Day 4: Day OFF!

Today was a planned day off from the parks for us, and boy did we need it! Even after sleeping in a little bit, we were all still pretty tired this morning. We had another lazy morning with breakfast in our room & let the girls veg for awhile. When it became apparent their energy levels had returned to normal, I took them out to the playground while Dan finished up some work calls.



The playground was fairly short lived due to the heat, so we headed back to collect daddy & change into bathing suits, then back down to the pool we went for a swim and some lunch. Once again, the girls energy levels dropped so we headed back to our room for some rest time, which we all enjoyed! For our family - two days of parks back to back just doesn't work great. I admire the families who crush Disney parks, all day long, day after day - but really I'm ok with having days off in-between going to the parks! Especially being here pregnant - day one I was tired but ok, but after another park day and carrying a sleeping 4.5yr old on the bus last night, I was feeling it this morning!

Late afternoon we all freshened up & headed over to Disney Springs to take the girls to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique! When planning for this trip, this was another thing they both asked to do again, and I can't blame them - who doesn't love getting pampered?! BBB can get quite expensive, so one of the ways we curb that is by brining our own princess dresses. You don't have to buy one at the boutique, and even if you buy a dress at the Disney Store ahead of time you'll probably still come out ahead! But if you have a trip planned a ways out, keep in mind buying them after Halloween - you can get them super cheap at places like Target or Walmart! Another BBB tip is if you're little princess is going to be spending any amount of time in the dress after her makeover, consider buying/brining a "comfortable/soft" version of a princess dress - that's what I did for this visit. Disney is H-O-T and those sparkly store bought princess dresses can be scratchy & don't really let the air in. You can find some really nice ones on Etsy, or some more affordable ones on amazon, or in wholesale buy in groups on Facebook. Message me if you want more info on the ones I've had success with! :-)

Anyways, back to the boutique. After you check in they take you back to a changing room - even if you bring your own dress from home don't have your little show up in it so they can experience the changing room - in the changing room they have a magic mirror & the Fairy Godmother appears, which is quite a magical experience! From there you pay (of course) and then they take the princesses into the salon. Each princess gets their own "Fairy Godmother in Training" to do their hair, makeup & nails, and they just do such a great job with the girls! They make them feel absolutely special! Also - there are photo pass photographers taking pictures the whole time so you don't have to! If you happen to forget your magic band, like I did, they just give you a photo pass card & scan it when they take your child's pictures. When their makeover is complete they make a big deal of introducing the girls as a princess, and then they get to go into another room to get their picture taken in front of Cinderella's carriage. Another tip - if you go to the boutique in Disney Springs, just a few doors down is a Photo Pass Studio where your princess can get their picture taken and they have props & different backdrops they can use on the photos. It's free to get them taken, and if you have memory maker (which is completely worth it in my opinion!) the pictures will automatically upload to your account! As I'm sure you can tell from the pictures, our girls absolutely loved every minute of this whole experience, which made it completely worth it to us!

After the boutique we walked around Disney Springs for a little bit, and the girls each picked out a souvenier keychain to put on their school bags. We then headed over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Sanaa. This reservation was made with mommy & daddy in mind - we ate here last year and it was delicious!! The kids even enjoyed what they had, and the bonus is there's a small outdoor section you can go in & see zebras, giraffes & other animals walking around! I highly recommend it!

Tomorrow is our last park day, and we'll be at Hollywood Studios. It doesn't have nearly as many options for the littler kids as Magic Kingdom, however Toy Story Land just opened this year, so we want to go check it out! Fingers crossed that we can get Emmy on the new Slinky Dog Dash roller coaster with not too long of a wait!