Disney World--Part 1

We left for Disney World last Saturday morning.  We flew Southwest direct to Orlando.  Can't beat that!  The flight was great, and all 3 kids did wonderful.  Once we arrived we headed straight for our Disney bus to take us to our resort.  We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort.  Once we made it there we hit the ground running.  We went to straight to The Magic Kingdom.  Our first stop was The Pirates of the Caribbean.  It was Hudson's very favorite 2 years ago at Disneyland, and it still is one of our favorites.  We rode it several times.  We rode several rides, and packed it in before it was time to head back.  We were dying to keep going, going...but decided we had better pace ourselves & not be totally exhausted after day 1.

These pictures below were from another day in our week, but here is our room at The Caribbean Beach.  It was pirate themed from floor to ceiling.  The carpet is planks of wood, the bedspread is treasure, the fridge is a barrel....every detail is Pirate.   Pretty cute.  We stayed in a 'preferred room' which means it's close to a bus stop.  I can't imagine not having that because it's the largest resort in Disney, so many rooms are a 10-15 minute walk to a bus stop.  It was very convenient to get right off the bus and be by our rooms.  We had 2 joining rooms.  Hudson stayed with Mini and Papa (in his OWN bed).  Harper and Matt slept together, and I slept with Holton all week.  It worked well, but Matt and I were glad to be home in our kid free bed when we got back home.

The kids got to do the "pirates league" one day and became pirates.  That is why they look this way.  (CUTEST pictures EVER coming later in the week from that day).

Sunday was our first full day at Disney World.  We had breakfast reservations for Mickey's Cafe.  It was cute and the breakfast was yummy.  The Mickey waffles were a highlight.  We got to meet many of our Disney friends there at the breakfast.

Our Mini with Minnie!

We had a 6 day park hopper pass along with 6 days of the Disney meal plan.  I cannot imagine not having the park hopper.  We really did 'hop' around most days.  It was nice to be able to just go and do as we pleased.  The meal plan was great too.  You really do save $ by using it.  The only thing is you really do have to prepare for it and go in with your meals arranged and organized.  We don't have any complaints about it, and I highly recommend using it.

We spent our first full day at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.  The kids rode ride after ride of everything they wanted.  The crowds weren't too bad.  We used the fast passes at every park we went to as well as the 'rider swap' passes.  (When you have someone who isn't tall enough to ride you can show the workers your child and they give you a swap pass.  So like Matt would ride with Hudson and then when they were finished I could go ride with Hudson without waiting in the line...pretty neat).  Matt was pretty much our designated Fast Pass guy.  We had the system figured out pretty quick how we could ride everything without waiting in line.  I don't think we waited in line for more than 20 minutes the entire week.  It was pretty nice!

Hud was captivated watching Indy.

Indy stunt show.

At Hollywood Studios we hit up the Indiana Jones stunt show.  Hudson is super into Indy right now, so it was a must see for day 1.  It was really cool and we all loved it.  We rode the Tower of Terror, the Aerosmith ride (my personal favorite), rode Toy Story Mania (the must do ride at HS), and I took Harper to see The Little Mermaid show.  One funny story was when Matt and I were in line to ride the Aerosmith rockin' roller coaster there were these kids by us in line and one said, "hey, that's that guy from American Idol."  We had a senior moment right then.

We split up a little during the week, but mostly we stayed together.  I learned after day 1 that we had to do something about Harper's 1/4 of an inch shy of being 40 inches.  Most rides you have to be at least 40 inches and she was SO close.  So I folded up a thick sock and stuck it in the heel of her shoes and alas our baby girl was tall enough to ride rides ALL week long!  She proved to be the daredevil like her big brother.  She rode everything she possibly could.  She was not afraid at all.  Her favorites were The Tower of Terror and Splash Mountain.  We all traded off with sitting behind with Holton.  Actually now that I think about it, I don't think Matt ever stayed behind with Holton---how did that happen???  :)  ***I stand corrected.  After Matt read this he quickly told me about 2 rides he stayed with Holton.  Oops!!***

I have to say that Holton was FANTASTIC this past week.  He was unbelievable.  The best of the 3 hands down.  HA!  I say that jokingly because the sweet thing had no opinion of where we went, what we saw, what we rode, where we ate...etc.  He was along for the ride and was happy doing it.  He slept in the stroller everyday for his naps.  We would find us a place to cool off and he would nurse (I was dreading that, but really it was no big deal).  He smiled at every single person who stopped to talk to him.  It was precious.  I could go on and on about how great he did.  It was wonderful having our 4 month old sidekick with us.  He brought a smile to everyones face.

All 3 kids were wonderful.  We did have our 'moments' where we knew it was time to head back to the room for a much needed break.  We all needed it.  We needed to cool off and rest for a couple of hours.   After we took our breaks we would head back out and finish our days strong.

Up next---Animal Kingdom