Category: Travel

How did this day start? With the Princess breakfast at Cinderella’s Castle. Using tips from those who have gone before we booked it for before the park opened so we got some great shots on main street in front of the castle with no people. (but the family ones are on the Disney Disc that we haven’t ordered yet – I will do a separate post when we get those).  Here is one Mike took.

The first thing you do is have your photo done and meet Cinderella. We went upstairs to have breakfast and were able to meet Snow White (she had a scary voice exactly like Snow White in the movie), Sleeping Beauty (didn’t really attract much attention from the crowd), Ariel (she was cute) and Belle. Belle was SO SWEET with Nadia. She gave her lots of special attention about wearing “her” dress and then they danced together which was so adorable.

Then she wanted to give Nadia a hug and we just thought she was so genuine.I thought this was a great photo Mike captured.

Since we were in the park before it opened I changed Nadia into regular clothes and we went right for the kiddie type rides. Eddie, Kim and the big kids headed for the real roller coasters. Mike and Nadia on Dumbo.

Nadia and I on Prince Charming’s Carousel.

We followed Tour Guide Mike’s website advice and were able to do all the Fantasyland rides plus Mickey’s Toontown roller coaster in just under 2 hours. Here is what we did: Dumbo (I got fast passes for Peter Pan while they waited in line), Winnie the Pooh twice, Mickey’s Philharmagic (totally AWESOME 3D show), Peter Pan, It’s a Small World, Goofy’s Barnstormer. Then we got on the Magic Kingdom train and rode it all the way around to FrontierLand. Here we are singing “Train Is A Comin” during the ride.

At that point it was time for lunch so we decided on a quick service meal at Columbia Harbour House. I got the tuna sandwhich based on reviews I had read and it was wonderful, but Mike doesn’t like tuna so he and Nadia split chicken tenders and fries and they were only so-so. Nadia liked her yogurt best, but by the end said she “needed to brush her teeth”, so she did – with the yogurt.

We headed back to our room for naps and a change of clothes then it was off to Epcot in the evening. Nadia started on her Passport and her mask. At Epcot they have little stations in the World Showcase called “KidCot” stops. Each country has one and the kids get a charm for their mask. The charms represent something about the country – so China’s was a kite and France had an Eifel Tower.  If you buy the Disney passport (which looks and feels like a real American passport) you can get a stamp and note written to you in each country. The employee’s are young adults from the actual countries that Disney brings in for a year – they write a message, stamp the passport and put the date and time. It was so cool when it was finished and I set aside the stickers that came with the passport for us to do now that we are home. I didn’t want to chance her covering up the messages. Here we are in Japan.

And France.

We ate dinner with Eddie, Kim and the kids at a place called “Chefs de France” and it was AWESOME!!!! Nadia fell in love with the baguettes and asked if she could take some home to our hotel. Our waiter was really nice and he told us that he had been in America for 4 months and was really enjoying it. We saw the Beatles cover band in the UK and Nadia really wanted to ask them to play “Come Together” but they weren’t really set up to take requests. Waiting at the KidCot stop there we were surprised to see Pooh and Tigger there so I got in line for photos.

After all that it was time to go to bed. I asked Nadia what she liked best about the day and she said, “Riding the train and singing ‘Train is a Comin'” with Daddy.

This is the first of many posts about our vacation to Disney World. We had a wonderful time despite sweating to death, but we knew that was coming. What really helped was going back to our room to nap each day and having a washer/dryer in our room. We stayed at the Bay Lake Tower which is the new building at the Contemporary resort. It’s the newest building for the Disney Vacation Club, but we just stayed there like a normal hotel. Here is a shot of the living room and kitchen. The kitchen table can easily seat 6 and the kitchen was fully stocked. There was a second bathroom also so this would be a great set up for people with multiple kids. The master had a king sized bed and the living room had a pull out couch and chair. I also loved all the Disney art for decorations.

Here is the view from the living room.

Once arriving in Orlando we got a ride to the Bay Lake Tower and our room wasn’t ready so we headed to a restaurant in the Contemporary called “The Wave”. The food was awesome especially the crab cake and shrimp appetizer. The waiter offered us a smoothie for Nadia that came with a light up tinkerbell or Buzz Lightyear. Of course we picked Buzz and when he brought it Nadia had the most delighted look on her face. She was also thrilled that he lit up blue and could clip on to your clothes. It was the perfect way to start our trip! Nadia was so happy.

Our room was ready when we finished and so we went straight up to have a nap. After that we met up with Eddie, Kim, Evan, Julie, Claire and Reagan at the pool. We asked them if they wanted to join us for a quick trip over to the Magic Kingdom to at least check out the Buzz Light Year Space Ranger spin. We walked up Main Street and got Fast Passes for Buzz (one of the best inventions Disney has come up with). The kids and I went on “Stitches Wild Ride” which used to be the Alien Encounter. Stitch promptly spit on me during the ride which was pretty funny. We rode the Buzz Lightyear ride and Nadia wanted to ride again but the line was too long. We came out to the gift shop and she immediately fell in love with a plush Little Green Man who also talks and moves. I told her we weren’t getting toys on the first day, but if she still wanted him we would get him later in the week. He has now joined us almost everywhere we have gone since coming home 🙂

We headed back to our hotel and picked up a quick dinner to eat in our room and get to sleep because the big breakfast at Cinderella’s castle was early the next morning. Getting to see the fireworks from our balcony was AWESOME!!! It really ended up being a highlight of mine each night.

I asked Nadia what she liked best about our day and she said, “The Buzz ride and the Little Green Man.”