We were in Disneyworld in Florida from October 11-October 17. My parents drove out to meet us for our first Disney trip!! We stayed at the Polynesian and it was WONDERFUL! We were in one of their buildings right by the monorail station, so getting to the Magic Kingdom and Epcot was a cinch, and that station was also where we caught the buses to the Animal Kingdom and Disney Hollywood Studios. I'd be hard-pressed to do Disney and stay anywhere else as long as we have young children. It was just TOO easy to get back to our hotel for rests & in the evenings when the kids were just done from all the activity & excitement.
Scott & William got there pretty early the afternoon of the 11th, but Colin, Daniel, and I didn't arrive until 8:30. Then, we had to get back to the hotel with two cranky kiddos, and Daniel was still fighting off an awful cold. Needless to say, no one went to bed too easily that first night, which wrecked our plan of getting all the way out to the Animal Kingdom the first morning, since the kids slept in. My mom's and my absolute favorite park is, what else?, the Magic Kingdom, so we went with our back-up plan & hit that the first day. Since we were coming from the cold into the (very) hot, we had the A/C cranked down in the hotel room. Walking out into the humid Florida air from the very cold A/C isn't the best thing for a camera lens, so our first picture on our way to the Magic Kingdom is a bit foggy. Nevertheless, it's our FIRST picture, so it makes it:
We hopped on the monorail & were at the Magic Kingdom in 5 minutes flat. As we went to hand the lady our tickets, we realized we hadn't ACTIVATED them. **Note to all of you military people who will be going later in the year---activate the tickets BEFORE you get to the park*** I did remember that from the last time Disney ran their military special, but not until AFTER we tried to get in with unactivated tickets. The result from
that oops is that we had to wait in the hot sun with 2 very excited kids while Daddy went to activate all of the tickets.
NOT FUN! Here are a few snaps of William & Daniel running around the ledge while we waited. Of course, William promptly fell off & skinned his elbow. It swelled up immediately, prompting me to start praying it wasn't broken, but he could move it, so we headed to the first aid station once we were in the park for a band-aid, and considered him patched up!
Here is our first view of Cinderella's Castle.
If you click this picture, you can see all of the pictures that didn't make the blog:
I thought for sure my kids would head to Dumbo first, but Cinderella's Golden Carousel caught William's eye first, so that's where we started:
Dumbo came next, and let me tell you, the difference in the wait from before the carousel until after was amazing. If you're heading to Disney, check out
this book & consider using, at least partially, their touring plans. They really help with waits, especially during the really busy seasons!
After Dumbo, William wanted to ride Thunder Mountain Railroad, so we headed over to Frontierland to do that one as well as Splash Mountain. Daniel & William both rode Thunder Mountain, but Daniel wasn't too interested in Splash Mountain, so he got to play in this neat little play area while we rode with William. It's great for anyone with smaller children who are doing the "child swap" for either of those two rides. Of course, William had to play, too, once we were done with Splash Mountain. He decreed Splash Mountain his very favorite ride, at least for that day. He called it "Danger, danger, Splashy Mountain" because of the "danger" signs just before the big drop where you get "splashied"!
And, here is what Colin did while Daniel played & we rode:
After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for naps--boy, did we need them!!--and then to the Crystal Palace for dinner with Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Eeyore. We forgot the camera, so had to buy a disposable (wouldn't recommend THAT to anyone!). I haven't had time to get those pictures scanned in yet, so more to follow!
