Walt Disney World - Next Stop for Mayhugh Family!

After docking back into Port Canaveral, we heading to WDW to continue the fun! We checked into our hotel at Port Orleans- French Quarters- a very nice hotel!

Sunday, October 23
Next we headed over to Downtown Disney! I love that place! World or Disney, Disney's Days of Christmas, Art of Disney and others were wonderful places to shop!

Don't forget a trip to Goofy's Candy Shop as well, where I got a giant rice crispy chocolate dipped with sprinkles Mickey Mouse head on a stick. This in one of those opportunities where you get to choose your treat and how it is created! I have photos that I will upload to this page, so check back.

Want a recommendation for a great place to eat? Check out Raglan Road Irish Pub! It was so wonderful we ate our first meal and last meal at WDW here! My kids LOVED the Shepherds Pie! Have you ever seen a four and six year old gobble down ground beef/lamb mix topped with carrots and mashed potatoes?

Monday, October 24
Monday was spent at Magic Kingdom! My favorite of all the parks! I recommend spending at least two days at this park. We ran out of time to go to Tomorrowland, watch the afternoon parade and missed a couple rides we wanted to ride. My husband and I can spend hours just walking around and looking at everything- then of course you have to get in line to see all those adorable characters! We LOVE getting character photos and this year the kids had autograph books as well!

My oldest road her first Roller Coaster twice- Thunder Mountain, once with each parent and both girls got to experience Splash Mountain and loved it (the four year old ended up in the front seat and loved it- well until she got wet a delayed second after we hit bottom- he he).

While at Magic Kingdom, we stopped in for lunch at Crystal Palace and joined Pooh and the gang for a smackeral of honey!

Tuesday, October 25

Next day was off to Epcot where we had breakfast with Disney Princesses in Norway: Snow White, Aurora, Ariel, Bell and Cinderella.

The girls enjoyed this breakfast where they got to parade with the princesses and get more photos with them. This was a great experience and so great to see the looks on their faces. Breakfast was a buffet consisting of fruit, yogurt, granola, danishes, fish and more. The server then brought a plate off bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs and cheesy potatoes.

We all enjoyed Test Track, The Seas with Nemo and Friends, Spaceship Earth and had a chat with Crush, the talking turtle! The Food and Wine Festival was going as while we were there so we had a chance to smell a variety of wonderful foods. We ate so much on the cruise, we really were not all that hungry at the parks, so we didn't try anything.

While at Epcot other characters we visited with included Jasmine & Genie and Marie, the white kitten on Aristocats! The girls got a kick out of her kissing her autograph after she signed it!

We went to an area in Epcot for character photos that is set up for Disney Rewards Visa card holders only where we met with Goofy and Minnie. Besides this opportunity being only for card holders, we also got a free 5 x 7 photo.

Epcot is unique as you can visit several countries in the World Showcase! We went to Mexico where we road a boat ride. We visited Paris, where we found Marie and Genie and Jasmin was at Morocco. We traveled back to America in 1776. We went to Ireland and the United Kingdom. There are so many other countries you can visit at the World Showcase, these were just the few we checked out.

In the fall Epcot holds it's International Food & Wine Festival. During this festival many of the countries in the world showcase have a variety of single portion meal samples for sale. They looked pretty yummy. Of course they also have a variety of wines available as well.

 We ate dinner at La Hacienda de San Angel in Mexico. It was very good! I highly recommend
“La Hacienda”- Mixed grill offering top sirloin, chicken al pastor, chorizo and vegetables, served with beans and fresh salsas. This meal feeds two and was delicious.

Then we went to meet Duffy the Disney Bear and I went shopping to decide what Duffy I wanted for myself. It was amazing how many there were to choose from! Duffy is a WDW Park Exclusive that you can only get at Walt Disney World or from Disneystore.com. I have been checking out the site to see which ones they have listed there because I don't think I can wait until my next Disney Vacation to get another Duffy!

Following our day at Epcot we headed back to Port Orleans- French Quarters where the girls and I headed to the pool for a little bit followed by the hot tub.

Our next stop was to Hollywood Studios.

Wednesday, October 26
Hollywood Studios was our next stop on this great adventure!

We spent the day walking around in this Hollywood town of toons and movies! What a great place to visit! We took the kids to see a Disney Junior show which consisted of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Little Einsteins.

 We ate at ABC Commissary for lunch, which was very good. Remember we had the Dining Plan it was was amazing how much food we got! The kids got chicken nuggets, fries, carrot sticks and yogurt with a drink and Sean and I had some yummy cheeseburgers with fries and chocolate mousse with drinks. If chocolate mousse is one of your favorites, you will love Disney as it is a choice at MANY places and it is delicious!

We rode several rides- we scared the kids on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror! We didn't get around to riding my favorite- Rock 'N Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, but that is one to be sure to ride if you have the chance. The Great Movie Ride was fun and Star Tours was pretty neat, though made Sylvia nervous after the Tower of Terror....

We found a new favorite ride Toy Story Mania! What fun! You have no idea what to expect until you start the ride so I won't ruin the surprise, but if you like rides and games then this is the ride for you! Both of the girls loved it and Daddy really enjoyed it. We didn't know what it was so we didn't do the fast pass, but I recommend hitting this one early or getting fast pass and if you have time, ride it more than once- we wish we did!

 Both girls also enjoyed Muppet Vision 3-D and Voyage of the Little Mermaid! 

We ended the evening with Fantasmic- the most wonderful show! If you are able to see this, you really do not want to miss it! We were surprised that we didn't have to wait in a long line to get good seats. Some years we have had too, but we were so busy doing other things that we didn't get there in time to stand in line people were being seated when we got there and believe it or not we ended up near the front. Great for seeing everything well, however you will get a little misty from the water if you sit down this close!

Thursday, October 27

Our final day for our wonderful Disney Vacation! This was the day we journeyed to Animal Kingdom to see all the critters from around the world. We were so bummed that this was our final Disney destination- or so we thought. We still had a meal left on our Dining Plan, so we did make a final stop back at Downtown Disney for dinner and got a later start back north than we expected, but that might have just been a way to keep us there longer- ha ha.

We checked out of our hotel, loaded up the car then caught the bus for Animal Kingdom.

There are LOTS of animals to see! This park is relaxing as you spend the day just walking around and looking at animals from various countries and regions. Be sure to take a Safari ride to see a nice variety of critters as well- Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My...ok well we didn't see bears though.

We rode Expedition Everest for the first time. Since Sylvi could not ride Sean and Sammi went first but she wasn't too thrilled with it. I was a little nervous riding without my coaster partner Sean since I went on my own while he stayed with the kids THEN I ended up in the front seat! Nice thing was she has never rode it before either and her husband was with her kids. It wasn't quite what Sean and I had expected as we are use to BIG coasters but it was still fun. We even saw Big Foot! 

 

We also went into the Tree of Life and checked out the It's Tough To Be A Bug 3D show- lots of fun- WATCH out for the stink bugs!

We journeyed to the Boneyard where the kids got to dig for bones, slide down slides and lots of other fun adventures. We even found a lizard on the wall!

 We found Terk as we were on our way to say hello to Meeko!

Mickey's Jammin' Parade was such a treat too! It is always a treat to see the Jungle Book, Lion King and other wild critters at this park and they were all in the parade! The floats were quite interesting too! Very cultural!

We even found turtles!

We finished our journey at Animal Kingdom then we headed back to Downtown Disney to eat- and guess where we ate? We headed back to Reglan Road! This time we ate inside and saw Irish Dancers as we ate! For dessert I had a Bailey's Creme Brulee Tart and it was wonderful! The kids had a chocolate chip cookie that was huge and yummy of course!

Leaving that evening took longer than we expected. Between waiting for a table, eating then I had to make one last stop at World of Disney before we started our journey north again.

My girls and are already miss Disney and we can't wait to make it back! Sammi and I are trying to figure out how we can book another Disney Cruise as well! This was a wonderful way to celebrate my 10 year anniversary and a perfect family vacation!

If you are looking for a great family vacation, a couples trip, vacation with friends, place to propose, a wedding destination, a honeymoon location, place to celebrate a birthday or anniversary or just want to get away, then Walt Disney World is just the place for you! Contact me today so I can set up a vacation specialized to meet your needs! I can't wait to plan your vacation and then hear about all the fun and experiences you had when you went to meet the Mouse!