An Accounting of our Blessings

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Disney Dining

We did the Dining Plan again on this trip and think it is definitely worth it. If we went to Disney a lot then we might skip it, but the kids loved the character meals. We managed to not eat many pizzas and hamburgers on the quick service this time around. The best quick service meals we had were at Yak & Yeti in Animal Kingdom (delicious beef lo mein), Wolfgang Puck Express in Downtown Disney, and tacos and churros from Taqueria del Lago in Epcot. Restaurant research definitely paid off! Pizza Planet had our least favorite food, but it was neat that the kids got to go to Pizza Planet from Toy Story. Disney is known for their accommodations for food allergies. I have to say it was a little challenging in Epcot for us though. Language barrier made it a little trickier in Mexico and the Garden Grille just didn't have substitutions. The kids menu is chicken legs, broccoli, and mac n cheese. The macaroni had egg so the kids were pretty disappointed with chicken and broccoli.

Dining in Cinderella's Castle

Belle

Aurora

Chef Mickey's

Minnie

Dancing and waving napkins to celebrate with Mickey

1900 Park Fare with Cinderella and her family

Dancing with Prince Charming

Allergy dessert awesomeness

Banana split tower

Garden Grille with Dale

Farmer Mickey

Chip

A very fun Pluto

Epcot

We only spent part of one day at Epcot, and it was our last day so we were tired. We would have liked to have had more time there, but there weren't enough hours in our trip to see and do it all! We had lunch in Mexico,went on rides, and had dinner in The Land. We didn't even make it through all of the countries. The kids loved it anyway, and don't even know they missed out on the World Showcase. The bottom 5 pictures are PhotoPass.

E & A in front of Spaceship Earth

E & A with Duffy, Mickey's bear that Minnie made him before he was going on a trip. Evie had fun dressing the Duffy bear at our resort two mornings.

Daisy Duck! We had looked for her all week and found her in Epcot.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Magic Kingdom

The happiest place on Earth! We loved everything in the Magic Kingdom. Okay, we didn't love the crowds on Thursday. Otherwise, it was fabulous! We rode lots of rides with minimal waiting thanks to early arrival times and FastPass. We saw both the parades and the fireworks. We loved watching Tinkerbell fly over us from our view in the Rose Garden. We met and hugged lots of characters plus we got to hang out with friends twice. The last three pictures are screenshots from our PhotoPass. The quality will be way better when we get the CD. Before we went I didn't know if it would be worth it, but I highly recommending getting a PhotoPass and making good use of it. We have some amazing pictures!

Tomorrowland Speedway~our first ride!

Hugs for Cinderella

Watching the Castle show

Snow White and her prince in the afternoon parade

Tinkerbell in the electric parade

Fun with the Crichtons on Friday night!

First Mickey ice cream

Yum!

Rides with friends ~ Elizabeth (behind the gun), Evie, Kate)

Catherine and Andrew

Hollywood Studios

It was very, very cold for our Hollywood Studios day. Didn't keep us from spending 11 hours in the park though! We met some favorite characters, watched Indiana Jones stunt show, saw Lights, Motors, Action! with Lightning McQueen, watched Fantasmic, and danced under Christmas lights while it snowed.

The kids with Phineas & Ferb

Andrew and Lightning McQueen

Evie and LMQ

Aliens

The family with Buzz and Woody

Got to eat dinner at Pizza Planet!!!

Tank from the Indiana Jones stunt show

It's snowing!

Osborne lights

Monday, January 09, 2012

Animal Kingdom

Our first stop was Animal Kingdom. We skipped this on our last trip, and I wasn't convinced that I would love it this time around either. I was very wrong. We loved the safari ride and the Lion King show. I thought it would be like going to the zoo, but it was way better!