Disney 2018 (Day 5-7)

Day 5: "Rest" Day

Day 5 was the most relaxed of our days. We had planned to have a full day of rest somewhere in the trip, and it ended up partially landing on day 5. We had spent the day before at all 4 parks, and the day before that drinking around the world. We needed a day to relax and not go crazy.

So obviously the only logical way to relax and have a rest day is to get an 8:05 am breakfast reservation! The grunts and moans that morning were so strong. We knew we had to be in the Minnie Van on our way to the Boardwalk Hotel by 730 at the latest, so we were up probalby earlier than we had been our whole trip. But man was it well worth it! 

We went to the Bon Voyage Character Breakfast at Trattoria al Forno, which is right on the boardwalk. The characters you get to meet are Ariel, Prince Eric, Rapunzel, and Flynn Rider. Obviously this breakfast had me at meeting Ariel in her "human" body (aka legs and not fins lol) but you add in the other 3 and I was sold. 

The food was really good. You get a pastry platter to share (SO good) and then we each got a massive breakfast. I got the Rapunzel Tower of Pancakes and couldn't even begin to think about finishing them.

After a very filling breakfast, we made our way back to the hotel where JP got to play in the splashpad and go swimming in the big pool. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but he was absolutely obsessed with going in the pool and splashpad. I loved the splash pad at Pop because it wasn't anything fancy. The water probably came up to about his waste at the highest point and he just splashed and played and would have stayed there all day if I had let him!

We had planned on having this full day to just explore hotels or do things out of the parks, but when it was the only day we could get Fastpasses to Flight of Passage (FOP), we had to change our plans and go to Animal Kingdom that night (darn). We made a late lunch reservation at my favorite Disney restaurant, Tusker House, to kick off our evening at AK. The food at Tusker House is AMAZING. I can't even begin to describe it. But it's definitely my most recommended food on property (besides the bacon cheddar roll in Epcot duh). You get to meet Mickey, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy in their Safari gear which is so much fun. AND they have the super cute walk around the restaurant song for the kids (ok I definitely brought JP with me so we could be part of it) and they sing the Jambo Jambo song! Ahhhh. The memories.

After lunch, we booked it over to our first FP, Festival of the Lion King. As I've said before, JP isn't a huge fan of the shows at this age, so he was a little squirmy and not paying attention, but the adults in the group LOVED it. It's truly a Broadway worthy production! 

Finally, the big moment arrived. Flight of Passage. It was dusk. The sun was going down and the lights in Pandora were starting to glow. Everyone had warned me that it was absolutely beautiful at night, and it lived up to the hype. It was absolutely magical.

Mike, Mom, and myself had all gotten fastpasses for FOP because we weren't sure if Mom would enjoy it or not. Rather get them all than not enough right? So we went to the front, got the ride switcher pass for Mom (since she had to wait with the baby) and Mike and I were on our way! I distinctly remember posting on Facebook in line something along the lines of "Waiting to get on FOP. Let's see if it lives up to the hype of everyone on the internet". I had no idea what to expect. I was told it was like Soarin but 1000% better, but I hadn't ridden on Soarin until this trip so I had no point of reference. 

Guys. It surpassed every expectation I had and then some. 

I probably would have ridden on it about 15 times if I was allowed. The story line prior to the actual ride is amazing. The ride is out of this world. I can't begin to describe the emotion I felt ridding it. 

So we get off, we find Mom, and I told her if she wanted to do it she could, but I wasn't sure if she would like it (she gets motion sickness pretty easily on 3d things like this). So after some humming and hawing, she decided not to go on, so Mike and I got to go on a second time and it was even better because I could anticipate things happening and really live in the moment! Gah. So good.

Once we finished riding FOP, we headed out for the night to rest up for the next day of adventures!!!

Day 6: Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and a New Hotel

Ah, another day at Disney. We were tired by this day. We'd gone out hard for 4 days that just kicked our butts! But we were ready to go! We checked out of our hotel room at Pop Century (sad day) and Mike and I took our "typical" picture outside of our room before we left (it's a fun little memory to have looking back and to see how much we've grown). When we left, we made our way to the Polynesian resort to have breakfast at Captain Cooks. I really wanted the Tonga Toast, but didn't want to have a sit down meal at Kona (and also it was twice the price at Kona) so we just did a quick service meal. It didn't blow me away like I thought it would! The Tonga Toast is Massive, and filled with banana. The only problem was there wasn't a lot of banana in it, so it was basically eating a small loaf of bread. Maybe I was a fluke, but I was certainly not as excited as I was going into it. 

Anyways, we left the Polynesian and then made our way to Magic Kingdom. We had already missed two of our fast passes since we went and had breakfast, but that was okay because we had already done one of them. We went and explored Tom Sawyers Island for a little while. It was SO warm that day that I felt just absolutely exhausted, so we didn't spend as much time as any of us would have liked there. Mike and I then went on Big Thunder Mountain and then made our way back to the Monorail to go to EPCOT. This was basically so I could get one last Bacon Cheddar Roll, and then we could take the boat to HS. Once we got there, we went and met Buzz and Woody (which was by far JP's favorite Meet and Greet), took a few pictures around the park, and then made our way back to our new hotel.

Guys, I never want to stay anywhere else but the French Quarter ever again.

We get there and instantly I'm just completely in love. They have Beignet's which is what made us want to stay here to begin with. It's also the smallest hotel on property, so even though we were in the farthest room from the busses/food/pool, it still was closer than at pops. Speaking of pools, their pool is incredible. It has a water slide! The only bummer part is that we couldn't go down the slide with JP, and I wasn't sending him down by himself at 13 months. But he still enjoyed watching Mama, Dada, and Mema go down the slide! They also have a small little splash pad water park thing? It was a little chilly to be running around in there with JP this night, and it was closed the next day for maintenance, but maybe someday we'll get to use it! After we used the pool we went and took a boat to Disney Springs. We didn't make it too far into exploring (we were all just SO tired) but we did get to go to Basin and the World of Disney stores and stock up on some souvenirs!

Day 7: Magic Kingdom. Our last day!

The saddest part of any vacation. The last day of the trip. We had quite a memorable last day at WDW. We started off our morning by taking one last dip in the pool, eating a few more Beignet's, and then headed out to Magic Kingdom one last time. It was a cloudy morning and we were ready for some rain, but we weren't ready for the rain that was going to come. We decided to do the Carousal of Progress which is one of the most underrated shows at Disney, but it's so amazing knowing that Walt Disney himself had a hand in the making of it! When we exited the show, it was POURING. And of course we couldn't just stand at the exit of the ride so we just decided to make the most of it and just dance in the rain and splash in the puddles as a family! We then RAN to Haunted Mansion (one of my favorite rides in all of the parks) since there was no wait. Josiah did extremely well on this ride considering it's so dark and could have been very scary for him. Again, we exited the ride and it was just a mess outside. We didn't have much time before we had to go back to the hotel to head home, so we just decided to head back. But not before first stopping and getting all new t-shirts for all of us since we weren't about to fly for 3 hours in soaking wet clothes (and of course since they already had our bags we couldn't change).

As we were walking down Main Street, Mike pulled me aside and brought me into one of the shops and told me "Go ahead. Get the Dress. Happy Anniversary" (our 4 year anniversary was a few days before we left for the trip). I knew exactly what he meant and I nearly cried. I had been eyeing a Mary Poppins dress every single trip we'd been on. It was way more than I ever wanted to spend on a dress, but something he knew that I'd wanted. The only thing I wished was that I had gotten it sooner in the trip so I could have WORN IT in the parks. Oh well! Next time I suppose.

Well, that's going to do it for my blog posts on our April/May 2018 Disney trip! It only took me 9 months to finish writing it, but I hope you enjoy reading it!