DisneyWorld: Day 1 (Magic Kingdom)

Yesterday was a day filled with driving. We did nothing but drive, drive, drive. We stopped somewhere for sacrament meeting and brought our own stuff to make meals in the car. Let me tell you...you think tuna smells bad in the kitchen? It smells so much worse in the car, but it was what sounded good to all of us so I brought it along. A few hours after dinner we arrived at our mid travel destination, Kingsland Georgia.
After checking in we let AJ run around a bit to get his energy out and then put him to bed. We stayed up writing and reading and what not and went to bed at a pretty decent hour. Only an hour or so later AJ woke up crying. We tried everything from food to medicine, but nothing seemed to help. He was wide awake and wanted nothing to do with sleeping. He stayed this was until 5:30AM when I finally convinced him to go back to sleep.

We slept for a few hours and then got back on the road. Joe and I were exhausted.

 I was so excited to start our DisneyWorld adventure, but my body was so tired from the lack of sleep that I was worried I would be too grumpy and uncomfortable to enjoy myself. I tried to keep myself busy, yes even by taking a picture of my toes...

I did them myself the night before we left while I was waiting for the last load of laundry to dry.

As soon as we got to the front gates my heart got jumpy and all my excitement rushed back. I’m sorry, but there is no way you can be grumpy when pulling into Disneyworld.

We checked in to the Disney All Start Movies Resort where we were given our special resort cards that would allow us access to our room, the parks for 6 days and get us each 10 meals inside the parks or resorts. What a deal!

We were lucky enough to be put in the Toy Story wing if the resort. Aj was so excited when we walked up to our room. He pointed out as many characters from the movie as he could remember.

We even found this on the bed waiting for us. 

Even their soap has Mickey ears!!!

 Just outside our door is a courtyard filled with oversized characters from the movies. We were a little rushed for time today so we didn’t get a chance to take any pictures, but we will be sure to find time another day to get some. On our way out we did however manage to capture a side view of our building. No worries we will be well guarded tonight by the strong and faithful bucket-o-soldiers.

Thought we would go straight to the park, but with the lack of sleep we all got last night we were all over due for a nap. SO we slept for a few hours and then made our way off to the park. We have 6 days and 4 parks…what to do? What to do? We decided to stick with the classic first and headed to The Magic Kingdom. We caught the bus just as it was getting ready to pull away.

We entered the park in the fast lane where they digitally connected our fingerprint to our access card. Now it is all connected to our fingerprint, which means no one can steal our tickets. Cool huh? First things first, we walked down Main Street. We were not expecting to see all the Christmas decorations still up, but were so happy that we got to see them. It is beautiful during the holidays.

We made it as far as the castle before we made our first stop to watch the Dreams Come True show with Mickey. I can’t tell you how excited AJ was to see Mickey in person. He was completely enthralled by the whole program, well the first 2 minutes of it anyway. As soon as they were getting ready to introduce Mickey it started to rain and they canceled the performance and we had to move on. Hopefully we can come back later this week so AJ can see it.

Tradition says you have to have a photo like this. 

AJ was so involved he wouldn't even look away for a picture.  

 It was raining pretty hard by this point so we tried to find a few indoor rides to take advantage of. We managed to fit in one ride before dinner; Pirates of the Caribbean. AJ picked up the Yo Ho song pretty darn fast and continued to sing it the rest of the night. He did really well on the ride. The only part he got a little scared of was when the canons were being shot into the water... pretty understandable I think.

It was still down pouring. The stroller was drenched, so we carried AJ to the first restaurant we could find.

I will admit that I am not one to buy park food usually because it is so overpriced, but because of our resort deal we get to eat a lot of park food. I was very impressed with the quality of the food. I got fish and chips, Joe had a lobster roll and AJ munched off of both of us. It was very tasty and satisfying. We took the time at dinner to dry off the stroller as much as we could before moving on. We wanted to be sure to hit the Main Street Electrical Parade, so we only had a short amount of time to fill. Small World sounded like a good idea to me.

You can see how much Joe just loves this ride. 

As soon as we could find a place to enjoy the parade we sat back and enjoyed the old music and floats. AJ loved all the lights and all the characters. I was worried he was too young to enjoy himself, but after today I think he was very much ready for this DisneyWorld Adventure.  

Nubbits (my signature hairdo from a few years back) Joe pointed out that if you flip me upside-down it is a Mickey head. Very appropriate. :) 

Tink waved to us as she led the parade

We next moved into the street and found a good spot for the firework show. 

We ate a snack and giggled while we waited for the show to begin.

The castle lit up in Christmas lights is quite breathtaking.

It was fantastic! I think the shows and parades just might be my favorite thing about Disney parks. I mean, this may be the pregnancy hormones talking, but I get a little choked up each time the music begins and the first “shooting star” moves across the castle. It was beautiful. 

Waiting for the evening bus to take us back to our hotel.

I am so happy we have come on this vacation! We hope you enjoy our journey along the way as well.