Disney Day 2 - Magic Kingdom

On Monday we woke up bright and early so that we could get to Magic Kingdom in time for rope drop, which is basically just an opening ceremony.  The park opens at 9, and the goal was to get there by 8:30.  I can't remember exactly when we got there, but I think it was around 8:40, which is really good if you know me!

I was really surprised how many people were there that early...I was hoping at a chance to be the family of the day, but could see as soon as we walked up that there was no way that was happening.  There were way too many people in front of us.  (Every morning at the Magic Kingdom, they pick a family to be the family of the day, and they get to help open the park with Mickey and friends by riding the train in with them and being a part of the opening ceremony.)

Look how crowded it is waiting for rope drop!

They have a little musical show and then several characters come in on a train and join the singers.  It really is so magical!

Snow White and Chip and Dale were part of the opening the first morning we went to MK...

The kids loved the show almost as much as I did;)  Charlotte waved bye to all the characters as we headed into the park...

We fought through the crowds and finally we could see the castle...

It's so beautiful!

We headed straight back to Fantasy Land behind the castle and went to Peter Pan's Flight...

It really feels like you're flying through Neverland.  It was a favorite of all of ours!

We also rode The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh...

Not as cool as Peter Pan's Flight, but it was cute, and it was a favorite of Charlotte's.  It's definitely a great ride for kids her age.

Of course we had to take a spin on the Mad Tea Party.  Charlotte had been talking about the teacups since we first told her about our trip.  She couldn't wait!  And as you can see, they did not disappoint...

I always tell people that I still feel really young.  I think it's crazy when people turn 30 and say that they feel old.  Thirty is SO young.  But y'all.  The teacups.  They will definitely change your view on what young is...I was so dizzy after it was over that I couldn't walk straight!

After my vestibular system normalized, we went over to the Prince Charming Regal Carousel...

The one ride that I wasn't a fan of in Fantasy Land was It's a Small World.  It  was looooong and sloooowwwww...

I guess it was a nice rest from all of that running around, though.

We had been running around like crazy so that we could squeeze in as many attractions as possible before the crowds got too heavy.  Our fast pace had paid off because we had already seen 5 attractions in less than an hour.  We kept it up, took a deep breath, and headed to our last attration in Fantasy Land, Mickey's Philharmagic...

Another 3D movie, but as you can see, either Charlotte forgot the terror of yesterday's 3D experience or she doesn't realize what's about to happen.  This attraction was AH-MAZING, y'all.  It's not just a 3D movie, but you feel water and wind and smell the smells that coordinate with the movie.  I loved it!  It was definitely my favorite up to that point in the day.  Charlotte, on the other hand, was once again terrified and ended up in my lap with her little hands covering her face.  Luckily, it ended just in time (for her), and we headed over to Adventure Land.

From one scary attraction to another...

I tried really hard to keep all of the possible scary rides or shows out of our itinterary.  Obviously I couldn't predict the fear of 3D, and I didn't think they'd be that scared of Pirates of the Caribbean.  But, sigh, they were.  The boy in front of us making scary voodoo noises and the woman behind us with the witch's laugh definitely didn't help the situation either.  Here are James and Hunter pre-ride, before it all fell apart...

After convincing the kids that there wouldn't be anymore scary rides, we got in line for The Magic Carpets of Aladdin...

And since we'd made such good time, we squeezed in a fairy meet and greet before lunch...

Charlotte loves Tinkerbell, but she still hadn't warmed up completely to the characters, so she wouldn't take a picture without me.  Tinkerbell was probably the most like the real character of all the ones we met.  Her voice sounded exactly like Tink's in the movie and she was just as peppy. 

After a quick lunch, we headed back to the hotel for our afternoon nap...and we definitely needed it after all of that running around!

When we got to our room, I realized I hadn't taken any hotel pictures yet, so I snapped one of the view from our front door...

We were on the 4th (top) floor, which ended up being really nice, because the pool got pretty loud, especially in the middle of the day when we took our naps.

I had heard great things about mousekeeping online and was so excited to walk in to this...

So cute!  They made different things like that each day.  The next day was Valentine's Day so they made a huge heart with towels on the bed and put little towel animals and Char's lovey (like above) in the middle.

We had a 5:10 pm reservation at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian to dine with Cinderella and family, so we set the alarm to make sure we had time to get ready and head over.  Charlotte was so excited to wear her Cinderella dress.  After she was ready, she walked up to Hunter and said, "Let's get married."  Since getting home, she's constantly wearing her crowns and princess shoes and either asking one of us to marry her or asking to dance like a princess.  I love it!

1900 Park Fare was probably my favorite character dining.  The step sisters and step mother cracked. me. up.  They did such a great job of staying in character. 

Anastasia walked up and asked what was wrong with us because we were too quiet.  Then she showed Charlotte how to pose just like her...

 Precious.

Then Cinderella came and was so sweet and charming, just like in the movie...

After that, Cinderella and Prince Charming went to the middle of the restaurant and danced together (while Anastasia, Drizella, and Lady Tremaine made faces and rolled their eyes...hysterical).  Then the prince and princess separated and each started dancing with little girls.  Charlotte was over the moon that she got to dance with Prince Charming...

And then he came right to our table to meet all of us.  He was a great Prince Charming...so well mannered;)

Next Drizella stopped by and taught Charlotte how to pose her way...

Love it!

Hunter could see Lady Tremaine making her way through the dining room and kept asking about her.  He had refused to take a picture with anyone else at the dinner up to that point, but he seemed so excited about Lady Tremaine, that I thought he may actually pose with her.

But when she came up, he refused once again.  When I told Lady Tremaine that she was Hunter's favorite, she said, "Well of course I am.  Why wouldn't I be?" in a very serious, straight-faced way.  This chick never broke character...

Here's Hunter hiding to avoid pictures with characters...

Finally he said, "How bout this.  How bout tomorrow I take a picture with Donald at breakfast."  Sounds good to me buddy...

After dinner we raced over to the Magic Kingdom to line up for the Main Street Electrical Parade.  I thought we had a great seat, but when James took Hunter to the bathroom some Europeans (I couldn't really tell what language they were speaking) came and stood right in front of me.  I had to try extremely hard not to let that ruin my night. 

So my pictures of the parade are not great.  In fact, most of them have a little European kid's hand sticking in the middle of them.  I'm not bitter, though.

Mickey and Minnie's float...

Alice in Wonderland...

That weird smoking worm-thing from Alice in Wonderland...

Cinderella and her fairy godmother...

Snow White and Grumpy...

Pinocchio...

The fireworks were scheduled after the parade, but we planned to watch them on the other side of the park from where we were.  I hadn't planned for the mass chaos that would ensue after the fireworks.  There were people EVERYWHERE.  Poor James was having to navigate through it all with our double stroller which is next to impossible to steer.  After standing in gridlock forever, we decided to just watch from the hub area right in front of the castle where thousands of other people were.  It turned out to be just as good of a viewing spot...

Hunter was so excited about the fireworks, mostly because they sounded like gunfire.  Here he is shooting his imaginary guns...

Charlotte covered her eyes through most of it...

But later she kept saying that the fireworks were "so pretty" because that's what I kept telling her during the show.  Sadly, I'm not a skilled photographer, so this is the best shot I got of the finale...

That picture doesn't do it justice...it was beautiful!

The fireworks were at 9:00, but the park didn't close until 11:00 that night, so we decided to go ride a couple of rides before heading back to the hotel.  First we tried the jungle cruise, which was enjoyable, but not my favorite.  The driver tells lots of cheesy jokes throughout the cruise...

Charlotte and I couldn't get it together...

The kids were a little frightened because it was at night and I guess it wasn't as clear to them that the animals and tribal people weren't real.

After that we headed back to Fantasy Land to ride the teacups again.  Hunter's first choice was Peter Pan's Flight, but the line was like 60 minutes or something, so we settled for option number 2, which was just as fun!

We had an early breakfast reservation the next day (for Valentine's!) so we headed back to the hotel after our thrilling teacup ride.  We had such a fun first day at Magic Kingdom...we couldn't wait to return tomorrow for round 2!

Favorites of the day:

James - Pirates of the Caribbean
Carole - 1900 Park Fare dinner
Hunter - Peter Pan's Flight
Charlotte - Dancing with Prince Charming (at 1900 Park Fare)

Disney Day 1 - Hollywood Studios

We had been counting down for 20 days, and finally it was time to leave for Disney World!!  For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to book a 6:15 am flight, so we had to wake the kids up around 4:30.  We put them straight in the car (in their jammies) and excitedly headed for the airport.  Once we got to the airport, Hunter loved looking out the window at the airplanes as we waited to board.

After we did board, we had some time to get settled before the plane took off...

We were blessed to have an open seat on both of our aisles, which came in really handy when Charlotte decided to throw her screaming fit.  Luckily I was prepared with a backpack full of fun Disney stickers, crayons, coloring books, DVDs and puzzles.

When you stay at a Disney resort, they provide free transportation to and from the airport on the Magical Express.  We couldn't contain our excitement during our ride on the Magical Express!

Our bus driver on the way to the resort was a trip!  I wish I would have recorded him...he was cracking James and I up.

We arrived at our resort around 11am and were greeted by the longest. line. ever. for check in.  Luckily I had checked in online so we got to go to the short online check in line.  The cast member behind the counter told me that it wasn't usually that crowded, but that there were a lot of people checking in that day, particularly from South America because it was their summer.  It turns out there were more foreigners than Americans at Disney World during our trip...I had so many great conversations with people from England, India, and Canada on bus rides and waiting for the fireworks during our trip.  And we heard a ton of different languages all around us...I never would've guessed our Disney trip would be such a cultural experience for the kids:)

Even though it was only 11 am, our room was ready, so we went up and unloaded our carry on bags. (Disney has another great service where they pick up the bags you check at baggage claim, and then bring them to your room later in the day, so you don't even have to deal with it.)  We gave the kids the option of taking a nap or going to the park, and they chose the park (I know you're shocked.), so we headed down to Everything Pop (the food court area in our resort) and had lunch.  It was really overwhelming the first time we ordered.  No one really explains it to you, and there are so many different lines to go through and some things are snack credits and some things are meal credits and when you are on the dining plan, you get a dessert with lunch and dinner and a bottled drink, but they also give you this refillable mug.  See?  Really confusing.  After figuring it out, we sat down to a yummy lunch and then got in line for the bus to Hollywood Studios...

So exciting!

Of course we had to take some pictures during our first ride on the bus to the park...

Although I had a touring plan typed out for each day, Hollywood Studios was really overwhelming when we got there.  It was really crowded, which threw me because the crowd calendars I'd been following had led me to believe that this would be our least crowded day.  (It turns out that it was more crowded because it was the weekend...we got there on a Sunday.)  Also, I'm not good at reading maps, and that park has a confusing layout to me.  We finally decided to go to the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show.  I didn't originally have this on our itinerary, but James convinced me to add it for Hunter.  I'm really glad he did because it ended up being Hunter's favorite thing from the entire trip. 

I got separated from James and the kids during this show and the stadium seats 5,000 people.  I tried to find them, but not surprisingly, I couldn't.  So we didn't get any pictures because I spent most of the show walking around looking for James and the kids or waiting by the stroller for them.

After the show, we tried to go to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set which is basically just a play area for kids, but it was swarming with people.  We actually lost Hunter at one point and I freaked. out.  After we found him, we quickly left so I wouldn't have a nervous breakdown from the possibility of losing our kids again.

Next, the plan was to head to the Monsters Inc. meet and greet, but Hunter wasn't ready for character interaction quite yet, so he and James went to hold our place for the parade while Char and I went to meet Mike Wazowski and Sully...

As you can see, she was a little wary of them at first.

All throughout the different parks, there are cast members blowing bubbles for the kids with bubble machines.  I thought it was a great little touch, and Charlotte had so much fun chasing the bubbles after our photo session with Mike and Sully...

We met James and Hunter about 10 minutes before the parade started, so we gave the kids a snack to make the wait a little easier...

Finally the parade started and it was SO MUCH FUN!!! I loved all of the parades we saw at Disney, but this may have been my very favorite.  We saw so many fun characters, and they blast the music to get everyone in the mood for fun!

Elastigirl and Frozone...

Mr. Incredible...

Flik...

Here's Hunter's expression up to this point...

 Not too impressed.

Sully...

Some Up characters...

Mr. Potato Head...

Jessie and Bullseye...

Once Hunter saw the Toy Story characters, he yelled, "Toy Story!" and we finally saw some excitement from him...

He even waved at Buzz and Woody...

And they waved back!

After the parade, we went to the Toy Story meet and greet to meet Hunter's favorite Disney characters, Buzz and Woody.  I think the fatigue was catching up with him, though because he was adament through the entire 30 minute wait that he wasn't going to meet Buzz or Woody...

They were really great with him, though, and once we got up there, he let them sign his book and took a picture with them...

After that long wait, we decided to go relax and watch Voyage of the Little Mermaid.  It was a really good show for the most part, but Prince Eric really cheesed me out at the end.  Charlotte and Hunter didn't seem to notice, though:)

Then we went to Jim Hensen's Muppet Vision 3D, which I was going to just skip because we were all getting so tired, but I'm so glad we didn't because it was SO good...

The 3D effects were awesome, but they really terrified Charlotte.  There was this little bird that got right in your face - or seemingly at least - and Char would jump and pull her fisted little hands up to her mouth any time he'd get close.  I eventually picked her up and put her in my lap, but she was still terrified throughout the show.

After it was over we went to eat dinner at Pizza Planet!  So exciting!  The food was just okay, but the kids loved playing the games...

Every night I asked everyone what their favorite thing of the day was so I could record it and always remember.  Here are the favorites from Hollywood Studios:

James - Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show
Carole - Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun! parade
Hunter - Pizza Planet (This is what he told me that night, but when the vacation was over he told me his favorite of the whole trip was the car stunt show because "guess what, mommy!  there was a motorcycle and it slid through FIRE!")
Charlotte - Voyage of the Little Mermaid

Since it had been such an early morning, we left the park early and headed back to the hotel for baths and rest because we had a busy, magical day the next day!

10 things I learned at Disney World

1. Charlotte LOVES characters...

2. Hunter, not so much...

...unless it's Buzz, Woody, Lady Tremaine, or Donald.  He might consider a picture with them.  And he may even make eye contact with them if he's in a really good mood.

3. Hunter LOVES fireworks...

That kid is all boy...anything that sounds like a gun is cool to him!

4.  Charlotte is terrified of fireworks...and 3D movies...

5. A giraffe eats for 18 (eighteen!) hours per day, but only sleeps for 5 - 30 minutes...

6. Disney has the BEST PARADES EVER!!!

 7. The dining plan gives you more food than you could ever possibly finish...

8.  My kids are crazy dancing fools...

9.  All of that planning was definitely worth it!  We wouldn't have been able to do nearly as much if it wasn't for the touring plans we had...

10.  It really is the most magical place on Earth!  And I couldn't have dreamed up a better family to go with...