Disney Trip 2015: Part 7 Some Missed Videos

I just can't stop posting stuff! I found some videos that I missed posting.  They are long but worth it.


These are the videos that show up on your Photopass if you have Magic Bands.  There are two videos of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (one with Mama and one with Dada) and one video of the Hollywood Tower of Terror.  The video for the Mine Train was really long.  It's nearly the whole ride but the video kept messing up with the sound so I cut it down quite a bit.  The Tower of Terror is the whole video. His face is the best.  You can see fear then he starts to be okay with the ride and just when he starts feeling okay about it, then comes the drop.  Too funny.  He was pretty proud of himself for being brave enough to go on that ride but we could not convince him to go on it again. 


This is a video of Charlotte singing on the way home from the park one night.  She LOVES to sing.  I think it was after  meeting Aurora because she's singing Once Upon a Dream from Sleeping Beauty.  Then as a encore she breaks into Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  What a funny little lady. 

Disney Trip 2015: Part 6 Magic Kingdom & Epcot

The last day we went to the parks, my parents decided they would rather do Epcot again rather than Magic Kingdom again.  We were panicked but decided we could still take on the Magic Kingdom just the four of us since Tommy wanted to ride the Seven Dwarves Mine Train.  So my parents took the monorail over to Epcot and left us to fend for ourselves.  Yikes! 

We walk into the park and realize by the immense crowds that they were filming the Christmas parade on Main Street right when we got there.  It was nearly impossible but we squeezed our way through the crowd and escaped the parade before we got cut off from crossing into the area with all the rides.  Sheesh! We thought we had made a mistake...

But the kids quickly let us know that we made the right decision.  Charlotte got to ride her fave ride again, Prince Charming's Carousel.  HORSIES!  YAY! You can't see them but she also has horsies on her shirt.

Ladies carousel selfie!

While Tommy and Dada were waiting in line for the Seven Dwarves Mine Train, Charlotte and I got in line to meet Cinderella and Rapunzel.  The sign said 40 minutes and I thought, "Oh it will go fast."  This is Charlotte saying, "Ohhhhh, you were WRONG."
We ended up waiting in line for an HOUR! WHAT? Charlotte did so great.  But OMG, it was horrible.  They kept letting all the FastPass people in in front of our line.  Awful.  But Charlotte was in great spirits the whole time until....

Right until she had to go actually meet Cinderella.  She lost her mind.  Maybe the anticipation got the best of her.  Maybe she just really wanted to meet Rapunzel instead.  But she threw her body on the floor and screamed for like 10 seconds right before meeting her.  But she got her act together and met Cinderella with her hand in her mouth the whole time.  Stinker. 

She reminded me of the waitress on Always Sunny.  Maybe that's why Charlotte wasn't impressed.
 

Look at that face.  Not amused. :)

But then it was time to meet Rapunzel.  Oh my, was she excited! I had no idea she was such a fan. 

She even looked at the camera!

Then she hugged her for no less than five straight minutes.  Rapunzel was so great about it.  She kept saying "Oh you are just too sweet.  Ok mom, I guess you're going to have to leave.  I'll just take her back to my tower with me."  Ha!

While all this was going on, Tommy and Dada only ended up waiting a half hour or less for the Mine Train.  WHAT??? The line is NEVER that short.  So it really messed up our schedules for meeting up. 

Oh well, Tommy was SOOOOO happy about riding his favorite ride. 

When we finally met back up, Tommy and I rode Splash Mountain... in the front row! I thought this would be a good thing.  It was not.  We rarely get wet on this ride.  This time we definitely did.  Directly... IN THE FACE.  My hair was ruined for the day.  Tommy was cool with it though.

It's a really great ride though (when not in the front row).  A tad racist but a good ride nonetheless. "Don't throw me in the Briiiaaar Paaatttcchh!!" :-) 

This was before Splash Facing.  I have no idea why I only have one hand up.  I guess I was saying,
"Pick ME to be splashed in the face!"

I can't remember all the rides we went on during the day but I know we went on the Haunted Mansion.  Charlotte was terrified but she made it through. While Tommy and I were on the Barnstormer, Dada felt bad for the all the waiting and being scared Charlotte had to do so he got her the messiest most sugary treat ever.  It's a giant marshmallow dipped in chocolate and coated with M&Ms.  She loved it! So did her shirt.  What a mess it was! But totally worth it!!

We did the Parent Swap for several rides.  The Mine Train was one of them.  I got to ride it with Tommy this time.  (Again, I have no idea why I have one hand up. Strange.)

Hey, there we both have both our hands up! Yay!! I still don't know how they do the pictures for this one.  They sneakily scan our magic bands at some point during the ride.  The magic of Disney, I tell ya. 

I finally got a picture of the characters at the end of the ride.  Snow White is dancing with the dwarves.  It's super cute. 

Then you ride by the witch/evil queen knocking at their door.  Creepy! 

We rode Buzz Lightyear's Space Adventure.  We stood in line with a LOT of Pi Phi's.  They were having a sisterhood retreat.  They were from the University of Florida.  I talked to them a little bit as an alum.  I wanted to say, "See me sweating and wrassling my kids? This is you in 10 years."  But I refrained. 

We got our annual Buzz Lightyear pictures.  You can see last year's here.

I made a comparison shot with this year's picture and last year's picture.  My how they've grown!

All day long while I was, to quote myself, sweating and wrassling my kids, my mom kept sending me texts about how their day was going.  Doesn't it look peaceful and relaxing??? ;-) A nice picture by the water!

Another nice picture in front of Mickey!

Oh look they're drinking beer and having Belgium waffles with blueberry compote for the International Food and Wine Festival!  Looks very nice!

They also had a FastPass for Test Track.  They said that was really cool. They got to design their own car!

 Awww, look at their last photo of the night.  It's a sweet photo with a toe pop. 

 And in comparison, look at our last photo of the night.  We look like it's been a long day.  It was.  There was a Christmas party that night so they kicked us out at 7.  We tried to get on It's a Small World right at 7pm.  But to do that, I had to run from Big Thunder Mountain Railroad with Tommy in a double stroller all the way to that in 3 minutes.  It took us 4 minutes and we missed it. (Although in our defense, they definitely closed the right 2 minutes early according to Andrew's iPhone.  BOOOOOO!) So we missed it and Charlotte LOST HER SH*T when we walked away.  It was horrible.  :( Really messed that one up.  So on our way to getting kicked out of the park, we stopped in the gift store.  Charlotte got nightgown number two (Cinderella) so that we could feel better about her missing It's a Small World.  I think she had long forgotten about it by that point.  Ha!

 The kids took their last bath in the big tub that night with their pool toys.  

 The next morning Charlotte took awhile to wake up again. But we packed up the car and headed to the airport. 

Tommy made a friend on the plane.  A kid in the seat in front of him had an Ewok and used it like a puppet for Tommy (see it by the window?).  Too cute.  Also, this was the beginning of his new Star Wars obsession, I believe. 

We made it home safely and still had Sunday to recover from the trip. Thank goodness! The kids got magic towels from the bins while I was checking out with Charlotte's nightgown.  Pretty cool little washcloths. 

The trip was another amazing success.  The kids, with the help of all the wonderful pictures, will remember this trip for a long time.  You can't not enjoy a trip the happiest place on earth. :)

Disney Trip 2015: Part 5 Downton Disney

The super busy week was starting to catch up with Tommy and Charlotte.

Especially Charlotte.  Look at that hair and the look on her face.  Oh my.

But she quickly came around when she found out there would be swimming involved! Swimming and chatting with friends on her phone.

We spent the majority of the day swimming and snacking by the pool.  We also played a game where we threw a ball into the pool's volcano over and over.  We had tons of fun!

That night we headed over to Downton Disney.  Actually it WAS called Downtown Disney but there have been renovations and they added fancy stores so now it's called Disney Springs.  We decided to go to T-Rex Restaurant again.  It has good food and we knew we could get a reservation.  Also it was loud so we wouldn't have to worry about the kids throwing loud fits.  So that's a plus too! Tommy was super excited about the meteor showers.  Charlotte... not so much. 

Charlotte enjoyed the Discovery Dig where you can unearth dinosaur fossils.  She had tons of little rocks in her shoes for days.

I tried to snap a picture of the kids in front of the Paleo Truck.  No chance Tommy was going to let that happen. :)

Charlotte rode a baby Triceratops! Whee!!

Tommy insisted we get a picture of our table which was INSIDE a BIG triceratops!! Sweet!!!

After dinner, we walked over the the Lego store.  Charlotte was roaring in front of the Lego Maleficent dragon in this picture.  ROARRRR!!

Then she wanted to pose with Aurora in front of the Disney store.

Then she started to get really good at it and posed with Cinderella! Fabulous!

We had so many bags by the end of the evening.  One bag had cupcakes from Erin McKenna's Bakery NYC.  Allergy-free deliciousness! Wow, were those cupcakes awesome! Yum!  We had an awesome night just walking around Downton Disney.  Hehe. 


While we were waiting for Andrew to get another Christmas present, the kids started dancing the song that was blaring.  You can see Charlotte's brand new nightgown. I looked at the princess dresses they had for sale and they were like $70-80.  Holy Moses.  But Charlotte was super excited to get a pretty nightgown instead.  Plus it was an Aurora nightgown.  Win!
But anyway, look at this dancing duo.  The talent is strong with these two!!  I think I have watched this video a thousand times.  I laugh every single time.  So funny.

Downton Disney never disappoints!

Disney Trip 2015 Part 4: Epcot

After somewhat of a restful day, we headed back to the parks for more fun! Today was the day we take the kids to Epcot for the first time!

They were stoked!

We got a picture as soon as we walked in the entrance.  The photographer took off to go to another location as soon as he took our picture.  I'm glad he captured ours.  This turned out to be a great one! Definitely one of my favorites!

We headed in and went straight to The Seas.  The kids sat up front for Turtle Talk with Crush.  You may remember this being one of my favorites from 2009.  The kids really enjoyed it.  They weren't brave enough to ask any questions of Crush but they still watched in amazement. 

Then we explored the "seas" and looked at all the undersea creatures.

Did I mention we also took selfies??

We ate lunch in Future World.  It was delicious.  Then we waited a few minutes for our next FastPass for Spaceship Earth.  While we were waiting, we looked around and saw that Pluto was taking pictures with people...

We had to get one of our own! Adorable!

Don't forget the family pose! The kids were getting much better at smiling (or at least not scowling) for pictures.

I had to take a picture of this moment.  Take the kids to Disney and they have fun playing with their own reflections!

Hey look! It's Charlotte and me in our Space Adventure!

After we walked out of Spaceship Earth, Tommy HAD to play the games.

This is a sweet picture that my mom took as we were walking around Epcot.  Awwww!

We had reservations at the Biergarten Restaurant but wanted to get a quick Chase Freedom Disney card picture that I read about (more info here).  The two surprise guests did not disappoint! Although Goofy was very disappointed when both kids immediately ran to...

THE MOUSE HIMSELF!! Goofy pretended to cry and that's when Tommy hugged him.  Charlotte was not going to go near him. :) 

Tommy really enjoyed meeting Mickey.  Look at that smile!!

Plus we got a family picture too! Nice! Uh oh, Tommy has the I'm-trying-really-hard-smile again.  Haha!

It was time for our Biergarten reservation.  When we arrived, we had a few minutes before our table was ready.  We ran into (pretty much literally) a few ladies in motorized carts who had been enjoying the biergarten themselves.  Sheesh!! One woman ran her cart into 3 different tables before she told us Charlotte had beautiful eyes and that Andrew needed to buy a gun.  She also went on to say that she might be arrested for saying something like that nowadays and then she motored off.  It was hilarious.  It made it quite excited for our reservation.  Haha!

The restaurant was really cool! The chef came out again and as it turns out, Tommy can have more German food than he could have African food.  Crazy right? He had quite a few German hot dogs (actually sausages but we weren't going to tell him).  He really enjoyed his meal, as we all did.  But we mostly enjoyed the beer.  I had a Hefeweizen.  It was awesome.

We also had to deal with our waiter who did NOT have a sense of humor.  He was from Germany and very serious.  But he smirked once I think after we warmed up to him a bit. 


Charlotte loved this restaurant most of all, I believe.  She really enjoyed the live entertainment and she got to dance on the dance floor.  The alpenhorns were super cool (aka RIIIICCCOOOOLLAAAA instruments).  It was a really awesome place to dine.  Very happy with our choice. 

We got our picture taken in front of Germany after dinner.  They came out a little light but still fun.

Everyone's happy after a full meal (and beer)!

We walked just a couple countries over to discover that HANSON was playing the Eat to the Beat Concert Series.  I can't find any reference to it from the 2009 posts but I know we saw Earth, Wind and Fire back then.  But this time, HANSON???? Are you kidding me??? Hello, 1997!!!!


Yes I took a video.  You saw it here first, folks.  I'm jamming out and Andrew is dancing to Hanson... with his 2 year old daughter.  Can you imagine what 1997 Andrew would say about that? I think he would say BAD, DUDE!! haha.

We checked the time (no, it wasn't time to get ill), it was time to meet Charlotte's favorite, Princess Aurora! We got in line a few minutes early but Charlotte is not really into standing still so she climbed this light pole. 

Then she refused to stand so she laid on the sidewalk.  Crazy kiddo.

But then it was TIME! Princess Aurora was here! She held Charlotte's hand!

This is as close to a smile as Charlotte got all vacation.  Tongue out happy little lady!

I got in on the action too!  She was a really great Aurora.  She loved Charlotte, of course.  Probably because she is her biggest fan. 

We ended the night with rides and character meet n greets.  Mickey again!! Yay!!! Mickey always brings the smiles!

This time, Goofy was less scary.

Then it was time for Minnie Mouse... The photog capture us waiting our turn.

Haha! Yay Minnie!

We watched the Illuminations firework show on the water at the end of the night which Charlotte HATED.  Way too loud.  But as long as I kept her ears covered, she was okay.  We also ate pastries from France while watching the show.  YUM! Andrew got the biggest iced donut I've ever seen and I ate a lot of eclairs.  Delish.

The next day, Thursday, was going to be a rest day and it was a good thing.  Another full day and late night.  Lots of fun was had at Epcot!