Disney World: Day 1

We've been back for almost a week now but I'm finally getting around to recapping our summer vacation to Disney!  We went to Disney World for a few days followed by a 4 day Disney cruise to the Bahamas.  Todd & I went on a short cruise last summer and following that we discussed taking the girls on one this summer so we found a travel agent and got the ball rolling.  Since we were going to do a Disney cruise and flying to Orlando, we decided to tack on a couple days at the beginning of the trip to get a taste of Disney World.  Even though going at the end of July wasn't quite ideal with the hot & humid temps in Florida, we had to wait until Cece turned 3 so she could join Lucy in the kids' area on the Disney cruise.  

Also, this is going to be a long recap!  We took so many pictures, as well as getting the Memory Maker package at Disney World (which was totally worth the money and gave us some amazing family pictures--I highly recommend!), so be prepared for about 4 or 5 posts highlighting our trip.  It'll help me next time we plan our trip too so I can look back and remember what we did because the girls loved it (and so did we) so we plan on doing something similar to this in 2021.

We had a VERY early flight out of Columbus on Friday, July 27 so the girls were up at 3:30 AM and we were out the door by 4:00 AM for the airport.  Despite the early flight (and Cece continually whining that she wanted off the plane and kept asking if the plane was going down), it was nice that the non-stop flight got us into Orlando around 8:00 AM which gave us plenty of time to check out the Polynesian Resort, our home for the next few days, before brunch at Chef Mickey's.  Since we were on the monorail line, the trip over to the Contemporary for brunch was a breeze.

All smiles at 5:00 AM

We were already getting into the Disney spirit at the Orlando airport

And they were already so excited to start posing with "characters"

We loved the decor at the Polynesian and were officially welcomed with flower leis

We took a short walk around the property to get a layout of where everything was 

Another beautiful backdrop with a waterfall

Entrance to Chef Mickey's, one of our two character meals planned for the trip

The monorail goes right through the middle of the Contemporary

Since we bought the Memory Maker package, we took advantage of every opportunity to get our picture taken

Brunch was a buffet and I was excited to have my first taste of the famous Mickey (or in this case, Minnie) waffles

We purchased the Disney dining plan which included an alcoholic beverage for each adult for meals so Todd started off our trip with a bloody mary

Hugs for Goofy

The girls enthusiasm for meeting the characters never wavered the entire trip--they were just as excited meeting Goofy on the first day as they were meeting some of the Disney princesses on our last day of the cruise

Meeting Pluto...

Minnie...

Donald...

and of course, Mickey!

I loved all the special touches to the food particularly the desserts

Sugar high after dessert

After brunch, we headed back to the resort to swim but a storm blew through so our swimming was cut short after about 45 min so we went back to the room to hang out.  The girls were watching a show when I looked over and saw Cece completely passed out on the bed.  Once we finally woke her up, we hopped on a bus to go to Disney Springs for dinner.  It's basically a huge outdoor complex with lots of shops, restaurants, and entertainment.  The girls were thrilled to see there was a special Descendants dance party that night so after some shopping & dinner, we hung out at the dance party for a little bit.  We didn't want to stay out too late though since we had all been up early and planned on being at Magic Kingdom the next morning for rope drop.

The Polynesian had a great splash pad type area....

as well as two pools (this is the one next to splash pad, we didn't head over to the other one)

Cece loved going down the slide

When Cece was napping, Lucy & I went to one of the resort gift shops as well as trying out a Dole Whip Float (on our last day at the resort, we got just a regular Dole Whip which I liked better--the float was too sweet with the added pineapple juice)

We tested out Lucy's picture-taking skills a few times on the trip and she did great at Disney Springs

After Lucy took our picture, someone graciously offered to take a family picture for us

The girls were dying to start spending their gift cards and couldn't resist picking out something at Disney Springs

Getting ready for the Descendants dance party

View of the stage at the dance party (Lucy & Cece are in the pink shirts near the stage on the left hand side)

It was highly entertaining to watch all the kids dancing