ted – Page 3 – BigGoofyFamily

February 2016 – Disney World Vacation – post 6 – Feb 16th, 17th and 18th

Feb 16th

Started the day with a quick 2 miles – it was quite warm! It was nice to finally get some real heat.

Took a while before everyone else got up after I got to the room – all the walking yesterday burned everyone out!

Lunch was pizza at the hotel then an hour of swimming in the quiet pool. Just a beautiful area with a great mix of sun and shade.

Then a bus to Epcot!

Walked into Epcot and right onto Spaceship Earth.

We then stopped for treats – popcorn and ice cream by the main fountain.

We then had a quick stop to check on the special DVC fast passes – they were not showing up in app anymore – asked fast pass folks and they confirmed they were still there and active. Excellent.

Used one of the specials for each of us to do Test Track – Heather did not ride though.

Next was Ellen’s Energy Adventure.

Then we went in and saw that the wait for the Sum of all fears simulator was not very long. So our son and daughter and I went on it. I had done it before with our son but it was our daughter’s first time. He went on his own this time and I went with her. They both had a blast and loved the designing aspect of the ride.

Sun was starting to set right at about now – great colors in the sky!

Then we did the walk over to Rose and Crown for our supper reservation – it was quite good.

Then a look around United Kingdom / England pavilion before walking to the fast pass area for Illuminations viewing. We had never done the fast pass for the fireworks show before – what a great area to view the fireworks!

Magic hours tonight so we still had lots of time to do stuff after fireworks…

First we walked around the world and had a beer in Germany.

While there we saw them open the bridge to let the globe out of the lagoon – that was pretty cool – we had seen the globe and other barges come out to the lagoon before but never leaving for the night.

Wandered back to do the Character Stop and saw Mickey, Minnie and Goofy then did the Finding Nemo ride, the Journey into Imagination with Figment ride and then went to check on Test Track again but it ended up being down. One more trip on Spaceship Earth then Mouse Gear for a final bit of shopping for the night.

We were pretty much ushered out of the store and then wandered out to the buses. One was waiting for the hotel that we ended up running for. Last ones on before it headed out.

Got out at main entrance of the hotel and went to the food court that was still partially open. Got some snacks and headed back to the room for a bit of tv and then to sleep. Another day up after midnight.

Feb 17th

3.68 miles this morning. There were lots of ladies out running this morning – Princess Half Marathon folks are showing up

Received Magical Express transportation notice for the 18th but it had no pickup time – called and got it set up. 3:30pm

Lunch at hotel then off to Magic Kingdom for our last full day.

Magic Kingdom:

Steam train to Story Book Circus
Run around and shop in that area
Over to Tomorrow Land
Bought Heather a purple magic band
Rode People Mover
Used special fast passes to do Space Ranger spin – it had been closed for a refurb when we here a few days ago but now it was open again but my question is what did they do doing refurb? Both my gun and Heather’s were wonky.
Splash mountain
Looked at using special fast passes for Heather and our daughter to go another time on Splash Mountain but it was too long a fast pass line
Back over to the Tiki Room
Then to hub and caught end of Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it
Then hub grass for a bit before checking in for supper at Plaza – bit of a wait – supper was not too bad – lighter sandwiches which was nice for a change
Then some shopping before Wishes – got a nice spot on main street
Then over to Space Mountain for fast passes
Then the Tomorrowland dance party
Tomorrowland Speedway
Then Goofy’s Barnstormer – couple times for the kids including a back to back ride without having to get out
Dumbo
Ariel meet and greet
Under the Sea ride
Pirates of the Caribbean
Thunder Mountain to end the rides for the day. Just realized we conquered the Magic Kingdom mountain range again today!
Then got Kaia a Shellie May just before the stores closed and then off to the bus and back to the room to pack…

Feb 18th – checkout day

Just an easy day today as we finished packing and got all of our stuff over to the airline check in desk. However there was an issue with the type of flight we had from Delta and we weren’t able to check our bags at the hotel unfortunately.

So we dropped the bags with the concierge folks and did some wandering and shopping around the hotel (including using up the gift card we got from the DVC tour).

Eventually it was time to get on the Magical Express and head to the airport. It is always sad to leave but at this point we were all getting anxious to get going and get home to see the pups.

We had some more fun at the airport with our bags and then our flights but we got on the plane fine and it was all good in the end – just more stress than we had been hoping for.

Off the plane in Minneapolis and caught the shuttle to the hotel where we had parked the van. It was pretty late by the time we got there and checked in but the TGI Fridays that was attached to the hotel was still open so we had some appetizers to fill the bellies and then off to bed.

The next morning it was near freezing and raining – it was lovely loading all our stuff in the van!

On the way home we made some stops for more running gear shopping and supper in Grand Forks before heading toward home. There was risk of freezing home the last couple hours of driving so that added some extra fun right at the end of the trip.

Kids off to bed as soon as we got home and we did some quick unpacking – and then I was up and at the kennel picking up the pups first thing on the 19th.

Ahh good to be home!

February 2016 – Disney World Vacation – Post 5 – Feb 14th and 15th

Unfortunately this post is pretty light on photos as we didn’t take a lot of pictures for a few days. We did get a few photopass photos that are included below.

Feb 14th

Got up and did a short run this morning – I took a path that completely avoid the main building because the crowds in that area were insane!

Once I got back the room and cleaned up we all headed out for breakfast and headed over to the lobby to catch the shuttle to do the DVC tour. The tour occurs over at Saratoga Springs where they have a full area where you can view the different room styles all decorated in the styles of the newest DVC resorts.

The tour was pretty cool and the facility was great.

One very awesome thing was that our tour guide Mark is part of Off Kilter – the band that used to play at the Canada pavilion in Epcot. Sounds like they still play festivals and have a new album coming out. It was a great experience meeting Mark and it was a very good tour.

We are pretty sold on DVC but the Canadian dollar needs to recover before something like that could even be seriously thought about.

Another cool thing about the DVC tour was that we got 3 special fast passes for each of us that could be used at any time during the next few days at any parks and they didn’t need to be reserved. Pretty awesome! Because we also did a morning tour they also gave us a $50 gift card too. Nice!

The kids enjoyed the kids club area including the arts and crafts while we did the tour – our son enjoyed video games while our daughter made a bunch of stuff.

After the tour we were treated with ice cream at the tour center and then given a shuttle ride to where ever we wanted to be dropped off. We decided on Animal Kingdom figuring we maybe could use some of the special fast passes there.

So we got to Animal Kingdom and it was insanely busy. To the point that we were holding onto the kids to make sure we didn’t lose them.

We first tried Kilimanjaro Safari but the fast past line was huge and we didn’t want to wait – unfortunately this made this the only trip we have never made in on the safari ride. That is a bit disappointing.

We then went to Everest and the fast pass line was over 20 minutes for our son and I to make it through. So he and I had burned one of our special fast passes each so far.

We then had a normal fast pass time for Primeval Whirl and our daughter was finally tall enough to ride – she had a blast!

It was still pretty early but the crowds were just too much – so went back to the hotel to get ready for supper reservation at Narcoosie at the Grand Floridian resort.

Narcoosie was great – we all got a bit dressed up for Valentines Day – we had a window view of the boats on the Seven Seas Lagoon and of the monorails and the entrance to Magic Kingdom. While we were there it got dark and we were able to see everything get all lit up. A fantastic setting really.

We then did a tour around the gorgeous Grand Floridian resort before grabbing the monorail over to Magic Kingdom. We didn’t have park hopper tickets and we were all pretty tired so we decided to not bother to upgrade our tickets and instead head back to the hotel by bus.

That was a pretty full day.

Feb 15th

I woke up around 6-7 because my back was hurting – got up and took some advil and lay back down. Surprisingly fell back to sleep.

I then got up and started to run just before 10 – already pretty warm outside – seemed like it was going to be a warm day. I ran 3.6 miles – went the opposite direction than I had been going – that helped with the crowds near the main building.

Then after getting back to the room and shower and having a shower we went for lunch / breakfast at the hotel and figured we would go in the pool after. But after a wander we found it too cool due to surprisingly cool breeze so we looked at the updates to the main pool area and let the kids play on the play structure for a while before heading back to the room.

We grabbed sweaters and left the room and took the boat to Disney Springs – after some quick shopping (our daughter needed socks) and a snack (Wetzel’s Pretzles – jalapeno cheese dunk was phenomenal).

We then took a boat to Old Key West and did a quick wander around to check things out. Then took a bus from there to Hollywood Studios.

At Hollywood Studios we all did Rockin Roller Coaster – Heather was not feeling well after that even after having taken some of her meds for motion sickness – of course she got the front seat too to make it more interesting. It was also our daughter’s first time on the ride – she didn’t much like it either. I enjoyed it.

Then did the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show.

Next thing we had was the Frozen Sing a Long – it was actually very good – quite funny. Kids loved it.

Was raining a little bit after that but not too bad.

We all then did Star Tours before leaving the park.

We had supper reservations at Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club Resort – it is about a 20 minute walk and we just made it (3 minutes late). It was pretty awesome having the Symphony in the Stars fireworks going off as we wandered over.

Another great meal at Beaches and Cream – the Classic Root Beer float with the hard root beer was very tasty!

Walked around Beach Club and Beach Club Villas and then the Yacht Club.

Walked over to Board Walk and checked out the model villa – very nice.

After a bit more walking we grabbed a cab to Riverside ($10.80)

Put on the Duffy show for the kids and then we were off to bed. My calculations had us walking over 6 miles today – the kids did great!

Feb 2016 Disney World Vacation – post 4 – Feb 12th and 13th

Feb 12th

Breakfast reservation this morning for the character breakfast at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom. This meant we had to get up and moving quite early compared to what we had been doing – we were all out of the room by 8:30! Crazy.

We got to Animal Kingdom just after 9 and got our first indication that the park was going to be crazy – there was a very long wait for back check and we just got to Tusker House in time for our 9:25 reservation.

Overall the food was good – fresh and a very good selection. The characters took longer to come around then what I remember from other character breakfasts but it wasn’t a bad wait. I would go there with the kids again.

After breakfast we abandoned the park because the lines were already crazy.

After a few minutes back at the hotel we decided to try Blizzard Beach – it was the first day of the trip where it was warm enough to actually go to a water park and we wanted to hit Blizzard Beach at least once while we were there. Every time we have gone in the past Blizzard Beach has been closed for winter reno and we have gone to Typhoon Lagoon instead – this year we lucked out and they were switched.

We got to and in the water park at around 12:45 but surprisingly they hadn’t opened until 12:30 (was supposed to be 10). I’m not sure what the issue was but it did mean the park wasn’t that crowded and we were hit everything without too much of a wait.

In the end we did every slide and kids’ area except for the Downhill Double Dipper as it was closed for some repairs. Several of the slides we did more than once. It was a lot of fun and I think in the end we enjoyed it more than Typhoon Lagoon.

We left the park around 4:45 (after stopping at the med station to get a bandage for scraped toe) – we then waited for a bus until 5:30. That was a just plain irritating frankly. And then to make it worse the bus got stopped by some kind of weird traffic jam on the way back to the hotel – we sat on one of the roads for pretty long time. Once we got going though there were many cheers through the bus!

The bus stopped at French Quarter first and after a quick discussion with Heather, I decided to get off there and run to the hotel room while she continued on the bus with the kids. We would then meet up back at the room. I have been trying to run every day as part of a challenge to run every day of 2016 and I hadn’t run in the morning so I needed to get that run done. So I hopped off and met up with everyone after a couple miles of running.

After that we had supper at the resort and did a bit of shopping through the general store there.

Later I took our son to the arcade for a little while (whoops – found out later he had lost his resort mug there).

Then we went back to the room to crash and have a relatively early night for a change.

Feb 13th

I got up and out for a run at around 9 and man, were my legs ever beat up after the day at the water park the day before. Ouch. The run was fairly slow due to a lot of extra traffic at the resort.

When I got back to the room our daughter was up and all dressed wanting to come run with me – so back out we went and did a little tour while having some daddy-daughter time.

After a quick cleanup we all went and had breakfast before coming back to the room to get changed to do some more swimming. The main pool at the Riverside was closed for reno while we were there and we decided to go try the French Quarter pool today.

So we walked over to the French Quarter (there is a shuttle as well but we decided to walk down) and spent a few hours there swimming and the kids enjoyed the slide and doing a bunch of the pool side trivia games, etc.

They were in the process of building a new splash pad area at the FQ pool when we were there and it is probably open by now. They were also in the process of putting extra gates around the pool (I suspect to ensure that only hotel guests are coming into the pool areas such as what was done at Art of Animation).

We also took a few minutes to let the kids run around on the play structure before we caught the golf cart shuttle back to the Riverside.

We decided to head to Hollywood Studios to see if we could get into Fantasmic that night as well as see Symphony in the Stars. On the way to the bus stop we stopped and talked to the Disney Vacation Club guy there and decided we should probably just do a tour. We go frequently enough and with how we vacation at Disney it would probably make some sense for us to get into DVC. Granted the Canadian dollar was fairly awful at that point but we figured if we did the tour and got the info we would be in a better place to make a decision once the dollar gets better. So we booked an appointment for the next morning.

Then off to Hollywood Studios! Very busy there as well so we didn’t end up getting on any rides but we did manage to get into SciFi Dinner for supper. The last time we were there our son had gotten a bit freaked out by some of the movie shorts they had been playing and he really didn’t want to go this time but they had changed just enough of the movies that he had a blast.

After supper we did a wander around the Launch Bay Hanger to get a look at all the Star Wars merchandise – it would be easy to lose a fortune in there…

We watched Symphony in the Stars right in front of the Great Movie Ride – it was a beautiful thing. Fantastic fireworks but the power of the music was great.

We went then to see if we could get into Club Disney that I had heard about a while back but apparently it was no more – that didn’t last long…oh well.

So then we went and got a seat at Fantasmic and had a great time before heading back out of the park to catch the bus to the hotel.

At this point we needed to get some laundry done so I went down to the quiet pool and the laundry facility to see if anything was available. Found out about something I had never heard of before – there is a laundry tracking site for all the laundry rooms at Disney World. You go to the site, pick the hotel and the laundry facility and it will tell you which machines are free and where the active machines are in their cycles (including time to completion). That is a phenomenal thing! Super convenient. www.laundryview.com/disneyworld/

2016 February family vacation to Disney World – post 3 – Feb 10th and 11th

Feb 10th –

Another late start this morning – this will be the theme for the rest of the trip really.

I was up before everyone else again and went for a run – it was a bit slower going this morning as it is starting to get busier at the hotel for Mardi Gras and the upcoming Presidents’ Day weekend.

The kids woke up around when I got back from the run so we got moving and went and had breakfast / lunch at the hotel.

Today was set to be Magic Kingdom and we were lucky enough to get one of the newer bendy buses almost entirely to ourselves – it was different enough to make the ride to the park a little funner.

Magic Kingdom was fairly busy but we had fast passes later plus it was Magic Hours at Magic Kingdom that night so we weren’t worried that we wouldn’t have fun.

We started with Astro-orbiters which gave a great view of the park and then we hit Stitches’ Great Escape before walking back down Main Street to get to the fast pass viewing area of the Festival Fantasy parade.

We grabbed a pretty good spot there and had fun snapping pictures and interacting with the characters. Our kids got high fives and our daughter got a hand kiss from Donald Duck. Some pictures are below but I will probably add a gallery page at a later time.

After the parade we blasted over to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for our fast passes and we all managed to ride – Heather took some of her travel meds for motion sickness so that she could hopefully ride the ride. Whoohoo! She did it!

We then had a snack on Main Street before ditching the busy park for the hotel for a while.

A few hours later we came back for a fast pass for the Anna and Elsa meet and greet (which seemed a bit rushed – they seemed to move us through much more quickly than we were used to) and then headed over to Be Our Guest for our supper reservation.

Supper at Be Our Guest was very good – great atmosphere (we were in the main ballroom) and we loved watching the fake snow fall outside.

After that we were into Magic Hours and took advantage of the reduced crowds to hit an amazing number of rides:

tea cups
Tomorrowland Speedway
It’s a Small World
Big Thunder Mountain – Heather was able to ride this one too because her motion sickness meds hadn’t worn off yet!
Pirates of the Caribbean
Magic Carpets
Haunted Mansion
Royal Carousel

And then we figured we would end the night with a ride on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train again – we were able to get on and through the line up fairly quickly (maybe 10 minutes) and when we were done they were still letting people through…so we bolted back through the line and got to ride again! I think we were in the 2nd last train to go through. Whoohoo – Mine Train 3 times in one day! That is pretty rare.

This did make for another late night – back to the room at about 1 am.

Feb 11th

I woke up around 9 again and did a few laps of running around the hotel. It was still a bit cool but the sun was warm and you could tell it was getting warmer.

When I finished the run I checked out the pool and it was set to be very warm. So I ran back to the room and found that our son was up so I got him to grab his swim suit and we went to the pool for a half hour to some daddy-son time.

Heather and our daughter were just getting up when we got back so off to breakfast we went.

We decided on a Downtown Disney / Disney Springs day today so we took the boat down the Sassagoula River to Disney Springs.

We did some wandering around and shopping – a fair number of changes since our last trip and way more to come!

T-Rex was the choice for supper and we went in around 4:45 – always a fun place to eat.

After some more shopping we headed out and took a bus back to the hotel. Unfortunately it stopped at French Quarter first and a huge tour group got on and the bus driver almost didn’t stop at Riverside to drop us off – it took some yelling back and forth over the crowd before he caught on and dropped us off. That could have been quite irritating.

We then hit the pool for an evening swim and grabbed some hot chocolate and snacks before getting to bed quite early compared to other days! Tusker House for breakfast tomorrow so everyone needs to be up bright and early!

2016 February family vacation – Disney World day 2 – first full day

Unfortunately our son woke up and got sick around 6 am but at least he got back to sleep after and seemed good the rest of the day after that.

I did not get back to sleep however, so after a bit of trying I decided to get up and go for a run. I did 2 laps of the hotel running path including the out and back past Port Orleans French Quarter. Beautiful morning, if a bit cool.

After my shower, everyone was still asleep so I wandered down to the general store and picked up some milk for the room fridge and some more meds for our son. Everyone was just getting up as I got back from the walk.

We had breakfast / lunch at the hotel in what became a bit of a theme for the trip – late nights and late breakfast.

We found out that Port Orleans Riverside now keeps a breakfast station open in their food court until 11:45 – sweet!

After a short wander around the hotel we grabbed a bus ride to Epcot.

It was weird to see a long wait for Spaceship Earth at around 2 in the afternoon. We skipped that with a promise to the kids that we would get to it before we left – it is one of our favorite rides but we only end up ever doing it as a walk on.

We then did the Finding Nemo ride before going to give Living with the Land a try…but it had a huge line as well!? Strange.

So a quick ice cream and popcorn stop by the fountain and then a quick check of Ellen’s Energy Adventure. But they had just let in a group and the wait was going to be too long before they opened the doors again.

Instead we did a wander of the World Showcase area making sure to hit the 3 Caballeros ride in the Mexico pavilion and also to get pretzels and beer in Germany. We also stopped in the Norway pavilion to grab some of the perfume Heather loves from there.

We also hit the American Adventure show and I hate to admit it but I fell asleep – the beer from Germany and the less than 5 hours sleep caught up to me I guess.

After the show we explored some more and did a quick walk out the International Gateway before coming back into the park and making our way back to Coral Reef for our supper reservations.

We had a short wait once we checked in but it was worth it. We ended up with a table right by the aquarium windows. The kids were ecstatic. The meal was very good as well and we had couple visits from a young boy who politely asked if he could take some pictures at the window to show his friends. It was pretty cool – we saw a few groups of divers in the aquarium during the meal.

After supper we wandered over to do our Test Track Fast Passes, then hit Spaceship Earth and Living with the Land, which were walk ons now.

We then caught the last 75% of Illuminations before getting back on the Finding Nemo ride and one more go on Spaceship Earth.

Then a bus and back to the hotel. Kids probably fell asleep around midnight.

Finally getting around to writing up our Feb family trip to Disney World. Travel days and first Disney day.

So, I haven’t been as active on this blog as I would like due to other responsibilities but I am at least going to finally start getting up a write up for our family trip to Disney World in Feb 2016.

Look for the write up to come in several installments over the next few days (hopefully).

——-

Our vacation this year started on Feb 5th with a drive from Winnipeg down to Fargo, ND. We overnighted in Fargo, did some shopping at Scheels and enjoyed the hotel pool. We then headed to Minneapolis on the 6th. We overnighted in Minneapolis for the 6th and the 7th and then hit the flight on the 8th. Minneapolis was pretty much pool time and Mall of American shopping with a stop at a premium outlet mall for some sport gear shopping. (lots of running shoes…)

We could have flown out of Winnipeg but we like doing the drive down to Minneapolis as it allows us to wind down and get in vacation mode before we hit Orlando. Plus, even with the cost of the gas and extra hotel rooms we still end up saving money on the flights.

Our son woke up feeling pretty sick on the morning of the 8th and we ended up giving him some anti-nausea meds before getting on the hotel shuttle to the airport which helped him during the day and seemed to prevent any disasters.

We did end up having some fun getting on our flight – apparently the flight type we had didn’t give us assigned seats and the plane was overbooked…by 8 seats. That was stressful for a bit but we got our seats – right at the back of the plane but that worked pretty well for us.

We landed in Orlando and had a quick bite at the food court before wandering over to the Magical Express check in area. We were directed onto a bus immediately which was nice – there was about 15 minutes or so sitting on the bus before we got going but it wasn’t too bad.

The bus got us to Port Orleans Riverside quickly and we checked in, dumped some stuff in our room and immediately headed to Magic Kingdom. We had thought about just relaxing instead of going to a park but Magic Kingdom was slated to be open until midnight and we figured we would be able to have some fun at least.

We got off the plane in Orlando at 5:25 and were in Magic Kingdom by 8:25 – not too bad for timing – the park was not crowded so we figured we would be able to hit quite a bit of stuff before closing.

First thing we did was go to Pirates of the Caribbean and then Splash Mountain which were both essentially walk ons at that point.

We were getting hungry, so we went to Pecos Bills just as the Electrical Parade was starting and ended up getting a very good vantage point to watch just by the restaurant. Once that had passed we looked at the menu and decided there wasn’t anything we wanted there after all and headed to Pinocchio Haus instead and ate there while sitting and watching people load onto It’s a Small World. We did end up missing Wishes unfortunately.

After supper we went and got on Big Thunder Mountain before heading over to ride Little Mermaid and then back tracking to watch Mickey’s Philharmagic (we tend to jump around a lot at the parks).

The park was getting close to closing so we wandered over to Tomorrowland and rode the People Mover to end the day. But while we were coming to the end of the ride we realized they were still letting people on Space Mountain…could we make it and conquer the Magic Kingdom mountain range in one night?

We got off People Mover and sprinted to the entrance – 2 people got in behind us before they stopped letting people in. Did it! Mountain range conquered! Well, for 3 of us at least – Heather can get motion sickness and didn’t ride Big Thunder or Space Mountain.

At this point the park was closed so we did the wander out, got a photopass picture or 2 and watched the Kiss Goodnight before making our way to the buses.

That was a productive 4 hours in the parks! And to think we almost didn’t go.

Who would have thought that some of the funnest characters at Disney World are Cinderella’s step sisters?

On our last trip to Disney World back in late January / early February this year we did something we hadn’t done before. We went to 1900 Park Fare at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort for the supper buffet that includes visits with Cinderella and her Prince.

It was a fun meal all around but the highlight of the night were the photos with Anastasia and Drizella (Cinderella’s step sisters). The cast members playing these characters were obviously having a blast and playing up the rivalry between them.

Anastasia was hilarious – hamming it up for the camera and fully getting into the part even it seemed no one was looking. Some of my favorite photos from that whole trip include this lady.

Kudos to Disney for coming up with a way to take what are basically plot devices and flesh them out to fun characters to entertain guests. I could see some guests enjoyed the visits with Cinderella and the Prince but didn’t get into the fun of these two. That’s too bad but I have said it before – everyone gets their own thing out of anything that Disney does some people didn’t really get the humor and fun of these characters.

I also have to give major kudos to the cast member playing Anastasia that night – she helped make the night awesome!

We have spotted the castle! Magic Memory Monday – July 14, 2014

Definitely a fun memory here – taken during the 2014 Disney World Half Marathon (as part of the Goofy Challenge) which my wife and did together (our first race together). The photo was taken after we had looped through Tomorrowland and part of new Fantasyland on our way to run through Cinderella’s castle.

You can see the excitement on Heather’s face as we spotted the castle and got closer. The picture wasn’t staged, I caught her when she wasn’t expecting it and I got her natural and awesome reaction. The photo is a touch blurry but the excitement comes through anyway!

That whole 2014 Goofy Challenge trip was full of good memories – awesome.

H and Cinderella's Castle 2014 Disney World Half Marathon — H and Cinderella’s Castle 2014 Disney World Half Marathon

Swinging in front of Disney’s Beach Club Resort – Family Friday – July 11th, 2014

How often do you see kids that happy while just relaxing?

Granted they had just spent a good half hour playing tag on the grass and the beach…

The photo was taken in front of the Beach Club Resort on the beach area in Feb 2014 during our family trip. It was a gorgeous day and everyone was feeling good even though it was our last full day at Disney World.

We ended up doing World Showcase in Epcot and then Magic Kingdom thoroughly that day (late magic hours at Magic Kingdom) and the kids were exhausted but it was a great day and I think that was at least partly because we had time to relax and have a bit of fun in a great relaxed area before we went and hit the parks.

Lovely day.

K and T on the swing in front of Disney's Beach Club Resort — K and T on the swing in front of Disney’s Beach Club Resort

Peaceful sunny spot in Epcot World Showcase – Family Friday – July 4th, 2014

Going to trip a new post category – Family Friday – the idea will be to show family pics from around Disney World and to try to highlight all the great things that can be done as a full family.

I will start off with a pic of Heather and kids taken just inside Epcot coming in through the International Gateway. We were wandering around and on the island between the England and France pavilions there is nice peaceful area where you can get some different views of the lake and the pavilions. For whatever reason we had never really noticed or utilized this area before but that day we saw it and used it as a spot to catch some sun and sit peacefully for a few minutes.

And of course I had to take a few pictures.

Definitely a beautiful little area.

Heather and the kids in Epcot World Showcase

Author: ted

February 2016 – Disney World Vacation – post 6 – Feb 16th, 17th and 18th

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February 2016 – Disney World Vacation – Post 5 – Feb 14th and 15th

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Feb 2016 Disney World Vacation – post 4 – Feb 12th and 13th

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2016 February family vacation to Disney World – post 3 – Feb 10th and 11th

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2016 February family vacation – Disney World day 2 – first full day

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Finally getting around to writing up our Feb family trip to Disney World. Travel days and first Disney day.

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Who would have thought that some of the funnest characters at Disney World are Cinderella’s step sisters?

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We have spotted the castle! Magic Memory Monday – July 14, 2014

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Swinging in front of Disney’s Beach Club Resort – Family Friday – July 11th, 2014

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Peaceful sunny spot in Epcot World Showcase – Family Friday – July 4th, 2014

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