We stayed at the Hilton Bonnet Creek resort, which is still inside Disney World. We got a free night with Sam's points and then decided to stay an extra day because it was suppose to be cold and raining in Pensacola where we had planned to camp. It was a typical resort with great pool deck, golf course, and several restaurants. I would definitely stay here again.
We started our big day at Disney World bright and early with in-room breakfast. Our goal was hit the park early while everyone was still in a good mood.
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| Catching the early bus to the park |
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| The park opening ceremony |
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| The crew starting our day in Adventureland |
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| Her audience with Rapunzel (she met with Cinderella too) |
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| Cinderella's castle was undergoing a little maintenance |
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| Ergo selfie |
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| Riding Aladdin's magic carpet ride (which is exactly the same as Dumbo) |
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| Playing on Huck Finn's island |
Here's a summary of our visit by the numbers:
Number of Rides ridden:
- Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride
- Jungle Cruise
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Peter Pan's Magic Flight (2x)
- Princess Meet and Greet
- Mickey's Philharmonic
- Carousel
- Huck Finn's island
- Big Thunder Mountain
- Stitch's Great Escape
- Tea Cups
- Goofy Barnstormer (3x)
- Dumbo
Total meltdown moments: 2 or 3
Number of outfit changes: 1 for Malcolm and 1 for Daddy
Best Moment for Mom: riding Big Thunder Mountain with Inga
Expert Parent Tip: leave the park after lunch for an afternoon nap and have dinner outside the park before returning for the parade and fireworks
Biggest Complaint: the rental strollers suck. The ones at Disneyland are way better. We didn't even need one since Malcolm prefers the carrier at this age and Inga walked almost the whole time except when we made her ride to justify renting the stupid thing.
While at the resort we also enjoyed a dinner at the Artist Point restaurant at the Wilderness Lodge, one of the Disney properties. The lodge is meant to mimmic the great western national park lodges and I would say they did a great job with it. The restaurant only serves food and wine from the Pacific Northwest and was very good. It's one of the best restaurants I've been to in quite some time. Unfortunately the children were absolutely awful at dinner and it wasn't that enjoyable of a meal. They had more fun running around the lobby with some other kids.
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| Fake spring and creek in the lobby |
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| Amazing fireplace in the lobby |
We spent a day relaxing by our resort pool. It had a zero entry pool, lazy river, water slide, two hot tubs, one kiddie pool, and bar. It was pretty great.
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| Malcolm hanging out in the sunshine |
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| Inga all ready to get in the water |
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| Zero entry pool |
We also went to SeaWorld, which turned out to be a total dud. Sam and I had visited about 5 years ago on a college spring break and had a great time. However, on this visit the sea otter and water ski show were both closed along with the dolphin pool. They have also really changed the orca show due to the one incident a few years ago and that documentary so it wasn't as good. They've "upgraded" a bunch of the exhibits to "experiences" that just meant standing in line and watching a bad movie before getting to see the animals. We didn't even bother with the penguins. The food was also terrible. At least the kids liked the dolphin show. We will not be going back to SeaWorld anytime soon.
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| At the SeaWorld playground running away from Mom |
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