Disney trip: last day

We had a BLAST over our 9-day trip. Aside from the heat, we had no real complaints! The trip home went fairly smoothly (aside from the insanity that is Orlando International Airport in the summer and the fact that, on descent into Baltimore, Carter looked at me and told me he might need to throw up...which he, thankfully, did not), and we got out of BWI with our sanity and luggage...woo hoo!! Within minutes of the drive home, we turned around and saw this: 

I think that's the sign of the perfect family vacation. :) 

Disney, day 7: Sea World

I know Sea World isn't part of Disney but it was part of our "Disney trip" so I'm counting it as day 7! I just love Sea World and I knew the kids would too. We went on July 28! We got there close to opening and got an awesome spot near the entrance. 

Most of "Antarctica" was empty yet so we hit up the fun penguin encounter ride and saw the penguins, which the kids got a kick out of. Boy are penguins hard to photograph when they swim so fast! 

The Atlantis ride had a 5 minute wait and the kids reallllly wanted to go on it, so Seth took them on while mama watched. I don't do big hills so much anymore, especially when it involves getting wet at 9:30 a.m. 

Throughout the day, we went to the dolphin show, saw the sharks and sea turtles, went to a sea turtle 3-D wrap around movie (and left because we felt nauseous), saw the manatees and many other animals. We also fed the sting rays some shrimp, which was part cool and part terrifying. 

The absolute highlight of our day was Dine with Shamu, a dining experience we had reserved months in advance. It's a private dining area near an orca tank. We had really great food (pork loin, beef, amazing pasta, all kinds of sides and desserts, and even a "kid's buffet!" We were impressed! After you have some time to eat, the trainers and whales do a special show for just for these guests. It was truly FRONT AND CENTER, as we were the table beside the glass, right in the middle of the tank. 

When we left Dine with Shamu, we headed to pet the little sharks and do some kid rides. By now it was, wait for it, a BAZILLION degrees, so not waiting in any lines for the kiddie things was super nice. We, of course, had to get the munchkins some Dippin' Dots to cool down. :)

And then...onto the full whale show. We got there with just a few minutes to spare and seating was TIGHT. But the kids wanted to sit in the soak zone, so we headed down front and found 4 seats. And I'm going to give you a tiny little tip: when Sea World says "In the soak zone, you WILL get SOAKED," they do mean it. We assumed we'd get a little splash. But alas, when a killer whale "flicks his tail" in the water, you get drenched, even 10 rows up. When we got splashed, both kids had a brief moment of panic (disgust even?) and then BURST into laughter. We could not believe how soaked we got! The good news is it was one of the last things we were planning to do that day. And, when we came out of Shamu Stadium, it was beginning to storm (no rain, but serious lightening!) so we booked it to the car and made it just in time before the skies opened up for the 10 minute Florida rain. 

We had so much fun at Sea World. After we got back to the condo, we showered and relaxed and headed to a local rib/BBQ joint nearby. It was SO good, and we were actually a little bummed we didn't discover that place until our last night. Oh well! We had a delicious dinner and hit up the pool for our final night.

Disney, day 6: BREAK DAY!

Ah, break day. Sweet relief of chaos, walking, and heat. Thursday, July 26 was officially a break from the parks. All that was on the docket for the entire day was a character breakfast. We could even sleep in, but of course a little stinker found her way into our bed during the night. Good thing it was a king bed! 

Little Miss all ready for breakfast in her Elsa dress and (newly purchased) shoes, complete with the side braid, too!  

Our character breakfast was at the Cape May Cafe in the Beach Club Resort. This is the first place I stayed when I went to Disney when I was 5, and the first character breakfast I went to, so it was special. I could still remember what table we sat in when the dang Chip and Dale chipmunks stuffed my face so full of scrambled eggs I was signaling for my mom to make them stop. Ah, good times. We were a little early so we grabbed some pictures outside. The property is so stunningly beautiful. 

As soon as we walked in the door, the guard called out to Addison, "Princess!" He opened his jacket and pulled out an autograph book and asked if she would please sign his book. Disney is so magical when you have kids. I almost cried at the sweetness of it. She slowly and carefully signed her name and I'm pretty sure felt so very special. 

The breakfast was so good, and an awesome break from our cereal and toast breakfasts in our condo. They had lots of choices, but the kids went right for the Mickey waffles and the candy topping bar. Of course. :) Addison did eat about 15 scrambled eggs though...or at least it seemed. 

After breakfast, we wandered around their beautiful property, wishing we had brought our swimming stuff to sneak into their pool. HAHA. We managed to stand it for about 30 minutes before we were super hot and ready to head back to our pool for the day! 

And swim we did! We spent hours at the pool. We got a good spot under an umbrella and parked it for the day, not even leaving for lunch since they had a cute pool bar/restaurant right there. We (including Danielle) went down the slides a million times (SO. FUN!), and so did the kids. I'm certain they would have swam until they couldn't any longer, but a late afternoon storm drove us out. 

After an easy dinner in the condo, we were back at it, this time to the resort's mini golf course and surrey rental. Seth and I wanted to paddle boat but the kids heard there was a baby alligator in the pond and that was that. There was literally no way we could get them to step foot in the paddle boat. We had so much fun riding the surreys. Seth was steering so we ramped every speed bump on the property at a fairly intense speed, sending us airborne. We were all laughing hysterically the whole time. It was such a fun way to end a fun day! One last day of our trip before we head home...Sea World.

Disney, day 5: Animal Kingdom

Once upon a time, on Wednesday, July 26, it was hot as humanly possible. Oh wait, I think we've heard this one before. ;) It was Animal Kingdom day, and another scorcher. I managed to snag a first-thing Fast Pass for the Kilimanjaro Safari so we headed there as soon as we got into the park. The kids totally got a kick out of it (and Addison may have been a tinge nervous, because she kept her sweaty little hand on my thigh the entire time). 

Our other Fast Passes for the day were for the Dinosaur ride, which was air conditioned and fun, (though I was a little nervous that Carter might get motion sick. He didn't though.) and the new Avatar ride, Na'vi River Passage. We picked that one over the Flight of Passage which was a major mistake because the Na'vi River Journey was lame-o. The wait time would have been about 2 hours for that one and 3 for the Flight of Passage, which shows that new rides are all the rage at Disney. We heard the other one was really cool but it is virtual reality and in the "thrill" category so it wouldn't have been a fit for the kids anyway. 

We did the "It's Tough to be a Bug" show, which hasn't changed at all since I was a kid...and which provided us MUCH amusement as parents. We opted to not tell the kids a thing about the show, so it was going on and the kids were loving it. Things took a bit of a sour turn when the "stink bug" sprayed the audience from the squirters in front of us (we weren't sure why this threw them for a loop because MANY shows in the Disney parks do this). Then, when the mean bug started "attacking the humans" and the lights went out, things got bad. Very bad. Addison flipped and Carter hopped up on my lap, crying. Because I needed him to be in his seat when the "cockroaches" crawled under your butt on the seat, I sat him down and told him it would be ok. Cockroaches came. Kid number two flipped. Basically, we left the theater with two sobbing kids, two hysterically laughing parents, and a whole lot of stares. But....kids crying everywhere so all the parents were like whoops, parent fail. 

We had a lunch reservation at the Rain Forest Cafe, but we had some time to kill before we could go in so we hit up Dino Land, where we did some rides and played some carnival games because we are suckers. But we won every time, so the kids got cute stuffed animals for less than we would have in the shop.  

Ah, lunchtime. The sweet, sweet feeling of air conditioning. We decided that since our Fast Pass for the Avatar ride wasn't until 3 something, we would take our good 'ol time eating and shopping in their cute gift shop. The kids had money from Gram and Poppi that they were saving but that all went out the door when they saw the enormous gift shop at Rain Forest Cafe, and the collection of those big-eyed Beanie Boos. (We seriously looked like pack mules on the plane on the way home with all the souvenirs we got.)

We actually left Animal Kingdom by about 4 p.m. It was just so hot and I always have seen that park more as a "half day" kind of park. We went back to the condo, showered, the kids watched a movie cuddled in bed, Seth took a rest, I binge-watched Friends alone in the living room (silence is golden at Disney), and we ordered Papa John's for a later dinner. Then, we headed to the pool and the kids had a blast!