Disneyworld

      When Catalina was born, and later on, when she became the true princess she is today, we knew we'll have a Disney vacation at some point. For her 3rd birthday she wanted to be Cinderella, for her 4th Ariel, and she already told us that for her 5th birthday she wants to be Belle. So, this year's Orlando vacation was planned somehow long ago.

We decided to take the train in, and fly out. Amtrak from Philly to Orlando is an adventure, but a fun one. Catalina fared quite well, watched movies almost continuously and slept pretty well on the large, comfortable seats. The dinning car was a bonus that mommy and daddy enjoyed a lot, but Catalina did not seem to care that much. She was pretty much hypnotized by Netflix. Here she is before we boarded the train. Yes, she did get plenty of compliments :)

Next morning we arrived tired and badly wanted a shower. After paying close to a fortune to a cab to drive us 20 min to our resort, the "nice" people at the resort told us the room won't be available till 3pm.

We were allowed to enjoy the resort's grounds, so we tried to make the best out of our situation. Catalina was happy she got a wand from the front desk, asked for Minnie ears and happily enjoyed the beach, while her grouchy parents complained about having too wait till check in.

Once finally in our rooms we make the best of our vacation. First park on our list was Magic Kingdom. We were extremely excited to see if Catalina will be impressed. And boy, she was!! She kept showing us all the characters, she forgot she is shy and asked for autographs and took pictures with all the princesses we could find.

On our way to Tom Sawyer island. Catalina enjoyed a BIG bucket of popcorn

To say Catalina loved the sun glasses is a MAJOR under estimation. She wore them all vacation long, choosing them over the "princessy" ones she got from home.

Perfect seat for parade watching: mommy's shoulders

Ariel was the first princess that Catalina met and it was a successful encounter!

While her face might not show it, "it's a small world" was one of Catalina's favorite rides

Everybody is welcomed in Raspunzel's castle 

First meeting with Cinderella was a royal one! Catalina could not believe her eyes!

We were tired at the end of the day, but so happy! Back to the resort, for movie under the stars and yummy dinner. The vacation was starting to take shape and we were enjoying ourselves quite a bit.

Next day it was Animal Kingdom time! We wanted to make sure Catalina gets to see some characters, so we made reservations at a nice place inside the park. So we had lunch with Mickey, Donald, Daisy and some other cute animals. The food was awesome, the characters a little rushed, but Catalina looked for them all over the place and was extremely excited to see what they wrote in the autographs!

This was her favorite moment! She hoped Minnie will show up too, but we told her she's home, cooking for Mickey :)

Catalina LOVES maps! She wanted to know where she is at all times, she wants to be a real explorer.

And she really is an explorer! Little kids can get books and collect stickers; park associates explain to them about birds and different animals. Catalina was very serious about the whole process.

Ready for the safari!

We left early, as Catalina was getting tired and really, how long can you walk under the sun!

Our third day was scheduled for Epcot. We really didn't know what to expect there, except that we had a 90% chance of rain. And rain in it did!

We waited 30 min in pouring rain to meet Aurora! Catalina was soaked, but somehow, she still smiled

Soaked for Snow White as well....

Getting dry for Belle

And an absolutely lovely encounter with Chip and Dale who were not hurried at all and played with my cutie pie to her heart's content

Mickey again? Yay to that!!

Oh boy, was Catalina happy to see Minnie! 

 Marius really wanted to try Soarin, so he waited in line by himself while mommy and Catalina tried some other adventures. In the end, Daddy liked Soarin so much, that he convinced us to go as well. Well, we all loved it!

We were all ready to go home to clean dry clothes after the light show.

Tired? how about mommy?

Since for the next day we also had a 70% chance of rain we headed to downtown Disney, decided to come back to the resort if it starts raining. We had plenty of fun there as well, starting with an absolutely awesome experience at T-Rex lunch!

Hey dude, there's a dinosaur behind your back!

Lego store! Mommy and daddy went crazy and bought a little too many legos...

Yeap, it was raining indeed!

We spent the evening quietly, in anticipation of the next day. The first time we visited Disneworld I was utterly disappointed I did not visit the castle in Magic Kingdom. So, for this second time we decided to book a breakfast with Cinderella in her royal castle. Deciding and actually doing it were very different things, as it seems people reserve these seats 6 months in advance. We were told to call very early in the morning, maybe somebody cancels. And we were lucky! The evening before we made sure Cinderella called Catalina to invite her for breakfast, as we were a little worried on how our little princess will fare a wake up call at 6am... It was hard, but when we reminded her that Cinderella did call and asked her to come to her castle, Catalina was up and ready. The morning was filled with high excitement and high expectations!

 Once we reached the castle we were extremely excited and maybe this led to some disappointment. The castle was small inside, the picture with Cinderella was rushed, the food was horrible (and not enough) and we were rushed all through our meal.

 Catalina loved meeting all the princesses once again, so who really cares about the food, right?

Going early to breakfast got us an unexpected visit with Ana and Elsa. Wait lines were 5hrs (!!!!) if you couldn't get in before park opening

Aladin's carpet, one of the few rides Catalina enjoyed

 The second encounter with Belle was actually very nice. Catalina got to play the little broom in the "beauty and the beast" story and got to take pictures and receive a book mark straight from Belle.

Oh man, again?? :)

It was a tiring second visit to Magic Kingdom, but we loved it anyway. We had an extra day to spend in a park, and Catalina got to choose where we go. Animal Kingdom it was!

Since the park does not have that many attractions and we went through most of them the first time, we relaxed and enjoyed everything at a slow pace. It made it so much more fun! The highlight of the day was for sure the black vampire! On our first visit, mommy won for Catalina a red dragon and a blue vampire. Catalina LOVED them and played with them a lot. On our second visit, Catalina wanted another dragon and vampire. Mommy played twice without luck. Catalina played twice without luck. Daddy played 3 times and finally we got to take home another vampire!

Catalina: "mommy, today is red dragon's birthday and blue vampire's birthday and I'm bringing for them another vampire as a present, so they have a new friend :)

With smiles on our faces, we packed, got on the Magic Express bus and back to Philly. A magic vacation indeed. Luckily, with Catalina around, we are still surrounded by magic every day!