Disney 2012–Day 5- Animal Kingdom

Our original plans were to spend today at Typhoon Lagoon but with Isaac still brining rain and clouds I moved our dining reservations around and today we headed to Animal Kingdom. 
We had breakfast booked with Donald at friends at Tusker House so we headed to the Africa area of the park to meet them.
Donald greeted us when we arrived.
Inside the restaurant Daisy
Mickey
and Goofy visited our table.
As with many of the character meals there was an opportunity for the kids to interact with the characters and as usual Hannah was all over that!  I love her spunky personality!  (Although if I’ve said, ‘Hannah, please don’t climb that.’ or, ‘Hannah, I need your feet on the ground.’ once this trip I’ve said it a hundred times!  Spunk comes with an adventurous spirit!!)

After breakfast we enjoyed a great bird show and then wandered to Kilimanjaro Safaris.  It was sunny and hot, hot, hot.  That’s one thing about visiting Disney in August, you need to be ready for the heat.  This morning it was over 90o with high humidity by early morning.  I allowed myself to be fooled by the weather and forgot about a golden rule of thumb – The skies can open at any moment!  Within 10 minutes of parking our stroller this was what we saw from the ride!  Uh oh!!  Needless to say Hannah sat on a rain poncho for the rest of the day when riding in her chariot!

We saw giraffes taking cover too.
Last year Hannah was invited to participate in the Lion King show.  She stayed out for a moment and then ran back to the safety of Mommy’s arms.  All year she talked about that show so we were super excited when she was invited to participate once again this year!  Heh….I think that we sat near the front and she jumped up and down and waved her arms in the air when they were choosing kiddos to help helped too.

Another favourite of ours here at Animal Kingdom is the Finding Nemo show.  It’s not to be missed!
A final ride on Kali River Rapids and time with some friends and we called it an early day.
Pooh
Eeyore
Tigger
Pluto and Goofy.
I decided we’d go for supper at the new resort that is right across a short bridge from our resort, Art of Animation.  We’re going to stay here for one night in November so it was fun to see what it was like.  You can see that the skies were getting ready to open up again and that happened while we took this picture.
As we were preparing to leave we bumped into our friends so we all enjoyed supper together before heading home to bed.  Another great day at Disney!!!

Disney 2012–Day 4–Magic Kingdom, Part II

We parted ways with Susan and her girls after visiting for a fun couple of hours.  Hannah and I noticed there was a show in front of the castle so we took the time to enjoy it.

After supper Hannah and I shared a bag of Cracker Jack’s.  One of Grandpa’s favourites!

After supper Hannah asked to go back on one of her favourite rides:  The Barnstormer.   Hannah’s character of choice this trip is Goofy so it’s fitting that his ride is the one she enjoys the most!


From the Barnstormer we boarded the Walt Disney World Railroad and made our way to the opposite side of the park.  Hannah had had a change of heart and she was ready to ride Splash Mountain!!  Wheee!!!  She’s talked about this ride for months now so I was glad she was finally able to enjoy it!  The only down side for her was that the safety bar (that is wet and smells ‘stinky’) was right at nose level for her.  Other than the smell she loved it although this pic snapped by the ride camera going down the big hill isn’t as convincing.
Other than the stinky bar she’d love to ride it again.
The other ride my thrill seeking 3 1/2 yo (1/2 Birthday that day!) rode not once, but twice was, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!!  For those of you who have not been to WDW, Thunder Mountain is a big roller coaster that frightens many adults, but not my adventurous 3yo!  As soon as we got off the first time she looked up at me and exclaimed, ‘Let’s do that again!’  So…we did!

It was now after 8 so we made our way back to the Castle and staked out our spots for 3 night-time events:  Main Street Electrical Parade; The Magic, The Memoires and You plus, Wishes!  I remember seeing the Main Street Electrical Parade as a teen and then they retired it for many years.  So glad it’s back!
While we were waiting Hannah and I shared some yummy snacks
and Hannah played hop scotch with some new friends after the cast members set up a hop scotch pattern with masking tape to entertain the kids during the wait.
Hanging out after a long day, waiting for the shows to begin.

LOL!  Can you tell from this video that Mommy gets as caught up in the moment and magic of Disney as Hannah does?

Hannah crashed after the parade and before the other 2 shows but she stayed asleep through them (including the fireworks!) plus the bus ride back to our resort and me changing her into her pj’s.  Sleepy Shaoey.
Another magical day at the Magic Kingdom!!

Disney 2012–Day 4–Magic Kingdom, Part I

Hannah and I woke up and made our way to 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian where we had breakfast reservations with Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter.  (I booked our trip in October of 2011 when there was a free dining offer which is how why we are enjoying so many great meals.  Disney often offers this and it’s a huge savings not needing to pay for any food while here!  There is a free dining offer available right now for certain dates between now and December of this year too!)
Hurricane Isaac was a brewing so it was pouring when we left our resort room.  One of us stayed dry!
After swimming driving to the Grand Floridian we enjoyed a delicious breakfast surrounded by special friends.
Pooh
Tigger
Alice
and Mary Poppins (sporting an extra goofy smile!)
The Mad Hatter also visited our table but Hannah would have nothing to do with him so she cuddled into Mommy’s neck.  I’m not about scaring her and as long as she was close to me she was fine so I held her for the time that he was near our table.  She waved at him from afar but too close was too much. 
After breakfast we donned our rain gear once again and headed to an ‘empty by Disney standards’ Magic Kingdom.  Even at 1:00 in the afternoon Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh only had 10 minute waits when they would normally have 60-90 minute waits!  Isaac had kept many in their rooms but it stopped raining shortly after noon and not another drop fell that day!  Yay!!
We met up at 12:30 with a fellow Canadian family and blog readers who were in the area.  We had chatted online and enjoyed spending the afternoon together.
Riding Dumbo.  Susan with J
K and E
Mommy and XiaoFen
Buzz Lightyear ride
It was wonderful meeting you Susan and girls!  Enjoy your cruise!

Disney 2012–Day 3–Epcot, Part II

This was our friend’s first trip to Disney and we were excited to spend their first day together.  After breakfast we headed back to Soarin’ and Picked up some FastPasses.  We rode Living with The Land and since it was the kids first ride it kept their attention.  I enjoy that ride and a Disney trip is just not complete without riding it.

We went over to the Living Seas Pavilion and rode The Seas with Nemo and Friends.
We also watched Turtle Talk with Crush which is on our ‘not to be missed’ list of Epcot rides.
We parted ways for a bit as Hannah and I had reservations at the Coral Reef Restaurant.  This experience was nothing short of AMAZING for both Hannah and I!!  We will be adding it to our ‘must do again’ list for sure!  We were excited to be seated right next to the aquarium and the view was breath taking!  It’s not often we dine mere feet from a shark!!!
Schools of fish swam by often

In the centre of this picture there is a huge sea turtle.  Check it out!!
This video will give you a bit of an idea what the experience was like

After meeting up with our friends we enjoyed Soarin’ again and then walked around the world!   I keep telling myself someday I’m going to enjoy the World Showcase.  Maybe later this week?
It was a wonderful day of fun with great friends!  Thanks Nicole and Kevvie (aka Mr. Cubby).  Hope we’ll have more time to spend together this week!


I’m sure this won’t be the only time this week our bus trip back to the resort ends like this.  Ahh sweetie!  Out for the night.