It’s been over a month since returning home from our Disney
vacation and I am still on cloud 9 thinking about all the fun that we had. It was difficult at times planning a trip to
accommodate 4 families and keep 14 people always happy but it was so worth it
to share the experience with my entire family.
We had the best time and made so many unforgettable memories.
We stayed 7 nights at the Coronado Springs Resort which is
right on Disney property. We loved
it! We had four rooms right next to each
other so the cousins were in heaven all week!
The weather was absolutely perfect – usually mid 70s during the day and
low 60s at night.
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| Coronado Springs Resort |
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| Relaxing on vacation :) |
We made it to each park once and repeated Magic Kingdom
three times since that was our favorite and had the most for the kids to
do. We didn’t stay all day as we were
too exhausted to last from morning until night but we did put in a few 12 hour
days! Alex and Sean had the best time of
their life in Disney. They were filled
with pure excitement from the moment we boarded the airplane which was their
first plane ride until the moment we left our resort to go home.
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| Boys are excited for first plane ride! |
The kids did great on their first plane ride even though we
had to sit an extra hour to de-ice before take-off. We checked into our hotel and immediately had
to hop the shuttle bus to take us to Downtown Disney where we had dinner
reservations at T-Rex. Unfortunately
that turned into a very long meal as service was super slow but it felt good to
have a yummy meal after a long day of travel.
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| Sharing laughs at T-Rex |
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| Boys found Lego Land in Downtown Disney |
Magic Kingdom - First Visit
Our first day at the park was Magic Kingdom and it did not
disappoint. We crammed a lot into our 12
hour day including the electrical lights parade in the evening and the
fantastic Wishes Firework display over Cinderella’s castle. Every park was decorated for Christmas and it
was beautiful, especially the gazillion bulbs of color that lit up the castle.
We had lunch at the Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh and
his friends and the kids enjoyed getting autographs. The crowds didn’t seem too horrible and the
fast passes really helped us get on rides quickly. Nothing compares to that first day at Magic
Kingdom and the excitement I saw on Alex and Sean’s face!
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| Magic Kingdom |
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| Mad Tea Party! |
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| Tomorrowland Speedway |
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| Under the Sea |
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| Dad and Alex riding Dumbo :) |
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| Tigger at Crystal Palace |
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| Papa and Sean :) |
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| Cinderella's Castle |
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| Mickey and the boys getting ready for Mickey's PhilharMagic 3D movie! |
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| Seanie holding Tinker Bell :) |
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| Love the faces of pure joy in this picture! |
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| Seven Dwarfs Mine Train |
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| Mickey Ice Cream treat |
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| Cinderella's castle :) |
Animal Kingdom
We spent the day at Animal Kingdom and it was also Jenny’s
birthday! Expedition Everest seemed to
be the favorite ride for the kids and even Papa and Nana rode it with us! I think I can still hear Nana screaming! We saw Festival of the Lion King and Its Tough to be a Bug which we
really enjoyed. The Kilimanjaro Safaris was cool too. We enjoyed dinner at the Tusker House with
Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy!
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| Animal Kingdom |
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| We found the Starbucks! #happygirls |
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| Cousins hanging out! |
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| Its Tough to be a Bug! |
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| Ready for our Safari! |
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| Love U |
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| Papa and his boys :) |
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| Silly Goofy! |
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| Happy Birthday to Jenny! |
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| Loved all the beautiful Christmas decorations! |
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| How many licks does it take?! |
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| That is one big Mickey cookie!!! |
Magic Kingdom –Second Visit
We used today as a “rest” day. We slept in started our morning at Chef
Mickey’s with a yummy breakfast buffet.
Then we headed over to the Magic Kingdom to use our fast passes on a
couple attractions.
One of my highlights was the Enchanted Tale with Belle which
was a short story told by Belle of Beauty and the Beast. Several kids were picked to help act out
certain parts. Alex was picked to be
Maurice and had to pretend he was cold and locked up in a cage. My little Seanie was picked to be the Beast
which was the main character in this story.
He put on a red cape and the cast members helped him with his
lines. He had to “Roar” at Belle which
he did and it was the cutest thing! Then
he had to dance with Belle at the end of the show. He was shy but he did it in front of a room
full of people watching him. I was so
proud of him!
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| Belle reacting after Sean just "Roared" at her :) |
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| Belle and "The Beast" dancing together :) |
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| Seriously how lucky are these cousins to have each other! #friendsforlife |
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| Gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian |
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| Our crazy bunch at Chef Mickey's! |
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| Seanie's favorite - Mickey! |
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| Nose bumps from Minnie :) |
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| Donald Duck came over to say hi! |
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| Sean and Mom on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train |
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| This is Sean on every single ride! #daredevil |
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| Seven Dwarfs Mine Train |
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| Space Mountain! |
Hollywood Studios
This was my second favorite park and we easily put another
12 hour day in at Hollywood Studios. We
started the morning off on the Tower of Terror.
Everyone went on it and it was awesome!!! We had Lunch at Hollywood & Vine with
some of our favorite Disney Junior characters like Jake the Pirate and Handy
Manny. Alex and Hailey were brave enough
to ride the Rockin Rollercoaster with Steve and myself. We were at this park a full day and still ran
out of time for all the things we wanted to do.
But we ended the night watching Fantasmic and we walked through the
Osborne Spectacle of Lights which was absolutely incredible.
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| Hollywood Studios |
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| Tower of Terror |
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| Our terrifying elevator ride! |
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| Star Tours |
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| Toy Story Mania |
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| Oh no! Trapped by Zurg!!! |
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| Rockin Rollercoaster |
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| Osborne Light Spectacle |
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| Amazing light display! We are in awe :) |
Epcot / Thanksgiving
We celebrated Thanksgiving at Epcot and we wore our Packer
attire to support the Packer game that evening and Brett Favre getting his
number retired at Lambeau. It was neat
to hear all comments as our group of 14 walked by in our green and gold.
We were able to get on Soarin’ right when the park
opened. We also had a fast pass to Test
Track which was pretty awesome! We had
Thanksgiving dinner at Akershus Royal Banquet with all the princesses. It felt different to celebrate Thanksgiving
at Epcot but we were thankful we were all together! We took a stroll around the “Worlds of Epcot”
before exhaustion hit us and we headed back to our resort.
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| Cinderella at Akershus |
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| Happy Thanksgiving! |
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| Lunch with the Princesses |
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| Seas with Nemo |
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| How cute are these two!?!!! |
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| Epcot |
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| Go Packers! |
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| Nana loved Test Track! |
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| Touring the Worlds of Epcot! |
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| Made a stop in Germany where Dad was born :) |
Magic Kingdom – Third Visit
This was our last day at the parks and we were sad to say
good-bye. We went on more rides and saw
a few more shows. We had lunch at Be My
Guest restaurant. The kids were able to
pick out a souvenir from the Disney store and we enjoyed one last parade down
Main Street before calling it a day.
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| Be Our Guest |
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| Main Street Parade |
We had one more breakfast planned at O’hana before we had to
pack up and leave. O’hana was definitely
my favorite meal. Their mango juice and
fresh pineapple was out of this world!
Lilo and Stitch were there to say hi to the kids and sign
autographs. After breakfast, we had some
time before leaving for the airport so the kids were able to swim in the pool.
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| O'hana Breakfast |
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| Breakfast with Lilo and Stitch! |
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| Swimming at Coronado Springs |
Disney was truly a trip of a lifetime! There’s a reason why they call it the
happiest place on earth! We had the most
magnificent time and I can’t wait to plan our next trip back there!
