WDW, Part II: First Day and a Half

After we got to the hotel, Craig and I were delighted to be able to shower. After being in the car for 18 hours, that felt awfully good! Then we grabbed a quick lunch and I proceeded to sit around chatting with my sisters until Craig finally was able to move me (and most everyone else, too) out the door to the Magic Kingdom.

And what a magical moment that was! Bentley and Kendra were already pretty excited just to ride the Monorail, but we managed to enter the park right as Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade was beginning. The kids were thrilled to see Mickey and Minnie right from the beginning! Unfortunately, the place was so packed it was difficult to get where they could see much of anything, but Craig and I managed to hold them on our shoulders long enough to see the important characters.



Then we shoved our strollers through the crowds to 'Toon Town, and took Bentley on Goofy's Barn Stormer ride, a fairly easy roller coaster for kids. I was sort of worried that if this ride scared him, we might scar him for the rest of the vacation, but he enjoyed it. Then we pushed through even more crowds to do Buzz Lightyear-- mostly because my Mom already had fast passes for that one-- and finally decided to call it a day. Yup-- two rides and we were done!

But no one said that Saturday, near Christmas, at the Magic Kingdom wouldn't be crowded...


The next morning we got up super early and headed back to the Magic Kingdom. We were thinking we could grab breakfast on Main Street before the rest of the park opened, but that turned out to be a big mistake. Unlike Disneyland in California, NONE of the park opened until, well, it opened. So we sat around feeding fruit snacks and goldfish crackers to the kids and feeling like the best parents ever. (I do a lot of that even when I'm not at Disney World, though, to tell you the truth...) As soon as the park opened, we rushed in and, completely forgetting about food, rode on Peter Pan and It's a Small World. While we were having fun, others in our group (Mom, Dad, and sisters) went to get fast passes for Space Mountain. And we rode the Motor Speedway, which Bentley thoroughly enjoyed. Some time in there we figured out that we should probably eat something, so Tracy, Rachael and I headed to the bakery on Main Street while everyone else went on the merry-go-round (a raging success amongst the three-and-under crowd). We bought so much stuff at the bakery that the workers made fun of us. Always a good sign.

Okay, I just realized that listing every single ride we went on is incredibly boring for you, so I'll try to stop doing that and just give you the highlights/funny stories.

So one last thing of note from the Magic Kingdom was meeting Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. It turned out to be WAY too long of a line and the kids were really grumpy by the time we got to meet them, and just as I was resolving to never, ever do that again, Bentley and Kendra walked up and gave them the biggest hugs. Bentley actually hugged Tigger for so long it began to get a bit awkward-- one of those times where I bet the guy in the costume was thinking that this poor kid didn't get much love at home! But it was all very sweet... I especially liked it when Pooh gave Teddy a hug.




That night, then, we headed over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for a big family dinner at Sanaa. It was delicious-- African foods with Indian spices. The best of all worlds. ;)

More soon!