If there was ever a perfect end to a summer, we had it. We headed down to Daytona on August 12 and drove all the way to the border of Georgia. We found a cheap hotel with a pool and breakfast included and Juliette thought it was the best thing ever. Josh wasn't feeling the best with what we thought was either a UTI or a hernia, but he wasn't letting that stop him. The next day we had a short 3 hour drive to Daytona and stayed there for 3 nights in a condo on the beach. It rained a short time each day, but that didn't stop us. Juliette made friends at the pool and we loved the sand. Daytona sand is so different from the sand at Va beach. It's like a soft powder down there. It's amazing. On the 16th we packed up and told Juliette we were heading home. She was sad to leave the beach, but happy to sit in the car and color, watch movies, and play on the ipad. She didn't notice when, after about an hour driving, we went under the Welcome to Walt Disney World archway that signals you are officially on Disney property. A little bit later she looked up from the ipad and said Hey it's a Disney truck!
Josh then told her she had to put something on and we told her we weren't going home- we were going to Disney! She put on her magic band and flipped out! It was a great surprise reaction and she was screaming and couldn't believe that we tricked her and that we got to stay at POP century again. We got lucky and they had our room ready right away and it was about 4 hours early. Of course as soon as Josh started unloading the car the heavens opened up and we had a huge rain storm. That didn't stop us and we threw on our ponchos and headed to Downtown Disney. Amazingly that storm was the only time it rained until the day before we left. We got so lucky, but I think we would have welcomed some rain to cool things off. I don't think I've felt that kind of heat for a long time!
We had 3 days in Magic Kingdom and it was great. Juliette was a superstar and two of the days we stayed in the park from opening at 9am until closing at 12am. She never really whined or complained of the heat either. The third day was awful and I insisted we went back to the resort for a rest. Once again we learned from the trip for future visits- I think we'll wait a little longer than 4 months! We loved not having set dinner reservations and being able to just go whenever we wanted. We also figured we don't need 3 days at Magic Kingdom to do what we like if we stay for 13 hours a day! Juliette got to meet a lot of characters we missed before including Tiana and Naveen, Fairy Godmother, Mary Poppins, Dopey, and the stepsisters from Cinderella Anastasia and Druzilla. She also got to meet the talking Mickey on the first day and she was amazed. The one splurge we did was Chef Mickey for breakfast.
She got on rides we missed too like Pirates of the Caribbean, Stitch's Great Escape, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I didn't put her on Splash Mountain, but Josh and I went on it- I loved it! She didn't like the roller coasters and thought Stitch was gross when he burped chili dog breath (it was awful). We had some magic moments given to us by cast members that I'll get into with the pictures.
She wouldn't go on the Haunted Mansion and a few things we did in April we didn't get to do, but that was fine. We had an amazing family time and can't wait to go back in a year or so and look into the vacation club. Josh wants to do a room in the house Disney. Maybe the downstairs bathroom.
Juliette had a great time trading pins again too. She even got a Frozen pin from a cast member. I bought her a pin this trip for her absolute favorite ride- the Ariel ride, which we have no ridden about 11 times. She also got to do Enchanted Tales with Belle another 4 times. She got her role of Maurice twice and she even got to be the Beast!
Tomorrow is Juliette's kindergarten orientation and she gets to spend the day with me at school. She's excited and her teacher is so sweet.
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