Day 3: Epcot

Emily's dance wasn't until later that afternoon, so were able to make our breakfast meal at Akershus that morning.  We have eaten here every Disney visit and it's a great place to see all the princesses (and only use 1 dining credit).  We love the breakfast there!  We had time to be one of the first in line to see the characters.  Last time we saw the characters, Ella was asleep in her stroller (our first time we went when she was almost 2).  We also were able to ride our favorite ride:  Soarin, Nemo and friends ride, and Turtle Talk with Crush.  We had never done the Turtle Talk with Crush before and it was a lot of fun!  We took our time looking at all fish/aquarium this time.

 Look at Emily smiling with the Snow White.  :)

 Emily and I left before the others to get ready for her competition since we had to get to the Dolphin, get ready, etc.  She enjoyed going through some of the countries of the world.  We had to go this route to get to the water taxi to head to the Dolphin.  This day was the small group "What Makes You Beautiful" competition.  They did very well at Nationals and received 5 Stars!  They ended up 5th overall in the small group Junior Intermediate level.  Very proud of these girls this year!!!  They won 1st or 2nd overall in most of the regional competitions, but getting 5th at Nationals was wonderful!!!

Day 2: Animal Kingdom (afternoon)

We arrived at Animal Kingdom after lunch.  We had some fast passes to use as soon as we got there.  We got to ride a few things with the Willroths (The Lion King show, Kali Rapids and safari).  Then, we ate at Pizzafari for a late lunch.

Poppy, Roy, and I rode the Everest coaster a few times in a row (our favorite!) while Cita and Barbara took the girls to see the Nemo show.   I wish I could have seen it, but they went to the last show and we needed to go to Everest because our fast passes were going to run out.  We ended the evening at the Dinosaur park, where we rode the Triceratops ride (I was feeling a little nauseated after this ride and I usually can ride it ok).  Emily wanted Roy and I to do the Primeval Whirl (sort of a mini roller coaster).  We were last in the line before they shut it down.  This was the worst ride ever!  Emily loved it, but I got tossed around and hit my elbow pretty back when it jerked us around.  My nausea became even worse at this point.  When we were done, the park was closing so we had to head back.  I'm not sure if I was exhausted or dehydrated, but the bus ride wasn't fun.  A lady next to me even handed me a drink of water.  We made it back and I did feel better.  We had talked about going to Downtown Disney that evening (it was after 7 pm at this point when AK closed), but we went back to the resort to rest a second.  I believe the girls had a total meltdown, which resulted in us going to bed early that evening instead of going out with Cita, Poppy, and Barbara.  They ended up getting on the bus to Magic Kingdom and seeing their fireworks show.  Thank goodness for our Parkhopper passes!  I'm so bummed I missed it, but pure exhaustion had set in and I would have to try to find them by myself since Roy was at the resort with the girls.  We did get to see the 4th of July fireworks show later that week, but I missed Magic Kingdom's regular "Wishes" fireworks show that week since it stormed one of the nights and we had decided to see Fantasmic instead.

Day 2: Dance Competition (Solo)-morning

We had to be at the Dolphin hotel bright and early Monday morning.  I know I haven't blogged in 2 years, but Emily had a lyrical solo for the first time this year (probably why I haven't blogged in 2 years=too busy).  She did very well throughout the year.  Since she was 9 years old, she had to compete in the junior level and the team she was on was intermediate level.  I was worried about this since she didn't have experience at all in the solo world (most girls on her team had one the previous year, but due to several reasons I wanted her to wait and she wasn't ready a year before this).  Her first time to do her solo (at Masquerade in Bentonville), I think she proved to everyone that she is an artist.  She gave me chills up there and did remarkably well her first time on the stage.  She received a Platinum (highest adjudicated score).  She had a lyrical solo to Time After Time (by Pink).  She was so graceful and displayed a lot of emotion for a 9 year-old.  Our goal for the year was for her to make the top 10 at least once and score at least the middle adjudicated score.  She did that every time and a few times made the highest adjudicated score and was 3rd overall at two competitions and 4th overall at one + 4th overall TOP entertainer!  So, this year she did much better than anyone expected.  We were so proud of her!  I knew that the Starpower Nationals were going to be very fierce competition since this was such a huge draw for a lot of teams.  Plus, her division here was 9-12 year olds.  I didn't want to put doubt in her, but I told her just to do her best, she had already done way better than anyone expected.  However, she was feeling very anxious that morning.  She kept saying she needed to score 5 stars (the highest score).  I told her it didn't matter as long as she did her best.  She never had talked about scores before or appeared this anxious.  She was practicing over and over.   I believe she did very well, but her leaps were not as good as they usually are, but overall she did fantastic.  I suddenly felt guilty about doing so much walking the previous day.  The poor girl was so exhausted.  She ended up with 4 3/4 stars (next to highest adjudication), so still pretty good!  However, she was devastated!  It kind of ruined her day, so I hated that for her.  She did have better luck the rest of the dance competition.  I always tell her when she didn't score the way she wanted was to "prove them wrong".  I tell her to show those judges (or dance teachers) that they made a mistake and they should have given her the highest score.  This usually helps motivate her.

After the competition, we decided to go to Animal Kingdom and some of her dance friends went along as well.  It was pouring down rain at the time though.  I even had to buy Disney rain ponchos because "someone" took them out of the backpack to make it lighter.  HA!   I'm very excited about my Disney ponchos though!

Day 1: Magic Kingdom

We had our first full day at the parks (Sunday).  The dance competition didn't start until Monday, so we scheduled a lot of fun things this day!  Ella's request was to eat at Cinderella's castle.  We booked breakfast this time at 8:30am, before the park opened!  It was a great feeling to see the castle without too many people around.  After we finished, we were able to walk on some rides at Fantasy Land.  It was a great start to the day!  If you ever want to feel special, go to WDW around your birthday and wear your birthday button around the parks.  Emily and I wore ours most of the week and got lots of "happy birthdays" throughout our days there!

We really enjoyed going on all the fun rides in Fantasyland. Since we were able to walk many of the rides like Winnie the Pooh, The Little Mermaid, and Peter Pan's Flight, we quickly switched some of our fast passes that day!  They also loved It's a Small World, Dumbo, carousel, and Mickey's Philharmonic!
We watched the parade before their Bibbiti Bobbiti Boutique appointment.  It was a highlight of last trip and they both really wanted to do this again.  Emily did not want to wear a princess dress this time, but did decide to do the tight bun again.  Ella wore a princess dress and also chose the bun.  They both really enjoyed it, but it just wasn't the same as it was last time!  It was so much hotter this time, so the dress didn't last too long on Ella. ;)

We had a late lunch at Be Our Guest Restaurant.  This was a quick service meal where we had the table service here last time.  I enjoyed the lunch and we still got to choose the same neat desserts like they serve for dinner.
We had some fast passes to use after lunch and headed to Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Railroad!  Ella and Cita didn't want to ride the roller coasters, so they headed on a ride on the Liberty Belle boat.  I still didn't manage to ride it again this time, but they had fun!  The rest of us really enjoyed the rides. Next, we went on the new Snow White roller coaster.  I loved the details of the cars and we really enjoyed it!  It was much smoother than Big Mountain railroad, but Ella still didn't want to try it.  After this, we were getting very tired and I knew Emily needed to relax before her dance competition the next day (her solo was on Monday).  We decided to head back to the resort.  We stopped at Tomorrowland and danced some before we headed out.  We ate dinner at the resort.  We enjoyed the food court, but the lines were very long sometimes!  We also had a little swim before settling in for the night.  We noticed that they were playing a movie at dark, but we didn't stay for long.  Emily practiced just a little before we called it a night.  I got a fit bit for my birthday (right before the trip) and we walked 22,000 steps that day (around 7 miles).  This was the average each day we were there!  My body ached and I'm sure Emily had to be exhausted/hurting as well.  I was praying she'd be able to make it through her dance.  I know a part of me wished we could just be on this vacation without dancing, but I know this was the main reason we were at WDW and it was exciting!  We didn't rent a stroller the whole week this time.  We did cave and rented a single one the last couple of days for Ella since she is only and it was easier than carrying a whiney kid around.  ha!

Disney World 2015

When Emily's dance team announced they were going to Orlando for Nationals (at Disney Dolphin hotel), I was reluctant at first to go all out.  I reserved a room at the Dolphin, but little did I know they do not have all the perks of a Disney resort.  They are on property and do have some, but not all.  When I went to make my Disney dining reservations exactly 180 days in advance, I was disappointed to find out I could not get the Disney dining plan at the Dolphin resort.  Even though Emily did have to dance, Ella is only 6 years old and loves Disney princesses.  I knew I had to at least go to the parks and have some experiences while they are still so young!   We were leaving a couple days after my big (4-0) birthday and Emily's 10th birthday.  So, I decided to go all out and do Disney with a bang again.  I love it so much and since we had the dining plan, we didn't have to worry about our meals.  I was concerned about the dance schedule and being able to do some of the meals since we don't get the schedule around 2 weeks before it.  Emily was in 4 dances, so I was thinking one or two days she would be dancing.  Wrong!  She had one dance a day (M-Th), however the times did work out pretty good to have some park time.  It was a little difficult to hang out with dance friends at the hotel since we stayed somewhere else. We did meet some people at the parks and had some fun!  We were also accompanied by some special people:  Poppy, Cita, and Aunt Barbara came along with us for the fun!

On the airplane with some dance friends! Our flight kept getting delayed.  We had a 9:00 reservation at Chef Mickey's.  At the time, we were supposed to arrive around 3:00 and have plenty of pool time before our reservation, but now it looked like we might not even make it to it.  However, we did finally leave and arrived to Orlando (Sanford) just before 7 pm.  We did make it to Chef Mickey's right on the dot.  It was a fun first night!!

 Love this view when you drive into Walt Disney World!
Chef Mickey's!  One of our favorite and fun restaurants.  We have gone there every time!

They (Mickey and gang) sang "Happy Birthday" to Emily.  I think she liked it!!! :)

 We decided to stay at the Royal Princess rooms at Port Orleans Riverside.  The girls knew about this trip and helped plan some things.  They each got to pick some restaurants and things to do as well.  Upon check-in, they gave us a note from Princess Tiana.  They were very excited to see our room!  They loved making the fireworks work every night.  I have to admit that I did too!  I thought Port Orleans was very beautiful, clean, and relaxing.  We really enjoyed it!  It was a hike to the dining station, but it wasn't too bad to the bus stop.

Day 7: Relax at Coronado Springs resort

 We actually got to sleep in this day and started packing some.  We ate breakfast at Pepper Market and used up the rest of our snacks at the gift shop.  :)  I think we only had one quick service left after breakfast, so we had planned to use it for lunch before we left.  Poppy and Cita had about 5 QS left, so we had enough for everyone.  We finished up our packing and were out of the room at 11 am.  We didn't have to be at the airport until after 3 for our 4:40pm flight.  It had warmed up again this day, so they wanted to swim.  It was probably mid-70's, so I let Roy and the girls swim while we watched.  Emily loved the slide at this pool!  We noticed a fun little playground, so they played on this for a while.

 Then, we used up our free tokens in the arcade.  They had a great time in there!  Around 1:00, apparently they have kid's activities each day. We were too busy each day to do any of this, but they really had fun dancing, hula hooping, and playing a water pass game.  We missed out on a campfire and movie under the stars there too. I'll have to remember all this if we go again.

 We let them play until the last second.  We ordered our food poolside and got theirs to go.  We made it to the airport right on time.  Here are the girls worn out from their action packed week.  We went back to the frigid cold.  In fact, we've been snowed in/iced in for almost a week now.

It definitely wasn't a relaxing vacation, but one day I bet it will be!  At this point in their life, it was all about the magic, characters, and princesses.  I know we achieved most things on our lists.  I definitely feel there are advantages to staying on Disney property.  I absolutely loved the magic bands and we managed to avoid minimal lines (except some of the characters) on a busy week.  Until the next time!  I think I'm going to the beach next vacation.  :)

Day 6: Magic Kingdom

Our last view of the drive into Magic Kingdom.  This was Thanksgiving Day!  Such an exciting time to be at Disney World!We decided to sleep in a little and eat breakfast at the park.  We heard Starbucks was considered a "snack" on the meal plan, so everyone got in line for that and the girls and I headed to the line to meet the Fairies.  Most of the things left for today were some characters that they wanted to meet and a few rides again.  The wait for the fairies was about 30 min.  grr

Next up, was Tiana.  She was so sweet!

W
 I mentioned to my mom that I had wanted portraits done of the girls last time we were there, so she decided to get it done as our Christmas present!  The place was right across from Sleepy Hollow, on my list of good eats in the park.  We got a couple of yummy waffles.  The sitting took a little while, luckily we had a great view.  We got to see Dream Along with Mickey show again.  The portraits are such a treasure!

 Our fast passes to Buzz Lightyear ended at noon, so we hurried over there when they were done with the sitting.  They almost didn't let us in b/c we were a few min. late and the worker did let us in.  The ride ended up breaking down a few minutes just when we got on, but it got back to running very soon.  It was a fun ride, not as fun as Toy Story Mania though.  Next up was meeting Rapunzel at Fairytale Princess Hall where we had a fast pass+.  The place was really neat inside and it had Cinderella's slipper in there.

 We loved meeting Rapunzel and Snow White was in there too!  She asked the girls about what they liked to paint.

 Emily wanted to go on Barnstormer (small roller coaster) since the first day, so we got a fast pass for her and Roy to ride on it.  She loved it!  My parents took the girls on Dumbo, then the train ride while Roy and I went on Space Mountain.  Scariest ride ever!  haha  Our plans were to do the Riverboat ride, Tom Sawyer island, and President exhibit but once we met up with my parents we only had time for the Hall of Presidents.  We had a late "lunch" reservation at Ohana which was at the Polynesian resort.  We went on the monorail to the Polynesian. We were all very hungry at this point and the plan was to not eat too much since we also had a late dinner reservation at "Be Our Guest".  The food was SO good at OHana that it was hard to leave much room.  I think everyone enjoyed it even though they didn't have typical Thanksgiving dinner.  I was bummed they didn't do the kids activities b/c they were so busy, but the girls still had a great time!

 We made it back to the Magic Kingdom in time for the last street party.  Emily's favorite thing, I think!

 We checked on the riverboat again, but it wasn't leaving for a while.  Ella wanted "It's A Small World" again, so we went on that first.  We decided to forget about the riverboat since we took the ferry back to the Magic Kingdom after OHana and decided to use our fast pass to visit Mickey at the Town Center even if we had to go back to the entrance (working off our lunch).  It was a great experience seeing Mickey b/c he could talk!  He was very interactive and did some magic for us!

 Next, we had them change to their princess dresses and used the fast pass to Storytime with Belle.  It was such a neat experience!  Emily loved being in the play.  Ella decided not to be in it, but went up there to get a picture and bookmark from Belle.

 We had a little bit of time before our dinner reservation, so they went on the carousel again and we saw Philharmagic again!  Finally, it was time for "Be Our Guest" dinner.  

 View from afar.

 It was really neat going inside of the castle because one person is given a candle as they walk in.

 We were in the "rose petal" room.  It was so lovely!  The dinner was pretty good.  I think everyone got the Thanksgiving dinner but me (I tried some of Emily's).  The food was pretty good, but loved the presentation of everything!  The dessert was really neat too!  I don't know how I even ate this meal.  ;)

 At the end, you could meet the Beast.  Ella was a little scared of him.

At the end of our dinner another magical moment appeared, the end of the fireworks show was going on and we got to see it right above us.  It was an "awe" moment for sure!  After that, we saw the projector show again then decided to head out b/c Ella fell asleep.  Emily wanted to go on the Peoplemover again, but we decided to let her do her last shopping while the Electric Street Parade was going on.  The castle was sparkling as we were leaving.  I'll miss this place!  It truly is magical!  Emily wants to go every year.  I really wish we could.  I would like to go again in a couple of years, but we will see!  We still had one day left of relaxation before our plane left at 4pm.