A quick 3 days at Disney

We are right this minute driving away from Walt Disney World and making our way toward Hilton Head Island, South Carolina where we will spend the next week hopefully doing not a lot. Disney was wonderful, and I am sad to be leaving, so I thought I'd blog about it to pass part of this 5-hour jaunt. 

People always tell you that it doesn't matter where you stay at Disney because you are so exhausted, you are never in your room anyway except to sleep. Those people have never stayed at the Grand Floridian. We usually stay at the Beach Club, which is a totally great hotel, but you guys! The Grand Floridian was AMAZING. We could see Cinderella's castle, which Dorothy called "my castle," from our window. The quick service meal place with a soft serve machine was open 24/7. The three pools were all great, but we especially loved the pool for kids 48 inches and shorter. The kids roasted marshmallows on the beach every night before a Disney movie under the stars (this also happens synths Beach Club and other resorts). There was always a bar within 10 feet from anyplace I was standing. The ride to the Magic Kingdom was a 3-minute boat ride. The monorail picked up and dropped off in the second floor lobby. We could watch fireworks in bed. 

I wanted to also try the Polynesian on a future trip, but forget it! I have found my Disney resort home away from home for sure. Seriously you guys. It was perfect. 

We had a totally lovely trip from beginning to end and lucked into some surprisingly cool temps. Cooper LOVED all the ride, and Dorothy had way too much fun meeting princesses. Harry and Jack got to ride their favorites-- minus Everest because we opted to go back to Epcot yesterday instead of hitting up Animal Kingdom. We ate ridiculous food, stayed up way too late, and had lots to drink.   And of course, we took so many pictures!

On the golf cart  going to our room:

Catching the boat to the Spirit of Aloha dinner show at the Polynesian

Good drinks but not worth 2 meal credits a person, in my opinion. 

The kids liked all the dancing, though. 

We hit the pool right away our first night

Then Dorothy stayed up all damn night. Serious you guys, she went to sleep at like midnight, which sucked because Ben and I both had online teaching work to do. 

All the other kids slept through them but she enjoyed fireworks with me and Ben in the room:

No matter, we were at Crystal Palace bright and do early to eat breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and friends, the only character dining we hadn't been to yet. 

Jack said he was going to hug Pooh really hard which sounded creepy and turned out to be totally accurate. 

I even posed with my personality likeness

And so did Ben:

Then I spent the rest of my day in Fantasy Land and Story Book Circus with a trek into Tomorrowland to drop everybody off in front of a ride. I never made it to Adventure Land or Frontier Land because my little princess lover only wanted Dumbo, Teacups, the carousel, or the Hall of Princesses. So, that meant I rode Dumbo 5 times, met Elsa and Anna 3 times and Cinderella and Rapunzel  once  and got no Dole Whip. Ben, Harry, Jack and Cooper rode everything else. Cooper was too short for Space Mountain but did did all the others. The kids shamed me into riding the lame little Goofy roller coaster, the Barnstormer, and it scared the living shit out of me and I almost crushed my seat companion Cooper. Oops. 

I have SO MANY pictures. 

Cooper is a scary little Dumbo driver

Dorothy got some new Elsa shoes that hurt her feet but she wore them the rest of the trip and is still wearing them now. At first I was concerned but then I realized they kept her in the stroller. 

Obligatory 

I rode Dumbo with Jack:

Cooper was not amused:

These guys are some rowdy teacup riders 

We had lunch at Be Our Guest, which I would recommend, but I wish I had ordered myself a kids meal because the grilled cheese and tomato soup looked great. 

After lunch we had an Elsa and Anna fast pass, and Harry went with us while Ben, Jack and Cooper went back to the Barnstormer. 

Dorothy was super chatty and ended up playing hide and seek with Elsa who stashed Harry under her dress. Weird and fun. 

After meeting princesses, she immediately needed to ride the carousel. Every time.

We boated back to our hotel to rest a bit and hit Epcot for a princess dinner and fireworks. 

We ate at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall, which was surprisingly good and only one meal credit, as opposed to Cinderella's Royal table which has yucky wedding food and is 2 credits. 

But first we met Duffy the random Epcot bear and had margaritas in Mexico

 Dorothy loved Aurora, called her "The Pink One," and insisted on buying an Aurora dress. 

Then the kids beat the hell out of each other with glow sticks and we watched the fireworks. 

We got back to our hotel in time to catch Magic Kingdom fireworks on one of the patios and then everyone passed out. It was lovely. 

Sunday, we were up and at em early  to have breakfast at Cape May, the character buffet at Beach Club. Of course we were all instantly nostalgic for our old favorite place. 

We began our day at Hollywood Studios, which I kind of hate. But Ben and the big boys LOVE the Aerosmith coaster and Tower of Terror. And Cooper was overjoyed to be tall enough to ride the Star Wars Ride. And there's lots of liquor. So. 

We afternooned at Epcot for churros and cocktails. We had reservations for desserts and fireworks at Magic Kingdom but decided to call it quits 

The kids stayed in the pool until 9:30 and were all sound asleep before the first firework at 10. 

This morning Ben and I were dragging, but the kids were fresh as little daisies. Which was good because we had food to eat and characters to see!

Dorothy was HILARIOUS in the princess's lines this morning. Meeting Cinderella  and  Rapunzel she told the photographer "No pictures, please. My eyes hurt." Because she hates the camera flash. She also made Anna play hide and seek with her and told everyone she was "pincess Awowa, the pink one."

It was a wet day (I am still damp 2 hours later) but that didn't deter Dorothy from Dumbo or the boys from every roller coaster. 

And now phase 2: the beach. Stay tuned!