We're staying at the Dolphin Hotel this time, which is literally across a large pond from the Swan, where we stayed last time. They're both Starwood hotels, and we used points (earned from Dan's work travels - so we have a lot to thank PWC for) to stay for free! We are only doing a few park days, paired with some pool days, which is more our speed. Maybe when the girls are older we can do multiple park days in a row, or park hoppers where we travel from park to park, but for now we like to go slow.
Day 1:
We arrived Saturday around 2pm, and our room was actually ready! We moved into our room (literally - we bring a lot!) and headed down to the pool for a quick dip to help the girls get out some of their pent up energy from being in the car all day! Then we changed & headed over to Ft. Wilderness Resort for Mickey's Backyard BBQ! We all really enjoyed this dinner show! It's outside at a pavilion, and it's first come picnic table seating with a buffet BBQ dinner. The food was great! Ribs, chicken, pulled pork, hot dogs, hamburgers, and all the BBQ sides & salads you'd want to go with it! And you can't forget dessert - they had Mickey ice cream bars & popsicles in self-serve freezers! It's a very unstructured character experience, which we really liked. You can eat at your own pace, meanwhile there's singing, dancing and even some cowboy rope shows going on! The characters you meet are Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Chip & Dale. The characters dance for a few songs, then they head to the sides to do pictures & autographs. It was a great time! However, Dan & I agree doing something like this our first night here just feels like too much. Our girls get so tired and then crazy from being in the car all day, really all they probably needed was a dip in the pool and something small for dinner. We'll remember that for our next trip!
Day 2: Animal Kingdom
We got to the park a little before opening so we could try to get right in line for the newest ride in Pandora - Flight of Passage. However, despite us arriving at the ride exactly at 9am (park opening time), the line was already a 3 hour wait!! So we said no way, and headed over to the other Pandora Ride, Na'vi River Cruise, which was a 10 minute wait! Much more our speed! This is a slow ride & is darker, but has lots of pretty glowing plants & flowers, you see some of the Na'vi & some animals too. Both of the girls really enjoyed this one & it was nice to get on so quickly. The area of Pandora itself was really awesome just to walk through & see!
We didn't do Animal Kingdom our last trip, we went to Hollywood Studios instead to meet Moana! But this time Pocahontas was high on the girls' "must do" list, and she was great! We met her early in the day & did not have to wait in line long. She spent a lot of time with the girls & even told E maybe one day they could go on a trip together! Little does she know E will NOT forget that!!! ;-)
After Pocahontas we randomly ran into our friend Megan! We knew she was going to be at the park & we had planned to try to meet up with her, but fate brought us together sooner! It was a really nice surprise! We then headed back to Africa for a safari ride, which was awesome! We got to see tons of animals, many of which we had never seen before - and some we didn't even know existed!
The girls were starting to fizzle after the Safari, so we got them some frozen lemonade & checked in early for our lunch reservation at Tusker House. It was nice to sit down in the air conditioning, and Tusker House lived up to every recommendation I'd heard or read! The characters came to us almost right away, so Dan went & got the girls some food while I helped them meet Daisy Duck (another one we hadn't met last trip). They were very excited to meet Daisy, Donald, Mickey & Goofy. They both really enjoy getting the autographs in their books and meeting the characters! The food we had was delicious, and we really appreciated that they were able to get us in earlier than our original reservation!
After lunch we saw the Celebration of the Lion King show, and then headed back to Pandora to use some fast passes I had managed to grab for Flight of Passage! Dan & Emmy rode first, since Cameron is too small to ride it. Plus she needed a nap! We decided to try to have her nap in the stroller & see how long we could make it at the parks, instead of heading back for a midday nap and coming back at night, like we did last trip. Cameron was asleep pretty much as soon as we walked away from Dan & Emmy, so I just did a lap around Animal Kingdom while they rode the ride. When they came off the ride Dan wasn't sure if E would be up for doing it again - it was a bit intense & kind of scary for her. But she said she wanted to go again - so I got to go with her! She was excited for it & totally fine until the ride actually started - then she was scared and not happy! I felt so bad! But she toughed it out - luckily its a virtual reality ride where you can take off your glasses if you want and she really just closed her eyes for most of it. But I think she's proud to say she went on such a "big" ride, twice!!
When we got out of that ride we found Buggy was awake, and we were able to ride the River boat ride one more time before leaving the park. It was about 4pm and both girls were ready to head back to the hotel. Tinkerbell had visited our room while we were out & left the girls each a stuffed princess & some accessories, so they enjoyed playing with their dolls for a bit, then we headed down to order some simple poolside dinner & took a quick dip. I think we're all looking forward to a more relaxing day tomorrow!
Disney tips
-Buy & bring with you spray fans/misters. Disney sells them in the parks for $20, but the ones I found (wth Minnie & the princesses on them!) were on clearance for 90 cents at Walgreens!! The girls loved playing with these fans all day, and when C fell asleep in the stroller I was able to have the fan blowing on her to keep her cool!
-Tinkerbell gifts - Buy small Disney items at home before your trip, and each day that the kids are good (or however frequently/infrequently you prefer) leave out a few items for the kids to discover when you come back to your room. These can be very small & cheap items; I got most of them from the dollar section at Target, or the dollar store! I also keep an eye out for Disney clearance items, and glow sticks/Wands/bracelets for the nighttime events. The kids look forward to seeing what Tink will bring & having some small new toys seems to distract them from asking for everything in the parks! Last year I had notes prepared each day from Tinkerbell to go with the surprises, but I forgot to do those this year. The girls didn't mind at all, and were excited when they discovered what she left for them! So far she's brought the spray fans, sunglasses, gel window clings to decorate the hotel with, stuffed princess dolls & some Ariel accessories.
-Activities for waiting in line - Putty! I found Disney character themed putty eggs in Targets dollar section, and these have really held the girls interest! We used them waiting in line for rides, waiting for mom & dad to finish eating lunch, and on the bus ride back to our hotel! I also have small Minnie reusable sticker books & even bought princess fidget spinners... I'm hesitant to give the spinners, but maybe they'll be a last resort distraction!
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