The Revoredo's: Disney 2013

I love Disney World. I think it’s that it seemed so magical when I was there as a kid. I’ve looked forward to returning for a long time, and that “wish” came true this past January, when Marc and I took the kids there. In some ways we were probably a little crazy for taking a 2 and 4 year old, and in other ways, it made it oh so fun. I think it was that look of excitement on the kids’ faces and in their voices at the sight of any dressed up character or the “thrill” of riding Dumbo or Winnie the Pooh that made it worth it. My 3 pieces of advice for anyone traveling with younger kids (we don’t do a lot of traveling so unfortunately I’m further down on the learning curve for this) are:

1) Bring an infinite amount of snacks for the plane. Well not infinite, but you know what I mean!

2) If you choose a flight that has a connection, make sure that connection is longer than 45 minutes! I’ve never been so out of breath in my life and caused such a spectacle as our family did ~~running~~ sprinting through the airport – me carrying all of the carry-ons and Marc pushing the stroller. It’s one of those things we can laugh about now, but it was not funny then!

3) Allow for an unwind day/transition day if you’re going to someplace like Disney. We arrived late Tuesday and went to Magic Kingdom on Wednesday. We still had a great time, it just would have been nice to relax a little bit first.

And an extra piece of advice that could be for anyone – don’t rely on your smart phone to get you where you need to go. Our iPhones took us in the back way to Disney and were driving around for an hour trying to find the entrance. Ha! Just drive on the main roads and follow the road signs, friends!

Here’s a recap of our trip:

Day 1: Travel Day - O’Hare to Orlando

Airport fun!

More airport fun!

Listening to Music on the plane

Day 2: Magic Kingdom – Lydia had a bout of food poisoning/stomach bug and threw up right after we got to the parking lot. What?! Poor girl. We offered to go back to the hotel, but she was determined to go to Disney(and with all the money spent on airfare, lodging, etc, we were too!). So we went(please don’t judge!). We enjoyed many of the kiddie rides first (Dumbo, Teapots, Little Mermaid, Carousel,), ate lunch, went to Gaston's Tavern, and then went to the parade, where Lydia threw up again. Time to go back to the condo. Lydia took a nap, and we rested a little. Lydia felt much better after waking up so we returned for the fireworks. Thankfully the sick stomach was just a one day thing, and none of the rest of us got it!

Enjoying a ymmy apple cider/marshmallow drink in Gaston's Tavern!

Posing outside the Dumbo ride

It's a Small World

Waiting in line for Peter Pan

On our way to the fireworks......This is the first in a sequence of pictures we have that show Lydia's very goofy side. We could not get her to flash a normal smile. The good news was she was feeling better. :)

Day 3: Epcot – This was by far MY favorite day of our trip(Marc actually preferred Magic Kingdom, the kids liked it all!) I don’t know if it was because we now knew where we were going, that Lydia wasn’t throwing up, or that Epcot was just little less crazy than Magic Kingdom. I also appreciated Epcot much more as an adult. The way they are so detailed with each country is sooo cool. Also, the kids loved the rides at Epcot. It helped that there were really no lines to wait in. And we got to meet Daisy, Donald, Belle and Snow White! With the exception of Snow White, the lines to meet the characters were not bad at all.

Living with the Land

Living with the Land - Lydia said this was her favorite ride! LOL

Getting ready to go inside to ride the Nemo ride

At lunch

Snow White - We waited at LEAST 45 minutes to see her. In hindsight we could skipped this, though they were excited when it was our turn to meet her.

We met Donald Duck in Mexico. :)

Day 4: Magic Kingdom part 2 – This was a long fun day. We rode Dumbo some more, did Enchanged Tales with Belle (Had to wait over an hour for that, but it was pretty cool), Tom Sawyer Island, Jungle Cruise, and bunch more. Lydia also wanted to ride Big Thunder Mountain. We did and it was fun, though it was a bit too exciting for Lydia.

Riding Dumbo some more our 2nd day at MK

Riding the train.

Classic Marc, on Jungle Cruise. This ride was fun, and our guide was hilarious!

So fun to meet Tigger and Pooh.

Exploring on Tom Sawyer Island

More exploring.

Still more exploring, we loved Tom Sawyer Island!

Meeting Rapunzel...

Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)

And Cinderella of course (sorry so blurry!)

Vegging out before bed, watching Curious George.

Day 5: Travel Day – We had a layover (I believe it was in Charlotte, NC). Our first leg of the flight was delayed, so we expected to possibly miss the 2^nd flight. But like I mentioned earlier, we HAULED it across the airport. I think Marc liked the thrill, but it did me in.