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Day 4. Hollywood Studios

And all good things, must come to an end.  We chose to spend our last day at Hollywood Studios.  I was really excited about Hollywood Studios!  From everything I read, this was going to be a character place that my kids would LOVE!  A lot of Disney Junior characters (including new ones like Sofia the First and Doc McStuffins!) and a lot of great movie characters (Incredibles/Wreck it Ralph).

It was another nice day, meaning HOT. ;)

First stop (after photopass ops!) was breakfast at Hollywood and Vine with the Disney Junior characters.  Once again, character meals are the way to go!  We eat good food and we then have character visits! We saw Jake, Oso, Einsteins June and Handy Manny.  If you didn't know, Noah LOVES LOVES LOVES Little Einseins! (Whittle Whinesteins at our house! ;) )

 

After breakfast we headed to Indiana Jones.  That is where the Daddy of the family vigorously volunteered to be IN THE SHOW and was selected!  The kids FLIPPED OUT and really enjoyed watching the show and Daddy in the show!

Here we were waiting for one of the attractions ...

After Indiana Jones we watched the Star Wars show.  I suppose if there was one thing I would have done differently was investigated getting Luke into the Junior Jedi training program.  We were there to SEE it, but not participate in it.  HE WAS BUMMED.  It was a cute cute cute show and those little Jedi's LOVED battling Darth Vader.  I know Luke would have loved that too.  I just didn't know ... or rather, didn't look into it in advance.

Noah and I split up from the group for a bit and explored Pixar Alley and met a Toy Story army guy and had some fun with that.  While we did that, Bella and Luke rode the TOWER OF TERROR with my parents!!  Crazy kiddos!  They loved it.  Little thrill seekers!

Mike and I met up and took Noah to meet Vanillape and Ralph.  That was fun!

Don't ask about his shoes.  On the last day he was sick of them for some reason and spent much of the day barefoot.  Whatev.  By the 4th day in Disney your cares about piddly things like shoes wanes! ;)

And then we met up with the rest of th crew to watch the Beauty and the Beast stage production, which was wonderful.  Bella was all eyes on the stage  -- LOVED it!

After the stage show it was almost 3:45.  I decided to head back to the hotel with the boys and let them swim swim swim until their hearts content.  (It was also at that time when Noah officially "peed a tree" at Disney.  I'm not proud but yep, he did.  Quick and dirty)  We got back to the hotel and changed into our suits and swam for over THREE HOURS!

Noah was so completely exhausted from the swimming that he literally climbed out of the water onto my lap and collapsed into a sleepy pile.  I then transferred him to my Grandma who held him for an additional hour!  Poor buddy was just SO TIRED! :)

The rest of the gang hung out at the park until it closed and watched the Fantasmic show at the end of the night!  Bella loved it and was carried home sleeping in Daddy's arms.  A sign of a good day. ;)

I would have loved to spend more time at Hollywood Studios, but I knew my boys needed to go back to the hotel and just swim.  In the end, it was the very best thing for everyone.

I can hardly believe this was the last day of our trip.  It went too fast and was so much fun!  It was hard and tiring and exhausting and exciting and magical.  It was all of that and more.  I'm already excited to go back ... but I think our next BIG family trip ... will be to the beach.  We need to show these kiddos the ocean. :)

Day 3. Epcot + Magic Kingdom

Whew!  I got away from posting there for a few days but no worries!  I'm BACK to finish up this series and telling you about our trip!

Something I failed to talk about in TWENTY TIPS was the option of using the Disney Photo Pass.  As a photographer myself it seems pretty dumb that I'd want to buy the Photo Pass.  But I'm also a MOM.  A mom who is consumed with keeping the party of 10+ we were rocking straight at all times and a MOM who wanted to BE IN THE PICTURES!  Suffice it to say, the ONLY PHOTOS I am in, are the ones from PhotoPass. :)  It is expensive (but take a deep breath of Disney air and you'll fork over your credit card too! HA!).  No really, I purchased it before we event got there and tried to use it to the max.  Even that being said, I wished I'd used it even more! :)  We even had some FUN with it as you will see below ...

We had a BIG DAY PLANNED for Friday, our 3rd day at the Disney Parks.  We had NOT planned on going to Epcot originally.  However, when we figured out our reservation for our Princess Lunch was at Epcot, it made the most sense, to start our day there. :)  I booked some Fast Passes for us at Epcot to entertain the kids at the start of the day.  There is a NEMO ride and next door is a Crush Talk that is AWESOME.  We all really enjoyed it.  We also road the Soarin' ride (which nearly made me hurl) but the kids loved it.

Did I mention it was HOT HOT HOT this day?  The hottest day I think.  DRIPPING WITH SWEAT.  As a Minnesotan, I did NOT complain. ;)  But no worries LUKE did enough for all of us!

Here we are, entering Epcot!

Bella wore a Cinderella dress this entire day.  Something really cool and MAGICAL about Disney is that they really go out of their way to make children feel special.  ALL of the girls are called Princess ... even in the pool!  ("Princess, careful on the side!")  When the little girls are dressed special EVERYONE takes note "Hello Princess, you look pretty in your dress today!"  I TRIED to get her to do her hair but she wanted nothing of it.  Oh well, can't win em all!

We made our way to our Princess Lunch and before seating they usher you right to meet Belle and take a photo!  We took several different shots with Belle. (the luxury of the photo pass is that they specialty photos are automatically part of your package.  Where they try and sell others the 8x10s and 4x6 prints, ours were givento us!  It make it great for sharing the photos right away!)

Again, the character meals are AWESOME.  We eat, they mingle around and visit!  Here they also had a "Princess parade!"  CUTE CUTE CUTE.

After lunch we left Epcot ... not before taking a few photos though!

Yep.  We did that.  WHO DOES THAT IN DISNEY?  Um, us.  :)  We had a lot of giggles at this photo stop! :)

And then we headed over to Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day.

And from here on out the rest of the day, I didn't take many photos. And honestly I'm bummed out.  This day we spent the rest of the time at Magic Kingdom and then participated in the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party and that was SUPER FUN! The park closed at 7pm to regular guests and stays open extra hours for party goers.  The place really thins down a TON and bracelets are checked to make sure you are party-goers.  We easily rode more rides and walked the park without a complete cluster! :)  Maybe that is why I don't have photos, I was having FUN! :)

I brought the kids Halloween costumes and they all wore them (not until after dark because it was TOO HOT to put them on!) and attended Halloween festvities including trick-or-treating!  We had fun.  It was a highlight of the trip in my book.

That night was also the Lunar eclipse.  It was BEAUTIFUL.  My dad and I took Bella and Luke on Splash mountain and at the top of the last hill his an amazing view of the castle and the moon looked equally amazing.  Right before we went down the hill I WISHED I had my phone ready for a photo ... but I didn't.  I did grab this photo a bit afterwards though.  The photo doesn't do it justice.

This night we stayed very late.  There was the parade, an awesome illumination show, a stage show and then fireworks.  Noah passed out after the parade and Luke was extremely unhappy.  Bella LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT (and so did I!  It was awesome!).

We were pretty tired after this VERY FULL AWESOME DAY. :)  Oh Disney, how fun you are!

Ten or TWENTY on Tuesday - the Disney thoughts/TIPS edition.

I feel like I need to get these "TIPS" out now while they are still somewhat fresh on my mind!  Also, I have friends going to Disney SOON who need to know these tips! :)  

Things to note.  My kids are 6, 5 and 3.  Little kids for the most part.  These tips are for this age kid right now.  I have NO IDEA how this will evolve and change over the years ... but I know most certainly it will change and be different with time.  If we are lucky enough to go again in the future ... I suspect our kids will be drastically different ages! (not because we don't want to go again soon ... but because its an enormous financial undertaking!)

1. If it is your first trip to Disney, use a Disney Vacation Planner.  I have one to recommend if you need one.  I began pinning and prepping years I advance.  And every time I did I felt OVERWHELMED.  So much to know about and where do you begin?  Using the Disney Vacation Planner (not a cost to YOU, they are compensated by Disney!) made it easy for me.  I told her what I wanted.  I said ... I want to be at parks 4 days, I might want to hop around, I want to stay at an "on property" hotel with a pool and I want a meal plan.  She developed the plan for me, watched for specials and booked reservations for me regarding meals and so forth.  It REALLY made it easier on me and way less stressful.  I also gave her my budget and she stayed within that budget.
2. For my age of children who had never been to Disney I chose to TELL THEM ABOUT THE TRIP and then countdown with them.  We said "in general" we are going to Disney someday.  I didn't tell them how many days until about 30 days out.  Then I ramped up the Disney talk, the Disney TV and the Disney music.  It was Disney movie marathon around here in prep for Disney world.  As first timers, they didn't KNOW what was going to happen.  I knew it would be overwhelming and just the excitement of GOING would be awesome.  Now, if I go again, I might make it an "airport surprise" that I don't tell and video tape, etc.  I think that is pretty awesome too!
3. Take a stroller.  What stroller?  We have a gazillion strollers most of all loving our BOB collection of strollers.  However, BOB single is bad for storage.  BOB double is too wide and we knew we didn't want to navigate that through WDW (Walt Disney World).  So we opted for the "Sit and Stand" stroller.  It is an in-line stroller that offers the front rider a seat and room to jump on the back for bigger kids.  ALL OF MY KIDS CAN FIT ON THIS AT THE SAME TIME.  That is key. If little feet needed a break, they jumped on.  The front was cozy enough for Noah to sleep ... and that he did!  TIP:  You will be parking and finding a parking spot for your stroller OFTEN.  Do not keep anything valuable in it or time consuming to empty every single time you park.  We took and wore a back pack and kept everything in there so we could easily dump the stroller to ride rides, etc.  TIP2:  That stroller got us through the wheelchair lane at TSA in Orlando ... apparantly they are too cumbersome in the regular line and it essentially bought us a "fast pass" through security. SCORE!!!
4. Buy some Disney brand items ahead if you can via Wal-Mart, Walgreens end of season deal or even on Amazon.  I used these for a varitey of things ... airplane treat bags (coloring books, trinkets, candy, etc) ... rewards for good days at the parks and for ... "Tinkerbell Treats."
5. What are "Tinkerbell Treats?"  Bribes.  I told the kids that each day they had a "good day" at the park Tinkerbell visited them at night and left treats!  Luke said the first morning "I didn't believe in Tinkerbell but SHE DID COME and leave us a treat so now I believe!!!"  The first morning they got their autograph books, pens, lanyards to wear and a couple of pins.  (All bought ahead of time)  It was fun to do and see their faces.  I will say I did pick up a few things at the park as well that I saw they were interested in and added that to the stash.  (shhhh .... My mom and I think Disney is like Vegas where they pump in air that makes you want to buy stuff/gamble!)
6. Use the APPs.  I used the My Disney Experience app that coordinated with my reservation info that I entered on-line and could access at ANY time. I also used this APP to book Fast Passes and it was AWESOME. (note: max of 3 fast passes a day doing this.)  The other APP I bought in the park was Magic Guide.  It was AMAZING. It is $5 but totally worth it.  I could stand in the park and find the wait for anything, the directions and the exact location.  Worth it (again, that Disney air pumped in making the purchase easy peasy!)
7. MAGIC BANDS.  We were a part of the test program for Magic Bands.  Little bands that are waterproof that you wear.  They are your hotel key, credit card, meal plan, park tickets, fast passes and identity!  They were HANDY and amazing.  We had an amazing experience with them.  They are also CUTE.  They also sell little trinkets to add to them in the gift shops, similar to Crocs Jibitz.  Of course my mom bought us some of those, TOO CUTE.
8. Meal plan.  For my family, the meal plan was perfect. It was a plan that allowed 1 snack, 1 fast food and 1 sit down meal for each person of your family each day of the trip.  This was the perfect amount for us.  We typically really filled up at the sit down meals and didn't need a square "three meals a day" for our family.  The food was good and the options were good for everyone.  The Disney Cast helps you/reminds you what all is included with your meals.  It was also nice NOT TO WORRY about the cost of items on the menu and fret over pricing ... we had already paid for it all.  SOME PEOPLE who like 3 square meals a day and heavy snacks (ahem, my Dad) ... ate through the family meal plan REALLY FAST.  I'm not sure in the end if the meal plan was the BEST option for them but mom will have to weigh in on that.
9. Snacks.  We did bring our own quick "kids" snacks and water bottles to the park each day.  Crackers, fruit sticks, rice krispie bars were easy snacks to give the kids in a pinch or when they needed a little energy boost.  As for the park snacks, we consumed our fair share of Mickey ice cream and it was YUMMY! :)
10. Fast Passes are key.  I didn't understand the fast pass thing.  But I did understand that I didn't want to wait in line for 40 minutes with my kids.  The first day was hard navigating that. but soon I thought ahead and settled into a rythum figuring out and using he fast passes.  Also, fast passes are good for the entire hour that you pick so you don't have to be there at the EXACT time to use your pass.  Come any time in that hour.  TIP:  the downside to the fast pass is that the kids often want to do a ride again ... it's hard to explain to them that then you have to wait in that long line to do the ride again.  Catch 22 for kiddos.
11. Four parks in four days was CRAZY for kids of this age.  We PUSHED them (and ourselves for that matter) to the brink. They did great given that level of exhaustion.  HOWEVER, if I had the time and money to do it differently, I'd stay in WDW a full week.  I'd do one day on park day, one day off at the pool or exploring other areas.  For this age kids ... the POOL was a big deal.  To give ourselves that break would have been HUGE.  However, that comes at a gigantic cost and would have doubled our vacation costs.  You do what you gotta do.  It was important to use to stay on site for this trip ... maybe next time we stay off site and stay a week.  Its all about trade offs.
12. It's all about WAITING.  Those first days were hard with the amount of waiting the kids had to get used to.  EVERYTHING IS A WAIT.  A wait to eat, to get on the bus, to scan your tickets, to ride a ride, to see a show, to meet a princess, to do ANYTHING, you wait.  It is a tough lesson to learn and there was a lot of entertaining and "a few more minutes" said on our parts.  I'm not sure how to warn or prepare children for this type of thing. :(
13. Meeting Characters.  I was under the illusion that we'd see character everywhere ... like run into them.  Um NO.  They are at specific "meeting spots" and you can stand in a line and meet them.  BE CAREFUL WHO YOU CHOOSE TO MEET ... are they a favorite?  Are they worthwhile?  Do they interact with the kids?  Are you already going to see them at a character dining event?  Think through these things.  Again, you can use either of the Apps to find out when and where characters are going to be to try and meet them.  We didn't meet HALF of the characters I thought we would.  To be honest ... we didn't want to spend our 30-40 minutes waiting to meet some of them.  Had the kids been more into it ... we would have.  But they weren't. (Shhh, I totally WAS!  I loved meeting the characters!)
14. Which leads me to ... Character meals!  We had 4 character meals on our vacation and it is a MUST.  If you are on the meal plan this is a Table Service (buffet) meal and totally worth it.  Disney has this all laid out.  You eat, characters roam from table to table.  GENIUS.  We met nearly 20 characters over our dining experiences and never stood in line.  It was efficient and well orchastrated.  LOVED IT.
15. And finally, INTERACT WITH CHARACTERS!  Only the Princesses talk but the others mime, mimic and communicate too.  If you know their movie lines -- say them!  They willa ct them out or show surprise or do something to surprise you.  Some of our favorite characters are Russel and Doug from UP!  We waited to see them because we are UP fans.  When we got there I yelled SQUIRREL!!"  Doug (the dog) stops everything and points and looks for a squirrel.  Hysterical!  I asked Russel where his "GPM" went and he motioned ... ut the window.  Too cute!  This activity made it so fun to play around and engage with the characters! (maybe that's why I liked them so much?)
16. Stay on property.  I'm not totally sure about this one BUT, we stayed in a value resort (they offer value, moderate or luxury accommodations) to save money.  And as far as I can see ... no matter where you stay you still have to get on a bus to get anywhere you want to go.  (unless you stay at the contemporary which is amazing and the closest hotel to Disney)  If you aren't going to be at yourhotel much, why pay more to stay there?  I don't know.  I'd like to hear what others have to say about this but that is how I feel now.  Plus, our value hotel was FANTASTIC (all star music for anyone interested in knowing!)
17. Go with the flow.  We created a loose plan.  That plan involved a general plan of which parks for which day with room for flexibility.  We also had one reservation per day so we sort of just planned about that. And that was the character meals so it was soon a favorite meal anyway.  For instance, we didn't plan to got to Epcot, but it just made sense when we realized our Princess Lunch with there anyway.  We made it work and it turned out great.  Some days we called it a day early, other days we pushed it.
18. Halloween/Christmas Party.  We bought tickets to the "Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party."  This is a "private" party for ticket holders only when the rest of the park closes.  This particular party includes trick or treating, no waiting on lines, a special parade, light show, fire works and more.  It was AWESOME.  It thinned out so much that we could easily ride rides and walk around the MK without GOBS of people.  It is expensive.  However, how often are we in WDW with our 6,5 and 3 year old to celebrate Halloween?  Likely never again.  Again, just take a deep breath of Disney air and open your wallet! ;)  HEE!
19. Lights, lights and more lights.  Disney makes a killing on light up crap.  My kids (and most kids) love it.  And honestly, there is no replacement for Disney ears and hats that glow and dance to the music.  I couldn't buy them random LED lights to make up for it when the blinking Disney ears are everywhere and what they really wanted.  Luckily we had Grampy along to take care fo fun light up toy purchases.  Just know that they love them, they are fun and the starting cost is $15.  Plan for it.
20. And finally, your kids will want to buy treasures and trinkets.  They will love it for 5 minutes and loose it or misplace it or break it or not play with it when you get home.  How did I make peace with this?  Each kid got birthday money this summer.  I saved it for them and had $100 cash on hand for each kid to spend as they chose.  I tired to limit them to 1 thing per park but it depended on the cost.  Each time they wanted something I asked it they wanted to spend their money on it.  They then made those choices.  It made it PAINLESS for me.  I wasn't nit-picking their choices or saying no all of the time ... I put the ball (aka, money) in their hands and allowed them to make the choices.  Fun for all!

Whew.  Anyone still here?  Sad thing is ... I could probably go on! :)  I'll stop at twenty!  I hope your trip is MAGICAL and MEMORABLE.  I know our memories will last us a lifetime.

Day 2: Chef Mickey's + Animal Kingdom

(I failed to include a BIG moment from our first day ... a stop to meet some Princesses.  Hindsight, I would NOT have waited the 30 minutes to do this had I known/remembered that our Princess Character lunch later in the trip would have meeting these princesses ... however, it was  memorable and special.  I was bummed that Luke did NOT decide to interact with Cinderella and Aurora!)  Here are two photos from that at Magic Kingdom...

So on to Day 2. :)

This day we took a little slower approach to getting moving, simply because we had a late breakfast reservation at Chef Mickey's for 10:25am. (if I could do this over, I would have made the reservation for earlier, this was a late start and ate into our day ...)  But, it was nice to have a "lazy" start to the day and the kids even went swimming in the morning BEFORE leaving!  WIN!

My grandparents "winter" in Florida.  Part of my planning this trip was so that we could enjoy some time with them while on the trip.  They live about 20 minues from Disney property (hey, did you know Disney is 47 SQUARE MILES big???  HUGE!).  Since my grandparents are so close, they joined us on ANY downtime we had at our hotel and went with us to this Character breakfast on Thursday morning.  Chef Mickey's is at the Contemporary Resort.  We had to take a bus to get there.  Our plan for the day was breakfast, then heading to Animal Kingdom.

(note.  Friends, I am NOT a glamour queen on this trip.  Know that I hate that.  But honestly, it is NOT a trip for that.  I wore comfort clothes that could get wet, withstand caring for kids, walk miles upon miles a day and endure sweat with 95 degree temps.  The pics are for the memories, not the glamour!)

I must tell you the CHARACTER MEALS ARE THE TICKET.  It is the most convenient way to eat a good meal (really fill up actually) and meet many characters that COME TO YOU.  They have ti all organized, you just show up.  And that we did and met many Mickey and crew!

This next shot is a favorite!  Noah doesn't miss a meal (he's sorta like his mama on that one!)

(the shot above is a good one of the shirts my mom got the kids ... Mickey, Minnie and Goofy bodies with no heads for the kids head.  CUTE.  Thanks Gaga!)

Although breakfast was good...we had issues here.  The waitress completely screwed up our billing and we waited NO LESS than 45 minutes for bill issues.  That was really frustrating and made our already "late day" start later.  They "made up for it" by giving us more fast passes.  Although it was a good gesture, the inconvenience was HUGE.  After breakfast we had to take another bus to Animal Kingdom. There was a lot of shuffling around this day and that is hard sometimes.

But we made it!

First up we met some of our FAVORITE characters, Doug and Russel from UP!  We love UP!  It was one of Noah's early favorite's as a babe and so we all know the movie well...quote-ably well.  Here is a tip.  If you are meeting characters that don't speak (only princesses do) you can still interact with them.  I found that quoting the movie lines and asking them movie questions made them interact in FUN ways.  For instance, when I saw Doug standing there I yelled 'SQUIRREL!" And he did what he does in the movie.  SO FUNNY.  I also asked Russel where his "GPM" was and he mimicked that it flew out the window ... which is what happens in the movies.  Although my mom said it was "sick and twisted" that I knew this much of the movies ... it made is SO MUCH MORE FUN for me! ;)  And the kids giggled like crazy too.

We did the 3D Bugs Life experience which Noah HATED!  "I don't wike dat bugs wife!"  But it is a cute show that we easily walked right in for with a low wait.

We took a couple of little side treks to see animals and this cool bridge.

Then we took a safari.  We had a fast pass for the Safari and it was at 3pm.  I wasn't sure if the animals would be active or not, but to our delight, they were! :)  It was a fun ride and the animals were pretty close.  

And this crazy couple were always muggin' for the PhotoPass camera ...

And then we headed to the Lion King show at the end of the day.  I only took one pic with my iPhone for that one and didn't load it yet.  That show is AMAZING!! I know we did a bunch of other stuff this day but I either can't remember or didn't grab a photo of it.  The day seemed short though because AK closes by 5 or 6 most nights.  I still feel like we saw a big part of it but I know we did NOT see it all.  In addition, it was another scorcher.  The kids each bought those water spray fans that day with their money because they were sweltering.  They DID help keep us cool though by pointing them on us!

That evening we ate a late dinner poolside with my grandparents.  We had thought about going back to MK for the parade, but were just too tired.  The kids enjoyed the pizza and pool party instead!  PLUS, the next day was a BIG ONE and we wanted to get some rest.

Whew!  Reliving it and sharing it is really helping me remember all aspects of this EPIC trip. (I didn't share Luke's epic meltdown upon entering AK, how Mike had to run back and forth from exhibitis to find his parents and make sure they were OK, how my grandparents sneaked my mom and dad some honey whiskey into the resort that night OR how my sister arrived on her late flight that evening!  All in a days adventure!)

Day 1. Magic Kingdom.

I suppose truthfully, Day 1 was our travel day.  But other than the GIGANTIC margarita I shared with my mother after and exhausting travel day, there wasn't too much to report!  We soared with flying colors on just sher excitment and adreneline for the most part! :)

We got up at a decent time on Wednesday, our first day, to be at the bus stop by 8:30am.  We had to eat breakfast before leaving so we really got started pretty early!  It wasn't too hard to do, simply because of the time change.

Day one was a lot of learning.  Learning the ropes of how the bus system worked.  Learninghow long things took from here to there or navigating the food portion/eating times of our day.  It also was learning for the kids that EVERYTHING IS A HUGE WAIT.  We wait for the bus, for the lines to get in, for food, for drinks, for rides ... you get the picture.  LOTS of waiting ... and we went at a "good time!"

Straight to Magic Kingdom we went!  I got things squared away with my Disney PhotoPass and got started. (More on that later in my TIPS blog for later this week!)  And we took our very fist PhotoPass photo! :)  A group shot!

Magic Kingdom is in full Halloween mode and decorated so cute and pretty.  Lots of pumpkins and festive decor for the holiday.  However, it didn't feel much like October there, is was HOT.  Highs in the mid nineties every day!  SWEAT.DRIPPING.HOT.

The first thing to do was a stroll down main street and a chance for Bella's "first look" of the castle.  My dad (as shared last week) made sure it was a special and memorable moment!

Towards the castle, we stumbled upon the carousel and that was our first ride in Walt Disney World.  Something everyone can do, something easy and something delightful. :) Nearby was the "sword and the stone" and the kids tried their hands and removing that sword ... unfortunately, with no luck! :)

We explored in the Fantasyland portion of Disney for the most part that morning.  Hitting "It's a Small World" and other cute and amazing attractions to blow the kid's minds at Disney! :)  

I used my Disney apps nonstop while there and it was a lifesaver.  One cost $5 and it was totally worth it. (more on this in tips) We also were able to use the new disney Magic Bands this trip and I think we all LOVED THEM. (more coming on this too).  It made everything and tracking everything substantially easier than carrying papers, tickets, fast passes and room keys.  WAY GOOD.  The kids loved theirs and wore them easily.

We grabbed lunch at a quick place and tried to find a seat just to have a bite to eat.  That's when we literally ran into our next door neighbors! :)  We knew they were there.  We didn't make any specific plans to meet up but it was fun for us, and the kids, to run into one another!  In all of Magic Kingdom ... we ran right into them.  And then again later that same day! It really is "a small world!"

Dumbo, Tea cups and the Barnstormer OH MY!  Fun fun rides for the kids. Disney is genius (duh) because they redesigned the wait at Dumbo to include a giant AWESOME play area in the center.  You get a pager when you walk in ... the kids run wild for your wait ... then you get buzzed and its time to ride your ride!?  Genius.  Plus, it was cool in there and there was seating for parents! YAY! (tip: if you have a fast pass you bypass the play are -- its just for standard waiting).

Soon, we needed to make our way to dinner.  But walking past the castle bright new delight!  A stage show was going on and captured one little girls attention!

And then we caught a bit of the parade before our reservations for dinner. (that was BEFORE Luke got lost for 30 terrifying seonds!  No worries tho, he was easily found and returned.  It wasn't his fault, we turned and he kept going.  Also, with the Magic Bands, had he been lost, a Cast Member could scan his band and locate us or call me.  SO COOL!)

Our dinner was our first Character Meal.  I cannot recommend character meals enough.  This night was at The Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom.  It was easy to find and a good first meal.  It is a buffet and there were lots of good choices and for the kids too.  This included visits with Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eyeore.  The kids really enjoyed getting their autograph books signed and having photos taken with the characters.  The characters are very interactive and the more you CAN interact with them, the better. :)  Even tho they don't speak, they are interactive and silly. (princesses talk!)

And when we left dinner, the Castle looked AMAZING.

Mike and I took the boys home/to the hotel and Bella stayed with Grammy and Grampy to watch the Electric Parade.  They were't out too late and it was a GOOD DAY. The kids went to bed fast and furious.  Turns out that if they had good behavior during the day ... Tinkerbell brought them a treat at night!  They LOVED this.  Like even said "I didn't believe in Tinkerbell until I saw this treat here!!!"  Bella even said she thought she heard her a couple of time!  ;)  I bet she did!  (more on that in tips too!).

Happy Monday!