Disney World, Day 4

We went to Disney's Hollywood Studios on this day, and it was a lot of fun. I wish we had done two days there and three at Magic Kingdom instead of going to Animal Kingdom, but live and learn! There were really great shows, fun characters to meet, and lots more for a three year old girl to do there than there was at Animal Kingdom.

meeting Annie and Leo

meeting Quincy and June

meeting Handy Manny...Next time I'll insist that we DON'T wait half an hour in line for her to meet a character she doesn't like, especially when it's 8 billion degrees outside and she has a fever. Next time.

Disney Jr. Live Show

getting more sunscreen in Pizza Planet

Pizza Planet

The only bit of drama we had in any of the parks occurred here, in Tatooine. See, Jill is OBSESSED with Star Wars. Not only was she too short to ride the new Star Tours ride, but she was also too young and arrived too late to be a youngling in the Jedi Training Academy. The. Drama. I was sad for her, really sad, but two t-shirts later she was over her sadness and ready to watch some other kids become padawans. It was really cool, and next time I will get to the park at the crack of dawn to register her for the Academy. Next time. (In our defense, according to the website, the Academy was only happening on special weekends in May. We were there on a Thursday in September. Enough said.)

VERY happy to be on Tatooine

Jedi Training Academy

inside the Toy Story ride, waiting

listening to Mr. Potato Head's funny jokes while waiting in line

ready to head back to the hotel for a snack and some Star Wars

Disney World, Days 2 and 3

On the second day, we went to Animal Kingdom. I thought this would be one of her favorite places since she loves animals so much, but we didn't even go look at any. It was the hottest day of our trip and we found out later that Jill was getting sick that day. She didn't smile in many of the pictures, and we were all way too overheated. There isn't really anything to do that is in air conditioning there, and they had taken FastPass away for the day, so we didn't get to do the water ride. We didn't stay long. The live Lion King show was wonderful, but they didn't allow photography. We would have liked to have seen the Finding Nemo show as well, but Jill was done. There aren't too many pictures from this day...

We found Rainforest Cafe right inside the park, first thing!

Big smile for Thumper and Miss Bunny (no waiting since we were the last ones they let in before they took a break).

We waited a LONG time for Minnie in the heat, which was silly since we could see her at Magic Kingdom, but that's what Jill said she wanted to do, so...

We waited even longer for Mickey since he kept taking potty breaks.

The safari ride is very cool because you get to see lots of animals. Jill was sick, tired, and hot. Can you tell? Later, she did tell us that was her favorite part of the day.

watching the Jungle Parade, boiling hot

At last a real smile on the carousel at Downtown Disney after dinner...at Rainforest Cafe, where else?

On the third day we had our character breakfast at the Grand Floridian Resort. Oh my goodness, it is a beautiful place! Jill LOVED the Supercalifragilistic Breakfast, as you can see, and afterward we headed back to Magic Kingdom. This was the day that she really started having true cold symptoms, but she had so much fun that you'll never be able to tell!

She and Mary Poppins had a 15 minute long love-fest in which Jill sang to her. Afterward Mary told us that it was the most unique rendition of "A Spoonful of Sugar" she'd ever heard. "She started off with 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, but she made it her own." We have video of it, but unfortunately you can't hear anything but background noise. Too bad.

Not really caring about Tigger, because ALICE from Alice in Wonderland is coming!

REALLY not caring about Pooh, poor Pooh

watching someone interesting

She had a very long love-fest with Alice too. So sweet.

Alice was smitten too.

getting a kiss

"Tea!"

cooling off after we got into Magic Kingdom

Soon after our arrival at Magic Kingdom, we saw the parade again. Jill got a mention!

As it turns out, the characters who don't talk aren't that interesting, especially when you met them the day before.

waiting for the princesses again

sloppy kisses

"I'm fuh-lee!"

"Cheese!"

"Cheese!"

not thrilled

on the boat ride back to the Grand Floridian

after a very fun day, please excuse my hat/humidity hair

on the dock

Disney World, Day 1

Wow, just wow. Disney World was amazing. Amazingly fun, amazingly magical, and amazingly hot. Check it out:

Jill is the perfect traveler. Not a word of complaint, no requests to run around, nothing. She happily got up early, waited in the long security line, and flew for nearly six hours. Then she held up in the heat and humidity while we loaded her into a rental car and drove some more. She's an absolute angel!

excited to be in her seat

in the rental car on the way to Magic Kingdom

she was excited to see this sign

and this one...

In this video she was cooling off after her tram ride, standing in line to buy tickets and then to ride the monorail, riding the crowded monorail, and FINALLY getting inside Magic Kingdom.

As we approached the castle, we heard music. The following ensued:

Steve's favorite picture ever

sweet moves

love the "point behind"

Loving it! (The weird guy swatting the air was actually bothered by the "love bugs" that plagued us the entire time we were there.)

posing with Mama

the music turned out to be a street party

we got to get out there and dance with all of the characters

Afterward, it was time to go meet the princesses.

Cinderella kept Jill for almost 15 minutes. I think she was going to take her home.

She loved Belle too. We also met Aurora that day, but didn't get a good photo.**Disney took lots of photos for us, and as soon as I get the rights to those, I'll post them.

Right as we walked out of the Princess meeting, we happened upon this lovely lady.

"Mama, look! It's Mary Poppins!"

The carousel was a little lackluster, according to Jill.

"Um, Mama, I like our carousel at the zoo better."

It's a Small World was her favorite ride.

Steve caught her Mickey Mouse ice cream cone as it was falling to the ground so we didn't get a photo until it was in the cup. She loved it. This was taken while she was watching the street party go buy for the second time.

We went back to the hotel to swim. Look at this big girl!