I was a little bit anxious about the flight to Orlando since I had to get my two kids, two carseats, a stroller, a carrier, two carry ons, a diaper bag, a boppy pillow, and my own self onto a plane. But thankfully my sister and my grandma were on our same flight so we had extra hands and we got through security so easily (shoutout to PHX TSA for not sucking that day!). But even luckier than that was the fact that our plane was not full, so Izzy and GG had a row to themselves and Abby and I had our own row and Cam got his own seat! It was so great. Everyone napped, and we had snacks and watched movies and played games. It was not a big deal at all. My mom was on a flight that got her to Orlando a little bit before us, so she just waited at baggage claim and we all met up and were on our merry way. There was a few issues with our car rental and whatnot, but it was all sorted out, even if it was a huge nightmare.
We got to our hotel and had the night and next morning to relax while we waited for my Aunt and cousin to get in, and once they were picked up we were OFF TO DISNEYWORLD!
My amazing mom had been on top of all the scheduling and knew the best days to do each pack, and had even reserved our fast passes for each day. Our first one was a Character meet up with Tinkerbell, and Izzy was a bit shy and nervous at first, but she warmed right up and they had the cutest interaction. Izzy will still tell you that meeting Tink was her favorite part of the entire trip!
That first day at Magic Kingdom was 100% for Isabel. I let her lead the way and she was the main decision maker. We rode Small World and Tea Cups and Winnie the Pooh. I took her on the carousel and the Ariel Ride and it was so fun because she was tall enough to do all the 40 in hight requirement rides, so we also did Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and The Seven Dwarves Mine Train. The weather was a beast, and it's true what they say about Arizona being a dry heat, and how it's not nearly as bad as places with heat AND humidity. Man, it was in high 80's the entire time we were there, which in AZ is really nice weather. But it was around 75-85 % humidity and it was pretty miserable. We were constantly just wet and sweaty and sticky. Not my favorite. But it was nice that Disney World knows that the humidity is terrible, so a lot of the rides lines are inside in air conditioning which helps immensely. Since we wanted to get to the AC as much as possible, we met more characters than maybe we normally would have. Izzy loved meeting Rapunzel and Tiana. It was so cute, I asked Izzy if she was going to tell Rapunzel about being at Izzy's birthday party and Iz just looked at me kinda confused and said, "No mom, she was just there, she remembers me!" So sweet. I also had an idea that Disney should implement with their character meet ups. Parents should have a way to tell the character something they want them to talk about with their kids. Like you could have Belle tell your girls to make sure they always listen to their mom and do their chores right away. Or when meeting the super heros, have them tell the kids to always be kind to their siblings and not fight. Haha I just feel like kids would really listen to them and the parents could say "Remember what Captain America said! Don't tease your sister!" It's a great idea, I promise. Per the Disney norm, we ate lots of yummy food. Fish and chips, maple popcorn, frozen lemonade, candy corn cotton candy! Our favorite restaurant from our first day was Pecos Bills Tall Tale in and cafe. They had super yummy nachos and all you can eat guacamole and salsa. Plus Izzy wanted a quesadilla, but it wasn't on the menu and when the person taking our order heard that they said that they would talk to the chef and see if they could make her one special- and they totally did. It was so amazing. We stayed at the park riding rides until they were kicking us out, and our car was one of the last in the parking lot. It was an amazing first day.
Sunday morning we just took it easy and slept in since we had had a crazy few days there right in a row. But once we got up and got going, we took a break from Disney and took Izzy to Sea World. She went with my parents when she was 1, and absolutely loved it, so my mom wanted to take her again. This time was no different, she had a wonderful time. We pet the sting rays and watched the amazing dolphin show. We went trick or treating in their kid area, and went in the penguin encounter, which was my favorite! They closed early, but it was just the perfect amount of time for the kids. I was bummed we didn't ride any of their big roller coasters, but I'm glad that the kids had fun!
I was so excited for Monday! ANIMAL KINGDOM! It was brutally hot that day, and it caused dome heated emotions in the morning, but once we got fans, neck towels, and waters in place (I even bought a new, cooler shirt) we were all a bit happier. Again, my mom had planned a great day for us, and we started out at the Lion King show! It was wonderful and funny and Cam and Izzy loved all the music. One thing I love about Animal Kingdom is all their shows. They are all so wonderfully executed and obviously family friendly. Just long enough to feel rested and find refuge from the heat for a while, but not so long that the kids get restless. It's perfect. A top priority for our day was making it to Pandora- The world from Avatar. The wait times for the attractions there were always 90 minutes or more, but we knew that we didn't want to miss it. So we made the trek over to Pandora and Abby, Makalya and Kelly got in line. I stayed with my mom and grandma and the kids and we did some kid friendly activities since Izzy wasn't tall enough for Flight of Passage. Mom joined the others when they were close to the front of the line and after they were done, we did a baby swap and we were able to get on relatively quickly. This ride was by far the best ride I've ever ever been on. I was squealing with delight the whole time, just amazed by the whole thing. It's immersive and incredible and it really does transport you to another world. I did not want it to end, and if time allowed, I would have done it a dozen more times. If you have a chance to go to Disney's Animal Kingdom, absolutely DO NOT miss Flight of Passage. Even if the wait is 2+ hours, it is well worth it.
Tuesday was another low key morning. We slept in and went to the pool at the condo, had lunch and just relaxed because that night was Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! We decided to do a bit of a group theme, and all the adults were Disney Villians. It was fun and really easy, plus we got lots of compliments. Izzy is the sweetest little mermaid, and Cam was just a little hero in training. We were mostly there for the candy- I wasn't trying to win any costume contests. The name of the game in Orlando in September, is staying cool and being comfortable, and that was my main focus for the kids. We love going to Mickeys Halloween party! It's so fun because you get tons of candy, the lines are shorter, so many fun costumes to see, special character meet ups, and fun parades and shows. Izzy loved all the short lines and was so happy that I was constantly letting her run onto every ride she wanted to go on. We even went on small world and we were the only ones in our boat! We met Winnie the Pooh and friends and they were all dressed up in their halloween costumes, which the kids adored. We passed one of the cupcake shops and they were closing for the ngiht and getting rid of all the cupcakes they hadn't sold that day. They stopped Izzy and told her she could have a cupcake if she could sing her favorite Disney song, and without hesitation she starts busting out "Part of your World". It was so cute and she was so proud of that cupcake! It's so nice to be at the parks late, when it's cooler and the crowds are less. When given the chance I will always go to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party. What's better than Disney and Candy? We had a blast and came away with quite a mountain of candy!
On Thursday we woke up to tons of big fluffy clouds and it was legitimately what an answered prayer looks like. It had been so hot and humid the last few days, I was just dying for some shade and a breeze, and that's exactly what we got. It was so amazing. We enjoyed Hollywood studios so much. It was fun to be able to ride Tower of Terror and, my favorite, Toy Story Mania! We also very much enjoyed the Frozen Sing Along. After getting some dinner, we got our seats for Fantasmic, which both of my kids loved. We ended the night early and gave our feet a much needed break and caught up on some sleep before the next two crazy days.
Thursday was so much fun. We were able to have a second full day at Magic Kingdom. And since we had already done quite a few things on our to do list for MK, we were able to slow down and just enjoy the beauty of the park instead of running from thing to thing like crazy people. Well, that's not quite true, we had to literally sprint from the monorail to the very back of the park for our fast pass with Ariel, I'm exhausted just thinking about it. But once that was over, we just had a wonderful day eating yummy food riding all the rides we could manage and best of all, watching the fireworks. The firework show is incredible, Abby and I were both in tears, it's just so magical. They are able to transform the way the castle looks with projectors and lights and it's so cool! My very favorite part of the day though, was when we were waiting for a spot for the fireworks and we had a little over an hour before the show, so Izzy and I went off by ourselves and just had a little Mommy/Daughter time at Disneyworld. Talk about amazing. We just held hands and I followed her lead and we did whatever looks fun to her. We rode teacups and small world and got a soda and it's a memory I will always cherish. I loved being there with her.
Our last park day was Friday. We went to Epcot and we got lucky again with the weather, well sorta. It was nice and overcast and the coolest day by far. We immediately went to Norway to ride the new Frozen ride, which is so cute, and then went next door to meet Anna and Elsa. We were there while the food and wine festival was going on, so we enjoyed the day snacking on treats from around the world, and I couldn't have been happier. Izzy got to ride Soarin' over the World which she liked, but she said it made her dizzy, so I wonder if she is going to easily get motion sick. We enjoyed wondering through the countries but did get caught in a bit of a rain storm. It was pouring down when we were passing through Italy so we decided to stop in a sit down restaurant and enjoy a sit down meal since it was our last day all together. It was a wonderful dinner and a nice break from being rained on. We finished up our tour of the countries and headed home with sore feet but big smiles on our faces.
Our week in Orlando was over, and it was so much fun. It was amazing all the hard work and money that went in to getting everyone there, but oh so worth it. I am so glad our schedules allowed for us to be there and that we were able to make all these memories together.
The flights home weren't terrible. Even though Orlando's TSA agents SUCK and their security lines SUCK and the SW attendants in orlando SUCK, and I cried like 4 times between checking our bags and getting on our plane. We made it on in one piece and really, and again we were blessed with some extra seats for the kids to stretch out on, and cam slept the ENITRE 5 hour flight! Bless him. Poor kid was cutting teeth the whole week, though you wouldn't know it. He's a champion. It was a whirlwind of a week and it was stressful and hot and sweaty and crazy at times, but I would do it all again in a heartbeat.
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