Disney'09: Day 3

Started Day 3 with a heavy breakfast at Whispering Canyon Cafe. William even got an early birthday cake.Then headed over to Epcot for some more adventure. This was a big day for characters. We were able to meet so many.

Right at the entrance is Daisy Duck. She's too cute and just adorable.

Next stop was the Character Stop. Here we saw.

Mickey.

Goofy
Minnie

Donald

and Pluto

After lunch, we boarded the whimsical yellow submarine and dived into the depths to meet Nemo. This was a lil much for William. The whole place was dark so it was a bit scary for him.

Then we had a mishap while we were waiting for Ed and Randy ride the Spaceship Earth. William was jumping from a stool and fell on concrete floor. So from here on out, you'll see a bruised chin :) He immediately forgot about the incident when he saw this splashing fountain.We spent the afternoon at Hollywoods studios.
We made it just in time for the Disney Clubhouse show. William loved this show!

After the show, we met up with the Characters for some photo ops and autographs.

Granddaddy and William with HandyManny.
June and Quincy from Little Einstein.Wandered around some more and met Buzz and Woody. After meeting these characters, William couldn't quit talking about them. He always ask for these characters whenever we read his Disney book.Granddaddy and Grandmommy with Monster Inc Characters.

Another fun day for us!

Disney'09: Day 2

Busy second day. Ventured to 2 different parks.

First stop, Animal Kingdom. You all know how much William loves animals, he can pretty much name all farm animals and most exotic ones (thanks to Diego the Animal Rescuer).

As we were walking in the park, we met a couple of famous characters and got their autographs.

Rafiki, the wise old baboon from Lion King. He was the one who raised Simba up high and anointed him.
Meeko, the mischievious, food-stealing racoon friend of Pocahontas.
William loved hearing all the facts and trivia about different species.

As we were walking in, we were greeted by a big tree. The Tree of Life. A work of art, the artificial tree standing at almost 14 story high is carved with images of animal.

Met Lilo and Stich.

We embarked on our Kilimnjaro Safari. The tour begins in the Harambe Wildlife Reserve. We climb aboard a rugged open sided vehicle for an exciting expedition through the wildlife preserve. The ride was a bit bumpy as it crosses rickety bridges, rocky hills and rivers.

But William truly enjoyed this adventure and we were rewarded witch spectacular animal sightings.

After our safari, we decided to take the Wildlife Express train that takes you to the research and education center, Rafiki's Planet watch.There we met more characters. Jiminy Cricket.
The beautiful Pocahontas.
All these adventures made us so hungry and we decided to have lunch at the Rainforest cafe. What a fun place! Food was great but the atmosphere was stellar. There's a huge saltwater fish tank, waterfalls, lush paintings and periodically there's a thunderstorm and animatronic animals spring to life.

Our lil guy fell asleep after lunch. Ed and my father in law decided to ride the Expedition Everest. I heard it was a very fun ride.

In the evening, we all head over to Epcot park, where we booked a dining reservation at Biergarten restaurant.
Biergarten is soooo fun! Octoberfest is celebrated year long. The food was delish. Truly enjoyed the authentic German cuisine buffet. We all ate too much :)

Decided to burn off some of the food we consumed and walked around Epcot some more.

We saw Tigger and Pooh and just had to take a quick photo op with them.

Then we met the beautiful princess Jasmine. William actually got the chance to walk with her holding hands. It was getting dark and she had to relocate to an in order venue. William was the lucky kid to walk with her. She was soooo sweet and William really liked her.

Again a fun adventure! This happy boy had a great big smile when he went to bed.

Disney'09: Day 1

We decided to take a 4 day trip to Disney to celebrate our Halloween baby's actual birthday. Didn't anticipate that we will be taking him to Disney this early but he loves all the characters and we figure it'll be a nice family trip to take in October (Cooler Florida weather? not really! but needless to say it was a blast!). Watch for pictures overload but I wanted to capture the highlights of our trips.

The night before we stayed at an Embassy Suite at Downtown Disney. We've taken several vacations before with William but didn't realized that this was actually his first time staying at a hotel. He was fascinated. We checked in bright and early to our Disney hotel. I highly recommend for families to stay at the Wilderness Lodge. It's convenient and has a nice set up. William enjoyed running back and forth this bridge at the hotel's lobby.
We took the ferry from our hotel to go to Magic Kingdom. This was so convenient and of course William enjoyed the boat ride!

With grandparents in front of the Magic Kingdom entrance. The park was decked out in Halloween decor.
As we were entering the park, the parade was just starting. What better way to start our adventure! William's eyes lit up. This really set the mood for all of us. He was dancing, waving and jumping.

Magic Kingdom is the perfect park for toddler. Lots of ride for them. Didn't had the chance to snap a picture of our Peter Pan's Flight. William did really well for almost all of the ride. Basically you're gliding through the skies in the dark in the slightly illuminated scenes of the Old London Town, Big Ben, Never Land, etc. The only thing that made him uncomfortable was the last scene were the crocodile was trying to bite Captain Hook!

Nex ride was the It's a Small World ride. A perfect ride for toddlers. Gentle boat ride that showcase brightly costumed dolls and animals across the world. This ride is enjoyable for adults too althought it takes sometime to be able to get the "It's a Small World" song our of our heads :)
Here's a family photo op with Cindella's Castle in the background.
William pretending to be the boy who pulled the Sword in the Stone!

Carousel rides are always a big hit with toddlers.

Then it was off to the ever famous Dumbo ride! A very popular ride for the young children. To this day, William still talks about his Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride!
We saw the Evil Stepsisters and Stepmother. These ladies were in character the whole time and were hilarious! One of the step-sister asked William if he was going to inherit a lot of Money. We said no and she quickly pointed to her sister and told William that he could marry her sister instead.
We met Chip and Dale. William's first encounter with the Chipmunks.

We all went to Crystal Palace for and enjoyed the character meal with Winnie the Pooh and friends. Dinner was delish and we had a willy nilly delicious good time! It is a whimsical restaurant surrounded with colorful character topiary of Winnie the Pooh and his friends Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger. It has a Victorian elegance but not too stuffy.

As the characters started visiting guests, William quickly realized that he'll get a chance to meet his favorite characater up close and personal. This got him even more excited!

Here's Piglet.

Meeting Winnie the Pooh.
Hugs from Eeyore.
Then his favorite....Tigger! Tigger was running late. He was everybody's favorite. William kept saying "Where'd Tigger go?". When he finally made it to our table, our lil boy was ecstatic and gave him a big high five!

William's favorite section of Magic Kingdom was the Mickey Toontown fair.
He had a blast checking out Minnie and Mickey's country house.
Met Mickey and Minnie for the first time. He was sooo happy. He gave them big hugs and kisses. The train station stop in Mickey's Toontown Fair is a great place to locate those "hard to find" characters.

William loved running around the spurting padded floor at Donald's Boat house. He was having a blast guessing as to where the water will shoot up next.

The Magic Kingdom Fireworks was a spectacular way to end our first day of adventure at Disney. William was running on fumes but he made sure to stay up and not missed the firework. It definitely didn't disappoint. The Chinese may have invented fireworks but Disney has perfected the night display. To kick off the Wishes Firework, Tinkebell performs a fly-over of Cinderella's Castle. Truly mesmerizing to watch!