Part 6: A day off from the parks - Chef Mickey's and Splitsville bowling

 I scheduled us one more character meal on this trip because Chef Mickey's was in our hotel, and I knew this would be a great experience for Emma.  Katie had done this one for dinner when she was 3, but Emma had never experienced this meal.  Its one of the best in "the World".  We did this for breakfast, and we had a great time.  Yummy food choices as well.  We got to meet all of Mickey's friends at this meal.

Emma meets Goofy:

Meeting the Chef himself!

Getting to meet Donald duck:

Pluto:

Mama's most favorite - Minnie!

So we took a break from the parks that day, and headed to Downtown Disney for some fun and shopping.  My girls have really taken to the pin collecting and trading when we go on these trips.  Emma LOVES trading with cast members when we are there, and its kinda neat.  We visited the biggest pin store in Disney and looked around for a while.

World of Disney Store - biggest store on property (with the spitting Stich outside):

So World of Disney had this new thing where you could stand in front of a mirror, and it would magically dress you in all of the princess outfits.  I took a video of it, and it is so cool to watch ( may try uploading some videos after I finish all these blogs), but here are 2 shots of Emma in her princess outfits:

The Lego store (thank goodness the girls aren't into Legos - can you say, expensive??!)

So one of our new adventures this year was Splitsville in Downtown Disney - the new bowling alley - Wow!  This might be in our top 2 of favorite things on the trip.  It was so much fun.  They have the music playing (non Disney dance stuff) and we had a waiter serving us while we bowled.  The food was amazing (as were the margaritas!).  The girls and Mark and I had a super fun time here.  Katie and I found out that we aren't that good when the bummers are down!  They put the bummers up only for Emma, so Emma and Mark ended up kicking our butts!  Tons of  fun.

Our groovy bowling shoes:

 I wanted to steal one of these bowling balls:

 Little lefty:

Lastly, before we left Downtown Disney we had to go to our favorite candy store: the Candy Cauldron - where we all picked a treat.  Katie filled a mixed bag of candy, while Emma and I decided to split a Perry the Platypus caramel apple - it was awesome.  Mark decided to get something at the cigar store instead of the candy store.

Another cool thing we did for the first time was visit the Make-your-own-tshirt place, and the girls made some new sleep shirts for themselves.  They came out really cute.

All in all we had a great time on our day off from the parks.  Downtown Disney was really fun, and I think the Carrolls will definitely do Splitsville again next trip.

Part 5: Sleep late, then Animal Kingdom and an evening at Magic Kingdom

So those of you who know me (and assuming you read this blog, should be everyone!), know I do Disney "commando style":  there is no sleeping late, and we will get our money's worth!  But with that being said, I knew that going in July and for an entire week, we may have to make some adjustments to the normal plan.  Katie is just like me in that she could go early every day in Disney (so proud of my little trooper), but Mark and Emma do not always share that sentiment.  So after 2 early mornings, we decided to sleep a little later the 3rd morning.  We took our time and then ventured around the hotel some more, and the Polynesian resort before heading to Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom.

Mark ready to go after a nice sleep in:

Some amazing views from our hotel:

We stopped in at the Polynesian resort to do some sight seeing and shopping.  Its one of the prettiest hotels on property.  

I made a late lunch reservation for us at Animal Kingdom, so we headed in around 1 pm.

We ate at the Yak and Yeti for lunch, and it was delicious.  The desserts were the best part:

As we were walking out of lunch, we caught a little bit of the afternoon parade.  Short and sweet!

After a few more shows and rides at AK, we went back to the hotel to rest for a little bit before heading to the Magic Kingdom for the first time on the trip.  We ended up doing the Magic Kingdom in 2 evenings instead of heading there in the morning.  Not my original plan, but we actually got almost everything done with very few waits.  We did Adventureland and Frontierland this evening, and went back a few evenings later to do New Fantasyland and Tomorrowland.  The only thing I am sorry we missed was meeting Merida from Brave.  We just never got there in time to see her.

Riding the Magic Carpets:

One of my favorite things in MK is the nighttime light parade.  As brave as Emma has been, she still does not care for Fireworks, so we didn't get to do Fantasmic with her yet (next trip), and she wasn't crazy about the fireworks in Magic Kingdom.  So we took advantage of this, and watched the night parade (with little or no crowd) and took advantage of riding rides during the Fireworks show.  The park was open until 11 pm that night, so we stayed late and practically walked right on Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain.  (Yeah!  Love when these things happen in my happy place)

So we closed the park down at 11 pm after riding a few more rides and headed back to the hotel.  Have I mentioned how AWESOME it is to stay on the monorail - no huge lines to get on the bus.  We may never go back again!  I knew we were eating a late-ish breakfast the next day at Chef Mickey's so it was a good night to stay up and party Disney style!

Part 4 - a day in Hollywood Studios

We headed to "the Studios" the next day, and we had to make sure to get their early because we knew the line at Toy Story Mania would be crazy later that day (trust me, been there, done that before).  The big theme at the studios right now is all the Monsters University stuff.  We saw the movie right before we left on the trip, and it is definitely hilarious.  We were all dying to meet Sulley and Mike Wazowski.

Monsters University characters in topiary:

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip:

Waiting in line at Toy Story:

So I'm trying to breed at least one roller coaster rider in my family, and I think I may have finally succeeded.  Emma's first roller coaster was Rockin' Roller coaster at the Studios.  I'm not going to lie.  She got a little scared once she actually saw the car take off so fast, and I thought she may not ride it, but she was really determined.  So I told her to close her eyes when it took off, and as soon as we took off and went into the first loop she screamed: "this is awesome!"  Yeah!

Emma also got picked to dance in one of the little street performer shows at the studios.  So much fun!

When we met back up with Mark and Katie after riding Rockin' roller coaster and Tower of Terror (which Emma did decide once was enough for that one!) they were waiting in line for an animation class.  This was a very cool thing that we have never done before.  Katie really enjoyed this.

Meeting up with Wreck It Ralph and Vanillope:

Meeting Frozone and Mr. Incredible - this was one of the funnest character interactions on the trip.  They really played it up:

So, like I mentioned, Monsters Inc is very big right now in Disney.  In fact, our wake up call every morning was from Mike Wazowski.  We did get to meet these celebrities in the back of the studios:

We had lunch at Sci Fi Dine in Theater.  I had eaten there once before a very long time ago, and I know this place doesn't get great reviews, but our meal was very good.  Here are Katie and Emma in our lunch "car".

So we probably left the studios about 3 or 4 in the afternoon.  We decided to take it easy that evening and hang out at the hotel.  Our hotel  had a "community hall" where they had free (or not so free) activities for kids and families.  The girls and I decided to make some ceramics while we were there.  Emma made a Belle "box", and Katie painted a Mickey Mouse mug.  I painted a spoon rest for my kitchen.  They actually came out pretty cute!

I'll try and remember to take some pictures of our creations to add at the end of these blogs, but right now I don't have a picture.  I also need to snap a shot of Emma's caricature from the artist at the hotel because it is precious.  Lots of fun memories!