Disney Part 1

We haven’t taken Ava to an actual Disney Park since last May, so almost a year ago. This past October, we did take her to eat with Cinderella and Prince Charming and then eat breakfast with Mickey and his pals but we didn’t go into the park. We decided to take her this Spring. It’s way to hot to take her over the summer, especially when we have the opportunity to go any other time of the year. Starting in September we will have to pay for her a ticket, so we wanted to take advantage of the fact that she is still free ;)

My mom joined us and we all stayed at the Grand Floridian….yes- it was so nice!

  

After we checked into our room, we called my cousin, Garrett, who was in Kissimee for Spring Training and he met us at downtown Disney to eat. Our first stop in Disney was the World of Disney to let Ava pick out her princess outfit. She had been going back and forth between Belle and Rapunzel, so I just decided to wait and let her pick it out down there. (I also brought her Cinderella dress in case she decided she wanted to be Cinderella again!) While we were in World of Disney, Adam and Garrett were such good sports- they were in the middle of princess mania- haha! The were all out of the Rapunzel dresses, so it made Ava’s decision pretty easy, until we found out they didn’t have any of Belle’s shoes in her size. We checked a few other places with no luck, so she just wore her sparkly Cinderella shoes.

After getting Ava’s dress we headed to the Rainforest Cafe to eat dinner. We haven’t ever eaten here and Ava wasn’t too sure what to think when the animals started to make noise. We finally convinced her they were just trying to say hello to her and she seemed to do okay with that. She did think all the fish and rain were really neat though.

Saturday morning the extra magic hour was at Hollywood Studios and I haven’t ever been to there, even when it was MGM, so we thought we would go. I knew there were a few things Ava would enjoy there. Once we made it into the park we stopped to say hello to a few of Ava’s friends- Chip and Dale and Handy Manny

The good thing about being there early was we didn’t have to wait very long at all to see any of the characters.

It didn’t take any persuading to get her to see Handy Manny- I think it had something to do with the hardware in her blood-haha!

After seeing a few of the characters we made our way to the Toy Story Mania ride- wait time was like 15 minutes and we knew that it would only get longer so we jumped in line. Ava wanted to ride with my mom, so Adam and I had a little friendly competition and I had to take a picture to prove it- I won :)

As soon as we finished Toy Story Mania we headed over to Disney Junior Live! I knew Ava would love it since our mornings are all about Disney Junior. The show was cute and had Mickey and the Gang, Little Einsteins, and Ava’s new favorite show- Jake and the Never Land Pirates in the show. She had such a good time.

Didn’t have much time in Hollywood Studios since we had a lunch date with the princess at Epcot at 11:00, luckily its about a 20-30 minute walk from Hollywood Studios to Epcot. Before we left though, I stopped to get Ava a autograph book and pen. I still have my autograph book from Disney, they now make them where you can put pictures beside each autograph, which is really neat.

 

The weather on Saturday was actually pretty chilly. Luckily I had grabbed Ava a long sleeved shirt and leggings to wear under her princess dress- she would have froze otherwise. We ended up taking the leggings off at lunch, but she kept the shirt on.

After we made it over to Epcot, Adam separated from us and ran to get fast passes to Soarin’. Adam and I think this is the best ride- ever! We love it! (Well, I love it, since I can’t ride roller coasters, this is about as exciting as it gets for me! haha!) Ava had fallen asleep so we strolled over to the Banquet Hall where the Princess lunch was and let her sleep a little longer while we waited on Adam.

When it was time for us to be seated, we took Ava inside and saw Belle, who was taking pictures with each family- you would have thought Ava had died and gone to heaven- she was in awe! When Belle came out to greet her, she told Ava that they looked just alike and she didn’t think the Beast would be able to tell them apart- the look on Ava’s face was priceless- she knew she matched Belle, but for Belle to actually say that they matched- well that was a whole new level! That was probably the highlight of my weekend- seeing her with Belle.

She posed for her picture and really didn’t want to leave- I honestly think if we had left and gone home at this point she would have been just as happy! Belle has become her new favorite princess since Christmas when she received Beauty & the Beast. (I have a feeling Rapunzel will take over the favorite title when she get Tangled).

After saying good-bye to Belle, we went and sat down to eat and allow the princesses to come by and see Ava.

Ava and Aurora

 

Ava and Cinderella

Ava and Ariel

Ava and Snow White

I’m so glad I bought her the autograph book- she loved asking each of them to sign her book. (And now she loves look at the pictures in the book beside each signature). I was afraid she was a little too young for it, but apparently I was wrong ;)

At Epcot they have a place called The Character Spot that has Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald all in a line and basically you wait in one line and get to see all of them- and it isn’t that bad of a wait, especially considering how long the line would be at the Magic Kingdom for each of the characters.

Ava and Mickey

Ava and Pluto

Ava and Minnie

Ava and Donald

Ava and Goofy

After seeing Mickey and his pals, we headed over to the Finding Nemo area and rode the finding Nemo ride that ended in the aquarium. Interesting fact- the aquarium was the largest in the world until Georgia opened their aquarium in Atlanta. We saw sea turtles, dolphins, all kinds of fish and sting rays. I read somewhere that the dolphins and sea turtles used to be in the same area, but the dolphins, being playful as they are, would barrel toward the sea turtles hitting them and although it didn’t harm the turtles, people didn’t really care for it. I would have enjoyed seeing that happen a time or two. We also saw the workers feeding the manatee. We eventually made our way over the waiting area for ‘Turtle talk with Crush’. I knew Adam would probably enjoy turtle talk more than anyone ;) It was really cute!

After the Nemo exhibit, we had to make a decision about whether or not to head back to Hollywood Studios or to stay at Epcot for a couple more hours so Adam and I could ride Soarin’. Our fast pass wasn’t until around 3:00 so we decided to get all get some ice cream and see what time it was when we finished. We were initially planning to head back to Hollywood Studios and let Ava see some of the shows they have that we knew she would enjoy, but after eating our ice cream, we decided to stay at Epcot and Adam and I could ride Soarin’ while mom sat with Ava.

We were actually going to try and sneak Ava in on the ride as well, she is 38” tall and the requirement is 40” so we thought that we might be able to get away with it. Plus, Adam and I have both been on the ride and knew that it wouldn’t be an issue for her to ride it. It’s not like it goes fast or slings you anywhere, but after seeing how carefully they were checking other kids that were taller than Ava, we knew we would be able to get her on :( Thankfully, Mom volunteered to sit with her so we could ride.

Ava loved wearing her Minnie Mouse backpack. She kept her sunglasses in it (plus it doubled both as a backpack and a stuffed animal!)

Epcot holds their annual flower festival this time of year, so all of the grounds are well maintained (even more than the usual maintenance) and there were all kinds of character topiaries around.

  

One of the nicest perks to staying at a Disney resort (especially one that is connected by monorail) is being able to hope on and get to the park in a matter of minutes. After we made it back to the room and took a short nap, we decided to take a quick trip over to the Magic Kingdom and let Ava see the castle. We ended up riding the teacups, the carousel, and It’s a Small World. The only part we didn’t think through was getting back out during the show they put on- it was unbelievably crazy. We actually had to be routed behind the scenes- we went out behind the stores on main street and exited out the front. We literally had to carry Ava and fold up the stroller in order to push our way through some of the people.

Ava didn’t seem to care- she was in heaven, enjoying every second being in the most magical place on earth!