Friday, October 28, 2016

Walt Disney World Vacation || Part 4

The next day, Tuesday, was a full day at 2 different parks. We had a full day at Hollywood Studios and then that evening we had tickets to a special Disney Vacation Club event at Animal Kingdom. To say our feet hurt at the end of the day would be an understatement, but it was oh so worth it. We were up so early getting ready, that we were able to see the sunrise over the lake and it was beautiful!

Hollywood Studios!

We started off the day first in line to meet Doc McStuffins. She is Avery's favorite character (Doc and Minnie Mouse) so I knew we had to meet her and get her autograph for sure. Doc McStuffins, Pluto, Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Sophia the First were all right there to meet and greet so after meeting Doc we went right down the line and met them all. Then we had a fast pass for the Disney Junior Live show after that. It was all so much fun!!


 Meeting Doc was probably the highlight of the whole trip for me. This was the character Avery had been waiting to meet and up until then, she had been a little apprehensive around any other characters. I couldn't help but get a little misty eyed when Doc got right down on the ground with Avery and got Avery completely comfortable with her. Being first in line really helped because Doc spent quite a bit more time with Avery than just about any other character we saw. Avery warmed right up to her and gave her a hug and everything. It was so sweet!! Thinking about it now still gets me all warm inside. ;-) I just love Disney World.

I mean just look at the smile on her face here.


 She even gave Jake and the Neverland Pirates a "check-up." It was the cutest!!

She loved meeting Sophia the First too!

 If you have young kids, I strongly recommend the Disney Jr. Live show. It was really really cute!






 After the Disney Junior Live Show, we rode a few of the rides, including Toy Story Mania (which was really fun) and The Great Movie ride. 

We had lunch reservations at Hollywood and Vine for a Minnie Mouse and Friends character dining experience. However, when I went to check in, it was set up for the Disney Junior Characters (which would have been fine, but we had already met them that morning and the kids were itching to meet Mickey and Minnie). Somehow there was a mix up, but they had us come back for dinner with Minnie and all was fine. So in the mean time, we grabbed some Mickey pretzels to tie us over and Jake tried to get Avery to take a little nap in the stroller while my parents and I took Jackson on a Star Wars ride.  

So at around 4:00 we went back to Hollywood and Vine for an early dinner with Minnie and Friends and it was so much fun! The kids were so excited to see them!

Just look at that smile!



Next up was Daisy! Jackson didn't really want to take pictures with any of the girls this time. I can't believe that starts so young. :-(

Avery was super excited to see Daisy!


Minnie stopped by after Daisy and Avery was so excited to finally meet Minnie!!! 


Jackson was very excited to see Goofy again! Avery was a little apprehensive around Goofy, but did take a picture with him. He was quite tall, so I think his size scared her a little bit.


Last up was Donald! So sweet! Both kids gave him a big squeeze!




The kids each got buttons from the front desk at our resort. Since Jackson had a birthday coming up, they gave him a "Happy Birthday" button and since it was Avery's first visit to Disney, they gave her a "First Visit" button. The birthday button was a big hit. So many of the cast members wished Jackson a happy birthday and at this dinner, they even brought him a cupcake and a card signed by all the characters! So sweet! And, they didn't want to leave Avery out, so she got a cupcake too! 


It was a very fun dinner with Mickey, Minnie and Friends!!

After dinner we took Jackson to ride the Tower of Terror! He looks terrified in the picture with us, but he wanted to ride again with my parents, so they took him and he had a great time!

We were in the bottom right hand corner!

Here is his face up close. It's just hilarious! He looks like he's about to cry, but said he had fun and wanted to ride again. Crazy kid!

They're in the top right hand corner.

While we were waiting for them to get done riding the Tower of Terror, we walked over to the Rockin' Roller Coaster and got Avery some popcorn and let her run around for a little bit. :-)



Then my mom and dad and Jake and I took turns riding the Rockin' Roller Coaster since neither of the kids were tall enough to ride it.! It's such a fun roller coaster!



After that, we had special seats for Fantasmic. It was part of our dinner package with Minnie Mouse! So we headed over there to get our seats. :-) Fantasmic is a must see at Hollywood Studios!




After Fantasmic was over, we rushed out to the car to hurry over to Animal Kingdom for the special event they were having for Disney Vacation Club Members!

It was a lot of fun to see this park at night. Unfortunately, Jackson fell asleep in the car on the way there, so he slept through a majority of our time there that night, but he did ride one ride with Jake and we all rode the Safari at night, which was really cool!

Another fun thing we did that night was dance with Daisy, Donald and Pluto! Avery was so cute dancing with Daisy! One of the cast members even started dancing with Avery. It was so much fun and so cute! We also got free Mickey Mouse ice cream, drinks and chips! It was a really fun night and so worth the aching feet we had while we were there. Ha.



And here's a little video. Avery was just too cute with her little head bob!



It was close to midnight when we left Animal Kingdom, so we were exhausted, but we had such a fun day!

Here are links to Parts 1, 2 and 3 and stay tuned next week as I continue sharing about our trip!

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Walt Disney World Vacation || Part 3

The next day, we had a beach day planned! We knew after a late night at the Magic Kingdom Sunday night, we'd need somewhat of a relaxing day. So we slept in the next morning and planned to have lunch at Grills Seafood in Port Canaveral before heading to the beach.


We sat outside on the patio and had a view of the port.

This big cruise ship was parked right next door and was pretty cool for the kids to see.

After a nice lunch, we headed to Cocoa Beach for a few hours. It was Avery's first time to see the ocean and it was so much fun. Jackson was only 1 the last time he had went swimming the ocean, so he enjoyed it much more this time around.









After a few hours at the beach, we decided to stop by Ron Jon's Surf Shop on the way back to the resort!





It was a very fun beach day! We all had a great time!

Check out Part 1 and 2 and then come back tomorrow for Part 4!