After a late night yesterday Emily woke up at 9:00am, great for us to have slow start of the day. But not too slow as Dusty suggested us to come swim and enjoy the children area in Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, the resort where he and his parents are staying. 

We decided that today would be a perfect day and at 10:30am we met with Dusty at the main pool area. First we explored the children area, Emily loved the pool with shallow water and the splashing water. She also tried the waterslides but these where a little bit too much, mainly because they were not so smooth because she put her feet on them while ‘sliding’ down. 

Soon we all went to the main pool, this pool was ‘a little bit’ to deep for Emily to stand in (1,2 meter) but it had a zero entry, just like a beach but with out sand. Around 12:00pm we said bye and thanks to Dusty, we loved the pool and enjoyed meeting you here. 

As we left the resort Emily was already sleeping, I think she needs vacation from this vacation! We decided to take a longer car trip, get gas at 2.189 USD/gallon (0.78 CAD/Liter, 0,52€/liter) and we ended the ride at the Mall at Millenia. Here we had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen where Emily rather ate my Original Chicken BBQ Pizza as her own crusty chicken with broccoli kids meal… 

When the shopping was done we went towards the villa where Emily got to play Bedford she went toed at 3:45pm. Danielle started packing our suitcases, or at least one of them. Emily slept until 6:15pm, that’s when I woke her up. Needless to say she didn’t like me at all afterwards until I asked if she wanted to go somewhere… 

She jumped of the sofa, wanted her Crocs and said repeatedly “Ootoo” with which she means “auto” in Dutch, “car” in English. She walked to the front door, opened it (she figured out how to do that) and walked towards her door of the car pointing at it. From that moment on I was considered nice again. 

We went to Epcot, within 20 minutes we walked into the park. Emily brought Princess Sofia the First (her doll) and she was telling Sofia things and pointing at stuff the whole time, so cute. We started with Journey into Imagination with Figment. We started the ride sitting side by side but the first scene it got completely dark and Emily climbed onto my lap. 

After we exited we walked towards the Seas with Nemo and friends, instantly she started pointing at all the nice fish. And she shouted “tom” at the not so nice fish. I believe she meant “stom” im Dutch, “stupid” in English. Right after we walked through World Showcase.

Starting point was Canada, Danielle and I shared a beer flight at Florida Fresh and at 8:30pm we ended up in… Yes you guessed it right in Germany! Here we shared a pretzel and some other beers while Emily and I were entertaining the crowds with dancing, running, twirling and sharing rice puffs with three girls from Argentina who didn’t speak a word of English. 

oon the Siemens sponsored fireworkshow Illuminations started and Emily was clapping and wowing the whole time. She enjoyed it till the last big blast. For everyone who wants to see and here why we like this show so much, a video from YouTube (not my own): 

After the show we left hither park, Emily stayed awake till we were home and went straight to bed. And here we are writing the blog again with just one more day in the Magic to go before we go home again…

What a night, yesterday night we got to see Emily her dinner for the second time. Unfrotunalty she could not go back to bed as we needed to clean the crib and wait for it to dry. Somewhere around 11:00pm she was finally in her bed, we figured that it would be rough night but she slept till 8:00am. 

I believe that she woke up from being hungry and thirsty but we didn’t want her to feel sick again and started of slowly with water, some time later more water and finally a banana. After the banana she was unstoppable and wanted to go outside in the backyard. Just 15 minutes later at 10:30am we all changed in to our bathing suits and jumped in the pool. 

We had a blast, soon it was time for a quick lunch and right after Emily was enjoying her afternoon nap. This was a bit earlier today while she slept less last night but also because we were expected in Anmimal Kingdom for a 2 hour preview of Pandora -The World of Avatar! 

We left the villa at 4:20pm and walked through the park entrance at 4:35pm. We walked straight to Expedition Everest as Danielle and I had a FastPass for this ride. Danielle got to go first and after I finished my expedition we walked to Creature Comfort (a Starbucks) before we travelled through space to Pandora. 

The new land is opening on the 27th of May but for Annual Passholders there were sneak peaks announced in March. Unfortunately we did not receive the invitation email and so we missed out on the possibility to sign up. I decided to give them a call while being here in Florida and the wonderful people at Guest Relations where able to accommodate us today from 6:00-8:00pm. 

When we entered the new land we could directly see the difference int the plants, the teaming looked so realistic that we needed to look really close to see the difference between real and not-real. 

First we walked through the park and we got a picture taken with The Valley of Mo’ara in the background. I’m not sure how they did it but the mounts really seem to float. 

In the new land there are 2 new rides. The first one, Avator Flight of Passag, we could not ride together as Emily isn’t tall enough and probably it would have been a bit too scary too. What an amazing experience the theming of the waiting line is very detailed and very beautiful. The ride is done very well, it starts with finding and being linked with your own Avatar with afterwards the flight on the back of a banshee.  I would say the whole thing is a very special mixture between Dinosaur, Soarin, Mission Space + 3D! And today it was almost a walk on! 

After I got back from my flight we wanted to go on the Na’vi River Journey. This a laid back ride in a boat where Emily was able to join us, as soon as we came close to the boarding area the ride broke down and we needed to leave again and try later. 

When we exited it started to rain, Danielle went to get linked up with her banshee to fly around Pandora. Emily and I to find a place to sit as we expected a little bit of rain, we were not even inside the Satu’li Canteen and it started to poor down. We found a nice place and after mama came back from her flight she joined us until the rain was over. The food was delicious, Emily ate half of her portion, mama got the rest and I ate mine all by myself. Probably the best counter service food in any of the theme parks I’ve visited. 

We walked towards the Na’vi River Journey and it was open again, lucky us. I thought I had seen some amazing dark rides before but this one blew me away. The colours, the lights, the moving plants, the creatures moving around you, impossible to see where video ended and reality took over. Emily was sitting in between us and she didn’t knew where to look but from time to time she was dancing along with music and clapping when she saw something special. 

After we excited we were able to ride it one more time. All of a sudden Emily shouts Kickey pointing at a couple flowers, she found her very first Hidden Mickey. For everyone who doesn’t know a Hidden Mickey is a representation of Mickey Mouse subtly inserted in to Disney design for rides parks and more. I don’t even think that Emily knew what she discovered but we will tell her later. 

After the ride we left Pandora as the preview was over, we were undecided if we would stay for Rivers of Light or not. The weather wasn’t that great but the weather radar showed that it would be dry the remainder of the night and we decided to stay. 

At 8:55 we were in the viewing area together with Dusty and Melina a friend of him. We got a picture taken and then it started to rain a little bit. We decided to stay while walking back in that weather to the car would not be any better. A couple minutes in the show it started to rain heavier and I decided to leave with Emily and find a dry sport somewhere. 

Until Emily decided to wave at a couple cast members. We were allowed to stand under the exit gate which was a covered area, we had a great view of the show and where among the first to leave the viewing area, we waited for the other three at the stroller and left Animal Kingdom together. 

Emily fell a sleep 2 minutes before we got back to the villa but in 15 minutes we got her changed into her PJ’s and I read her a 2 page story before she was sound a sleep in her crib. 

What a day we are all tired…