Disney Trip 2014 - Day 2: The Magic Kingdom, Part 1

The first day at our first park.  After a long night and going to bed late, you would expect the kids to sleep in, right?  I mean it vacation after all, that's what you do; sleep in.  Well my kids did not get the memo.  And as you remember from the previous posting, Nate's goal is to make sure I have the least amount of sleep as possible.  So he was up at 6:30, and proceeded to wake everyone else up too.  We are bagels in our room for our breakfast, to keep costs down.  And I knew within an hour of eating they would be hungry again anyway so why spend $100 on a meaningless Disney breakfast.  Untoasted, chewy bagels would suffice. 

We got to the bus by 8:00 and were at the Magic Kingdom park by 8:45.  We were able to catch he "opening of the park" which is really cool to watch through Nate's eyes.  There were so many singing and dancing cartoon characters.  And I am not talking about Mickey.  There were humans dressed up in 1940's gear who were so animated and cheesy.  Through their fake smiles, I could tell they were thinking, "Its just a job."  "Gotta make it till 5."  "Its this or the IHOP."  and "I love this...a little too much."  See the pictures as proof.

The boys looking at Mr and Mrs. Cheese.

Everyone was kind of confused about what we were watching.

Finally Mickey and his pals came in on a train and I loved watching Nate more than the characters as he waved and waved.  So cute. 

Lots of waving.

We even got Nate to smile!

 

Ok just 1 picture of Nate smiling.  We have 10 others like this one.

 

After the opening of the park, its was business time.  No more messing around with enjoying ourselves at "the most magical place of Earth."  It was go time.  Because its also "the most crowded place on Earth."  We split into 2 teams; one younger kids and one older kids.  The older kids headed for Space Mountain and the young ones went to Fantasy Land to ride Dumbo.  I was with Drew and Zachary in the older group and after Space Mountain, reviews were mixed.  We were not sure how they would handle roller coasters but now we knew.  Zachary stated "It was awesome but I don't want to do it again" and Drew initially said to me secretly "I did not like it, Daddy."  But after hearing his cousins rant and rave, he turns to them and screams, "It was awesome!"  My nephew Luke said to his dad, "I thought I was going to die."  And later confessed he had said a prayer while on it because he was so scared. 

Next we took the older boys to Haunted Mansion and it freaked Zachary out.  He was so scared he kept backing up and trying to leave the ride and as any good parent would do... I kept pushing him deeper and deeper in and telling him he was going to do it.  He did and afterward told me "that was my favorite ride, well at least the beginning was, in the queue."  You know the time when I was forcing him to go through with it.

We met up with the rest of the group and did "Its a small world" all together.  Now 4 years ago, when Zachary was 4 this was his favorite ride.  We went on it 3 times because he loved it so much.  (I almost jumped overboard on the second time and attempted to impale myself on a puppet sword the third time through).  So naturally I thought this would be Nate's favorite because he is now 4 as well.  Afterward when we joked about doing it again, he turns to me and says "I do NOT want to do that again, Daddy."  And started to throw a tandrum until we assure him we were just joking.  Then for the rest of the day, every time we passed by, he would make a point to tell me he was NOT doing that ride again.

All 18 of us at Mickey's PhilharMagic in 3D.

At the most Magical place of Earth.....

...Drew finds something to complain about.

After a could more rides we planned on returning back to the resort after lunch to take naps.  But as you know, after lunch is the time when kids get sleepy and we still had a 45 minute bus ride ahead of us.  The perfect time for one of the kids to pull the famous "I'll sleep in the car for 15 minutes and effectively negate the 2 hour nap you had planned for me once we get home."  Oh no, here we go.

Stay tuned for Part 2,
The Joyful and Tired Dad