Tuesday August 5th Day 2
The family had a great first night's sleep in the comfy GF beds. Except me. Maybe because of the excitement of being on vacation in Disney. Maybe because I had to listen to 3 people snore. Maybe because I had to listen to the loud hum of the fridge in the room. I loved having that fridge, but boy, was it ever loud!
I was happy to bounce out of bed promptly at 7:00 when DH whipped open the curtains. We were greated by beautiful sunny clear skies. It was morning Extra Magic Hour at MK today. I read in my Unofficial Guide to WDW to avoid parks that have EMH because crowd levels are supposedly higher on these days....but I didn't have much of choice. Today had to be a MK day because we had dinner ressies at Crystal Palace and we didn't have park hoppers.
I also spent a lot of time at home prior to our trip writing up a touring plan for us. I had everything mapped out, times to go, times to eat, places to eat, rides to ride, fast passes to grab etc. I had these grandiose ideas about all the exciting things I wanted to do with the girls. As soon as our plane was delayed on our first day, and we almost missed our 1900 PF, I should have known to throw out that touring plan.
I wanted to be at MK for 8:00 opening.
We were still eating breakfast in the lounge at 8:00.
If it were just DH and I, we could have just grabbed some breakfast for the road, but it just wasn't possible with 2 young children. So we took our time eating, and I bit my tongue the whole time and tried not to look at my watch. Needless to say, I kept the touring plan in my backpack and left it there.
We finally made it to the monorail and hopped on to the MK! It was 8:30 by now, and the crowd levels were already quite high in my opinion. I had also read about the horrendous lines at Dumbo...our first ride of the day. I was getting nervous about the line. I didn't want to waste our entire morning waiting to ride Dumbo! Luckily, we only waited 20 minutes. The line actually moves fast because the entire ride itself lasts no more than 2 minutes! The girls loved the ride, so that's all that mattered.
They don't look it, but they really were excited to be going on their first ride!
I wanted the girls to sit together so that I could get a good shot of them from the Dumbo in front! Did you know that regardless of height, one of the riders in Dumbo has to be at least 7?????
After this ride the girls spotted the beautiful carousel and we walked right on to it!!
We looked across from the Carousel and saw Mickey's Philharmagic. I read about how amazing this show was and how it was a must do. So I figured the girls would probably enjoy it. It was a 20 min wait only because we had just missed getting in to the previous show by a minute! I should have taken this a cue to skip the show. Tink was already showing reservations about going in. Since we were at the front of the line to get in, we were also "forced" to go all the way to the end of the row, even though 2/3 of the theater was empty. As soon as the lights went dark......I could sense Tink getting stressed. By the time the water misted all over us...forget it! She was a crying wreck!!! Belle was quietly freaking out sitting on DH's lap covering her ears and shutting her eyes. I had Tink on my lap and I was trying to hug her tight, while she just let it all out and could not stop crying, loudly! Thankfully as soon as it was over, she stopped and was fine. We couldn't get out of the theater fast enough.
We needed a happy ride now. We made a bee line for It's A Small World. We lucked out and got a front row in the boat which made for great viewing. The girls LOVED this ride. It was so exciting to see them getting so much enjoyment out of it. Tink kept saying "Look mommy!" "Look at that mommy!". She must have said it a hundred times during the ride. So cute.
Sorry, no good photos of the girls ON the ride!
We then walked by Peter Pan. For fun, we grabbed Fast Passes to use later. We wanted to try the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh first. Who could be afraid of Pooh??? Well, I should have known better. I knew that it was a dark ride. What I didn't know was that we were going to go through a crazy dream sequence!!!! Again, Tink cried and screamed throughout the whole ride!! But once we got off the ride, she was quite right back to normal.
At this point we needed something fun, in daylight, and happy. It was 10:15. Let's go to Mickey's Toontown Fair. There isn't anything scary in there is there??? I had read about the Toontown Hall of Fame. I wanted the girls to meet the Princesses and have the Photopass people take some nice photos of the girls with them. I had prepurchased the CD and wanted to make the most of the photos. We didn't bring out our autograph books because we would see them at our character meals to sign. At 10:15, the line up to see the Princesses was 30 minutes. The line went by really quickly actually. The girls were so excited to see their 3 favourites: Cinderella, Aurora and Belle in her beautiful yellow gown. I told the Photopass people to be sure to snap a bunch of photos since I had already prepurchased and they were happy to oblige.
Here are some of the photos from my photopass CD:
Of course, once you finish visiting the Princesses, you end up in a huge gift shop! I had to pick up a couple of treats and souvenirs here. I tried to limit them with the promise of a big shopping trip to Downtown Disney in a couple of days. It was here that we found our first pressed penny machine at MK!
Next we headed to Minnie's House. It was absolutely colourful, and whimsical in here. Belle loved standing by all the objects in the house to pose for a photo. I think Tink was still recovering from the 2 dark attractions and was in a bit of a mood. But seeing her sister do it, she finally obliged.
Well, now it was time for our Peter Pan fastpasses. You are probably wondering why on earth I would subject my 4 year old on yet another dark ride when I should have gotten it in my head by now that dark rides and Tink do not mix! I THOUGHT that since Tinkerbell is Tink's favourite Disney character, she would get a kick out of looking for her in the Peter Pan ride! Now, it has been 14 years since I went on this ride, and so my memory of the ride is quite clouded. So surprise, surprise......this is just one more dark ride that continues to freak out my Tink....(you should know that both of my girls do not like the dark, and still sleep with a night light). I had no idea that it got completely dark in portions of the ride...we're talking PITCH BLACK!!!
Well, we just about had it with the dark rides and the not so happy experiences thus far! We didn't want to ruin the rest of the trip, and took this as a cue to leave the park and head back to the GF for a snack and a rest. We just picked up some fries from Gasparilla Grill and enjoyed some of the offerings in the lounge. Not a full lunch, but we weren't hungry and knew we had a big early dinner that night at Crystal Palace.
Next: Do the girls nap or swim???
THANKS so much for sharing and for all the lovely pictures!!
I very much enjoyed reading about your family's first trip to Walt Disney World! 
