Disney Week

We are on our way home from a week at Disney World in Florida. The drive to was quite painless. Everyone picked me up from work Sunday morning about 7:45 and off we went. I slept much of the way, thanks to Hulk riding down with Grandma & Grandpa. He adored the solo attention. The girls loved having a little more room to spread out. They hadn't had video game time in about a month so they dove in and zoned... Lol

Let's start by saying we had the great Disney vacation where almost everything worked as it should. Disney can't control the weather.. Lol

We got the opportunity to test Disney's new "Magic Bands" & " Fastpass+" systems. I LOVED the Magic Bands! Everything you needed on your wrist. Park tickets, room key, dinning plan, fast passes, charge to the room purchases. You can read a thousand Disney blogs explaining the ins & outs of them so I'm just going to say I'm a fan. I also loved the Fastpass+ service. The App was slow but we got what we needed. 

 We stayed at Port Orleans-Riverside in the Royal Guest rooms. Lovely moderate accommodations. We were able to have connecting rooms with Grandma & Grandpa & we were fortunate to have a mini fridge due to Grandpa's medical needs. Fridges had to be removed from most of the resort rooms earlier in the summer. 

We were on the dining plan & honestly loved it. We tried a variety of experiences. Our favorite character experience  was the 'Ohana breakfast. Relaxed, plentiful & joyful. Granted we did this one on our break day which probably helped with the relaxed feeling. Character wise was also had breakfast with Pooh @ the Crystal Palace & the Disney Jr Play'n Dine @ Hollywood & Vine. These we great but because we were in park we felt rushed/pressured to keep up the pace. Our other table service meals were used at Boatwrights (Port Orleans), Portobello ( Downtown Disney), & The Wave of American Flavors (The Contemporary). All we great, but I enjoyed The Wave for flavor, atmosphere & service. On the quick service end I enjoyed the create your own salad @ the Rivermill  Food Court, the shrimp Po'boy @ Sassagoula Floatworks, and the chicken/lamb shawarma platter from the Tangerine Cafe in Morrocco in Epcot's World Showcase.

My hubby & I also ate off the plan one night to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We enjoyed a lovely evening at Narcosse's @ the Grand Floridian Resort. The best part was watching the Magic Kingdom fireworks  & Electric Parade on the veranda complete with music and a full moon. Hubby did good on this one ;)

For parks we started off with Magic Kingdom. We did Fantasyland & Tomorrowland and called it a day. 

Tuesday, we headed off the Hollywood Studios first thing to make sure to get the kids signed up for the Jedi Training Academy. Getting to fight a living, breathing Darth Vader was the highlight of Hulk's trip, and ranked in the top 3 for Ying & Yang. Wednesday we scheduled  a break which was very providential since it was very stormy by mid afternoon. 

Thursday we returned to Magic Kingdom for Frontierland & Adventureland. We rode everything in these two by noon multiple times so we switched up our Fastpasses to allow up the reprise some favorites from Monday. Friday,we did Epcot. Not the kids favorite though the enjoyed Soar'n. Hulk & Ying loved Test Track, too. Yang was just done with it all & wanted the pool. Saturday, we checked out in the morning & spent the day at the French Quarter Pool.  The kids were amazed by a sky writer  who wrote "Jesus Loves U" & "Jesus 4Ever" over the resort. They immediately connected this with the great commission and were very impressed. We left around 5. Our plan had been to push on home, but due to rain and crankiness we stopped halfway home and spent the night in a hotel. Yeah, for internet booking on mobile apps! Now we're an hour or so from home.

All and all it was an awesome family week! We'll be off school for one more week coming down from Vacation and then we'll pick back up..,,