BudgetBunny

This past week the fam and I were off to sunny Florida to finally meet Mickey Mouse!  None of our crew had visited Disneyworld so it was quite the memorable experience!  We landed early Saturday morning and were greeted by a nice warm breeze and a beautiful clear, sun-filled sky – nothing like what we had left behind in chilly Toronto!  We stopped at Applebees for some lunch and then continued on our way to our new home for the week!

The house we rented was beautiful! It was spacious, had a pool and plenty of bedrooms!  But we didn’t plan on being there much, there was too much we wanted to see and do!

After getting a good night’s sleep we were off on our first adventure – to SeaWorld!  The younguns are all animal lovers and were really excited about seeing everything SeaWorld had to offer!  There were massive aquariums with rays that swam over your head and sharks that swam around you.  The dolphins were always popping their heads up to say hi, the seals loved to show off and there was even an octopus that contorted itself to fit in to tiny tubes and behind rocks!  Without doubt, the highlight of the day was seeing the gorgeous killer whale show where they happily did flips, jumps and dives.

Next up we visited the Polar Express that began with a short movie, then opened up to Santa’s Village where the sky was full of the Aurora Borealis, the air smelt of cinnamon, there was real ice to touch (us Canucks weren’t as thrilled about that as fellow Floridians), you could meet Santa and the belugas swam around us!  For the first time we got to see rescued manatees and sea turtles, some who would recover and be released and some that would spend the rest of their life away from harm’s way at SeaWorld.  We were also really impressed by SeaWorld’s conservation efforts.  They really seemed to take care of their in-house marine life, but have also rescued and rehabilitated thousands of animals since the park opened.  They encouraged recycling, only consuming sustainable seafood and keeping the beaches and oceans clean.

Our next adventure was to Magic Kingdom!  We boarded a ferry on the mainland and set sail towards Cinderella’s castle!  Main street was decorated for Christmas and a wonderful site to see.  Then, just as we approached Cinderella’s castle, a Celebration parade broke out!  What an amazing experience!

We spent the remainder of the day touring the kingdom and going on rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder and Space Mountain.  The parentals had a ton of fun on Space Mountain!  They’re still talking about it!

We ended the night with a spectacular light show and an amazing display of fireworks!  What a magical day for us all!

After all of that hustle and bustle a therapeutic shopping day in Downtown Disney was in order!  The Lego store was a site to see!  There were life size Lego versions of Woody and Buzz Lightyear and even a Lego monster in the lake!

The Disney store left us all speechless and we spent a few hours shopping in there!  I got to see the crocodile that ate Captain Hook’s hand.  I’m glad he wasn’t the real thing though!

The next day we set off to see the world at Epcot.  What a unique experience! We went on a tour of the land, found out what it was like to be a viking and went Soarin’ in the clouds!

Not having travelled too much, I especially enjoyed getting a glimpse of each piece of the world with replicas of many featured monuments of the world.  We also loved that the cast members at each section of the world were actually from there!

We spent the remainder of the afternoon back at Magic Kingdom, doing a few more rides we had missed!

Our final Disney day was spent at Animal Kingdom!  We started with a safari through Harambe!  There were lions, cheetahs, elephants, rhinos and a giraffe we could have touched it was so close to the vehicle!  I didn’t see any bunnies though!  Next we visited the Tree of Life which is over 145 ft. tall and has over 400 animals carved into it.  What a beautiful masterpiece!

Just beyond that we met up with Rafiki, got soaked on the Kali River Rapids and found the Yeti in Mount Everest!  What a day!

Our last day was spent back at Downtown Disney where the fam picked up those last few things they wanted and where they had hoped to go on an air balloon ride but it was too windy.  It was too bad, I hadn’t been on one before and was looking forward to it!  We spent the afternoon relaxing by the pool, going for a walk around the resort lake and then out to dinner for our final Florida meal.  What a memorable and magical experience for all of us!

xox Bun Bun