Disney World!

Our Disney World trip was awesome!! We were there January 17th-24th, and my 40th birthday was that Thursday, January 22nd. If you don't already know this, Disney has a series of pins they give out to people who are there to celebrate a birthday, anniversary, just getting engaged, etc., and you can choose to wear it not at all or for however many days you choose. I wore my "Happy Birthday" button all week, and countless people said "happy birthday" to me wherever I went - mostly cast members (what Disney calls it's staff), but also some other guests. It was a really cool place to spend a big birthday.

Jordyn was a real trooper. We ended up doing six days straight at the parks (we were originally going to do five), with dinner at a restaurant every night, and she held up well. She managed to nap every day at the parks so we never had to go back to the hotel room for a nap, which I was totally thinking we were going to have to do, at least on a few of the days. She skipped her nap on the day we traveled down, and she had skipped it the day before, too, so she started out tired, but I think it helped her settle into a routine of sleeping late(r) in the morning and napping at the parks. All the stimulation  and a lot of walking wore her out (although it felt like she wanted me to carry her through the parks for six days straight!).

Jordyn had a BLAST!! I mean, we all did, but it was so nice to see her having so much fun and really getting in to the rides and characters and things. I definitely don't feel like she was too young for a trip to Disney, not at all (she was just shy of 2.5). She may not have a lot of clear memories of it, but she really enjoyed it, and my parents and I loved watching her enjoy it.

Turns out, Jordyn's a thrill ride junkie! I'm not, not really, so it was kind of surprising, although her outgoing personality makes it not a complete shocker. If you ask her what her favorite ride was at Disney World, she says "roller coaster". And, in fact, it was! The Barnstormer roller coaster is a family-friendly one - it's a real roller coaster, but no huge drops, no upside down, etc. - and she was tall enough to ride it. It was the only roller coaster she was tall enough to ride, but I bet she would've liked Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, too. I think her second-favorite ride was the teacups, and as fast as my dad could make it spin! She even tried to help him spin it a few times! I have a great video of her laughing hysterically on that ride; too bad I can't figure out how to get videos on blogger. Here's a pic, though:

She also liked the usual little-kid rides like Dumbo and all the Dumbo-like rides, the Winnie the Pooh ride, Jungle Cruise, and some shows like the Tiki Room, the Lion King one at Animal Kingdom, and the parades. Honestly, she liked it all! Whatever we did, she enjoyed it, even though she was tired at times, and sometimes hungry and a little cranky because all the food was in the stroller parked a bit away from where we were in line or whatever. I quickly figured out to try to have at least one snack item on me at all times, and her water.

I have to mention the new magic bands. They're amazing!! They do everything... You use it to open the door to your room, it's your ticket into the parks, your fastpasses are on it, and you can even link a credit card to it so you can use it to make purchases in gift shifts and restaurants. To use the credit card on the band, you have to enter a four-digit pin, so if you lose your band, your credit card is still safe. We managed not lose any bands. Jordyn didn't like wearing hers on her wrist, so I attached it to her shoe, and it was there almost the entire week. She didn't need a ticket or fastpasses since she's under 3, so she didn't really need to wear the band, but I'd heard that they can track lost kids using it, so I wanted her to wear it! We managed not to lose her, but it helped with my peace of mind because I was pretty terrified of that happening. If you order them ahead of time, you can pick which color you want, and they print your name on the inside of it, so even if multiple people in your party have the same color, you can tell them apart (we each had a different color, though, to make it easier).

You can see the pink magic band attached to her shoe in this pic.

Here's a detailed rundown of what we did, mostly for posterity, although maybe someone will find parts of it useful (you can stop reading here if you don't want the details, or just scroll through quickly to see the pics):

Day 0, Saturday:
Travel day. The flight was fine. My dad got upgraded to first class, but we ended up sort of taking turns sitting up there, and I ended up with the meal. I took some back to Jordyn, who was sitting with my dad at the time. We took Disney's Magical Express to our resort, which is a free shuttle bus, complete with a video playing the whole time. We checked in to the Contemporary Resort (CR), and requested adjoining rooms. There was some confusion because I'd requested "connecting" rooms online, thinking it meant they would be connected with a door between them, but turns out connecting only means next to each other, and adjoining means attached with a door between them. Yes, seriously. We ended up with adjoining rooms waaaay out at the end of the garden wing (which is separate from the big A-frame building you may recognize as the CR). We knew we'd be in the garden wing because that's what we paid for (cheaper), but we were way out at the end of a loooong hallway, almost as far of a walk as possible from the entrance. We had fantastic views of the lake, though (not the lake with the Magic Kingdom on the other side, though - no theme park view), and the Electric Water Pageant was basically right outside our windows each night. We ate dinner at The Wave in the lobby of the CR, because it got too late to try to go anywhere else. We didn't have a reservation, but got in pretty quickly, and it was good.

Watching the Electric Water Pageant from our room.
This wasn't the first night, but we saw it a few times.

Day 1, Sunday:
We had a reservation for breakfast at Chef Mickey's, which happens to be in the CR. It's a character dining restaurant, so Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto (the "fab five") walk around and go table to table while you eat, and stop to take pictures, give high fives, etc. Jordyn was scared at first, but then did sort of ok with some of the characters. She mostly wanted me or my dad to hold her and wouldn't really interact with them independently. She got a little better about this as the trip went on, but I do think character interactions will be better once she's a little older. It's a buffet, and the food was only ok - you're really paying for the character interactions here. Jordyn wore her Minnie Mouse costume/dress that she wore on Halloween... I got this for $5 on a Facebook yardsale page, and I saw the exact same one in the stores at Disney World for $50 or $60. Score!

We went to Epcot, where even after all the characters we'd just met, she wanted to see Pluto, who was just inside the entrance. We did that, then went into one of the "Innoventions" buildings and did this whole piggy bank thing. They give you an actual piggy bank that you take with you as you do a series of little activities/games representing making money, choosing to save some and spend some, investing and earning interest, etc. It would have been more educational for an older child, but Jordyn loved the piggy bank! The only thing was, the last step involves putting the bank into this thing and pressing a button, and it disappears for good with no warning. Jordyn was NOT happy about the piggy going bye-bye! I think she would've done fine, though, if she'd known and could have said goodbye to the piggy.

We did Spaceship Earth (with a fastpass), which Jordyn liked except for the "dinosaur" (I think it was actually a mammoth), and then Soarin' (also with a fastpass). Jordyn's too short and young for this one, so we used rider swap, which is a great feature at Disney that isn't really advertised. I first went with my mom and my dad stayed with Jordyn, but at the front of the line, we told the cast member we wanted to use rider swap and pointed to Jordyn. They gave us a pass that allowed my dad to ride after us in the fastpass line. So, in theory, he could've not used a fastpass for this ride since we used rider swap which puts you in the fast pass line anyway, but that's how I already had it set up. Also, the rider swap pass is good for up to 3 (or 4?) people, so that the person who first stays with the young child doesn't have to ride alone. So, I went back in and did Soarin' a second time with my dad while my mom stayed with Jordyn. I got to do several rides twice this way. :) And Jordyn had a great time running around in this little area with a few other young kids who were probably doing the same rider swap thing we were. We played with the jumping water, which I remember loving as a kid.

Jordyn was too busy eating her Mickey-shaped, chocolate-covered
rice krispie treat to smile for the picture!

We "washed" her hands in this pool after she finished the rice krispie treat!

We did Living with the Land and then Mission: Space with a fastpass. Well, my mom skipped Mission: Space, but we used the rider swap anyway and my dad and I just both went twice. :) There are two levels of this - green and orange. Both are the exact same shuttle simulation of blasting off to Mars, but the green one stays still and the orange one spins and you feel the g-force. There are all kinds of warnings and things that both are intense but the orange one is VERY intense, people with heart conditions shouldn't ride, etc, etc. I did the green one first while my dad did orange, and since it wasn't that bad at all (in my opinion!), I did orange the second time, which is definitely more intense, but I did fine and it was really cool. We got in line for the Nemo ride because we thought Jordyn would like it, and I was holding her while in line, and she put her head down on my shoulder and fell asleep. I wasn't even remotely trying to get her to sleep - we were in line for a ride for her! But she slept through it, and it wasn't really that good of a ride anyway. I put her in the stroller, lying flat, and she slept for a while. My dad did Test Track in the single-rider line while my mom and stayed with Jordyn. We did the Figment ride once she woke up, which is totally different than it used to be, and I found myself missing the old song, "Imaaaagination...". My dad met us in the part at the end of the ride where you can play with all kinds of interactive things, like in a children's museum. We never stepped foot in the World Showcase (except for dinner a few nights later).

We went to dinner at Be Our Guest, a new restaurant in the Magic Kingdom. It took weeks and weeks and a lot of persistence to get a reservation here, and at a reasonable time - it's the hottest new restaurant and almost impossible to get in, especially as last-minute as I did. But, my persistence eventually paid off, and I'm so glad it did. This place is amazing!! I highly recommend it, just book it early! It's themed as the castle from The Beauty and the Beast, and it's extremely well done. It's not character dining, but the Beast randomly walks through the dining room while you're eating, and then you can meet him in his "study" when you're on your way out. Jordyn wanted nothing to do with him, but my dad and I met him. The place is huge, and gorgeous, and very detailed, and the food was very good. They even have "grey stuff" on the dessert menu, which is a reference from the song - "try the grey stuff, it's delicious!" (it's sort of a cookies and cream mouse). They gave me a birthday card signed by Beauty and the Beast.

Here's the Beast walking by our table as we were eating.

You can kind of see some of the detail in the restaurant in the background.

After dinner we went on the carousel (the first of many times!), saw Mickey's Philharmagic, and then the fireworks (I think the show is called "Wishes") from right by the carousel, so you see fireworks on both sides of you. We didn't know which way to look! We walked back to the CR, which is one of the benefits of staying so close to the park.

Wearing 3-D glasses at Mickey's Philharmagic.

Day 2, Monday:
We went to Animal Kingdom. We had a fastpass for Primeval Whirl, which is kind of a cross between a roller coaster and tilt-a-whirl. We used rider swap, so I got to go twice. My dad stopped with Jordyn to meet Daisy Duck while my mom and I rode first. We went on Triceratops Spin twice, once earlier in the day and once later, and Jordyn really enjoyed it (it's similar to Dumbo but with dinosaurs). There was a little play area/playground kind of thing, which was fun, but Jordyn and I went down a slide together and she sort of twisted her leg and got really upset and refused to go down any more slides. We had lunch at Yak and Yeti (with a reservation), which is a really cool restaurant with all of these authentic art pieces from Southeast Asia. The food was good, and it was nice to sit down for a while. We saw the Lion King show which was great but Jordyn was tired and she feel asleep on my shoulder as soon as it was over. My dad was supposed to go on Expedition Everest (a roller coaster I wanted no part of) while my mom and I took Jordyn to the show, but it was broken down so he joined us for the show, and ended up going on Everest later when it reopened. While Jordyn napped, we had our fastpass time for the safari. Too bad she ended up missing it, but there's always next time! I told my parents to go first while I waiting with sleeping Jordyn, and then my mom and I went. Jordyn was still asleep when we got back, but she woke up as we were walking on the Pangani Trail, and we happened to be there right at 5:00 when the alpha male gorilla was being given treats to distract him while the other gorillas were taken inside for the night first. We got some great pictures and videos of this!

At Yak and Yeti.

Nap time! This is how she napped all week, after falling asleep in my arms.

On Tricera-Top Spin.

We took the shuttle bus over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and had dinner at Boma (with a reservation). First, we walked outside to try to see some animals from the overlook, but it was mostly too dark. We did see a bunch of flamingos. Boma is a buffet with some American food and some African food. It was delicious! I think it was our favorite meal of the week, or at least one of the best. The shuttle bus driver told us to ask for Maureen as our waitress because he'd really liked her. We didn't ask for her, but randomly got her anyway! Apparently they have three different rotations of food, so we only had one of them, but it was really good, and I definitely want to go back. Maureen brought us these really cute Mickey Mouse cookies made out of large and small oreos with hard icing on them, and a birthday cupcake for me (wearing the birthday pin gets you special treats sometimes!). Afterwards, we walked outside to a different area and saw a few animals on the savannah, including a giraffe pretty close up. We took a shuttle to the Magic Kingdom (MK) and then the monorail to the CR. My dad and I were going to stay at the MK for a while, but Jordyn melted down because she wanted me to go with her, so we all went back together.

Jordyn was very interested in my birthday cupcake
(I think she was blowing out the candle)!

Day 3, Tuesday:
We took the monorail to the MK, which meant we had to go all the way around since it only goes one direction the MK is the last stop when you leave from the CR. It was a nice ride, though. We had a fastpass for Jungle Cruise, which Jordyn liked. As a young child, I was absolutely terrified of the animals and screamed and cried and hid under my mom's legs the whole time. So, I'm glad Jordyn had a better experience! We did the Magic Carpets of Aladdin (similar to Dumbo), the Tiki Room, and met Chip and Dale (my dad and I did the shooting arcade while my mom waited in line with Jordyn). We did Peter Pan with a fastpass. While it's a pretty good ride, I don't understand why the standby line is so long - it's not THAT great! We did It's a Small World and the carousel, and had lunch sitting outside at the Pinocchio restaurant that's in that area.

On the Jungle Cruise.

Another Jungle Cruise pic, looking at the animals.

Magic Carpets of Aladdin

After lunch, we got on the railroad that goes all the way around the MK with the intention of inducing a nap, and it worked perfectly! I sat Jordyn on my lap facing me, with her legs straddling my waist. She leaned against my chest and was asleep pretty quickly. We used this strategy daily over the next few days, with one day being on the PeopleMover instead of the railroad. If she tried to fight it, I told her if she didn't take a nap we'd go back to the hotel for nap time, which she really didn't want to do. Unfortunately, the timing of her nap today coincided with the timing of the Festival of Fantasy parade, which we originally had a fastpass for, but I changed it because we actually found a great spot on the street (plus Jordyn was asleep). She slept in her stroller while my parents and I enjoyed the parade and took a bunch of pictures. I was planning to show them to her later, and never did, but she saw the parade in person on a different day. When Jordyn woke up, we went on the teacups and then the Barnstormer roller coaster both for the first time, both of which she loved. I'd changed our parade fastpass to Barnstormer, which turned out to be a good trade. We did Dumbo for the first time, including some playtime in the new indoor play area while you wait in line. We went to the "silly sideshow" thing, which is basically just a character meeting spot and met Minnie, Goofy (Jordyn wasn't a fan), and I think Daisy, and I don't remember (aka didn't write down!) the fourth.

Dumbo

Jordyn's all-time favorite character. I love this pic.

We had dinner at the Plaza Restaurant, which is a basic sandwich and ice cream shop. We had a reservation, but still had to wait a while (past the reservation time), so they gave us a paper fastpass that was good for any attraction (that takes fastpass) that day! Score! We almost used it on Winnie the Pooh after dinner, but there wasn't too long of a line, so just rode standby. Then my mom took Jordyn back to the hotel, and my dad and I stayed until closing (10pm that night). We made good use of the hour or so we had! We rode Seven Dwarfs Mine Train with the fastpass given to us by the restaurant, which was an incredibly good use of it because it's the hottest new ride that has the longest wait time of any ride these days (we're talking up to 180 minutes at times!). It's a great roller coaster intertwined with some really cute animatronic dwarf scenes. Very well done. Anyway, then we did Space Mountain and then Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which we barely made in time - we literally ran up to it! It's probably the furthest thing all the way across the park from Space Mountain. One good thing to know about Disney World is that you don't have to actually leave the park right at closing time; if you get in a line at 9:59 when the park close at 10:00, you'll get to ride! So that's pretty much what we did! Another not very advertised thing about Disney that's really cute is the Kiss Goodnight at the MK. About 30 minutes after official park close (which differs every night), there's this quick 2-3 minute show in the main hub by the castle. The castle twinkles and lights up different colors, music plays, and there's audio that says something about how we're glad you came to experience the magic today, we hope we made your dreams come true, etc., and it's just a nice low-key way to end the night. I'd heard about this but never experienced it, so we did that, and then walked back to the hotel.

Tired yet??

Day 4, Wednesday:
We took the monorail to the Transportation and Ticketing Center, which is only a stop or two from the CR, and then took the ferry boat across to the MK. We were trying to get there for "rope drop" or the official opening time, because there's a little show that accompanies it, and I really wanted to see it. But we missed it by about 20 minutes, oh well. We had a fastpass to meet Mickey Mouse at Town Square Theatre, and this is the only one of the full-costumed (where you can't see the person's face) characters who talks, and only in this location. We also met Tinkerbell, which I think we originally had a fastpass for but we changed it to something else because the line wasn't too long. We did Pirates of the Caribbean, Magic Carpets of Aladdin, and then Barnstormer two times - once with fastpass and once without, while my dad did Space Mountain with a fastpass.

Barnstormer. Not the greatest picture, but the best I can find.

We met up with my dad at the teacups, which we did once or twice. My mom got really nauseous this time, possibly because she was looking through the camera the whole time taking pictures. She actually had to sit down and rest for a while afterwards, and she was ok, but she didn't do the teacups again! We me the White Rabbit, and then had lunch at Cosmic Rays in Tomorrowland, which we weren't thrilled with. We did the Astro Orbiter, and then got on the People Mover for nap induction. :) While Jordyn napped, my mom sat with her and my dad and I did Space Mountain, and then we walked over and sat near the new Little Mermaid ride while we waited for our Seven Dwarfs Mine Train fastpass window to open (you have an hour window for rides, and 15 or 20 minutes, I think, for shows/parades). I got to ride Mine Train twice with rider swap with my mom, and then my dad went, using his fastpass, since the window was still open.

Jordyn woke up in time for the "Move It! Shake It! Dance and Play It! Street Party", which starts out as kind of a parade, but then the floats stop in the hub, and most of the characters get off the floats and you can dance in the street with them for a while. It's really cute, and it was so much fun! After that, we left MK and went back to Epcot for dinner at Teppan Edo in the Japan pavilion. It's a teppanyaki restaurant where the chef cooks right in front of you, and they do little tricks and things. It was pretty good, and Jordyn enjoyed watching the chef cook. IllumiNations started just as we were leaving, and we watched it from the balcony outside the restaurant, which was a pretty good view.

At the "Move It! Shake!" parade/dance party.

Dancing with Donald Duck!

Watching the chef cook at Teppan Edo.

Day 5, Thursday:
My birthday, and Jordyn gave me the gift of sleeping until 8:45! It's no wonder, considering all the activity of the past few days, huh?! So we got a later start that morning, but took the monorail to the MK for what was originally going to be our last park day. We did the Haunted Mansion with a fastpass, and changed our fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to a later time since we missed our original one, did the Little Mermaid ride, and Buzz Lightyear with a fastpass. This is a really fun ride because it's a combination of a ride and a video game. You sit in a little car that has built-in guns (is there a better word??) that you use to shoot at little targets all over the place, and it keeps your score. You could do the ride multiple times and try to keep beating your own score, or just try to beat others' scores in your party. We did Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor, which was really funny (it's basically a family-friendly comedy show), except Jordyn was hungry and therefore cranky and I somehow didn't have any food on me.

In line for the Little Mermaid ride.

This picture simply cracks me up!  

We had lunch at Tony's Town Square, where we originally had had a reservation for dinner that night, but I'd changed it to something else. We didn't have a lunch reservation, but we didn't have to wait too long. While we were waiting, they had a manned table with bubbles, so Jordyn had fun doing that. The Festival of Fantasy Parade started just after we finished lunch, so we watched it from Town Square, and Jordyn finally got to see it after sleeping through it a couple days before. Then we got on the railroad for nap induction, and got off at Frontierland. My dad and I did Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in the standby line because we were too early to use our fastpass, then we did it a second time with fastpass and got the rider swap, but my mom didn't want to do it, so we used the rider swap ourselves for a third time. Then I rode it a fourth time using my mom's fastpass! Yep, four times in a row! Jordyn had woken up, so my parents took her over to the carousel, and I met them there just in time to ride with them. We did Barnstormer and Dumbo again, my dad, Jordyn, and I did the teacups, and then at Jordyn's request, we tried to do Winnie the Pooh as our last ride of the day before we had to leave for dinner (it's right next to the teacups). Turns out, the ride was down, as happens to all rides on occasion, and Jordyn was pretty upset. We tried to meet Pooh and Tigger instead as there's a place to meet them right next to the ride, but they were leaving to take a break and we didn't have time to wait for them to come back plus wait in line to meet them. Jordyn was pretty upset, so we decided to do the teacups one more time to end on a positive note, so we did that, and then checked on Pooh and the ride was back up! So, we were able to do that ride in the end. We tried again (REALLY pushing it for time now!) to meet Pooh, but the characters were leaving for the night, and we really didn't have time anyway.

Lunch at Tony's.

Nap induction time! She's already two sheets to the wind.

On the Winnie the Pooh ride.

We took the boat to the Polynesian, where we had a reservation for dinner at O'Hana. We were really late for the reservation, and they were running behind anyway, so we had to wait a little while, but it was ok - we had time to freshen up a little bit in the bathroom and check out the gift shop. This is kind of an interesting restaurant. It's all you can eat, but sort of a reverse buffet. Servers bring food to the table, and there's a set menu of appetizers, salad, and a noodle dish, and then they bring huge skewers of meat, chicken, and shrimp to the table and if you want some of whatever is on that skewer, they push some down onto your plate. There's a guy with an accordion (or eukelele? I forget) who walks around and sings, and then at times he does some audience-participation things, like having people volunteer to get up and learn a hula dance. At one point, he had everyone who was there celebrating a birthday line up, he gave each of us a lei, and then he led the whole place in singing Happy Birthday to us.

Another birthday cupcake.

"Happy Birthday, Mommy!" Smooch!

After dinner, we went to get on the monorail back to the CR, only to find out it was closed. Turns out, the monorail stops running an hour (I think) after the MK closes each night. We ended up taking a taxi back to the CR (I didn't love the idea of no carseat, but didn't really have another viable option), because our only other choice was to take a shuttle bus to Down Town Disney and then switch to a resort shuttle to get to the CR, which could take 1.5 hours! We were totally exhausted, and definitely didn't have an hour and a half left in us. So, a frustrating end to the night, but a really great 40th birthday!


Day 6, Friday:
We'd bought 5-day park hopper tickets ahead of time, and didn't really have anything figured out for Friday. We thought about hanging at the pool, but of all the days we were there, this turned out to be the worst day for the pool, overcast with the possibility of showers. My dad and I decided to take Jordyn back to the MK, and my mom opted to stay back at the hotel. She'd come down with a cold, and was later diagnosed as bronchitis with an asthma component when she got home. She wasn't up for another park day, and actually kind of liked the idea of having a day to lay low by herself. She did end up spending some time at the pool, and took a nap, and then met us for dinner later.

It's easy and very inexpensive to add a day to a multiple-day ticket. We went down to the hotel concierge, and it cost us $10.65 each (for my dad and I; Jordyn didn't need a ticket at all because she was under 3) to go from a 5-day hopper to a 6-day. It's probably inexpensive because they know you'll end up spending more money in the park on food, souvenirs, etc. Anyway, we walked to the MK, and did the Carousel of Progress, met Buzz Lightyear, did the Buzz Lightyear ride, did the teacups, and met Pooh and Tigger. Jordyn and I did the Pooh ride, and then we all went on Barnstormer. I'd loaded us up with fast passes while on lines earlier, including Barnstormer, but for some reason my dad's magic band didn't register it. I think it was because we'd added the day and done it so last minute, although mine worked. The cast member at Barnstormer said he'd worked on fastpass and knew it wasn't a perfect system. He helped me take screen shots of our fast passes and said to show those if our magic bands didn't work at our other ones.

The Buzz Lightyear ride.
My dad couldn't get the right angle from his car to be able to see all of Jordyn!

My high score on Buzz Lightyear. :)

Pooh got a tentative hug.

Another great teacups shot.

Jordyn was going to ride on Dumbo with my dad and  I was going to sit out (I didn't see the need to take up a Dumbo all by myself!) but the ride was about to start and there was an empty Dumbo, so I jumped in. We had a late lunch at Pecos Bill, and randomly happened to get a table outside right next to the fence just as the Festival of Fantasy parade was about to start! So, we saw it again, and had a great, close view with just the fence between us and the parade. We got on the railroad for nap induction, and finally thought to leave the stroller behind and make a full circle on the train (you have to fold the stroller up to take it on the railroad, and it's kind of hard to fit it in some of the rows). Of course it started to rain while we were on the train, and I'd forgotten to cover the stroller with a poncho. My dad ran down as soon as he could get off the train to cover it/dry it off, and then I met him there with a sleeping Jordyn in my arms. We were able to move to a covered area and I put Jordyn in the stroller for the rest of her nap. Honestly, the rain didn't last too long and wasn't a big deal, and it was the only rain shower we saw all week.

Watching the parade while we ate lunch.

I love her face in this one!

There is an actual fire-breathing dragon in the Festival of Fantasy Parade!

My dad and I each rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad once using fastpass (I think) and rider swap, and then I did Haunted Mansion by myself while my dad stayed with sleeping Jordyn. I don't know why, but I love that ride! There was a group of middle-schoolers with a teacher/coach, and I ended up next to them in the beginning part when you're standing all together in the room and they turn the light off so it's pitch black. One of the girls grabbed on to me, thinking I was the teacher/coach, and was so embarrassed when the lights came on and she realized she'd grabbed a stranger! I tried to reassure her that it was fine, no big deal, but she was pretty mortified, and all the other girls were laughing.

We walked to Adventureland and woke Jordyn up as it was a few minutes after 6 and we didn't have much time before we needed to leave for dinner. We did the Jungle Cruise and then the Magic Carpets of Aladdin as our last ride. The Electrical Parade was starting as we were leaving, which we hadn't really seen, although Jordyn and my dad had seen bits and pieces of it while we were waiting and eating at the Plaza restaurant a few nights earlier. We watched most of it from just inside the gates on Main Street, and then took the boat to the Grand Floridian for dinner.

We ate at Citricos, which is one of the "fine dining" restaurants on the Disney property. It was pretty good, but not outstanding. We ordered this amazing dessert that had the most fantastic presentation I've ever seen - there was this huge, ornate piece of chocolate that literally stood upright on the plate (held in place with hardened chocolate sauce or something). Our waiter told us It's a Small World is going to be torn down to be replaced with a Frozen ride. I don't know if this is true or not, but it's pretty sad if it is, not that It's a Small World is my favorite ride, but it's a classic. I've also heard that the Frozen ride is going to be where Maelstrom used to be in the Norway pavilion at Epcot, so who knows. Anyway, after dinner we checked out the store downstairs, then took the monorail back to the CR. The Electric Water Pageant was taking place as we were walking to our room, so we watched the end of it (we'd already seen it at lease once or twice from our room on previous nights), and then went to our room.

Day 7, Saturday:
Travel day back to Boston. Uneventful flight. My dad was upgraded to first class again. We switched around a little, but he slept a lot of the time, and it's no wonder! We arrived to find about six inches of snow on the ground, so my dad and I shoveled my driveway immediately upon arrival. Quite a rude awakening back to reality, but it was nothing compared to what was to come in terms of snow, but I'll get to that in another post.

Shopping in a gift shop at the airport. I'm going to be
in SO much trouble when she gets a little older!

Whew! Six park days in a row. I don't necessarily recommend it, but as exhausted as I was, it was so much fun, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I miss Disney World, and want to go back!