The Big Trip! Days 9 & 10

On Saturday we had an early morning ADR with Donald at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom. The best thing about a pre-park opening ADR is getting to walk through an empty Park!

It was early and cold so we took a fast picture with Donald and then headed inside to get a hot beverage.

Breakfast was AMAZING. Best B-fast buffet ever. All the usuals plus some exotic African choices. If only I had more room! And of course we got to meet the Big Guy...

Wait a minute Dad, Goofy is MY favorite character - choose your own!

After breakfast we jumped on the Safaris and it was awesome as usual. This Giraffe walked right next to our vehicle!

Then I talked these 2 into Expedition Everest. Bwahaha!!!

And these 2 monkeys got to ride together. They were stoked!

No idea what they've gotten themselves into....

After that Mom and Dad needed something mello so we went to see the Tigers.

I LOVE tigers. Seriously. If I get to choose the way I go out someday "eaten by Tigers" would not look so terrible on a tombstone. And maybe I'd get a quick hug in before they ate me.

The Tiger area is in Asia and it looks like it's in the middle of ruins. Sooo cool.

After AK we chilled out at the resort for a bit and then headed over to the Wilderness Lodge. I am SO staying a WL next time we go. It's beautiful and reminds me of Oregon and it's just huge and rustic and amazing. I forgot my camera so you get no lobby pictures. Next trip, I promise....
We ate at Artist's Point and it was sooo good. The kids ordered this dessert. It was 2 HUGE cookies, a giant 6 piece white Chocolate Mickey puzzle and edible paint so once the puzzle was complete you could finish off like a masterpiece. THIS my friends pretty much sums up Why I love Disney. My kids just looked at me like "Seriously - this much Awesomeness exists in the world? And we don't have to share????"

Sasha of course put the puzzle together and then tried her best to paint it. She gave the cookies away and didn't eat the whole puzzle. Ted on the other hand picked up each individual puzzle piece, slathered on as much "Paint" as he could fit on it and then just stuffed the entire piece in his mouth. He ate it all. Shameless.....

On Sunday, Jeff and I headed to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was pretty darn immersive and fantastic.

There's the train!

And after we wandered through the village of Hogsmeade we came to Hogwarts itself. The Forbidden Journey was fantastic, but the Queue line was just as good! We wandered through the village some more afterwards and tried some butterbeer.

Then we rode the Hulk Coaster. Twice. And then we just kind of staggered to a bench. We're used to Disney rides, which are much less intense. I wasn't right for an hour after this ride. But it was still super-cool....

For Teddy:

We went on a few more rides and did a mellow circuit of the park. But we had to go back to Hogsmeade for Lunch.

 We ate at the 3 broomsticks. Classic Wizarding fare....

When we got home the crew back at Kidani had spent a nice morning at the pool and were relaxing back at the villa. These 2 punks had even taken over our bathroom!

We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom so we could ride the boat to Ft. Wilderness.

For the Hoop De Doo Revue!

This is all you can eat ribs, chicken, cornbread awesomeness with a side of unlimited beer, wine and Sangria. As if that wasn't fantastic enough there is an old-school style stage show much of which takes place out with the audience.

He's so happy...

Jeff got picked up by one of the players and recruited to be on "her side" of the room even though he was supposed to be with us on "Six Bits" side of the room.

The show ended with audience members recruited to play key parts. Check out the dude in the Fairy costume at the far right of the stage. At this point I was regretting eating so much because I was laughing so hard!

And we all joined in on the final number....

After that we had to just breathe for a few minutes. All our stomachs hurt from laughing so hard for 1.5 solid hours. We headed to the boat dock and took the boat to the Magic Kingdom. The castle was covered in lights for the Christmas Holiday and looked more beautiful than I had ever seen it look before.

And the whole park was decked out for the Holidays!

We got a great spot in the hub to watch "Wishes!"

It was an absolutely perfect evening....

The Big Trip! Days 7 & 8

 On Thursday Mom, Dad, and Lisa had their Segway tour. I got to crash it since half of my tour got cancelled due to rain on Monday. Jeff and the kids used the opportunity to ride a bunch of thrill ride in Future World. Meanwhile we were learning how to ride a Segway!

Getting the hang of it!

 After we passed the indoor training they turned us loose on World Showcase! We had this hysterical teacher name Elton:

 I want one of these things!

 Pedestrians better watch out!

 After we all met up and started to once again eat our way around World Showcase. We got to the America Pavilion just in time for a Parade!

 Then Teddy got serenaded by the Voices of Liberty! "Never find another one as sweet as yoooouuu..."

 "Do you want to pick out a Disney girlfriend Teddy??"

 Afterwards the adults went back to the room and the kids and I went to do a Kim Possible mission. We did the one in the U.K. It was fun and we even got to flood a building to capture the bad guys!

Me and my kiddos!

 That night the kids got dropped off at the Sandcastle Club while the adults headed over to Flying Fish to try out the Chef's table wine tasting dinner. It was AMAZING!!

 Enjoying some great company and incredible food:

They even presented us with autographed custom menus when we were finished. I have already looked at that menu and drooled! What a fun yet torturous souvenir....

Boardwalk at night:

 Afterwards we headed to Kimono's for some Karaoke. Dad burns up the mike:

 Beach Club at night:

 The next morning we were off to the Studios. We needed to sign Teddy up for the Jedi training academy, audition for American Idol, get Fast Passes for Toy Story AND ride Toy Story before the line became insane. Rope drop at the Studios is like a military assault. Here we are at the front of the rope and ready to rumble!

 Then Dad went to audition for American Idol:

 He made it to Hollywood!!

 Dad and the first producer. They sent him into "the coke room" (soda not drugs) to practice a few songs that we did NOT know the words to. Talk about pressure!

 Then he sang for the executive producer. He was so excited and amazed by Dad's voice when he got to pick a song that we chose. Then we tried to fit Dad's voice to a song on the list and we were bummed to find out that none of the songs on the list were keyed to Dad's baritone range. They only had songs in higher keys. So we ended up not making it to the show but the producer promised us that they were in the process of getting the rights to some lower songs so when we come back next time it's on!

 Then we rode Toy Story. (I won. Both times....)

 Next Teddy was onstage for the Jedi Training academy.

 First they worked with their lightsabers....
And then Darth Vader attacked!! Teddy had to use all his Jedi powers to defeat the dark lord.

And then stormtroopers attacked him and he had to use the force to send them packing too.

 After all that we were hungry! We headed off to lunch and then attended the Animation Academy where we learned how to draw Dale.

 Next was Lights, Motors, Action and we saw Lightning McQueen!

 After that a few brave souls wanted to take a ride on the Tower of Terror. I snapped this shot mid-drop and it may be my favorite shot of the trip. Love my Mom's face in this one!

 What a day!

Then Mom and Dad headed to the entrance while 5 of us went to quickly ride the Rock and Roller Coaster. We ended up riding 3 times because we hopped on again right after our first ride because it was so fun and then an awesome Cast Member asked us if we wanted to stay on! Teddy wore his caps in his shoes again of course....

 What a ride!

 After we had to run to the entrance. We went through the whole park and then Ted yells "Slow down, I still have caps in my shoes!!" We all lost it. We took a second to get a photo in front of the tree where we had seen Mater and McQueen just a few days before.

We left the Beach Club that morning but after our day in the park we headed straight over to our new home for the next 5 nights - Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani.

 We had some cool new friends right outside our balcony.

 We headed to the main firepit to wait for them to call us for dinner at Sanaa. One of the best things about being at Disney is how easy it is. We left one resort, came home to another, all our stuff was there to greet us, and we had an AMAZING dinner only steps from our room!