Thursday, February 19, 2009

Day 3 - WDW Vacation

The second full day of our vacation found all of us meeting in the morning to go to Animal Kingdom for a character breakfast at the Tusker House restaurant. It was still unseasonably cold, and the morning air was quite chilly. The Disney bus system is quite amazing, but we were left waiting for nearly 30 minutes before our bus came by.

We enjoyed the breakfast buffet, and after a short while Daisy, Goofy, Mickey and Minnie all took turns stopping by to take a picture with us. Lexie put her autograph book to good use, and she even got to dance with Daisy in a conga line.

After breakfast we set out to explore Animal Kingdom. We all boarded the Kilimanjaro Safari and saw as much wildlife as I can recall seeing; the highlight being a rhino that was literally running from field to field as we drove by. We spent the morning in the park, finding Baloo and King Louie taking pictures in one area, and Pocahontas signing autographs in Camp Mickey-Minnie. Luckily for Grandma they found Pocahontas, she had told Lexie she would most likely see her but didn't know if or where to locate her. Good job Grandma! Lexie had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma, they spoiled her with some Mickey ears and got a fun princess tatoo on her hand that she made sure to show all the characters throughout the day. She even remembered that it would last "4 days".



Later, we took one of our many trips to the Baby Care Center. These facilities were located in every park (although the Animal Kingdom version was Stacie's favorite), and are a wonderful place to change diapers, make bottles, or just catch your breath in a quiet place. Jaden particularly enjoyed the reprieve from his car seat and would stretch out on the padded changing tables. After lunch at the Pizzafari, we left the park only to find Pluto, Meeko from Pocahontas, and Br'er Bear nearly begging for someone to take pictures with, and Lexie was only too happy to oblige.

After some down time in the hotel, we hopped on the Monorail for a short trip to the Grand Floridian for the opening event of the NECA Convention. Dad has been president of the local NECA chapter for four years now, and this was when the torch began to be passed to the next president. Dad was recognized and thanked for all of his leadership and service, and we were excited that we could be there with him. As a surprise, Donald Duck made an appearance, and then later Mickey and Minnie did as well. Everyone had a great time meeting them, and this was the first time that we were able to take pictures with Jaden and the characters. It was a great night of food, friends, and family! Lexie particularly enjoyed the chocolate cake, cookies, and ice cream for dinner, but so did her Mom.

We closed the night with a quick trip to Downtown Disney to window shop. Grandma and Grandpa helped the kids get to sleep and we wandered around the massive World Of Disney store. We took pictures in front of Daisy and Donald, and Stacie managed to find a mad face to match Donald's. Sandwiches from the Earl Of Sandwich finished off our night, and we headed home to get some sleep!

1 comment:

Amy said...

I can still hear Lexie at the dinner after she got back to the table from visiting Donald, "Oh no! I forgot to show him my tattoo! We have to go back and show him!" She is SO funny. I also love the irony that you actually saw Pocahontas after Mom promised Lexie she would be there. What are the odds of that? I don't think I've ever seen her in the parks. That was lucky. (She is Josh's daughter after all.)I also heard about Lexie calling the raccoon from Pocahontas the "kitty". Hilarious. The NECA dinner was awesome, my personal favorite was the Tortellini and bacon wrapped sausage thingys. A personal low point of my day was being practically the only person at the table that didn't win anything in the prize drawing... :o( That's ok though, I got kisses from Donald and he even pushed Nate out of the picture. What a flirt!