Disney 2013

We are back from our 8 day vacation to Disney, and it only took me a day and a half to unpack everything and get our apartment back in order! Yay me!

Anyway, Disney was an experience to say the least. I have been to Disney World twice before and Tokyo Disney countless times, but I had never done the whole eat, breath, and sleep Disney. Here is a little recap of our trip. We were terrible at taking pictures. At some point, you have to put the camera down and enjoy actual life, so that is what we tried to do on this trip.

The days before our trip, we did a lot of eating out so we didn't have to buy more food that could go to waste. One night, we went to Whole Foods and the pics of Mia were cute...so I am deciding to share them.

Yes, I agree that that was very random...Now, on to Disney. We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, and it was a great place to be. A little far from the other parks, but Mia loved waking up to the animals every day. She would immediately sit up in bed and point at the sliding doors to go see what was outside. Enjoy the pics and captions. We just did way too much to share without turning this into a Disney blog.

I think there were about four zebra roaming around and the same amount of giraffe. Also, a few other animals that I couldn't name for the life of me. BTW Disney gave us a free upgrade on our room so that we could have a Savannah view...and we are so happy that they did.

Us at our hotel buffet...I think everyone gained a bit of weight from this trip...Mia included...look at her go to town on the kids buffet.

We spent a lot of time at the Animal Kingdom. The other parks were absolutely great, but Mia loves her animals and it was closest.

Riding on a safari

Checking out all of the fish. This may have been her favorite part of the trip (excluding Festival of the Lion King -- she was so excited during the show I thought she was going to crawl up on the stage and start dancing).

We also made sure to book a lot of character dining so that we could meet the different characters without having to wait in long lines.

Mia absolutely loved all of the characters...no tears here.

Mia and me at DinoLand...where we rode the dinosaur version of Dumbo

Ten and Mia at Epcot after the Nemo ride.

Good morning animals.

At the sci-fi drive in for lunch.

Watching Disney Junior Live at Hollywood Studios.

...and what every night looked like...lots of good sleep

Not a lot of pictures...but a snippet of our trip. Now, I will say that we had a really nice time at Disney. I mean who doesn't like vacation in general, but we just aren't the type of family to take a week off and go every year. Once in a while is fine, but there is so much more that we would like Mia to see and do....that goes for all of us for that matter. There is so much more to experience outside of the Disney resort, but like I said we did have a good time.

Getting Ready for Disney

A little less than a month from now, we will be on a plane to Orlando for our first official family vacation. We need a vacation so bad...and we thought that since Disney is the happiest place on Earth...then that is where we should go. 

I booked 100% of our trip through the Disney travel agents. They even took care of the flight...and no....they don't charge additional for the flight. I checked and the flight was the same exact price as if I would have booked it through Expedia or something like that myself. It was the easiest trip booking ever...usually I have to deal with a million hotels, restaurants, flights, etc...but this was all done for me. Love Disney already!

So, we are heading out on the 23rd of July and returning on the 30th (flying on my birthday as usual...oh well). I decided to go with Jet Blue since we get to check our luggage without an additional charge, are provided with refreshments, and have screens on our seats to watch TV....this is vacation....so I didn't want to be dying of thirst on the plane once my $5 bottle of airport water is all gone.

Anyway, so we will be staying a the Animal Kingdom Lodge which I am super excited about. It is supposed to be amazing! 

The other day we received a few items in the mail for our trip. 

Disney luggage tags, tags to put on our bags for the Magical Express, a book of maps and things like that, and a book containing our vouchers, flight numbers, etc

I am also so relieved that Disney will actually pick our bags up for us at the airport and then have them delivered to our room! One less hassle with a toddler for sure.

So, right now I am starting to organize for the trip in terms of our packing list...and I'm really most anxious about Mia on the plane. She has been on a plane a grand total of three time so far...but she was so much smaller. I have seen toddler meltdowns in the air...and it can be terrible...terrible for the toddler, terrible for the parents, and terrible for the other passengers.

With all that being said, I did some research and found some ideas on different websites. Here are a few of the things that we will be packing on the plane with us....or at least what my ideas are for the moment and what I have ordered...this may change slightly before we go.

DK Ocean Book (for the pictures--however, not as many pictures as I would have liked...so will save this for another occasion), a lift the flap book with 40 flaps...should keep her busy, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar which is new to Mia.

Lots of stickers...not only for the plane but also for restaurants too.

Travel Magna Doodlge, a cool mist fan (for the parks), some ABC/picture flash cards, and a Teach Me Elmo

A Toddler busy box called Lauri Toys Toddler Tote...lots of things for her to play with...don't know why Blogger keeps flipping this picture.

These are some of the things that I'm hoping will distract her for the nearly 3 hour plane ride....if you have any other ideas...please let me know.