The Most Magical Place on Earth

 

They call it the "Most Magical Place on Earth." As a Disney first timer myself, I can say that it really is a magical place. My absolute favorite thing about the trip was seeing the pure joy on our boys' faces. This recap of the trip is more so that we don't forget all this stuff because I am sure that most of you could care less about this stuff :) So, with that disclaimer here we go:

We left on Thursday morning with just the big boys. I am so very thankful for my in-laws who came to stay with Tucker. We had originally planned to take him with us, but after some thought decided that it would be much better if he hung back on this trip. I am positive it was the right decision. It would have been very difficult to enjoy the rides and the whole experience if he were with us. We arrived to Magic Kingdom around 12:30 that day, so off we went. We didn't even try to go to the resort to check in because it was early.

We walked onto Main Street just in time for the short little parade. My boys were in heaven yelling at Mickey and waving.

We got there about an hour before our first fast pass selection, so we headed to Adventureland and did the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse and then rode the Magic Carpets. By now, our fast pass was ready to be used. Having never gone, I wanted to try and fast pass wisely, so I sort of studied the Disney app on my phone and watched wait times to see which rides had long waits and chose fast pass selections based on those. Our first pass was for the Jungle Cruise. The boys loved it.

 

Our second fast pass was for Pirates of the Caribbean, but the ride was temporarily shut down, so we headed for Dumbo. Jake got pretty good at requesting to take "selfies". Kids these days... Even the waiting for Dumbo was cool.

 

 A successful elephant ride under our belts, we headed over to the Barnstormer, the Goofy roller coaster. I was a little concerned about how Connor would do, but he loved it! We used our other Fast Pass of the day on Peter Pan's Flight which always has crazy wait times. To be honest, the boys liked this ride, but Jason and I didn't see what all the fuss was about. Daddy was really brave, and so we headed to the teacups.

 

Perhaps our favorite ride of all was the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger ride. You get two guns and a spin button to control your cart, and you shoot at all the targets. Connor and I rode together the first time, and I let him control the spin lever. Let me tell you, I don't think this ride was meant to induce nausea. With Connor at the wheel, it was a miracle there was a score on the board for me.

 

By now, it was getting later, so we headed back over to Pirates where we got to ride the ride. It was really cool, and the boys enjoyed it, too. Once again, the Fast Pass option worked great because wait times were long for this one all day. We grabbed some hotdogs in the park, ate, and decided it would be a good time to head to the hotel.

My request for the trip was that we look into places that had villas. Villas are expensive, but being on property was important to me for the ease of many things. But it was the full kitchen option that was a must for traveling with three kids (when we booked, Tucker was still coming). The last thing I wanted to do at the end of each day was fight crying, tired children and try to eat a meal myself. I used Garden Grocer to buy groceries online. I got a call around 11 am saying that my groceries were in bell services and for me to call and have them delivered when we got there. Easy peasy...We chose Kidani Village at Animal Kingdom for the reason of having villas with dates we could go. Upon arriving, we were greeted out front by a man who told us we were the "Safari of the Day." All I could think was that we were really tired. I really didn't want to safari anywhere right then. He said that as the "Safari of the Day" we were chosen to receive an upgrade to a 2 bedroom, 3 bath villa with a savanna view. This thing was 1173 square feet, y'all. I think I'll safari, after all.

We opted to do 3 days in just Magic Kingdom. When I told people this, a lot of people said that was going to be a long time in one place. For us, it was great. We didn't feel rushed, and because we weren't sure how long the boys would last we went at a pace that felt right. It turns out, the boys are troopers because we played hard!

Day 2, we were up bright and early. We opted to take our own car each day. Parking is free, and we took the tram then the monorail into the park. We never really had to wait on any of those. It worked so much better for us that way because constantly being on the move was 1000 times better than waiting on a bus. We also borrowed a friend's double umbrella stroller which was great because I didn't want to lug my giant double jogger. That would have been awful. Our first fast pass of the day was to meet Mickey. There was something quite magical about meeting Mickey - even to this 37 year old.

 

From there, we headed over to Tomorrowland where we rode the Astro Orbiter, which was scary to a mama who hates all things tall. We then raced cars where I gave Connor the wheel for the most terrifying ride of my life. Jake was with Jason, and when my little safety concerned son realized he was going to drive, he told Jason that it wasn't safe because he didn't know how to steer. Connor, however, had no such concerns. He slammed his head into the steering wheel, slung us both around the sides of the car before exclaiming that his car "was broken because it keeps bumping". Well, Connor, I hate to break it to ya buddy, but it ain't the car.

 

We did Buzz Lightyear again, and then the boys spotted Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. They freaked out and wanted to meet them. I explained we would have to stand in line, and they didn't care. Fine with me, we'll meet Tigger and Pooh. They were so excited. It was adorable. Now, for all you moms of girls, I give it to you. I would - I know I would - use some Fast Passes to meet some princesses, but I am SOOOO thankful I don't have to do that. 'Cause that just isn't my thing.

We did use a pass for the Winnie the Pooh ride, and it was a cute little ride. From there, we headed to the carousel.

We carried a backpack (and by we, I mean Jason) of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips, granola bars, and cookies into the park each day. It made lunch really easy. I usually had my backpack on with my big camera (with the exception of Saturday morning). After lunch, we managed to hit It's A Small World. The line was really short. I had a Fast Pass for it the following day, so we cancelled that and decided to do a pass for Space Mountain. Mommy and Daddy can have a little fun, can't we? We rode Dumbo again, the teacups, rode the train, and caught the Festival of Fantasy Parade. Holy cow, Disney does know how to do a parade. Jake is pretty much cash money at a parade. This child got blown kisses from various princesses, a heart drawn to him from Minnie, a pat on the head from Snow White, and various high fives from Goofy, the bird men, and others. Cash.Money...

 

We decided to wrap up the day after that and had a relaxing afternoon walking around the resort. With all our extra space, we had our friend, Ryan, who lives in Florida join us. On Saturday morning the boys were extra excited that Uncle Ryan got to come to Disney with us! We managed to get there early and ride the Barnstormer with no wait. I stuck Connor with Jason on our second go-round of the race cars. Jake even steered that time, and he did a great job. We checked wait times, and the Haunted Mansion had really short waits, so we decided to be brave and ventured over. I rode with Connor and had him face me on my lap, and I told him if he got scared to close his eyes and snuggle. He was fine as we talked about how silly the ghosts were being. Jake absolutely loved it, and he begged to do it again. We introduced Uncle Ryan to the Buzz Lightyear ride. We did Pirates of the Caribbean a second time, walked through Cinderella's castle, shot guns at the shootin' gallery, watched the Country Bear Jamboree, and we caught the Festival of Fantasy Parade again. Naps were in order because our Fast Pass selections for the day began that evening.

We returned to the park that evening. Disney is even more magical at night.

Ryan took Connor to do Buzz Lightyear again (yes, again), and Jason and I did a Rider Swap with Jake so that we could take turns riding Space Mountain. That is one cool ride :) I knew one of the things I wanted to do was the Electric Parade, so I did use a pass on that for prime seating. I stocked up on Dollar Tree glow stuff before we left home.

There was a big dance party at the Tomorrowland stage, so the crew had to jump in and join.

We rode Peter Pan's Flight again, and we had time to kill so we did Mickey's Philharmagic. This was really pretty fun. It's a 3D movie of Donald Duck featuring the songs of Disney movies. The boys cracked me up reaching for all the stuff. After that, we headed over to our spots for the parade and fireworks.

We got back to our hotel that night around 11pm. Our children have never been up that late, and you know what, they survived :) Connor told Ryan that it was beautiful, and I couldn't have agreed more. We left on Sunday morning after having breakfast at the Frontier Lodge to return to "real life". I was sad to leave, I must say, and I can't wait until the next time we get to visit "The Most Magical Place on Earth."