Disney Part 5: Hollywood Studios

We spent the first half of our final day at Disney at Hollywood Studios.  There is a lot to do here, but we skipped most of it and went back to the Magic Kingdom.  The ONLY attraction the boys insisted upon experiencing was Star Tours.  Needless to say we headed there immediately!

 

The boys loved having the chance to ride the speeder bike from Star Wars!



 

Here is Ian pretending that he is about to be crushed by an AT-AT.  Such a silly kid.

 

For lunch we went to the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater.  We had a great time!  Each "table" is a replica of an old car and there is a huge screen playing clips from old sci-fi movies.  It was quite entertaining.  We again stuffed ourselves and I had a steak.  Oddly, the best steak I had at Disney was the New York strip steak coated in blue cheese at this establishment.  Delish!  Both boys were distracted by the huge movie screen and had to be reminded regularly to eat their meal.  Anyone that knows these two kids knows that food is normally priority number one so this was unusual behavior to say the least.

 

The streets of San Francisco...sort of. This is probably as close to San Francisco as we will get for at least a few more years since I don't see myself flying again soon.

 

We were all so sad to leave Disney the following day.  I doubt anyone finds it easy to return to "normal" life after a Disney vacation.  Can't wait for retirement so we can go work at Disney!!!

Disney Part 4: Animal Kingdom

On day three at Disney we went to the Animal Kingdom.  The Animal Kingdom was a rather new park when we went to Disney for our honeymoon almost thirteen years ago, but was immediately my second favorite park.  I was hoping with the additions the boys would love this park as much as I did.

 

Posing for the requisite cut-out picture. 

 

Nathan was most excited to see a rhino on the safari adventure.  We had to make sure to capture a photo of this moment.

Goofy as always, on the lookout for more exotic animals.

 

After a short train ride it was time to climb on some elephants, of course!

 



 The petting zoo remains my second favorite attraction at Animal Kingdom.  I can go around the corner and brush goats, but somehow it is far more awesome at Disney.  The boys had a great time catching up to various goats to give them a pet or brush.

The boys were drenched after riding the Kali River Rapids.  Seriously, it took us hours to dry off.  The similar ride at Great America was more exciting, but this one definitely guarantees you will get wet!

 

For dinner this particular evening we decided to head on over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for the buffet at Boma.  Oh, my goodness.  We ate ourselves sick.  The food and variety was incredible.  I am full just thinking about that dinner.

 

Before dinner Ryan and I picked up some coffee and took the boys outside to check out the animals on property.  Ryan was able to teach some Swahili to Ian and then practice a bit with one of the employees originally from Tanzania.

Disney Part 3: Epcot

Let's see if I can knock out the rest of our Disney trip in a few posts today.  If so I can finally share what the heck we've been up to in May, June and July!

On our second day at Disney we went to Epcot.  We knew the boys would not be as excited with this park, but they still had a great time.  Ian now calls Epcot his favorite park because there weren't any scary rides.  He seems to have forgotten how uneasy he was when riding California Adventure.

We found a great store at Epcot where we asked the boys to select any ear hats they liked  Nathan immediately selected the R2-D2 hat and eventually Ian chose the same one.

 

Ryan wanted to "drink around the world", but I was initially not in favor of this idea.  This was not because I don't enjoy beer, but because the choices in Mexico were lame.  Then we stumbled upon a delicious fruity drink cart in China and I was sold on the idea.  We were visiting Epcot during their Flower Festival or something like that (who can remember after all the beer what exactly the festival was called).  This year instead of just having a bunch of booths and topiaries, tons of kiosks were set up all over the park featuring little country treats and booze.  We were in trouble.  Notice the sampler of four beers we picked up in Germany BEFORE we managed to finish our drinks from China.  The boys were happy to pause repeatedly since they enjoyed snack after snack to include potato pancakes and panna cotta.

While we worked our way through another beer sampler in Italy (super delicious selections, by the way), the boys goofed off, ate and posed for pictures.

 

For you, Mom, the Lady and The Tramp topiaries.  How they capture the characters expressions so well with plants amazes me!

 

The boys were very happy to pose for a pictures with Captain Hook.  Notice Nathan's "hook".  Ian is pretending to be scared.  Silly boys.  I promise they were not drinking along with us.

After wandering all over Epcot we ended our day with dinner at Coral Reef and a mad dash to ride the Little Mermaid ride next to the restaurant minutes before the park closed.  Dinner was delicious!!!  I highly recommend this restaurant.  It was where I had my SECOND steak of the day which is crazy since I generally eat red meat maybe once a month.  I would like to point out that my FIRST steak of the day was at Le Cellier.  That restaurant was a HUGE disappointment.  The cheese soup was out of this world, but I've already managed to get my hands on the recipe so none of you need go there...just ask me for the recipe.  ;)  Our steak was dry, overcooked and overall nothing special.  For $44 I believe it should have been better than something we could make at home.

I hope we can go back to Disney during April soon.  The festival carts were really great and a perfect way to use up a bunch of those snacks from our dining plan.  I honestly don't know how we would have "spent" all those snack points without all the unique carts!

Disney Part 2: Magic Kingdom



The Magic Kingdom was our favorite park, except Ian's.  We loved it so much that this was the only park we went to twice on this trip.  Next time I definitely want two full days at the Magic Kingdom.

 

 

The boys could barely contain their excitement as we waited for the bus to pick us up at our hotel.  Note to parents:  buy your children their Disney shirts at the nearest Disney store before you go on vacation.  These shirts cost me $10 each at our local store and we saw them for sale at Downtown Disney for $24.99 each!  Crazy.

 

Our first ride at the Magic Kingdom was the Astro Orbiter in Tomorrowland while we waited for our FastPass time to be able to ride Space Mountain.  Nathan had a great time, but Ian cowered in fear and would not allow Ryan to move their spaceship up at all.  The boy does not like heights.

 

 

Later in the day and after MUCH convincing, we were able to get Ian on Splash Mountain.  We had to stand at the bottom of the drop and let him watch log after log of people having a good time before he would get in line with all of us.  This ended up being his favorite ride!  In case you are wondering, Space Mountain was his absolute LEAST favorite ride.

 Here are the boys outside the Haunted House.  We prepped both of them so they understood it was spooky, but all fake.  I guess we did not prep Nathan enough.  He lost it as soon as they closed the doors and said we could not get out.  He literally climbed me, clung to me and began to freak out.  Ah, kids.  I had to let the poor boy play a game on my phone just so he could survive the experience.

 

Can you see the fear in Ian's expression?  He was not so sure about riding Big Thunder Mountain.  He didn't care for it on day #1, but actually asked that we ride it again on day #2.

Loving their Magic Kingdom experience!!!

 

For dinner we went to the character buffet at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom.  The food was decent and not having to leave the park for dinner was lovely!  We purchased one of the meal plans for this trip and I highly recommend that to anyone going to Disney.  

 

The only ride Nathan insisted we ride again on our second day at the Magic Kingdom was Space Mountain.  Needless to say this was also the only ride Ian refused to ride for a second time.  Instead he asked Ryan to take him on the People Mover while Nathan and I whipped around Space Mountain.  Even though this was his SECOND time on the People Mover, Ian still freaked out a bit and tensed up when the tram went through Space Mountain.  This kids cracks me up.

 

Now this is to Ian's liking.  Sitting in a rocking chair on Tom Sawyer's Island watching the Big Thunder Mountain train.  This was my first time exploring the island and it made me want to immediately re-read the book!

 

We didn't make time for the Electrical Light Parade or fireworks our first night so we made sure to schedule this for our final night at Disney.  Here the boys are happy to be sitting down while we wait for the parade to begin.

Our perfect ending to our almost perfect vacation:  the fireworks!  Pretty sure both Ryan and I almost cried at the end of the fireworks because neither one of us wanted to leave and return to our normal lives.  I've requested that when he retires from the Navy we temporarily move to Orlando to work at Disney World.

We cannot wait to go back!  I wanted to book our next vacation as soon as we were back home!

Disney Part 1 (of too many)

In April we took the boys on a SURPRISE trip to Disney World!  Unfortunately our "reveal" video didn't turn out very well so we aren't going to post it here.  We made it all the way to the Orlando airport and on to the Magical Express bus before we had to tell the boys what we were doing.  Ian was thrilled when we told him we were going to Disney World while Nathan was underwhelmed.  The news didn't seem to sink in immediately.

 

Not only was this the boys' first trip to Disney, but this was their first time flying on an airplane!!!  To say that I am fearful of flying is an understatement.  I get sick to my stomach when I see an airplane in the sky.  Ridiculous, I know.  It's not like Ryan flies multiple times a week or anything.  I did my best to disguise my fear and help the boys enjoy their first flight.  They thought it was awesome!

 

 

The pilot invited the boys into the cockpit once we landed in Atlanta.  I didn't think they let anyone take a tour anymore!  Ian made himself right at home and began messing with everything.  Thank goodness we were taking a different plane for our connecting flight.

 

After behaving perfectly on the plane, the boys needed to let loose a little bit while waiting for our second flight to board.  I handed over my point and shoot and let them have some fun.

 

That's me and Ryan trying to rest in the background.  We are lucky our boys are (mostly) well-behaved.

Beignets for dessert in our hotel room!!!  I think this is the #1 reason Ryan and I keep choosing to stay at the Port Orleans French Quarter Disney Resort.  Yum!!!

We had just enough time after dinner to take the boat over to Downtown Disney.  Needless to say the Lego store was the favorite of the night!  Somehow we only spent $15 which is crazy because we are all Lego fanatics.

Take a guess at how long it took the boys to fall asleep this first night.  If you guessed three or four hours you'd be correct.  I don't remember how late it was when they finally passed out, but I do know that we had to separate them and it was the LATEST they had ever stayed up at night.  Worth it!

Our adventures at Magic Kingdom and more will be next.  I promise to post sooner rather than later.