Epcot Day 1

The Disney Adventures continue . . . 

On our first full day, Maddie and I had a fabulous

character breakfast at Epcot!

Maddie loves Mickey waffles!

The restaurant is called the Garden Grill and it 

is SO GOOD!!  Plus, it slowly rotates as you eat and that is fun too.

Luckily, it did not make me dizzy!

The characters there are so fun!

Yes, we still love seeing characters!

We could not miss seeing our favorite Mickey Mouse

in overalls!

Maddie mentioned that she saw a very old photo of 

me in similar overalls!

Yep -- I wore overalls sometimes in college! 

It was a super fun way to start the day and 

we made sure and eat enough to count for breakfast and lunch!

Love Characters -- Even Cows!

As you may recall from prior Disney posts, we love Characters

and character photos.

And we love Chick-fil-A . . . a lot!

If they had a frequent customer list, we'd be at the top!

Recently, the Chick-Fil-A cow was out and about at

the store.

He was rather dressed up the first time we saw him!

I think Mr. Tennis has a similar shirt and bow tie!

We heard our local Chick-fil-A had an overnight for patron's stuffed 

animals.  They posted updates throughout the evening.

We wanted to attend with the littles, but they were too tired -- maybe next time!

Maddie and I thought it was such a hoot and we

saw this photo on FaceBook of the cow reading (we presume)

to the stuffed animals

We saw the cow again recently in his Hawaiian shirt -

he is reportedly taking a vacation to get away from the

cold weather!

Great Plan Cow!

Even though we aren't at Disney seeing some WDW

characters, we love seeing the Chick-fil-A cow!

P.S.  Big Congrats to the Philadelphia Eagles on their SuperBowl win!!

Yippee!!

What a Character!

When we first began visiting Disney World,

our main goal was seeing Princesses!
We had breakfast with Cinderella in the castle
the first year Maddy and I went to DisneyWorld!
[Wish I could find a photo - I think she was only 4 that year!]

Beautiful Mulan with Maddy - May 2011

While we still love seeing a Princess when we can,

we get so excited to see some other 

characters as well!

Yikes -- it's Chewy!!

One year, we caught sight of Chip and Dale and

we both took off in a sprint to get in

line for a quick autograph and photo!

My sister and her daughter were with us and just rolled their eyes!

We were serious - we had to meet Chip and Dale!

We saw Chip again this year at breakfast at Garden Grove --
best breakfast with characters ever!

Chip and Maddy at breakfast!

Characters are definitely part of the magic of Disney!

Am I right?!!!  Of course, I am!  :)

Love Pluto's dog tag, don't you!
If you can't read it, it says:
"If found, please return to Mickey Mouse"

We simply cannot go to Disney without meeting Mickey
somewhere -- this year, it was Farmer Mickey!
 

And we even saw one of our favorite characters from Maddy's
toddler days -- Doc McStuffins!!

We definitely were feeling the magic with the characters!
Most were characters
 we had never seen or been able to get a photo with on other trips!

Yes, we are goofballs, and we do love Disney!!!

Such Characters -- WDW Part 2

One of the things we love to do 

at Disney World is to

see the characters!

When we first visited when Maddy was little, it was 

all about the princesses -- we still like them, of course,

but really enjoy some of the other characters too!

We arranged for a breakfast at the Crystal Palace - 

located just across from the castle!

Love that place and if you make your reservation early enough,

you get in to the park before it actually opens!

Our absolutely favorite characters make

appearances at the breakfast and stop at each table.

One of the other reasons I love this place is that you are not rushed in and out -

you can take your sweet time and enjoy that breakfast buffet

over and over . . . 

 not saying we did that though --

 oh yes, we did!  ;)

Connor was able to join us for a couple days --he loves the characters too! :)

Character meet and greets are here and there 

throughout the park and we kept our eyes

and iPhones busy checking on 

when and where to find a character or two!

Yes, we did go on a few rides here and there too!

Old favorites like Dumbo and It's a  Small World and  

a  new favorite - the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train!

What a fun and fast roller-coaster!!

Hold-on tight!  :)

Fave Characters -- Part 1

Who's your favorite Disney character? I've been trying to come up with our fave --- the problem is there are so many great characters at Disney and, surprise, suprpise, we love them all!

On our first morning there, we headed out fairly early (9ish) to a character breakfast at the Crystal Palace - located very close to Cinderella's palace. Woohoo -- double thumbs up and four stars for that breakfast! Yes, I am patting myself on the back for arranging it (yay, me)! It was a great breakfast with tons of yummy food and included table visits from Winnie the Pooh (who doesn't love Pooh bear?), Tigger (love, love), Piglet (adorable) and Eyore (so sweet)!

At random moments, the characters paraded around with children joining in. Ooops, Mr. Tennis didn't get the memo that the parade was for kids and tried to join in too, but thankfully got distracted by the biscuits and gravy and jumped out! I would book this breakfast again and again as the food was delicious and the characters delightful! We did not feel rushed at all and really enjoyed it. Perfect way to start the day and get some nourishment and fuel for the rest of the day.

Maddy and I did enjoy another character breakfast on our next-to-last day at Chef Mickey's. Since Mickey is truly her favorite character, we were really looking forward to it, especially after the Crystal Palace had been so fabulous. While good, Chef Mickey's was a bit of a letdown. The characters, while friendly and sweet, seemed in a big hurry to sign her autograph book, get a quick photo and speed away to the next table.

Oh yes, there were more characters to see in the parks,

so don't worry, Part 2, will be up next!