Spring 2019 Disney Trip - Disney Springs, Epcot and Hollywood Studios

It's been a minute since I've written anything on this blog, but I thought I'd take a moment to share our recent family trip to Disney World!

The last full week of April was Easter, my Mom's birthday and Meggy's birthday. What better way to celebrate than going to Disney! Our family had been planning on taking two days to drive down, but after a few road trips with wren, Thomas and I decided for everyone's sanity, Wren and I would fly down, and he and Meggy drove down in ONE day! Meggy was such a trooper, and she was very encouraging to Thomas that they should keep going every time they took a bathroom/gas break. Wren was very good on the flight down, other than the fact that she refused to go in the baby carrier. That wasn't too awesome when I was running through the Atlanta airport carrying her on my hip with two bags, but we made it (as the last ones on the plane) and somehow got to Orlando in one piece.

Charlottesville Ariport

Our family stayed at the Art of Animation resort for the second time and we loved it yet again.

Art of Animation Lobby

We got to spend our first night in a Little Mermaid room. There's just something about starting your  vacation with a larger-than-life Ariel swimming right outside your room! The girls loved it, and I LOVED taking a shower in Ariel's treasure cave! The rest of our trip was spent in a Finding Nemo family suite, which was so fun. The family suites come with one master bedroom and a'living' area with a sofa bed, and a tabletop/murphy bed.
Mom arrived two days after we did, and stayed with us in the Nemo room. We had brought Wren a crib mattress which we set up on the floor of Thomas's and my room, which was so great. Wren made everyone aware that she was graciously allowing Mommy and Daddy to stay in her room, and she enjoyed having her own little bed to sleep in. Housekeeping set up her animals on her bed almost every day, which was super sweet.

Our first full day was nice and relaxing! Wren did not sleep well (which had been expected, so I was tired but not grumpy) so we got a late start, and went over to Disney Springs.

"Look at all the Mickeys Mom!"

 I had not been to Disney Springs since they added the huge middle part, and it was a little overwhelming. It's beautiful though, and a shopper's paradise. The reason we went there first, was to get our annual passes all set up! Pro Tip: We had all bought 5-day passes when we reserved the room to our trip back in November, which paid for around 2/3rd of the pass. If you don't use a day on your pass before upgrading to an annual pass, you just make up the difference. This made everything a little more affordable, especially since we knew we wanted to come back before the end of the year.

Once we had our passes all set up (for three of us, Wren is under 3 and therefore free!) Thomas and I took a poll - between the two of us - and headed to Epcot after lunch!

Trying some violet lemonade, yummy!

Epcot is Thomas's and my favorite park, and we were so excited to share it with our girls this time. The Food and Garden Festival was going on while we were there  - also my favorite! - which meant that Thomas got to start his goal of hitting all 18 festival food booths! We also got to try one of the two playgrounds that had been built, which was so fun for the kiddos. I don't think we even went on any rides, just had a good afternoon/evening.

Playing in the Music Garden

The last thing we did was go meet Mickey, Minnie and Goofy. I wanted to do this first thing so that I'd know how Wren would react to the characters. When we took Meggy when she was 2 1/2,she was extremely cautious about the fur characters (Which are the characters with a face mask like Mickey, Pooh Bear, Stitch, etc) and loved the face characters (Princesses, Peter Pan, anyone with their own face who can also talk)  I had NO idea how Wren would react, but I wanted her to get used to them if she was less than thrilled.

I didn't need to worry, but I am SO glad that I took the time to go and see Mickey first. Wren was SO excited, and as soon as we rounded the corner and saw the characters interacting with people, Wren reached out and yelled "GOOFY! TOUCH ME, TOUCH MY HAND GOOFY!!" while I did my best to shush her and hold her back. She was SO excited, and could barely contain herself. Goofy is her favorite character, but she gave Mickey Mouse so many kisses and giggled when Minnie tried to twirl her, but ended up hitting her in the face instead. Wren thought that was the funniest thing.

The fact that Wren loved the fur characters was such a relief, as we ate breakfast with them the next morning for Meggy's birthday! Meggy love love loves the Disney Jr tv show Vampirina, and that was the one character she asked to see. I discovered that Vampirina appears during the Disney Jr breakfast in Disney's Hollywood Studios, and got reservations for the morning of her birthday! Meggy was so extremely excited and was dancing on air all morning, and Wren also caught the mood. Wren was excited for Princess Sophia and Doc McStuffins, and everyone had a good time. We managed to eat breakfast somewhere in there, haha.

Loving Princess Sophia

Vampirina the non-scary vampire!

After breakfast we had fastpasses for the Disney Junior Music Dance party, which I had thought Wren would really like. I was quite mistaken at that. Somewhere in the middle of the show, she threw a fit (Thomas and I decided later that she had wanted to go up on the stage with the dancers/characters, but we're still not totally sure what set her off) She and I had to go to the back and calm down, but Meggy had a great time, and even made it on the dance camera!

After that we went to Toy Story land, which both girls were enchanted by. We had fastpasses for Midway Mania, and then stood in line for the Alien spinning saucers. As we stood in line, we could see the Slinky Dog roller coaster, which Wren kept asking to go on. She didn't understand that she was just too small for some thing! After the Alien ride (which Wren asked to go on again even before we left the ride) I was getting tired, so we headed back to the resort. On our way to our room, we ran into Beema! She had just gotten there, and was on her way to get her annual pass!

The birthday girls!

For the last part of Meggy's birthday, we went back to Hollywood Studios to see the nighttime show "Fantasmic!" where Mickey Mouse goes through his dreams, and even his nightmares! Meggy described it as "A little good, a little scary, and a little loud."