Disney

 What an incredible trip we've just had!  We finally got our girl to Walt Disney World after years of joking that she's the only kid in the MidSouth who has been to Disneyland (not to mention TokyoDisney) and not WDW!  We left on Saturday, Oct 7 in the afternoon and arrived at our resort (Port Orleans - French Quarter side) that evening.  Tia came with us on the trip which made it all the better, and we met up with her for dinner at The Boathouse, then returned to our hotel to get ready for Day 1.

Our first day was at Animal Kingdom and we had early entry because we stayed on resort, so we headed back to the roller coaster (Everest) which turned out to be Evie's favorite ride.  We basically walked on to the ride and she loved it so much she wanted to go again immediately before the crowd grew.  I, however, did not love it and Seth needed some coffee, so Tia went with her on the 2nd spin while Seth and I got coffee for everyone and I tried to clear my head.

We had an excellent day, hitting up most of the rides in the park, and having my favorite meal of the whole trip (the Ahi Tuna Nachos at Yak and Yeti).  A favorite moment for me was when Evie wanted Olivia to join her on the dinosaur play area, saying that it would be okay for Tia to come because she was "basically a kid".  Another favorite was when Evie was interviewed by one of the cast members who is a zoologist, who was impressed by Evie's desire to become a vet and asked her what her plan was to achieve that, and gave her lots of advice on grades and schools and volunteering.

Donut as big as her head

At the petting zoo

Evie's new stuffy

We stayed until the park closed and then headed back to the hotel for some rest.  Day 2 was Hollywood Studios which impressed Seth and me much more than we both expected.  We thoroughly enjoyed the Rise of the Resistance ride in the new Star Wars area (probably my favorite ride in the park) and it definitely captured Evie's imagination since she kept saying she thought we had flown out of the park for a bit.  We had lunch at the 50s Prime Time diner which had a theme of having servers that are like "mom", telling you to eat your vegetables and get your elbows off the time (in a charming way).  Our server even fed Evie some bites of food, which was hilarious.  We saw Fantasmic! that evening, which was fun and a bit of a stroll down memory lane for me since I briefly worked on that show at Disneyland.  Our feet were already hurting after just 2 days of walking, and we still had our longest day in front of us!

Evie being fed by "Mom"

Tia bought Evie this Mickey necklace for the Fantasmic show

Waiting for Fantasmic to start

Epcot fireworks in the distance

Tuesday, Seth and Evie slept in while Olivia and I started the day at Magic Kingdom when the gates opened.  In fact, we got there before the gates opened and managed to get her a ticket to the Halloween special event that evening, despite the fact that there were signs saying they were sold out.  We had a great time recalling the two trips we had previously been on together to WDW (my 13th birthday when Olivia was 6, and in the summer of 2000 when I was 18 and Olivia was 12).  We rode the Winnie the Pooh ride which is in the location where Mr. Toad's wild ride was (one of the rides we recalled being allowed to go on by ourselves) and Haunted Mansion, which Olivia had a vivid memory of when she was allowed to ride with me and remembered being scooched up to me as close as could be when the ghosts look like they're in the car with you.  

Seth and Evie met up with us about an hour and a half after the park opened, and we had a great time the rest of the day, bouncing from ride to ride and comparing Magic Kingdom to Disneyland.

In line for Big Thunder Mountain

Evie was on the look out for a costume for the Halloween event that night and she chose this Pirates dress, for which she later was handed a "Best Costume" pin by one of the cashiers at the baked goods store.

Waiting for Tiki Room

Evie and Tia invented this funny game to occupy our time and enjoy our Mouse ears.

As we neared the beginning of the special event, we gave Evie some freedom to go off by herself (with her phone in possession and location sharing, of course) which she loved, while Seth, Tia, and I rode Small World.  Then we met back up with Evie and started our trick-or-treating event.  They had special characters out, Halloween lighting, and enormous scoops of candy being handed out.

Evie really enjoyed the Monsters Inc show because they would pick people in the audience to interview, so she got a moment in the spotlight

The funniest thing for me was when we rode the rockets in Tomorrowland, with the idea that I would try to get a picture similar to the one we have from 5 years ago with Evie and Seth riding the rocket.  I thought that the rockets would be big enough for me and Olivia to fit into one, and we were quickly proved incorrect.  We were struggling so much to fit into the rocket and stay buckled, I could hardly even pull up my phone to try to take a picture, so I did the best I could.

Me and Olivia squeezed into a rocket

The best shot I could get of Seth and Evie behind us

Another spin on Big Thunder Mountain (my favorite)

Waiting on the Halloween parade to start (sadly, I was sitting in gum)

It was 12:30 am before we left the park, but we had the most magical day

Wednesday, we took the day off from the park and spent the morning and early afternoon in the pool at our resort, which Olivia joined us for.  It was nice to rest our feet and get some aqua relief.  Then we had tickets for the Cirque de Soleil show, so we rode over to Downtown Disney for the show and had dinner at an Irish restaurant that had some Irish dancers visiting from Ireland.

At the pool

Thursday was our Epcot day and, sadly, Tia's last day with us.  We had a little rough start to the day by going on Mission from Mars which tested the intestinal fortitude of all the adults, but we recovered with coffee and breakfast and then had an amazing day enjoying the science rides at the front of the park and the countries at the back of the park.   We all fell in love with the Guardians of the Galaxy ride at this park and ended the day with fireworks and a promise to return together soon.

On Friday, we slept in a bit and then headed to Magic Kingdom again to re-ride our favorites and enjoy some rides we hadn't gotten to on the first go.

On the train

Seven Dwards, a new favorite

Space Mountain

That night, we left the park early since they were closing it for another Halloween event, and we got an Uber to an escape room which was fabulous and Houdini themed.  We escaped, of course.

Saturday was our last day with park tickets, so we went back to Epcot.  We re-rode our favorites and spent more time in the back of the park in the countries section, and Seth and I let Evie have some freedom to go and ride a ride by herself while we took a load off our feet.  We decided to leave the park around 7 and go check out the Polynesian which we had considered staying at.  We enjoyed their outdoor tiki bar and agreed it would be fun to stay there next time.  

This morning, we went to a character breakfast at a different resort, which was really fun and sweet.  Evie's first experience with Disney was meeting Minnie Mouse and Minnie was there at the breakfast, so Evie told her (at my encouragement) that she (Minnie) was the first character Evie ever met, and she showed Minnie the picture of them together.  Minnie gestured as though she recognized Evie and held her hand down low and brought it up to Evie's current height, as though saying, "How much you've grown!" and that, my friends, is the Disney magic.