Dowtown Disney - Disney Mr. Potato Head Pieces

I was really excited to check out Downtown Disney. It is a part of Walt Disney World that is a very cute area with stores & restaurants.  We went there for an early dinner and shopping mid-week.

The biggest store there is the World of Disney.  It has pretty much anything and everything you can imagine with a Disney theme.  If you are at one of the parks and plan to go to Downtown Disney, you can probably find the souvenir from the park there.

Our main reason for going to Downtown Disney was to get all the Disney themed Mr. Potato Head pieces.

I planned for that to be the main souvenir we got the girls.  You can find them at Once Upon a Toy. This was by far our favorite store.  It has all kinds of toys.  Some you can buy in stores back home and a lot you can only buy there.

When you first walk in you will see the Mr. Potato Head section.

 There are a couple different choices when picking the pieces.

~You can build just a Mr. Potato Head.

~You can fill a box with pieces for $19.99

~You can fill a large Mr. Potato Head for $49.99

I started out by filling up the box.  Then I couldn't fit everything in it.  Like the Tinkerbell hair and shoes. :)

So, we decided since this was the main souvenir we would get the large one.

That way we can get double pieces for the girls. 

There are pieces from the Pirates of the Caribbean.  

 You can get Mickey and Minnie themed pieces.  

I love the Mickey Mouse gloves you can get.  They fit right over the hands.

How cute are the Mickey glasses?

I love all the the accessories you can get. 

Here are more Disney themed pieces you can get.

Tinkerbell hair, shoes & wings.  

Goofy hat

Donald Duck hat & mouth

Minnie Mouse bow & shoes

Mickey Mouse Hat & shoes 

You can also get Toy Story pieces & Star War pieces (I didn't have room for those)

They also have a section of miscellaneous pieces.  You can get extra eyes, mouths, ears, earrings, etc.

I ended up with an odd amount of pieces because we just started putting pieces in to fill up the open spots.  

The only catch is the lid of the box has to close or the hat on the large Mr. Potato Head has to close shut. 

 I don't know how we fit all the pieces in the first time.

I can never get all the pieces back in now, lol! 

Here are some other fun places to check out in Downtown Disney.

 Oh how Junebug loves a carousal. 

 There are some amazing looking sweet treats at Goofy's Candy Co.

Walt Disney World - Character Dining - Chef Mickey's (Part 2)

Chef Mickey's

Location - Contemporary Resort

Quick info:
~You can book your reservation 180 days in advance.  Which I totally recommend.  It is very popular.
~ When you first get there, they will take your families photo in front of a Chef Mickey statue.
~ Once seated they will go over how the whole process works.
~The characters visit all the tables about 10 minutes apart.
~ It is a buffet style with a variety of things to chose from.
~ At some point someone will bring around a Chef Mickey folder with the picture you took inside.  It costs $29.95 for the folder which includes one 8x10 and four 4x6's (see example below)

click here to go the website

I originally booked this for the beginning of our trip.  A couple months before I decided to change the reservation to the end of our trip.  Thankfully, there was still an open time slot.  It was a great way to end our vacation on a super high note.

We had one of the earliest time slots for dinner, 5:05pm.  Which, I didn't know until we got there.  It worked out great because our section wasn't full yet when the characters started coming around.  So, we didn't have to wait long for any of them.

The buffet is a great size.  There is a lot to chose from but it isn't overwhelming in size.  So, you can make it a pretty quick trip up and back with your food.  Just in case the characters are making their way around your section.  But, don't worry if you miss them, they will come back!

The characters signed their autograph books and took lots of pictures with the girls.  Junebug had a stuffed sea turtle with her.  When Mickey came by the table he interacted with it.  It was very cute.

Pluto was very silly and played "peek a boo" with Snowflake. 

I love this picture of her grabbing Mickey's nose. 

Junebug gave all of them kisses on their noses.  

I don't think she could have been any happier.  

This is the package you can purchase for $29.95 with your families photo.
We ended up purchasing it because we realized it was our only family photo we took on the trip.  

 There are recipes and a couple pictures for your little one to color.

This was such a great experience for the whole family.  

We will definitely be going back to Chef Mickey's next time we head to Disney (Fall 2013?) 

Busy Bag - Toy Story

I created this busy bag after seeing the super cute Toy Story Pre-K Pack from Over the Big Moon.

Junebug LOVES Toy Story.  I have to be honest I love it too, I've always loved it.  I cried like a baby while watching Toy Story 3.  I was super excited when I heard they were making a forth! Ok, enough about me.

Everything fits perfectly into a pencil case.  I got this one from the Dollar Store.  

The first 5 pictures are what I printed from the Over the Big Moon Pre-K Pack

Counting Cards- I cut them out then laminated them.

 Puzzle 

 Puzzle

 Vocabulary Cards - I cut them out then laminated them. Then I hot glued them to craft sticks.

Junebug can use these for imaginary play. Love these! 

 Size Sequencing

 Toy Story Invisible Ink book

 I found these stickers in our sticker box.  Great addition to the busy bag.  

She saw me putting this together and couldn't wait to play with it!  

Already a big win.  

Walt Disney World - Cinderella's Royal Table

Cinderella's Royal Table 

Location: Cinderella's Castle in the Magic Kingdom

Quick Info:

~You can book 180 days in advance.  Book as soon as you can because this is very popular. 

~Available for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

~Children under 3 are free

~You get a picture with Cinderella before you dine. (picture below)

~Included in our price was an 8 x 10 and four 4 x 6 pictures of your child or family with Cinderella.

~After the picture you go up the stairs in the castle to the dining area.  

~The princesses make their rounds about 10 minutes apart.  

~Princesses we met: Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel & Snow White.(pictures below)
~I have heard Prince Charming, the mice and the Fairy Godmother also show up on occasion.  

~The little girls also get a fairy wand and wishing stars (pictures below).
~Boys get a sword and I assume the wishing star as well.  

          Here is the direct link to the info on the Disney site.

Our reservation was for 9:05 am.  If you book your reservation for a time before the park opens you can enter the Magic Kingdom before everyone else.  The park was to open at 9am so we tried our hardest to get there early enough so we could beat the rush.  That didn't happen, haha!  We were soooooooo rushed because we still had to buy our entrance into the park.  So, by the time we did that, road the monorail to the park, went through security...we were among everyone else as they prepared to open the gates.  I think we got to the gate right before 8:45am.

We did get to see the opening of the park which was fun.  Mickey comes out with dancers and they sang Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah and officially open the gates.  They opened the gates at 8:45am which gave us 20 minutes to get to the castle.  It was a herd of people all rushing up Main Street to get to their desired destinations.

We checked in at the Magic Kingdom at 9:03...I was sweating and stressed.  If we ever do a character breakfast at the park again I swear I will get there before the gates open.  It was rough.  But, we made it in time.

They slowly move you into the castle.  Once inside you wait in a line to get your picture with Cinderella.  The wait wasn't bad at all. Trying to keep Snowflake entertained and in one spot was our biggest challenge.

Junebug didn't want to take a picture by herself with Cinderella so we took a family photo.

Once upstairs we got to relax some.  The servers are quick to start asking about drinks and bring a plate full of pastries.  Always nice to have yummy food to help keep a 15 month old happy and entertained.
For breakfast we got to chose from 4 or 5 items on a menu that included stuffed french toast (what I chose), lobster crepes (what my husband chose), a healthy option with greek yogurt and fruit and a quiche.  There may have been one other item as well.  The girls got french toast sticks. We all love the food as it was presented beautifully and was delicious.

Each princess is announced about 10 minutes apart and make their entrance.  The make their way to each table and chat with the little kids.  Each princess was super sweet to the girls.  They signed their autograph books and took lots of pictures with them.

 I LOVE Junebugs face in the picture with Sleeping Beauty.  LOL!

 Little Mermaid - She was adorable. 

 Belle - she was talking to Junebug about her love of reading.  It was sweet.  

The fairy wands were an extra fun touch we were not expecting and the girls love them! 

The whole experience was about an hour.  Although, it seemed longer. 

I would definitely do this again.  

I came very close to cancelling this reservation thinking the girls would be too little.  Well, I knew Snowflake wouldn't get it.  But, I was worried Junebug wouldn't get it either.  But, I was wrong.  Although she didn't smile in any of the pictures she hasn't stopped talking about meeting all the princesses.  If you ask her who her favorite princess was she says all the princesses.