Day 1, continued
So I think it was pretty obvious that Lou loved the room! As I was unpacking things and taking photos, I saw that we had two towel animals greeting us in our entryway
(you could kind of see them in the video), and a bounceback offer on the table! I couldn’t call for it yet, since the information I needed to book my parent’s 25th anniversary was in our checked baggage.
So Lou was exploring the room, and was very impressed with the fact that the bed was as wide as he is tall.
And it had a foot on me…. Yeesh! We could have slept sideways if we wanted to… except the sheets didn’t go that way, and I was cold in the room. I acclimated so fast to the weather down there – I’ve been cold ever since I came back, since it’s about 20 degrees cooler up here!
So after we got settled a little bit, we headed out to the bus stop to go to the Magic Kingdom!
The bus came very quickly, and we were off! We got to the Magic Kingdom a little bit before 1, and were still in a state of shock. It hadn’t really settled in yet – we kept looking at each other and going “We’re here!” “We’re in Disney!”
So after going through the turnstiles, we were walking up Main Street, and I decided I wanted to get a silhouette done. I had told my mother I would get one, and I figured I would get it done right away. It was really awesome, the guy did it so well, and really fast. We got a few Photopass pictures done, and then we headed straight for….. can you guess? Adventureland! (I am smirking at this totem's choice of clothing - or lack thereof)
Meaning….. Aloha Isle!
After our Dole Whip (we split one) we decided to head to the Jungle Cruise to get a Fastpass for later, since I was expecting a 40 minute wait or so. Guess how long the wait was? 5 minutes! And it wasn’t even that, we basically just walked right onto the boat!
We had the best skipper, Jonathan. He was hilarious, and spoiled us for our skipper later in the trip.
Lou kept swearing that he saw Jonathan in the parades, but I explained that everyone pretty much looks alike with gel in their hair. So of course, after our 5 minute wait on Jungle Cruise, we were pretty pumped. After that, we decided to go do Pirates of the Caribbean. And guess what the wait was? Yep, 5 minutes! And again, we just walked through the line and straight onto a boat.
We had gotten one of those little red wait-time things to take to the CM, and so we sped through and didn’t stop to take any pictures (I knew we had a chance later in the trip). After Pirates, we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which was saying a 20 minute wait – it was maybe 10, 15 tops. They sent us into a new line, and when we got in, we were in the front car. The CM who was at the control panel was high-fiving the kids in front of us, so Lou stuck his hand out for a high-five as well – and the CM shut him down! He just shook his head at him.

This is also a reoccurring theme in our trip, as you will see… except next time it’s not Lou.
After we did Big Thunder, we walked back to Adventureland and watched the end of the Pirate Tutorial – Lou was impressed with Captain Jack, and how good of an actor the guy was.
We walked over to the Enchanted Tiki Room, and saw that – great as always. We were the first ones to get up and like they tell you to – and then we went outside and took photos in the exact same spot as we had two years ago. Someone offered to take it for us this time, which was very nice of them.
Here they are side-by-side, 2009 on the left, the one from 2007 on the right:
After that, we did the Swiss Family Treehouse, which I had never done before. It was pretty cool, nothing I felt bad about missing though. At this point, I think Lou was feeling a little hungry….

(Don't worry, he was nowhere close to actually touching anything)
Then we went over to Splash Mountain, which had said a 50 minute wait earlier… and now it said 10. We were like “WHATTTT?” But the line definitely didn’t look like a 10 minute wait, and so we got a Fastpass for later. After this, we were done with everything we wanted to do (or could do at the time) for today in Adventureland and Frontierland, so we headed over the Liberty Square for the Haunted Mansion. However, at this point, it was only 3 pm (we got a lot done in 2 hours!), and that means it was time for the parade! So we stopped, and I took a few photos.
Wendy even waved to me and curtsied, but I was too busy taking a picture to do anything back before it was too late!
This was also when Garden Grocer called me to tell me they were at the resort, and I asked them to drop our food off with Bell Services, so we could get it later. I had to yell, and I was like “I’M SORRY! I AM AT THE MAGIC KINGDOM, AND THE PARADE IS GOING ON.” The guy laughed, and he said it was okay. I bet they get that a lot…
We then continued on to the Haunted Mansion, which was showing a very short wait. 5 minutes, I think it was? Whatever it was, we basically walked on again. When they tell you to fill in all available space, I snuck up to the door, “taking photos of tombstones”. I really did though! See?
And then when we got in the stretching room, I remembered that the opening is right under the lady with the parasol, so we stood under her. We had really good luck with standing right by the openings for Haunted Mansion and Tower of Terror later.
We rode that, and that was really fun, because Lou hadn’t ridden it since he was 6, because it was closed in 2007 when he went.
After the ride, we saw the first of many Jack Skellington things – this one was the cart right outside the ride, near the cemetery with Mr. Toad in it. And we saw the cutest little thing, it was a stuffed Baby Zero! I loveeee Zero so much!!!!! I have a thing about Zeros, I guess.
And no, I’m not talking about Lou! I can’t believe you would ever think that I meant that, Mickey_Mom, I can’t believe you! (Just kidding!)
Although I have to admit, Lou was a nerd. Still is. But he’s a hero in my eyes!
Ahem. Anyway! Here’s Baby Zero.
And he is very cute. His price tag, however, not so much…. 17$ for a stuffed toy is a lot. And unfortunately, we saw him EVERYWHERE. And he is adorable…. very hard to resist temptation. But I will tell you this,
I never bought him.
At this point, it was getting to be time for our reservation at the Plaza, so we headed over there, stopping by the Castle for some Photopass pictures. Hopefully I will have those for you guys eventually. For now, you'll have to content yourselves with this:
Also, at some point today (I forget exactly when), we went into the Frontierland pin store, and Lou found a whole bunch of Jack Skellington pins that he loved, so we wrote them down to buy later. Luckily for him, they were all pretty cheap.
I’m going to pause here and upload photos, and will continue this day in yet another installment. I’m also really hoping that Lou will join the Dis just to comment on this and add anything he wants to. I doubt it though… oh well.