The Rest of Disney and fun at the Springs

So now we get to the whole point of this trip. After Animal Kingdom we drove to an RCI resort and met up with my brother and his family. It was all a bit of a mess up. I haven't seen my brother for four years but on our arrival, he was on the phone trying to sort out a problem with the keys. Oh well!! At least we finally got to see each other again. We spent the week in 3 bedroom flat in a residential area of Orlando. Not really what we had expected from an RI booking but it was great.

The first day we decided to hit the Magic Kingdom and it was utter chaos. Never go to the Magic Kingdom on a Saturday. Trying to sort out everything for ten people had me going crazy. I promise that we are never going to Disney with my husbands family. Helping 22 people around Disney may be the death of me. It was a long and exhausting day but the kids still had fun and really enjoyed spending time with their cousin. The girls dressed in their Elsa costumes and really hit the Disney vibe in full.

We discovered that kids will keep themselves quiet at Disney once provided with stickers from the gate.

On Sunday we took a break from Disney and headed to Wekiwa Springs. It was such a great idea and so nice to escape from everything. We floated in the spring, paddled down the river in a canoe and let the kids loose in a playground. I highly recommended a trip there!!

Monday we stayed at home so I could get some work done and my brother could study. Boring but the truth of life:)

Tuesday was back to the Magic Kingdom for another fun day. This time we went for breakfast at the Crystal Palace. That place has become super expensive. Well, it certainly is pricey when your 4-year-old eats one Mickey Waffle and you just paid $20 for her breakfast. The kids loved seeing the characters but I think this is one that we will skip in future. Zoey got to go on Under the Sea five times and she loved that. We did a number of character meetings today. The highlight for me was Tiana. Ewan didn't want to see the princess's as he claimed that was boring girl stuff. Tiana told my daughter that all boys are frogs and brothers are especially bad. Loved that.

Wednesday was a quiet day at Disney Springs. Did a bit of shopping and let the kids go crazy at the Lego store and World of Disney.

Thursday we hit EPCOT. FINALLY!!! My favourite park of them all. It was super quiet and we managed to get there in time for park opening. Got to walk straight on to a number of rides. In a bad moment, Andrew managed to lose his Magic Band. If anyone has a great idea for keeping them on, please let me know?

I am going to end off here for today as I want to devote a whole post to the awesome that is EPCOT!!

US Trip Week 1 Part 2

Day 3

We had a sleep in and a slow start to the day. Zoey was running a temperature during the night. We managed to break it with Calpol but it was a difficult night with lots of crying. In the morning she was fine and I still don't know what caused the fever. Possibly a bug caught on the plane.

Breakfast was at the Pop Century Food Court. 

TIP

Split a kids meal between two younger kids. Disney is pricey but the meals are huge. We just asked for an extra plate and bought a second Mickey Milk. It worked out much cheaper and both kids were full. Andrew and I found the coffee to be great value as you can have as many refills as you like.

After checking out of the resort we drove to Legoland. The park was deserted as it was closed for the day but we had reservations at the hotel. I found the hotel to be very well designed and perfect for kids. My children had a ball playing with lego in the lobby, swimming with giant lego pieces in the hotel pool and dancing to disco music in the elevator. I filmed a YouTube video of the hotel and I will let you know as soon as it's posted online. 

In the evening we had dinner at the hotel's buffet restaurant, Bricks. The food was decent but nothing was particularly exciting. One odd feature was being asked to pay a tip for your waiter before the meal. I had pre-paid for the meal months ago and couldn't remember the price. I ended up tipping 24% on a buffet. The service was good but not worth that. Throughout the entire meal, the waitress will push you into paying $10 extra to have Smores down by the lake. It sounds lovely but I don't like pushy service and we had just paid a large amount of money for this meal. My kids didn't want to do the Smores as they had both eaten plenty of desserts. Lucky us:)

Day 4
Legoland
Ok, straight off the bat... not my favorite park. It all looked a bit sad and dated after the excitement of Disney. I know that its a new park but it doesn't feel that way. This may be due to the fact that plastic really doesn't do well in the sun and Lego is made of plastic.  However, the kids loved it. They loved the mini rides and the brick building centers. Ewan spent 30 minutes in a Mind Storm class and learned so much. The classes are free but you will need to book as you walk in on a busy day. Luckily for us, the park was not but busy. We had extra brick time thanks to staying at the hotel and took full advantage of that. We got to ride a few of the bigger attractions twice in a row which was great. I found the rides fairly tame and this park is really meant for the younger kids.

Day 5.
Disney
We spent the previous night at the All Star Movies resort. The whole family loved it and I am certain we will stay here again in the future. We got the Toy Story section and the kids loved walking through the door to Andy's bedroom. Not going to lie... parents loved it too. In the morning we got going super early and headed to Animal Kingdom. We couldn't get fast passes for Flight of Passage so made the choice to run as the park opened. We still queued for almost 70 minutes but the ride was worth every minute. I was lucky to be able to get us a fast pass for the Navi River ride while we waited in the queue for Flight of Passage. So here is a big DISNEY TIP... keep checking the app for fast passes. I am not going to chat about the amazing Avatar rides here as I have an in-depth chat about the rides on my vlog. All links will be posted soon. Lunch was at Sat'uli Canteen. The food was fantastic and pretty reasonable by Disney standards. I had the cheeseburger pods and I would highly recommend them but Andrew had one of the bowls and we both agreed that was better value. In the afternoon we hit all the shows and the kids loved that. Kali River Rapids was my four-year-olds favorite ride of the whole day and she just wanted to go again. We all loved Kilimanjaro Safaris. In the evening we watched the Rivers of Light. It was pretty but not as spectacular as I expected. Perhaps I will grow to love it.
In the end, we all loved Animal Kingdom. As we are from South Africa it was a park that we avoided in the past. I guess we felt that we had probably seen most of the animals in the natural habitat. Boy were we wrong. I saw plenty of animals that I have never seen. We all love the rides at Animal Kingdom and after 11 hours in the park, we had still had plenty to see on our next visit. In fact, it is now my second favorite park after EPCOT.

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