Getting There

D got invited by the captain to come visit the cockpit of our Airbus A320 after landing. The captain suggested having D sit up front and he offered his seat, “the money maker” as he called it. It was impressive and fun to visit (for me at least) and I think D was in awe.

Day 1

We’re staying at the Art of Animation. D got to meet Mickey, Pluto, Pooh, and Eeyore. Then off to Epcot for a ferry ride and some running and dancing around various pavilions. Olessia found the Mickey Mouse ears ice cream so we enjoyed a nice cool treat.

Day 2

I think today could be summed up as awe and wonder (maybe amazement would be nice word choice too)…

We had a bit of a casual start to the morning. We scrambled to get to brunch on time. As part of the scramble, we got to take the monorail to Chef Mickey’s and managed to make it just in time. I think the monorail was one of D’s highlights. Chef Mickey’s was excellent and we enjoyed the character visits.

We set off to Magic Kingdom where we ended up mostly just winging it and it, I thought, worked out rather nicely. We ended up on It’s a Small World. Then the carousel. The train was saved for last since we could use it to take a break from walking, but the train was not running. Instead, D got to ring the train’s bell, which was probably thee highlight of the day.

The picture of the 3 of us looking on to the castle – you see our backs since D didn’t want to face the photographer. It was a clever idea by the photographer. The photographer was a Disney PhotoPass photog. For giggles, I offered my camera and she happily used it. Afterwards, I found she was issued a Nikon D7100 and apparently everything was locked down except ISO. She couldn’t change f-stop or shutter speed. It makes sense. I thought they would have had a bit more freedom, but the settings have been sorted out ahead of time to ensure great photos.

The evening was great with dinner being in a new-to-us part of the park. On our way back to our bus we caught a fireworks show which kept us entertained and amazed enough to keep us out a bit longer than planned in the cool night.

I think D had a great time today and that was all that mattered. (I think Olessia had a great time too.)

Day 3

Day 3 started with a visit to Toy Story Land. We weren’t able to get on any rides there due to the number of people but D did get to meet Buzz.

Apologies, I’m not much of a Stars Wars guy (more Star Trek than Wars). Periodically, they’d have Storm Troopers come down through the park which was rather impressive. They’d get to the center of the park and treat the audience as if they were Storm Trooper recruits.

Lunch was at the ABC Commissary. Felt a bit like being at the ABC Burbank cafeteria which was slick.

We attended the Disney Junior dance show with hopes D would enjoy dancing here but he didn’t get into it until the last song. I’d admit, there was probably a bit too much input to process (bright lights, loud music, etc).

Dinner was at the Coral Reef Cafe. The highlight was it’s at the aquarium so you have views of the fish while you eat.

It’s been magically watching Dmitri enjoy the festivities…

Some more photos can be found here: http://www.rsb0.com/piwigo/index.php?/category/151

Day 4

Here we started out at the resort’s cafeteria and off to Magic Kingdom. D returned to the train. Even though the train wasn’t running, he could ring the bell. The last pic was of us near Main St. and some characters were walking off before the parade…

I think this was D’s first ride that gets off of the ground. He rode with me first. He liked it so much, he demanded to go again and Olessia took him.

Watching a performance… There was so much to look at and be in awe of!

Character dinner at the Crystal Palace. The kids enjoyed each others company and loved visiting with the Disney characters.

Following dinner, we had a great view of the evening’s Magic Kingdom fireworks (amazing stuff!).

My favorite photo from today. Granted, the adults (me included!) were yelling “get down” and “get over here” and no response from the kids… They were pretty excited about something.

I shot this picture of the three of them asking for a pretzel. By the time I got up there to retrieve Dmitri, the cast member behind the counter offered up a pretzel for the three! (No charge even when I offered to pay!) The kids loved it.

Day 5

Last full day at Disney World. It rained the entire day. But that’s ok – it’s not snow!

We were surprised by a surprise character visit at our resort hotel. So we got a bunch of character photos. We then took a break from all the magic and rested a bit in the hotel while it rained. We had reserved a meet-and-great with Tinker Bell so we ventured out in the rain to return to Magic Kingdom.

We met Tinker Bell. I’m not sure what happened to D. He looked at her once and then he wouldn’t look at her or the camera. I had handed my camera off to the PhotoPass photographer and looking back at our group shots, I didn’t know Tinker Bell had teased Dmitri a bit with her shoe/foot (check out the photos).

Overall, it was an excellent trip. I hope Olessia and D had fun and enjoyed it. We had a great time with friends and family. Lots of memories were made and it was fun watching the magic happen.