I could barely sleep from the anticipation. All my life I've heard of Disney World and envied the kids who've told stories of family vacations. I was always emberrassed when school got back and was asked what did you do for summer vacation and said nothing.
We got up and had a good breakfast. I learned a good trick. I go down to the buffet in the hotel and order one buffet to go. They give you one box and you fill it up. It's enough to feed our family of five. They give me another box for fruit and pasteries no extra charge. We make coffee in the room. More than we could eat for $10. We get finally get on the road and the kids are so exeted. We decided at the our kids ages we would do two days of Magic Kingdom and one day of Animal Kingdom. We get to the gates of Magic Kingdom and already the magic has already started working. The kids can't contain themselves, they're looking every which way and talking all at once and pointing and screaming with exitement. I'm exited also and I look over and my husband I'll call him "Grumpy", he's known in my family for his hot head, his hotter temper, he has actually made my mother cry on more than one occasion due to his sharp tongue, well "Grumpy is actually smilling and looking around in awe. Wonders never cease.
We park in Pluto 16-20 hey this is my first trip remember I'll never forget anything. We wait for the tram to take us to the monorail. They didn't take long at all. We get to the monorail and the kids loved it. We loved it already. We got there around 9:15. That's the earliest that a family of 4,5,and 6 years old could do. We get of the monorail and the walk toward security and boy we can't believe the crowd. We knew going the week of July 4 was going to be crowded but this was July 6. There were long lines for bag checks we split up. Grumpy had a bag full of snacks and I had a smaller bags of autograph books, some snacks, money, camera, smaller, I had a really bad sunburn from the beach before that had left me looking like a "obster" in the words of my 5 year old I'll name "Skinny" you figure that out.
We finally got into the park and "wow" was the only description I had. Our first stop was City Hall for a Birthday pin, it was my 30th the day before and I wanted to collect a b-day pin from each park. We got out and saw Mary Poppins, we started to get to get in line for her but her cast member told us her line was already closed she was going in soon. I had an schedule planned but when I walked in that flew out the window along with my brain that had completely turned to mush. Well no more back to our schedule, back to rational thinking. We made our way down Main St., USA toward the Castle and my mind turned to mush again, I looked up, my jaw dropped and I started walking like zombie. You know how you feel like you're the only one there, I had one of those moments, magical. My daughter, "Baby" was jumping up and down screaming "Cinderalla where are you, Cinderalla where are you" she even demanded to dress like Cinderalla. She was obsessed with Cinderella, that was her top person to meet, hug, and get a picture with.
After lots of persuading I lead them toward mad tea cup, not before getting a picture in front of the castle and a beautiful family photo on the bridge with the castle in the background taken by a very nice cast member. We ran into Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and they were our first characters. They were very funny. We waited in line next for mad tea cup while Grumpy got Winnie Pooh Fast Passes. The lady at mad tea cup really embarrashed me, she mad everyone in line sing happy birthday and wish me a happy 30th b-day was real nice. That ride was real fun, one of my favorites. We had 1 1/2 hours until Winnie ride so we decided to do some characters over in toontown. Toontown didn't open until 10:00 so we went and rode Cinderella's carosoel then we went back to toontown which was open by then. We meet Mickey who is great, at least it was indoors- it's getting hot already and it's only 10:00. Next we did The Goofy ride, the kids loved this ride though it was rather short. Next we went over to the Minnie's house, Minnie's not home but I asked a guy coming out of the tent and he said Cinderalla's in there. Oh for real, researching I was told she doesn't come out you have to go to her breakfast or dinner to meet her so I had planned a character meal for Baby to meet her, so we told her and she ran in. We were also told Winnie, Tigger, Piglet, Minnie, and few others were there. When we got in to see Cinderella just the look on Baby's face was enough to make me cry. She held her hand, she was in such awe, "look, I have your dress" she was so proud. The purple mouse scared her though but she actually sat down and hugged the blue dressed mouse which surprised me. It's kind of neat how behind the scenes the people at Disney are so careful, as we were leaving, my husband caught Cinderella quickly slipping out before anyone noticed real discreet.
We made our way back towards Winnie ride for speed pass redemtion, my husband went to go get buzz speed pass real quick and would meet us there he took Skinny. What a mistake. We went into Winnie and didn't come out for at least 45 minutes. I went in with Baby and my 6 year old "Chop Suey" he's into Taekwondo, we got stuck in Winnie at five different places along the ride. At least the ride wasn't scary or annoying for that matter. We finally came out of the ride and went in search of Grumpy and Skinny, worried Grumpy blew a gasket by now waiting for so long. On the way we ran into Alice in the Wonderland and the Mad Hatter and got their autograph and picture. We went back towards Buzz ride hoping they were there , they were, resting. Skinny was so exited, "I saw Buzz, mommy" his eyes all big and bright. Buzz was his favorite character, and just like Cinderella was Baby's one character to meet, Buzz was Skinny's. We had to do the buzz ride first though and go look for buzz later. Buzz ride was a blast, we did this ride a total of 5 times in the two days were there. When we came out of the ride, buzz was nowhere to be found, so I the good mom that I am, went to go find out when and where he was. The castmember called and found out he'll be back in ten minutes so we went back and got in line. Buzz was cool but lazy, he had a stamp instead of signing autographs, but they loved him anyways. Each of my kids wanted their own pictures with him and he was very kind and patient.
We had a much needed break after this and had the best orange-guava ice cream floats at the little shop inside the gift shop next to the alien encounter. They were delicious. We rode the tommarrowland transit and Grumpy grabed space mountain fast passes intending to do a baby swap Baby can't go. Kids couldn't take it anymore and so we had lunch at the launching pad. One turkey leg fed our whole family along with some snackes we brought from home. After lunch we went to toontown and did more characters we meet winnie who was nice, tigger the kids has a blast with, he tickled the kids, played with the kids on the floor, eeyore was sorta mean I don't know if that was his character or if that was how he was, piglet was adorable. Minnie I found rude, Chip and Dale were nice and I never knew if the characters were boys or girls before and my kids asked and well chip and dale told me. On the way out we saw Goofy, we waited out in the heat and two families ahead of us he left we couldn't wait it was to hot. We rode the Goofy ride again, the kids loved this ride, then we hoped on the train just in time, as we were pulling away from the station it started raining. We toke a ride around magic kingdom came back and went back to space mountain. My son rode it twice once with dad and once with with me it was awesome.
After space mountain we went to go catch belle story time. Since there was some time left Grumpy and Skinny went to go catch Winnie, they still took the fast pass since there problems before so there were no problems. Since there was still some time we took advantage of the priority given for all the trouble on the Winnie ride earlier and went on the Dumbo ride it was okay. We then headed back to catch Belle storytime but Grumpy grabbed the fast pass for peter pan on the way to belle storytime. We sat down to Belle storytime early and there was only a few people there. Belle's assistants walked in a few minutes later and by that time the place was packed with standing room only. Belle started into her story and suddenly she goes I need a father, you in the blue yes you she was pointing to my son sitting next to me, she had picked Chop Suey to be Father, he was shy but excited. That was neat. I think that was the highlight of the trip for him. He stood up there next to Belle, holding her hand, he really liked all the attention.
After storytime we headed over to the castle and caught Cinderella's Surprise. That was some show. The kids really enjoyed. It was really hot however. After this we headed back and caught peter pan which was by this time was okay. Everyone was so tired. The kids wanted nothing to do with anything after this without dinner in their tummies so we headed back into tommarrowland for dinner. We wanted indoor out of the heat. They ate we couldn't, no appetite. Grumpy went and got one more fast pass for Buzz again. After dinner what else buzz then we settled for the parade not without losing Chop Suey in the crowd first however. Grumpy had Skinny, I had Baby and Chop Suey had food in his tummy so energy again he was darting in and out of the crowd and suddenly we didn't see him anymore. We split up, Grumpy finally found him crying being held by a castmember, one scary moment. The parade was wonderful. After the parade we headed towards the castle to catch the fireworks. Word of advice the bridge between the castle and mad tea cup is wonderful to catch tinkerbelle but there are a line of trees that totally blocks the fireworks. We wanted to maybe catch astro orbiter after the fireworks but all rides close down after fireworks on Sunday when park closes at 10:00. We tried to fight the crowd back to our car, we walked the wrong way back to pluto 15-20 in the state of exhaustion. One good thing afterwards I had the best thai chicken pasta salad at the Adams Mark Hotel, and Grumpy enjoyed a cold, $4 beer.
We got up and had a good breakfast. I learned a good trick. I go down to the buffet in the hotel and order one buffet to go. They give you one box and you fill it up. It's enough to feed our family of five. They give me another box for fruit and pasteries no extra charge. We make coffee in the room. More than we could eat for $10. We get finally get on the road and the kids are so exeted. We decided at the our kids ages we would do two days of Magic Kingdom and one day of Animal Kingdom. We get to the gates of Magic Kingdom and already the magic has already started working. The kids can't contain themselves, they're looking every which way and talking all at once and pointing and screaming with exitement. I'm exited also and I look over and my husband I'll call him "Grumpy", he's known in my family for his hot head, his hotter temper, he has actually made my mother cry on more than one occasion due to his sharp tongue, well "Grumpy is actually smilling and looking around in awe. Wonders never cease.
We park in Pluto 16-20 hey this is my first trip remember I'll never forget anything. We wait for the tram to take us to the monorail. They didn't take long at all. We get to the monorail and the kids loved it. We loved it already. We got there around 9:15. That's the earliest that a family of 4,5,and 6 years old could do. We get of the monorail and the walk toward security and boy we can't believe the crowd. We knew going the week of July 4 was going to be crowded but this was July 6. There were long lines for bag checks we split up. Grumpy had a bag full of snacks and I had a smaller bags of autograph books, some snacks, money, camera, smaller, I had a really bad sunburn from the beach before that had left me looking like a "obster" in the words of my 5 year old I'll name "Skinny" you figure that out.
We finally got into the park and "wow" was the only description I had. Our first stop was City Hall for a Birthday pin, it was my 30th the day before and I wanted to collect a b-day pin from each park. We got out and saw Mary Poppins, we started to get to get in line for her but her cast member told us her line was already closed she was going in soon. I had an schedule planned but when I walked in that flew out the window along with my brain that had completely turned to mush. Well no more back to our schedule, back to rational thinking. We made our way down Main St., USA toward the Castle and my mind turned to mush again, I looked up, my jaw dropped and I started walking like zombie. You know how you feel like you're the only one there, I had one of those moments, magical. My daughter, "Baby" was jumping up and down screaming "Cinderalla where are you, Cinderalla where are you" she even demanded to dress like Cinderalla. She was obsessed with Cinderella, that was her top person to meet, hug, and get a picture with.
After lots of persuading I lead them toward mad tea cup, not before getting a picture in front of the castle and a beautiful family photo on the bridge with the castle in the background taken by a very nice cast member. We ran into Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and they were our first characters. They were very funny. We waited in line next for mad tea cup while Grumpy got Winnie Pooh Fast Passes. The lady at mad tea cup really embarrashed me, she mad everyone in line sing happy birthday and wish me a happy 30th b-day was real nice. That ride was real fun, one of my favorites. We had 1 1/2 hours until Winnie ride so we decided to do some characters over in toontown. Toontown didn't open until 10:00 so we went and rode Cinderella's carosoel then we went back to toontown which was open by then. We meet Mickey who is great, at least it was indoors- it's getting hot already and it's only 10:00. Next we did The Goofy ride, the kids loved this ride though it was rather short. Next we went over to the Minnie's house, Minnie's not home but I asked a guy coming out of the tent and he said Cinderalla's in there. Oh for real, researching I was told she doesn't come out you have to go to her breakfast or dinner to meet her so I had planned a character meal for Baby to meet her, so we told her and she ran in. We were also told Winnie, Tigger, Piglet, Minnie, and few others were there. When we got in to see Cinderella just the look on Baby's face was enough to make me cry. She held her hand, she was in such awe, "look, I have your dress" she was so proud. The purple mouse scared her though but she actually sat down and hugged the blue dressed mouse which surprised me. It's kind of neat how behind the scenes the people at Disney are so careful, as we were leaving, my husband caught Cinderella quickly slipping out before anyone noticed real discreet.
We made our way back towards Winnie ride for speed pass redemtion, my husband went to go get buzz speed pass real quick and would meet us there he took Skinny. What a mistake. We went into Winnie and didn't come out for at least 45 minutes. I went in with Baby and my 6 year old "Chop Suey" he's into Taekwondo, we got stuck in Winnie at five different places along the ride. At least the ride wasn't scary or annoying for that matter. We finally came out of the ride and went in search of Grumpy and Skinny, worried Grumpy blew a gasket by now waiting for so long. On the way we ran into Alice in the Wonderland and the Mad Hatter and got their autograph and picture. We went back towards Buzz ride hoping they were there , they were, resting. Skinny was so exited, "I saw Buzz, mommy" his eyes all big and bright. Buzz was his favorite character, and just like Cinderella was Baby's one character to meet, Buzz was Skinny's. We had to do the buzz ride first though and go look for buzz later. Buzz ride was a blast, we did this ride a total of 5 times in the two days were there. When we came out of the ride, buzz was nowhere to be found, so I the good mom that I am, went to go find out when and where he was. The castmember called and found out he'll be back in ten minutes so we went back and got in line. Buzz was cool but lazy, he had a stamp instead of signing autographs, but they loved him anyways. Each of my kids wanted their own pictures with him and he was very kind and patient.
We had a much needed break after this and had the best orange-guava ice cream floats at the little shop inside the gift shop next to the alien encounter. They were delicious. We rode the tommarrowland transit and Grumpy grabed space mountain fast passes intending to do a baby swap Baby can't go. Kids couldn't take it anymore and so we had lunch at the launching pad. One turkey leg fed our whole family along with some snackes we brought from home. After lunch we went to toontown and did more characters we meet winnie who was nice, tigger the kids has a blast with, he tickled the kids, played with the kids on the floor, eeyore was sorta mean I don't know if that was his character or if that was how he was, piglet was adorable. Minnie I found rude, Chip and Dale were nice and I never knew if the characters were boys or girls before and my kids asked and well chip and dale told me. On the way out we saw Goofy, we waited out in the heat and two families ahead of us he left we couldn't wait it was to hot. We rode the Goofy ride again, the kids loved this ride, then we hoped on the train just in time, as we were pulling away from the station it started raining. We toke a ride around magic kingdom came back and went back to space mountain. My son rode it twice once with dad and once with with me it was awesome.
After space mountain we went to go catch belle story time. Since there was some time left Grumpy and Skinny went to go catch Winnie, they still took the fast pass since there problems before so there were no problems. Since there was still some time we took advantage of the priority given for all the trouble on the Winnie ride earlier and went on the Dumbo ride it was okay. We then headed back to catch Belle storytime but Grumpy grabbed the fast pass for peter pan on the way to belle storytime. We sat down to Belle storytime early and there was only a few people there. Belle's assistants walked in a few minutes later and by that time the place was packed with standing room only. Belle started into her story and suddenly she goes I need a father, you in the blue yes you she was pointing to my son sitting next to me, she had picked Chop Suey to be Father, he was shy but excited. That was neat. I think that was the highlight of the trip for him. He stood up there next to Belle, holding her hand, he really liked all the attention.
After storytime we headed over to the castle and caught Cinderella's Surprise. That was some show. The kids really enjoyed. It was really hot however. After this we headed back and caught peter pan which was by this time was okay. Everyone was so tired. The kids wanted nothing to do with anything after this without dinner in their tummies so we headed back into tommarrowland for dinner. We wanted indoor out of the heat. They ate we couldn't, no appetite. Grumpy went and got one more fast pass for Buzz again. After dinner what else buzz then we settled for the parade not without losing Chop Suey in the crowd first however. Grumpy had Skinny, I had Baby and Chop Suey had food in his tummy so energy again he was darting in and out of the crowd and suddenly we didn't see him anymore. We split up, Grumpy finally found him crying being held by a castmember, one scary moment. The parade was wonderful. After the parade we headed towards the castle to catch the fireworks. Word of advice the bridge between the castle and mad tea cup is wonderful to catch tinkerbelle but there are a line of trees that totally blocks the fireworks. We wanted to maybe catch astro orbiter after the fireworks but all rides close down after fireworks on Sunday when park closes at 10:00. We tried to fight the crowd back to our car, we walked the wrong way back to pluto 15-20 in the state of exhaustion. One good thing afterwards I had the best thai chicken pasta salad at the Adams Mark Hotel, and Grumpy enjoyed a cold, $4 beer.
