10 December

Saturday morning we were up early for our very favorite breakfast in Walt Disney World.  Donald's Safari breakfast at the Animal Kingdom.  We love walking through the lush park before it's actually opened and having it almost all to ourselves.

You get to meet Donald Duck and have your picture taken with him.  The boys love the Donald Duck cartoons so this was a big hit for the older boys.

The food at this breakfast buffet is our very favorite.  Lots of variety and it's not too crowded.  Then the characters come around to your table and it's much less chaotic than the Crystal Palace.  You get to meet Safari Mickey Mouse.

Daisy Duck

Participate in a little safari parade.

Eat lots of yummy breakfast food.

And meet Goofy.

What more could you ask for?

Later in the day some of us rode on Kali River Rapids and got very wet.  Those who didn't ride played in the water fountain and got very, very wet there.

Anders just couldn't get enough of the water.

I love this fun picture of us in front of the Tree of Life.

And look who we found in the pavement. . . Stitch!

It was a warm day and so the boys enjoyed their Mickey bars.

And we got some fun pictures in front of the Christmas tree on our way out.

That evening we headed to the Beach Club for their seafood buffet.  At $40 per person the price is pretty steep, but never fear because we had the free Disney Dining Plan!  Yes, I love the dining plan.

The hotel had a fun gingerbread carousel in the lobby.

Bradon loved these super-sized chairs.

I didn't get the pictures to document, but we ate a lot of crab legs that night.  Especially my brother Chris who definitely ate a whole lot of crab.

After dinner my wonderful parents took Bradon and Anders back to the hotel for us.  We took Ethan and Tanner and along with Chris and Susie went to meet a bunch of crazy Disney fans from www.disboards.com for the 2011 Disapalooza event.

I'd seen this event on the boards in the summer and decided we had to give it a go.  They rented out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure for the evening.  It was $60 a person and I debated the cost of it and worried that we might be disappointed, but we were not.

From 9:30 - midnight the park was all ours.  At about 9:00 p.m. team members started guiding us through the deserted park towards the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Once everyone was gathered we had a little time to wait and they provided us with lots of yummy juices and water.

Then the time came and the gates were opened.  We were so, so excited.  First you see the Hogwarts Express and we bypassed the receiving line and headed straight towards the ride in Hogwarts - the Forbidden Journey.  It was fun to wander through the castle without being held captive by crowds.  It was awesome!  Later in the evening we came back to enjoy the queue and take it all in.  There was literally no line all night long.  So awesome!  I liked the ride, but the parts in front of the movie screen made me sick.  When I rode it the second time I closed my eyes during those parts.  The Dementors scared me to death.  It was very fun.

I was surprised by how very small all of the gift shops were.  I wish they had more of a selection.

We waited in a small line for the show at Olivander's Wand Shop and much to our delight Ethan was the guest who was chosen to receive a wand.  It was an awesome show and I was so glad that my wonderful Ethan got to have the experience.

It's so much fun to just look in all of the windows of the pretend store fronts.  They are so very clever.  We also rode the Dragon Challenge, though I only rode once because it made me sick.  I'm getting wimpy in my old age.

We had all the butterbeer we could drink which was included in the cost of our ticket.  We tried regular and frozen butterbeers and liked them both.  We also filled our bags with Pumpkin Juice to take home.  That was a really fun souvenir.  I like it, and Ethan and Tanner do too, but not everyone has been a fan.  It will be hard to go back one day and pay the regular price for that stuff.  Ouch!  I think we got our money's worth just in all the beverages.

We were worried that we wouldn't have time enough to see everything, but we ended up having plenty of time.  The only other attraction at this time is the Flight of the Hippogriff, which was a tame but fun coaster.  It's too bad there aren't more things for smaller Harry Potter fans.  Tanner was just barely tall enough to ride two of the rides, but The Forbidden Journey made him sick so he didn't try the Flight of the Hippogriff.

The only hard part of the night was the very long walk back to the car.  Universal's car park is very far from the main entrance and you use a lot of walkways and moving walkways to get where you're going.  The boys were completely exhausted by the end of the night.

This was one of the highlights of the trip for me.  If you're a Harry Potter fan it is a "must see" attraction.  They've announced that they're going to expand the area and I think that's a great idea.  I hope to see more attractions that the whole family could enjoy.  We had an amazing time, but I honestly can't imagine it packed with wall to wall people like it usually is.  You'd miss out on some of the amazing details.  If I had to do it all over again the only thing I'd change would be to go back to Olivander's one more time to see if Tanner could get picked to choose a wand.  Other than that the night was really perfect.  Thanks disboards!