Back to Disney World!

Last summer, when Papa Norm treated us to a trip to Florida including several days at Disney World, we figured it would be awhile before we'd be able to go back. Then we got the winter blues, saw a promotion Disney was offering, and got the idea that maybe, just maybe, we could go back sooner than we thought! After weighing all our options, we decided to go ahead and go back. We had a great time, with visits to our favorite attractions from last year and some chances to see several things we'd missed. We flew down less than a week after school was out and stayed at Disney's All Star Music Resort. Like last year, we spent 5 days in the parks, with one day off to relax at our hotel. We spent a day at Magic Kingdom, then Hollywood Studios, followed by Epcot. Our "off" day turned out to be rainy, so instead of hanging out at the pool as we'd originally planned, we played games in the main building (Emma was the only kid there with the games coordinator!) before heading to Downtown Disney for a few hours and then swimming in our hotel's guitar-shaped pool...in the rain! We went to Animal Kingdom on Sunday and back to Magic Kingdom on Monday. Finally, we got a chance to hang out at the hotel pools for a few hours before the shuttle picked us up to return to the airport on Tuesday. Not realizing that June is Florida's rainiest month of the year, we had more showers and thunderstorms than we bargained for; only the last two days of our trip were completely rain-free. We didn't let that stop us from having a great time, though...we donned our rain jackets, grabbed an umbrella, and ducked into the buildings when it got really bad. Emma, of course, had a great time. The highlight of the trip, according to her, was something completely unexpected...a visit with the "Frozen" princesses, Anna and Elsa! When we reserved Fast Passes in April, the Anna and Elsa passes were already sold out, and the stand-by lines were hours long. On our last day at Magic Kingdom, the park was extra crowded, causing them to keep the park open until 1 AM to give people more time to do what they'd planned. However, by 11 o'clock, the crowds had thinned out significantly, while Emma (our night owl) was still going strong. We walked by the Frozen line several times, where the sign still showed a 50 minute wait. At 12:30 when we walked by, the sign said...20 minutes! Emma squealed so loudly when we got in line that some people turned to look at her (luckily with smiles on their faces)! So...the last thing Emma did at Magic Kingdom on the last day in the parks, 10 minutes before closing time, was to see the princesses from her new favorite movie!