We’ve been back from Disney for a few weeks now and I have finally had a chance to go through some of the photos. I love blogging about our family trips, because I can always go back and look at the posts to remember our special moments. 🙂 So, I am planning to do five blog posts (one for each day) about our Disney trip, one each week. So, if you love Disney (like us) and want to read along, great… if its not for you, feel free to skip! We try to get to Disney every other year (sometimes more) and it really is one if the happiest places on earth for us.
Autumn and I did ‘Frozen’ Jamberry mani’s and pedi’s before the trip.
When flying to Disney, we always love to fly with Southwest or Airtran. I had these two shirts made from someone on Etsy two years ago and I was amazed that they still fit BOTH of the kids. The kids were both excited to fly for their second time. Autumn was a little nervous, but did just fine. Our flight was at 7:00 a.m. and we got to the airport two hours prior to our flight. We were all just a little exhausted from the hustle and bustle!
Once we got up in the air, there was a thick layer of clouds below us that went on for miles. It was so pretty.
We took the Disney transportation from the airport to our hotel. We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge (see that post HERE) two years ago and decided to stay somewhere different this time. Part of the fun about staying at Disney is trying out all of their different hotels! This year our travel agent sold us on the Beach Club Resort! We were in walking distance from Epcot, a boat ride away from Hollywood Studios, the pools had a sand bottom (and a pirate ship with a water slide!) plus we could walk over to Disney’s Boardwalk for food and entertainment. We LOVED this location. I really loved Animal Kingdom Lodge, too, but it is a lot further from all of the parks… I would still stay at both of these hotels again in a heartbeat and would them both 5/5 stars! I think for our next Disney vacation I want to stay at one of the hotels next to the Magic Kingdom.
Here is a view of our room, it was newly renovated and really nice and clean.
Animal Kingdom Lodge had a bunk bed option for the kids, but Beach Club did not. So, Autumn slept on the sofa sleeper, Nathan had his own bed and Brian and I shared a bed. It worked out nicely. 🙂
The bathroom… I always like it when the sink/vanity is in a section apart from the toilet/shower… it makes getting ready in the morning A LOT easier and quicker, too!
Every time we go to Disney, I do Mickey Mail for the kids (see both my Mickey Mail posts HERE and HERE). Their Mickey Mail for the first day was lanyards and some collector pins to trade! This was their first time doing this and it was very addicting to them. They came home with A LOT of pins as souvenirs!
The beach and lake in front of our hotel. On the other side of the lake is Disney’s Boardwalk. The lighthouse is where we went to take the boat to Hollywood Studios. We had to walk along one side of the lake to get to Epcot. And, yes… those are storm clouds rolling in 🙂 We got to Epcot just in time to find a sit down place for lunch and the storm was over by the time we finished lunch. 🙂
My footsies in the sand 🙂 Showing off my Frozen pedi and my new tassel sandals from Charming Charlie.
The kids loved seeing all of the little lizards in Florida. 🙂 We don’t see those running around in St. Louis!
And, after a 5 minute walk… we saw Epcot once again! 
The obligatory Epcot photo!
Once we got inside Epcot, we were starving… we were a little tired from getting up so early from our flight, flying, traveling by bus to our hotel and checking in… AND, a huge storm was rolling in. So, we decided to eat lunch at Chefs de France, even though it was on the Disney Dining Plan and we hadn’t booked reservations with them. So, yeah… it was a meal out of pocket, but SO worth it to sit down and relax with some fine food. This place had no wait and the food was really good, so I would definitely recommend it. I wouldn’t go out of your way to make reservations here, but if you’re looking for a nice relaxing place to dine with a lovely view… this is it. There was a street performer we could see outside the window that was balancing on a handful of chairs, great entertainment for the kids while we waited for our food in the air conditioning.
They served us warm French baguettes that we were able to feast on right away. I had the croque monsieur with a really delicious salad. 
For dessert I had their fresh strawberry and cream cake, it was really good.
Last time we were at Disney, Autumn was in LOVE with the characters and getting their autographs. She loved them this time, but not AS much. We was way more interested in her pin lanyard and trading pins. However, she really adored getting Minnie Mouse’s autograph, seeing Elsa and Anna from Frozen AND the princesses at Cinderella’s castle. The others weren’t as interesting to her this time. Its funny how 2 years can make a difference in that! Here is Autumn with Minnie Mouse. She loved Minnie Mouse so much that somehow we landed up coming home with two stuffed animals of her. 
She also got to see Mickey and Goofy.
When we got done with the character spot, the boys were still at Mission Space SO we thought… why not head on over to Club Cool, where you get to sample different Coke products from around the world for free!
My favorite soda was the one from ‘Peru’, it reminded me of bubble gum! There was one soda from Italy and it tasted GROSS- like cough syrup!
A little play area… I have this same exact picture, but of Nathan from our last trip to Disney!
We found a store that brings out a pin board at a certain time of the day and you can trade pins! The kids LOVED this!!
We met back up with the boys to walk around the World Showcase for the last part of the evening. Brian thinks maybe next trip we should pick 2-3 countries to really look at, instead of trying to walk by and see them all.
Autumn loved seeing how they were inspired for the Frozen movie the Norway area and how they had added some Frozen memorabilia.
The kids wanted to bring these home, but we said NO 🙂
Not the best picture, but in Germany we always like to look at the electric trains. Unfortunately, they weren’t running this time.
Epcot is beautiful at night. My favorite photo I took at Epcot is of the Eiffel Tower by these fountains.
And, while I was trying to enjoy a chocolate crepe in France, ’cause… you know… I was looking forward to it ALL day…
this happened. Yep, someone was tired. So, we headed back to our hotel and she was out like a light. And, YES, the chocolate crepe was GOOD!
Next week on Friday I’ll be sharing our day at the Magic Kingdom!
