Tag Archives: Holiday

Disney, Family Adventures, Food, Photo-A-Day

Animal Kingdom 2022

Enjoying a Mickey Themed Snack
Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01450

Today we went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This was part of our Christmas gift from Dan and Marcia along with our stay at All- Star Music last night. Because we were staying on property we were able to get into the park early. After taking a photo by the giant Animal Kingdom Christmas tree Allison, Eva, andy and I went to the Avatar Flight of Passage ride. This is our favorite ride and it is super popular so waiting in line for it is a very long thing. I think we only waited for about 45 minutes though. We had gotten there close to when the rope drops for the park and because we were on property we got in a little earlier. However, the rope drop happened and all those people were sprinting to the line. It was obnoxious but we were able to get on the ride and I was able to book us a Lightning pass for the Safari when we were done with Flight of Passage.

The Animal Kingdom Christmas Tree

?The Animal Kingdom Christmas tree was huge. We asked someone passing by to take our photo so we could all be in it.

at animal Kingdom

Once inside Animal Kingdom we saw this painting and had to get a family photo by it. This was where we parted ways with Dan and Marcia before heading to Pandora to wait for the Avatar ride.

After the Avatar ride we caught up with Dan and Marcia and had a snack. I opted for the giant Mickey Mouse pretzel with cheese. We actually got a couple of these to enjoy before going on the safari ride. Having the Genie + was helpful because once we got on that ride I could book another ride right away and so I booked us Everest for Allison, Eva, Andy and myself. The safari was one of the best we’d been on because so many animals were out for us to see. We saw almost all of them around the park. I think it was because it was so cool out that we had such good luck. Most other times we’ve gone have been very hot so many animals are in the shade.

Andy and his Hippo Pal

After the safari we wandered the animal trail around the ride to see even more animals. Andy was excited to see a hippo. He’s really into hippos these days and has a stuffed one from my work that he named dumpling.

Andy at Rafikis Conservation Station Petting Zoo

After the nature walk we went to Rafiki’s Conservation Station on the little train and there they have a petting zoo. Andy had a lot of fun petting the different animals like pigs and goats and sheep. They had a drawing exhibt as well but we did not stay for that because we had to get back to Everest to ride that ride.

Santa on a boat

We were a little early for our scheduled time at Everest so we watched several themed boats go around a pond in the middle of Animal Kingdom. One happened to have Santa on it.

After Everest we had lunch at Restrauntasaurus. We ordered our meals through the Disney app and were able to go in and pick them up and find seats inside the building. It was very busy but we were not waiting long. What we did wait a long time for was the Dinosaur ride. Most Disney attractions have something fun to look at while waiting for the ride. Dinosaur does not. Avatar Flight of Passage is a great example of how they did a nice job of making the waiting in line easier on everyone by making it interesting.

After Dinosaur we were wiped so we had a snack, Mickey Mouse Ice Cream bars and then hit a couple of the gift shops and headed on our way to Dan and Marcia’s.

Before we got to their house we stopped for food at their favorite Mexican place. The food was excellent.

Photo-A-Day

Christmas in Florida 2022

The coco Christmas Tree
Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01449

This morning we got up and headed to the airport at 4:00am for our 6am flight to Florida. We’re headed there to celebrate with Allison’s parents in their new house. We’ve never been to Florida for Christmas before and our Christmases with Allison’s parents have always been virtual. They send us a big box of gifts and we open them on Facetime or a Zoom meeting or something like that. This year we decided that we’d go down for a week and spend the holiday with them in person.

Our flight down was very smooth. Andy had some trouble with the pressure in his ears on the descent but luckily that wasn’t too long for him to go through. He can’t seem to pop his ears properly to get relief. He had some shows to watch on the flight so he kept busy.

When we landed we were greeted by Dan and Marcia. They picked us up and we headed to breakfast at Cracker Barrel before heading to Disney Springs to walk around.

When we got to Disney Springs we saw all the beautiful Christmas decorations and learned that there were 20 themed Christmas trees spread all over Disney Springs. Andy and I got special maps and we went searching for the trees. The maps were nice with stickers to put into the places where we would find each themed tree. Once we finished our maps we could turn them in for a special gift.

giant boots

We spent a few hours in Disney Springs and then it was time to head to the hotel to get checked in. We were staying at the All-Star Music hotel on Disney property. The check in process went poorly and because of that we were each given the Genie + perk in the park for the next day. Genie + allowed us to register for Lightning passes at various rides. In addition to that it also gave us free parking at the park.

Allison has a Flat Stanley for school and she’s been taking photos with it all over. Our hotel had these giant boots and I got this silly photo of her and Andy with Flat Stanley under the boots. We got to our rooms and unpacked a bit and relaxed and then headed back to Disney Springs to have dinner and explore further.

You Warm My Heart

We had our dinner form Earl of Sandwich and ate along side the pod that is in the middle of Disney Springs. Then we found the rest of the Christmas trees in Disney Springs and got our gifts. Andy and I each got a special pin for completing the task of finding each of the trees. They were all really fun and well decorated. As we were leaving to go back to the hotel the area where the main tree was located began to snow. It was fun to explore Disney Springs today and ease into the trip before hitting animal Kingdom tomorrow.

Kids by the tree

We got back to the hotel and Fitzy was waiting for Andy in Dan and Marcia’s room. He had made the trip with us as well.