February 23, 2009

Two days at Disney

The first morning at Disney started out a little rough . . . simply because Kyle and I didn't read carefully enough.

We thought that the times sheet we received upon check-in said that the "Magic Hours" (extra hours only for people staying in Disney resorts) started at 8 AM. Which was perfect, because Kristi had a 9:15 meeting, so she wasn't going to be able to meet us at 9 to get us into the park. As we were boarding the bus, we double checked the times and realized that we had read incorrectly. The park didn't open until 9. In our defense, about 90% of the other people on the bus had also read that it opened at 8 AM. So I blame Disney. Because that's easier than admitting our mistake.

So, we waited until 10:15 to meet her and get into the park. Seriously, she went to so much trouble to get us into the parks THREE separate times. We owe her A LOT.

We started at Epcot because that was easier for her to get to from her office. We went straight to the Finding Nemo ride which was really great. The entire time we rode, Jack kept saying, "Nemo! Are you?" Even after the ride, throughout the day, we'd hear him saying that every so often. We went to Turtle Talk with Crush and The Mexico Donald Duck ride after that. We ate lunch in Mexico and Jack fell asleep within minutes after getting back into his stroller. Which allowed Kyle and I to stroll through all of the Epcot countries. He slept through the rest of Epcot and the monorail ride. He woke up on the Ferry to the Magic Kingdom.

At the MK, we went straight to Fantasyland and hit the rides there. We had fast passes for Peter Pan (and eventually Winnie the Pooh), but waited in line for Dumbo and It's a Small World. He loved Dumbo, so I guess he hasn't inherited his father's fear of heights. At the end of It's a Small World, Jack kept saying "more, more" which was ironic, because Kyle and I couldn't wait until the end. Jack did pretty well in the lines, but he wanted to be held the entire time so that he could see something other than other people's mid-sections. So it was pretty hard on our arms. Every time Jack would see a car (or boat, or jeep . . . or whatever it was for any given ride) he would clap his hands and say "YAY!" And he'd be so disappointed if it wasn't our turn to get on. It was a great chance for us to talk about waiting our turn.

Somewhere in there, we went on the Jungle Safari (with a hilarious tour guide) and caught the late afternoon Block Party Parade. Jack LOVED this parade and we were so glad he was able to see Mickey and some of the other characters he could identify.

We got back to the hotel late and he went right down to bed. That night, however, he cried out several times. I was patting his back when he was crying one of the times and he kept saying, "Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse." I was SURE that we had traumatized him in some way. Who knows what he was dreaming about?! At about 5 AM, he woke up (only half way) and cried inconsolably for about 45 minutes. We still have no idea why or what caused it. It was so strange.

On Saturday, we met Kristi at the Wild Animal Kingdom and, holy cow . . . having her there saved us so much time. She knew where to go and what we should do first. We saw the Nemo musical and it was SO good. Jack loved it and he was so excited to see "Mr. Ray." It's such an obscure character from the movie, but he was constantly looking for him and said his name over and over. He's such a random kid. We went on the Kilimanjaro Safari (which they say not to do if you're pregnant, and I'm not sure why) and ended at the petting zoo . . . which wasn't all that great. But Jack liked the train ride to get there.

Kristi told us that if Jack liked the Disney afternoon parade, we should check out the 3 PM parade at Hollywood Studios. So, after the Wild Animal Kingdom we headed there for lunch and the parade. Of course, Jack fell asleep about 20 minutes before the parade, but woke up about 5 minutes into it. It was awesome, and Jack even gave Sully and Boo (from Monsters, Inc.) a high five, without bursting into tears. That's progress.

After the parade, we went to the Playhouse Disney show. After that, we visited some of the characters (Mickey Mouse and the Little Einsteins characters) and called it a day.

We had so much fun and we'll definitely be taking a trip like this in the future. In fact, we've already been looking online and pricing future trips. While Jack won't remember this trip, he had so much fun and it was fun for us to watch him experience things for the first time.

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