Eggs' first trip! - Two and a Half Days in the World - 59914 Steps - 24.1 Miles.

[Stasieki]

Glad you came back to update. What great memories.

 

[tehSAC]

Beware this is probably going to be a photo heavy post.

First I forgot to add this photo from my last post.

IMG_5135 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

So we are sitting there, and we first meet the Mouse himself, Mickey. Both girls were excited to see him, and Ella of course had to try and get Mickey to give her the “Rock” fingers. Mickey spent quite a bit of time with us, and the girls loved every second. I’m assuming since its close to the end of the shift and he had already visited the other tables in the area, was the reason we got a bit of extra time. Eh who knows, I just know we enjoyed it. I mean look at their faces.

bk9 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

bk7 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

bk8 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

bk5 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

IMG_5172 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

Then out of the blue, there he was, PLUTO! The excitement and pure joy that came out of Ella’s expression/mouth was unforgettable. Completely worth every penny. I mean this is why we do this right?

IMG_5146 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

IMG_5149 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

IMG_5147 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

We told Pluto that he was Ella’s favorite, and he liked that. He gestured for Ella and Lorelai to join him in the final parade of the day. I only wish I could have gotten a good photo of Ella and him holding hands as they walked away to start the parade.

IMG_5184 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

IMG_5191 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

When Ella and Lorelai returned to the table, my wife asked Ella, “How fun was that?” Ella at the moment this photo was taken was yelling out “HAPPY ME!!!!!” <3

bk3 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

Soon after Lilo would stop by and visit with the girls. I was on such a high seeing Ella with Pluto, I didn’t get many photos. They played peek a boo, and even danced a little bit before Lilo headed back stage.

bk6 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

bk10 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

After all the characters retreated, and my final glass of juice, we all just sat there and relaxed. We went around the table and said what we enjoyed most about our trip.

Me:

I enjoyed seeing Ella experience the park for the first time, Lorelai experiencing Pirates with me for the first time, and our first MNSSHP. However what I enjoyed the most was the time we got to spend together.

Mom:

She enjoyed Small World, Kilimanjaro Safari’s, and the girls having fun.

Ella:

Pluto and Mickey

Lorelai:

Lo said she enjoyed the trip and family time, but most enjoyed seeing Ella’s reactions to the characters and riding attractions with her sister.

I’m going to end this post, but there is still a little more to come before I close out on this report. There won’t be many photos, but I hope you stick around for the end.

 

[tehSAC]

So the high of breakfast has hit, and the inevitable is in front of us. Vacation is almost over, and this time tomorrow, we will be back home. We still had a few things planned for the day before we would leave Orlando, but nothing would be as exciting as this breakfast. My plan before leaving was to get another dole whip, but I ate so much, that wasn’t in the cards. Before we had left the girls had painted/decorated some rocks to place in a couple random spots. In hopes of someone finding them and placing them in another location. We even set up an Instagram account for this, however it never really took off. Bummer for the Lorelai but it is what it is. Its popular with some of Lorelai’s friends so we thought we would try it out. Lorelai placed one outside the main entrance to the Poly, and I had an idea for a place to place Ella’s. As stated in the beginning of this report we wanted to stay at the AKL but that of course did not pan out. However who said we couldn’t take a detour and visit? I pointed the car in that direction and soon we were at the gate. Told the gate keeper we were visiting, and quickly found a parking spot. Lorelai and Mom wanted to veg out in the car, so Ella and I took a little adventure. As we made it to the front doors a Cruise Line bus pulled up and I told Ella that was for Mickey’s boat. She talked about Mickey’s boat and the bus the entire drive home and two days afterword’s. LOL We made our way across the lobby, and went out to the overlook and found a place to hide her rock, then admired the animals we could see. We would end up walking around the resort for probably a half hour or so before making our way back to the car.

After this little detour, we headed over to Disney Springs. To be honest we did not spend much time here. We did some pin shopping, and also found a couple items in the World of Disney store we wanted to bring home. After that was a quick visit to the Lego Store, and then back to the garage.

ds1 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

Now my wife is a nurse that works at night, and when I put Ella down to bed, Lorelai loves to watch Disney Vloggers on youtube. Well one evening after leaving Ella’s room she showed me some kid by the name of BrandonBlogs and his visit to the McDonalds on IDrive. She was in tears with laughter after watching this video. Honestly I still don’t get it. Anyway, when I was in Orlando for work in May, this McDonalds was down the way and bragged to her about visiting it. With that said, when we were leaving Disney Springs I announced we had one last stop before heading north. When we pulled into the parking lot, Lorelai started to laugh and said “Wonder if we will see Brandon?” LOL Sorry to let you down, but we did not see him.

Anyway we went in and let the girls blow off any remaining steam they had in the playground and arcade that is located upstairs. While watching them I mentioned I was going to go back to the Poly for my Dole Whip and my wife said “go for it”, but we never did. It was 3:30 by the time we left there, and I wanted to get out of town before rush hour.

Only photo from there I got.

mc1 by PaulSAC1854, on Flickr

I drove the entire distance home, except for the last hour, and the family slept. The drive home was uneventful, until just outside of Nashville. As we were heading north on 24 its around 2 in the morning and a group of deer would jump out in front of us. Causing me to slam on the breaks and drive like I was Mr Magoo. Those next 2.5 hours to Bloomington Indiana was the most tense I have ever been behind the wheel. Anyway we made it home safe, parked the car and I passed out until 3 that afternoon.

In conclusion of this report I would love to share a few thoughts.

First and foremost, I am the biggest Disney park fan in this family, I considered moving to Orlando and working for Disney before I met my wife. Now the rest of my family isn’t as big of a fan as I am, but we all had a wonderful time. Its not in our budget to take a Disney vacation every year, more like every 5. Plus we like to do other things each year. Now I know I might get roasted for that, but I cant change us. Sadly I don’t see us going back for quite a while. That bums me out, but I’m sure I will figure out a way to get us all down there again. As for me, I will be in Orlando in May again this year, and am planning on spending a Sunday at one or two of the parks. Most likely rope drop MK, and then spend the rest of the day at EPCOT. That way I can get some EPCOT fix I haven’t had in years.

We enjoyed the MNSSHP, but would we do it again? Probably not, and there are a couple reasons why. First we didn’t care about the candy stops, nor the Character Meet-n-Greets. We wanted to see the decorations, parade, fireworks, and hocus pocus show. Plus we knew crowds would be lighter, and that was the biggest draw. Mainly because we don’t visit yearly, and wanted to get in as many attractions as we possibly could. Now if we were locals or visited every fall, sure we would probably go just for the party to take advantage of the other things that we didn’t do this year.

Our trip worked for us well. It was a bit packed and felt rushed at times. I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.

Thanks to all that followed along!