Saturday, November 15, 2014

A Most Magical Place Part 3

It has been a busy few weeks here for Claire, Mary and I, but I'm so glad to finally be sharing day three of Claire's Birthday weekend!

I have to tell you, I was beyond excited to be back at Disney's Magic Kingdom, and for two reasons: the first, it has been a while since we've been there and they have opened up a whole new section of the park since our last visit and second, I wanted to see the park all decorated for fall and Halloween. 

It didn't disappoint! 


A little mother/daughter love! 



The largest Starbucks I've ever seen! But also, weirdly, the fastest...

A little view of Main Street U.S.A
See what I mean about the fall decorations?

The crowing glory, Cinderella's Castle!










Claire was extremely excited to meet her first princess...

Her favorite one, Ariel!!

Disney has done a lot of terrific work cleaning up and re-vamping the park. The next few photos are from the improved Haunted Mansion! 

As you touch the instruments, they play music!

My favorite addition, 'Captain' spits out water at passerby as well as bubbles! 





Our close family friend Maralee! 


Yes Claire, you have to blow out more candles...

After dinner, I insisted that the group head back to the park; it closes at 11:00pm after all! I am so glad that I did to. 

Add caption


According to the Disney schedule, the 'Wishes' nighttime firework show was not supposed to play. BUT...there was a local holiday for the schools so the park was a lot more crowded than it would have been on a Monday. As we were walking down Main Street U.S.A, the park started playing Jiminy Cricket saying, "'Star Light, Star Bright'". Claire and I immediately looked at each other, started grinning from ear-to-ear and then bolted! We found the perfect spot and watched the show! It was made even more magical due to the fact that we thought we would have to miss it. 

Disney sure knows how to put on a show! 








The finale, so many fireworks! 

One of the family's favorite rides, and movies! 
As we were walking out of the park, we saw everyone lining up along the side of the street. I asked what was going on and the answer was, "the Electrical Parade of course!". 


Needless to say....we stayed :)  

While we waited for the parade to start

















Thank you Disney!

For those interested: 

I have mentioned before that our mother is a Disney travel agent. Should you wish to visit Disney or are considering booking a trip, here is her contact information! 


- Elise 

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

A Most Magical Place Part 2

Hello All!

I hope you enjoyed reading about the first day Claire, Mom and I had in Orlando Florida last week! Here are the pictures from the second day of our trip. While Universal Studios is a separate park from Walt Disney World, the day was still quite magical. 

The first thing I need to let all of you know is that my family and I are HUGE Harry Potter fans. I mean, we used to wait in line to get the books the night they came out and then read the books out loud to each other so that we could all share in the experience. That being said, back when I was a sophomore in college, spring 2010, our whole family went to support Claire at a cheerleading competition set in Orlando. While it was a wonderful trip, we arrived one week ahead of the opening for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. This time, we had not such problems. So, with no further adieu...


Dear Reader, 
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry


Before we headed around to Harry, we HAD to ride the Incredible Hulk ride! This is a little blurry, but it's from a Snapchat

She didn't know I was taking this...


Our first glimpse! 






























Butterbeer!











Number 12 Grimmauld Place