Disney -- Day 1

I know this is going to be the first of many blogs about our trip to Disney World. In a word, the trip was FANTASTIC! Really, we all had a great time. The parks were full, but not awful. Don't get me wrong, there were a lot of people there, but it didn't stop Team Graham from having fun. Just some back-story for you...

Last year, we found out that Disney was offering a great deal to military families to go to Walt Disney World. (WDW) We had planned on waiting a few more years before going because we felt like Davis was still too little to really enjoy it. However, with the added incentive of it being cheaper (not cheap; Disney is NOT cheap!) and the fact we could save all year to go, we decided last January that we were going to go this Christmas. Jasen began the hard work of budgeting to save for the trip and I tried really hard not to completely blow the budget each month!! We made reservations at Shades of Green, a Department of Defense-owned resort on WDW property, where we stayed cheaper than we could have stayed anywhere else.

We left on Friday, the 18th. The trip was only 6 1/2 hours, which wasn't too bad. Once we got there, we bought our tickets and decided not to go to a park that evening, because we would have had only a couple of hours to play. The kids were sad, but went to bed dutifully, knowing they would be blown away the next day. Aren't they sweet, all tucked in their bed? We were pleasantly surprised at how well they slept together.The next day, we were up and at 'em early. We had breakfast in the room, then grabbed the shuttle bus to Magic Kingdom. YEA!! I think I was more excited than the kids when I spied Cinderella's castle from the ferry we took from the Ticket and Transportation Center. (TTC) Once we got to the Magic Kingdom, the race was on!! And I do mean race! We went to Space Mountain and pulled our fast passes. A fast pass meant you didn't have to wait in the long line, you could come back at a certain time and get right on the ride. Those things are a God-send and Jasen called them our "golden tickets." In some cases, they certainly felt like it! Amazing!

Instead of listing off when we rode our rides, I'll just list the ones we hit that morning: Peter Pan's Flight, Snow White's Scary Adventures, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and the Mad Tea Party teacups. We also saw the Mickey Philharmagic show.

Every character we spotted made us ooooh and aaaaah! We didn't wait in line for photo ops with the random characters we spotted on the street, because we had character dinners lined up to meet them all. That day, we went to lunch at the Crystal Palace, where Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore came by to visit. Too cool!!

After lunch, we rode Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and Stitch's Great Escape. We also went to the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor Show, which was great, but the kids were mad they weren't in the show. Davis also rode his first roller coaster, the Barnstormer. He told me it was scary, but he liked it. He was very brave on all the bigger rides he tried. Grace was our real daredevil. She rode EVERYTHING! More on that later. Also, Davis got to meet his hero, Buzz. It's so neat to watch your kids meet their favorites. At first, Davis was timid with Buzz. But when our turn was over, Jasen had to coax Davis away.

After that, we toured the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, the boys saw The Tiki Room show and the girls did some shopping. Then we jumped on the Pirates of the Carribean ride. That was the only time I thought we were going to have to make Davis ride something. He was so freaked out about seeing the mean pirates! He rode the whole ride with his hands literally covering his eyes. We tried to get him to take them down, but he wanted no part of it!

We rode the Jungle Cruise that day, too. FYI, Jasen is now thinking he wants to go work at Disney after he retires. He said he could really be happy, just going and pushing a button to send people off on a ride. Me? I see him more as a character dress-up person (Jedi Knight, anyone?), but whatever he wants. Of course, then I think back to his other post-retirement ideas: Circle K manager, junior high teacher, school administrator, etc. and I know things can change!

After a quick dinner, Grace and Jasen discovered what I think was Grace's favorite ride: Splash Mountain. Now, it was pretty chilly while we were in Orlando. We wore jackets almost every day and blue jeans. It was almost cold. As you can guess, there was no line at Splash Mountain and I think that's why Grace liked it!! Davis and I shopped a little while they rode that water ride. I am NOT a fan, even in the hottest weather!

After that, it was time for the Spectro-Magic parade. It was so cool!! The lights were just amazing. We all finally got our ears on, too. I don't know if you can tell, but Jasen's and Grace's Santa hats have Mickey and Minnie ears on them.Then we headed to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster, which was another fun one. Grace really got over on these rides. We would pull the aforementioned fast passes, four for the family because we had four tickets. Then she would ride with either me or Jasen, get off, then ride with the other parental unit. It was great for her! Also, while we were in this area, the fireworks show was fired off. Gorgeous, just gorgeous. One thing about Disney, everything is a class-act, first-rate production. No skimping on their stuff.


By this time, it was our time to go ride Space Mountain. Yep, it's about 10 p.m. The kids have been going all day with nary a complaint. The day was that fun and there was that much to see. You can imagine our disappointment when we arrived at Space Mountain at the designated time, only to find that it was having technical difficulties and they weren't sure when it would be reopened. Instead of waiting to find out, we waiting in line to ride the Astro-Orbiter, which is like Dumbo, only spaceships way up on a platform. It was fun, but the first motion-challenging ride for me!

At that point, it was time to head home. It was almost midnight! Can you believe that??? What a day we had! It was packed, completely packed and so tiring Davis fell asleep in the stroller on the way to the monorail. Awesome. Fantastic. SOOOOO much fun!