Well, after planning and saving for this trip for several years, it finally happened and it was SO fun!
We were gone for 11 days and by the time we got back, we were all sleep deprived and basically completely exhausted but we have some incredible memories to share from our time in Orlando.
On our first day, we got up very very early (around 3:30 am) to catch our flight. It was still dark out and cold enough that we had to wait for the plane's wings to get sprayed with de-icer. By the time we landed in Orlando, it was supper time and we walked out into a steaming sauna - every day we were there, it was around 30 degrees C, mostly sunny, and so very very humid. The heat was a bit much for me but at least the A/C our rental van and in our condo worked just fine so I was able to recover and enjoy a normal body temperature each evening.
Jess' idea of torture is spending an entire day at an amusement park, especially if it's nice and crowded and noisy. So, he didn't want to come along but fortunately, my mom and Jess' mom both agreed to join us so I didn't have to do this on my own. It meant the kids had 3 moms during the trip which might not have been their favourite but it meant they got to spend lots of time with their grandma's which was wonderful.
The next morning, we were up bright and early to visit the Magic Kingdom. I took Shae to Disneyland in Anaheim about 6 years ago so she and I were familiar with the Magic Kingdom but this was new for the other kids. I had made up autograph books for the kids in case they wanted to get autographs from the characters. The first character we met was Alice and the White Rabbit. Maira and Hudson were kind of freaked out by the rabbit so they didn't want to get their picture taken but Connor was willing to be brave!
Maira and Shae also wanted to meet Merida from Brave. Connor got to try his hand at some archery while he waited for his sisters to meet Merida.
Maira and Shae also met Rapunzel, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty.
In the afternoon, we sat in the hot sun to watch a pirate tutorial in Adventureland. Jack Sparrow showed everyone how to defeat an opponent in a sword fight: Point behind their shoulder and say "Look, it's Blackbeard's daughter", and then run away.
The only character Hudson saw who he wanted to meet was Woody from Toy Story so we made sure he got the chance to do that.
The Speedway ride in Tomorrowland was fun - Connor enjoyed having control of the car we were in. Shae and Connor and I also went on Space Mountain which was pretty terrifying for Connor the first time but he liked it more when we went on it again.
We couldn't pass up this photo op in Frontierland:
It was so hot that any chance we had to get wet, we took it: wet clothes = built-in air conditioning.
The next day, we headed to SeaWorld. They were having a big Halloween party there so unfortunately that meant lots of crowds. But it also meant lots of free candy for the kids because they had these purple jellyfish booths set up all over the park and you just had to walk up to one and the people there would give you candy.
We met a few interesting people at SeaWorld.
The shows were amazing. We especially enjoyed the dolphin/bird show - we went and saw that one twice.
Hudson was kind of bummed that we didn't get splashed very much during the killer whale show even though we were sitting in the "splash zone".
They had a big pool of sting rays where the kids could reach in and pet the rays. My mom bought some little shrimp for the kids to feed the rays but they all just dropped the shrimp into the water, they were kind of freaked out by the rays opening their strange mouths and trying to hop out of the water towards the food.
There were some really cool aquariums at SeaWorld. There was one where you could crawl underneath and stick your head up into a glass bubble and look at the fish swimming all around you.
There was another one where you could sit and watch the dolphins swimming all around. We really liked it there because it was air conditioned and quiet!
The next day was Sunday so after going to church, we drove to the beach. It took us about 2 hours to get to Clearwater beach near Tampa. I don't think I've ever felt softer sand than they had at this beach. It was white and soft and the water was refreshing and fun to play in. The kids spent hours sifting through the sand for shells. Connor and Shae especially brought home quite a collection. Even though most of the shells are broken, they loved their finds which included pieces of coral, sand dollars, and mother of pearl.
The next day, we went to Islands of Adventure in Universal Studios. I think this was my favourite park out of the whole trip, I'd love to go back and spend a few days there. Connor, Shae and I headed straight for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at the back of the park. We absolutely loved wandering around Hogsmeade and looking at all the shop windows. We watched a wand ceremony at Ollivander's Wand Shop, and we went on the Forbidden Journey ride, where it feels like you're flying behind Harry on a broom through Hogwarts. That ride was even more fun because in the lineup, you get to walk through Hogwarts. You start off in the Herbology greenhouse, and then into the castle where you pass things like the door to Potions class, the Sorting Hat, walls of talking portraits, and when you're about to get on the ride, it's like you're in the Great Hall with hundreds of floating candlesticks above your head.
The Hogwarts Express:
The Owl Shop:
A Wanted poster for Sirius Black:
The entrance to Hogwarts:
Hagrid's hut:
Butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks:
Tri-Wizard tournament: students from Beaux Batons and Durmstrang:
Inside the joke shop - Connor's holding one of Fred and George Weasley's creations: U-No-Poo
A magic plant shop - there's a baby mandrake plant screaming inside this window:
This was definitely an expensive and crowded area of the park - I ended up buying the kids all kinds of ridiculously priced souvenirs because they were all so COOL! Like a chocolate frog for Shae and Connor with a wizard trading card inside - which cost $10 each! And $30 wands for Connor and Hudson. Hudson loved his wand so much, he slept with it every night until one day, he sat on it and broke it...And $10 for a mug of iced butterbeer - but we got to keep the mug and we got to drink it at a table in the Three Broomsticks - so COOL!! They even had Moaning Myrtle's voice playing in the bathrooms, and Extendable Ears in the joke shop. I could have spent all day just wandering this part of the park.
Maira, Hudson and Connor really loved the little roller coaster there called Flight of the Hippogriff - we rode that roller coast quite a few times.
In another area of the park there was an Enchanted Fountain there that would talk to you if you approached it and might even squirt you if you weren't nice. It was teasing Connor when we stopped by in the morning, it was pretty funny. And then it remembered Connor when he stopped by again later that afternoon. It asked Maira her name and she was too shy to answer so it called her Pinky. When my mom told it that her name was Maira, it said "Maira, Maira on the wall, you're the fairest of them all", which Maira thought was pretty darn hilarious.
There was a fun dinosaur roller coaster in the Jurassic Park area:
I took all the kids except Maira on the Spiderman ride in the Marvel Comics area. That was one of my favourite rides at the park. Shae and I discovered it had a single rider line which meant we went on it about 5 times without waiting in line for more than one minute.
It was so hot that any chance we had to get wet, we took it. There was a pressure sensitive spray pad that the kids had fun playing on, and we really liked the Popeye river ride - lots of soaking and spraying and splashing on that ride although Hudson was devastated that he wasn't tall enough for it.
Shae and I went on some of the bigger rides, including the Dudley Do-Right log ride which got us nice and wet.
The next day, we went to the waterpark Typhoon Lagoon.
Apparently, its wavepool creates the largest manmade waves in the world. They were really fun to play in for me and Shae.
There was real sand at the edge of the wave pool that Maira and Hudson and Connor enjoyed playing in.
There was a saltwater pool called Shark Reef where you could use a snorkel and mask and swim along the top of the water and look at tropical fish, stingrays and leopard sharks swimming beneath you. The adults all enjoyed it but it was too freaky for the kids - even Shae didn't want to do it again after the first time.
We went on some fun waterslides and the lazy river was fun too.
In the last half hour before the park closed, I strongly coerced (OK, forced) Connor to go on a waterslide called the Crush and Gusher. You sit on an inflatable raft and he had been on a waterslide like that a couple years ago and had flipped off the raft and so he was very scared to go on that kind of waterslide again. But he tried it and, as I knew he would, absolutely loved it. There was no line so we went on it over and over until the park closed.
The next day, my mom and Jess' mom headed off to Animal Kingdom while I took the kids to Hollywood Studios. There were a couple of fun rides here but on the whole, definitely not my favourite park or the kids' favourite either. They did enjoy the Toy Story ride but that one had gigantic lines so we got a FastPass for it and that was our only chance to ride it all day. We did go on the Star Wars ride twice. You enter a small theatre (40 people at a time) and it's a motion simulator ride so it feels like you're in a space ship being chased by Darth Vader. At one point, he comes on the screen and says he's looking for a Rebel Spy and they flash a picture up front of the spy they're looking for - the first time we went on the ride, Maira was the Rebel Spy! We all thought that was hilarious but it was even funnier when the second time we went on the ride, Connor was the Rebel Spy!
There was a Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground where every thing was giant - the kids had fun there but it was really hot and crowded so we didn't stay long.
Connor thought the giant battleship game on the ceiling outside the Toy Story ride was pretty cool.
A highlight of the day for Connor and Hudson was meeting Phineas and Ferb, characters from one of their favourite TV shows. Connor's friends at school don't believe he met Phineas and Ferb so he wants to bring this picture to school to show them.
We stayed for the Fantasmic show at the end of the day and it was a really cool show. At one point, the moat of water around the mountain where the show takes place, catches on fire, and there were lots of impressive fireworks and special effects.
The next day, we decided to take a day off from the parks and stay at our condo. I drove my mom to the airport this day and picked Jess up - he decided he could endure 2 days of theme parks with us so he joined us for the end of our holiday.
There was a small heated pool in the backyard that the kids loved and had already been in a few times but on this day, we spent the afternoon at the clubhouse where there was a large pool with a waterslide. It was nice to relax and not stand in any lines!
The next day, Jess' mom left for home early in the morning so it was just the 6 of us. We went to the Magic Kingdom.
One of our favourite treats on the whole trip was a Dole Whip: Pineapple juice with softserve pineapple ice cream on top. So, so, so good!
Our favourite ride that day was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Hudson was tall enough for it and it was fast enough that Shae and Connor didn't get bored on it so we went on that ride probably 5 or 6 times.
I booked a lunch for Maira and me to eat in Cinderella's castle. We got to eat a fancy 3 course meal - her entree was chicken nuggets and her dessert was ice cream with sprinkles. After meeting Cinderella near the entrance to the castle, four other princesses visited all the tables in the restaurant so Maira got to meet Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Jasmine.
Connor wanted to meet Mickey Mouse so we went to meet him and then Shae and Maira also went to meet Tinkerbell and her sister from a new movie named Periwinkle.
We went to the Monsters Inc Laughfloor show where you sit in a theatre and these monster cartoons on the screen interact with the audience and tell jokes. At one point, they started picking people out of the audience to be involved in the story and they were picking people that resembled the different characters in the Monsters Inc movie and they picked Maira to play the part of Boo. This meant they'd shine a spotlight on her and show her picture up on the screen at the front. She was sitting on Jess' lap and when she realized her picture was up at the front, she got really shy and frowny faced. At one point, the monsters asked her to play peek-a-boo and she didn't want to so Jess put his hands on her eyes and the monsters said "Oh wow Boo, you have man hands", and different jokes like that. I was laughing so hard I was crying but Maira wasn't too impressed!
It was another boiling hot day so we spent lots of time in the different spray park areas.
On our way back to our condo after a very, very long day:
On our last day in Orlando, we headed to the Animal Kingdom. Jess and I really wanted to go on the Safari ride and we had heard it got long lineups so we headed there first. We picked up a FastPass before we got in line which meant we got to go on the Safari twice in a row with very little waiting.
We saw all kinds of African animals on the safari and Jess got some great pictures. I think everyone's favourite sighting was the White Rhino mother with her cute little baby.
The rest of the park was like a big, really fun zoo, with a few rides thrown in. We spent some time exploring the different animal areas.
When we stopped for lunch, we looked up in the sky and there was a sky writer airplane above us - at one point, we thought it was going to say Love U Jess but turns out it was actually spelling Jesus.
Our favourite ride at this park was definitely the Kali River Ride - this one was very similar to the Popeye ride at Islands of Adventure, in that you were guaranteed to get wet, maybe even soaked, but the height requirement was lower so Hudson could ride too! We went on this ride 4 times until on the fourth time, Hudson and I got completely drenched. Like when we got out of the boat, there were puddles in my shoes and my shorts didn't stop dripping for a good 20 minutes. I never did dry out completely and Hudson and I were both shivering, which was a whole new experience in Florida! It was nice to not be hot and sweaty but it meant that when we sat and watched the Lion King show in an air conditioned theatre that evening, he and I were all shivery and goose bumpy.
There was a large dinosaur themed playground which included a fossil digging site that was fun for the younger kids.
Connor Shae and I also loved the Expedition Everest roller coaster. I think it was the funnest roller coaster I've ever been on, we all had a lot of fun riding it over and over.
The Lion King show was quite a spectacle, we liked it a lot. The characters pretending to be monkeys even came over and high fived Connor and Hudson and then pretended to take a bug out of Maira's hair and eat it!
After the show, we had time for one more ride. Connor, Shae and I rode Everest one more time but Hudson and Jess decided to go on the Kali river ride again. If you stand on the bridge near the end of the ride, you can press buttons that make the elephant statues squirt the people on the boat so of course Connor wanted to squirt Jess and Hudson!
When we got back to the condo that night, we were all really tired but not as tired as Hudson: I sat him down on the stairs for a minute and when I came back, he'd laid down right then and there and fallen asleep!
But we woke him up for one last final swim in the backyard pool before bed.
We headed home the next day and the kids were very well behaved on the airplane (though maybe less so at the airport - Hudson seemed to feel the need to constantly karate chop his siblings the entire time).
I was looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and yes, I was even looking forward to the cold weather - I'd much rather bundle up in a warm sweater than spend my day hot and sweating under a scorching sun. I guess it's a good thing I'm Canadian!
