Rise and shine, today’s it is the day we meet up with the Family Grebner and friends! 

Emily had a good night of sleep and so had we. At 8:15 the Rotmensen family was ready to leave the villa to get some extra Magic in the Magic Kingdom. 

We parked at the Ticket & Transportation and much to our surprise we could take the black monorail (they have different striping) directly to the gates. At 9:00 sharp we walked through the tunnels under the railroad track. We were just in time to queue up for a picture with the one and only Minnie Mouse with a beautiful Christmas tree as backdrop.

Today was a so-called green day (low crowds) and so we jumped into it’s a small world right after. What a difference with last time, Emily was able to sit through the ride on her own! She didn’t know where to look she kept on pointing at everything she saw… 

Afterwards we went to Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid, again Emily enjoyed every second of it. We exited took two lefts and we were in line for a picture with Ariel herself…Emily could stop touching her tail and her long red hair. 

A wee bit later Jens, Aušra, Julius and their friends Sandra and Emilius (from Lithuania) joined us for a flight with Dumbo! Needless to say the combination of names was just too funny! 

After being meters high up in the sky we went towards Goofy and Donald for more character pictures. 

And soon it was time for one of the bigger highlights of the day…

There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow,

Shining at the end of every day.

There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow,

And tomorrow’s just a dream away.

(Sorry, I should have warned the Walt Disney World visitors before putting this lyrics in, I hope it’s not stuck in your head for the remainder of the day!)

Emily fell a sleep on her mama’s lap during the first sequence and she still slept while the show was over! Mama stayed with the little princess while the rest of the group helped Buzz Lightyear defeating Captain Zurg! Ãusra saved us with a tremendous score of 400’000 points! 

While we regrouped the bunch went towards Mickey the Magician! The three of us had a FastPass+, the others went through the regular line. In the end both were equally fast or slow! 

After we said see you tomorrow to Mickey Mouse we queued up to squeeze Pluto his nose. 

The others had a FastPass+ planned for Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid. We added one to our plans but before we wanted to dive into the deep blue we needed our stomachs to be full! 

We ended up eating at the Pinocchio Village Haus! Emily and Mama had chicken breast and I went for a delicious flatbread. 

Just in time for our dive into the ocean we entered the ride, and while coming up to the surface we were able to be at the castle to enjoy the parade. At least some of us while Emily had different plans and want to wander around and collect leafs… 

Right after we left the Magic Kingdom, on the way to our car we had a short stop at the Polynesian Resort for a Dole Whip float. In February Emily loved it but this time she was disgusted at the first bite! How convenient we don’t have to share it anymore! 

On the way back to the villa we wanted to stop at the Target for grocery shopping together. Before we left the parking lot we already knew that it would be Mama by herself as Emily fell a sleep. 

After shopping we went back to the villa and tried the BBQ, works well! As soon as we had Emily in bed we started to prep for another day of fun tomorrow! 

Finally vacation!!! We were looking forward to this since early September. 

Yesterday I checked in online, we were really surprised that it worked with Emily as a lap child. At 5:59 we rolled of our drive way towards Pearson International Airport (YYZ), the drive was quick, parking too, lines at the counters were long…

The line up for the check-in assistance (travelling with an infant) our flight was at least 1,5 hours. But Emily smiled at one of  the Air Canada agents and we were told to go to a different counter, just 15 minutes later we were all done and walking towards security and the US customs. Everything was difference compared to the last time we traveled towards the USA, I would say it is an improvement. 

At the customs office both our hearts skipped a beat…they could not find our ESTA’s (visa waiver program for the US). For sure we have them and they are valid while without them they can deny you entree to the USA. After a couple minutes the officer found them…we put the wrong information in our travel profile…we should have submitted that our Dutch passport (from the Dutch consulate in Munich) were issued by Canada! Yeah right, but everything was fine and we were allowed to enter the USA. A bit later on we found out that that wasn’t the only mistake in our profile and I’m sure Air Canada has messed something up! 

After playing about for about an hour it was time to board the plane, seat 21H and 21K right beside the window. Emily was wonderful during the pretty bumpy flight, no cry at all and she slept for about an hour until a stewardess woke us up to ask if we would like to buy food! Why? You don’t wake me up for free food too… 

At Orlando airport (MCO) everything went pretty quick, we arrived at 12:20 and before 14:00 we had the car seat installed and headed towards the Florida Mall (FLM) for some food and a coffee! 

That was the moment where I decided that it would be awesome to go say Mickey “Hello!” Emily agreed mama wasn’t so sure yet but we could at least exchange here Annual Pass certificate for the real thing. 

I’m not sure if Emily slept before I turned the car key to start the engine or after but she was out. She continued sleeping even when we stopped at the EPCOT parking lot, she must have been really tired. But lucky as I am before mama came back with her brand new pass Emily woke up… 

I think I never got her out the car so quickly and we walked towards mama who was already on her way back to the car! That was convincing enough and we went to my favorite park… 

The first stop was Mouseketeers, a pretty big shop where we got some right sized Disney merch for Emily, and some new shirts for mama. Oh and not to forget the 5-minutes Christmas stories book! 

When we exited the store it rained and we decided to go back after we got ourselves a drink at the Fountain View (in Park Starbucks). While waiting for our drinks the rain got really bad and the wait for Mickey, Goofy and Minnie got less. I guess our choice was obvious…the wait was a little bit to long for Emily but she managed pretty well! 

She was not shy, maybe a little bit afraid? But every time the meet was over she wanted to go back to them! 

After the meets we went back to the car, ok our way to the villa we stopped at the Walgreens for some necessities before heading to our Dream Villa! 

We’ve explored the place and Emily found a ton of things to do which she isn’t allowed like kissing power outlets, open drawers and such! 

Enily is already dreaming and we are about to follow as it was a long day! We can’t wait till tomorrow where we meet friends from Germany (living in the USA).