Disney World!

The day after Thanksgiving, we headed down to Disney World for Carter's 5th birthday. We waited to leave until after the Iron Bowl, and we stopped in Tifton, GA and spent the night. The boys were asleep in the car, and when Charlie woke up and realized he was in a hotel bed, he was SO excited! He didn't get out of bed, but he just shivered with excitement and it was so cute!  Nana and Pawpaw went with us, and we met up with them in Tifton. 
We got up the next morning, ate breakfast, and headed to Orlando. We arrived sometime in the early afternoon and checked in to our cabin - we stayed at the Fort Wilderness cabins. I definitely recommend them if you need plenty of space (a separate bedroom, living area, kitchen, etc). It is more space/rooms than just a hotel room but it's much cheaper than getting a hotel suite with a separate bedroom.

I liked having a kitchen, and also liked being able to park right in front of your cabin; this made for easy loading/unloading and running errands.

We went straight the Magic Kingdom after getting settled.

Our first ride was a HUGE mistake. I didn't read my book before going, and since there wasn't a long wait, we tried out Stitch's Great Escape. Not only is it pointless (it's not a ride at all - just a weird animatronic show where you are locked into your chair), but it was SCARY. Carter cried big time, and we couldn't get up and leave. After getting back to the room, I read in our Unofficial Guide to Disney World that they think it's probably the worst creation at Disney World, and it scares almost all children. So much for buying that book to prepare ahead... Carter STILL talks about that ride.  Charlie wasn’t tall enough – thank goodness!  I also read in the book that the height requirement has been increased a few times for that, just so young children don’t do it because of the scariness factor.  I was really worried about how all the other rides would be (and how Carter would do) since this was our first thing to try.  Thank goodness everything else was much better!

We ate dinner and wandered around for a while, rode several more (less scary) rides, and then watched the Electrical Parade on our way out.  I’m glad we did, because this ended up being the only night we were there that late to catch it.

Carter bought 2 light sabers with his own money – one for him and one for Charlie.  Even though they are mostly broken now, they still love them!

 

The next day, we headed to the Magic Kingdom again.  Charlie decided he needed sunglasses to match Carter’s.  This was the one and only moment he wore them.

We had lunch at the Crystal Palace, which was a character lunch.  All the characters were from Winnie the Pooh (which I do not like very much), but they were all cute and the boys liked them.  Tigger kept knocking off my sunglasses – apparently he’s a jokester!

Charlie wasn’t too sure about Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride at first…

Splash Mountain was one of Carter’s favorite rides also…  He went several times (he even talked me into going once – I got soaked, and it was about 50 degrees that day!).

That night, we went to Downtown Disney and ate at T-Rex.  The boys LOVED it!

The next day we went to Epcot.  While there were several things that we really loved (and we would definitely go back for some of our favorites), it was our least favorite park.  There wasn’t as much for our young children, so we only spent about a half day there.  It was worth the half day though – some of Carter’s favorite things were there (Mission: Space, Spaceship Earth, Soarin’, and the Nemo ride and show).

For lunch, Carter and I went to “Japan” and had sushi while the rest of the group went to “America” for burgers and fries.  He’s definitely my child!  I really love getting to spend time with him by himself.

The boat ride across the lake in Epcot…  We took many boat and bus rides, and a monorail ride during our trip.  Fun stuff.

After Epcot, we rode the monorail to the Contemporary to eat at Chef Mickey’s.  I think I speak for everyone when I say that this was our favorite.  The food was good, the characters were great, and everyone was happy.

The next day was Hollywood Studios (which I kept calling MGM while we were there).  The first thing we rode was Tower of Terror.  I have NO idea how someone talked me into getting on that freefall of death.  It was AWFUL.  Carter wasn’t scared during the falling part though – he thought that was fun.  Instead, he was scared by the fake ghost/haunty stuff. 

This dude from Toy Story was funny!  There were several of them along the street…  He signed his autograph, “Green Army Man.”  I don’t know what else he would have put, but I just thought it was funny!

We waited in line for about 50 minutes to meet Buzz and Woody.  You get to go through Andy’s room and take pictures in different spots.  Our boys were tired and wild, so this only kept them entertained for the first couple of things.

But oh my goodness – I would have waited for 7 days for this moment!  If I could bottle this and keep it forever, I would!  The boys LOVED, LOVED, LOVED meeting Buzz and Woody.  I still get tears in my eyes thinking about it!  Charlie kept wanting to hug Woody, even when we were trying to make them line up for a picture.  By far, this was the best moment of the entire trip. 

On another note, there was a couple in front of us waiting (they were grown and have grandchildren).  The man had his picture made in front of EVERY photo op place, and he had his photo made with the characters.  Does anyone else find it strange for a grown-up to wait that long and go through all that?  I kept secretly wishing he would let us go in front, since our boys were LOSING it with all the waiting.

Toy Story Mania was one of our absolute FAVORITE rides (how many favorites can we have, right?).  But get there early – when we got our fast passes at about 10:00 a.m., our return time was for 7:30 p.m., I think. 

Carter's absolute FAVORITE was Indiana Jones... He kept begging to go back to see the show again.  I remembered many parts of it from when I was little.  It must have been my favorite also!

Honey, I shrunk Carter and Charlie!

The fastest slide in America! Carter would only go on this once, and many children were scared to go down it.  I still haven’t figured out how he stopped at the bottom – I thought he might land in another park!

Hollywood and Vine features characters from Playhouse Disney. I didn't know who most of them were, so I usually just said, "Hey, You!"

I knew this was Handy Manny, but I think that’s the only one I knew… 

Charlie loved dancing with the characters at Hollywood and Vine! He was so cute, trying to run up and hug them all!

We went to a really loud (and awesome) car stunt show...

And Charlie slept through it all! He was SO TIRED!

The pictures do not do this justice. The Osbourne Lights at Hollywood Studios were beautiful! They were all in tune with the music...

The next day, we headed to Animal Kingdom, which quickly became one of our favorite parks. 

We had to eat at the Rainforest Café, of course…

Ugh – a terrible picture of me, but I wanted to show our matching shirts.

While in the Animal Kingdom one day, we ate at the Tusker House restaurant in Africa.  That was one of our favorite meals also, even though the menu looked not so promising.  They even gave us a recipe for something we really loved.

The bird show was pretty phenomenal!  A definite don’t-miss!!!  Just look at Carter’s face below…

A hawk flew right over our heads!  I’m surprised it didn’t hit Alan’s cap.

The Tree of Life…  It’s Tough to be a Bug is held in this tree, and it was really great.  Lots of surprises!

On the last day of the trip, Carter finally got mouse ears and buttons (for birthday and first visit).  Next time we will do better!

Everest – another of Carter’s absolute favorite rides.  I think he went on it 3 or 4 times, and he actually talked me into doing it also.  As an avid roller-coaster AVOIDER, it wasn’t that bad.  I would do it again.  Maybe.  For an undisclosed sum of money.

We LOVED the safari!!!

Hard to see, but this is a baby giraffe!

These trees are really neat…

We love Nemo, so of course we went to the Nemo musical show.  It was really great and the boys loved it!

I don't have good pictures of this because you can't use flash photography, but the Lion King show in Animal Kingdom was probably our favorite show - it was really, really great.

Can you spot the person???

This dude saw me taking his picture from afar and posed for me.

This was so funny... We saw signs like this everywhere, and Carter would look at them and say, "No food and drink, no radios, and no fire-breathing." So now when we see a no-smoking sign, we call it a fire-breathing sign.

Sweet brothers (most of the time)!

Our little friend who decided to stay with us...

This was up there on our list of favorite places to eat. I don't think it takes the #1 spot, but we would definitely eat there again. Everyone is so funny there!

Carter participated in the stick horse race.

Our favorite ride - we rode it at least 6 or 18 times.

Oh no! The boys are in jail with Zurg!

Uh-oh, Carter was driving us!

And Charlie was driving too, but he wasn't even watching where he was going!

One of Carter's favorite rides - It's a Small World

We saw Mercedes from Glee filming a commercial. I was so surprised at how close I could get - I just walked right up!

We tried to get wonderful pictures in front of the castle, but weren't very good at it...

We were there from Saturday through Friday (we were supposed to be there Saturday through Saturday, but we were kind of ready to come home a day early – what?!?).  We spent about 2 days in the Animal Kingdom, 1 (very full) day in Hollywood Studios, 1/2 day in Epcot, and the rest of the time (including some nights after we finished at other parks) at the Magic Kingdom. 

What a wonderfully awesome trip, with memories to last a lifetime.  I cannot wait until we go back again!!!

P.S. More pictures here.