As you can see in this picture here, Sean woke up a bit crabby. He was up at 5:45am the day before for our flight, only took a quick 15 minute power nap, and stayed up late. Then we woke him up at 6am this morning with a call from Baymax so we could get to the EMH park opening at 8am. I should also add that he got a huge Lego set the night before as his gift from us and only had time to build a part of it with Grandpa. We realized later in the day that was part of the problem. He wanted to be at the hotel with his Lego's. Ughh...
Okay, here was our schedule for day 1 at Magic Kingdom:
Breakfast in our hotel room (cereal, Eggo's, fruit, etc. - we ordered from a grocery company)
8:00am Opening ceremony and rope drop
Peter Pan's Flight
It's a Small World
Winnie the Pooh Ride
Meet Ariel at the Grotto
Under the Sea Ride
Mad Tea Party
Enchanted Tales with Belle (10:30am Fastpass)
11:05am lunch at Be Our Guest
Barnstormer
Dumbo
Regal Carousel
Philharmagic (Loved this show in the heat of the day!)
Magic Carpet Ride
Festival of Fantasy Parade (2:45pm Fastpass - get there earlier than that if you want a spot on the side facing the castle)
Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride (3:30pm Fastpass)
Back to the hotel to rest, swim, eat a Quick Service dinner at the resort, and an early bedtime for all!
Opening ceremony was nice to see, but we could have done without it. In fact, considering how tired the boys were, they were not that impressed. Sean was overwhelmed. We discovered on this trip that he can't handle extremely loud noises and it went from being calm letting people through bag check to suddenly loud and intense! Poor thing. Next time we'll bring the noise cancelling headphones.
Once the ceremony was over, it was chaos. Stick together and have a plan.
We cranked out the first 6 items before 10am and we did not rush down Main Street! I totally thought we would walk briskly to Peter Pan's Flight, but I just couldn't do it. I wanted to get some pictures in front of the castle and take in all the sights. Plus, we were figuring out our lay of the land.
The kids loved everything about Fantasyland! Every ride from Peter Pan's Flight to Dumbo in our itinerary was a hit! I loved that Winnie the Pooh had things the kids could play with while waiting in line and Dumbo was amazing with a play area (they give you a pager like you get a restaurant while you wait and it's inside in air conditioning!). Well played, Disney.
Our first character meet was Ariel (my favorite Disney princess of all time!). The line was a solid 20 minutes and it felt like it barely moved. But, we were out of the sun while we waited so we couldn't complain too much. I was nervous while waiting. I wasn't sure how the kids would react (they've always loved characters and Santa, but would it be worth waiting 20 minutes?).
Yup, it was definitely worth the wait. Big smiles from the boys...and from me.
The ride was amazing too! Look at Evan's face - pure joy! That Disney magic was doing wonders.
Next up was Enchanted Tales. Everything I read, and believe me, I did extensive research, said this was a must-do and a must FastPass. I found myself feeling totally unimpressed with it. Maybe if I had girls that were big into princesses things would have been different, but the boys weren't that in to it. I just liked the pictures with Belle at the end. Sean and Evan played the roles of...wait for it...salt and pepper shakers. Seriously.
In the Beauty and the Beast mood, we dined at Be Our Guest for lunch after the show. My one regret was not walking around and seeing other rooms. We picked the ballroom, the first room you see upon entering. It was beautiful! And my lunch was fantastic! I pre-ordered all the food (sooo smart and quite the time-saver) and chose the Braised Pork and the Master's cupcake. OMG...so good! I see why people are die-hard about getting this ADR.
After lunch Sean was ready for a nap in the stroller. He was still complaining about the heat and wanting to build his Lego's. Evan was totally ready to hit up some rides. Barnstormer was next on our list with a very short wait! Scott got to ride with Evan on his first "big-boy" rollercoaster. He loved it! And the cutest part was asking Scott the rest of the trip what his favorite ride was or his favorite memory and he picked that one. Why? Because Evan's face was priceless. I'm bummed I missed it sitting behind him. But, I did get this gem as the ride ended.
Dumbo, Tea Cups, and Magic Carpet were all fun rides too for their age group! And we loved the mid-day break out of the sun to see the 15 minute Philharmagic show. It was fabulous!
We had a couple of character sightings throughout the day, but today was mostly about the rides! Character meets would come the following day in Epcot and later in the week. I can't believe I was worried about getting autographs in the book or on the photo mats. We got a ton!
We grabbed a snack (Mickey ice cream bars of course!) and Sean headed back to the hotel around 2:30pm with my dad. He was done - poor guy! This was the worst day for him out of the whole trip. He was getting adjusted to the schedule, the heat, and being away from his Lego's. And to think we thought Evan would be the challenging one...
The rest of us were off to grab our Fastpass spot for the Festival of Fantasy Parade. Here's a ton of pictures we got as we were in the "Hub" by the flagpole and the exit and the parade ended around the corner from here, so we got some great views and interactions with the characters.
At the end of the parade, the "traditional" characters made their appearance. Apparently Chip and Dale loved Scott's Rescue Rangers shirt he was wearing, so they came right on over and gave him a hug, high fives, and kept pointing at his shirt. Since Evan was on his shoulders, he got quite the view! What a special moment!
As the parade ended, we swam upstream to get back to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride for our last FastPass. My dad and Sean were supposed to come too, while my mom waited with Evan (she's not big on rollercoasters and Evan wasn't tall enough). But, since they went back, it was just me and Scott. It wasn't anything super exciting and definitely not worth the 60-85 minute wait it usually has, but fun!
After that, we were ready to head back. It was going on after 4pm and it had been a long, hot first day. We were ready for the pool and some dinner! I snapped some castle shots on the way out and we all left with a smile on our faces. There's just something about Magic Kingdom...it truly is the happiest place on Earth!
My parents were brave enough to head back to Epcot this evening to walk around the World Showcase and catch Illuminations at 9pm. Scott and I were content swimming with the boys and putting our feet up after they fell asleep. Epcot was next on our schedule with a 9am start so we were looking forward to an extra hour of sleep.
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