A Slice of Smith Life: Disney

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Monday, June 9, 2014

Disney Day 6: Downtown Disney on Saturday (5/31/14)

3:59 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

We enjoyed Disney Day 1 at Magic Kingdom, Disney Day 2 at Hollywood Studios, Disney Day 3 at Epcot, Disney Day 4 at Animal Kingdom, and Disney Day 5 at Magic Kingdom. This is my last post of our week long Disney trip, and we went to Downtown Disney, swam in our resort's pool, and attended the Saturday Vigil Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe to try to relax a little before our long trip home on Sunday, June 1.

It was a perfect way to end a full, fun week as we got a chance to stop and smell the "roses" and not have to rush from ride to ride at a crowded Disney park.

These flowers were so beautiful planted beside the Downtown Disney sign

First stop...LEGO store! We loved looking at all the massive LEGO creations which provided many photo opportunities!

Then we walked around a little and visited a Disney Store to pick up a few souvenirs.


Notice my 6 year old daughter bought a Jessie doll from Toy Story as her special souvenir, which will help her remember how she met Jessie the day before in Magic Kingdom.

We also went to a Toy Store which was fun to roam...

After shopping at Downtown Disney, we went back to our resort to swim a few hours in the pool that was very close to our room. It was the first time any of us took a dip in a salt water pool.

In the evening we went to Saturday Vigil Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe. It was a beautiful church and we were so busy taking pictures that we forgot to check out the church's bookstore which I heard was huge. :( Oh well, another reason to get back to Florida! ;-) We were also so busy taking pictures and so many of them that the security guards were ready to lock up the church so we had to leave the church. The outside grounds were just as beautiful though. This Basilica has a lot of history to it since it was built by tourists and an usher told me that 90% of the church attendees are tourists visiting the area. It is also not a parish church so there are no weddings and funerals that take place there. Rather, it is a place for people from all over the world to worship our Lord when they make their way to the Florida area!

It really was a great way to spend our last night in Florida as a family. Attending Mass with my family is one of my favorite things to do and I appreciate this blessing and gift so much!

What a fun and blessed week we had with our family! I hope to not only have these blog posts to remember the week, but I also plan to make a Picaboo photo album of most of the pictures we took as another way to journal our memories.

Will we get back to Disney again? I'm not sure, but Disney World thinks they will see us real soon and it will be nice to dream and hope for another dream come true! :)

Click on the links below to read more of our favorite memories during our Disney Days:

10 Things I Learned Going to Disney with My Family of 7
Disney Day 1: Magic Kingdom on Monday (5/26/14)
Disney Day 2: Hollywood Studios on Tuesday (5/27/14)
Disney Day 3: Epcot on Wednesday (5/28/14)
Disney Day 4: Animal Kingdom on Thursday (5/29/14)
Disney Day 5: Back to Magic Kingdom on Friday (5/30/14)
Disney Day 6: Downtown Disney on Saturday (5/31/14)

Labels:Disney,Vacation | 2 comments

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Disney Day 5: Back to Magic Kingdom on Friday (5/30/14)

10:56 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

We enjoyed Disney Day 1 at Magic Kingdom, Disney Day 2 at Hollywood Studios, Disney Day 3 at Epcot, Disney Day 4 at Animal Kingdom, and on Friday, Disney Day 5, we went back to Magic Kingdom to do the rides that we weren't able to fit in earlier in the week. Like all my Disney blog posts, it is really difficult to capture all the fun and memories in just a few favorite pictures so this is just a glimpse of such a great week and a huge, fun park like Magic Kingdom!

The day started by racing off the monorail to the gates at Magic Kingdom an hour before the park opened...

Just minutes before they finally opened the park, a train came by on the top of the entrance that had all the Disney characters dressed up and they were dancing and waving to lively music. We didn't get to see this grand entrance on Monday when we first went to Magic Kingdom since we arrived at the park after this happened.

While we were waiting for the park to finally open, we were talking to a family behind us in line that were telling us about a new ride that opened this week called Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. So many people were wanting to get on the new ride and all the Fast Passes were taken for the ride. We didn't have a Fast Pass for it so we wanted to get to the ride as soon as possible so we wouldn't be in line for long. We went through this crowd as we were practically shoulder to shoulder and Disney workers literally held the crowd back by forming a line and holding a rope so there wouldn't be a stampede...

We got to the Seven Dwarfs ride and were one of the first people to get on. I waited with the baby while my husband went with the four older kids and then we got a Rider Switch Pass so I went on right after my husband was done with his ride.

One of my daughters and I got on the front car and I snapped a picture of the view. One part of the ride has the dwarfs singing and treasure chests are full of jewels.

About 20 minutes after the park opened the Seven Dwarfs ride had already a 2 hour wait so getting to the park and ride early was worth it!

One of the fondest memories of Magic Kingdom when I went as a child was going on the "It's a

Small World" ride. So our family rode this together and I think I loved it more than them :) I loved watching our baby take in all the sights and sounds...

Then we happened to see Jessie from a Toy Story so we got in line for about 10 minutes to get a picture with her. This was the only Disney character we met and took a picture with the entire week, which was fine with our children since they wanted to go on as many rides as possible, instead of wait in line to meet characters. :)

We loved Space Mountain so much at the beginning of the week that I rode it again with two of my daugthers...

When we went to Magic Kingdom on Monday we weren't able to watch the "Festival of Fantasy" parade in the afternoon because of stormy weather, but we were able to watch the parade on this day and I'm so glad we did! The floats and costumes were amazing! My son especially loved the dragon from Sleeping Beauty that blew out real fire!

We didn't stay at Magic Kingdom on this day as long as we did at the beginning of the week so as soon as the parade was over we again beat the crowds and got to our car fast. Before we went to our car we slipped into a gift shop and snapped this picture of our little one who turned 10 months old on May 30. She wanted to pull her Minnie Mouse ears off so I was trying to hold her hands during the picture. We didn't buy the hat, which is another great way to save money. Just use the gifts as props, snap a picture, put the prop back on shelf, and then walk out of the store. :) Yeah, I'm that frugal :)

Our family was sad to say good-bye to Magic Kingdom and Disney World when we left the park on Friday afternoon, but we were looking forward to visiting Disney Downtown on the following day since my Cupcakes found out there was a LEGO store there. :)

Click on the links below to read more of our favorite memories during our Disney Days:

Labels:Disney,Vacation | 6 comments

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Disney Day 4: Animal Kingdom on Thursday (5/29/14)

11:37 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

We enjoyed Disney Day 1 at Magic Kingdom, Disney Day 2 at Hollywood Studios, Disney Day 3 at Epcot, and Disney Day 4 was spent at Animal Kingdom! Like all my Disney blog posts, it is really difficult to capture all the fun and memories in just a few favorite pictures so this is just a glimpse of such a great week and a huge, fun park like Animal Kingdom!

As we quickly learned about navigating Disney, getting to the parks bright and early pays off since lines are not as long. This strategy worked well for the Kali River Rapids ride as we rushed to that ride first before the hot part of the day began. So we were able to ride it several times with no wait time. We figured as the day went on and only got hotter, the ride would get really busy, which was the case. So we rode it about 5 times (I rode it once, while my husband and the older kiddos rode it 4 times in a row). It was a blast and we were prepared with sandals and an extra change of shorts since we got soaked!

Another fun ride was Expedition Everest-Legend of the Forbidden Mountain..."Ride a speeding Train through the Himalayan mountains while avoiding the clutches of the Yeti." This was a dark, fast ride and we all loved it, even my 6 year old daughter who really has no fear :)

Another money saving tip while at Disney is to ask one of the park's photographers to take your family's picture using YOUR camera. I was surprised the photographers were so willing to do this since they are there to sell pictures. Here are a few that the park's photographer took of our family and the picture below on the right was taken after the photographer said "Look like you are scared of the Yeti!" Ha! Ha! :)

We also saw a wonderful, inspirational, educational show that our entire family really loved, even our 10 month old. Look at how much our baby was taking it all in....

What show had her entranced and mesmerized? Flights of Wonder, of course! We watched exotic birds show off their gracefulness and intelligence. It was memorable indeed!

We also rode DINOSAUR ride which was a lot of fun, full of dinos and loud!

And while I waited with a few of my kids while my husband was on the DINOSAUR ride with a few of our other kids, we had a little fun taking pictures in the gift shop :)

We also enjoyed seeing the Tree of Life, the icon of Disney's Magic Kingdom. You can read more about this huge artificial tree HERE.

Inside the Tree of Life is the 3D show called "It's Tough to be a Bug!" We wore 3D glasses that looked like bug eyes and it was quite an impressive show! I'm not sure if the kids behind us that were screaming and crying were afraid of the dark, the "smoke" in the theater, loud noises or your chair that poked your back as part of the show. To get to the theater for the bug show you had to walk around, through, and inside the tree. The theater was in the base of the tree. The Tree of Life was like most things in Disney...things are alot bigger and magical than they appear from the outside!

Our family really enjoyed the Kilimanjaro Safaris that took us through the African savannahs to search for amazing creatures that were so close to our tour bus!