Surviving Disneyworld, Part I

Sorry it has taken me so long to get to my Disney trip report.  It is the holidays, you know! 😉 Not to mention I was gone for a week and am having a hard time catching up…

Anyway, the point of my next several posts (because you didn’t think I could tell the story of a week’s vacation in just one post, did you??) will be to give you an overview of not just our trip to Disney (which is always a fun topic!), but more importantly, about how I, as a current Lifetime member of Weight Watchers, handled the challenges of maintaining a healthy lifestyle at the happiest (ie, most tempting!) place on earth!  And of course, because it’s me, lots of pictures are included!

Here goes!!

Disney, Day 1

On arrival day, we checked in and admired our hotel.  We stayed at the Yacht Club, and it was beautiful!

We quickly ditched our carry-ons and headed out to Epcot, since our resort was within easy walking distance.   First we ate at the Mexican pavilion, where I scanned the menu and decided on chicken tacos in corn tortillas.

I didn’t eat the chips.  Yay, me! Then we headed to Soarin’ (a ride), which was way cool, and after that, we did the Nemo adventure with all the fish, which fascinated my boys.

On our way out, we got our picture in front of the big Christmas tree (every park seemed to have one).

It was a positively beautiful day, and we had fun walking around to the different countries.

Back at the hotel before dinner, we had appetizers and wine. Oh, that red pepper hummus was divine.

After a little wine and cheese (and hummus!), it was time for…

Dude, if you’ve never been to Chef Mickey’s, you have to go.  The characters are, well, the characters, but the food is amazing! *drool* And plentiful! It’s also a lot of fun.

That second one is of DS#1 getting a little extra love from Minnie.  He was not impressed. 😉

After Chef Mickey’s we went to Magic Kingdom, which was open late that night.

Who can resist Cinderella’s castle at night?

Not me, obviously! 😉  No lie, I took about 100 pictures of the castle during the fireworks, lol!

And thus ends day 1.  And here is what I ate for the day:

Thirty points total–not bad!  I gave myself credit for 3 activity points for all the walking we did.  I felt like I earned it!

Disney, Day 2

Our second day consisted entirely of the Magic Kingdom.

The “New Fantasyland” part of the park was officially opening just a few days after we arrived, but it had been in a “soft” opening for a couple of months.  We headed right there to get on Dumbo (my husband’s favorite from when he was a child) and the Barnstormer (Goofy’s kiddie roller coaster).

I’m still in awe that I pulled my (very expensive) DSLR camera out and took a picture while on this ride.  Was I insane?!

All the new “princess” things like Belle’s Tales of Adventure and Ariel’s grotto are also in New Fantasyland, but by the time we got to the princess stuff, there was a wait.  We did Ariel’s ride (it was okay) and then I sent my husband and DS#1 to ride Space Mountain while DS#2 and I waited patiently for Belle’s “show.”

Belle is my favorite princess by far, so I was willing to wait until the cows came home for her. 😉  In another post, I’ll talk about our experience there, but for now, suffice it to say that DS#2 would not let me tell his dad or older brother about it.  😉

We spent quite a bit of time in Belle’s area, taking lots of pictures and then—we ate at the new Be Our Guest restaurant!

Sorry, not my best shot, but I try to be respectful of people and places and not use the flash in situations like this.  And I suck at holding the camera steady. 😛  There are actually three very different rooms to Be Our Guest, but this was the best photo I got.

I’d been excited to try my favorite princess’ new restaurant, but dinner was out of the question because everyone else wanted to eat there too, and it was sold out months ago.  So we did lunch, which was pretty heavy, at least for me.

That’s a croque monsieur, which is basically a very rich ham sandwich from what I can tell.  And it was GOOD!  (I only had a few fries…er, pomme frites, and gave the rest to DS#2.)  And then, because Disney insists that every meal must have dessert—and who am I to argue?—I had a few bites of each of these:

Okay, actually, I had a few bites of the crème puff, but I had one of the cupcakes all to myself.  It had mousse inside—how could I stop at just a bite?!

And that was just lunch. 😛

We did lots more rides that afternoon, including Splash Mountain for my husband and DS#1.  DS#2 was afraid to ride, but he found the “special spot” on the sidewalk where you could get plenty wet without being on the ride.

He actually got wetter than the other two who rode the ride itself!  😉

Later, at the England pavilion at Epcot, I got to meet Mary Poppins!

Doesn’t that picture just rock??  I love her…because I dream of being as good with my kids as she is with her little charges, lol!

Dinner was at Via Napoli, and I must say, we were unimpressed.  The meal itself was mediocre, and the service was poor.  I ordered eggplant parmagiana, but was told just before they brought our food out that it wasn’t available.  Argh.  So I had to settle for lasagna Florentine, which was not good at all. 🙁  I only ate half, because I have a firm rule about not eating food I don’t like.   I refuse to waste my points on something I don’t love!  I did, however, love the dessert—tiramisu, my all-time favorite. 🙂  Most of my desserts, I share with my family—but I ate every bite of that one!

When it was all said and done, here’s how my day of food shook out:

Holy crap! A total of 57 points!!!  I gave myself credit for 90 minutes of walking, which earned me 5 APs, but seriously—how did I eat so much food?!  Oh yeah…the tiramisu. 😉

That’s enough for one post, I think! Stay tuned for the next one, when the “Loud Redhead” family conquers Hollywood Studios and Darth Vadar, all in one day. 😉 (Click here for a direct link to the second part of my Disney Trip report.)

Thank you SO much for reading! I promise to catch up on comment replies and hopefully all my favorite blogs very soon!