Florida Vacation Day 2

Disney World Magic Kingdom!

I got up early Sunday morning to get ready before I woke the sleeping family. It seemed earlier than usual due to the 2 hours of sleep we lost through the night, but I was too excited to sleep anyway. Just like the kids-this was MY first trip to Disney World, too! I stocked my backpack with all the necessities for the day, including breakfast snacks since there really was no time for a proper breakfast. I woke up the family and got everyone ready one by one. Pat went down to the lobby to get our free shuttle pass to Disney. It was time to go, so we quick gathered our things and headed down to the shuttle.

One thing I was surprised about was how many international people were there. Even in our hotel shuttle, we had a German and Dutch family. It was cute because they were trying to teach their daughter, about 5 years old, a little English. She kept saying, "I am fi-i-i-i-ine."

We made it to the park right as it opened, and bypassed the ticket gates since we purchased ours online. We hopped on the Monorail and headed to Magic Kingdom. I was standing on the monorail, and the excitement was building as we could catch glimpses of the Castle getting closer. We had to stop for a minute to wait for the rail ahead of us to go, so I sat down on the seat for a minute. *This simple action would later change the course of our day-more about that later.

We were SO excited walking down Main Street towards the castle, we could hardly stop to get this approaching picture. Magic was in the air!

Here is our family in front of the famous Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse statue. We made it, we really did! Check mark on the "Bucket List"!

Cinderella Castle

The Girls were all for fun pictures, so you will see lots of them. John on the other hand had to be bribed constantly just to get him to look in the camera's direction.

Shadow Shot caught my eye

heading through the castle to Fanstasy Land

Tile Murals inside the castle

"its a small world" was our first ride. I was saving this in the back of my mind for later in the day when it was hot (I got some serious "Disney" coaching from Millie before we left), but there was no line and we just hopped on!

This ride showcases all the parts of the world while singing "it's a small world" song in their own language. We rode a boat in the water, and the kids loved it. Pictures cannot do this justice as there are so many moving parts all at once-unbelievable!

At the end, all the parts of the world come together and play

Ella is giving Daddy a "Big Squeeze" in the line to go into the Peter Pan's Flight ride (which I must say was probably my favorite) This ride you have to jump on a flying ship (while moving mind you!) and the ship sails you around above scenes from Peter Pan. It is mostly dark, and was so dramatic. Loved it!

This picture also reminds me of what a mess Ella's nose was on this trip! She was stuffed up a little before we left, and the Florida humidity had that nose just draining away. It also really helped Pat's allergies. I told him we may have to relocate for health reasons!

Cinderella's Carousel

They are being "Mad" in the Mad Tea Cup ride!

Dumbo the Flying Elephant Ride

The kids loved this ride because you could control the lever that raised and lowered Dumbo. We had to go high of course. This is also the line I realized my cell phone was missing. Where do you think it could be??

We headed to Frontierland while Pat started calling and calling my phone.

Ella waiting for Daddy, Adia, and John to go on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller-coaster. John made the height requirement by an inch and a half so we decided he would ride. This is a true roller-coaster, and after getting off John said he will not ride it again until he is older....like Grampa!

*This is also the time Pat got someone to answer my phone! We were supposed to head out to the main entrance to take the ferry to lunch reservations anyway, and the lady with my phone said it was found on the Monorail (4 hours earlier) and to meet her at the deck which is right by the main entrance. This however turned into a wild goose chase for the next hour, and we considered the possibility that someone was messing with us. Someone at the monorail said someone took my phone to lost and found, so we rode the rail back out to the gates, left the park to check lost and found. Nothing there but a pair of sunglasses. We asked at the gates, and they said go back to the rail deck! We went back through security to enter the park again and checked that lost and found-nothing. Finally we got the lady to answer the phone again, and Pat stayed on the line with her until he found her in the monorail office!! Hooray my phone was found! Our neighbors said we must really be lucky to lose a cell phone at Disney World and actually find it-true true.

After all that run around we headed to Casey's for some delicious hot dogs. I should have taken a picture of those things! Looked like a salad of relish on top-yum!

Next we headed to Tomorrow Land. The lines were longer now, like 45 minutes, so we did the Buzz Light Year ride, and the Stitch experience. We ended up missing the Parade because of losing track of time in line which was a bummer.

It was time for an Ice Cream Break.

Ella passed out in the stroller during the ice cream break, so I popped into the hat store to get mouse ears, and their names embroidered on the backs.

I came back out, and John and Adia were boxing, Ella was back awake (already? uh-oh), and Pat was giving me the "you think we had enough Disney yet?" eyes. The park was packed now, and we could hardly walk. We checked the Jungle Cruise wait time-65 minutes. No thanks. Our last stop was the Mercantile on Main Street where the kids picked a few souvenirs.

I was so happy to see the shuttle waiting for us! My feet felt like I ran a 1/2 marathon, and I know what that feels like!

Because of Day Light Savings Time springing ahead we had some extra sun time, so we decided to soak our feet and bodies in the pool....ahhhhh.

After Baths we took some pics to text the family back home

Goodnight Disney