Vacation Day 11: Back to the Jungle
I love Animal Kingdom! We did get a bit of rain off and on throughout the day but, for the most part, it was in the low 80s and overcast. There were a few times when the sun would pop out and the humidity would spike that were super uncomfortable (at which point we perused the air conditioned gift shops) but overall it was a dream day weather wise.

We had a pre park opening character breakfast at Tusker House so we were actually there by 8am. After that we just spent the day leisurely walking the park taking in whatever we found. G finally crashed about 15 mins before the parade started. Such a bummer because its super cute and we had great seats... actual chairs in the shade! The park was so empty that we didn't even have anyone standing behind us for the parade. The CM told us that during peak season the parade crowd is normally about 8-10 feet deep! Yowzah!

Final stop was Yak & Yeti for dinner. Oh my gosh so tasty!!! I think it might be my favorite meal of the trip. The ribs were great and my dessert --fried stuffed wonton wrappers skewered with pineapple cubes and drizzled with some kind of thin icing with a side of fresh strawberries and ice cream-- is probably the best dessert I've ever eaten. The Y&Y is going on my list of must repeats!

Then, almost 11 hours after walking into the yet-to-be-opened park, we walked out of the now-closed park. Great day!

Ready for a great day!

Loved this cool and comfy zebra set from THIS SELLER. G found the Minnie shoes at Target right before we left... perfect!

Georgie gets so excited when she gets to participate at the character meals.

I can't be the only person who is completely fascinated by the Tree of Life. I wish I could get much closer to it. Each time we go to AK I spend some time looking at it through my camera's zoom lens.

So cool!

I'm laughing in this pic because I had just told Pocahantas (the thinnest one I think I've ever seen btw) that she was my husband's favorite princess. She responded "oh, its wonderful he really likes my movie" to which I thought "yeah, right, its your movie that he likes so much" :-)

ok, we have where to sit to make sure that G gets chosen for the Lion King show down!

In the store waiting for Daddy to ride Expedition Everest. This might be my favorite picture of our trip!

Loved this restaurant so much! Yummy!

The famous deep fried wonton dessert. Seriously, possibly worth the flight to Orlando all by itself.

The place was very empty partly due to the season I guess. Plus I'm not sure many people think to eat here after park closing. Anyway, G wanted to see what was upstairs so we went to check it out. She was fascinated by all the decorations and stuff. She'd run up to each thing, ooh and ahh and then say "take my picture mama!" and pose... she might be the funniest child I've ever met :-)

I think I can kind of understand it with this statue...

or this one...

and even these horses are pretty neat...

I have to say I was a bit confused about this display cabinet...

OK, this one may have been my idea :-)

Later she dragged Daddy up the stairs and insisted that he participate!

Fun!

Vacation Day 10: Will we ever tire of MK??
I think the answer for Georgie is no. For me? Yes. MK is a great park, it is, but compared to Disneyland there's not enough to do there. Maybe after the Fantasyland expansion is complete it will be better. Anyway, I still love MK and I love watching G enjoy the park.

Today started out kind of slow. MK was supposed to be very empty. For the most part, it was. I think we did almost every attraction in the park in which we had interest and had two meals in just about 8.5 hrs. Pretty good. G was bummed she couldn't ride Space Mountain. She's tall enough at home but too short in Florida which is weird. I can't figure out why there's a difference in the height requirement but there is.

The highlight of the day was definitely the Pirate Tutorial. G was chosen (the only girl of 4 kids) to go up on stage and be part of the show. Capt Jack and his "mate" teach the kids to sword fight. They start out by giving all the kids a sword which has a plastic handle but a very soft foam blade and then instructing them on sword play. They called G out first to "fight" the pirate and my sweet, gentle girl just kind of stood there. We prodded her a bit and she finally, ever so softly, batted her little sword at the pirate. She was then supposed to jab at him but was not going for it whatsoever. So funny!! The next 3 kids were all little boys and had no apprehension at all. One of two of them had to be called off because he attacked with such gusto. Hysterical. I asked G about it after and she said she didn't want to do it because she was afraid she'd hurt the man. But, she still said being involved was the best thing of the day!!! Sweet baby.

After a relaxed dinner at Casey's (chili cheese dogs and fries covered with squeeze cheese, sauteed onions and jalepenos... YUM!! seriously, I can't even tell you how much squeeze cheese we've eaten in the last week and a half :-) we headed out right at the 7pm closing. The park closed early for the halloween party that night. Ours will be in 3 days. I'm really excited about it!

In each park they have these people who stand outside the gift shops or at the souvenier kiosks blowing bubbles using these bubble guns... G was OBSESSED with them! She can chase bubbles for a really long time.

She's such a goof. She always gets really, really, really close the bubble gun so that they blow right into her face. Obsessed I tell you!

Yet another from the gift shop photo props series of photos

Moving on to the pirate tutorial

Thankfully, G's not afraid of Captain Jack any more



Finally, G tapped her sword against the other

More very serious instruction

Georgie saw this pumpkin, stopped dead in her tracks and then informed me that she needed to have her picture taken with it. Um, ok. BTW how cute is the set she's wearing?? I loved all the appliques of Minnie dressed in princess and tink clothing. Adorable!

The rocket ride at MK is more fun than the DL version because it goes so much higher! What a view!

To infinity and beyond!

Winter wear Tink

More Peri

Georgie really wanted to show Minnie her skirt... Minnie loved it!

Vacation Day 9: Around the World again
Today was planned to be sort of a flex day. With such a long trip I really didn't want to over schedule. I have a general plan for each day and then left about 4 days as mostly open so we could see what struck our fancy and go with that. The only thing we had to do today was be at the Disney Beach Club Resort by 9:45 for breakfast.

I've really enjoyed having the opportunity to visit some of the Disney resorts and get more acquainted with "the World". Its so large --there are 33 separate resorts on the property-- it would take many, many trips to become an expert. But at this point we've at least gotten to the point where we can follow the signage and make our way around. The Beach Club seems like a really nice resort: beautiful Cape Cod (I'm guessing) styled exterior and lobby, cool pirate ship waterslide pool, and (as I would learn) its the closest resort to Epcot. Not surprisingly they offer a super cute beach-themed character breakfast. Again, you had us at character! Its just a little one with Minnie, Goofy and Donald but they're dressed super cute in what I can only assume would be there crabbing clothes. I'd read some so-so reviews on the food and experience but it doesn't take much for us to be happy. The food was pretty standard Disney buffet fare. G had a good time drawing on the white butcher paper they use to cover the tables. The characters came by a couple times and spent a goodly amount of time letting G hug on them. Overall, I give it a thumb's up!

After that we were off to Epcot. I knew that there were resorts that allowed you to enter Epcot by walking through the International Gateway located at the back of the park where the World Showcase is. But I didn't realize until we were walking back to the car and saw the giant Epcot "ball" (Spaceship Earth) that the Beach Club was so close. It was just a pleasant 10 minute or so walk along the water and we were there. Neat!

We spent the entire day going through the pavilions. There are a total of 11. Today we made it through 8. We were able to do several things we'd never had time or inclination for previously including the movies in France and China. Georgie was particularly interested in seeing the Reflections of China movie. She's very interested in being Chinese and learning more about all things China including food and language. The China pavilion is very pretty and has a nice terra cotta warriors exhibit that G really enjoys. Of course, no visit to China would be complete without a Mulan meet and greet!

It was an extremely pleasant day to be at Epcot. The weather was overcast all day. We had lots of dark clouds but no rain which made it relatively cool and the park was EMPTY! Seriously, there was no one there. The only time we had to wait for anything all day was, of all things, Duffy. It took about 15 mins which was a pain but totally worth it because, unlike at Calif Adventure where you just get a Duffy sticker, he does autographs at Epcot. That and the fact that he is uber huggable made my little character hunter super happy.

Even though I swore we were going to venture out on food, we found ourselves back at the Tangerine Cafe in Morocco for dinner. Its just so yummy!

We still have one more Epcot day planned and I'm hoping to check off some more to do's on my list. Its still a pretty long list though.

First stop was Cape May. I really do love their costumes!

They have these neat sand castles as part of the decor. G was very interested in them and kept asking me if they were real... hmmm, dunno, they looked kind of real to me :-)

The "hang loose" sign is a big part of the experience.

Finally made it to Epcot. Here is G in France with Marie from the Aristocats. BTW, how cute is G's dress? I bought it about a year ago off Zulily. Its labeled a 4t but it ran HUGE and only fits her now that she's wearing a size 6. Anyway, because the smocking is of children of the world I thought it would be fun to wear for the World Showcase. It was subtle clothing theming. I was surprised to be stopped at least a dozen times that day asking where we'd gotten it and if it was available at the parks. I guess people pay more attention to clothing than I thought.

Princess hands with Aurora

Georgie asked me to take her pic in front of this fountain in Morocco. She's such a goof!

We made our way to Japan and G talked me into (it didn't take much effort) doing the pick-a-pearl. She very quickly chose her oyster...

paid great attention to the fanfare of the opening...

and then anxiously waited to see what she'd gotten.

As it turned out it was a fairly large 7-3/4mm silver blue. At first, G looked disappointed because the pearl wasn't white. I think she's only ever seen white and thought the silver was defective in some way. But she quickly turned around when everyone seemed to excited for her.

Beaming with pride!

We bought this super cute heart shaped pearl cage.

Japan!!! Ta-duh!!

Being silly in Italy

Again with our props in the stores. It started out so innocent...

Then Daddy got involved...

Oh no!!! Don't kill Duffy!!

Too funny!