Ok, I'm back! (I'm not sure if anyone missed me, but I don't care!
)
We were waiting for MK to open, and I was getting excited! I always get teary eyed at the music they play for stuff like this, and I felt like a little kid when I heard the train starting to pull up! DD was still in her pout mode, but I could see it lifting when the train pulled into the station, and off stepped all of the characters:
I wondered how you got picked to be this family:
How early did they get there? I want to be them one day!
Once they opened the gates, we got right in. Things were looking pretty crowded in this first picture!
I was honestly just happy that there was not a crane in my view of the castle! Last year they were doing something around the castle that required a crane, not quite as magical! I got nervous when I looked over from the GF because I could see a crane! I guess they were using it to some work on the bridge? Not sure, but I was relieved when my picture of the castle didn't include an unwanted crane!
Our first order of business was Splash! DD was finally tall enough, and she couldn't wait to ride! Here she is beaming with pride!
She rode right up front with Daddy and DS10, and giggled the whole time! It was by far her favorite of the whole trip, so we rode it quite a few times over the course of 2 days!
Then we went straight to BTM. The wait must not have been too long because we didn't use a FP, and I don't remember having a long wait. She loved it as well!
We were getting a little hungry, but we were right there by Pirates, so we walked right onto it as well. I seem to like this ride more and more each time I ride it. There are so many things to see, it almost feels like a new ride each time! They were a little slow getting us to the unloading area, and we were sitting right by Jack at the end. We got to listen to everthing he says, and it was cool to hear what all he says!
Dump shop picture, of course!
We bought our first souvenir here for DS10. His pin collection is mostly pirates, and he picked out a really cool Black Pearl one to add!
We came out, and noticed that it was just about time for the characters to start showing up, and out walks Wendy! She wasn't with Peter, but we still had never gotten her autograph, and we were first in line! She was so sweet to my DD:
The boys seemed to think they were too big for autographs at this point
, but they still joined in for the picture:
By this time, the fact that we hadn't had any breakfast was really catching up to us. I'm thinking it was around 10:30, and most of the counter services are open until 11:00. We walked over to Main Street to check out the bakery, and the line was out the door! By now, the kids are getting close to a meltdown, which means that DH isn't far behind!
We did find time to get the traditional picture of DS 8/9 with the place he shares a name with:
I checked the times again, and noticed that Columbia Harbour House was open at 10:30 (maybe, I'm not sure, but whatever time it was, it was one of the few opening!) We headed back over there, and just getting into the air conditioning was a help. We still had to wait on them to open up, but everyone was feeling better!
After a nice, filling lunch we headed over to Fantasyland. I'm sorry to say that we didn't spend much time here the entire trip! Funny how things change as your kids get older.....I am a little sad now. As we walked by Peter Pan, we picked up a FP. This was not the smartest move as you will see later.
We all LOVE Philharmagic, so we headed there next! This show never disappoints. I could watch it over and over and over! Everything else in FL had pretty long waits, so we headed over to check out Buzz and Space. Of course, the lines were too long here, and those FP we had gotten for Peter Pan were keeping us from being able to get anything on these rides for later!
Dd was dying to ride Buzz, but the line was too long for the boys. They wanted Monster's Inc. so we decided to split up. I was sad because I wanted to stick together, but sometimes you can't. Well, it wasn't a minute after looking at the line for Buzz that DD changed her mind. We caught back up with DH and the boys, and we were hoping to get right into the next group for Monsters', but it wasn't to be. We still had to wait, but once again, at least it was in the air conditioning! Not sure what these have to do with Monsters, but look pretty cool.
At some point during this, we were over by the bathrooms, and I looked up and saw this:
Does this guy do this every day?
Also, while waiting on the boys to come out of the restroom, this man must have thought that I looked very trustworthy because he asked me if I could keep an eye on his sleeping toddler while he went to the restroom! I of course said yes, but I was thinking that he could have just taken her in there with him, right? Don't they have handicapped stalls in the men's room as well?
We were done for the morning, so we headed back to the hotel. We took the boat over to GF which is so nice and relaxing after a long, hot park day!