Our trip to Disney World

As promised, here's a play by play of our trip to Disney World. It was an exciting and busy (and somewhat exhausting) week, that's for sure.

Thursday, May 5

Our flight from Toronto left at 7:35 a.m., meaning we had to be at the airport by 5:30 a.m., meaning my alarm went off just after 4 a.m. I know you shouldn't complain when getting up early is to go on vacation, but damn, that was early. Ryan and I got up, dressed and packed the car and then picked the kids up out of their beds and basically carried them out in their pajamas. I had packed their clothes in a carry on bag. We were on the road at 4:45 a.m.

Everything else about the morning was fairly uneventful. An easy flight (and Austin even got to check out the cockpit and sit in the pilot seat when we were disembarking), an extremely long process to get through Orlando airport (2 hours from the time we landed until the time we got our rental car) and a 20 minute drive to our hotel.

We stayed right in a Disney World resort hotel and were checked in and were finished lunch by 2 p.m. So, at that point, what else is there to do but go to Magic Kingdom!?! Afterall, we had 7-day passes that expired at the end of our week and this was Day 1.

We were at Magic Kingdom by 3 p.m. and stayed until about 7. We took the kids on a few rides, walked through Cinderella's castle (because that's the only thing Alex had been talking about doing since she found out we were going to Disney World) and had dinner before heading back to the hotel to crash for the night. Afterall, it had been a long day for everyone.

Friday, May 6

Today, we checked out Animal Kingdom. Our first ride was the safari (after waiting an hour in line). It was fun to see all the animals, but honestly, nothing we couldn't see at the Toronto Zoo. Then we headed into Dinoland to eat, play in the boneyard, ride some kid-friendly rides and meet Goofy and Pluto who happened to be hanging around. And then, Austin went on his first roller coaster -- Expedition Everest. He was just  tall enough and he loved it! It went forward, backwards, outside and inside through the dark. He didn't care. He wanted to go again. Mommy....not so much.

We all managed to ride Kali River Rapids (like White Water Canyon at Wonderland) and Austin managed to come off of it completely soaked -- and laughing his head off. Alex managed to stay fairly dry.

We ended the day by going to the Lion King show and then visiting with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy. Oh yeah, and after getting there around 10:30, we closed the park at 6.

Saturday, May 7

Today, we went to Epcot, and we started the day with a very special surprise for the kids. My parents booked a character brunch at one of the restaurants there, but, all we told the kids was that we were going to a restaurant for breakfast.

And who should we meet as we walk in the door. Belle, from Beauty and the Beast. In the pictures with Belle, Alex looks a little shell-shocked. Belle is one of her favourite princesses (the other is Cinderella) and she definitely wasn't expecting to see her!

For the next hour or so, as we ate breakfast, we were visited by Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Ariel. Both kids were in heaven and, now that I think about it, I don't think they ate very much.

After brunch, we headed out into Epcot, going from pavillion to pavillion to go on rides. My favourite ride of the day was Soarin' (where you pretend to be hand gliding), followed closely by Test Track (where you pretend to be on a car going through drive testing).

Mid-afternoon, Ryan, the kids and I ditched the park and headed back to the hotel for naps; and then made our way back to Epcot around 7 p.m., to visit a few more pavillions (Turtle Talk with Crush at The Living Seas was really cool) and then watch the Illuminations fireworks and light show at 9 p.m. Alex is afraid of fireworks, so rather than forcing her through it, Ryan, my parents and Austin watched, while Alex and I hung out inside a nearby shop.

Sunday, May 8

We started the day off at a slower pace by hitting one of the resort pools and grabbing lunch at the hotel before going to Hollywood Studios for the afternoon.

Once there, we saw the parade and a few shows (including Beauty and the Beast -- the main one Alex wanted to see). In terms of rides, we discovered there really isn't much for young kids there, so we headed back to the hotel just after dinner.

But. That night, Hollywood Studios had Extra Magic Hours (which means the park is open a few extra hours only for Disney World resort hotel guests), so Ryan, my dad and I went back to the park around 8 p.m. and rode the thrill rides (Tower of Terror (awesome), Rockin' Roller Coaster (also awesome)) among other things.

Monday, May 9

Back to Magic Kingdom today. We got off to a late start (a big no-no according to all the books, and now I know why) and it took close to an hour to get from our car, onto the tram, onto the monorail and through the main gates. Our first stop was to visit with Mickey and Minnie and then we went on a few rides before going for lunch with Tigger, Pooh, Eeyore and Piglet. Another fun lunch -- although this time we told the kids ahead of time, so they weren't quite as shell-shocked when they first saw the characters.

After lunch, we hit a few more rides (Jungle Cruise, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad), before heading back to the hotel for a few hours. We wanted both kids to nap (which they did) so that we could go back to Magic Kingdom for the Main Street Electrical Parade at 9 p.m. and fireworks at 10 p.m. (both, obviously, way past the kids bedtime).

We made it back and then, with only sort-of planning it, ran into friends (Rob, Vone, Lilo and Isla) who were in Florida at the same time, and at Disney that same day. So we watched the parade with them (which the kids loved!), had time to ride the Buzz Lightyear ride with them and then watched the fireworks together (well, except for Ryan and Alex -- who went to a nearby shop to hide from them).

After the fireworks, granddad took Austin and Alex back to the hotel (which apparently took over an hour because of the crowds trying to get out at that time) and Ryan and I stayed for Extra Magic Hours. For hotel guests, the park was open until 2 a.m. that night. We stayed until about 1 a.m. -- riding some of the rides we knew we wouldn't get to ride with the kids (Space Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, etc.) It was a fun way to spend a 'date night'.

Tuesday, May 10
After going pretty much non-stop to parks since we arrived, this morning we decided not to. (And it was a late start to the morning since the kids got to bed at midnight following the fireworks the day before and Ryan and I got back around 1:30 a.m.) So, grandma and granddad wandered around Downtown Disney with the kids while Ryan and I did a little outlet shopping.

In the afternoon, while Alex napped, granddad and Ryan ended up taking Austin over to Hollywood Studios for a couple of hours to see a few shows and grandma and I took Alex to the pool when she woke up. (Actually, she was excited because we went to two different pools that afternoon.)

Wednesday, May 11

This is our last day and we wanted to make the most of it. So, we set our alarms and were up and out the door by 8 a.m. --determined to get to Magic Kingdom before it even opened so we could get on a few rides without having to wait in line.

The plan worked, and we were able to walk right on the race cars -- and then walk off and walk right back on -- before hitting a few other rides before anything got crowded. Definitely the way to do it! The morning and early afternoon went pretty much the same, and just after 3 p.m., we found ourselves stuck behind parade lines. At first we were frustrated, trying to figure out how to get around the parade, until the parade came around the corner and the kids got super excited. So we stayed and watched. Sometimes, running into a parade isn't a bad thing.

More rides for the rest of the afternoon and around 5:45, we decided it was time to head out -- but not without one last visit to Cinderella's castle (again, because it's Alex's favourite -- Austin's favourite by the way, was Splash Mountain). But the walk through to the castle was closed for the moment. Why? Because another parade was coming by. Honestly, there must be half a dozen parades a day at Magic Kingdom! So we stayed and watched and again, the kids had a blast. This time it was the street party parade, meaning the floats stop, some of the characters get off and spectators can join them to dance in the street.

When it was done, we walked through the castle, grabbed dinner (because it was late by this time) and started to make our way out. Being our last time there though, it seemed to take awhile to make our way up Main Street and by the time we got back to our car it was 8 p.m. -- and almost 12 hour day!

Thursday, May 12

Time to go home. Really, it was a fairly uneventful day -- except for the hoops we had to jump through at the airport. First, we waited in line for almost an hour to check-in for our flight. Then the woman only issued us 3 boarding passes, insisting that Alex could sit on one of our laps (um, hello, no she can't, she's 3.) After she reissued the boarding passes, we stood in line at the security gate only to discover, when we got to the security officer, that the woman had now issued 2 boarding passes for Alex and none for Ryan, meaning he couldn't go through security. So he had to run back, have the error fixed and run back to security. We were (thankfully) whisked through security and made it to our gate with a few minutes to spare.

So that's our trip in a rather long nutshell. In the kids' eyes, I think it's going to be a hard one to top.