2016 - June 20th & 21st - Long Beach Airport, Orlando home, Art of Animation Resort & Disney Springs

The big Christmas gift of 2015, our Disney World and Disney Dream Cruise is now here! It seemed like a long time from December 25th, but it really flew by. All 13 of us were excited to begin our anticipated adventure! Eric, Shirley and the family came in to spend Sunday afternoon and stay the night for our early flight from Long Beach Airport. Carrie, Ed and Ruby also joined us for the evening as we all celebrated Father's Day with a dinner at Fuddrucker's. Monday morning, the Kims arrived and we drove Eric's van and our Prius to the airport, unloaded everyone and all of the luggage, then Carrie and Ed drove the vehicles back to our driveway and Ubered back the 3 miles to the Long Beach Airport. At 8:37 or so, we were off to Orlando!
                       

With a short stop in Austin TX, we arrived in Orlando and found a couple of cab vans to take us over to the house that Mary Anne's sister Pam had arranged from her friend Grace for us to rent for the kids and Grandkids while not at the Disney Resort or on the Disney Dream. Needless to say the joy just kept building!
It is a large house with all kinds of sleeping quarters for everyone. In the heat wave of Orlando 2016, with temps daily from 97 to 106, everyone found the pool at the house to be most welcome!

                         
                         

             
 
Tuesday afternoon we hailed our same cab drivers to take us over to the Disney Art of Animation Resort. Mary Anne had talked to them when they brought us from the airport and we arranged with them for the rides to and from the resort.
For all that have followed our blog, the PowerPoint presentation at Christmas for this trip proved to be pretty point-on! From our arrival at the Disney Property to Disney Springs (the new name for Downtown Disney) to the Art of Animation Resort to each of the theme parks and the cruise aboard The Disney Dream, we pretty much saw and did all that is in the Power Point (click on the link if you'd like to see it again!).
Like all who enter the Magical Kingdom of Walt Disney World, the giant welcome is there for you!


We arrived at the Art of Animation Resort, our home-away-from-home for the week. It is everything and more that we expected. Look at the joy and excitement on those faces!


                
                
                
The Art of Animation lobby chandelier ....
            
We arrived!!! We took the creativity that Disney is known for! We enjoyed!






We LOVE this picture of Kendall ... she shows what each of us were feeling!

                

When we check-in, everyone receives their own Insulated Travel Mug for free drink refills at the Resort. I think they all got their use!

The Big Blue Pool at the Art of Animation Resort!
Eric and Shirley and family had a Family Suite in the Finding Nemo Building with the rest of us (including a room for Kendall, Jordan and Mikayla) had rooms in The Little Mermaid Building. We wanted to keep the water theme going as we were also going on the Disney Dream Cruise. This resort also has themed rooms and suites in the Cars Land and Lion King buildings. The walk to our Little Mermaid rooms was filled with many sights to take in!
            
          
            
The Facey's Finding Nemo Suite was just as spectacular as it is shown on the Disney World web-site!

            
            
            
            
            
The Murphy Bed from the table ...
            
Moving on to the Little Mermaid Rooms, we couldn't be happier! It sort of looks like Ruby likes the sleeping quarters!
            
                       
            
            
After checking in and settling our things, we grabbed the Disney Transportation Bus at the front of the hotel and went to Disney Springs. Since the transformation from Downtown Disney to Disney Springs, the stores and shops have at least doubled. We spent time wandering around the stores, especially the 10 individual Disney Stores, and took in all of the fascinating merchandise that Disney offers year-round. Their Disney Christmas Store is huge and The World of Disney Store is about double the one we have in Anaheim's Downtown Disney. Everyone had a great time just looking, whether in a store or on the waterfront of Disney Springs. Spectacular!
            
           
We had arranged to meet-up with our Florida Family, Bill and Donna, for dinner in Disney Springs. They launched their maiden voyage of their new motor home and stayed for a couple of nights in Disney's Fort Wilderness Park. They were our saving grace for dinner; Bill and Donna arrived little before us and had the foresight to find a place that would take reservations for 15. We were so grateful as we only had about a 40 minute wait to get us all in. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at T-REX: A Prehistoric Family Adventure. It is similar to the Rainforest Café. T-REX is an animal-rich haunt that features an over-the-top pre-historic theme, with massive animatronic dinosaurs, meteor showers, fiery explosions, an “ice cave” and even a dig site ... so plenty of built-in entertainment!

Skipping ahead to Sunday, June 26th, we check our luggage in at the concierge and then enjoyed the Art of Animation facilities and pool for the day. During our stay, we were much too busy in the parks to get the enjoyment of the Resort, so this wrap up of the week was perfect! It did not rain any of the days that we were at Walt Disney World ... not even a five minute sprinkle! How lucky were we?! This is just unheard of in Florida weather! It was hot (like 97 to 106 every day) and humid, but NO RAIN! Once everyone left the pool and changed clothes to have a late lunch and await our cabs to arrive, it poured rain! So we got the full benefit of the resort with no rain until we were done and ready to go. How perfect!



As I continue along with the blog, we will start with our first park adventure at The Magic Kingdom. Everyone has taken pictures with their iPhones and put them on our Family Shared Photo Site. It's taking awhile to get them all arranged in the right days then the right groups inside of those days. Also, I have so many memories flashing back as I look and arrange the pictures that it takes awhile to get a day written and posted. Bear with me ... they will all come (eventually!).

To see the full photo album for this blog entry, June 20th & 21st, click here! More to come ... I promise!