It’s official. I am not a Disney fan. Today we went to Disney’s Magic Kingdom. I was still optimistic when we arrived just after the park opened at 9am. We parked and took the parking lot shuttle to the entrance. Once through we boarded a boat to take us to the park.
The castle was an awesome sight and I was very happy to FINALLY be able to take our children to Disney. When we were walking down “Main Street, USA”, I wanted a photo in front of the Castle and there were plenty of Disney’s photographers to do just that. I said “Come on. Let’s get a family photo in front of the castle.” Jason made a comment about how they were going to charge us a lot of money and we had our own camera. Sigh. He gets that from Mike. So we found a really nice woman on the sidewalk who did a great job for free.
We started out in Tomorrowland where we grabbed a fast pass to Space Mountain before heading over to the Tomorrowland Speedway. Jason drove Mike and Sam drove me. Mike said Jason isn’t allowed to get a driver’s license…ever.
Next we cashed in our Fast Pass and rode the dark space mountain roller coaster. From there we shot aliens in Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.
The lines were not bad due to the time of year. We took an elevator up to Astro Orbiter where the kids again controlled the ride only this time we went up and down in spaceships as we went in a circle.
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| Standing in line. |
Before departing Tomorrowland we watched the Monster, Inc. Laugh Floor show. It was just ok but we did enjoy a few laughs.
We left Tomorrowland and crossed over to Adventureland where we wandered through the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Sadly, the kids had no idea about Swiss family shipwrecked in the East Indies. Looks like we need a family movie night to watch this fifty year old Disney movie and bring the kids up to speed.
The kids saw the Magic Carpets of Aladdin ride and jumped into line while Mike and I found a comfy spot to sit and wait. People watching at Disney is a lot of fun. We might have been having more fun than the kids at this ride.
Even though we had expected to spend a lot of money on meals at Disney, our experience in Epcot was just too much for all of us. When we picked up dinner the night before, we also grabbed some Lunchables for the kids, an Oscar Meyer sandwich kit for me and a deli sub for Mike. Combined with string cheese, cut up apples and juice boxes we had a wonderful lunch.
Recharged, we went on the Jungle Cruise (cheesy but relaxing), Pirates of the Caribbean and the WDW Railroad which took us on a ride around the park. I expected it to be a nice way to see the whole park but it was actually hidden behind things and was just a way to get back to front of the park.
Next up, Splash Mountain in Frontierland. It was nice out but not warm. We did hesitate, considering it was a water ride. How wet would we really get?
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| We didn't purchase any of the photos taken on the rides but we did find that we could take a photo of the screens and still capture the memory. Yes, I was on the ride... that is me behind J hiding in my black sweatshirt so I wouldn't get splashed. |
How wet would we get? Turns out… really wet. Sam was soaked, especially her yoga pants. We went into the restroom at the ride exit… no hand dryers. Seriously!?! Sam went into the handicap stall to take off her pants and I went into the gift shop. Not that I wanted to spend way too much on clothes, but I wanted a dry happy girl. There were t-shirts, no bottoms. OMG! I was in shock. What a missed sales opportunity for Disney. I went back to the bathroom and grabbed wads of paper towels and tried to press the water out of her pants with the palms of my hands. By this time Sam was over it. She wasn’t upset, but she was ready to just leave. She was fine with that idea but I wasn’t about to walk out of a park I had paid a grand to get into. (FYI – it was technically $962.63 for our family of four for five day non-park hopper tickets using the DOD employee discount.) I was determined to get Sam dry and stay in the park. After doing my best with the paper towels, I handed her pants off to Mike who took them into the sun.
It was probably 45 minutes later when we were back on our way. We wandered through Liberty Square but none of the attractions caught our interest. Fantasyland was the last section of the park to visit. This section was for the littlest kids. Jason and Samantha only rode the Prince Charming Regal Carrousel. All that work to dry out here pants for one ride. Oh well. Of the 32 attractions, we got our fill on just 12.
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| Chi-Chi in Fantasyland |
For being the happiest place on earth, there were quite a few people not smiling. Not upset, just not really looking like they were having the time of their life. I thought there would be characters walking around but there weren’t. They were only at “character greeting” locations. We could get a glimpse if we strained to see past the crowded queue zigzagged through metal rails. Our kids were too old to want to see the characters but at their age they had the patience to wait. I felt bad for the little kids in those long lines.
Other than less than thrilled patrons, I was also surprised by the less than thrilled employees. Given Disney’s reputation, I expected big smiles. Employee after employee looked like they didn’t want to be there. I guess that was fair, us either.
We were out of the park around 4pm. Even though we don’t have any desire to go back, we still had a pretty great day being together.
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