Home!

We made it home, despite the dire weather predictions.  And, look, they're still friends!  (And still playing their made up version of Rock-Paper-Scissors.)

Even better was that we got two snow days and a 2-hour delay for the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday after we returned.  The perfect way to recover from 'vacation!'

Sugar crash

Combine an almost unlimited amount of sugar with lots of walking, excitement, and time outside and you have the makings of a major sugar crash.  Thankfully, we manged to avoid any epic meltdowns from the kids for the entire week; I can definitely understand how this happens with kids at the most magical place on earth.  

Any time we stopped moving after about 6 pm, Rudy conked out.  Sometimes all he needed was a 5 or 10 minute power nap, and he'd be good to go for another few hours.  By the end of the night, though, both boys were done and ended up sleeping on the bus ride back to the resort.  As if walking miles all day wasn't enough, James and I each got an additional workout carrying 60 pounds of dead weight from the bus stop to the hotel room!

All tucked in.  Notice Mickey's head sticking out by Rudy? :)

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Disney Snacks

We purchased the Disney dining plan with this trip.  We figured it would eliminate some stress about the cost of food and make us feel a little less guilty about splurging on some character meals.


For each night of our reservation, we EACH got a snack, a table service meal, and a counter service meal.

Counter service:  What we learned when we got there was that each counter service meal included a large fountain drink, entree, side, and dessert!  In addition, if James and I ordered, we could order adult meals for the kids so they didn't have to eat burgers and chicken fingers every day.  After a few days, we realized that we could spread things out a big by ordering two or three counter service meals.  This allowed us to have a more substantial 'snack' at a different time of the day and to have meals leftover for our last day.

Table service:  The table service was a sit down meal.  Hoopty Dee Doo Musical Revue counted as 2 table service credits (another reason spreading out the counter service was a good idea).  We also did Whispering Canyon Cafe (unlimited milkshakes!), Kona Cafe breakfast, Chef Mickey's brunch, Mama Melrose, Ohana, and Tusker House.  We had booked a lot of buffets because we knew the kids would only be able to eat off the kids' menu otherwise.  A couple of chicken fingers doesn't last these guys very long!  The buffets were fine, but the food quality was probably not as good as we would have gotten at a more full service restaurant.

And, finally...the snacks!  Wow - this was fun!  I think Goofy's Candy Co. was the biggest hit, with the make your own Mickey treat.  The kids filled out the forms, selecting the base (Mickey shaped rice crispie treat), the type chocolate dip, the topping, and then the type of chocolate drizzle.  Then you get to watch as the cast member creates your delicacy...

They were pretty excited!

Enormous ice cream sundaes and ice cream sandwiches at Magic Kingdom:

All of the table service meals also included dessert.  We got ours to go at Mama Melrose so we could eat it during Fantasmic.  The kids selected spaghetti and meatball cupcakes.   One cupcake was HUGE!

We had planned to snack our way through the World Showcase at Epcot. The problem with the snacks is that we were SO FULL from all of the "all you care to enjoy" meals that we didn't have room for all the snacks we wanted to try!  Other top snacks were the treats from Karamel Kuche, the soft almond pretzel pastry in Norway, soft serve cones, and soft pretzels.

All of the tasty delights at Karamel Kuche:

We still had 6 snack credits on our last day.  After dinner with Dave and Laura, we met up with Cindy and Andy for dessert.   The kids were eagerly anticipating using the remaining snack credits for more sugar from Goofy's Candy Co. 

We ended up with two sugar sticks and four Mickey bars (one for our cat-sitting friend at home).

We actually kept track of what we would have spent if we'd bought all of the food a la carte; it ended up being almost exactly what we spent on the dining plan.  It certainly wasn't a bad deal, but we did have A LOT more food than we would have ever considered buying separately.   If we ever go back and stay on property, I think we would skip the dining plan and just know that it's OK to splurge on a few snacks and pricey table service meals.

Day 7 - Animal Kingdom

We planned Animal Kingdom for our last day because we were planning to meet up with some friends who have three daughters; we thought this park would offer the most options for such a wide range of ages.  It ended up being really good for that reason, but also because it is a smaller park so we didn't feel like we needed to kill ourselves trying to finish everything (a bonus, since we were starting to wear down by this point!).  

I had Fast Passes for Expedition Everest for later in the day, but we were there early enough that we thought we'd head straight there to get in an early ride as well.  On the way, we got distracted by the monkeys...

Expedition Everest in the background.  Notice Rudy before the ride (left) and after (right).  After his success on Fast Track and Rock-n-Roller Coaster, we strongly encouraged him to give this one a try.  He was resistant but gave in.  It was NOT a hit.  He didn't like it AT ALL.  From this experience, we figured out that Rudy does not like roller coasters that go backward or have long, steep drops.  (At least we know now.)

We still had a little time before we had to meet Dave and Laura, so we picked up an animal spotting checklist for Rudy and headed into the jungle.  We saw tigers, monkeys, and ginormous bats. 

I guess we'd never seen a tiger in tall grasses before; we were all quite impressed to witness the camouflage.  

A quick pass through the aviary:

Rudy, impressed with his animal finding abilities:

Cool fountain.  The boys probably could have been entertained here for a while!d

Finally, it was time to head for brunch and meet up with this crew!  Laura and Dave moved into the townhouse next to us in State College.  Not only did they replace the old irritating neighbors (who had a grand piano up against the wall that they played at all the wrong hours), but they became some of our best friends.  Laura and I bonded over our transplant to (cold, gray) State College when we married our husband students.  Unfortunately, they moved to Chicago and then Florida and we rarely get to see them, so this was a big treat. 

 Our first stop was brunch at Tusker House, where we got to see Daisy, Mickey, and Goofy.  The kids wasted no time getting to know each other; after about 5 minutes, it was like they'd been friends for life. 

Notice the second picture with Daisy and then the picture with Minnie...Sydney is a little shy and wasn't sure about hopping in the pictures.  Rudy was having none of that and gave her a big old tug into the Mickey picture!

We took a stroll through Rafiki's planet watch, visited the petting zoo and conservation station, and then we were off to the safari:

Laura and I headed over to the Lion King show to try to snag Fast Passes for them.  We found out that we didn't really need them, so we told the rest of the team to slow down and meet us halfway for a snack.  Mickey bars for all!

The Nemo show was over in time for some to go to the Bug's Life movie and Laura and I to claim seats for the parade.

It was time for our Fast Passes at Everest.  Rudy had NO interest in riding again, and I was ambivalent.  We gave our Magic Bands to Dave and Sydney so they could ride with James and Brady.  Syd was a little unsure, but ended up loving it so much that they rode it twice in a row (and apparently went back to the park the next day to ride some more!).

Everyone except Laura and Lily rode the Primeval Whirl; Laura and Lily took an extra turn on the Triceratops Spin.  The kids spent a long time playing in the Boneyard.  Dinosaur! was closed and everyone was getting hungry, so we decided to head to Downtown Disney for dinner before splitting up. 

I can't believe that's all the pictures I took! I think I was so busy catching up with Dave and Laura that I was distracted from picture-taking!