Okay, I think I have a few minutes to write about the Disney trip. This may be a long post, so if you would rather just skip down to the slideshow I won’t get my feelings hurt! I just want to make sure I include everything for my own memories. Anyway, we were on the road just before 5, and the trip went really well. We learned early on that our kids travel best if we start very early in the morning and are finished driving by 2:00 or so. It proved to be true this time as well. The kids did great! We stopped for lunch at 11:00 when the kids were ready for a break, made a last minute run to Wal-Mart, and were back on the road. The kids fell asleep and woke up as we were driving into Disney. Makgill was so excited! He kept laughing and clapping when he would see a sign with a character on it. We checked into our hotel- All Star Movies- and were in the room just before 3:00. We stayed in the “Herbie” section, which was great for Mak because he remembers Herbie from the stunt show at MGM in Oct. Mak wanted to ride the bus and monorail, so we headed out. We stopped off at The Polynesian to check it out for our trip this coming Feb, and then decided to head back to our hotel for supper, a swim, and an early bedtime. The kids loved swimming, but the water was freezing, so we got out after 45 minutes. We went to bed early to be ready for a busy day at the Magic Kingdom.
On Wednesday we headed to MGM for Jim to let us into the park. We are very fortunate to have a customer who is also a Disney employee. He can get us into the parks for free and gets us great deals on Disney hotels. We love him!!! From there we headed to Magic Kingdom and let Makgill lead the way. We got fast passes for Buzz Lightyear, rode Winnie the Pooh and Dumbo (our longest wait at 15 minutes!), and back to Buzz. The kids were hungry then, so we had a quick lunch. Mak and Collin rode Indy cars (Mak calls them Fast Cars), and then it was off to Adventureland. We did Jungle Cruise with Mak and CB for the first time. Mak loved it, CB slept. Then it was time for Magic Carpets, an all-time favorite of Mak’s. From there we did Small World, Philharmagic, snack, Carousel, Teacups, Barnstormer (twice), Toontown, and the Disney train. Mak was chosen to be a guest conducter on the train, which was a lot of fun. He called “All Aboard” for everyone. By this time it was 3:30 and we were finished with everything we wanted to do at Magic Kingdom! I was shocked. I expected the crowds to be really bad, but they were great. We decided to go to EPCOT for the rest of the day. We did the new Nemo ride which was so cute. Mak loves that movie, so it was fun to see all of those characters. We went to do Crush, and got through most of it, but Mak got restless so we left near the end. Shows like that are better for him earlier on in the day. On to Figment and to play in the Imagination Station. It was then time for supper, so we strolled around the World Showcase and ended up at Mexico. We contemplated staying for Fireworks but decided against it. We’d had a very full day and were going to have an early morning, so we went back to the hotel. The day was better than I could have imagined, and the kids did great. Clara Beth even had a tooth break through and was not fussy!
On Thursday the kids took me to one of my favorite restaurants for breakfast with the characters- 1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridian. This was their birthday gift to me. The food was great and Mak got to bounce with Tigger. What could be better? CB loved the “animal” characters but was timid of the “people” characters, which seemed backwards. We all had great time. We then headed to Downtown Disney to let Mak play with the Legos and do souvenir shopping. We spent about two hours looking at all of the crazy things with mouse ears on them that people actually buy, and letting Mak pick something for himself (tee-shirt, Mickey Mouse and Goofy jibitz), and CB (Tinkerbell light-up toy). We then hit the road for Jacksonville. It was so sad to leave, but we had the best time. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you, Collin, for the best birthday ever!!! I Love You!!!!!!!
Enjoy the slideshow! www.cmsmithportraits.com/slideshows/disneyday
SO FUN- I love the pictures!! The kids both looked like they had a BLAST!!!!!!!!!! glad you had a SUPERB BIRTHDAY ARON!!!!!!!!!! You deserved it!