We went to Disney last weekend and had a great
time! The forecast wasn’t so great
regarding rain, but we really lucked out.
It wasn’t supposed to rain on Friday at all…but it did, lol. We ended up going directly to Epcot instead
of checking into the hotel first because traffic on I4 was awful, and so was it
on the main road to our hotel. We first
went to switch our paper annual passes to plastic ones, which is so much easier
to use. That didn’t take long but by the
time we were done, it was raining out.
We ended up running between raindrops so we could eat dinner at the
Morrocan place. After that the rain
pretty much stopped, so we did the Nemo ride, where Ashlan spent a long time in
the aquarium afterwards. Eventually, we
ended up watching Ashlan dance to the British band and then we stayed for the
fireworks. That was all we had time for
that night but it seemed like we made good use of our time there.
Since we checked into the hotel late Friday night,
by the time we got Ashlan to bed after her bath, it was around 11pm…and she
still woke up at 6:30am! Crazy
girl. She wanted to see animals, so we
ended up at Animal Kingdom. For a 50%
chance of rain, it only rained once for 5-10 min so we got extremely lucky
there. We rode the safari ride, danced
with the Middle Eastern dancers, rode the train, petted goats and pigs, danced
with the African dancers, spent time exploring the Asian jungle and aviary,
chased after Ashlan in Dinoland, and some other things I can’t remember, lol. It was a great day. We knew Ashlan would fall asleep early
because of the lack of sleep she had the night before so we were back at the
hotel and she was asleep by 8ish.
She woke up around 6:45 on Sunday and we decided to
go to Hollywood Studios. We had never
been with Ashlan, so we thought we’d give it a shot since there were a few
things for her to do. The main one was
the Belle show, which we actually didn’t get a chance to see! Next time…
We did a ton though. She kept
saying she wanted to see Mickey, so we took her to see Mickey, lol. We stood in line for about 20 minutes
though! She was very patient for about
15 of those minutes and the last five were…well, let’s just say Dan and I were
working hard, lol. But she did end up
seeing Mickey and loved it, so that was successful. We got fast passes for the Ariel show there
so we saw that…but not before we waited a very long 15 minutes, lol. We ended up seeing Donald and Daisy taking
pictures in a courtyard, and there weren’t many people in line (because it has
started drizzling), so we asked Ashlan if she wanted to see them and she said
yes. Thankfully, it went fast, and we
didn’t wait long at all. We also had her
play at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground before her nap to tire her
out. It obviously did the job because
she took a three hour nap in her stroller!
Luckily, it rained for about two hours like crazy during her nap, and
pretty much only then. We parked ourselves
in a cafeteria and had an adult beverage so we were happy she slept then, but
were shocked she could do so through the noisiness of the bustling café. Not only were people talking loudly, but
waves of people would come in when it started pouring harder and the commotion
became even louder, plus we were right by the main door. Thankfully, she never woke up, though she
stirred a few times. She is becoming a
pro at sleeping in the stroller. : ) After she woke up, we went to the Disney Jr
show with characters from some of her favorite shows. She seemed to really like that. We headed over to Epcot after that. When we got there, Ashlan said she wanted to
see fireworks, lol. Luckily for her, we
planned on staying this time, especially since her nap was so long and ended
later in the day. We saw three bands…the
Guess Who (only a partial because we needed to eat dinner), Mo’Rockin (a
Morrocan band), and British Revolution (to which none of them are British,
lol). We met the last band on Friday and
Sunday nights…they’re going to start to recognize Ashlan, lol. Ashlan had a great time dancing to the music,
and we had a great time watching her. She
loves dancing and meeting other kids.
So on Monday, we decided to go to Magic
Kingdom. Man. We didn’t know it was spring break for a lot
of schools and it sure showed. It was nuts. We spent about 20 min just getting into the
parking lot but luckily, we got a spot right up front! Then because we walked (instead of taking the
tram to the entrance), we happened to walk right by a man who was asking if
anyone wanted to take a bus into the park instead of the monorail. We looked at how crazy the monorail line was
and of course, chose the 5 minute bus ride!
We would have easily waited 25-30 minutes in line, and then however long
it takes on the monorail, so this was much faster. Sure, the monorail is cooler, but we’ve done
it before and we’ll do it again…when it’s less busy. Since we lucked out there, we made it in
before we thought we would. We just went
to see what the wait time was for meeting the princesses. The sign said 2 minutes. (The sign was wrong- it must have been 20 and
the zero fell off but…) So of course we
decided to go since Rapunzel was featured.
Cinderella and Aurora were there too but Ashlan specifically said she
wanted to see Rapunzel so we thought we’d give it a shot. When we got to the line, there were about 15
families ahead of us. We knew the sign
must have been wrong but the line didn’t look that bad, so we decided to wait
(especially since we already asked Ashlan if she wanted to see Rapunzel,
lol). We didn’t realize they would take
us into a foyer (where we waited more), and then another room (where the
princesses actually were, and we had to wait again). So…2 minutes turned into 30 minutes! Ashlan was really good for about 20 of those,
lol. She ended up getting restless so I
pulled out the crayons and coloring book and that helped for a bit but by the
time we got to the third room, she had had enough! We managed to keep her occupied until we got
up to the first princess. After waiting
that long and being so close, she was going to see those princesses!!! We would have never done it if we knew it was
long than 15 minutes, but we are glad we got those pictures. Then some people that were only a bit ahead
of us in line for the princesses ran into us when we were coming out of the
princesses and told us that the line for Mickey was extremely short. It was, so we asked Ashlan if she wanted to
go see Mickey again and she said yes, so we got more pictures then. After that, we went on the Ariel ride, rode the
train, saw part of a show in front of the castle, and the parade as we were
leaving, but we did a ton for only being there for three hours! And seeing how nuts it was there (there were
people everywhere!), we did really good.
I am happy to report that she did not have one
accident when we were at Disney! We did
have pullups on her, but we either took her frequently enough or she told us
when she had to go, and made it to the bathroom, so we are very proud of
her! I have been taking her out to do errands in just underwear and she's been doing great then too.
I have mainly finished her bedroom. I painted a quote in gold on the one wall
that was empty and just put one layer of glitter paint on. I still have one more coat to do and I
ordered a Rapunzel tower sticker to go on that wall, so it will pretty much be
done after that.
Sorry- these are SO out of order!!!
Ashlan's new room
This wall is not finished yet...
The white lanterns on the dresser are now hanging up in the corner over the chair.
At Animal Kingdom on the safari ride.
Ashlan wanted to go see Pooh but was too shy to hug him by herself. :)
She kept asking to see Mickey. This was at Hollywood Studios...after we waited like 20 min in line.
Dancing with one of the Middle Eastern dancers.
Likes to be the center of attention sometimes. :)
All smiles with Mickey. :)
Dancing to Mo'Rockin at Epcot.
Found some friends to dance with at the British bands' performance.
British Revolution- they're going to start to recognize Ashlan...
On the safari.
Rapunzel's new tower at Magic Kingdom.
More dancing.
After the train ride to the petting zoo part of Animal Kingdom.
Love this pic. So cute.
What a great daddy- dancing with her in Africa.
Piggyback ride.
Meeting Donald and Daisy.
At Hollywood Studios- Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground.
Another picture of British Revolution.
With Princess Aurora.
With Cinderella. She was so sweet.
But Ashlan really just wanted Rapunzel. :)
Painting Easter cookies.
Making Easter cookies.
Eating Easter cookies.
