Disney Magic 2.0 Days 7-8: Art of Animation

Friday, January 24, 2014:

I always dread the last morning on the ship. We had to be at breakfast by 7:00 a.m. We had one last meal with our fantastic servers, and we were off the ship by 8:00 a.m. We breezed through customs and quickly got back on our private van shuttle, which took us to Disney's Art of Animation Suites.

We were all in foul moods...from lack of sleep mostly, but we also lost our passports and had to deal with the aftermath of one of our kids writing on one of the seats in the van. So imagine how grateful we were when we checked in to the Art of Animation Suites somewhere around 9:00 a.m. and our room was already ready! We were elated to have a place to crash, even if just for a few minutes to pull ourselves together. (We did find our passports, thank goodness!)

We received this activity sheet when we checked in:

We had a suite in the Finding Nemo section of the resort. The suite has a separate bedroom and sleeps up to 6 people. The kitchen table, which folds out to a bed:

The sleeper-sofa:

The bedroom:

One of two bathrooms: (2 bathrooms is a big plus for larger families!)

Here is the kitchen table when it becomes a bed:

And the sleeper-sofa at night:

The suite was very themed and quite spacious. It also had a small refrigerator and microwave.

Once we settled in, we decided to go check out the resort. Originally, our plan was to swim...but it was only 47 degrees!

First, the kids played at this playground close to our room:

Then we walked over to the Cars section to check out the scenery:

Around 11:30 or so, we were hungry for lunch. We hopped on a bus to Downtown Disney. We decided to eat at T-Rex, and the kids played in the dig area while we waited for a table.

Inside T-Rex

We had eaten at T-Rex back in 2010, but back then my middle son was terrified of the scenery. He was much better this time around.

After lunch, Brian took the boys to Disney Quest. This is an indoor interactive amusement park that we have never visited before. It is chocked full of video games!

Photo credit: www.wdwinfo.com

 The place had some virtual reality rides, like the Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean.

It also had many floors of old-school video games, like Pac-Man and Asteroids. Brian and the boys attended an animation class there as well. It was fun for the afternoon, but expensive--it was about $120 to get all 3 of them in.

While the boys played at Disney Quest, I took Alyssa to the World of Disney store to buy a toy. Then we went back to our room to take a nap.

Princess Aurora

Later that evening, Alyssa and I went back to Downtown Disney to meet back up with the boys and another family we know through Russian adoption. We ate at Wolfgang Puck Express.

We were all pretty tired, so after Downtown Disney we went back to Art of Animation to sleep.

The next day, our flight didn't leave until 5:00 p.m. We had a breakfast reservation at 'Ohana with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto. To get there, we had to take a bus to the Magic Kingdom, and from there we took a boat to the Polynesian Resort. We were only at the restaurant for an hour, but each character made it to our table twice. They were moving through faster than usual!

We like breakfast at 'Ohana because it is served family style at your table...that makes it easier than a buffet when you have kids. Also, the POG juice is fantastic!

After breakfast, we took the monorail back to Magic Kingdom and hopped a bus back to our resort. We still had a few hours to kill before the Magical Express bus took us to the airport. It was still a little too cold to swim, so we checked out the Lion King section of the resort:

And then the Little Mermaid section:

Unfortunately, sometime after breakfast I started to get really sick. I don't know if I caught something on the ship, or later at Downtown Disney...but it sure made for a miserable flight home. My son also caught it a day later, and he had to miss another day of school.

Overall, we really liked the Art of Animation resort. Here are some pros and cons:

Pros:
*  Disney theming
*  Suites that fit 6 people
*  Separate bedroom for parents
*  Buses and food court are close to all rooms
*  Main pool has underground music
*  Refrigerator/microwaves in suites--can make breakfast on your own
*  Resort is not too big--we found it easy to walk
*  Suites have doors on inside hallways (instead of opening to the outside)

Cons:
*  No water slides or hot tubs
*  The resort is spread over many buildings, so if it's raining you have to get wet to get to the food court or buses (unlike Wilderness Lodge, for example, where everything is contained in one building)

Up next: Final thoughts on our trip