Monday, November 18, 2013

Disney World 2013: Magic Kingdom (Day 1)

For our first day at Disney World, we headed to Magic Kingdom.  From all of my research, I knew that this was the place with the most for Emmarie to do, and the newly remodeled Fantasyland  promised an exciting morning.

After arriving at the World, we took the ferry across the lake since the monorails were not working.  The temperature was hovering around 74 degrees and the worker told us that the monorail had trouble getting started in cold weather sometimes.  We all shared a laugh about that one.

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Our first stop according to my handy dandy touring guide was Fantasyland.  They suggested that you let your child ride Dumbo several times since it gets pretty busy later in the day.  We rode it three times (once with each adult) before moving on to our next ride.  Emmarie loved it.  She cried when it was time to go somewhere else because she already loved Dumbo so much.

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Next we hurried over to ride The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.  They have recently remodeled the waiting area for this ride, and there are tons of interactive elements for the kids to play with while waiting in line.  Emmy enjoyed the ride.  I was a little afraid that she would get

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Next we made a stop at the Mad Tea Party.  I was a little leary of riding this with Brad since he said he wanted to spin fast.  It turns out that I should always trust my instincts.  Emmy enjoyed it so much that they just had to ride in "the cups" again.

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We happened upon Alice and the White Rabbit as we were leaving, so we stopped for a quick photo.  This was our first character meeting, and Emmy was a little shy.  I was really glad that we started with these guys.  There wasn't a long line, and Alice really took her time to try to make Emmy comfortable.

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As Mommy and Daddy rode Space Mountain, Emmy and Nana grabbed a quick snack.

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Afterwards, we did a rider switch, and Emmarie and I hung out while Nana and Brad rode.

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While Daddy went to try to get Fast Passes for Pirates of the Carribean, we rode the People Mover.

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View of the Castle from Tomorrowland.

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We ate lunch at an amazing quick service resturant that I had read about called Casey's Corner.  It's on Mainstreet and the food was terrific.  For $30 we all ate and were stuffed.  They even had mini corndogs for Emmy to munch on now and later.  Two Thumbs Up for sure!

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We stopped for a photo in front of the castle.  It was too bright, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity since we knew we would be running around the other side of the park all afternoon.

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Shortly thereafter, someone drifted off to Neverland.

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We rode the Riverboat while she was napping, but she woke up in time to watch the parade from Frontierland.

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We had the best spot and so many of the characters came up and gave Emmy a hug or high five.  She loved it until Jefar and his nefarious grin showed up.  She was less than thrilled about that one.

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While everyone else was moving toward the parade, we headed against the current to Adventureland.  Emmy and I waited in line to meet the fairies while Brad and Mom waited in line for a Dole Whip.  Both were completely worth it.

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After that, it was time for the main attraction.  It was time to meet the mouse himself.  She was so excited when we finally  made it into the room where Mickey Mouse was greeting kids and taking photos.

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She was still acting a little shy on Day 1, but once we left the room, she cried wanting to go back and see Mickey.

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We rode the train (finally!) back over to Fantasyland.

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We grabbed Fast Passes for the Voyage of the Little Mermaid.  While we were waiting on those, we stood in line to meet Ariel.

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After that, we waited in line for Storytime with Belle.  We weren't sure what to expect with this attraction, but we were not expecting to become part of the story.  Brad was chosen to be part of the cast as a suit of armor.  Henceforth the entire trip we referred to him by names such as superstar, Sir Bradley, and Mr. Cast Member Sir.  He did not appreciate our tributes.

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After storytime, we took Emmarie back to ride Dumbo two more times.  Then we heard it.  A sound that made us very afraid.  The sound of fireworks.  We flew toward mainstreet as the first booms began to sound.  We looked on in horror at the massive crowds packed into such a small space and thought about the small ferry that would lying in wait to take ALL of them back across.  We pushed through as quickly as we could only looking back for stolen glances at the beautiful display.

Our hard work paid off though and we made it back across the lake and onto the bus before the show was finished.  By the time we made it back to the hotel, we were exahsted and starving.  We ordered pizza from Dominoes, ate, and went to bed.  It was a perfect start to our vacation.

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