Sunday morning we woke up to a broken room fridge. We had bought breakfast items at Wal-Mart the night before, knowing that this hotel didn't offer a free continental breakfast in the morning. They were very apologetic and offered us a complimentary breakfast. We could pick up the tickets at the front desk, and, since it was Sunday morning, they were having their Sunday brunch with the characters. They hoped we didn't mind. Heck NO!! The kids were thrilled, of course. So we pulled out their signature books and blue, red, and pink sharpies from my awesome box and headed for breakfast. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE really nice breakfast buffets. It is one of my favorite things. I'm not talking the local Golden Corral where they have a large quantity, but not a lot of quality. I'm talking, NICE food. Beautiful pastries, fresh (non-canned) fruit- especially pineapple- YUM!, and a chef or two making omelets by request. That's a nice breakfast buffet. I love it. They seem to be only at really nice hotels. Which we've only been to because of Priceline. I love you Priceline!
Anyway, this was one of those buffets and I was SO stink'n happy to be there- and for free. My fridge could break every day if this was my punishment.
We were just seated when we saw the first characters coming around the corner. We were quickly told about the golden rule with the Disney characters. DO NOT run up to them when they are with another child. They will come to you. They never miss anyone. But if you run up to them when another child is having their moment with them, they will not come to your table. Plus, it's just nice of you. Each character has an assistant that keeps track of which tables they've visited and haven't. Even if you're up getting food when they come by, they'll come back just for you. And they aren't rushed when they get to you. They stay and take all the time your child wants (within reason, of course). You can snap pictures and talk with them. It was really so so fun. Briar Bear came by first. Poor guy. I don't know if my kids even knew who he was.
But they thought he was fun anyway. Then came Pluto. Excitement rising.
By the time Minnie finally got to us, I thought Katie was going to leap out of her chair. When she was on her way to our table, Katelyn met her halfway with a huge race-and fall-into-her-arms-hug.
Minnie was so sweet. Katie was so sweet. And since Hunter and Mickey are such tight buds, he was very excited to see Minnie. Mickey didn't actually make an appearance at this restaurant, but that was OK because I had a little something in store for Thursday to take care of that.
After breakfast we hit the most amazing, most wonderful pool I may have ever been to. Not that it was full of water slides or play equipment, but just the temperature of the water and the sparse people (who were all returning to work from the holidays) and the wonderful warm breeze outside. January in Orlando= HEAVEN. I sat on the edge of the pool and talked to my mom on the phone and told her what an amazing time we were having. We spent every minute we had until we had to quickly change and check out (which we really had down to a perfect science by then- the loading and unloading of a hotel room quickly and efficiently- we worked like a well oiled machine). It was a PERFECT morning. And the kids must've picked up on it too, because they even...behaved. *PERFECT*
It wasn't too sad as we were leaving though, because we were headed for something even better- if such a thing existed. Which it does. Because our cabin was awesome. I mean not all bling, blingy like nice hotels, but so incredibly peaceful and calming and quiet. And SO nice. When we got there to check in, our room wasn't quite ready yet. But we could get into the laundry and pool houses. So we pulled the van up and threw a week's worth of laundry into 6 machines and took to the pool. Now that's the way to do laundry, I'm telling you. By the time our laundry was done, our room was ready, our clothes were clean and our children were finished swimming and ready to settle in. So it worked out great.
As we drove along the cabin rows, we noticed that they all seemed the same. Exactly spec for spec. There were little parking spots in front for your vehicles. Once inside the resort we didn't need to touch that again for the rest of the week. Picnic tables and grills on everyone's porches. Lovely (un-snowed on) pine trees- excellent in January. Inside each cabin is set up the same, as well. A kitchen (they do the dishes for you) and living room with a pull down murphy bed. A wide hallway (great for storing strollers set up and ready to move). Large bathroom. And a back bedroom with a queen bed, bunk beds, and a curtained off closet that made a perfect Ethan bedroom. The whole thing had this rustic cabin decor that was so fun. Settling in was a cinch.
After getting everyone changed again, we took off for Downtown Disney and some dinner. Not wanting to shop much on Sunday, we just walked and looked. We already had Downtown on our agenda for Saturday at the end of the week. So we just walked and enjoyed the scenery. And made our way to our dinner reservation at Planet Hollywood. The kids absolutely loved the loud music and movie decor. Ethan's eyes nearly popped out of his head. We were seated not far from the DJ and Coleson couldn't resist going to request some MJ (Billy Jean). Funny kid! Everyone's food was DE-LIC-IOUS. Again, we hit that $150 mark, but by then it was becoming so common (and it was already included) that it was awesome to just shrug it off and enjoy the moment.
For another night, we returned to our room in total vacation bliss. Beautiful weather, yummy food, nice room, great family time. AWESOME!!
And tomorrow is...Magic Kingdom. Here we come!
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