If you know me, you know I love Disney (and especially Disney World!). Having Griff in our lives has only made me love it more. We were lucky to be able to take Griff to Disney World for his first trip in December of 2019 and I had been itching to take him back almost as soon as we left. We knew we wanted to take him back before his 3rd birthday, but weren't sure when the best time would be with the state of the world and the pandemic. However, we felt like cases were slowing down as summer 2021 neared and we appreciated that Disney World still had a lot of social distancing measures in place...so we decided we'd rather take him that Spring when we knew numbers and social distancing might be better.
We left on August 16th - after Tim's tax deadline - and flew into MCO versus driving. Griff did wonderful with the flight - we had lots of activities in our bags for him and he watched a bit of Mickey too and we were there before we knew it! When we got into MCO, we took an Uber to our airport and immediately went over to the pool since it wasn't busy and let Griff swim! He loved having a baby pool to himself. We ordered dinner to the hotel and just unpacked and hung out that evening. Griff's fave thing about our hotel though - the "bad guys" on the elevator (a full size sticker of storm troopers :) )
We got lucky and had snagged a reservation last minute for Toppolino's Terrace, so the next morning we took an Uber to the Riviera Resort for breakfast there. I had really wanted to take Griffin to a character meal during this trip, and this experience did not disappoint! The resort and restaurant are "French Riviera" themed and was absolutely gorgeous. We checked out the lobby then headed straight up to the restaurant. We got lucky and got a table on a "corner" of the inside section of the room - so we had wonderful views of the characters as they came by! They were each dressed to fit the theme - Mickey was a painter, Minnie was in a cute French fashionista dress, Donald was a sculptor, and Daisy was a ballerina. They came around and danced or sang around the restaurant every few minutes (due to the pandemic, they don't stop at the tables individually right now). Griff really enjoyed clapping along to the songs as they came around and was amazed by the pretty chandeliers as much as the characters! The food was also sooo good and you were able to order as much as you wanted. They provided a plate of breakfast dips and breads to start and then Tim ordered filet, I ordered a quiche, and Griff got Mickey Waffles!
After breakfast, we explored the Riviera a bit more. We walked down by the pool and beach and walked over toward the skyline, enjoying some of the pretty artwork along the way. We then took the skyliner over to the Art of Animation Resort to let Griff check out the "Cars" and "Finding Nemo" areas. He was soo excited to "meet" Lightning McQueen and all his other "friends" from the movies and ran straight up to them - even giving Luigi a hug! We took the bus from AOA to Disney Springs and spent a bit of time walking around and even went into World of Disney there. After that we headed back to our hotel to meet up with my parents, who were joining us for the week. We all had dinner and settled in before our first park day the next day - Animal Kingdom!
Animal Kingdom is one of our favorite parks - Tim actually has said his two favorite are probably Epcot or Animal Kingdom. I still feel like Magic Kingdom is my #1...but Animal Kingdom is probably my next favorite! When we arrived, we headed straight to the Pandora area, since I knew this was likely to get crowded fast. We rode the Navi River Journey and then headed straight to Africa to ride the Safari Ride (since this usually can get long waits too). Griff really loved both! He is a big fan of the zoo so I assumed he would love the Safari ride but he was in awe of the Navi River ride too. After this, we made our way over to the DinoLand area of the park. Unfortunately, a lot of the rides and attractions in this area were shut down due to covid. However, Griff was obsessed with one of the only rides that was open - the TriceraTop Spin. I think we rode this at least 10 times over the course of the day and Griff was just as obsessed with it every time. We also spent some time exploring the "animal" walks in the park - seeing tigers, monkeys, etc and stopped at a rest area to eat lunch and watch the character "cavalcades" - Griff loved waving to Mickey and we had the prettiest backdrop with the Tree of Life in the background.
After lunch we got Griff his first dole whip - and were not surprised when he downed it by large spoonfuls. We also went up to the "Affection Section" to see the animals in that area. On the way back, I put Griff in the carrier since I could tell he was tired and he fell asleep. We walked over to a ride that I had wanted to ride with Tim (Expredition Everest) and did rider switch with my parents - they rode while we let Griff sleep a bit and then when he woke he had a snack with them while Tim & I went. Tim is not a fan of roller coasters, but he knew how badly I wanted to ride this with him...so he rode it and then promptly declared he would not be riding any more roller coasters.
The rest of the afternoon we popped around doing some of the smaller rides we knew Griff would love - like "It's Tough to be a Bug!"and the TriceraTops Spin ride again. We had dinner at Satuli Canteen too which was really good!
The next day we had reservations to spend the day at Magic Kingdom, my favorite park! I love that this park has so many rides we all can do together (no height limit!). It was a bit rainy as we walked in and it rained on and off throughout the day, but Griff really didn't mind! He actually preferred it I think because he loved splashing in the rain puddles and using his Mickey Umbrella.
The first ride we went to when we got in the park was the Haunted Mansion. Griff has a book based on this ride and has been obsessed with it so I was fairly certain he was going to love this ride, and he did! We spent most the morning after that hopping through rides in FantasyLand and TomorrorLand- Small World, Tea Cups (Griff loved this and spinning fast!), Little Mermaid, Buzz, etc. We also took Griff on his first roller coaster - Barn Stormer. At the end of almost every ride Griff would clap and sign "more". Tim said he must've gotten his love for roller coasters from his mama :) We watched some of the cavalcades, hung out on the hub grass, and had snacks and lunch before deciding to head out and take a nap/break since we had arrived pretty early and Griff was getting tired. On the way out, we got Griff his first Mickey balloon which he was obsessed with - so obsessed with he managed to pop it in the car a few minutes later...thankfully they happily replaced it in the parks later that night. My dad also found one that someone had thrown away at our resort and we snagged it as a back up - since we knew it might happen again.
We came back that afternoon to ride some things we'd missed that morning - like the Speedway and Winnie the Pooh, and just generally enjoy the park in the evening. We had dinner at Pecos Bill before changing Griff and heading out. He was so tired he fell asleep snuggling his Mickey stuffed animal in the carrier on the way back to the car.
The next day we spent the day at Hollywood Studios! I was so excited to see what Griff thought of the "Toy Story" section of this park. As soon as we got there we headed to Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway (we knew this might get crowded since it's relatively new). Griff loved this ride (especially Mickey) and we did too! He's been really obsessed with the older style Mickey shorts since we rode this and has been wanting to watch them at home more - probably because they had a bunch of these within the ride. We headed to Toy Story Land next to play Midway Mania - an arcade style game themed around Toy Story. Griff loved this one and screamed or cackled the entire ride. We checked out Star Wars Land next (I was really hoping to spot a "bad guy" because I knew Griff would love it, but unfortunately we didn't see any out). After checking out Star Wars Land, we had lunch and a snack from Woody's Lunch Box. We also went to the "Disney Junior Dance Party" - it took a bit for Griff to warm up but by the end he was loving dancing as he watched the characters on stage!
We tried to get boarding passes for Rise of the Resistance again (since we hadn't gotten one at 7 am) but couldn't get one again - I thought because my phone was acting up but maybe because of bad luck (we tried another day twice and didn't get one then either!). After this, Griff was due for a nap so I popped him in the carrier hoping he'd fall asleep...but he was so excited he kept fighting it. I tried rocking him in the Baby Care Center and he still wasn't having it..so I put a poncho over us (it was pouring) and Tim donned his poncho and umbrella too and we walked in the rain for a bit before he gave in and decided to nap. We grabbed a coffee and let him sleep for a bit and enjoyed giving our legs a break. That afternoon, we popped around and did a few smaller rides (and re-did some of Griff's faves)! By far, Griff's favorites were the "Lightning McQueen Racing Academy", "Alien Swirling Saucers", and the "Midway Mania" - which we weren't surprised at since lately all he wanted to watch was Toy Story or Buzz! We also ate at Docking Bay 7 in Star Wars Land for dinner - one of our favorites from our last trip!
The next day we spent the morning at Hollywood Studios again - watching the "Frozen Ever After" show and catching a couple cavalcades before heading to our last park we hadn't fully explored yet - Epcot. Griff loved doing the "KidKot" Stops here (collecting passports and stickers from each of the countries in the world showcase) and loved riding Nemo and Frozen! We adults also loved trying some of the food "around the world" - Tim and I always say this is by far our favorite park to eat in!
On our last park day we spent another day at Magic Kingdom! There is so much at this park it was really nice to have two days to do more of it! We went toward Adventureland as soon as we got there to ride Pirates, Jungle Cruise, Aladdin's Magic Carpets, & then hopped over to Frontierland to go to Tom Sawyer's Island - which Griff loved exploring. We caught a couple more cavalcades and went back to Fantasy and Tomorrow Land to re-ride some of Griff's faves (Haunted Mansion, Tea Cups, Speedway, Buzz), and rode Peter Pan, Dumbo, Astro Orbiter, and Cinderella's Carousel as well! We closed down the park again - mama's favorite way to end a Disney trip.
We spent the next two days exploring the resort we were at and exploring Disney Springs. We met up with some family friends for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe (Griff loved watching the "aqua" cars that drove in the water from where we had lunch). We also got Griff his own souvenir "monorail" die cast toy from World of Disney - since he is verrry obsessed with trains and would have happily rode the monorail all day. We also spent a day playing at the resort's pool. They had a large kids play/splash water feature that had slides and buckets that poured water, etc. Griff was a little hesitant to do the slides at first but after going once with us he was hooked - and we probably went down the slides for a solid hour or two after that. They also had a lazy river we took tubes around - which Tim & I loved :)
We were sad to head home on our last day - but were so thankful for the chance to take Griff back to his and mama's happy place and make some special memories as a family. As a mama it is so special for me to watch Griff experience Disney World and enjoy it like I have and do. And while it is sad to leave, it's also a "see ya later!" as we count down the days until we can go again. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment