Disney Day 2

Back in August, Star Wars: Galaxy Edge opened at Hollywood Studios.  It's a Star Wars
themed land that features two major rides.  One, the Millennium Falcon, opened when the
land opened.  But the second, and more anticipated, Rise of the Resistance, just opened
four days ago.  What does that mean for us??  Absolute Insanity!!

After a super long day of traveling, and a late night for the kids yesterday, the last thing
I wanted to do was wake up early.  But if we wanted a chance at riding Rise of the
Resistance, we had to be to the park super early!!  There were no fast passes.  The only
way to get on the ride was to get a virtual boarding pass, and you couldn't get a boarding
pass until you were in the park.  The only problem was with people getting there so early,
all the boarding passes were gone before the park had even officially opened.
So if you wanted to ride, you had to be there early!

The park officially opened at 9AM, but people had been lining up way before that forcing
them to open the park earlier.  I had to set my alarm for 5:45AM Florida time (4:45AM
Chicago time) in order to get there in time!  Let it be known, I don't get up that early for
just anything!  In my tired haze, I accidentally snoozed my alarm, but woke up on my
own a few minutes later...thank goodness!  It wasn't a huge setback, but enough to cause
a brief panic and force us to move faster than any of us wanted to at 6:30AM.  

What's awesome about the Yacht Club is you can walk to Hollywood Studios, which makes
it convenient, and helped our cause a little bit.  By the time we got there, just before 7AM,
the park had opened, but it was still early and we managed to get a boarding pass
for the ride. Phew!  Now we could relax a little.

We decided to head back to Star Wars land so we could ride Millennium Falcon.  It was only
a 30 minute wait, which wasn't bad at all.  Especially with so much to look at in line.

After the ride, we explored Galaxy's Edge a little and got some breakfast. 

One of the things we had to do was try the infamous blue milk.  It's from the Star Wars

movies.  It was more like a creamy, fruity slush, but it was delicious!

While we waited for our boarding pass to be called we walked around exploring, took the
obligatory family picture in front of the Chinese Theater, bought Star Wars hats to keep the
sun out of the boys eyes, and watched some shows like Little Mermaid to keep us busy.  

Each trip we let the boys pick out one special thing to buy.  Joe LOVES two things...stuffed
animals and puppies.  So it was no surprise that even though it was only our second day at
the park, and we told him he may want to look around a bit, he was 100% sure that this
stuffed puppy was what he wanted to get.  He LOVES it!!

Our boarding pass was called at 10:15AM. Once your number is called you have an hour to
get to the ride, so we finished what we were on and headed over.  We checked in and
walked into the ride.  I was actually a little surprised there was a line once you were inside. I
figured waiting for your boarding pass was like virtually waiting in line, but sadly that wasn't
the case.  Like Millennium Falcon, there was a lot to look at which passed the time, but still
never fun being stuck in tight spaces with the three boys.  Either way, the ride was SO worth
it!!  There are multiple parts to the ride and it was such a cool experience.  I wanted to be
able to experience it without being behind my camera, so I only took a few photos.

After Rise of the Resistance, we grabbed lunch and went on Toy Story Mania (another fave).

Then we decided to go back to the hotel for some much needed rest and to let the boys
swim.  As cool as all the parks are, I truly think one of the highlights for the boys is going to
the pool.  The entire time we're at the parks, they are constantly asking
when they can go back to swim!

After we rested for a bit, we went down to the marketplace in the hotel to grab a quick
snack.  One of the benefits of being on the dining plan is you get 2 snacks per day per
person.  They add up (10 per day for our family) and are way more than we could ever use,
but it's nice to be able to let the kids pick out whatever they want when we need a snack.  

One of Joe's favorite things are the Cheshire Cat Tails at Magic Kingdom.  It's basically a
chocolate filled croissant with some frosting drizzled on top.  We fell in love with them on our
last trip and were so excited to come back and get another one.  So you can imagine our
excitement when they had basically the exact same thing in the marketplace at our hotel.

After we had re-energized, we walked over to Epcot.  One of the biggest benefits of staying
at the Yacht Club is being able to walk to Epcot, in addition to Hollywood Studios, which is
SO convenient. It doesn't hurt that it's such a gorgeous area too!

 We didn't have any set dinner plans, so we headed over to Mexico to eat at one of our
favorite Mexican restaurants. Bonus...with the dining plan, the meal includes a margarita!! :)
 It's also right across from one of the boys favorite rides at Epcot...Gran Fiesta.

We checked out some of the stores, 

hit a few more rides,

and ended the night with Test Track.  Miles was tall enough to ride, so we decided to let him
come on.  Terrible idea!!!!  When we started speeding around the track he freaked out and
started slinking down in his seat.  That, combined with the force of the car pulling him down
left him with his back on the seat bottom and the seat belt right at his neck.  You can see
him starting to slip down in the picture.  By the end, I was bracing myself and had both my
hands under his armpits trying to keep him up.  Safe to say, he won't ride that again this trip.
 

It was another long day, but so much fun!
Owen and Miles were both asleep before we even made it back to the hotel.  :)

Disney Day 1

YAY!!  The day is finally here....we're heading to Disney World!!  Our flight left at 8AM,

so we were up and ready to go super early!  We had a quick breakfast

at the airport and were on our way!

We made it!!  We waited in line for what seemed like FOREVER to get on the Disney's

Magical Express bus that took us from the airport to our hotel.  Let me tell you, waiting in a

cramped line with 3 boys who have just been cooped up in an airplane for 3 hours, is close

to torture.  But after 45 minutes or so, we were on our way to our hotel. Let the Magic Begin!

We quickly dropped our stuff off at the hotel, picked up the stroller we rented

and were off to Magic Kingdom.

We stopped at Casey's Corner, for a little bite to eat, 

then headed out to do some rides, watch part of the Move It, Shake It Dance Party,

and of course have more snacks!!  :)

The boys were completely wiped out after such a long day, but we had one more stop.  We

took the boat from Magic Kingdom over to Wilderness Lodge to try out a new character meal for dinner, Artist Point.  This is what the boys looked like heading into dinner.

Let's be honest, they weren't the most cheerful when we had to wake them up to go into the restaurant, but thankfully it didn't take them too long to perk up once the characters

started coming around.  At least Joe and Owen.  Miles stayed sleeping, so we laid him on

the bench so he could rest. That didn't stop Snow White from showing him a little love.

When she stopped by, she went over to him and covered him up with her cape.  😂

The characters were great (this was our first time seeing any of the Snow White characters)

and the food was delicious.  Far more than we could ever eat!  The kids got a little appetizer

plate before the meal, complete with two little terra cotta pots.  One had dirt (cookie crumbs)

with fruits and veggies, and the other had a little roll baked right inside it.  It even came with

a little jar of honey butter they had to churn (shake up) themselves.

The meal itself was good, but the desserts...SO GOOD!!

And it's fun because they were all mini size and everyone got one of each.  

Then the meal ended with the hunters gift to the queen.

Chocolate ganache hearts and maple popcorn in a smoking glass box.

It was a great theme, excellent food and the perfect way to end our first day in Disney.

The Wilderness Lodge is one of my favorite resorts to visit for a meal because it's such a warm and cozy atmosphere.  Add the festive Christmas decor, and it's the best!

Overall we had such a fun day today.  Sure there were some tired, trying moments,

but the good always outshines the bad.