Girls' Trip to WDW: First Timers

Sunday, August 16

We checked in to Art of Animation and are staying in the Lion King family suites.  Here are a few photos from our room and our resort:

Monday, August 17

We got up early and headed to Magic Kingdom, and I loved that I could witness Merida and Belle seeing Cinderella Castle for the first time ever.  So magical!  We grabbed a drink at Starbucks and then went to Gaston's Tavern for a caramel cinnamon roll for breakfast.  The park was not very crowded, and we had a great time.  We went on Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid, Dumbo, Barnstormer, and Space Mountain before lunch at Be Our Guest, which was as amazing as always.  After lunch, we went on Prince Charming's Regal Carrousel before our Anna and Elsa meet-and-greet.  Merida was not interested in meeting either of them, but Belle was enchanted.  It's the only word that comes close to capturing the look on Belle's face when she met Elsa.  She had both Elsa and Anna sign her Magic Band, so now she has a cool souvenir (and I suspect she'll ask the other princesses to sign her Magic Band later this week).

After Elsa and Anna, we saw Mickey's Philharmagic, and when we came out of the show, the skies were starting to darken really quickly.  We decided to go to the Hall of Presidents because it is about 20 minutes in length and indoors, so we were hoping to miss the rain.  When the show ended, we started to leave, but it was absolutely pouring outside, so we stayed in the theater and watched to show again, which allowed us to completely avoid getting rained on!

From there, we took the monorail to Epcot, and I was more excited than necessary to get a picture of a Disney resort bus and a Magical Express from the monorail.  We walked to World Showcase, wandered around, ate dinner at Japan and picked up some treats at France before watching Illuminations.  When that was over, we walked to Beach Club and took a bus to MK where Ariel took Merida and Belle while Anna and I took the ferry back to TTC to get our car.

After such a long and busy day, Merida and Belle fell asleep quickly, but Ariel, Anna, and I stayed up way too late laughing and talking.  It was the best.

Tuesday, August 18

This was our Animal Kingdom day and it was much hotter than the previous day, but luckily, there is a lot of shade at AK.  Our first ride was Kilimajaro Safaris and because it was fairly early in the day, many of the animals were out, such as giraffes, elephants, zebras, and cheetahs.  Unfortunately, we didn't see any lions, but we did follow up the safari with the Festival of the Lion King show.  After a quick stop at Starbucks for a drink and snack, we went over to Expedition Everest, and although both Belle and Merida were nervous, they ended up loving the ride!  I was so proud of them!

After EE, we had lunch at Yak & Yeti, and then we went on Dinosaur, where we came away with one of the best ride photos I've ever seen:

Our final stop was Finding Nemo the Musical before heading back to AoA for a rest and dinner.

Ariel, Merida, and Belle went to bed early because they had an early start planned the next morning, so Anna and I went to Jellyrolls to see my favorite piano player in the world.  It was not at all crowded, which was great – there have been times when I've gotten annoyed with the rude behavior of drunk people there, and we did not have to deal with any of that!  It was so great to see Scotty, and the fact that it wasn't crowded allowed for some very entertaining interactions with the pianists.  Since Anna is a fellow Mary Poppins fan, I requested a Mary Poppins medley for her and Scotty played several Mary Poppins songs, including "Let's Go Fly a Kite," which is my very favorite Mary Poppins song.  He also played "There's a Great Big Beautiful" tomorrow from Carousel of Progress, which is one of Anna's all-time favorite attractions at WDW.  So perfect.  The best moment of the night for me was when Scotty said, "We're going to play this song" – I don't remember what was because I did not recognize it – "and then I'm going to play a Disney song for Rapunzel," (although obviously he said my real name) and then the last song of the night was "When You Wish Upon a Star."  Happiness.  Complete and utter happiness.  That's all I can say.

Wednesday, August 19

Ariel took Merida and Belle to Universal Studios for the day because the three of them are big Harry Potter fans, while Anna and I had planned to have a lazy day and do some shopping.  It did turn out to be a lazy day, but not for any fun reasons…we are pretty sure Anna had food poisoning or something because she was pretty sick all day.  So we just napped and hung out in our room all day, which was actually nice because the rest was sorely needed!

I left at about 8 pm to head over to the Polynesian to meet up with Dean, our photographer from our vow renewal and MK photo session.  I just love him so much!  We met at Trader Sam's and it was so great to catch up.  As for Trader Sam's, it was my first time at this one, because it only opened back in the spring.  It is a fun place, and similar to the one at Disneyland, but I was slightly disappointed to not see a Paradise Falls jar anywhere.

Ariel, Merida, and Belle had a fabulous time at Universal – when I got back to our room, the two little girls were asleep and Anna was feeling much better, so Anna, Ariel, and I were able to hang out, eat pizza, and chat for a few hours before heading to bed.  I love these two gals!

Happy Tails to you!