The first expereince with Disney magic....

I started a post about our trip a while back and then realized that I could not find a lot of the pictures from dinner on our first night, and many of the pictures from the 1st day which I really needed, so I went on a hunt.  It took me until New Years Day to find them hiding on my MIL's computer, but thank goodness they were there, because that was my last resort.  So now having found those photos I can finish our trip review, and what a trip it was.  I am just itching to go back, soon, but alas I  am afraid I will have to wait at least until the Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon in 2012.

To recap from our day at Sea World which is how we started Boogie's Birthday Trip Extravaganza go here..http://littledeucecooper.blogspot.com/2010/11/hi-ho-hi-ho-its-off-to-disney-we-go.html. I've added a few new photos here as well.

Anyway back to the Disney magic, we were checking into The Ft. Wilderness Cabins, but check in wasn't until 4pm so we decided to get dinner 1st and slowly introduce Boogie and PJ to the Disney Magic. Boogie has really been into bones and dinosaurs lately so I though what better place to eat then here...

If you have a child that loves dinosaurs this is a must do...although I will say that it is loud inside.

 The giant skeleton outside is a real show stopper, and is  identified, although I can't remember exactly what it is (Sorry)

 There are different themed parts of the restaurant, and with our 5pm reservation we were seated right away and the restaurant was fairly empty.  We sat in the ocean area which I though was kinda ironic since we had just come from Sea World and this fish tank was directly behind us.  Boogie was mesmerized.

 They encourage you to get up if you want and walk around and look at everything.  This is the Ice Cave.  Every 15 minutes or so a meteor crashes and the animatronic animals come alive and the ice cave changes color.  I have to admit that I loved it.  Again it was noisy, but not noisy enough to bother our 8 month old, so even with small children, unless they have a problem with loud noises you should be fine.

 No photo that I could take could do this guy justice.  He is huge and sits over the bar.  If you look at the bottom center of the picture that is a fish tank that encompasses the whole back of the bar, and people this is one big bar.  The eyes on the octopus also move from time to time.

 This is the guy that meets you at the very front of the restaurant.  Again animatronic so he moves and roars, a great crowd pleaser.  I can not stress enough that if  you have children that love dinosaurs, this is the place to eat at least once on your trip.  Just prepare yourself for the noise and I say pick an off eating time.  Our dinner reservation was a bit early and we were right in and seated, there was one stroller in the stroller parking.  When we left the line was around the side of the building and I could barely find our stroller.  Repeat to yourself...early is better, early is better.

 If your really worried about the noise and how it might effect your little ones.  You can see that PJ just really didn't care, when it was time to sleep it was time to sleep. Daddy made a nice comfy place to rest her little eyes.

 These two photos are outside of the restaurant.  Just a prop, to show the attention to detail which is one of the things that I think makes Disney so amazing, and a dig site.  Boogie loved this and while they have to take their shoes off to go in and excavate, its not sand in there so no worries.  It is finely diced rubber, so wipes right off of little feet.  There is also a sink station and hand sanitizer for little hands when their finished digging for fossils.

I did not take any photos of our food, I think I was too hungry, but it was very good.  The portions are huge so to  cut down on the cost two people could easily split an entree.  We had an appetizer for the table, 3 adult entrees (Salmon, Ribs and a Quesadila) as well as a kids meal, one soda and two "adult" beverages and the bill was right about $150.  Higher then at your local place, but for Disney and what we ordered not bad.  I scouted the menu online and read reviews on Allears.net so I knew what to budget for and was prepared.  That is my biggest suggestion, be prepared.  Disney is expensive, it just is, your going to pay $3.50 for a 16oz soda that's just all their is to it.  So look up the menus for the places you think that you would like to eat, and budget.  By preparing a bit before we left I was able to stay right on budget even having added an extra night to our stay late in the planning.

After such great food we wanted to walk a bit and so  wandered around the shops.  The prices are a bit less here then in the parks and we found some good deals as well.  The stores are just interesting to look at as well, and fun to take pictures in front of.  We only bought a few things, but we were able to replace to autograph book and pen that we forgot at home, so World of Disney saved the day there.  We also picked up some pins for Boogies lanyard for her to trade. This is really a lot of fun, and Boogie ended up with some great pins.  Every employee (or at least all that we saw) had Disney pins that they could trade.  I stocked up for Boogie on EBay as it was much less expensive then buying them new.  I got a lot of 25 pins for $10 plus shipping and that came in well under her Happy Birthday pin that I ordered  for her from Disney at $14.95.  So once you have your pins and your lanyard  you can start trading with anyone that you see.  Just say "hello can I trade a pin with you, and your on a roll.  Boogie had some that she really liked so we left those off her lanyard, but the ones she didn't care for we traded for new ones that she did.  It was a ton of fun, and I definitely recommend it as an inexpensive way to get some new mementos from Disney.  She still takes her pins down and looks at them ,and we are almost 3 months out from the trip. 

The other thing that I suggest is to let you kids save their own money for the trip.  Now this was Boogies birthday trip so she did get a kick in from the grandparents for her spending money, but without their help she was able to save about 3/4 of her money on her own.  We counted everything the day before we left and took it to the bank together to cash out, and then I told her how much she had.  If she wanted something she had to buy it from her money and once her money was gone that was it no more souvenirs.  She did great, and after figuring out that money would go pretty fast she really started thinking about her purchases.  It was a great lesson in saving and prioritizing your money, and she still does it post trip, which is the best souvenir  of all if you ask me.

So anyway we did walk around and see all that Downtown Disney had to offer, and there is a lot, just take your time and soak it all in.  Here are a few shots from our wandering.

 This is our first Disney trip picture at Disney.

 Inside the Pin Traders store...

 The Lego Lagoon Monster

 Playground outside of the Lego store

 Jon an Boogie making their Lego creation...

 It got serious and she had to sit on the table.

 Here's the finished project...just kidding, but this guys was awesome!!

 Boogie with some of her Canine Lego friends

You have to watch out for Stitch over one of the doors at World of Disney, he spits.  No really, its funny to to sit back and watch people who aren't paying attention, its not a little stream of water either.  LOL!!

It was fairly late by the time we left and we were more then ready to check into our cabin, so off we headed to Ft. Wilderness.  I unfortunately was more excited to get into the cabin then to take pictures of the Fort. So I don't have anything to post here, but I will say one thing, this is a very unique Disney experience.  In my opinion it is a wonderful place to stay if you have children.  The cabins are nice and roomie with a full kitchen and a little sitting area.  There is a set of bunk beds, and a Full size bed in the bedroom and then a Murphy bed in the sitting area, so you can sleep 6 in each cabin and not be falling all over each other.  There is also a nice deck with a grill outside and you in the woods, so its pretty peaceful.  Other then the cabins you can also tent camp or RV camp at a fairly practical price, and really the best part, your still on the Magic Kingdom lagoon, for a discount price.  We took the boat to Magic Kingdom each time we went and just loved it.  The electric water pageant goes by each night and the music is turned on on the beach, and you can see the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom over the lagoon.  A really really great place to stay.  Plus if you build a down day or two into your schedule, it is very easy to occupy your whole day at playgrounds, fishing in the canals, bike riding, archery, swimming at one of the two pools, horseback riding or caneoing.  There is a ton to do without even leaving the Fort.  A great luxury place to stay at a moderate price.   We really loved the Fort and have not a bad thing to say about it at all.

This post has gotten very very long so I will leave you with our arrival at the Fort.  The next post will be Boogie's first glimpse at the Magic Kingdom, and I will tell you I cried a little.