Our Disney trip was so much fun and I want to make sure to tell you all about it.  There is just so much stuff that I decided to break it up into two separate posts, but each part is still pretty lengthy.  So grab a cup of coffee, prop your feet up, and enjoy part 1 of our Disney vacation recap. 🙂

Since the girls’ birthdays are so close together, we normally have one big party for both of them.  This year, instead of a party, they asked for a trip to Disney.  We invited Gra-Gra, Pops, Mallory and Hannah to go with us, because it’s just more fun that way!  Plus, Hannah had never been before!

All the girls (plus Jase!) headed down to Orlando early on Monday morning to squeeze in a little outlet-shopping time. Justin and Pops drove down on Tuesday evening, just in time to rest up before we went into the parks on Wednesday.

Our first park was Magic Kingdom, because it’s just not Disney if you don’t go there first!  It was Hannah’s first trip, and I wanted her to see the castle right away.  It’s just so magical.  By the time we checked into our resort (All-Star Music) and got to Magic Kingdom, it was around 10:30.  We had fast passes for Splash Mountain, the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and to see Anna and Elsa.  We rode Goofy’s Barnstormer, the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Tomorrowland Speedway and visited the Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor.  We also saw Tinkerbelle, Princess Tiana and Naveen, and Princess Merida (from Brave).  We took full advantage of the rider swap option (it let the girls ride each ride twice, once with each parent since someone had to sit out with Jase).

We shut down the parks almost every night.  The first night, it was midnight by the time we left!  Jase was such a trooper!

Thursday was Libby’s birthday and she requested dinner with the princesses, so we spent the day at Magic Kingdom again.  We castle-hopped from the Beast’s castle for lunch to Cinderella’s castle for dinner.  Libby was so excited to meet all the princesses.  They gave each girl a birthday cupcake and sang Happy Birthday to them at dinner–it was quite the show!

We met Ariel in her grotto.  (My one complaint about Disney is that they don’t provide good lighting for photos.  I think they are more concerned with a ‘realistic environment’ or something like that.)

Enchanted Tales with Belle is so much fun!  It’s the story of Belle and the Beast, but each person gets to participate as a character from the story.  Libby was Belle’s father, Kyndall was a dancing plate–Justin was even chosen as a castle guard!

We started off day three with breakfast at Chef Mickey’s.  It’s a buffet breakfast with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Pluto.  (Character meals are the way to go, y’all.  Each character comes around to your table while you are eating to sign autographs and take photos.  No waiting in long lines to see one character at a time.  Definitely sign up for the meal plan and make reservations for the character meals the next time you go to Disney!)

Jase thought the characters were something else.  He especially liked Minnie Mouse.  I think he just wanted to eat her nose!

After breakfast, we traveled to Epcot.  Epcot is my least-favorite Disney park, but it does have Test Track and Soarin’, so you can’t just skip it altogether.  The girls really enjoyed searching for hidden Mickey’s throughout the different countries.  And the fireworks were amazing, so there’s that.

And if you are still with me after all that, bless you.  We’ll take a break now, but be sure to check back on Friday for part 2 of our Disney family vacation!