Disney World

Disney World here we come! This all started when weeks ago I promised Rylan that we could go to Legoland in Atlanta, well when we wanted to book a hotel about a week before and figured out that they haven’t finished building it yet. Oops. Well that weekend we decided to have one of Scott’s classmates over for dinner. His name is also Scott and his wife is Nikki and they have an 8 year old daughter Courtney. Well guess what they were going to go that next weekend?.... to Disney World AND Nikki actually works there from time to time (used to do it full time, but now is a fill in), AND she could get us into all the parks for FREE, plus 40% off lodging. We thought about it for a day then decided to just do it! Scott only has 2 long weekends during this course in South Carolina, labor day and thanksgiving, so if we were going to drive the 7 hours this was the time to do it. Nikki knew a LOT about Disney World, she suggested an itinerary and gave us all sorts of tips and tricks. She gave us a “briefing” (such an army thing) beforehand which we were so thankful for because I gotta admit there is SO MUCH to do and we only had 2 ½ days to do it.

We started the trek after school and work and drove until about 8:30 stopping in Brunswick, GA for the night. The kids were wired! All the sugar in the car, the pure excitement of Disney World we don’t know, but they didn’t go to sleep until about 10:30! We woke up had breakfast and headed down to Florida.

Scott's new favorite thing: earphones that block out Maddy's singing,
Ian's crying, my nagging, and Rylan's video games while in the car!

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This photo of Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort is courtesy of TripAdvisor

We got to Disney World right after lunch, we checked in and headed for the pool. We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort, which has a total Caribbean flare, we were in the Trinidad section. The coolness didn’t stop there because we had a pirate room!

The kids checking out the room

Our beds frames were pirate ships, the tables and nightstands were barrels and crates. With all the excitement of the pirate ships and jumping from bed to bed, and a little rough housing with dad, Rylan’s front tooth (which has been loose for months) finally popped out! Rylan got a surprise from Mickey along with a note that said that Tinkerbell is friends with the Tooth fairy and that she will pass the tooth along to her. He was left a prize instead of money.

He was a bit upset, I totally didn't notice the drool when I took the picture, haa haa


Our pool area wasn’t just a pool like most hotels it is a water park complete with a pirate ship with slides and water guns. They also had activities for the families to do. Games like name that tune, limbo, hula-hoop contests, a dunk booth, line dancing, a conga line, it was SO FUN! Then we went to Animal Kingdom Lodge to see the animals, at this hotel there are wild animals like zebra, giraffes, antelope etc. right outside your hotel room in fact the hotel is in a circle shape to fence the animals in. Then we headed over to the hotel “Contemporary” to have dinner and watch the fireworks from over in Magic Kingdom. It was a beautiful show, complete with Tinkerbell flying around Cinderella's castle and all this nostalgic music playing from my childhood. I honestly can say that I got teary eyed.

Maddy woke up first and came to snuggle with me, this is us "sleeping" please excuse my greasiness!"

Our "excited faces!"

We woke up bright and early to head to Hollywood Studios. Nikki met us there and got us in for free, and early before anyone else….yeah we totally were those people that skipped ahead in line and got in! We b-lined it to the Jedi Master training academy, got Rylan signed up to participate in a training with a Jedi Master, he was so funny and great with the kids. He had some great lines. He asked a girl to smile and she had a bunch of teeth missing, and he said, “good, it looks like you have seen battle before.” Our favorite was what he said to Rylan, “great fight besides the decapitation.” They trained for about 15 minutes,


then there was a disturbance in the force, Darth Vader came on the stage and tried to persuade the young Padwans to join the dark side! Each of them battled it out against him!


Those little boys took it so seriously, oh you should have seen the anger and fight they had in them when they had to face the HUGE Darth Vader. Some of the kids looked really scared like they were about to pee their pants scared, I made sure and cheered for them extra loud! I am sure that Rylan will remember that battle for the rest of his life.
Back to Nikki, she not only works at Hollywood Studios but she is the star of the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular show as Marion. She is a stunt woman!
Here she is throwing a punch

She is a gymnast and has taught for a while, then she started doing stunts and has been in quite a view movies and TV shows. She got us VIP seating to the show, and we were so close that we could feel the heat from the explosions! She was amazing to watch, I can’t believe some of the stuff she did, Scott and I had to ask her how certain things were done. After the show we got to meet Indiana, whose real name was Adam.

Madelyn instantly asked him, “how do you make the FIRE?” She also discovered that she would like to learn to do flips and stuff like Nikki. . .great! Rylan wanted to know if Nikki really was punching those guys. . .


Also at Hollywood Studios we went on a 3D Star Wars stimulation ride,

Rylan riding the machine they rode on Return of the Jedi

we saw a Disney Jr. show with the Little Einsteins,

Handy Manny, and all the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters. We were devastated to learn that the Little Mermaid show was canceled for the day! Maddy was really looking forward to that.
The troopers in the stroller

It was quite a scorcher that day so any shade or inside attraction we could find was great. We also went over to Epcot. Rylan really wanted to ride the boat over so I rode with him while Scott took the younger kids in the car so they could get a little nap.

On the ferry boat riding to Epcot

At Epcot we went on a Space Mission, raced in a car race, saw Nemo and Dory, and rode a ride all about them

and talked to Crush the sea turtle. We didn’t even go over to the other side of the lake where they have the World Showcase, which are different parts of the world.
That night Boise State was playing so Scott left his family and went to a Sport Club to watch with his classmate Scott, while I stuck around with the kids at Epcot for a while. I got them back to the hotel around 8:30, threw them all in the tub and put them to bed…all were asleep within minutes.

Legos are great to help the kids wait in line

Another thing that the kids did in line was dance, since they have music playing all the time everywhere, and that is what my kids naturally want to do when they hear music.

Gotta get a nap in whenever you can

Maddy's hair was the most curly we have ever seen it in humid Florida

Quotes:
M: “Dad I don’t want you to punch my teeth out, ok?”
M: “ Sorry mom, I don’t listen very well.
R: As we were parking at night at our hotel and I was getting stuff from the car, Rylan said “mom, don’t worry I will protect you!” Then he made his new star wars gun shoot.

Magic Kingdom
This day started with Rylan losing his second front tooth. I was tired of hearing him complaining about it and so I gave him an apple to eat for breakfast…ha haa my evil plan worked and it popped out in the car on our way to Magic Kingdom. We saved the best for last and we wanted to have a whole day for this place. Pure magic,

Me & Maddy in front of Cinderella's castle, she really wanted to go inside,

luckily there was a tunnel that we could walk through and that was good enough for her.

I am a sucker for nostalgic memories. My family went to Disneyland when I was seven, the only thing I remember was the “it’s a small world” ride, the Peter Pan ride and the fact that I packed all by myself and only packed one short sleeved shirt and one pair of shorts, so I wore the same outfit every day, which was in case you are wondering a Garfield shirt that said “I am a cat lover” and pink shorts. Anyway Disney World has so much more! I didn’t realize this until we were talking to our special tour guide Nikki! I am so glad we had her and her family to play with! Not only was she a great tour guide she had all sorts of tips and suggestions throughout the day and the whole weekend. Plus she had an app on her phone that told us how long of a wait each ride was! Her daughter Courtney and Rylan had a blast together too, and didn’t want to be apart.

At the beginning of the day we headed for Adventure land so we could do some rides all together. As we were walking there I saw some bright red hair in a beautiful gown…it was ARIEL! Madelyn loves her, and she had told me multiple times that she wanted to see her. The line to see her wasn’t that long at all she was kind of hidden so I am really surprised that I saw her. Madelyn was busting at the seams, and not surprisingly she was holding an Ariel doll that I had bought for her the day before at Epcot. She took her doll with her, and Ariel was so sweet, she hugged Maddy and showed the doll to Eric and said something like, “look Eric, it is me and I am wearing the dress that I wore when we first had dinner together at your castle, isn’t that right?”

Maddy talked and talked to her, I had to pry her away

Oh it was so fun to see Madelyn’s face and her excitement. We explored the Swiss Family tree house, rode the magic carpets of Aladdin, did the Jungle Cruise , the Enchanted Tiki Room, and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. We had lunch then split up, Nikki was kind enough to come with me and the younger two and Scott took Rylan with the other Scott and Courtney, so they could ride some “big” rides. We went to Fantasyland while Scott and Rylan went straight for the “Haunted Mansion.” Madelyn spotted the carrousel first,

then Nikki suggested that we go to the Mickey’s PhilharMagic movie. I wish that I could have taken a picture of Madelyn because she was hilarious at her first 4D movie. She kept trying to grab things, and she would flinch at things flying towards her. She thought it was so funny! I thoroughly enjoyed it too, we got to literally feel the breeze as we went on a magic carpet with Aladdin and Jasmine, we were splashed with water as we dove into the water to visit Ariel, we could smell the food that the castle staff prepared for Belle, and at the end Donald Duck flew over the crowd and crashed in the back wall!
Rockin her cool glasses

It was so FUN! We were also awed by “it’s a small world’, again Madelyn was watching with eyes wide, a smile, pointing at the things that she saw. They also had a Monsters Inc show where the monsters were trying to get our laughs, they would show people in the crowd on a big screen comparing them to the characters in the movie Monsters Inc, and they showed Madelyn for the character of Boo, Madelyn was at first a bit confused at seeing her face on the big screen, but then the monster asked her to play peek a boo and she did, and got into it, and when they showed her again she gave the sweetest little smile. She told me later that she liked being on the big tv!

We met up with the boys and Courtney (thank goodness for texting) and did a couple more rides taking turns staying with the babies. Then we took Courtney so Nikki and Scott could go on a date at Epcot, she is such a fun, sweet little girl, she fit right in to our family! I took the kids on the famous tea cups

since the other adults didn’t want to be spun around, but I love it! Then a thunderstorm rolled in and we decided it must be time for dinner inside! After dinner we started walking towards splash mountain when Madelyn fell asleep hard so Scott stayed with her and Ian and went shopping while I took the kids on the 50 minute wait for Splash Mountain. We played 20 questions, and I spy and pretty soon it was our turn! Very fun, they kept asking me, “is this the big one?” When we got done Madelyn was STILL sleeping and we had fast passes for Space Mountain (fast pass is brilliant if you time it right) so I decided to save a spot for the Main Street Electrical Parade. We sat there for an hour, we had the perfect spot , Madelyn was still asleep then Ian got restless and needed a bottle so I left while Scott stayed and when I got back, there were people all over our spot, seriously no space issues, we were all squished like sardines! My back was killing me so I put Ian in the stroller and asked if I was ok if I sat near my baby…seriously! Move it couple in the 40s and lady and her son who were holding on to my stroller and sitting right behind it! People were all over the place. I was a bit bugged and gave Scott the evil eye…how could he let this happen when I waited here for an hour? He told me later that he couldn’t help it and he tried, oh well everyone was happy, Ian finally fell asleep, I wasn’t going to let this ruin the night. Madelyn woke up from her 3 hour nap, and was so excited that she could stay up late and play. When the parade started I knew then why people were a bit crazy about getting seats and cramming us in. The parade was the best parade EVER!

Cinderella (who is Madelyn's 2nd favorite princess)

Mickey!

The music, the colorful lighted floats, all our favorite characters, it was fantastic! Madelyn was front and center waving at everyone, and Rylan swears that Mickey looked at him in the eye and made a gesture to his mouth…um I should explain that Mickey collected Rylan’s teeth while we were there and gave them to Tinkerbell who is good friends with the tooth fairy. He also left him gifts to remember him and Disney World. Isn’t that neat?!?
After the parade, the night got a bit foggy because we were so tired yet were so hyped on adrenaline. We stayed there until midnight (yes we were those parents that kept their young kids up, but hey we were in Disney World!) riding some extra rides, because a lot of people went home and we got to stay because we were staying at one of the resort hotels! The lines for the rides were much smaller than before, plus the sun wasn’t beating down on us, it was the perfect time to get in some more rides. Scott and I rode Thunder Mountain with Rylan, we were laughing until we were sick! I think that was my favorite ride of the day. Ian woke up and was a bit disturbed, he was such a trooper all day, the whole weekend really, but he reached his limit. He wouldn’t let me put him in the stroller, he arched his back and screamed his head off. Nothing could console him but me holding him upright. So we thought he must be done and headed back to our hotel. We all slept until about 9 the next day packed up stopped at I-Hop for brunch then drove home. A big thank you to Nikki & Scott for being our tour guides and getting us in for free! I told Nikki she was a dream coming with me and the little ones, and she said that she has done all the attractions so many times, that now it is more fun to watch the reactions of kids or adults going on them for the first time. Well Madelyn sure gave her a good show! What a great fun-filled weekend! We decided that we must go back when Madelyn and Ian are about 7 and 5.