Saturday, December 17, 2016

One Final Day (Day 12-3/16)

At this point, it's our last day in the parks, but, we still had so much to do with so little energy left.  One of the bonuses of staying at Port Orleans Riverside is that you are just a short and beautiful walking path along the river to Port Orleans French Quarter.  I happened to love the Riverside resort.  The food was great and it was just the right size.  But, French Quarter has beignets...a cajun pastry that is like a little pillow of crispy pastry with powdered sugar sprinkled on top and you can dip it in chocolate or raspberry sauce.  Yum!  French Quarter also has a really great breakfast skillet where you can choose all of your own ingredients.  So good!  It was so nice to have two options for food and who doesn't need a little more walking in Disney, hahaha!

We never made it to Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney), so, that was the priority for the day.  Another bonus of the Port Orleans resorts, you can take the boat down the river to Disney Springs!  We would have liked to have had more time, but, it was kind of a whirlwind visit.  The kids had some ice cream at Ghiradelli and we had lunch at Wolf Gang Puck's Express.  It was delicious.






Of course, we had to make some time to visit the Lego store.






I wasn't feeling well and Owen was just flat out done.  But, Dave and Liv wanted to hit the miniature golf one more time.  This time, they went to the Fantasia course.  Liv loved it!


We had some fast passes left to do in the evening.  Liv's first stop was with Tinkerbell while Dave and Owen did Seven Dwarfs again.




Dave and Liv got one more time in with the Buzz Light Year ride and Owen and I hit the Space Mountain ride.  The park was so packed though.  Even with a Fast Pass, we had a 40 minute wait.  We debated taking advantage of the bonus time, but, we were all so tired, nobody wanted to stay.  So, back to the hotel we went!

High:  86
Low:  78

Steps Taken:  20,031
Distance:  8.61 miles

Running Out of Steam (Day 11-3/15)

I feel like this blog is how I document everything we do in our little family in our daily lives and we had such an amazing trip to Disney World and I took SO many pictures.  But, things have been crazy and this has been a tough year.  So, I'm way behind on posts, but, I wanted them posted in order.  I will eventually catch up, but, after I finish our trip!

At this point in the trip, the kids were tired and ready for a break.  So, Dave went by himself to visit with his friend Jackie and her girls at Magic Kingdom in the morning while the kids had some down time at the hotel.  The kids live for the pools.  We almost don't even have to go to the parks, just hang out at the pool!  Maybe not everywhere, but, the Disney hotels are another experience all in themselves.  



We planned to meet up with Dave and Jackie at Epcot after our lazy morning.  So, we washed up and had a good nap and then headed to the park.  

One of the bonuses of having a Disney credit card...even if you don't ever charge to it...is that you get private access to a secret photo opportunity.  We only managed to take advantage of it once during our trip, but, it was well worth it.  They have it at Epcot in an air conditioned room and there was NO LINE despite the fact that the park was elbow to elbow that day!


Turns out it was Mickey and Friends!!!





Then it was off to Turtle Talk with Crush.  One of my favorites, but, this time, there were some really inappropriate kids in the audience that talked about killing Crush and stuff like that which really put a downer on it.  Where are the freaking parents!!!  I would have snatched my kids up if a statement like that were to come out of their mouths.



After the show, we had a few minutes more to wait, so, we took some pictures...the kids were thrilled...

We were DYING it was SO HOT!!!  I love some sunshine, but, sunshine, concrete, and crowds just don't mix!!  It took some effort, but, we managed to track down an ice cream cart to help cool the kids down.


When Dave, Jackie, and the girls arrived, we went on The Seas with Nemo and Friends ride and spent some time inside checking out the aquariums and then this happened...hahaha...





Jackie's daughters are beautiful and Liv just loved hanging out with her oldest.


Poor Liv was so hot, she's so pink and sweaty in this picture.  But, to be fair, she and Ahnika (forgive my spelling) were chasing each other around like crazy.














We had Fast Passes to take pictures with Mickey and Friends not realizing thats who was at the Visa Card Meet and Greet, but, we headed over to do those anyway.  At least, it was in another air conditioned room!!  Liv was thrilled to meet them all again.  Owen wasn't exactly down with the personal interactions, but, he was tolerant at least...can't ask for much more than that, right! ;O)








After meeting Mickey, we were able to go across the path to another photo opportunity with Baymax!!  The kids were a little intimidated by the character, but, it was super cool!


We hadn't been able to spend much time at Epcot during our trip.  Every time we'd planned to be there, it either got nixed due to tired kids or we met Jackie and her family there which made for slower goings.  So, we tried to do as much as possible on this particular night, but, still didn't make much headway.  The Soarin' ride was down our entire trip, so, that was a big bummer and made for extra long lines at the other rides.

Did some Donald visiting and hit the Three Caballeros with Donald ride.  We ate pizza in Italy for dinner and then we went to watch Illuminations...not my favorite Disney show.


We took one more picture before we headed back to the hotel.

But, we weren't done, the kids were dying to get some time in the arcade.  Although there wasn't much for Livi Bug to do, they both had fun and we finally headed off to our room.  I think one of the best parts for the kids though is that at the end of the night each night we'd all stand in the tub and I'd wash their little stinky feet, hahaha!!  The kids thought that was great.




High:  87
Low:  78

Steps Walked:  19,337
Distance:  8.31 miles