Day 3... Magic Kingdom

Drew all smiles before going to Beaches N Creme. He was covered in chocolate after eating here! :)

Brooke refusing to stand with Hannah for a picture right outside of Magic Kingdom. Wonder where she gets that sass? ;)

I want to live in this castle!!

Start of the fireworks.

Okay I warned you that it would take me forever to blog this trip! I might be done by the time we go on our next trip!!

So this morning is Sunday morning....day 3 of our trip. The plan is to get out of All star music and move over to Beach Club. Then arrive at Magic Kingdom by 8:30am. Matt, Drew and I are up no problem. The girls on the other hand want nothing to do with getting up. Tough patooties girlies... you should know by now that vacations with us = no sleeping in! ;) The original plan also included having Disney just transfer all of our stuff to the Beach Club. But seeing that since we dumped out the van yesterday and shoved it all back in... we've lost all sense of organization! So we will take care of it ourselves.

We finally make it out the door at 7:50am and head to Beach Club. We pull in and immediately they offer to take all of our luggage for us and valet park our van. An instant look of fear washes over my face! No way in hell am I allowing some poor soul to risk their life at opening the back of this van! If he isn't instantly knocked unconscious by the stroller, then the cooler will get him next. Yep... the cooler... that is full... is at the very top of our luggage. Why? Because were in a hurry to see that castle damnit and we shoved it wherever it would fit! So I politely decline the offer to unload our stuff for us. Matt and I pull a few things out and a bell hop runs over with a cart. Since we don't know if we can get a room or not yet we may need them to hols some of this stuff for us. Why can't we just leave it all in the car you ask? Have you ever seen what deodrant looks like after it's been in 100 degree temps for 10 hours... yuck!! I tip the guy $15 for 3 bags and a cooler. Matt reminds me that I'm a moron and you tip a buck per bag. Oops! Then they insist on atleast parking the van for us... this is a deluxe resort and they remind us this is a perk of staying with them. This really is not a good idea though. See.. in addition to the mounds of luggage, floating cooler and doritos now ground into the seat.... we also have approx. 500 pipe cleaners in various shapes and colors thrown throughout the van. And they are REALLY sharp when they stab you in the leg, butt, eye... you get the picture. And why do we have these? Because this was yet another one of my brilliant ideas of activities for the kids to do. Unfortunately mydemented family quickly turned them into weapons! So at the risk of getting sued... we again politely decline the offer of valet parking. I'm fairly certain by now they think we have a van full of bomb making materials and were being reported at terrorists!!

We make our way into the Beach Club after parking in self parking... which of course is sooo far away that I think it has it's own zip code! We arrive at the desk and I gently ( threaten) ask the girls to take Drew for a walk. See... Disney is NOT accomodating to a family of 5. The rooms are for 4. You can get away with 5 if one of your children is under 3. So.... Drew is now under 3. :) But anyone looking at him would clearly see that he's not so I must hide him for the next 10 minutes! I assume that we won't be able to get a room until after 4pm but they tell us they have a handicap room available right now. Matt jumps at the chance to unload the van so we take it. As we're finishing up the paperwork they tell us we owe $917. And the guy is new and isn't sure what the charge is for. Now see I rented points through my friend Julie ( again THANKS Julie!!) and I paid her directly for this. And I'm now busy trying to hide Drew... because the girls are fighting over god only knows what! Matt finally gets my attention and I know immediately what the charge is for... the dining plan. Matt was relieved to know what it was for. And he even commented that the price wasn't bad for a weeks worth of nice meals. I'm not going to mention to him at this time that that price doesn't include all the tips and it's only for 4 people... not 5. I'll deal with that later. ;)

We unload the van and head to our room. Now if any of you read my blog last year you may remember that my kids instantly get gumby arms when asked to carry things. And again.. we have the gumby arms! So Matt loads up 3 suitcases and the cooler. I pile up the stroller and Drew is carrying several backpacks. The girls... well they're still duking it out. It's a good thing that we don't have to carry the heavy computers too. ;)

We get in our room and immediately see why people stay deluxe! Compared to the value room... this room is HUGE! We will have no problem with all of us in here for a week! We have a fridge, microwave,closet,dressers and a cute little patio that Matt and I can sit on while the kids sleep peacefully at 9pm... yea right! We also have an unusually large bathroom... which I quickly remember is because it's a handicap room. The toilet is really high... can't wait to see Drew try and pee in that! ;) There is also a pool right outside of our room!

It's now about 8:30am... yes we got all that done in a matter of half an hour! Remember... we're on vacation...and our motto is move it, move it, move it!! We hop on the bus and head to Magic Kingdom. We miss the little rope drop ceremony but sill shove our way through the crowds of people. Now our typical plan is to get fastpasses for space mountain first. But sadly our favorite ride is under rehab until Dec. So Matt heads to splash mountain instead. I head with the kids to fantasy land. Drew is soo excited to ride the ride that he's been talking about ALL YEAR LONG! It's a small world!! Yes... the ride with THE most annoying song ever is still Drew's favorite! We hit everything there within a 1/2 hour..... remember my tour plan keeps us moving fast. Then Drew spots the Tomorrowland Speedway cars. He HAS to ride this he says! Okay... but it's not in the notecards. ;) Logistically this ride is a nightmare for us. You can only have 2 people per car and both Brooke and Drew must have a parent ride with them. So that means I have to ride. Normally this wouldn't be a problem.. but I have a "condition" :) that means I really shouldn't ride this. People purposely slam into each other on this so we need to figure out how to do this. We decide that Matt and Brooke will ride in front of Drew and I. And Hannah will follow me. Now as long as Hannah doesn't decide to be a little turd and crash into me.. then I should be alright. Matt gently ( ie:threatens) remindes her that she can't screw around. Fortunately the ride goes smoothly and we don't have any problems. :)

Lunch is at Cosmic Rays... remember we ate here a gazillion times on our last trip. Matt just loves this place... more bang for your buck as he calls it! He's loving the fact that with the dining plan you just whip out your room key and it's all taken care of. Little does he know that said room key will be worth the price of gold by the end of this trip. ;)

We head to do splash mountain next. Drew is JUST 4o inches and is so excited to get to do this for the first time. I'm bummed that because of my "condition" that I can't ride with him. And also a little worried about how he'll handle that big hill. Turns out he LOVES it and wants to ride again and again. Thank god for fastpasses because the line is close to 2 hours long! They also all ride big thunder mountain multiple times. This kid has NO fear!!

We head out of the park to do some swimming around 2pm. The pools at the Beach Club are amazing! Their big draw is Stormalong Bay. A pool with a sand bottom. Basically a chlorinated beach... how much better can you get!! We spend several hours here and the kids are loving this as much as the parks! Between the slides, lazy river, poolside games and making castles on the beach... there is so much to do!! There are people that come to Disney just to stay at the resorts and never even hit the parks. Now I see why!!

Dinner tonight is at Beaches N Creme. An old fashioned diner at the resort itself. Best hamburgers and ice cream! Yeah... a restaurant in Disney we actually like! Matt goes to hand them the room key to pay our bill and I let him know that were paying cash for this one since we need the table service credits later in the week for a different meal. Okay... so the $917 I just paid doesn't include our first dinner here? No honey... but it's not that expensive. Um yeah... $70 for burgers and ice cream is a great deal. Man.... it's a good thing this guy loves me. haha

We head back to Magic Kingdom to use up more fast passes and see the fireworks. Drew has gone all day without the stroller and is STILL going strong! After we head back to the room and are ready to crash... after all it's almost 11pm. But Drew wants to try out the pool right outside our room. Seriously... the kid has been up for 17 hours without stopping and STILL has energy. If only I could bottle that up somehow!

We finally get everyone in bed by midnight. Only to awake at 1am with Drew crying because he doesn't know where he's at. He's sleeping on the air mattress. Calm him down and then back up an hour later crying again. Repeat... only to wake up an hour later. Okay kid... just get in the damn bed with us and go to sleep! After kicking his way comfortably between us he's finally out cold!!

And in just a few hours we're going to do it all over again... at Epcot!