yet and we were hoping to watch Illuminations at Epcot if the kids were still awake. Unfortunately, about two minutes after we got on the monorail, they were both passed out!!! We got to the TTC and were heading up the ramp to catch the Epcot monorail. The two men working there were pretty loud and obviously having fun with the people waiting for the monorail. When we got to them, the first one says to me "Are you here for Aunt B's birthday party?" So of course I responded the only way I know how, "Of course!!!! Why else would we be here???" He started cracking up and directed us to the line where "Aunt B" and her party were waiting... only to find our old neighbors!!! Turns out "Aunt B" was the sister of our old neighbor!! She works as a puppeteer in the Finding Nemo musical and they were down here visiting her. Their youngest son is in the same school as Calvin and my husband is their oldest son's health teacher!! Talk about "It's a small world!"

We walked through beautiful Epcot at night, while the kids never even blinked an eye!!!

The Boardwalk at night is gorgeous!!!

We made it back to our resort, and the kids were in bed at 8:45!!!!

Coming up next... Magic Kingdom Day 2, starting with Chef Mickey's!!!!

 

[mishel635]

I woke up early because I couldn't go back to sleep once I realized it was Magic Kingdom day again!!!!! I love all the parks, but Magic Kingdom just holds that special place in my heart and I was so excited to go back!!!

The kids found their note for the day and were so excited that we were having breakfast with everyone at Chef Mickey's. I don't think Claire believed us at first when we told her Minnie Mouse would be at breakfast. She was so excited!

(Sorry to all the grammar perfectionists out there... this your/you're escaped my notice when I was proofreading! Lol. )

We went out to get a cab to the Contemporary, which was so cool! It was my first time there and I couldn't get over how the monorail goes through the building! The kids loved it too.

We went right up to Chef Mickey's and had our pictures taken.

Yes, that's right, we are THAT family with the matching Mickey shirts. I just couldn't help myself when I bought them online for the kids and saw that they had them in mine and Kevin's sizes too. And it's a testament to how much my husband loves me that he agreed to wear it without even a complaint. He's a wonderful man, and an amazing husband and dad, but he's NOT a matching shirts kind of guy, if you know what I mean!

We waited a few minutes and then we were seated. The kids could already see Mickey and Goofy and loved that they were in chef's outfits. I told them that they all made our breakfast and they thought that was the coolest thing. Hey, I can only use the Disney magic thing for so long and I was playing it up on this trip!!

We went up and got our food, and everything was good, basic buffet type stuff but very good.

Mickey was the first to come visit us...

Not sure what was going on with my camera here but a lot of my pictures are blurry.

Next up was some serious napkin twirling!

Not sure how those things weren't flying everywhere during that song!


It wasn't long before Goofy came along... My favorite! Goofy and Donald were definitely the most fun to interact with during our stay...

Goofy is a giant!!!!

He was just a lot fun!

Next up came Donald. He made the kids aware that he didn't like their shirts! He pointed to their shirts, gave the thumbs down, and then pointed to himself and did a thumbs up. They thought he was hilarious.

 

[mishel635]

Too funny!!!!!

Claire was in love with Minnie. It was so funny to me how she would seem a little nervous when she was meeting her favorite characters (Minnie, Snow White, Pocahontas)

Pluto!!!!

I love that she grabbed his dog tag.

Goodbye Chef Mickey's! Until next time!! I loved the character interaction here, and I was nervous that it would take forever, but we were not here long at all. Maybe 45 minutes? I don't know if we just got lucky or if that's how it always is, but to meet all 5 characters in the amount of time that we did, was pretty impressive to me. Definitely will go back again. Does anyone have any experience with their dinner or lunch menu??

On a weird side note, we had a strange interaction with one of the "character handlers" (character helpers? Not sure what to call them??? ) She commented on how much fun the kids were having, and somehow the conversation went to a video that her daughter sent her of a horse riding around in a car, and she then proceeded to pull it up on her phone and start showing it me. One of the characters came over to see the kids and she kept trying to get me watch it!!! I tried to be as polite as possible and just said "Yeah, you're right. That's really funny!" And then started taking pics of the kids. She was very nice, but it was a little bit odd. Am I right?

Both of my kids were obsessed with escalators during this trip! It's the little things! Lol.

 

[mishel635]

We left Chef Mickey's and decided to walk to the Magic Kingdom. Made our way through the long bag carrier line, (that and the erratic bus times were my only complaints about Disney World the whole time we were there. They definitely could use just a few more people working the bag inspection. And there were two different times where we were waiting for the bus for 40 minutes... once to MK and once to DTD)

Anyways, we got in and had a fastpass first thing to meet Mickey and Minnie on Main Street. At least I thought that's what it was for. Turns out they now have a Mickey who actually talks to you here!! It was awesome!!! We only waited about 10 minutes in line altogether and got to see a few other interactions while we were in the line and he said different things to all of us. The couple ahead of us were on their honeymoon and he congratulated them and said a few funny things. Very cool.

Before we knew it, it was our turn!

Mickey hugs are the best!!!

He asked the kids if they could bounce like Tigger with him...

Family picture with Mickey!!

Such a great experience! He probably talked with the kids for at least two or three minutes, and told them to be on the lookout for Winnie the Pooh, because he'd taken his honey!

After this we went up Main Street, and stopped for a picture.

What? A crane in our picture? We'll just make that a happy, little 2014 sign...

Headed through the castle to "It's a Small World". The wait was only 10 minutes and I don't even think we waited that long. We all loved it, even Kevin.

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Great trip report so far. Love reading and your kids are cuties!

 

[mishel635]

After IASW, we headed over to the Haunted Mansion. The kids had done a few spooky type of things at Halloween time this year, and I knew they would LOVE this ride! (And it's one of my favorites too! )

The new interactive exhibits in the line were a lot of fun.

Saw this going by... so neat! Wish we would have taken a ride on it.

Playing music...

Made it through HM, and both kids loved it, especially the dancing ghosts and the end when the ghosts were in the car with us. Mine and Claire's ghosts were playing with our hair and she couldn't stop talking about that the rest of the day!!!

After HM, we headed over to Philharmagic. There was only a ten minute standby line. I have to say, this was one of my favorite things we did... I actually teared up a little during "A Whole New World". I think it just hit me that I was actually at Disney with Kevin and the kids, like I had dreamed we would do since they were born. I'm a sentimental sap, I know!!!!!

After Philharmagic (which we all loved by the way! I couldn't get over how you could actually smell the food and the kids loved getting wet and Donald ending up stuck in the wall. Too cute!) we headed over to Main Street for the Dream Along with Mickey show in front of the castle. This was cute, and the kids loved it, especially with Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Wendy and Smee involved. We are huge Peter Pan fans!!!

Saw a trolley afterwards.... I need to get on one of those some day!


We then headed over to Buzz Lightyear for a fastpass again. This was the kids favorite MK ride!

We switched partners this time! My score was pretty much the same as the last time 126,000 I think?

Still not messing around people!

In jail again!!!!

 

[norhel]

Great report!

 

[MerMom1981]

Sentimental sap? You're in good company! Just reading about you sharing "A Whole New World" moment with your family gets me misty-eyed!

Reading your report is really scratching the Disney itch. Can't wait till my next trip!

 

[Betsyboo]

Got our "blinker/buzzer" and only had to wait about 10 minutes. I actually looked around at the shops and food stand that was nearby but didn't get anything. We were seated by the windows in the back so we couldn't see the fire pit from our seats, but they showed us on the way in and the kids loved it!

I'd been waiting for this part of your review. I haven't posted about Ohana yet in my TR but I'm sure glad you didn't have the wait we did. DH and I had a 50 minute wait. I had these grand ideas of viewing Wishes on the beach at the Poly and then walking up to our ADR that was at 8:10 (Wishes was at 8 that night). It was raining so that part didn't work out but I guess everyone seated at Ohanas that had a view of Wishes decided to sit tight until the end, which I totally understand, but that put everyone after them way behind. I've heard that Ohanas has a bad rap for long waits, but 50 minutes was a little much for me.

Glad it worked out for you guys.

 

[prfctlyximprct]

I'm loving all the disney themed outfits! Thinking of hiring you to do my wardrobe before my august trip!

 

[Betsyboo]

I've been singing Colors of the Wind all day!!!

 

[mishel635]

We took a ride on the Tomorrowland People Mover which we all enjoyed.
Just a nice relaxing ride and you can see so much...

After this we had a Fastpass for Pirates of the Caribbean, so we headed over to Adventureland!

I forgot how much I love this ride! The night sky is amazing and the story is just fun. We all loved this ride and the kids decided to use their gift cards in the POTC store. Calvin got a cap gun and Claire wanted a hook and a telescope.

Kevin and Calvin had a nice little duel before we left.

I had wanted to go on Jungle Cruise after this, but the standby line was 50 minutes so we decided to pass... I also had wanted to get Dole Whips while in Adventureland as well, but the line was at least 20 people and around to the back of the building so we decided on Mickey Bars instead!!!

By this point it was after 1:30 so we decided to head back to the resort for a rest. We were planning on coming back later that night for the electrical parade and Wishes.

Saw the Dapper Dans on our way out...

 

[mishel635]

We took a bus back to our resort and the kids took a nap. We had originally had an ADR for Cinderella's dinner at the Grand Floridian, but we had decided the day before that it would be too much running around and had cancelled it. I figured that will be a good dinner to do when the kids are a few years older on our next trip.

I went to Hurricane Hannah's to get us dinner. Kevin had the bacon cheeseburger, I tried the shrimp, scallop and lobster roll, and the kids each had a cheeseburger meal. The kids loved that their meals came in a bucket! Kevin said the burger was really good, and the seafood roll wasn't bad, but I didn't really like the dressing they used on the seafood. I think I'm just spoiled since we spent a week on Cape Cod last summer and the lobster roll is an art form there... But it wasn't bad.

We went to catch a bus back to the MK for the parade and Wishes.

This was one of the times when we had to wait for a bus for almost 40 minutes, so I was nervous that we wouldn't find a good spot for the parade, but we lucked out and got a front row spot right in the front circle at the front of the park.

We let the kids each pick one light up toy. These Minnie ears were the only thing Claire wanted...

Tinkerbell kicked off the parade!

These guys were great, spinning all over.

The kids were really getting into it now. We love Alice!

Cinderella!

Price Charming...

Snow White!

Pete's Dragon is one of our favorite Disney movies. We own it, and it is actually my Mom's favorite Disney movie of all (that and the Gnome-mobile... has anyone else seen that one?)

 

[mishel635]

We loved this parade!! I almost wanted to stay and watch it again.

President's Day Tribute...

We followed the parade up Main Street to the hub to watch Wishes...

I could not get over the Celebrate the Magic show on the castle... It blew me away... Absolutely amazing and the kids and Kevin loved it too....


Wreck It Ralph...

Rapunzel's Floating Lights...

Young Anna and Elsa... When the first chords of "Let It Go" started, I though Claire was going to lose it.

Alice...

This show really was just perfect to me... I had never seen it before and now I can't wait to see it again!!!!

 

[mishel635]

We stayed for Wishes...

Clairebear and Daddy....

And then sloooooowly made our way towards the front of the park. I had wanted to stay for a snack and wait for the mass exodus to thin out but I got vetoed. However we did grab some candied almonds.... who can resist that smell???? And then I took the kids into my favorite store on Main Street.... the Main Street Confectionary!!!!! Cake pops and cookies and fudge.... oh my!!!! Seriously, with my sweet tooth, we are lucky we had a bunch of snack credits for all of the amazing treats we left with....

We then hopped on a bus back to the Beach Club. Got back to our room and the kids fell asleep almost immediately. And of course Kevin and I weren't far behind them. I love how at first when I was planning, I really wanted a deluxe resort just so that Kevin and I would be able to step out on our patio or balcony to relax and spend some time together after the kids were asleep, and then we ended up doing that a total of ZERO times!! I'm still glad we did the DVC points rental and stayed in a deluxe resort, but we passed out right after the kids did every night!!!

The kids woke up to find this....

I couldn't wait to see the Grand Floridian! The kids were so excited about the characters we were going to meet this morning! Then we were heading off to DHS to try and do some of the things we missed on Monday.

The Grand Floridian did not disappoint! I wish I would have gotten more pictures of the lobby... just gorgeous!!!

I hope to stay here one day!!! Maybe I will eventually realize my dream of buying into DVC and this will be my home resort.... Hey, a girl can dream right???


Had our picture taken before we were seated....

We were then seated and could already see Winnie the Pooh and Tigger!!

Tigger hugs!!!

 

[mishel635]

The food here was really good, especially the lobster eggs benedict and the French toast with the vanilla cream on top.... so good! However, this was a major mistake on my part- I didn't realize they had the strawberry soup for breakfast and I never even tried it!!!! I'm so mad at myself!!! Definitely will have to try it next time!

It wasn't too long before Mary Poppins came to our table. She was very funny. She commented on the kids' matching shirts and said they must have a really good nanny and then asked if it was me. The kids loved that.

Next came Alice who was awesome. Seriously she talked nonstop just like in the movie... "Oh hello, why you have me on your shirt. Oh but you have the Queen of Hearts on there too. Why do you have her on there? She threatened to cut off my head! You can't live without your head." Etc. Etc. Etc. So funny. The kids loved her!

Next up was The Mad Hatter, and he was hilarious. The kids laughed the whole time he was at our table I think.

Definitely a very fun breakfast, and I am glad that we did it!

Up next.... Hollywood Studios and Downtown Disney!

 

[acrab3t]

The kids wanted to head back over to The Seas and everything in the Land was closed except Soarin which had a long standy line, so we figured "Why not!" I had gotten us 8 day park hoppers so that we could basically do whatever we wanted and not worry about fitting as much into one day as possible. We checked out The Seas and saw Turtle Talk with Crush one more time since there was no wait...

View attachment 47089



Fish are friends! Not food!!!



View attachment 47090


After this it was about 8:15 or so. The kids were doing really well and we thought about sticking around for Illuminations, but to be honest, Kevin and I were beat!!! So since we had an 8:00 am ADR at Crystal Palace, we decided to head back to the Beach Club.

I had set up the kids little treasure from Tink before we had headed out so they were really excited about those when they found them. (Most things were just small trinkets, light up things, bean bag plush toys from disneystore.com, things like that. They each got one thing each night that "Tink" had left for them.)

I got the kids bathed and in bed and by the time I set my alarm and got things ready for tomorrow, they were out for the count!!

I put their morning letter down by the door so they could find it in the morning. I had done this in Pittsburgh that morning as well but I forgot to put it on here. Here is the one that had been in Pittsburgh that morning by the door-
View attachment 47096


And here's the one I put out for the next morning-


View attachment 47095


I had found a lady on Etsy that made these for me for .50 apiece!!!! I love little touches like this, and the kids went running to the door every morning to find them.



Next up- Magic Kingdom day!!!!!!!

Love the daily letters! My husband did that for my son on our first trip as a family. He really believed the letters were from Mickey! We found the paper at a craft store and downloaded the disney font. Even found Disney stickers that looked like seals. Each morning he would wake up and run to the door and find a letter. It would set the mood for the day and let him know which park he was going to. Since we had the deluxe dining plan everything was on a tight schedule so there wasn't room for spontinaity. He still keeps the letters even though he is a teen now. This is an inexpensive memoir your little ones will be able to cherish for years.

 

[mishel635]

We grabbed a bus to DHS after adding to our pressed penny collection. There was a machine at the bus stop at the Grand Floridian. I thought that was a really nice touch. I also really liked that they had a screen displaying the ETA of the buses. I hope they change all the resorts to be that way soon.

Got to DHS and couldn't resist getting another pic in front of Sorcerer Mickey's hat!

We had planned to go on TSMM first thing since we coudln't get a fastpass til dinner time, but even though it was only 9:30 the standby line was 65 mins. The kids didn't want to wait in line that long but we saw that they could meet Buzz and Woody across the street. When we told them this, it was like Christmas morning! Their faces lit up and they were ready to go!


Some cool photo ops in the line...

After about a fifteen minute wait, we were meeting Buzz and Woody... this was the most excited our kids were about any character greeting. They have been HUGE Toy Story fans for years and they even had a Toy Story themed birthday party when they turned 4 and 2. Claire has actually had that Buzz Lightyear dress since then. Needless to say, the kids were so happy about this.

Doesn't she look so tiny?

Dancing with Buzz...

SO happy!

Couldn't resist a Toy Story family photo!

All in all, this was the BEST character interaction we had and the kids still say "Meeting Buzz and Woody" when people ask what their favorite thing was at Disney World.