Disney World

For years Craig and I had talked about taking our family to Disney World. It seemed like the time would never come, but as I say so often, time goes so fast. Before we knew it, our kids were at (what we thought were) the perfect ages, and the Bergie Bunch was ready to take on Disney.
Let me just say that it was really difficult to narrow down the hundreds of pictures I took--so you will not see everything we did, and you may see way too many characters. (plus I tried to post things that weren't already posted on social media) For us, this trip was about our children. It was about watching their eyes light up and them jump for joy when they saw amazing and spectacular things that Disney has to offer. It was about us experiencing the magic as a family. And believe me, we did.

Day One
We left EC super early in the morning. We parked and took a shuttle to the airport. Each kiddo had a new Disney character waiting in their seat for them.

After a very successful first airplane ride, we arrived at our resort.  

 Our resort was Ah-Mazing. The details. The constant theme throughout. The smells. (Seriously. Whatever they pump through the lobby of Art of Animation I want bottled up. It made me happy. It smelled so good.)

We stayed in the Finding Nemo family suite. The big blue pool and playground were right outside our room. 

 

 

 

We visited the other areas of the hotel too.

 

 

 

And obviously as soon as we got in our room, we jumped on the beds!

The first night we went to Disney Springs (downtown Disney), walked around, shopped and ate at Planet Hollywood. That was the beginning of the end of any healthy eating. Holy. We had the dining plan, which included a dessert with every single meal. And obviously you have to eat the dessert if it comes with your meal. (even if you aren't a dessert person) Duh.

Day Two
The next day, we went to Magic Kingdom. It was beautiful--like 85 and sunny.

 

Our first walk down main street and our first peek at the castle.

We had to try the Mickey ice cream--it was first on the kid's wish list.

Our first big ride of the day was Splash Mountain. This picture they captured cracks me up. Seriously, the more I look at it, the more I laugh. Everleigh and Madden tie for best faces, for sure. Bahahaha.

 

We went on lots of rides, which we don't have a lot of pictures of. We all loved Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and the classic, It's a Small World. 

We met my favorite Disney characters, Woody and Jessie! I felt like I could then go home. :)

  

We ate with Winnie the Pooh and friends at the Crystal Palace.

 

The parks (especially MK) were decorated for Halloween; it was really pretty.

That evening, we went back to the hotel for a while to relax, then we went back to Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks. Never in a million years did I think I'd be taking my kids back out at 8:30, but it was worth it! We were up super late, and the bus ride home seemed to take forever, but the kids were troopers and we got to see Tinker Bell fly from the castle. Win.

 

Day Three

The next day we went to Epcot.

As in every park, we did a lot of waiting in lines. And the kids did a lot of climbing and hanging on the railings. Overall, they were way better than I had imagined at waiting in lines. Disney does a good job of keeping you entertained while waiting--but these 4,5 and 7 year olds did great.

 

Here we are on Test Track...

 

And Hudson in Bruce the Shark's mouth after going on the Finding Nemo ride.

We played by the jumping water for a while. The kids loved it. And it was something Craig and I both remembered from when we were kids, so it was fun to try to catch the water.

 

 

And then Craig caught it. He was drenched. He had the whole crowd laughing and taking pictures of him.

The kids were most excited for Epcot because they knew that we could visit Japan. And do you know what is made in Japan? Monchichis! Hudson could not wait to get there and buy another Monchichi.

So they each chose to spend some of their money on a brand new member of the Monchichi family. Three of the four chose a Bebechichi...a baby version on Monchichi.
It was a happy day for this family of Monchichi lovers.

Then we ate lunch with the princesses...

After meeting Belle, the boys didn't want to be seen with the "girly things" anymore. So when princesses came to visit us, they opted out of the pictures.

At Epcot, we all really loved Spaceship Earth (the ride inside the big ball), Test Track and our number one favorite, Soarin. We waited in line for 90 minutes for Soarin because our Disney advisors (uncle Cal and aunt Melissa) told us it was worth it. It was. Madden screamed for the first 30 seconds of it, then loved it.

Day Four
Hollywood Studios was up on day four.

We were told to head straight to Toy Story Mania because if we waited too long, the line would be super long. So we did. We got there and saw this.....

See that on the left side? Wait time, 105 minutes. Ain't nobody got time fo dat. We took a pic and moved on. Sad...but we knew we'd experience another similar ride at Magic Kingdom, so we went on our way.

At Hollywood Studios we got to see a Disney Junior show and meet a lot of the junior characters, which the littles loved!

 

 

You may notice that Paisley and I were not in those pictures. We chose to skip meeting them to go stand in the (long) line to ride Rockin' Rollercoaster. And wow, was it worth it! By far the best ride of the trip. Paisley was so brave--that ride is super fast, and it goes upside down! She loved it!

 

 

We all got to meet Everleigh's favorite, Doc McStuffins!

We ate at a 50s diner--cool experience!

And you can't forget Honey I Shrunk the Kids! (A classic from my era and something I remember from my trip as a kid)

 

At Hollywood Studios, everyone except Madden and I went on Tower Of Terror. Madden was so scared, he ran from the line screaming bloody murder. It totally looked like we were kidnapping him as we chased after him. Now he wishes we would have gone on it, as Paisley, Hudson and Everleigh liked it. That night, we got great seats for Fantasmic. It's a water/lights/firework show, and it showcases a lot of the Disney Villains, which Madden adores. I loved the show...dare I say it...even more than the Magic Kingdom fireworks. (sorry, no good pics of the show)

 

At the end of each night, the kids were exhausted. I mean, so were we! The amount of walking is crazy. Thank God though...those desserts! If you're wondering...I did wear my knee brace the whole time, and by the end of the day I was hurting--but overall, my knee held up better than I expected.

The kids zonked out....

Day Five

Cocoa Beach!! We knew if we were going to be only an hour from the ocean, it was a must do. So, we rented a van and drove to Cocoa Beach.

It was super windy and the waves were really big, but it was sunny and hot. The water was warm and the Bergie Bunch was so excited to play in the water and sand.

 

 

It was simply perfect. It was a nice break from the parks and you could not beat the weather. When we planned our vacation, it would have been nice to get away from the WI winter, but I knew that I wanted to go to FL when it was hot enough to swim in the ocean....and we did just that. We collected seashells and brought home sand from the beach too. Which was promptly scanned and searched for explosives at the airport! HA!
After a long day at the beach, we headed back on Disney property for a late dinner at Chef Mickey. It ended up being our favorite restaurant and character dining experience. And it was a plus that we rode the monorail there. :)

 

Day Six
The next day, we went to Animal Kingdom.

First up was a Safari. It was seriously cool. We saw so many animals up close. I took way too many pictures of the animals and I won't bore you with them...but seeing them walk right next to our vehicle was awesome.

We all went on Kali River Rapids...and got soaked! Madden and Paisley wanted to ride it again, and the line wasn't long, so Hudson and Everleigh and I waited and snapped a pic. Can you spot them?

The tree of life was beautiful. We also saw 'It's Tough to be a Bug' in this. It was Craig's favorite show. It was pretty good!

We ate with the Safari characters--and we were excited to finally meet Daisy.

Paisley, Craig and I also went on Expedition Everest...that was a scary and fun rollercoaster!

 

 

The kids also enjoyed The Boneyard, a play place and huge sandbox. We also saw Nemo the Musical, which was unbelievable.

Day Seven
On our last full day at Disney, we went back to Magic Kingdom. I'm glad we did two days at MK  because there were definitely rides that we didn't get to do the first day that we wanted to do. The first night when we saw the fireworks show and saw Tink fly from the castle, Paisley looked at me, started to cry and said, "My dreams are coming true, Mom! I've always wanted to see Tinker Bell." My heard melted. It was exactly why we spent a zillion dollars on this trip. Then, as we walked in to Magic Kingdom on our last day, her dreams came true once again....

I didn't really take pictures the last day at MK. We went on ride after ride. Madden, Paisley, Craig and I went on Space Mountain. We did Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, People Mover, Haunted Mansion among many others. We spent the day riding rides and cherishing every last moment at the park. We ate a Mickey shaped pretzel, the one treat Madden has talked about for a year (seriously).
The kids have all said that the Haunted Mansion was one of their very favorite rides. As we were walking out of that ride, Everleigh said, "I want to do that again!" and a cast member from behind us said, "Well lets do it then. Quick, go through this door." We walked through a cast member door and poof, we were at the front of the line and got to ride it again!

When we were leaving, we walked right up to the castle where Mickey and friends were performing. I felt like it was our goodbye send off. :)

We saw amazing shows, danced with Stitch in the "move it, shake it" parade, went on super fun rides, hugged a million characters, ate delicious mickey shaped food, swam in the ocean, held hands, conquered fears, laughed, and had the most magical vacation.
It's hard to capture the memories that were made on this trip in one blog post. I only hope that this will serve as a reminder to the kids of what a wonderful vacation it really was. I know that the memories I have will last a life-time. Watching their eyes light up, and feeling them squeeze my hand with excitement will live on in me forever. 

I hope it's not the last time we visit Disney, but if it is, we gave it all we had!

 

 

XOXO,

#bergiebunchtakesondisney