Disney 2018 ~ Magic Kingdom, Day 2, Part 2

After enjoying a great day at the Magic Kingdom we took a friendship boat to the Polynesian Resort to ‘Ohana, one of our favourite places to eat!  Their food is delicious!
Umm, I’m pretty sure we won’t go hungry and could possibly eat for an entire week with the amount of food they brought to our table!   There is a large wood fire grill in the centre of the restaurant and they bring giant skewers of chicken, steak and shrimp to your table throughout dinner.  ‘Ohana is one of our new favourites that we now book each trip.

Noodles anyone?

That’s better!  My beautiful girl.  Oh how I love her!!

Hannah also enjoys the coconut races at ‘Ohana.  Love the extra activities offered at many Disney restaurants.


We also decided that this would be the day that we celebrated Hannah’s 9th Birthday so when they asked for birthdays she went up.

After our delicious supper we wandered around one of the stores at the Polynesian that Hannah enjoys browsing through.  From there we headed back to the Magic Kingdom with plans to see Happily Ever After since we had missed it Sunday night due to rain.

We had an opportunity to go on a few rides and then staked out spots for the castle projection show, ‘Once Upon A Time’ and the new fireworks and projection show, ‘Happily Ever After’. 

A friend loaned Hannah this coat and it was perfect for our trip.  It bundled into a tight little package and weighed next to nothing but it was warm when she needed it.  Thanks so much Liz and Ava!  I want to keep an eye out at Costco to pick one of these up for Hannah next year.

The projections on the castle are nothing short of spectacular and SO detailed!  I had purposely not watched the shows online as they were both new in 2017 and I’m so glad I waited!!


Although we hung out in the hub for a while waiting for the crowds to thin, one glance behind us let us know getting anywhere fast wasn’t going to happen.

It was easy to decide that now was the perfect time to surprise Hannah with her early gift that I had been planning for her for the past number of months….a Pandora bracelet.  Buying it at Disney with her first charm being from there was an easy decision.  And she quickly knew exactly what charm she wanted too!

Cinderella’s Castle…..perfect for my Disney loving girl!!

Happy 9th Birthday Hannah!  Mommy loves you sooooo much!

Disney 2016–Day 1, Travel and ‘Ohana

(Sat, Sept 10, 2016)

Hannah and I recently returned from our annual Disney trip and we had an absolute blast!!!  It was her 15th Disney trip but the very first time that we were on our own at Disney, not knowing anybody else there.  We often have family or friends at Disney at the same time we are but this year it was just the 2 of us and while we missed our family we had the very best time together!!! (Hopefully Uncle Dave, Auntie Trish, Makenna and Kallen will be back with us in 2017!)

After spending Friday night with wonderful friends Hannah and I were up bright and early Saturday morning and made our way to the airport.  We were in Orlando by mid-afternoon and hit the ground running! 

Our traditional airport pic.

I had checked us in online a couple of weeks prior to our arrival as well as received a call from our resort a few days before we arrived to confirm a couple of our requests.  When we arrived at Disney’s Pop Century Resort we were checked in within a few minutes and on the way to our room.  As a mom to a kiddo with skin sensitivities it’s wonderful to travel to a place that caters to our needs and stocks our room with hypoallergenic sheets and towels on a daily basis!

I was thankful to receive my request for a room on the first floor.  It’s the first we’ve had this and while it was nice not to need to use elevators, I’m pretty sure we’ll be moving back up to a higher floor next trip. 

We were in our room mere minutes when we were on our way to our first activity.  Hannah and I both enjoyed the drawing class that we took at Art of Animation last year so we wanted to do another one.  Today was the easiest day to fit it into our schedule so off we went, walking across Generation Gap bride to Disney’s Art of Animation Resort.  The character we drew this year was Dory and I will say she was much more challenging to draw than Pluto was last year.

My girl hard at work.

Dory!!  Great drawing Hannah!

With our animator

Hannah sharing our finished pictures.  I don’t think anyone at Disney animation need fear for their jobs!

These classes are so fun and offered free of charge 3 times each day in the lobby of the Art of Animation Resort.  This will be something we’ll be doing again on another trip for sure!

After our drawing class we took a bus to the Magic Kingdom then a boat to the Polynesian Resort as we had a dinner reservation at ‘Ohana.  I asked if they had the same deeeelicious pineapple bread with macadamia nut honey butter that Kona Café served next door and while the answer was ‘no’ the chef immediately offered to go get some for us and bring it to our table!  Nothing is too much to ask at Disney….even when you don’t ask!    The rest food at ‘Ohana was amazing with huge skewers of BBQed beef, chicken and shrimp brought to our tables along with noodles, veggies, pot stickers and more.  We’ll be booking another dinner at ‘Ohana next year I’m sure!

Part of the entertainment of the evening is activities for the kids.  Hannah had such fun participating in the coconut races!

My little luau girl.  Day 1 was now behind us and it was time to head to bed as the next day we were headed to the Magic Kingdom!

Disney 2014, Day 4, Part II (‘Ohana)

After a warm, wet day at Animal Kingdom we headed to the Polynesian Resort for supper at ‘Ohana.  This is a tough reservation to snag and I was looking forward to it from the time Trish was able to secure it for our group.

The 4 older kiddos in our group are all ages 5, 6 and 7 and they loved participating in the special activities.  At this point they had been taught how to hula and were now parading around the restaurant displaying their ‘hang loose’ symbols.  They were having a blast and we loved seeing their smiles!

I have not eaten supper at ‘Ohana for a number of years and was looking forward to it.  It was delicious! 

Noodles – yum!

Our servers also brought around skewers of meat that had been barbequed over large fire pits at the centre of the restaurant.

My favourites were the steak and shrimp.  I passed on the pork as I’m not a huge pork fan if it’s not in the form of bacon.   Dessert was a delicious pineapple and coconut bread pudding with warm banana caramel sauce.  Mmm! 

After supper the kids participated in coconut races.  What a great opportunity for all of us to share time together with delicious food, entertainment and awesome company!  Our 4 amazing big kids!

When we hit the bus the kids all crashed!  This was common for Hannah as the only night she arrived back in our room awake was the night we arrived!  When my girl is tired, out she goes.  It’s wonderful!! 

Trish holding the girls while Dave and I got the strollers out of the bus and set them up.

Heh!  This is such a common sight while at Disney.  Parents carrying sleeping children back to their rooms after long, fun days in the parks!  I’ll just say that Paul got the easy part of this transport.  I call it ‘Parent Swap!’