The last one turns 3 Years Old = Cruise!!! 7 Day WC 7/22/17 Fantasy Sailing

All right! It's been a while :) I apologize for the delay-- we had all the fun fall/halloween festivities at home, and just as that rounded up I was down in WDW again (with just my friend AThrillingChase, woot!) for the Wine & Dine Half Marathon. NOT my best time, but 3 half marathons done. I have proven to myself I can do it, and I'm hanging up my "greater than 10k" running shoes. I just don't have the time to train for longer distances, which means it's kinda foolish to keep doing them.

RIGHT before I left, the Spring 2019 itineraries came out. And (spoiler) since I'd snagged the onboard rebooking placeholder deal, I had 10% off a cruise burning a hole in my pocket. So in a very low key way, I booked an Eastern Caribbean cruise on the fantasy for spring of 2019. I justified it to my husband as a "placeholder" ;)

But let's get back to this past July.

Scene: We're in the Poly lobby and HUNGRY! We checked in and our room wasn't quite ready, but Stitch was! Our kids had a blast hugging that furry alien for a while, but that didn't fill our bellies. So we headed over to Kona Cafe and had a delightful meal. I had the Sashimi sampler, and man was it good. My husband had the Kona Style Turkey Sandwich, and the kids split the pot stickers and crab cakes. My husband and I also polished off jalapeno margaritas in about 2 seconds flat! We also may have eaten two platters full of those delicious hawaiian rolls with the delicious butter (I think it has honey in it). We still had time and had just heard that Lilo's Playhouse was open during the day for family play. Our kids have loved that in the past, so we stopped over. One of them headed over to play a video game with dad, one went to color, and the little guy played on a transportation type activity table.

I was just engrossing myself in the educational card game OCEAN QUIZ: Mysteries of the Deep when at 1:37pm I got the alert that our DVC studio (2907 on the second floor of Tokelau) was ready. We had a great view that spanned an obstructed view of the entry to the Oasis Pool to an obstructed view of the bungalows. Obstructed, you say--that can't be good.... welllll when the obstructions are lush palms and towering bamboo, I'll take it. In fact, I think it was even better than a straight view. I really felt immersed in a tropical wonderland, and when it stormed later in the trip, we were able to sit on the balcony listening to the rain, and to look through the trees to see when people resumed swimming at the pool. For those of you who care about toiletries, they were the green H2O Sea Marine & Sea Salt products.

We settled in, changed out of our pajamas into proper princess & batman outfits, and hopped on the monorail to the magic kingdom. The security screening on the way onto the monorail was new and included metal detectors. I'll take it. I love bringing my kids to WDW and heightened security is unfortunately important now. I try to make a point of thanking security/TSA etc, as they truly make our vacations possible.

The beautiful blue sky over the Magic Kingdom train station was gorgeous and welcoming, and so we took our hot cranky kids to Prince Charming's Regal Carousel. You should have seen the grins :) I swear that is their favorite ride in WDW. And then, our barely-tall-enough 2 year old rode seven dwarves mine train for the first time with me! He wasn't a bit scared, I have proof from photopass. The girls tend to get nervous on rides but he was looking around like it was no big deal. Right when my husband was going to go on with the girls, we looked up in the sky to see storm clouds and beelined back to the monorail. I can't help it, I truly love rainy days! We got back to the resort, snagged some microwavable meals for dinner in the studio (for those of you unfamiliar with DVC rooms, the studio has a mini fridge and a microwave, with a sink and basic paper dining products), and then settled in to the room. We had Stouffer's microwaved mac & cheese for dinner on our balcony while we watched the rain. Given the setting, and the fact that it was the first night of a full two weeks of a Disney vacation, it just might have been one of the best meals I've ever had.

That night, we just couldn't help it. We had to check out Pandora. We took the bus (which my husband and I dislike and the kids LOVE) to Animal Kingdom for the special resort guest extra magic hours they'd just announced. It. Was. Incredible. I still can't even wrap my head around the fact that it's not really 'real'. It is so incredibly immersive, the plants so lush, the scenery so detailed and interesting and immense that it's hard to believe it could have been built rather than just existing. The humidity and rain just made the flora more believable. The experience was enhanced by a Mo'ara Margarita or whatever they call that delicious concoction with the boba balls. My husband had the green drink, a beer of some sort, and the kids ran around banging the drums. Soon after, they passed out in the stroller and we walked around a bit more, just taking in the amazing bio-luminescent surroundings. A sleepy ride back to the resort and a good nights sleep will take us to day two (which I will compose on another lunch break in the future).

Thanks for tagging along, and sorry I'm taking FOREVER :)
 

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