Walt Disney World Adventure: Part 1 | Land

In March, we embarked on the vacation of a lifetime....4 days at Walt Disney World parks followed by a 3 night cruise to the Bahamas.  Wow.  How blessed we feel to have been able to share this as a family and with our friends, the Blakemores and the Chases.  It was absolutely incredible.

We stayed at the Art of Animation Resort, Disney's newest family accommodations.  The resort had suites in three sections: Lion King, Cars, and The Little Mermaid.  Our suite was in the Cars section.  

Here we are checking in:

Other Resort Features and Photos:

There was ONE afternoon where it was ALMOST warm enough to swim.  Hadley dove right in!

After settling into our rooms, our first stop was Downtown Disney, where we had fun exploring shops and finding a few trinkets to bring home.

Kylee and Georgia

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let Down Your Hair!"

Dinosaur Attack!

Pluto Hat

New Doc McStuffins friends!

Over the course of the next 4 days, we visited all the Disney Parks and had an absolute blast!

Day One: Hollywood Studios

 Right when we walked into the park, we spotted Pluto.  It was a great way to start the day!

We had lots of photo opportunities while waiting in line to see the characters from Toy Story:

Connor has been chosen....

Kylee, too!

A crate full of monkeys!

Shooting targets on the Toy Story ride:

The little ones took in A Great Muppet Adventure...here they are all ready to go in their 3D glasses!

 Silly faces...

 We ended the day by taking in Fantasmic....always an incredible show, even when it's cold outside!

Day Two: Magic Kingdom

We began our day at our favorite park with a Mary Poppins siting.  The fun continued as we took on the Magic Kingdom in our matching shirts, custom created by the amazing Trena Chase using our favorite Disney characters (Brandon=Star Wars, Lindsey=Pooh, Connor=Pluto, Kylee=Princesses, Hadley=Princesses).

The Ladies on Main Street USA

The Carlson Crew

The Men

The whole crazy gang (minus Hadley and Lizzy)

Riding rides and racing cars:

A highlight of the day was trying the infamous Disney Dole Whips in the Magic Kingdom.  Yummers!

We concluded our day at the Magic Kingdom with dinner at the newest restaurant in the park, Be Our Guest, housed in the Beast's Castle in the new Fantasyland.  It was amazing!

Day Three: EPCOT

The Princess Breakfast started our EPCOT adventure.  Here were our little princesses all dressed up and ready to go:

Meeting Belle:

Snow White

Sleeping Beauty

Cinderella

Ariel

"Turtle Talk with Crush", Test Track, and Soarin' were favorite attractions at EPCOT.  Here we are waiting to see Crush:

We ended our day at EPCOT with the Illuminations show.  Spectacular as always!

Day Four: Animal Kingdom

We began our day at the Animal Kingdom with a character breakfast.

With Donald Duck.  As you can see, Hadley wasn't amused.

The food, however, was worth smiling about.

Daisy Duck

The Mouse Himself

Hugs from Goofy!

Other fun times in the park:

Kylee and Georgia rode this coaster together!

 Petting Zoo!

There was a special exhibit on animal poop that we had to stop by:

Kilimanjaro Safari is always a fan favorite:

Playtime at the Dinosaur Digyard:

After an awesome time at the parks, we left Art of Animation and prepared to board the Disney Dream for the cruise portion of our adventure!  

Stay tuned for Part 2!