DisneyWorld 2014

     Our next day found us making our first visit to DisneyWorld. It was the one and only day of rain and crummy weather that we endured. We started off at Animal Kingdom.

   
    Drizzly and cold did not deter the girls. Donning their ponchos and Mickey ears firmly attached they nabbed some autographs from Chip and Dale.

     On the up side, the cooler weather brought out a lot of animals on the safari ride! Giraffes, hippos, zebras, and these guys above were all out and about. The girls were selected during The Festival of the Lion King as part of the audience participation. They loved it!

Up close and personal

Jungle drums... the natives are restless!

     We rode several of the rides then we loaded up and headed to Magic Kingdom for the remainder of the day. This was Belle's first time that she could remember (she was there several years ago when she was just an infant).

At the entry to the Magic Kingdom

     My personal goal was to capture her first reaction to seeing Cinderella's Castle. Five years ago, when we were last here with them, Tori was about Belle's age. The look on her face was priceless but alas, wasn't captured in a picture. This time, I was ready.

Belle seeing the Castle for the first time

     A big part of our trip was planned to find, and get autographs, of the various Disney Princesses and characters. Unless you have been living under a rock this year, you know that the characters from the movie "Frozen" have taken the world by storm. Anna and Elsa have their own meeting area and the line forms early and grows throughout the day. In fact the reported wait time for the line routinely goes to 120+ minutes and stays there. That's longer than you will wait for most any ride on the entire DisneyWorld property!! But we had a plan. More on that later. 

     One of my personal favorites is Tinkerbelle. She jabbered constantly with the girls and was impressed to find out that Belle had the "same name" as her.

Nothing like the wonder of Disney through the eyes of a child!!

     Over the rest of this day, and the next three more, we explored the Disney parks. Amanda found that a great way to meet princesses is through the "Breakfast with the Princesses". This takes place in Epcot in the country of Norway on the World Showcase. Here while you enjoy a great buffet breakfast, a variety of Princesses come to your table to visit. Also throughout the meal there is a grand parade where the younger visiting princesses get to meet their adoring subjects. 

Aurora

Cinderella 

Snow White

Even the "Big Kids" get to meet their favorites. Ariel from The Little Mermaid

In the Grand Parade

     After breakfast, it was out exploring the rest of Epcot. 

Alice in Epcot

Mary Poppins in England

     And what visit is it without meeting the main Mouse and his sweetheart. 

A good day! Also bribery picture for the teen years.

     The next morning was dubbed: Operation Frozen. Amanda got up early and Brad drove her to Magic Kingdom before opening. Then he drove back to get the others. Meanwhile Amanda got in line and, upon Magic Kingdom's opening, she zipped over to get a place in line for Anna and Elsa's autographs. Brad picked up the rest of the crew and dropped them off to head to Magic Kingdom (while he parked the car and caught up with them later). Things didn't go quite as planned since they opened the gates earlier than posted but we still had only about a 45 minute wait in line. But we were successful!! Tori wore her Elsa dress, Haley dressed as Anna, and Belle as Rapunzel (complete with long braid).

The much anticipated and sought after Anna...

... and Elsa with her fellow princesses.

And Rapunzel

This one's for Brad. :)

     The lighting of Cinderella's Castle every evening is also a Frozen Spectacular. Here, after scenes from Disney classics are projected along the sides of the Castle, Anna and Elsa come out with their friends Kristoff and Olaf. Through an elaborate story, the Castle comes to light looking like it is draped in glimmering icicles. I've been to DisneyWorld many times over the years and this was, in my opinion, the most impressive display that I've seen.

What can I say but Wow!!

     On our last day we went to Hollywood Studios. Here we took a picture of the iconic Sorcerer's Apprentice hat. This turned out to be fortunate as we found out later that the hat is scheduled to be demolished later in 2015!

      Among the streets of the park are millions of lights and displays outlining the buildings. This is impressive to behold and periodically, snow drifts down over those assembled below. 

     Thus ended our trip to Disney. The next day we swam with the manatees in Crystal River. The air temp was cold but the water was a constant spring fed 75 degrees. Which is why the manatees come in from the ocean every winter. Our first stop was populated by hundreds of manatees that we couldn't see. There were so many that they had stirred up the bottom and visibility was next to nothing. We moved to a different spot that was much clearer. Here we met a manatee we nicknamed "Olaf" (in keeping with the general Frozen motif). We called him that because he liked warm hugs. LOTS of them. He approached us and had no fear whatsoever. He was right up in your space and loved to be rubbed and touched. He even would place your hand right where he wanted it to rub his belly! I think that Amanda crossed this one off of her bucket list.

Loved to have his tummy rubbed!

Approached us and loved the interaction.

     That evening we trooped out to Downtown Disney. A spot for that last minute shopping for gifts/trinkets, eating, and just generally having fun. The Lego store is a must see. Here there is every Lego part known to man and some very impressive Lego statues.

Buzz and Woody made from Lego's

     We took a day and drove east to Flagler Beach. Here the girls have some relatives that we visited. A great lunch on the pier then down to the ocean for some splashing around and building of sand castles. As you can tell from the picture, the girls had a great time.

Flagler Beach. Who can resist playing in the surf ???

     The next day we had to pack up and head our separate ways. We took Belle with us in the car and the others flew back to Kansas. Belle stayed with us in Texas for a week before we drove up to Kansas for the holidays. We all had a great time and I look forward to meeting up with them again in another five years or so and doing it all over again!!