My Musings: Art of Animation in Disney World

For Thanksgiving 2017, the entire Johns clan went to Disney World!!!!! It was such a dream vacation to be in one of my favorite places, with all of my favorite people, celebrating such a fun holiday, and seeing all the parks dressed up for Christmas! It seriously could not have been a better vacation. While it was amazing to be in Disney for Thanksgiving, the main reason we all made the trip, was to support John who was attending a music program and had a performance at one of the Disney hotels at the end of the week.

We waited to book our trip until we had heard John had been accepted into the program, so we were a little late in making hotel reservations for such a busy time at the parks. The only hotel we were able to find any availability at was Disney's Art of Animation Resort. It was amazing we were able to find anything at all for a party of 18 on such short notice, granted the only rooms available were the Lion King family suites, but we were happy with anything.

We all ended up absolutely loving our hotel, it was such a great place for our large family. The kids loved the numerous pools, it has a large cafeteria which made eating at the hotel quick and easy and the food was delicious, there were shuttles to and from all the parks and Disney Springs and the decor was over the top and whimsical and so Disney. I have also stayed at their sister hotel, Disney's Pop Century Resort, and also really loved my stay there, this tier of resorts gives you so much bang for your buck, I highly recommend them!

The check in area is gorgeous with it's neon, rainbow backdrop.

How fun is this Finding Nemo themed pool?! The kids could not wait to get in that water! It's the very first thing they did on our first full day. Fun fact: this pool is the largest pool in any Walt Disney World resort!

The hotel is divided into 4 sections, and each section is themed after a classic Disney movie, Lion King, Finding Nemo, The Little Mermaid and Cars. We stayed in the Lion King section.

We didn't spend too much time at the hotel, since we were busy at the parks most days, it would have been fun to see all the different sections of the hotel. We did make sure to make a quick visit to see the super adorable Little Mermaid pool during our stay.

The decor of the family suites was over the top, every inch was covered in some sort of Lion King decor. The kids thought its as pretty magical.

This area was the dinning room by day, and my bedroom by night with a magic pull out bed. It was actually a really comfortable bed!

We arrived in Florida on Bethany's birthday, Bethy and John are our two thanksgiving babies, as they were both born on Thanksgiving Day. Thomas had made this adorable birthday card for her!

After checking into our hotel, getting our magic bands, and settling into our rooms, we all headed to Disney Springs for Bethy's birthday dinner!

Disney Springs' Christmas decor was elegant and enchanting.

This adorable carousel was playing Christmas music as its jolly Christmas horses galloped around and around.

We made a quick stop inside the Christmas store to see what fun things they had for the holiday season.

There were so many beautiful and fun ornaments that I loved so much but didn't have a use for or they were too fragile to get home, so I took pictures of them instead. This is my way of not over buying but still being able to enjoy all the Disney merchandise.

For her special dinner, Bethy had chosen B.B. Wolf's Gourmet hotdogs since she LOVES hot dogs so much.

A lot of us ordered the Three Little Pig's sampler which has minutare versions of their current speciality flavors. The flavors we got to try were, from left to right, Mexican, Philly cheesesteak, and Greek. All of them were so delicious!