Disney World - Day 2 A Magical Day at the Magic Kingdom

   I want to start by saying all of these posts will have a ton of pictures.  I always try to take as many pictures as possible and I want to share all of them.  I will practice some restraint and share my favorites, but there are still a ton.
    We started our first day by heading to the Magic Kingdom.  I made everyone get up really early and head to the buses super early.  Those buses get so crowded and by getting there early, the buses were empty and we were all happy. 

Gracie in her Cinderella dress all ready for her first Disney World visit

Such pretty princesses.  I will apologize for some foggy pictures.  We found the humidity was always unreal in the morning and it fogged up the camera lens. 

Goofy

The last time my hair will be down the entire trip.  The past trips I have been able to wear my hair down like I normally do.  The humidity was out of control, and had a major effect on everyone's hair as you will see in coming pictures. 

Our bus pulling up

The girls discussing their plans

Dawson in the special shirt I made him. He was only two for his first trip and had no memory of it of course.  He is at such a good age for Disney World and was so blown away by every single part. 

One of my favorite sights

Group shot

One of the advantages of being the first people there, is great shots.  We were literally some of the first people in line for each park every day.  It actually really paid off for us. 

Great picture

Daddy and his princess.  Ashlyn loved dressing up this trip and insisted on wearing a princess costume each day. 

He was in such awe

Gracie and I

Watching the opening ceremony

The opening ceremony has a train that comes in with Mickey and Minnie.  I think these two actually stole the show. 

Don't know what this face was about. 

Our first view of the castle

   On this morning, we kind of split up.  Ashlyn, Joey and I headed to Splash Mountain.  Last time we went Splash Mountain was closed.  Ashlyn rode it when she was 3 years old in Disneyland.  Of course, she remembered it and was dying to go.  We rode it twice in a row had loved every second!  After riding it, we met up with everyone else for our very special breakfast.  We got to have breakfast inside the castle. 

 

Waiting to get in.

The girls

Kisses from Mommy

Dawson climbing the stairs

  The breakfast in the castle is a character breakfast meaning princesses walk around and you get to talk with them.  Kids always love that part.  Ashlyn already had all of their autographs so we just took pictures.  Dawson was absolutely hilarious for this part.  I figured since it was princesses he wouldn't be interested.  Boy was I wrong!  He loves taking pictures with them and had quite a thing for Jasmine.  When she came over he immediately grabbed for her hand.  He later told us he was going to marry Jasmine.  He was quite the little charmer with the ladies. 

The breakfast pastries. 

The kids loves these Mickey muffins

The kids all get magic wands and Gracie used hers as a teether

Ash and her autograph book

A view of the inside of the castle

They do a wishing ceremony and the kids make wishes. 

Boys get a sword

Ariel

Snow White

Gracie having a great time

Aurora

Jasmine talking to Gracie

Dawson and his future wife

We got to ride in the special elevator

Joey's birthday was the next day, so he got a cupcake and we sang to him. 

Reservations for this place are hard to get, so we had to sit at separate tables.  Here is Ella and Aurora

Ella and Ariel.  Jameson looks like he wasn't too into her

 

 

 

   After our magical breakfast, we got to ride some rides.  We started with the carousel and headed to It's a Small World.  It's my mom, Ashlyn's, and my favorite ride. 

Everybody's favorite ride

Bryan rarely takes a serious picture

    We got to ride the brand new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.  They were just building it our last trip.  It isn't one of the more thrilling roller coasters, but really neat.  It's perfect for younger kids.  Dawson and Ella weren't tall enough to ride a lot of rides.  However, they could ride this one. 

Going up the hill

The inside of the ride

The view from the top.  That castle in the distance in Belle's castle and part of a restaurant. 

After some rides, it was very, very hot.  We decided to get some ice cream to cool the kids off.  We had fast passes for Splash Mountain and the younger kids couldn't ride, so it was a great break . 

Mickey ice cream bars are the best. 

Jameson clearly loved his and left quite a mess.  His hair is that wet from the heat.  It was hot!!!

   We spent the rest of the afternoon riding some more rides and using our fast passes.  We didn't end up staying in the park too late that day.  The Broncos were playing at 4:00 and the guys didn't want to miss it.  It was hot, so we all decided to head out early. 

Enjoying some Dole whip before we left.  If you have never had Dole whip, you haven't lived.  It's so refreshing on a hot day. 

Nap time for Gracie

We stopped for a parade

Great shot in front of the castle on our way to Space Mountain.

 

 

I love this picture, because it does a wonderful job of conveying the amount of fun we had.  You can see how tired the kids were at the end of the day. 

   While the guys were watching the game, we ventured out with the kids for ice cream.  These ice cream sundaes were huge and some of the best ones I have ever had.  We barely put a dent in them. 

Disney World - Day 1 Getting There

     Day 1 technically started on Friday night.  Even though our flight didn't leave until 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, we decided to stay the night at a hotel in Denver near the airport.  Traveling with 12 people is kind of chaotic and we had a lot of bags so we wanted to ensure that we weren't rushed or stressed too much.  We also got to leave our cars parked at the hotel and didn't have to pay airport parking.
   We ended up picking Ashlyn up from school and heading right to Denver for the night.  We ate dinner at the hotel and the kids got a quick swim in that night.  It was early to bed because we had a long day of traveling ahead the next day. 

Ashlyn ready to start her trip

Dawson so excited to have his carry on bag

Dawson in the sea of bags.  We had a lot of bags!

When we got to the airport we had some time to kill.  We also grabbed food since our flight was almost 4 hours during lunch. 

Dawson playing with the Transformers he got for the trip.  Ella is also showing off her new shades. 

Our plane

Ashlyn ready to go!

   Despite it being a long flight, it went pretty smoothly.  We discovered that Orlando flights are FULL of small children and many, many babies.  It's great because you know your baby won't be the only one crying, but we also had to endure A LOT of crying from other babies.  Gracie did awesome and slept for a good portion.  I was able to keep her entertained and she hardly cried at all.  She was definitely the best out of all the babies sitting next to us.  People even commented as to how good she was. 

Ready to go

Dawson and Daddy

We arrived in Orlando!

Even the airport is all about Disney

The sign for our bus

Joey being silly with Ella and Dawson.  They got quite the kick out of this. 

Dawson scanning his magic band for the first time to load the bus to our hotel. 

So happy to finally be there!

   We took a short bus ride to our resort.  The check in process was a dream and we got to our rooms so quickly.  The hotel was gorgeous.  We ended up getting three rooms right in a row.  The all faced the quiet pool.  It was a great location.  Since we were all on the first floor, we essentially all had adjoining rooms because we could just walk from patio to patio which worked out really nicely. 
    We arrived in Orlando around 5:00 pm.  By the time we got to our rooms, it was getting late.  We ended up grabbing dinner at the resort and all went to bed pretty early since we had a very big day planned the next day. 

The hotel

The rooms

Even the bathroom was fancy

Our quarters for the week

Our view right outside our room.  The pool had a hot tub which we enjoyed having a few footsteps away. 

A Mickey welcoming us

The lobby

Disney World Background

  Disclaimer:  This post contains lots of Disney World background info.  If you aren't into Disney World details, you might want to skip it.  I will be posting all about our trip with tons and tons of pictures soon! 

    I am starting the very long process of blogging about our Disney World trip.  Its going to take some time, but it's well worth it so we can one day look back and remember every detail.  I'm aiming for a post a day. 
    First, I will start with some background information.  I will admit that I have become obsessed with all things Disney World.  When I'm not in Disney World, I spend a great deal of time planning my next trip, even if I don't actually have one planned.  I was so thrilled when my dad started talking about making a trip to Disney World.  I got right on things and started to research dates.  We have gone all different times of the year.  I suggested September because I have read that is when it is truly the least crowded time of all year.  The only down side was taking Ashlyn out of school for a week, but we spoke with her teacher, arranged all her makeup work, and it ended up being no big deal. 
     This trip was extra special for lots of reasons, but one of the biggest was that my entire family was able to go.  It ended up being my parents, brother, sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephew, Joey, the kids, and I.  There was 12 of us that went.  Let me tell you coordinating flights, hotels, restaurant reservations, fast passes, etc. for 12 people was not an easy task, but I was more than happy to do it. 
    Disney World has changed a lot over the years.  When I went as a kid, you bought park tickets and showed up.  If you felt like eating at a restaurant, you booked it that day.  Fast forward 20 some years and so much has changed.  The amount of advanced planning that goes into a Disney World trip is unreal. 
   First,  you have to book your hotel.  There is literally like 30 to pick from . My dad decided to spoil us and picked the Yacht Club.  It is a deluxe resort and one of the nicest on property.  It's a 5 minute walk to Epcot and a 15 minute walk to Hollywood Studios.  It was such a nice treat!  We hardly had to ride packed buses at all.  The hotel was gorgeous, the rooms were great, and the pool was wonderful.  I would love to stay there again and would highly recommend it. 
   Once you have booked your hotel package, you can start booking dining reservations 180 days out.  That's right, they book 6 months out.  Some restaurants have to be booked that far out or you won't get in.  We didn't start planning our trip 6 months out, so we didn't get all the restaurants we wanted, but we did get the majority.   It's quite a task to book dining because you have to commit to what day you will be in each park and so forth.
   After you book your dining, 60 days out you can book your Fast Passes.  They have totally changed the Fast Pass system since last trip.  Now you get these really cool bracelets to wear that store all your info.  You use them as room keys, debit cards, park tickets, and Fast Passes.  You can now book what rides you want to ride in advance.  It's very tricky because like restaurants, you have to do it way in advance because a lot of rides book up.  I had to schedule each day pretty much down to the minute.  It's hard to say in two months what ride you will want to ride at noon on Tuesday.  Katy and I stayed up late the night we were able to start booking and got the most coveted Fast Passes in all of Disney World: Elsa and Anna meet and greet.  (More on that later.)  We ended up loving the new system because despite all the planning before hand, once we got there it was relatively stress free. 
     As we got closer to our trip, we started to watch the weather forecast for Orlando.  We knew going into the trip it was going to be very hot.  We started to see that it was also going to be rainy.  Rain was predicted every day.  We were all so worried that it would rain every day and spoil our fun.  We ended up getting so lucky.  We miraculously planned our trip between two huge tropical storms that dumped a lot of rain.  It only rained three times and it wasn't very long.
       All the crowd predictors were very spot on and the crowds were great.  Disney World is never going to be crowd free.  Its Disney World and people are going to go all times of the year, but I have to say this is the least crowded I have ever seen it.  We tried to plan our last two trips around crowds and we weren't all that impressed with low crowds.  This time we really were.  The ride wait times were so low and we hardly had to wait in line at all.  We were able to ride a ton of rides which was great! 
   We ended up spending 7 days and nights in Disney World and it was paradise. We all had such an amazing time.  The amount of smiles and memories we shared on that trip will truly last all of us a lifetime.  I think this may have been our best trip yet.  I am so sad to be home, but so happy that we got to experience another Disney World trip.