Items captured in blue below are directly from Bella's diary for the trip (with some spelling corrected)
One item that improved the entire experience was the implementation of the Magic+ experience. Essentially, everything (food, Park entrance, FastPass, etc.) is connected with a wristband. Even better, everything can be scheduled / synchronized with the Disney app. The article below summarizes it well:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-07/disney-bets-1-billion-on-technology-to-track-theme-park-visitors
Day 1 - Arrival & Epcot Center
Friday night Today, we are at the airport and were getting ready to go to Disney World. I am super exited. I have a wrist band and everything. Me and my Dad have everything planned out already. When I wake up tomorrow, I will be in New York city then we will travel to Disney World. The I am really exided about is the Haunted Mansion. I loved eerie rides.
Saturday : YAY! YAY! We finally made it to Florida. It is beautiful! We went on a bus from the airport that took us to our hotel check in. Then we gout our suitcase rolled to our room. This place is wonderful. We went on three rides – Finding Nemo, Space Mission, and something else, but I forgot the name ! All of the them were pretty good.
1st trip around our hotel - Caribbean Beach
(We had a nice trek across this bridge to breakfast every morning, or at least I did, while Bella was sleeping)
After checking in, we headed to Epcot for the afternoon
Today, we went on the Haunted Mansion. I was exited ..but I’d rate it from one to five, a 4.5. It should have been longer ! Then we went on Big Mountain Railroad. I was scared but then I liked it.
This was the first of 2 trips to the Magic Kingdom, Bella's favorite spot
We fortunately entered each park 'Without Bags' - much easier!
Tom Sawyer island -- Bella found a rickety bridge
..which she enjoyed with multiple trips
Our first lunch stop of the week, and we found a place with plenty of characters. This was the first character photos (many followed!)
No Disney trip would be complete without a quality hug from Igor
Good ol' Winnie
..and you can never forget Tigger
We finished the park with a stop in to see Mickey. By this point, Bella had had enough of character photos -- hard to blame her.
We finished Day 2 with a trip out to an island for a dinner show - Hoop-Dee-Due Musical Revue. Essentially, people singing and dancing while we were eating. We were fortunate enough to sit in back, so weren't too disturbed. We were finished early though, and literally ran out the back door before the show was finished.
We started off the day with a hole bunch of princess processions. I didn’t like. We did Soaring and Living with the Land. After, we did this thing called Mission Space. My Dad did advanced. I did easy. I liked mine but he didn’t like his.
When Daddy took Bella to Disneyland 4 years before (she was 5), she was all about the princesses. I therefore sought out a breakfast with the princesses, a popular event for any girl ..younger than 7. Bella had clearly outgrown this.
Bella put on a smile upon arriving at breakfast, but was not excited to be with the princesses
Her disgust / amusement only increased when they started the first of may Princess Processions! They went off every 15min. Bella is shaking her head above. The kids behind are just trailing all the princesses around the restaurant. Silliness! This became a joke for the rest of the trip :)
Throughout the day, while Daddy was usually resting, Bella became infatuated with building 'Berry boats' - essentially a set of leaves attached by a few sticks, all for the purpose of protecting / sailing a few berries.
Her amusement is evident in this contagious smile!
This was clearly her best effort. We tried to sell it to some boy, but he wanted nothing to do it ..so we set it out to sail on a river (captured in the photo below)
Day 2 had come to a close...
Day 4: Animal Kingdom
Today, we did Animal Kingdom. We went on its Tough to be a Bug and Kilamanjaroo Safari. My Dad had a Fast Pass for Expedition Everest. But it was a Roller Coaster, so I didn’t go. So instead, we went on Kali River Rapids. Awesome, but I got soaked and at the end of the day we went to a crab house. (Daddy mutilated the his Crab! Bella mutilated her bread!)
The Tree of Life in the background
The Kilamanjaroo safari is the most popular ride at this park, and not a bad adventure, considering you are in the middle of Florida. It had several African animals, including giraffes..
rhinos...
..and even a lion! (sleeping on the ledge above). I'm not convinced this was real. Really, the lion is just sleeping in perfect view? Wouldn't it just eat all the other animals. Suspicious for sure.
Lunch with Donald
We went to Nemo musical at the end of the day -- quality
Today, we went to Magic Kingdom. We went on Pirates of the Caribbean & Jungle Cruise. We went on a 2 minute ride witch (which) was stupid cause it didn’t even do anything. After we are going to a awesome dinner place at our hotel.
The Peter Pan ride -- a 45min wait (if you didn't have FastPass), and not worth it at all. Fortunately, our wait was zero.
Spinning Tea cups! Whheee...
On both days at Magic Kingdom, we did the Test Track, giving Bella an opportunity to drive. Needless to say, she has a ways to go before getting her license at 16.
Sir Walt Disney himself in the background. Throughout the trip, we learned the story about this impressive American entrepreneur.
Bella's favorite ride at TomorrowLand?? The Ride Around (or something like that), a slow tour of the Tomorrowland area. Fine by me.
Day 6: Hollywood Studios
Today, we went to Hollywood Studios. We had a blast! The starting of the day, we went to an amazing car stunt show. There was action, explosions, and video camera guys. We also went on a movie magic thing ride. And at the Fantasmic. And went we went home. My Dad beat up a water bottle.
The last day of the trip.
Inside the Star Wars ride, I believe
The highlight of the day was the Extreme Stunt Show, where they perform live car stunts in front of ~5-7k people. Impressive.
I captured the finale of the show in a video
We finished the day with Fantasmic, a popular nighttime show ..with Mickey saving the day.
All-in-all, a great trip -- well done Disney!
My first visit in ~25+ years. Bella and I will hopefully do it again at some point ..though not likely in the next couple of years.
