We arrived early to the Magic Kingdom, in time to see Mickey Mouse and his entourage arrive by train to open the park. There was MM-shaped confetti and singing. I have to admit my eyes were not dry.
First thing, we hit up all the rides in Fantasyland: Dumbo (twice); Peter Pan (two or three times);
Mary Poppins's carousel (three times); Snow White's Scary Adventures;
the tea cups (twice);
and Winnie the Pooh. Unfortunately, Small World was closed for refurbishment, which is a shame since that's one of the songs the girls can sing and therefore relate to, and who knows how they're going to change the ride (for the worse?). And I hate to tell you, BB was very over-stimulated and kind of a b-r-a-t the whole time.
Then we made our way over to Tomorrowland, where we drove on the Speedway;
rode on the Astro Orbiter; the People Mover; the Carousel of Progress;
and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (three times). Drew also took G on Space Mountain, which she loved (and made Drew sick to his stomach).
At lunchtime, we rode the train around the entire MK on the way back to the hotel, where we were supposed to take naps but went swimming instead. About this time, our camera decided to go kaput due to too much (Panama City) sand intake. In other words, sand and electronics don't mix, so there's no pictures of the rest of our evening, in which we had an early dinner, and then back to the MK for more rides – Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tiki Room, Swiss Family Tree House, Haunted Mansion – and the Wishes fireworks show at the closing of the park.
Some notes about the rides:
- G loved Splash Mountain. BB, however, didn't make the minimum height requirement – she was about an inch too short –, so she was quite bitter about not getting to ride.
- Drew was disappointed at how much Jack Sparrow dominates the Pirates now.
- The Tiki Room has been ruined by the introduction of that annoying bird from Aladdin.
- Drew and I were glad to see that they returned the tree house back to the Swiss Family – for a few years there, it was the Tarzan tree house, which was a super let down for us.
- Surprisingly, the girls loved the Haunted Mansion, mainly because a funny ghost sat next to Daddy during the ride. I was unable to accompany them on these last few rides because I became convinced that I had misplaced my wallet somewhere in the park, so I had to run here and there inquiring about it. Thankfully, we found it in M's car seat when we finally returned to the car.
