Forgiven and Saved: It was so MAGICAL...

We are home from our magical 5 days of Disney

and it was completely magical every single day!

We drove all the way on Saturday and got there about 9:00 that night. We had not made reservations for that night but decided to drive into the park and try our luck at our resort. In true Disney style, they were so accommodating and were able to give us the room we were assigned to the next day so we would not have to move the next day. What a blessing! This was on our bed when we got to our room.

The next morning we got up bright and early and were ready to load the bus by 8:00. We had switched our watches to function on "their time" while we were there. I could not believe we were actually going to make our very first rope drop at Disney. Amy had told Claudia that we just HAD to do the rope drop at Hollywood Studios and then run to Toy Story Mania so Claudia was extremely excited to make it there early! We were the very first people at the bus stop that morning! We were overflowing with excitement!

There were less than 10 people on our bus that morning. Claudia and Cooper were ready!

What Claudia was not expecting was to have to wait almost an hour for them to let us in. They did really well and we were so happy to be at the front of the crowd.

Here is Cooper waiting patiently...

The park was ready for us!

They did a little show and gave directions for entering. One direction was that we would follow the guides and WALK to Toy Story Mania. So much for Claudia getting to run like Amy had advised her!

We were headed straight for Toy Story Mania when we spotted this gal with NO LINE because we were in the front of the crowd. We decided to jump at the chance to see Minnie first thing...all except for Cooper who sat timidly in his stroller.

THEN we went to Toy Story Mania and it did not disappoint! We had a great time on this ride. We rode it a couple of times that day. It is one of the most popular rides and it is almost always packed. Since Hollywood Studios was not that crowded that day, we only had to wait about 15 min. both times we rode.

Several pictures in front of the Sorcerer's Hat. I just realized I spelled that incorrectly on my collage. I'm too tired to worry about that little detail so we will just pretend it is correct!

We saw the Stunt show for the first time and it was a big hit. We all loved it!

As always, the kids had a ball on the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" playground. I saw a woman get her flip flops stepped on and she had a blow out...and all I could think was WHY...why would you wear flip flops to Disney? I said why about many clothing decisions we saw that day!

The parade had a break down on one of the floats so it was not quite as good as normal but we still enjoyed it. We talked to a sweet man who retired and moved to Orlando just so he and his wife could work at Disney!

I made all of those collages at night at the hotel just so uploading my pictures would not take as long. Unfortunately, those are all I got made so here are a few more individual shots I took.

Claudia and Chad waiting for Beauty and the Beast. This is one of our favorite shows to attend. It is so pretty!

After Beauty and the Beast, Chad went to ride Rockin' Roller Coaster so the kids and I hung out. We had our picture made in front of the hat.

We went to New York City!

We tried on funny hats under the hat!

We had dinner at Hollywood and Vine. It was really good and we were delighted to sit in the air conditioning. We have never been to Disney when it was hot but our first day was hot! That night, we went to Fantasmic for the first time. We loved it! I don't know enough about my camera and I did not have a tripod so I got NO good pictures at Fantasmic. I finally got tired of trying and just put it away and enjoyed the show. It was mesmerizing! After the show, we made the LONG trek back to the bus stops. After 13 hours at Hollwood Studios, we were all completely exhausted!