Disney World 2013

We took our third family trip to Disney World this fall!  We seem to be on an every other year rotation.  We'll see if that trend continues...  We had a hard time choosing when to go, not knowing if or when I would be pregnant, and we ended up choosing a pretty hard time for me pregnancy wise (10 weeks pregnant), but despite my endless nausea, we managed to have a great trip and make great memories!

Josh was once again able to score our family free plane tickets with another credit card deal, which was awesome.  With free flights, free dining, and Jacob still being 2 (and therefore free), our trip was fairly inexpensive once again.  We only had to pay for our hotel and 3 park tickets for the week!  Even with flying, the travel makes for a long day.  We drive from Catlin to Indy, fly from Indy to Orlando, take the bus from the airport to the resort, check into our hotel, and then take another bus to the parks.  Disney does work hard to make it as easy as possible though.  Once we hand over our suitcases in Indy, we don't see them again until Disney delivers them to our hotel room!  The airlines are also super accommodating with strollers; they seem to treat them as they would a wheelchair, allowing you to roll them up to the gate and pick them up immediately upon exiting the plane!

The kids got an awesome surprise as we were boarding our plane.  The line was a little backed up, and the pilot was not in the cockpit, so the co-pilot invited the kids to "drive" the plane.  He was super nice.  He let them steer and push buttons and levers and take pictures.  It was really fun!

Once we arrived, we started our park time at the Magic Kingdom.  We always do; it just seems right!  I love walking into Main Street and seeing the castle!

 Between rummage sales and our bonus Disney store gift cards leftover from our last trip, we had lots of fun Disney shirts for our trip!

One of Jacob's favorite rides was the carousel, which cracks me up since we have one at our local mall!  Luckily, we got to fly around from ride to ride that night as the park was not very busy!  We did the new Little Mermaid, It's a Small World (for the first of four times this trip), Winnie the Pooh, and others!

We got to see fireworks the first night.  Jacob thought they were pretty loud, but I discovered that as long as he would say "boom" with me each time one went off, he was ok.

We rode the teacups for the first of many times on this trip.  The kids LOVED it.  And, they thought it was really funny to spin the teacup really fast and see daddy feel queasy.

 We had to check out Mickey's Philharmagic!

 Grandma Jody got the kids new Disney pajamas this summer, which worked out great for our trip!  

The kids wore their Mickey ears at the hotel for a picture but weren't so big on wearing them all day long!

The kids were very excited to meet Sofia the First!  I think it was one of the longest lines we waited in that week!  She was at Hollywood Studios.  While we were there, we also saw the Disney Junior show, the Muppet Show, ate at Pizza Planet, met Minnie Mouse, and rode Toy Story Mania.

It was soooo hot waiting to meet Sofia, we had to get ice cream afterwards!  We LOVE the free dining plan!!!

It was so hot, and the kids were tired!  Hannah laid down on the sidewalk waiting for our bus, and Jacob crashed when we got back--with no pants on!!

We always try to go to some different restaurants each time we're there.  There are plenty to choose from!  We went to The Garden Grill at Epcot for our first sit down meal.  It was all you can eat, family style, and it was really, really good!  I unfortunately was feeling pretty sick that night, but I would go back!  The kids love the characters coming around to our tables!

 We went on the Nemo ride that night.

One of the new attractions since we've been there was Story Time with Belle, and it was popular!  We had a decently long wait for this, but it was worth it.  The kids loved meeting her.  The whole attraction was pretty cool!  Flash photography was not allowed, so the pictures aren't great quality!

They had two Dumbo rides, and the kids loved going on them!  It was right next to The Barnstormer, which was the new Goofy roller coaster.  Pregnant ladies were not allowed, so Josh took turns taking the kids on it.  The Rider Swaps really helped us out in these instances!

We went to lunch and Jacob started pouting in line.  One of the workers noticed and gave the kids free Mickey straws.  They were so excited.  That is one of my favorite things about Disney; any time my kids even showed a hint of being unhappy, someone was handing them a sticker, or a Mickey straw, or something fun.  No meltdowns allowed!  One night, Josh even went to buy Jacob candy while Hannah and I were on a ride and realized that I had all modes of payment with me.  They put the candy back and walked out of the store, and the worker tracked them down and gave it to Jacob for free "from Mickey"!

Another new and exciting attraction for us was The Princess Fairytale Hall.  It actually opened the day we got there!  You could meet Rapunzel, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White there!  Hannah did not get to meet Rapunzel last time, so she was really excited about it!  Jacob was (possibly embarrassingly) also very excited to meet the princesses.  A two year old can get away with it though, right? 

Snow White thought Jacob was adorable!  She kissed his forehead and we had lipstick everywhere the rest of the day.  It was sweet though, and he got lots of attention about it!

Hannah's favorite thing of the whole week was visiting the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.  Papa Steve got this for her birthday.  She LOVED it!  She got her hair, makeup, and nails done.  They pretty much do the exact same, tight updo on every girl (unless you choose to do fake hair, which we did not).  It's pretty tight, but the good thing is that it lasts.  It was good to do early in the trip because Hannah enjoyed it for days.  And again, she got lots of attention from everyone, everywhere because of it.  She was loving it!  My only word of advice is to book this 6 months in advance.  We did not (mainly because we weren't sure we were going to do it), and it was hard to get a reservation.  They had a location in Magic Kingdom, and we couldn't get in there at all, so we had to travel to Downtown Disney.  But, Hannah said it was her favorite part of the whole trip, so it was worth it!

That night, we had dinner at The 50s Prime Time Cafe in Hollywood Studios.  The food was decent, and the atmosphere was fun, but I really wasn't feeling well!

Our sit and stand stroller was great for this trip!  We took the backseat out and let Hannah ride on the bench.  It was easy for her to get in and out, and she had plenty of leg room this way.

For the first time ever, we decided to do a character breakfast.  We went to Akershus in Norway at Epcot and had breakfast with the princesses.  It was a really fun meal!

Later that day, Hannah got some cotton candy.  For weeks before our trip, she kept talking about how she wanted to eat cotton candy at Disney World.  I'm not sure where that came from because we had never done that before!  We were able to get it free on the dining plan too-love it!  While we were there, we also did the Journey into Imagination and Spaceship Earth.  A new ride for Hannah this trip was Soarin'.  We weren't sure if we should take her on it or not.  She wasn't tall enough last trip, and Jacob is still not tall enough, so we had to take turns taking her.  She L-O-V-E-D it!  She ended up riding it four times this trip-twice with daddy and twice with mommy!  It is also one of my very favorite things in all of the parks.

That night, we had dinner at the Whispering Canyon Lodge.  It was excellent food, and once again, I felt horrible!  After dinner, we decided to take the boat from the resort to the Magic Kingdom for the firework show.  We had never done that, and it was pretty fun.  We rode Buzz Lightyear that night, and the kids really liked it, unlike last time when Hannah was scared!

The next morning, I took the kids on Astro Orbiter, which none of us had ever been on, while daddy rode Space Mountain, a ride that none of the rest of us could do!

We got A LOT of frozen drinks on this trip.  It wasn't unbearably hot, but it was definitely very hot!  Jacob was thirsty every 30 minutes and would hardly share the drinks!  We decided we probably would not go back in September again.  We got spoiled with November weather last time!  The biggest negative about November this year would have been that Jacob would no longer have been free.  In hindsight, I also would have felt a lot better though being in my second trimester!

Hannah took a picture of us at The Animal Kingdom while we were seeking shelter from the rain.  The rain was a welcome break though from the heat!  The Animal Kingdom has never been my favorite park.  It always seems SO HOT, and there isn't as much to do there, in my opinion.  We do love the Kilamanjaro Safari, and that's all we had time for this time, along with dinner.  In general, I would be fine with skipping this park altogether.  I think it might be better for older kids though.

 We had dinner at the Yak & Yeti, which was different, and very, very good!  We LOVED the dessert!  That night, we went back to the hotel early.  I was ready for bed by about 8, and so were the kids!  The Magic Kingdom was open until 1 am, so Josh went out by himself and rode all the big rides that we couldn't do.  It worked out well for everyone!

 Grandma Teresa made Hannah a super cute Mickey dress for our trip!  She got lots of compliments on it!

We rode the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, and then we hopped in line to meet Jasmine and Aladdin!

On this trip, we really tried to do lots of things that we had never done before, and one of those things was to ride the Liberty Bell boat.  It was a nice, peaceful ride.  Throughout the trip, Hannah would go talk to any girls that she saw around her age.  There was a little girl her age on the boat, and Hannah went over to introduce herself.  The girl didn't say anything back, so Hannah asked her mom why she wasn't talking.  Her mom said it was because she only spoke Spanish, not English.  Hannah said "Oh," and looked at the girl and said, "Uno, dos, tres!"  It was hilarious!  We also saw the Country Bear Jamboree for the first time, which was a favorite of Grandma Downing's.  Even Josh had never seen it!  And, we rode the railroad around the park, which is always a nice break.

The kids each chose two souvenirs with their piggy bank money.  One of Jacob's was a toy monorail.  He LOVED it (and I'm not complaining about a souvenir that costs $4.95!).  He made up songs about monorails while he played with it, "A monorail, a monorail, take us to DisneyWorld!"  When Josh and I started singing it with him, he excitedly said, "You guys know this song too?"  

On our last full day there, we had to break down and buy the whole family new matching Disney outfits-ponchos!  It rained A LOT that day.  I can't complain.  In three trips, it was the only time we've really dealt with rain, and it really was a welcome break from the heat!

That night, we ate at the only restaurant we've been to each time-Ohana!  Josh had to work hard for reservations there, even six months in advance, but it was so yummy; it was worth it!

Another princess we had never met was Tiana!  Jacob was just as excited as Hannah!  Prince Navid was really kind to Jacob too.

We watched a lightshow on the castle that night, which was really neat.  Unfortunately, they had to cancel the fireworks and parade due to the rain from earlier in the day.

Hannah chose a Rapunzel hat as one of her souvenirs.  She LOVED it!  We saw it on the first day and waited until the end to choose what to buy, but I knew that would be her favorite!

On our last day, Hannah got to bring Marie Grace in her matching dress.  Hannah loved taking her on all of the rides, especially It's a Small World, where she got to show Marie Grace all of the dancing dolls!

 10 weeks pregnant!!!

 Josh took the kids on the Speedway-no pregnant mamas allowed!

 At the airport waiting to go home... with one final Disney treat:

It is always hard to leave Disney, but really it is hard to end any vacation or special family time that we have.  I'm thankful our family had the chance to spend this week together.  I know we are making memories that we will never forget.  I'm excited to go back and take Baby Downing #3!