The first night we arrived, we went to Chef Mickey's, a restaurant at one of the hotels at the resort, where they have "character dinners" to allow the little ones a chance to meet all their favorites.
While we ate dinner, the characters were walking through the restaurant, stopping at each table to say hi and pose for pictures. Here Minnie Mouse posed with Zachary, Jocelyn, Alexandra and Ian.
After that Goofy stopped by. He was not only Ian's favorite, but also by far the tallest character we met!
Before the trip, Julie had made each child an autograph book that they could get characters to sign. They were a big hit, and the kids loved getting each character's signature!
We met a lot of characters that night! As you can tell, by the end of the night the little man was losing his willingness to sit still!
The next day was Easter Sunday, so we didn't go to the parks. But we found a beautiful church and went to Mass together, and afterward Ian and Jocelyn loved playing by the fountains!
Everyone was in such a good mood, anticipating our first day at the parks on Monday!
The first park we went to was Animal Kingdom, which was my favorite. Our first ride was on a "safari" in an open-air vehicle through a wildlife preserve set up to mimic the African savannah. Julie got a great shot of an airborne flamingo...
...and we saw a lot of other beautiful animals in their natural habitat.
At one point, our driver stopped the vehicle and alerted us to a huge, 800 pound rhino approaching the side. He got to about 4 feet away from us, and the driver warned us to be quiet because rhinos tend to act unpredictably when they hear sudden loud noises!
Just afterward, we came around a bend and were about 25 yards away from a lion hanging out, just waking up from a snooze. Keep in mind, these animals were not in any form of enclosure! I have never been that close to a lion before, let alone with nothing between us and him!
After the safari was over, we all took a break by the Tree Of Life, a huge sculpture in the middle of the park. It was beautiful.
We later saw many more animals (kept safely in enclosures!), like a 600 pound bengal tiger...
...and then ended the day with a few rides at the Dinosaur Park. The little ones were exhausted but very, very happy.
On the second day, we went to Magic Kingdom, another of the parks within the resort. Julie had arranged for Ian and Zachary to be made up like pirates...
...and Jocelyn and Alexandra to be made up like princesses, at the Bippity Boppity Boutique at Cinderella's castle. It was pretty darn cute to see how excited they all were to be dressed up. Ian was swinging his play sword and pretending to be Captain Hook for about a full day afterward, and Jocelyn wouldn't let us touch her hair for days for fear her tiara would fall out (which was not the easiest thing to manage given that we had a pool at our house and were in it every day!).
Speaking of the pool, it was pretty nice to be able to go to the parks early in the morning before the crowds arrived and the Florida sun was in full force, come home just after lunch for a little siesta, and then wake up and hop out on the back deck into our little pool. All the kids (and the adults!) loved it.
We went to Epcot the day after Magic Kingdom, and then on our last day we went back to Magic Kingdom, where our plan was to hit more of the rides in the park than we had our first time around. Here are Jocelyn and Alexandra waiting in line to ride on the carousel.
After we finished with the rides and eaten lunch, we were just about to get in the car to head back to the house when, while we were passing through the main square, a big parade suddenly broke out, followed by a big dance party where we all got to dance in the street with the characters! It was such a memorable ending to an absolutely wonderful trip. We are already talking about when we will go back!
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