Disney World: Magic Kingdom

7 AM arrived way too early in some of our children's opinions.  But, it was crucial that we get to Magic Kingdom early in order to get in line to minimize our waits on a couple of popular rides.  I had the perfect plan!  Get in line at Peter Pan's flight first (After analyzing wait time date, this ride was always a long wait), head to Dumbo (the one ride any of our children (in this case, Dom) had requested as he saw a picture of the Vice President riding it.  The Vice President at the time of Disney World's opening.), and then hit up our Fast Pass option on Haunted Mansion.  I owned this Fast Pass thing...and then we got stuck in the Monorail Station for an hour.  I watched the minutes tick by and realized this is exactly why I should never make plans: It just leads to disappointment.

The monorail thing was super frustrating.  You have to ride the monorail or the ferry to even get to the ticket check point for Magic Kingdom.  After the second announcement that the train was stuck and they were working on moving it, we got out of line to head to the ferry (whose line was pretty massive). Naturally, as we get in line...we hear a cheer from the monorail station.  We decide to head back to that line.  Waiting an additional 30 minutes as we wait for the out of service train to be removed from the track and the other train to get moving.  As luck would have it, we entered the compartment with the same people we had originally been waiting in line in front of.  It's a Small World after all.  And we had lost no time!

I decided I would try to get some free Fast Passes out of our inconvenience.  The lady at information was very accommodating and as I walked away with three anytime anywhere Fast Passes, we definitely came out ahead.

 Plus, the sun was out and it was warm.  It was going to be a great day.  And as ominous as that prediction sounds...it actually turned out to be true.  It really was a great day.  We started out with the Haunted Mansion.  Will held my hand the whole time and Molly snuggled in close. 

 Then we headed to Fantasy Land where most of the traditional rides are.  Molly saw a pink facade with flags and excitedly asked to ride whatever it was.  I saw the 20 minute wait time and agreed.  It was "It's a Small World".  The line moved quickly and soon we were on a boat riding through various cultures.  Just like with the Frozen Sing Along, I think I enjoyed watching John's and Molly's faces more than the ride itself.

 Once we got off that ride, we started a new scavenger hunt searching out villains to destroy.  After the massive success of the Perry the Platypus game from the day before, I had high hopes...Once again, lower expectations are always the way to go.  This game was not nearly as impressive and we actually just stopped after the first few.  Will was disappointed, but I think he even came to realize it just wasn't worth the trouble.  Especially, as all you really got to do was watch a video and then show some cards at the screen that may or may not register.  The last one we did, the glare from the sun kept us from seeing where we needed to go next.  So, the game was effectively over at that point anyway.

 We headed to a small roller coaster that John could even ride.  He had a smile on his face the whole time.  Later that night, he and Dom and I rode it again when there was no line.  As we went flying around corners he goes: 'Yahoo!' and then looks over at me and says: 'Mom! Say Yahoo!' Obviously, I complied.

 Then it was time for Dumbo.  This had about a 40 minute wait, but as a nice surprise, about 15 of those minutes were spent in a playground.  And not a lame playground, but lots of climbing and a few slides.  Definitely kept John entertained. 

 Then it was time to ride some flying elephants.  Molly wanted the pink one, but was content getting a purple one. 

 John and Eric were a couple behind us.

 Keeping with the theme of flying, we headed to the Peter Pan ride.  The kids were excited to see their old friend Big Ben again as they flew in a pirate ship over London.  It was a nice calm ride, just Dom's speed.  As opposed to Splash Mountain which he refused to ride.

 I am sure he thinks he got the better end of the deal sharing a popcorn with John.  To be honest, I was nervous the entire ride, but it wasn't bad at all.  I hate the feeling of weightlessness on some of the rides with big plunges (something we traumatized Dom with at Sea World 4 years ago and again at Universal last spring...he has clearly not gotten over it).  I wish I could have ridden it once more, because it was really a fun ride once I relaxed a bit.  Ah well, next time!

 After Splash Mountain, we used a fast pass on Thunder Mountain.  Dom loved this one and rode it again with Eric. 

 John had to sit out, but he really liked watching for us and waving as we flew by.

 While in Frontier Land, we took a river raft (not the steamboat) over to Tom Sawyer's Hideaway.  It was a great respite from all of the crowds.  Lots of walking paths to follow, two caves to explore (one scary..the other not so scary.  I could tell because John would say: "It's scary in here" every couple of minutes in the dark one with wind sound effects.)  And we spent several minutes at a fort.  Eric and I sat and ate some snacks and drank water while the kids just ran around.  We knew we couldn't lose them because Eric astutely saw there was only one path out and we were on it.  There were actually two exits from the fort itself though.  One was super secret, and Molly used this 12 times.  I know, because she would excitedly give us her updated amount each time.

 The one show we caught while in Magic Kingdom was the Country Bears Jamboree.  It was a good time to just sit and relax while listening to music from the Ozarks.

 Adventure Land was our next stop.  For ice cream and pineapple Dole Whips.  We had heard a lot about these Dole Whips and they did taste really good in the heat of the day.  Molly was not impressed, but John was thrilled.  He loves pineapple.

 Adventure Land is home to The Pirates of the Caribbean.  And the site of our one and only family picture.  Memories!

 Growing up, we watched Swiss Family Robinson regularly and I loved seeing the tree house they built to survive on the tropical island.  I had thought it would be more of a playground ala the Tom Sawyer island, but it was just a walking tour of the set.

 Still, a pretty fun jaunt for a fan.  And the kids stretched their legs a bit.

 I got behind, but it did give me the opportunity to take some pictures from a distance.

 The bunk beds of the three boys (though, I'm not entirely sure where the third slept as there were only three sleeping spots).  Or bunk hammocks.  Maybe an idea for a future dwelling?

While we were in LegoLand, the kids loved the driving school.  So I made a plan that we would wait in line for our first turn at a similar driving attraction in Tomorrow Land and then immediately use our Fast Pass to ride again.  I was sure they would want to.

 Turned out, only Dom wanted to.  See why I should never try to plan? But, we did the ride again anyway since we were there.  I think the second time around was better for everyone.  John got to steer and I showed Will that even I couldn't keep the car from jerking around.  He felt a lot better about his own performance after that.

 After the Speedway, we game planned out the last couple of hours.  With a spontaneous stop at the Tea Cups.

 I would have been perfectly happy skipping this ride.  But, there was no wait, so you suck it up and ride an iconic ride.  I only regretted it slightly and the motion sickness passed quickly.

 After the Tea Cup ride's line went so much quicker than the posted wait time, we hopped into the Winnie the Pooh line expecting a similar experience.  Nope.  This line took way longer.  But, it did have some play areas for our little guy.  He had a great time.  Such a great time, that he had his meltdown when it was time to actually ride the ride.  But, the sight of some of his favorite characters helped him to calm down.  Let me say, that John was quite the trouper.  It was 8 PM, and he was going on a second day without a nap. 

We rewarded him with a carousel ride.  Will, Molly, and I used our final Fast Pass to ride the 7 Dwarves roller coaster ride.  Dom opted out.  But, it was possibly my favorite ride of the day.  This would be the ride I would get in line for right at the start of the day.  The wait times on this ride are crazy long.  It was over 2 hours when we rode it. 

 Due to the late hour, Dom, John, and I were able to get in another ride on Dumbo and the smaller roller coaster while waiting for Eric and Molly and Will to ride the 7 Dwarves ride again.

 We all met up in time to watch the fireworks and split our last chocolate bar. 

There is an hour long show projected onto the castle that we were unaware of until it was almost over and we were headed to the souvenir shop.  Instead, we spent the last hour of our time at Magic Kingdom riding a Buzz Lightyear shooting gallery ride and The People Mover.  Which was kind of a perfect way to end the day.  We sat as a family and took a tour of Tomorrow Land.  Finally, as a reward for the great attitudes our children had throughout the three days, we allowed each of them one overpriced souvenir.  The significance of this was not lost on Dom as I had given him a long explanation as to why one should never buy a souvenir in park.  Dom chose a mug featuring Donald Duck with the words Mad Genius.  He has already used it twice.  Molly picked the Disney princess , Aurora.  This purchase was made totally worth it the next morning when she and John spent an hour playing and he greeted me with a full explanation of who the newest toy doll was. "She's Aurora, she is a princess, she is beautiful."  Speaking of John, he picked out the classic Mickey Ears.  I was so proud.  And Will picked out a foam sword.  Because it was the closest thing to a Light Saber...and I had said he could not get a Light Saber.  Because they already have several at home. 

 Eric made the command decision to take the ferry back to the real world.  Will and I rode on the top and caught a last glimpse of the Magic Kingdom.  It really was a wonderful family vacation.

On the drive back to the condo, we stopped in at Perkins for a late meal to go.  Only Dom, Eric, and I were awake.  Or so we thought.  As we sat down to eat, Will came out of his room and sat at the table with us.  Finally, he just looked around and said: "I think I should be in bed...I think everyone should be in bed."  We agreed and headed there soon after.  With no alarm to set for the next morning.  It was a nice last day of our week long trip.   

Disney World: Epcot

 On Wednesday, we headed to Epcot.  Eric, Dom, Will, and I had a great time making up horrible 99 jokes inspired by those done in the street show the day before.  At one point, we also questioned the name 'Epcot' and decided it must be an acronym.  This led to another game where we came up with possible acronyms.  Mine was: Every Person Can Order Tacos.  Naturally, tacos became the new punchline.  Eventually, William declared it stood for: Espresso, Pastries, Coffee Or Tacos.  Thus, when we saw a kiosk named: Espresso, Coffee, and Pastries we came to the conclusion that Will had to be pretty close to the actual name. Don't bother googling it.  Just go with it.

 If I had to choose, I would say that Epcot was my favorite day.  Which is pretty incredible as it poured rain for a good portion of it.  But, we loved exploring the world with the kids.  Our first taste was heading to Norway at the very start of the day to get in line for the most popular ride in the park: Frozen Ever After.  The rest of the day, I monitored the wait time for the ride hoping it would drop to a manageable amount, but it was always around 90 minutes.  We got lucky only waiting for 40 minutes.

 After Frozen, we headed over to the science section of Epcot to learn about the senses, sea life, and Pixar.  As luck would have it, we headed into the Pixar shorts viewing just as the rain picked up.  When we came out, the rain had ended and we headed back to explore The World some more.

Our first stop was at a kiosk just outside of The World where we signed in with Eric's phone to take part in a Phineas and Ferb inspired scavenger hunt through 6 countries.  Agent Perry needed our help to stop Dr. Doofenshmirz from wreaking havoc on the world.  A mission Molly took particularly seriously.

 We elected to start our mission in Japan as we have family stationed there. 

 We had no idea what to expect.  I thought it would just give the kids certain things to look for to help keep them interested in the countries. 

 But, it turned out that every time you found the item you were suppose to look for, some special effect would occur.  The first one was a lit up figure in a rock.  And the special effects grew from there.

 This kept the kids (and my) attention for a couple of hours.  I would have been pretty happy if we just found light displays at each site.  But, it was always something unique.  Some were way cooler than others, but it was always a fun effect.  And the best part: It was all free! 

 One effect created a lot of smoke.  So much so, that other guests were trying to figure out what was going on. 

 The kids did a pretty good job of sharing, but there was some impatience on a few of our parts.  If you wanted to, each country would take about 30 minutes to watch all of the segments and then find the spots.  But, we soon just started skipping over the show and went straight to stopping Doofenshmirz.  Molly gleefully went up to two ladies and told them we had saved Japan and were on our way to save Germany.  They thanked us and continued on their way.  Everyone is so friendly in Disney World!

 But, before we could get to Germany, we took a couple of pictures in Italy.

 The great thing about this Perry the Platypus game is that if your kids are mature enough, you could leave your phone with them while you sit and just enjoy the scenery.  You'd catch sight of them every minute or so as they ran around looking for the next mission.  Just a little planning for our next trip. Because, obviously the world will be needing saving again.

 After passing through Italy, we called L'Opa at his office to inform him we were entering Germany.  Somehow, I didn't get the impression he was that impressed.  Probably because he actually goes to Germany each summer.  (#protip: You can save a bundle by just going to Epcot.  You get all of the fun stuff and none of the stress)

 They even had the train...sort of.

 I was so happy visiting all of these cultures.  It is kind of a homeschooler's dream.  I haven't looked into this, but Eric thought that each country was staffed by natives of the countries. 

 One mission sent us into the clock shop.  The special effect was a cuckoo clock cuckoo-ing.  John loved it.

 We also visited the Fussball store.  Bayern was well represented.  As were the Jayhawks. (We met at least one other fan every day)

 We still had a couple of countries to save, but it was time to head to one of our ride reservations: Soaring.  I had heard high praise for this ride and it was all true.  You fly across the world and see famous landmarks on all continents.  The kids all loved it.  We also rode a boat ride that taught us about many of the processes by which Disney grows its own food in sustainable ways.  All very interesting.  It was almost like we had not taken a day off of school.

 We were headed back to Mexico (with a promise to Molly to go back to Germany for a giant pretzel) when the clouds opened.  It was sprinkling when Eric stopped to refill our souvenir popcorn container.  Perhaps if we had not stopped we would have made it to the covered section of Mexico...but, we'll never know.  We got trapped under the monorail hoping the system would pass in a few minutes.

 Turned out, the system was pretty large. 

 We eventually made a run for a building that was simply a place to meet characters.  Though we didn't realize that until much later when the rain was stopping. 

 Instead we passed the time watching Steamboat Willie (the first animated short featuring Mickey Mouse) and checking out a timeline of Epcot.

 Oh, and taking selfies.

This also became an ideal time to break out the giant chocolate bar for the day. (I had brought four on the trip).  Once the rain dissipated, we headed to Mexico and then on to China.  Eric and Molly went to Germany for beer and pretzels and the boys and I saved the rest of the world.  Everyone was very happy. 

Our next ride was Spaceship Earth.  This the ride in the iconic sphere that Epcot is known for.  It was a slow ride that went through the history of educational progress.  Starting from cave paintings and ending with a computer in everyone's home.  At the end of the ride, there was an interactive area where the kids could test their reflexes, driving skills, skeleton building, and power saving.

 I did not quite understand what they were suppose to be doing, but they had a good time doing it.

 I crushed this game and impressed a guy who came up to watch. 

 I totally beat Dom, too.

But, he got his swagger back after defeating John in this game...that, again, I do not understand.  Kind of a shuffleboard power eating idea. (This just in, Dom is telling me the game is about making a big city using sustainable power sources...L'Opa, one goal was to make a city as big as Munich)

We stayed in the giant sphere for well over an hour.  Eventually we ventured out into the rain again for Eric to take Molly and Will on Mission Space!  (Dom and I opted out...though after hearing about it, it sounds super cool, so we may give it a whirl next time.  Especially knowing there is an option where you don't have to feel like you are blasting off from Earth).  

Due to the weather, fireworks happened about an hour earlier than usual.  So, once our family was back together, we called it a night.  Better to lose one battle than the whole war.  And we still had Magic Kingdom ahead!  We headed into the rain, made it to the car, everyone took nice warm showers and/or baths, and we ate spaghetti and meatballs.  Another great day was had by all.  But, man, 7 AM was going to be coming pretty early...