Planning a trip in the fall was much different for us than planning one in the spring. We have never been anytime but spring/summer. About 3 weeks before we were supposed to leave, I started kind of trying to finalize our plans as to where we would be each day. I had made Dining reservations months ago, so that sort of dictated how our days would be spent and where. However, with us going in October, we were up against Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. We opted out of that this year because it is pretty expensive, and we didn't foresee our boys being able to hang super late to get our monies worth out of it. I didn't think this was a big deal, until I realized that the Magic Kingdom completely closes down on the nights of the Not so Scary Party and if you don't have a ticket for the party, you have to leave the park. We had planned on spending our first morning in Animal Kingdom and heading over to Magic Kingdom around 3:00 for the night/electrical parade. Well this totally rocked our plans because not only were we no longer to go to Magic Kingdom as we'd planned, the electrical parade was only running on Monday night out of the three days we were going to be in the parks....so if we wanted to catch the electrical parade, we would have to do it Monday night....the only night we'd planned on NOT being at Magic Kingdom :) I quickly started rearranging our dining reservations and by some huge amount of luck, everything worked out and we still were able to fit it all in! I say all this just because it totally took me by surprise. In the spring, they have the electrical parade every night. There are no special parties in the spring that shut down parks. So just beware if you are planning a trip during this time of year!
We ate breakfast at our hotel. How could your day not be AWESOME when you start out with Mickey waffles?!?
We started our day at Magic Kingdom. Sounds cheesy, and I know I have said it before, but things, especially at Disney, are SO much more magical when you experience it through your child's eyes. Alex didn't really have any grand expressions as the park opened, but you could totally tell he was taking it all in.
Before our trip, anytime we were watching a Disney movie at the beginning where it shows the castle and fireworks, we would always say "Look, Alex, that is where we are going!" So before long, when that part of the movie played he would shout "GO GO!!!" When he first saw the castle he spun around to look at me and pointed to it and said "GO GO!!!" He knew we were where we had been telling him about :)
Will was super pumped about introducing Alex to the Magic Kingdom! He made the executive decision to do Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin first!
After Buzz, we figured John should take advantage of the short line at Space Mountain, so he took Will to ride that and I took Alex to Dumbo :) Will got a little scared but was so brave and at the end the worker that was helping get people off at the end gave Will a celebratory pin to celebrate his first time ever on Space Mountain!! He was so proud!
Alex and mommy on Dumbo. He LOVED it. We kept getting back in line while we were waiting on John and Will!
There is a great little tent area over in the new Fantasyland where several characters stay there all day. We saw Goofy and Donald. With this being our first day, Alex was still a little unsure of the characters...
An unexpected favorite among our crew was Mickey's PhilharMagic. This is a 3-D show filled with the famous songs from classic Disney movies. It was a great break from the heat and the boys LOVED it!!
For lunch, we ate in Beast's castle. This is a MUST do!! It is counter service for lunch. We waited maybe 20 minutes. The food was the best park food that we ate and the scenery is amazing. Disney left no detail out in designing the castle. You really felt like you were in France! Later that afternoon, we introduced Alex to his first Mickey Ice Cream.
This is one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip!
Will's favorite ride at Magic Kingdom on this day was Goofy's Barnstormer. I have a video of us riding and the giggles and screams are just precious!
About 4:00 we headed to Epcot. We had dinner reservations there later and there were a few rides we wanted to hit. If you are up in the air about Epcot, I definitely think it is something you could forego, especially for Alex's age. Other than the Nemo ride and a few little rides in the different countries, there really wasn't much for him to do. Will on the other hand had the time of his life riding Test Track and Soarin'. We had already reserved fast passes for these rides, so it worked out well to not wait very long. I rode Soarin' with Will and he was a little unsure when the ride got going...he felt like he was going to fall. But he settled down super quick and LOVED it. About halfway through the "flight," he looked at me and said, "Mama, the world is so beautiful!" Love that little boy so much!!
There is a GREAT character spot at Epcot. It is kind of hidden and there was NO wait. We walked through and all the main characters were there. Will was precious and ran right up to each one of them.
Alex was still unsure....I love this picture. Will is holding onto him pretty tight and Alex can't look away...
By the time we got to Goofy, Alex completely lost it. He loved them from afar on this first day, but did not care to get all up in their arms and hug :)
We found a photo opp after the Nemo ride. For some reason crawling into a huge shark mouth wasn't half as scary as Goofy was!
This trip we made a reservation to do dinner at The Garden Grill which is right by the Soarin' ride at Epcot. This was a GREAT character meal and one I feel doesn't get as much fame as Chef Mickey's....John and I both said the food was great! It was much more laid back than the other character meals we have done in the past. We were never "waiting" for characters....they came around in good time intervals and we saw all characters multiple times, privately, while dining.
Alex decided he would now be brave and start blowing kisses to the characters....
And give high fives....
Will lit up EVERY time the characters came around. Loved every minute of it!
Boys were exhausted after dinner and we headed back to the hotel. Rest was needed for all....Day 2 brought breakfast with Jake, Hollywood Studios, and more Magic Kingdom!
No comments:
Post a Comment