Cooking, crafts and children: Disney World. . .a day of fun

Yesterday, we hit the day running, and just didn't stop. We started by going to Animal Kingdom at 9. We wanted to be there at 8 for the Extra Magic Hours. . .well, I was up at 6:30 and ready to go. . .but someone else needed to get a Starbucks latte first, and had to leave the property for that. but, we did still make it to the park in time for the regular opening. After several fun hours at Animal Kingdom, we opted to head to Downtown Disney for some food as we were also changing hotels at that time. We were quite disappointed by our meal at Bongos. Considering the only food we bought on property yesterday was a breakfast scramble, banana and milk for $12 that fed 3 of us, and the not so yummy meal at Bongos for <$40, at least the least the sub par food didn't cost us too much.

Breakfast for 3, the potatoes weren't bad, the eggs weren't good and the waffle had no flavor, overall, not impressed by the food available on property.

A lot of people talk about the meal plan, the meal plan is definitely not for us, so I'm glad we opted not to get it. We packed a ton of snacks when we left home, to the point TSA had to give me a full pat down and had to search through our checked bag. But, it's OK, all of our food made it hear and we're eating tasty healthy snacks to keep us fueled throughout the day.

On a safari ride, and loving it

Our little pig lover met her first real pig

After our mid-day meal, we checked in at Port Orleans, it's definitely more geared at the younger set, lots of princesses pictures in the rooms and such. Sadly we didn't have a chance to enjoy too many amenities here as we immediately headed out to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. We go there in time to see the closing parade for the normal day, and then since we had special event tickets we were able to stay through and see the special Christmas stage show, Christmas parade and enjoy some milk and cookies. Little Boy napped a bit on the bus ride over to the Christmas party, and not long after getting there, Little Girl tried to put herself to sleep. She first asked if we could go back so she could go to bed, when I said she would have to sleep in the stroller, she curled up, covered herself in her Daddy's jacket and squeezed her eyes shut. It took awhile before she actually feel asleep though. We left the park that day with two sleeping children.

I think they both enjoyed their day overall, we met most of the big guys, Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Donald and Goofy. We rode a few rides, we terrified both children by going to the It's a Bug Life show against my recommendation that they would hate it. Well, I told him so! Both kids were screaming in my arm almost immediately upon starting and I ended up having to take them out completely. Little Girl calmed down fairly quickly once outside, but was gun-shy the rest of the day, thinking everything else we took her too would be scary (she had to ask if the mermaid would be scary before we got on the new ride). Her last "event" of the day was her first roller coaster though as her Daddy tricked us into going on it. I realized what it was halfway through the line, but she had no idea what was coming. It was really quick though, so while it scared her on the ride, I think she was actually soon afterwards.

She decided the giraffe is her favorite animal, as they seem the least violent and scary of the animals we saw

Getting an update on her "Baby" that is being watched by her grandma, she's viewing pictures of her "Baby" on one phone and chatting on the other.

Fun new ride that condense the movie to a 5 minute experience, very cute, but it did seem to go fast. They don't even stop the shells (see below) for you to get on, you get a walking sidewalk and hopefully you can get in before you leave someone behind.

While you could only ride two to a shell, it winds around a lot, so I was able to see these guys quite a bit, and we were close enough we even handed the camera off to get picture of the us girls.