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Monday, January 28, 2013

Disney World Day 1: The Flight & Magic Kingdom

We did a countdown to Disney World starting in the first part of January.  Parker moved the airplane each day and she never forgot!  I know I've said it many times- but she loves the visual.

The morning we left- we planned to wake the girls around 6:10.  Well they beat us to the punch and got up around 5:40.  Honestly- I was happy with that...I was afraid we'd have to deal with grumpy girls.  And I was originally worried we'd have trouble getting them to bed because they were so excited, but they went down pretty easy the night before.


We arrived at the airport almost exactly 2 hours before our flight (thank you, Uncle Phil, for taking us!).  The girls were pretty wound up and excited to be flying and going on vacation!

This is the plane that pulled away before our plane arrived.....


Just being giggly sisters...



I said to Grace, "Hey Grace!  Make a sweet smiley face."  This is what I got....

Dancing around...

Our plane pulled up.  Parker said a few times while waiting..."We're never going to get to Disney World."  

Love this picture....


Both girls have never flown and I was a little worried about them with take-off and such.  But they both did SO good.  I even let Grace try to chew gum...and she loved it...and thought she was so cool.  And then she swallowed it.  :)


We couldn't all sit 4 in a row...and I am so thankful that Parker "chose" to sit with Geoff and then Grace "chose" to sit with me.  No arguments or meltdowns!!

For the first hour or so they did well...just eating snacks and such....

Then Grace lot a little squirmy so I gave her my phone to listen to princess songs.  This occupied for a good bit....




 ....and then I had to pull out the iPad and let her watch a Barbie movie.  And this kept her entertained the rest of the flight.  :)


This gal sat by her dad and I don't think he had any complaints.  She did very well.  ;)
 As we were descending into Florida Parker said, "I've never sawn (seen) so many lakes before in my life!  Have you?"  Ha!  It was just so sweet and fun to see her excitement.

 The girls were very excited about getting our luggage....


We made it to the hotel fairly easy....we did the Magical Express and so the buses were lined up waiting for us.  We got checked in and Grace and Geoff changed into short sleeves because it is pretty warm here.  Not too hot, but pretty warm.

After we got changed and settled- we headed to Magic Kingdom for our first Disney World experience! (We rode the ferries only to find out we had already been at Magic Kingdom and didn't need to ride the ferries after all.  Rookie mistake.  ;)  But we still had a nice ferry ride.  Haha!)



Both girls were tired, but Parker was really showing it....


And we made it!!  Main Street @ Magic Kingdom



As soon as we walked down Main Street there was a little street show going on right in front of Cinderella's castle that was pretty neat.


I needed to sit down at this point!  The length of the day was wearing on me and my lovely husband wanted to capture it.  Thanks, Geoff.



By this point Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella had entered the stage with their princes.  The girls lit up!  (although in these pics they look so serious)







The MEAN Witch, as we call her.  Oh my goodness!
Funny enough- Grace has asked us several times before leaving if "the MEAN witch" or "the Beast" was going to be here and we said no.  Thinking that why would the mean witch be there?  But wouldn't you know- 5 minutes into the park and there she is!!  She was a part of the skit and Grace started crying pretty good until she left the stage.  (the story was all about how wishes come true and so we had to say that several times and then the mean witch and Captain Hook left the stage) 



 

Following this little show was a little parade....




At the very end- they allowed people to go dance in the street with them.  At first Parker was excited, but then quickly came back to us before she got to meet Jessie or dance.




We rode the carousel twice....


We really only walked around and did things for about 2 hours before we settled in for the fireworks so we didn't fit much into our first 'day' at Disney World.  We also rode the It's a Small World ride all together.


This is the tippy top of the tower where Tinkerbelle flies down during (or right before?  I can't remember?) the fire works...


We thought we got a really good seat...but then the crowds came and the fireworks were more to the left (or at least that's just how it looked from where we were sitting ..... but if we stay for them again we will try to get in a little better spot.  With all that said...it was still really neat to see and our sports weren't that bad.











We were all SO tired by this point.  Geoff and I had  been a little stressed all day just trying to juggle the girls, keep them happy, get where we needed to be when we needed to be there...and just what was the best choice of things to do.  We were a little overwhelmed!   And once we finally made it to Magic Kingdom, I think it got a little more stressful because there's SO much there and it was like we didn't even know where to start.  They did have extra Magic Hours on this day where the park was open later than usual...but we also knew we had 2 ticking time bombs.  ;)

I had originally made reservations at The Crystal Palace...it looks like a really good buffet with characters that visit your table.  But the reservations weren't until 8:35 and it was just way too late.  Geoff went in to cancel our reservation around 6ish and they were so gracious to waive our cancellation fee!  So thankful for that!

Anyway- as soon as the fireworks were over- we headed out like lots of other people.  This little gal fell asleep before making it to the bus...bless her heart.


We finally made it back to the hotel and changed and ready for bed by 9:30.  It was a loooong (but good) day!

Up next- Day 2: Animal Kingdom  



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