christmas at disney day 7

our last day at disney is almost becoming a tradition. as we did on our last trip, we spent our last day as a repeat day at the magic kingdom. we squeeze in all our favorite things one last time while not feeling rushed or worried we haven't gotten to do something. it always seems like the perfect end to a perfect trip.

disney day 7: saturday, the magic kingdom

 we headed out early and took the ferry to the park again. we planned to take the monorail, but it was not working. hmmm . . . .

our first stop was the town square theater to visit mickey & minnie. last year, we visited them in the toon town part of fantasyland, so it was nice to see their new digs.

we even decided to take a family picture. i thought we needed photographic evidence that josh was indeed at disney with us. 

when we arrived at the park, my mom headed straight to wait in line for rapunzel while we visited with mickey. we wanted to finish up these last few must see characters and after a full week in disney, we were old pros at how to get things done. so, we let the kids take a minute or two in the store as we exited the character spot and spencer found this cinderella hat.

while we waited in fairy tale garden for our time with rapunzel, josh took miller to tomorrowland speedway. one good thing about being the only boy is that people make special arrangements for you when you have to wait on your sisters all the time.

soon, it was our turn with rapunzel. and, once again, she did not disappoint. we were the first ones in the next group and she made it feel so personal.

she danced and danced with the girls.

they were really mesmerized, especially carter as she is carter's favorite princess. a few minutes later, the boys were back and ready to go, so we headed over to fantasyland. we went on peter pan's flight and mad tea party, again.

then, we headed to prince charming regal carousel, again.

 and, somehow spencer convinced her siblings for one last ride on snow white's scary adventure. then, we decided to head to cosmic ray's starlight cafe for lunch. we had fast passes at buzz lightyear's space ranger spin. in route, we decided to stop and take another chance at a christmas card picture. success!

after lunch and another run at zurg, we headed back to the many adventures of winnie the pooh and dumbo the flying elephant.

spencer loved this ride every time and squealed with delight. in fact, all the adults loved to ride with her, so we had to make sure everyone got a turn.

we still had a few character requests from carter. she wanted to see ariel and tinkerbell so we headed to adventureland veranda where both characters were located. josh sweetly waited with the girls in the long line behind some very interesting people and through a very generous character break.

meanwhile, our experience and exhaustion told us to take advantage of all the adults we had hanging around so my mom and miller waited in line for tinkerbell. miller was unaware of how helpful he was being as my mom bought him a drink and gave him a snack and since there was a movie to watch while you waited, miller thought he got the best deal. the girls arrived just in time to go back. miller agreed to have his picture taken with this guy at the time, but didn't want evidence to remain in his autograph book once we arrived home! haha!

poor guy . . . i don't think this is the favored character request at disney. but, tinkerbell was just like you imagined. she was spunky and chatty and the girls loved her.

of course, miller was able to choose a ride of his liking to make up for his extreme patience during the photo ops. so, we headed back to the pirates of the caribbean for one last ride with jack. then, we wandered through a few stores until miller found the perfect gift for his teacher. and, josh ran back to pick up carter's last souvenir while the rest of us rode walt disney world railroad. we had a full day and walked out knowing we had done everything on our trip we could have ever imagined. we were exhausted and ready to head back to reality . . .  and christmas!

favorites for the day:
carter: meeting rapunzel
miller: driving the race car
spencer: flying in the purple elephant

christmas at disney day 6

by day 6, we were ready to hit the parks again. we chose our two favorite parks to repeat as the finale to our trip.

disney day 6: friday, hollywood studios

we began at toy story mania. this is our family's favorite ride at hollywood studios and since we didn't get to ride it our first day, we wanted to ride it twice this day. our secret to riding a ride with an hour + long wait even in slow season is this: get there early to get fast passes and then try to get in line at a shorter time. that way, you are guaranteed one quick ride and one that will take a little more of your time. also, we downloaded an iphone app that kept pretty accurate accounts of the times on the rides so we would know if it was worth heading to something in advance.

next, we went to visit mike & sully at the monster's inc. character spot. it is so secluded that we missed it last time.

carter decided she was too old for the monsters, but not miller and spencer. this is one of our favorite family movies.

after taking the required picture, sully tried to put spencer in boo's door. he thought she looked like boo and kept trying to open the door for her. it was too funny!

since we were so close (not really) and the line was short, josh and miller decided to go ride star tours again. they said it was completely different which made them want to ride it again and again. then, we went on the great movie ride. it was very entertaining for the entire family. our next stop was disney jr. live on stage. spencer loved it! the other two liked it, too, but this was more for her.

we promised miller we would eat at pizza planet. so, after our toy story themed lunch, we headed over to character spot before our fast pass time.

while carter did not want her picture taken with buzz and woody, she didn't mind entertaining us at all the prop sets in line. by then, it was our turn to ride toy story mania again!

when we were finish with toy story, we grabbed a quick spot for the pixar pals count down to fun parade. it seemed super short this time, but it may have been the season. we decided to split up boys and girls after the parade. the boys went to see the indiana jones epic stunt spectacular, and the girls went to
another performance of beauty & the beast-live on stage and the voyage of the little mermaid, and spencer even stayed awake this time!

while we waited to meet the guys, spencer wanted to meet jake at the disney, jr. character spot. while carter didn't seem interested in the beginning, she decided to join in by picture time!

since we had a little bit of time to kill, we decided to do muppet vision 3d one more time. why are 3d glasses so fun??

of course, we couldn't leave before the osborne family spectacle of lights began. it was just so amazing the first time, that we decided to wait until after it started so we could walk through it one more time. we left knowing we had a full day and had seen everything we wanted and more!

favorites for the day:
carter: beauty &the beast-live on stage
miller: indiana jones epic stunt spectacular
spencer: meeting woody & buzz

christmas at disney day 5

day 5 was scheduled as sort of a break since the night before we partied til midnight. i had also read that you could visit santa at downtown disney and thought that sounded way more enjoyable than our typical santa outing where we stand in line for hours at the mall and pay a ton of money for some janky picture taken with a cheap camera.

so, we spent our day at downtown disney. we began by shopping at the disney store. we had received a coupon at several of the food service locations at disney for 20% off before noon. after a little christmas shopping, we headed to visit santa. we waited for less than thirty minutes in an outdoor pavilion area. when it was our turn, we handed over our photopass card and josh took a few pictures of his own just like we did at every other character spot. santa chatted with our children for several minutes asking them what they wanted and if they were naughty or nice.

they each asked santa for one thing:

carter: a password journal

miller: a green lantern costume

spencer: a purple ladybug pillow pet

i wonder if he was listening??

 the official picture for 2011

 next, we were off to the lego store. miller was in heaven. he loved the different creations and all the lego sets he had never seen and the wall of legos where you can fill a tub with anything your heart desires. his heart desired only blue legos . . . an entire container of random, various blue lego pieces.

 then, it was off to our reservation at t-rex. last time, our children loved this restaurant. when we asked what they wanted to make sure they did at disney this time around, t-rex was on the very short list. so, we headed in and sat at our table and spencer began to freak out. she cried in some form though the entire meal. at first, she was afraid, but then, the asteroid shower began and all the dinosaurs and animals started to make noise and she lost it. she was terrified! we tried to talk to her, the server tried to talk to her, but nothing made it better. she would start to calm down, and then another asteroid shower would begin and she would start all over. she spent most of the meal sitting in my lap and clinging to my neck while i reassured her that they were just pretend and could not get her. my parents felt so bad, but who would have ever thought that our dare devil child who loves the story of snow white and thrill rides and was not afraid last year when she was only 14 months old, would be terrified this year?!?

so, after our crazy lunch, we thought we should try to make amends with a little ice cream . . . mickey mouse ice cream bars to be exact.

 this was spencer's first mickey treat. last year, she was so young, we didn't buy her one and she didn't look very happy about it.

on our way out, we thought we would try to get a christmas card picture. it was nearing the end of our trip and though we had several ideas, we had never been able to carry them to fruition.

there are lots more crazy ones, but we thought these were very fitting of their personalities.

let me just say that i dread visiting santa next year at the mall. it was so much more enjoyable to visit santa at disney that it might just justify a yearly trip!

christmas at disney day 4

the plan for wednesday was one of the few things we knew we wanted to do when we began planning the trip. disney has a few events at christmas that are only done at christmas, and the very merry christmas party is one of them. it is held in the magic kingdom. it requires a separate ticket, has a special parade and fireworks show, includes special appearances from beloved characters, has free hot chocolate and cookies and more.

wednesday was a quiet day of hanging out at the townhouse we stayed in. my parents watched the kids while they took naps and josh and i ran to the outlet mall. until this point, the weather had been sunny with highs in the 80s. the weather was supposed to change this day, so we packed rain gear and wore long sleeves to the park this night. the weather dropped 30 degrees in an hour and brought with it a few sprinkles with lots of clouds.

day 4: wednesday, the very merry christmas party at the magic kingdom

because we were able to get in before the party began and the weather was less than ideal, we decided to hit a few rides we hadn't done yet. we started in tomorrowland at buzz lightyear's space ranger spin, astro orbitor, and monsters, inc. laugh floor.

then, we headed to fantasyland where we rode mad tea party and the many adventures of winnie the pooh. at this point, the party was beginning, so we decided to take advantage of one of the special character spots. we headed straight to the seven dwarfs and arrived just in time to wait an hour before getting a picture. we contemplated whether or not to wait, but since it was such a rare occurrence and we had ridden several rides and had another magic kingdom day planned, we decided to just do the special events.

waiting in line to meet the seven little men left us hungry and cold. we headed toward main street to find a spot for the fireworks. there were only a few places open to serve food, so we stopped at casey's corner to grab something. while we were waiting, we decided to sit at the outdoor tables and found out from a local couple sitting at the table next to us that it was a great spot to watch the fireworks. perfect! we all bundled up and sat right there for memories, moments & you and the fireworks.

when the fireworks were over, we headed to get one more photo op before the second parade. my parents headed to find the perfect spot while we went to find peter and wendy in fantasyland. spencer was so tired and so cold. while we waited to see peter and wendy, miller took off his rain coat and tried to get her to wear it. what a gentleman in the making! but, of course, she refused. she also refused to let go of her cookie.

when we were finished, we headed to meet my parents and watch the parade. we had a great spot, but it was freezing! but, that's okay, with the snow on main street and the cold temperatures, it felt even more like christmas!

favorites for the day:
carter: meeting peter & wendy
miller: the fireworks & parade
spencer: "the fireworks that went pop"

meeting snow white

like we have mentioned, spencer has a heart for snow white. her love runs deep. she couldn't wait to meet snow white and of course, we wanted it to be special for her. i don't think we could have orchestrated it any better if we had tried.

 once at epcot, we found when snow white would be available and we headed over a few minutes early to line up. there was an elderly couple waiting who assured us we were at the right place. they asked spencer her name to which she looked at them confused and replied, "snow white."
duh.

 snow white saw her immediately upon exiting, but she was rushed over to see the elderly couple first. the man tempted her with an apple and made quite the impression. then, it was our turn. spencer was so enamored. snow white bent down and stayed at her level talking for  a long time.

 they discussed her forest friends and her little men. spencer said she didn't like the witch, but snow white told her she believed everyone had a little kindness in their heart.

 i know spencer looks like this in all the pictures with all the characters, but she really loved meeting everyone especially snow white.

 spencer asked her to sign her book. she also showed snow white that she was on the cover of her autograph book. inside, snow white wrote, "to princess spencer, love snow white"

 then, after one last hug, snow white gave spencer a kiss on her cheek. the entire crowd was ohhing and ahhing. then, spencer turned, waved and said "bye" and off she went.

 the kiss

our little princess had a magical moment that she loves to relive to this day. it made every penny well spent to see her meet her favorite princess. it truly was magical.