On Thursday, TO's b'day, we were scheduled to have breakfast with the princesses in "Norway" at Epcot--thank you Make-a-Wish! This was probably the coolest thing of the trip, although it really was becoming hard to pick just one. Right after we got into Epcot, we caught an autograph and picture from Daisy Duck. And learned that we could use TO's guest assistance pass to get to the front of the character lines as well as the ride lines.
The breakfast was awesome. While we were waiting to get in, a few of the girls from Norway working at Epcot sang TO a birthday song--and dance--in Norwegian. After we got called in to the breakfast, we met with Belle in her big yellow ball gown. A Disney photographer took some shots of the kids and the whole family with Belle and before we left we were given a 5X7 and 4-3X5s of each pose (one with just kids and one with the whole family). There was a buffet with fruits and pastries and eggs, bacon, sausage and a potato casserole were served family-style right at our table. Then after we started eating the servers brought out a birthday cupcake and sang to TO. And then the best part--Snow White, Princess Aurora, Jasmine and Ariel took turns at our table. Each signed TO's autograph book and took a picture with the kids. We weren't able to find Ariel in any of the parks and it was great to have her at breakfast, as she was the top of our favorite princesses list.
After breakfast, we decided to walk through all the countries at Epcot on our way back to the front of the park where we would catch the Finding Nemo ride and a few more characters. After only a few hours in the park, we were still at the back end and now we were dragging 3 kids through the park--everyone was worn out from Magic Kingdom the day before.
Needless to say, we opted to skip the ride and the characters and headed back to the village instead. After a rest (and some lunch) we decided to try out the dinosaur mini-golf course at the village. I don't think that we laughed so hard with the kids in some time. We each had our own ball and shared a putter--a good choice if I give my mommy-self a pat on the back. There were 2 holes that included dinosaurs that spit water at you when you made the final putt into the hole. What a riot. I think P spent more time trying to trick the kids into getting soaked than he actually spent golfing.
That evening after supper was Winter Wonderland in the village--which included a visit from Santa. Because the kids were already so tired, we skipped to the Santa visit and avoided the rest of the activities. The kids got 'scanned' by an elf and declared good enough to get to pick out a present. The girls each picked out an 18 inch doll and LE picked out a "Learning to Share" board game. Then we waited for about 30 minutes for our turn to see Santa. Once we were up there, and he found out it was TO's b'day, he had the entire audience sing to her and also had her head back to the elf to pick out a 2nd present--the Operation game this time.
Friday we decided to head to Sea World, but we were going to have lunch first. Then while we were having lunch, LE suddenly got really pale and started complaining about not feeling well. So, we ended up skipping the parks that day and hung out around the village. We didn't do much that night. Rested up and watched some movie--ordered pizza in--the village had it's own pizza delivery service.
Saturday, after breakfast, we headed out to Sea World. LE still wasn't feeling the best, so we decided to take advantage of the free stroller that we were offered. We were able to catch a dolphin show shortly after we arrived and then we got a chance to feed the dolphins. The trainer and the husband started talking breeding and care of dolphins, which resulted in the trainer staying right with us--and having the dolphin come up to the side multiple times for the kids to pet.
We had lunch at Sea World and checked out the sharks, penguins and manatees, all en route to the Shamu show. Unfortunately LE was starting to run a bit of a fever by then and we decided we needed to skip the show and head back to the village. We rest of that day too.
Sunday--our last day for park visiting--we decided to head to Disney's Animal Kingdom. We caught the safari and saw a great selection of animals. Lions, giraffes, elephants--including a baby, rhinos, ostriches, etc. We walked through a few animals exhibits, had lunch and then caught the Expedition Everest ride. Which, after riding, TO, LE and I--the husband stayed with CD instead f riding--decided that it was too much ride for us.
Then we headed back over to Magic Kingdom to catch our favorite rides one last time and do some more souvenir shopping. We finally met Cinderella and also Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen. Thunder Mountain, the Dumbo ride, and Goofy's Barnstormer. TO picked out a stuffed dalmatian, LE picked out a view master, and CD picked out a magnetic fairy play set.
Sunday was a busy and long day, but we were glad we fit it in. In the end, we ended up missing the Universal parks because of our down day, but we're glad we caught the Animal Kingdom. P wishes that we had more time to explore Animal Kingdom and Epcot, but agreed that they're not really the kid-friendliest.
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