The Magic Kingdom

While at Disney, we spent two wonderful days inside of the Magic Kingdom. We hit the park early on our first day. Actually, we arrived before park opening on both of the days that we visited, and so we were able to see the "welcome" show twice. Seeing the characters sing and dance before we even entered the park definitely got the kids into the right mood. They were so--- excited! On our first day inside the Magic Kingdom, we got in quickly and headed straight to Tommorrowland. We rode all of the rides (that we wanted to ride) in this area in about an hour and a half. I'm not kidding. The weather kept the crowds light and the lines short all through our stay. I don't think that we waited more than 5 minutes to ride anything all week long. I was so amazed by how smoothly things went. Brian and I decided to ride Space Mountain, and we walked directly onto the coaster with absolutely no wait. I couldn't believe it- I remember being a kid and waiting for hours to ride that ride. As we were coming off Space Mountain, we saw Mickey Mouse standing in the location that we were planning to rendezvous with Granny Mel and the kids (who were riding the People Mover while we were on Space Mountain). We got our picture made with Mickey- no wait. Wow, could our whole trip possibly go like this?

Once we finished riding the rides in Tommorrowland, we proceeded to Fantasyland. Here, we also encountered a surprising lack of wait time. We rode every single ride in Fantasyland (except for Dumbo) and were done by eleven o'clock. The kids loved the rides in this area. I think that "It's a Small World" was Owen's favorite ride in the whole park. We ended up riding it twice. I liked the Pooh ride. Did you know that in the books, Pooh's house has the name Sanders above the door? -Just an interesting bit of trivia- After knocking out Fantasyland, we got a quick bite to eat. The rain turned from light sprinkle to moderate shower as we ate, so we decided to call it an early day.

When we returned to the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday, we headed straight for Dumbo- which was the only ride in Fantasyland that we didn't get to ride on the first day. After riding it, we went off to conquer Liberty Square, Frontierland, and Adventureland. Olivia was tall enough to ride Thunder Mountain and Spalsh Mountain, and she loved them both. Thunder Mountain was her first "big" coaster, and we were curious to see how well she'd do. Well, not only did she LOVE it, but she kept her hands up the entire time. She's definitely a rider! Olivia liked the coaster so much, in fact, that we ended up riding it a second time. Once again, the crowds were light, and we were able to ride everything that we wanted to ride by two o'clock. We returned to the hotel for a mid-day break and then went back to the Magic Kingdom that night. We ate dinner at Tony's, a Lady and the Tramp themed Italian restaurant that had been highly praised by the Qs. The food was fantastic, and the kids loved the theming- especially since we were staying right next to "Lady" and "Tramp" at our hotel. After eating, we saw the new night show, "The Magic, the Memories, and You" (AWESOME), and the "Wishes" fireworks show. It made for a late night, but it was worth it! I would say that we certainly experienced the "magic" of the Magic Kingdom during our trip.