About a Joy: Walt Disney World Family Vacation: Magic Kingdom

Day 1: Magic Kingdom

We woke up super early so that we could get to the park before it opened and beat the crowds. I've found that people are divided on this issue. Some say sleep in and go later so that you can stay later. Others say go early so that you can enjoy the park and get on a few rides before it gets crowded and the lines get long. I say go early. Unless you want to sleep in.

There's a little enclosed waiting area near the hotel room we had. This is where you board the bus that will take you the theme park. If you will take a minute to look at Evan's shoes... we bought them the day we left for Disney in order to increase his height so that he could ride Space Mountain. We're so smart.

There weren't many people at Magic Kingdom yet when we arrived.

I think maybe the guy in the red hat was a bit suspicious of my frantic picture taking. Listen red hat guy, this was my first visit! You won't have this picture as a memory so ha!

When we entered the park I teared up a bit. Mainly because I didn't have to suck in to squeeze around people and navigate my way down main street.

But when we saw the castle, that's when I thought I should probably just move here. I'm sure there's an apartment over one of the shops they can put me in.

We aren't Disney worshipers like some crazies on this planet, but we still had to have our family picture taken in front of the castle. We didn't purchase the Disney Memory Maker package -which purchases all of the photos that Disney staff members take of you. So I asked a nice lady who was standing near us if she would take our picture with our camera. I was pretty disappointed when I looked at the pictures later and saw that she only got half of the castle in the picture. So I hunted her down and spit my gum right in front of her shoe so she stepped on it. Just kidding. (Did you know you can't buy gum at Disney World?)

I actually returned the favor and took a picture of her family and I'm not sure if I got the whole castle in the picture either, so maybe we're even.

There were several rides that had no line or wait time when we got there so we chose to make the most of our opportunity and get on those ones right away. First was the tea cup ride. Jason couldn't do this one because he can't do spinny things. That's why when we get into arguments I start running in circles around him so that he leaves me alone and starts throwing up instead.

Next was the Dumbo ride and we were the only one's on it. If I could rent out Magic Kingdom for a day, this set up would be ideal.

Tomorrowland has a speedway where go-carts are available to drive.

I let Dawson drive our car and Jason let Evan drive his.

Allowing children to drive parents around mechanical tracks can actually be terrifying. Dawson turned out to be a horrible driver. He and Evan were swerving all over the track. Now I'm prepared for Driver's Ed.

Our first Fast Pass was for Space Mountain.. and the ride was down. So we sat and ate a Mickey pretzel with cheese dip. I didn't get a picture of the Mickey pretzel, but I can tell you it's sort of like salted cardboard. I guess I'm a solid Auntie Anne's pretzel fan which means all other pretzels are jell-o to my creme brulee (movie quote).

While we sat and ate, Space Mountain became functional again. On our walk over to the ride, Dawson had talked himself into a panicked frenzy because he had been told the ride was dark and he wasn't sure his senses were capable of said terror. So in order to calm him, I told him he could wear my AppleWatch, This way he could have light at any time by tapping on it. Yeah. I'm mom of the century. I didn't realize how much he relied on this comfort technique until I saw our ride picture at the end.

Speaking of ride pictures. Disney took 77 pictures of us at some point through our 3 days of theme parks. Most of those were pictures taken on rides. If you look at the round Mickey button between Touch O Below in the picture above, you'll see that it's lit up. If you scan your magic band by touching it to the Mickey button, that picture will be available on Disney's photo website for purchase. That being said, we have approximately 10 pictures of people on rides that we don't know because Evan wanted to scan his magic band every time there was an opportunity.

There wasn't a huge wait time for the Buzz Lightyear ride so we headed that way.

After we emerged from shooting up Zurg related objects it was as though the earth vomited a Mickey eared mass of people equivalent to the entire U.S. population into the Magic Kingdom. The place was crowded. Thus began the day of random melt downs among us all. It was hot, muggy and filled to capacity now.

Evan pouted first.

We decided to take the train over to FrontierLand to catch our next FastPass ride which was Thunder Mountain.

I can't even remember what he was mad about. Probably that the train was red and he wanted it to be blue. Who knows.

Thunder Mountain was one of my favorite rides.

We ate lunch in FrontierLand at Pecos Bills and walked to Liberty Square to ride the Haunted Mansion. We had to wait in the stand-by line for this one which was miserably long. Well. It was only miserable because we had children. I suggest bringing 55" flat screen tv's with you to pass the time so that your toddler will love life during this time.

From here we walked to Fantasyland and waited in the peasant line for the Small World ride. It was during this wait time that Jason texted Olivia to ask if we were allowed to leave the park and go back to our resort and come back to Magic Kingdom later that night when our fastpass for the Seven Dwarfs ride was ready at 8:00. Yeah. We were that done.

Something about this ride gave us new life (perhaps the constant repetition of the song "It's a Small World", which surely has entered your mind now and won't leave until you sleep tonight).

So we managed to stick around. We searched for an air conditioned show where we could sit. We waited in a short line to see Mickey's PhilharMagic Show which was 3D and we got squirted with water too. I had snacks in my backpack that I doled out while we waited in line and Evan and Dawson just plopped themselves down.

After this, we walked to Adventureland and visited the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse

Saw a show in the Enchanted Tiki Room

And we rode the Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride but I was too tired to take a picture.

The evening was winding down now, so we headed back to Fantasyland to grab something to eat before our FastPass time for the Seven Dwarfs Mine ride. Evan was really a trooper by the time we sat down to eat. He was tired but getting his second wind.

We each devoured a chocolate covered Mickey rice krispy treat. But it wasn't my favorite. Before you think I'm a Disney food hater, I had some treats at HollyWood Studios that I really liked so calm down zippy!

I wish we could have gotten a FastPass for the Seven Dwarfs Mine ride earlier in the day. But we closed out our Magic Kingdom ride experience with this one.

The highlight of our day at Magic Kingdom turned out to be the fireworks show at the castle at the end. We were actually going to skip it because it was super crowded and the boys couldn't see the castle over the tall people in front of us. But the show.is.phenomenal. So I'm glad we stayed.

I had to hoist Evan up on my shoulders so that he could see which caused my swollen legs and feet some great discomfort. Yeah, I'm mom of the world.