Disney – The most magical place on earth

I am not going to bore you with a full run down of our seven days at Walt Disney World. I promise. And when I promise something I never go back on that promise. Oh sorry, I was channeling Rapunzel for a moment. Who, incidentally, we met. And hugged. And got an autograph from. I think Ryan was more excited than the girls.  But let me start at the beginning.

Our family went with another family – The Tilleys – whom we’ve known for at least 10 years. We met Jason and Heidi pre-children when we all lived in Virginia. We share a love for food, games, and traveling. We spent the night at each other’s houses even when we only lived a few miles apart because we’d stay up so late playing games.

As we added children (we had our firsts three weeks apart) it just added to the fun. When they asked us what we thought of a joint Disney trip, we said ABSOLUTELY!

Here is Henry going over the ground rules before we left for the park the first day. Things like “It’s your job to watch the parents, not ours to watch you. Don’t wander off. Always know where we are.”  Or “If you get lost, stay where you are. Don’t wander off to find us. We’ll come back to the last place we saw you. Find a cast member and tell them our cell phone number (we labeled the little kids on the backs of their shirts).”  “There’s going to be lots of things you want, you won’t get them all. No whining.” You know, the important stuff.

Then we headed over to the Magic Kingdom. The Tilleys took their two oldest a few years ago, but really only their eldest, Camryn, remembered much. She was 4 at the time. Our kids have never been. ALL the kids liked what they saw.  My girls were especially enthralled with Cinderella’s castle.

This show plays about every hour it seems!  I thought it was great timing that it was starting as we arrived that first day but after being in the Magic Kingdom for 3 of the 7 days, I realized it’s almost always on. Cool beans. Our kids loved it so much they watched it at least 3 more times. Ainsley said it was her favorite thing on the first day.

Throughout the seven days we rode a ton of rides. Some of the favorites for the older crowd were Tower of Terror, Aerosmith, Everest, Splash Mountain, and Space Mountain. All the kids liked The Carousel of Progress, which I remembered from my childhood, and just goes to show that some things are timeless. They also loved the People Mover…. no glitz and glam, just a pleasant train ride through Tomorrowland. Ryan loved the Buzz Lightyear ride in the Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland. My favorite ride was Soarin’ – an IMAX/simulator ride at Epcot. I must say though that being 35 weeks pregnant I didn’t ride anything more exotic than the Dumbo ride and the white water rafting boats at Animal Kingdom. Even the tea cups were pretty tame when you don’t spin your individual cup. Earl Gray anyone?

We met lots of characters… got pictures and autographs. The kids were at the perfect stages for this. I wasn’t sure if Ryan would be scared or Natalie skeptical, but they were all three excited. She knew the animal characters were in costume, but she really believed the princesses were the actually princesses. She said, “See mom, I told you they were real people!”

We rode the carousel, even though we can ride one in Pittsburgh. Why? Because the line was short and you could practically walk right on. And they’re fun. Ryan’s face proves it.

My two favorite pictures from the whole week are of us on the People Mover…. the boys

… and the girls.

We hit all the night- time must-do’s…. the electric parade (if you stand over by splash mountain, you can get a pretty good view… it’s less crowded. And by the time the crowd disperses and you walk over toward Main St. you get there in time to see the fireworks.

Like I said, the fireworks…. we even had a great view of Tinkerbell flying down from the castle into Tomorrowland.

We also saw the show Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and all I can say is WOW!  It was amazing. It’s a mix of movie montages (projected onto a wall of water), characters/scenes floating by on boats, and live action on a stage shaped like a mountain. It was absolutely amazing.

This pretty much recaps our whole week… in one little nutshell. We had fabulous moments and not so fabulous ones but overall it was a great vacation. I might put together a post of our highlights for those planning to go, and how we planned out the logistics of our days. Already I’ve had some questions from friends. If you think that’d be helpful let me know.

Now we are back in the land of reality…. came home to cold weather and even snow! And now on to planning Thanksgiving, Christmas and a the arrival of this baby girl. Life never stops, does it?!