One More Down.....34 More To Go! Disney Vacation

We just returned home from a family vacation to Disney World on February 17th. We had 8 awesome days of Florida sun and Disney fun! The girls' dance competition team decided to attend the TwirlMaina competition that is held every February at Disney World and when it was presented at a Booster meeting in August, we decided that it was the right time to take the family to their FIRST Disney trip! Not to mention that it allowed me to cross off another item off of my 40-before-40 list...yeah!!

Our trip started early Tuesday morning. Our plan departed at 7:30 am and we arrived in Florida around 11:00 am (Eastern Time). We caught the Magical Express Shuttle to our resort-All-Star Music. We arrived around noon, got checked into our room, which was a family suite, through on our swimsuits and headed to the pool. I stayed in the room and unpacked our suitcases. I had also pre-ordered groceries prior to leaving Columbia, they arrived around 2:00 pm. The girls participated in the hula-hoop contest, a dance party and a hot potato contest (which both Gracie and Sydney were the winners-they tied). We had reservations at Chef Mickey's so we left around 4:15 to catch the shuttle and to make our 5:05 pm reservations. We were greeted at our table by Goofy, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and Pluto. The food was okay...for the price, I wouldn't recommend Chef Mickey's and if we get the opportunity to go to Disney again, we won't go there again. After dinner, we caught the Monorail and rode it through Magic Kingdom...watch the castle change colors, it was quite a sight!

The next day we were up early and off to Magic Kingdom for breakfast at the castle with Cinderella and the other princesses! We were greeted at the castle gate and were treated like royalty! We were "My Lady," and " Princess" and "Young Prince", etc. The breakfast was fabulous! I would recommend the Royal Table to anyone going to Disney for breakfast, lunch or dinner! It was a pricey but the food and service was fabulous! We also got our picture taken with Cinderella before our dinner and those pictures came with the meal! Belle, Jasmine and Snow White greeted us during our breakfast. The girls (and boys) had a great breakfast and dining experience!

The boys took after to ride rides and the girls and I stayed close to the castle because they had an appointment at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique to get their hair, make-up and nails done for the day. They were absolutely gorgeous after their appointment!

After being transformed into a princess, we were off to enjoy Magic Kingdom. We rode lots of rides, including Splash Mountain and Space Mountain and ended the day at Magic Kingdom enjoying the fireworks! It was a magical first day at Disney.

Our second day at Disney we did a lot of park hopping...started at Animal Kingdom, hopped over to Hollywood Studios (MGM) and ended at Epcot. We were at Hollywood Studios when they had the American Idol Parade and got to see a bunch of American Idol Past Winners, Contestants, Ryan Seacrest and Paula Abdul! It was quite the experience!

The next day we went to Universal Studios and Island Adventure. The boys really enjoyed this park! Lots of daring rides some that Sydney could ride and some that she couldn't ride. She was a little upset when she discovered that she couldn't ride all of the rides! She is a dare devil and riding the roller coaster was exciting for her. Her and Gracie did ride the water raft ride two times and was soaking wet! They enjoyed this ride immensely! We closed the park down and headed back to our resort. We ordered pizza and relaxed in our room that evening.

The weekend was rather busy for Gracie and Sydney, the TwirlMaina competition took place on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we started the day at Epcot and then headed to Magic Kingdom for the parade that Gracie marched in...which was exciting that she was able to march in a parade at Disney. After the parade they had two performances at the Milk House at Wide World of Sports. We then headed back to Magic Kingdom to rides a few rides and eat dinner with the Patty's and Mary Jo & Cassie. We turned in early that evening because we had to be up and ready for competition to catch our bus at 7:00 am the next morning! Sunday was competition, performance at Downtown Disney, off to Epcot for Showcase and back to Milk House for more competition. The girls, Collin and I headed to Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom for some Disney fun after the competition...we were planning on staying at Magic Kingdom until they closed that evening, which was 3 am but we pooped out and headed back to our resort around 11:30!

The next day we went to Sea World...it was great! The girls loved the aquatic animals, the shows were fantastic! Collin was sick that day so he didn't get to ride the rides, he toured Sea World in a wheel chair and slept off and on all day. I felt really bad for him. We stayed at Sea World until the park closed, headed back to our hotel to start packing for our return home.

Our last day, we spent the morning at Epcot walking through the different countries...we stopped and had pastries in Paris. They were yummy! Collin shopped at the Sportsman's Shoppe in London and got a rugby ball and a Chelsea jacket. We were sad to leave but headed back to our resort to catch the Magical Express Bus at 1:00 pm.

We had a great vacation!