Magic Kingdom!

Our first full day was spent at Magic Kingdom. What fun! Just a little history, for those who may not know, Magic Kingdom was the first of the four Walt Disney World parks to be built. Magic Kingdom is separated into 5 "lands". There's Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Frontierland, Liberty Square, and Adventureland. It's HUGE and there's so much to do!!

We wanted to get all we could out of this visit, with the children being young and into the characters and it being all of our first time, while at the same time being reasonable on the wallet! ;) We tried to pack a lot of our own food, use only the gift cards that the children were given for Christmas on gift shop stuff, and avoid needless spending while we were at the parks. All that considered, we did decide that a couple character dinners would be fun, most of which were breakfast, for us. Just a fun way to get the day started. :)

We set out kind of early Monday for our first day, neither of us had any idea of what to expect! We followed the signs to the parking lot, quickly realized we had to board a monorail to get to the park. Once at the park and bags checked, we had to program our tickets with our fingerprint and then fight the mob of people to get to the maps, get our first time and birthday buttons, and figure out where breakfast was! ;) Whew! We were overwhelmed and tired before the day got started.

We enjoyed a breakfast buffet at the Crystal Palace with a meet and greet with the Winnie The Pooh characters. Breakfast was great! All the good stuff, french toast, mickey shaped waffles, eggs, bacon, fruit and so much more. This gave us a little time to get ourselves together. We made it in the park and made our reservation time so we were ready to go! ;) The characters all made their way around the room and the kids loved this part. Even Grady was so into them!!

One really cool thing about being there on Ada's birthday was how extra special they made it. The waiter brought "pixie dust", they served her a cupcake and sang after our meal and brought a signed birthday card from the characters. Was such a fun treat for her! :)

After breakfast, we focused on Fantasyland for the day. It was a lot of fun! We had a great time. Like I said, we had no idea what we were doing, but I did some research and set up our three fastpasses for certain things and we squeezed in stuff between those. For never having been there, I think the fastpasses we took advantage of were definitely good choices! One of which was a favorite for most of us, Peter Pan's Flight.

And our one and only splurge at the park was mickey shaped ice creams! I mean it only made sense to have those at least once! ;)

One of Grady's favorites was Dumbo! We got two rides on this one. :)

We watched the welcome party, rode tea cups, It's a Small World, the Mad Tea Party, Tomorrowland Speedway, and watched Mickey's PhilharMagic Show. We were able to get into most things with very little wait times which is nice with a little one! ;) The highlight of the kids day had to be the Festival of Fantasy Parade. They were all so into it. Grady was just mesmerized by the people and floats. It was very well done and for sure on the top of the list for all of us! It was a great way for the kids to see most of the characters and not have to wait in line to do it! We did use a fastpass on this and I think it was well worth it. It got us a great seat and we didn't have to wait on the sidewalk for an extended amount of time to get them! Such a great day! :)

The characters we met on Monday were:

*Winnie The Pooh characters (Tigger, Piglet, Pooh and Eeyore)

*Cinderella

*Rapunzel

*Goofy

*Donald

As I mentioned, our first day we were only able to hit SOME of the places in Fantasyland. With four other lands at Magic Kingdom, a second day was a must! And we could have spent 5 or 6 more in that park alone. It was a GREAT one! So many fun things to do!! Thursday, we went with a plan in mind and prepared since we kind of knew what to expect now. We hit some places in Tomorrowland, Liberty Square, and Adventureland. It was a little rainy so that added a little craziness to a theme park visit with young children. ;) Just a whole lot more stuff to lug around, but this was our week and we weren't missing out because of rain. After two attractions or so the rain died down and sun began to come out so it was great! 

Day two we managed to get to a lot and still so much more we didn't! We were able to get our turn on the Astro Orbiter, The Barnstormer (Ada LOVES her some roller coasters!), Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, Jungle Cruise, The Magic Carpets of Aladdin, and the Swiss Family Tree House.

A little sprinkle of pixie dust! ;)

Characters we met:

*ANNA and ELSA!! ;)

*Peter Pan (He was great! As Ada put it, "he was so kind")

*Tinkerbell

*Stitch

After that, we grabbed a bite to eat...some AMAZING waffle sandwiches at Sleepy Hollow. And then grabbed our spot for the electrical parade and fireworks!

I must include this story, because it's one of those things that we will laugh about for years! While waiting for the parade to start, we were beside a huge group of girls from Argentina. They, of course, spoke Spanish with broken English here and there. Long story short, they fell in love with all the kids and they kept each other well entertained for the hour we waited! ;) Grayson and Ada taught them some English and they taught them some Spanish. Just after the introduction to one another, my sweet country boy with his Southern accent and draw says, "I don't know much Spanish, except Bonjour!" Yep! There you have it! Needless to say, he gave us all a good laugh. The girls quickly taught him the proper way to say hello in SPANISH. ;) 

And here's just a small look at the magic...;)

Next up, Epcot! :)