Field trip!

 

Alex and I took the girls on a field trip today.    He had a vacation day today, so I thought it would be nice to so something slightly educational yet really fun.

What?  You’re asking where we went??  You must not know me very well then. 

(As a side note, if anyone out there knows the Disney fairy, will you please ask him or her to put some passes under my pillow please?!)

The Christmas decorations are up at the Disney resorts.  So, armed with a bunch of miscellaneous facts, we set off on a field trip.

Our first stop was the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

This was a huge tree! 

 

The decorations were really pretty.  FYI – since 1996, all Christmas trees at Disney have been artificial.  See, there was education thrown in there somewhere! 

Each resort had a spot where you could sit by the tree and take a picture.

 

Look!  I do exist! 

 

Then we went to the Wilderness Lodge.

Another equally large tree with more great decorations.

 

The girls walked around with their little notebooks today taking notes. 

 

Did you know that the wreaths at Disney vary from 12” to 25’?!  Well, you do now.  The largest wreath is hanging at La Nouba in Downtown Disney. 

Watch out for those bears!

 

The weather was perfect for a swim today.  Wish we could have hopped in!

Someday I hope to stay here at least once!

It is such a gorgeous resort.

I told the girls to show me how much they love me.   

 

Goofballs.

 

We then headed out to the Polynesian.  We ate lunch before we went to check out the decorations. 

Mmmmmm………wraps. 

The ducks were looking for food.  They were so cute to watch, but we didn’t feed them.

The tree wasn’t so big here and the decorations were somewhat lacking. 

The flowers on the tree were pretty though.

Can you see my reflection in the little green ball?

Gosh I love these girls!

 

Next stop – the Grand Floridian!

This tree was huge!

 

And the gingerbread house was equally as huge (excuse the blurry picture).

 

 

 

Now that’s a lot of ingredients! 

 

Miiiiiiickey!

The details on the gingerbread house were awesome!

This santa was made entirely out of chocolate!  Mmmmmmmmmmm.

 

 

 

Yep, the gingerbread house is also a little store!  You couldn’t go in, but you could go up to the window and buy cookies and stuff like that.

 

Off to the Contemporary!

Okay, so the gingerbread tree was cute.  However, this is a huuuuuge resort, it’s on the monorail stop, and the decorations were sadly lacking here.

This was the tree.    Massive resort – tiny tree. 

 

We then got back in the car and drove over to the Boardwalk.

Loved the tree.

If you read the sign, there were 14 hidden Mickeys to find in this chocolate and gingerbread gazebo (is it a gazebo?  what is it?!).  We found them all.

 

I bet you’re wondering what happens to all this stuff when the holidays are over.  Yes, you are.  Well, it all gets stripped down and thrown out.  Bye bye chocolate, bye bye gingerbread.  When June rolls around, they start preparing for the holidays again.

The wen went outside to walk around the boardwalk and hit a few other resorts.

There were lots of outside decorations here. 

 

The tree was pretty nice, too!

 

Next stop – the Beach Club resort.

There were 11 hidden Mickeys in this carousel.  All of the horses were made out of chocolate. 

What an amazing amount of talent!

 

I was trying to figure out how to sneak this out and take it home with me.

 

We then went next door to the Yacht Club.  Um, has anyone ever been to the Yacht Club? 

The train was really nice.

The detail was fun.

 

The tree – interesting.

But the ambiance in this resort was enough to suck the fun out of the day!  I realize that there are people with inordinate amounts of money that act like they own the world.  They all stay here.  Stuffy, stodgy, and about as loud as a library after closing.  We got out of there as soon as we could! 

The Grand Floridian is also stuffy, but at least there’s life in there! 

 

We walked over to the Dolphin resort.  I had never been there before (nor had I been to the Yacht or Beach Club, either!)

This white poinsettia tree was amazing!  There was also this wonderful scent floating in the air there.  It was a combo of vanilla, caramel, and something I couldn’t quite place.  I wanted to bottle up the air.

What a gorgeous resort.  I’m sorry it had taken me so long to go check it out!

Hmmmm……wonder if that would fit in here!?!?!? 

Last stop – the Swan resort.

This book was sitting right in front of the huge chocolate sculpture they had there.

So amazing!  Santa, the tree, and the fireplace were made from chocolate!

 

 

Oh my, is Kali rolling her eyes?!?!?  Noooooooo!!!!!!!!

 

 

We had so much fun today!  The girls learned lots of stuff and they will be doing a project tomorrow about their field trip.  I’m looking forward to see what they come up with.  I will report back with pictures soon.