Our last day of vacation was spent at Magic Kingdom. It was a warm, sunny, beautiful day and was an absolute blast! The whole Disney thing can be a bit overwhelming and Magic Kingdom was probably the most overwhelming park of all! So many things to do and so large! We really didn't know what we were doing when we got there, so we just followed the crowds. The shuttle bus doesn't leave you off at the park entrance, so we followed the masses to the monorail, traveled on it further, got off and then made our way to the actual park entrance. We got there just in time to see all the characters up top at the train station for the daily opening welcome ceremony.
The maps and on-line planning were great, but we found that you really just need to experience Magic Kingdom in order to really figure it out. We did know that we wanted to ride the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, the newest roller coaster and headed there first to hopefully avoid longer lines later in the day. It was still the longest line we waited in (30-40 min) but didn't seem that bad since there were things to do and play with all through the line - tough to keep kids moving at times. This was the first time the kids had ever been on a roller coaster and they loved it! They were ready for any and all thrilling rides. They also enjoyed the Tomorrowland Speedway - being able to drive their own cars while Mom and Dad pressed the pedals. I'm still getting a hard time for bumping into the guy in front of Ava and I a couple of times though...
One of Blaine's favorite rides was the Buzz Lightyear Space Range Spin. He loved being able to shoot the "Z's" with the laser gun and score points.
We had tons of fun on all the rides - including the Aladin Magic Carpet ride where the kids could make us fly higher or lower or tip forward. They especially loved the spitting camel by this ride and had fun trying to fly us so that the camel spit missed us:)
I tried to get a nice picture while waiting in line for the Goofy Barnstormer ride, but Ava obviously preferred a silly picture (as she did many times this day!).
The kids talked Daddy into a boost a couple of times throughout the day. Blaine got the prime seat to watch the Festival of Fantasy Parade and Ava found her way up there to watch the Dance Party later.
We loved the Festival of Fantasy parade! The floats and characters and dancers were awesome!!! As a bonus, we got to see all of the Disney characters without waiting in line for a personal meet and greet. The kids were perfectly happy just to observe the characters and not have to personally meet them - whether at the parade or throughout the park. The line to meet Anna and Elsa was 1-1 1/2 hours all day long, so I was glad that Ava was satisfied to just watch them in the parade!
The nightly Electrical Parade was another sight to behold! We didn't have quite as good of a view, so both kids ended up on our shoulders while we peered over the crowd. Awesome floats all lit up and fun! After the parade, we watched the amazing light show projected onto the castle. Scenes, characters and designs depicting many different Disney movies. And then the nightly fireworks - better than any Independence Day shows around here!
We got to the park at opening and didn't leave until 9:30 at night as it was closing. It was a long, tiring day but I was extremely impressed that the kids didn't whine or complain at all throughout the day! We were all pooped at the end of the day and both kids fell asleep on the bus back to the hotel and we ended up carrying them up to our room. It truly was a magical experience - we were extremely impressed with how all the Disney parks and attractions operated. Everything was immaculately clean, every employee was cheerful and helpful and there were people to help you everywhere you turned. Top notch! But we also learned that everything connected to Disney is also very expensive, so you do pay for that service:) We would love to go again sometime but hard to tell if that will ever happen - fortunate to have gone this once at least!
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