The Magic of Disney

We had been meaning to go on a family vacation for a while now.. M's sister lives in Houston with her husband and two kids.. there is our family and M's parents. So imagine us.. 6 adults and 4 kids between the ages of 2 and 6 all getting off our respective early morning flights and heading straight to the parks.. Our minivan overflowing with suitcases and strollers!

We were travelling with Disney virgins.. we who have spent all of one day in Magic Kingdom less than two years ago were the Disney experts?! Our trip consisted of three days.. a day per park.. and I know that's a bit hectic but with all the kids I don't think we could have handled any more than three magical days.

Our first park of choice was Epcot. There we all are.. embracing the magic. 

Mission Space was a bit too much for my sister in law to handle.. :( Test drive was fun especially with D being able to design a car.. Soarin was without a doubt the highlight of the park. I was the only one who had ever been on it before.. so I had talked it up and thank god it did not disappoint! We did skip Frozen.. the lines were two hours long, no fast pass available and thankfully none of our kids were die hard Frozen fans.

We had a disappointingly expected meal at the Electric Umbrella.. stopped at Boulangerie Patisserie for a sweet snack.. we ordered four pastries.. took zero pictures and devoured every sinful bite.. yum! And had pretty good taco's at Cantina de San Angel.

It is unfortunate that the days are so short this time of year.. we couldn't really enjoy all the countries in the dark. The kids were also very tired since we had all taken early morning flights into Orlando..

As last time we decided to stay off property. It made more sense to us considering the age of our children and the length of our stay. We had no intention of going back to our room mid day nor was our trip long enough to enjoy all that the resorts had to offer. We stayed at the Marriott Fairfield, they had a good complimentary breakfast in the morning and it worked out perfectly. 

Our second day as we hit The Magic Kingdom.. yay!

My sister in law made the kids these adorable Disney tees.. you can just feel their excitement can't you? Not! They were not a fan of the picture taking.. and H was simply to busy planning his next move.

We started with the Astro Orbiter which I really love, the view is amazing at all times of the day. D's favorite was Buzz Lightyear because he got to shoot things and racked up a crazy high score! H was in awe of It's a Small World, he waved at all the little people thinking they were real. This was the first time we got to ride Space Mountain and I was impressed with what a pro D was. We also always love to stop by and check out Mickey Philharmagic.. what I love more than watching the show is watching the kids reach out and try to grab things. 

Day three was spent at Animal Kingdom. We had a little hiccup after breakfast, D ate some raisins that were sitting dangerously close to the pecans and boom! Swollen eyes, sneezing worse than he has ever had it. Two doses of allergy meds later he was still no better. While everyone else headed to the first ride we made our way to first aid. While his situation did improve throughout the day his eyes did stay a little swollen until the next morning.. :(

We enjoyed Expedition Everest and Kali River Rapids.. the Safari was okay.. we didn't see as many animals as we had expected but it was easier to meet characters since the lines weren't as long. The park didn't particularly hold our interest for the whole day and so before it was even dark we headed to Disney Springs.

We had reservations at T-Rex and we explored Disney Springs till then. The LEGO store is always such fun.

Now lets talk about dinner.. T-Rex Cafe is a dinosaur themed restaurant similar to the Rainforest Cafe. The decor was very cool though is did scare the kiddo's a bit. I had made reservations a month in advance yet we had to wait over half an hour to get seated!!  The food if you can call it that was blah.. so blah that we could barely eat it. My brother in law and I had ordered the same pasta dish and we doused our food with salt and pepper failing to make it edible. The other's ordered burgers which were slightly better. We don't like to complain but as I just couldn't help it.. when she asked me how I liked it I just couldn't hold my tongue.. She asked me if she could bring me something else but I had just lost my appetite. It was however very nice of them to remove my brother law and my order off the bill.. they didn't have to do that and we very much appreciated that.

We made a stop at Ghirardelli Ice Cream and Chocolate Shop to cleanse our palette before heading back to the hotel. Divine! 

The next morning before heading to the airport we treated ourselves to some non hotel breakfast.. Keke's had a great breakfast.. the perfect way to end the trip.

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