Disney Day One

Thursday 1st March 2012

Huffle and I got up around 7:30. The boys were already up and dressed (all by themselves). We packed our breakfast of toasted bagels and drove the hour and half journey to Disney.

This is the first sign we saw of anything Disney. A Mickey Mouse shaped pylon.

There was much excitement. Every time we saw a Disney Sign the boys shouted out the words six times. This happened quite a lot as there were many signs.

This was their EXCITED faces

We parked up in the Simba Car Park. We had to pay to park. We got on the land train with the happy happy smiley people telling us that we were on the way to Magic Kingdom and where we were parked and to definitely have a nice day.

We paid for our day. We had two choices to get to Magic Kingdom. Via monorail or boat. We chose boat (although this was the much slower form of transport but possibly more magical because you could see the Castle getting closer and closer - actually I chose the boat but then says kept telling me we could have got there much quicker by Monorail and that we would not be doing that AGAIN!)

Went over to Guest Elations and picked up our '1st Visit' badges and 'Happy Birthday Huffle' Badge. The point of the badges is to notify the Cast Members (Staff) of various celebrations. Mr Gator checked online and found that the badges available were Happy Birthday, 1st Visit, Family Reunion (we were going to have that one for Day 2) Celebration, Wedding etc. Whenever a cast member sees a birthday badge they are supposed to say "Happy Birthday". We decided to count how many times he got a "Happy Birthday".

Walked along main Street, past the castle and through to Fantasy Land. By the time we got here it was about 11:00.

We saw a sign for Winnie the Pooh's Big Adventure and as I am Pooh's biggest fan we decided to start with this ride (plus there was only a small queue). We were ushered into a cinema and there we saw a 4D movie called Mickey's Philharmagic. It was a surprise as we thought it was a ride but it was a really good 3D short film. Donald Duck was the star and he travelled through various Disney films. It ended with Donald's bottom through back of cinema. The boys really liked this and the 3D was that good that I could see the boys trying to catch things as they floated past.

Then we went on the Peter pan ride. We should have fast passed this because there was a really long queue. Certain rides have a Fast Pass option where you can put your tickets through the machine and it tells you when you can skip to the front of the queue. I.e. you fast pass it and a ticket comes out to say you can return within 12:20 and 13:20. Really useful if used properly. Peter Pan ride was okay. It took you through and over the streets and seas of Peter Pan World. The boys really liked this one.

We had dinner at Pinocchios place which was passable.

We then went on 'It's a Small small world' - Massive but fast moving queue (no fast pass here) it was a boat ride around the world depicting different nationalities. Very good - very stereotypical. The boys really really liked this. It is the original ride of the park so was one we had to go on despite the fact they played "it's a small small world la la la la laaaaa" all the way round - I think I am still singing it.

It WAS happy!

Very shiny and sparkly

We fast passed the Winnie the pooh ride. And whilst waiting we went on the carousel. This was a normal horse carousel ride. We all got to sit on a horse and we sat in a row. It wasn't a long ride. The boys liked this one too. Small said he won!!

We got on the Winnie the Pooh ride. Boy it was fast. I tried to take photos but it was like they had speeded the ride up. I tried to take photos but it was too fast to snap. I was convinced they made it faster because of the huge queue. I was disappointed. But I got some lovely photos outside after the ride. For people who have to queue normally there is a lot of things for the kids to do while they are waiting (which is a really good idea). Rabbits garden, Poohs house, eeyores stick house. Lots of interactive things for them. We almost lost Small here as he got a bit too excited and kept running off. (Yes Small not Smallest!).

We walked through to Tomorrow land. This was a land full of things in the future. A little bit dated in some areas we felt. We Fast passed The Buzz Lightyear ride.

We carried on to Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. There wasn't much of a queue and we got in the waiting area quite quickly. Smallest wanted to go to the toilet so I ran out with him and left Huffle and Small inside. By the time we got back the doors were closed. We queued up again but we were there for so long we got bored and came out and sat in the sunshine to wait. It was really hot.

Huffle's view of the Monsters Inc was that it was an interactive stand up comedy show. They used a camera to zoom in on members of the audience and made them entertain the rest of the crowd. Huffle thought it was one of the weaker rides/shows there overall. Small said it was good and he liked the fact that all the aliens were there and they were speaking to the crowd. Huffle did say he was impressed that the voices were not recorded and had to respond to the audiences different interaction.

We saw chip n dale and queued to get photos with them. The Disney characters are distributed around the parks between certain times and there is ALWAYS a queue, some large some small. We sent Hufffle off to get us ice-creams as it was very hot. The boys were very happy to get their photos with Chip n Dale. This was their first of many! Our ice cream was whippy (Huffle and I never ever eat whippy ice-cream, maybe we are snobs, maybe we don't like the chemicals used or the fact they use powder and tubes........!!!!! Oh I could go on and on and on, but I won't. We needed an ice-cream and that's all we could find at the time.

We went on the Buzz ride where we got to shoot things while the ride went through a series of chambers. Huffle won (think it was rigged myself as Smallest beat me!!!!!!)

We went on the People mover which looked like a tame mono rail ride but was actually really good and took us through an aerial view of all the rides in tomorrow land. We felt they could have done this in the other parts too.

We walked back to Main street and happened upon a Parade. We tried to put ourselves in the shade next to a bin but we were ushered away as "Bins can cause a Health and Safety Hazard" said a cast member! I dared to question him but Huffle pulled me away. We got in a good position to watch the parade.

I loved these little statues

First we saw Mickey and Minnie up high on a float. Walking alongside was Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Chip n Dale.

We saw Lilo and Stitch. Woody and Jesse. Smallest sat on Huffle's shoulders so he could see better. Smallest was waving furiously but got upset because he wanted to 'high five' the characters. We watched Pinocchio, Aladdin, Genie, Mad Hatter, Cinderella. When Smallest got really upset because no one waved, we walked along to frontier land where it was less busy - Huffle pointed at Smallest a lot so the characters finally waved and spoke to him. He was so much happier. Huffle says it is hard for him as he still thinks the world revolved around Him. There were many children there all wanting the same attention. Small was happy just to be there and see everything and get the occassional nod or smile from them.

While in Frontier Land we went on Splash mountain. This was a log flume with a difference. It took you round lots of twisty turns and then a few small drops. We had watched this from outside and knew that there was a really big drop at the end of this ride, but I stupidly thought that because we kept dropping bit by bit, they might have forgotten the big drop at the end. Oh No, it was still there. Very steep, almost vertical drop. We got wet. The boys absolutely loved this ride.

We took the Railroad to main street where another parade was going on. Small and Smallest got to see and dance with Goofy, Woody, Mr Incredible and Donald. I was a bit of a pushy Mum here and forced the boys into the paths of the characters. I wasn't going to let them get upset because they didn't feel part of it. They normally rope off the roads so you can't get near them but obviously in the last parade they let some people in. We got in. We were all part of the parade for a while. We carried on watching the rest of the parade and Smallest was very happy when the Genie pointed at him and gestured. Small said he was granting them both three wishes.

Smallest was amazed at how small Mr Incredible's pants were!

The boys picked up loads of confetti. Smallest only picked up gold ones though.

We saw Winnie the Pooh and Tigger and got our photos taken. (Made my day).

We found a shop called 'Hall of Champions' and Huffle asked a man to take our photo underneath it. (Our name being Hall!!). We walked over the Adventure Land and rode on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. This was mainly dark (in light and in subject) but the boys thought it was fabulous. They love the films and when the ride ended through the gift shop, they were more than happy. They tried on the Jack Sparrow hats.

We climbed up the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. I really liked this because you got really high and got a really good view of some of the park and rides. There were some lovely trees and plants and it was set out really well. It was based on the film (which I did see but was so ong ago I can't remember a lot about it now). Basically you just climbed the stairs round lots of trees where the families living quarters were. Half way round we heard a man asking when the ride started. His wife started laughing and told him we were on it. It wasn't a ride. He was horrified! We had told the boys we were having one last ride and Smallest was very disappointed. He thought we had wasted our last ride! We agreed we could have one more last ride and we chose Aladdins Carpet Ride although the queue was quite long.

Small and Smallest got to ride at the front and Smallest agreed that Small could control the carpet making us go up and down. Huffle and I got to sit in the back. A camel spat at us (in a nice squirty way) each time we went round. Huffle got most of the wet though. Smallest got upset because although he agreed Small could control it, he didn't realise how much fun it would be. He was very tired by this point. We thought we would be able to get back for a reasonable time but it was hard to leave.

We had sandwiches and cakes in the Bakery on Main Street (very nice).

Huffle managed to get 20 cast members to say 'Happy Birthday' to him.

It was a truly Magical day.

We went back on the Monorail and drove home. It was quite late and I told the boys if they fell asleep they would get an extra ride the following day. They both fell asleep quite quickly.

They loved it and couldn't wait to go back.

When we got home poor Eric was being sorted with new bandages. He was a sorry sight. He kept whimpering. Bless him.

Another busy day tomorrow and my legs and feet hurt!!!!!!