Walt Disney World has gone hi tech and when you plan your trip, they send you these wristbands. You can personalize them by choosing a color and providing a name to put on the inside. These bands do everything. They are your key to your hotel room, your ticket to get into the parks, they can be linked to your credit card to make purchases, and this is how you reserve Fastpasses for the rides. It is amazing. The boys thought they were pretty cool, although they didn't enjoy wearing them. They loved using them to open our hotel room and scanning them for rides. It was pretty cool.
In planning our trip, we got two one-day park passes. I thought we could spend one day at Magic Kingdom and one day at Animal Kingdom. So, Friday morning, we woke up, ate a quick breakfast and headed out to Magic Kingdom.
Magic Kingdom opened a new ride this year called Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. After watching a few pieces about it on the Disney channel, I thought we should try and ride it. Since it was so new, the fastpasses for it went quick and we couldn't get one. So, I thought if that was the first place we went when we got to the park, the line wouldn't be as long (in the past days the wait time was never shorter than 60 minutes). We got on the 7:45 am bus at the hotel and got to the park about 30 minutes before it opened. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same plan. There was quite a crowd at the gates and everyone I heard talking was planning on going straight to the train. Oops!
The boys found ways to keep entertained while we waited for the park to open.
And we caught the welcome show. I didn't even know they had this.
Then headed over to the train. Of course Patrick wasn't big enough to ride so I took the big boys on it first while Dad and Patrick hit some rides.
They have some things in the line to keep you occupied while you wait. Unfortunately, the timing wasn't great for us and all of the standing around we did was before we got here. The wait wasn't too bad though.
It was pretty fun and I'm glad I went on it. Then Dad took Daniel on it again. Josh didn't want to ride it a second time.
Disney has a great thing called the Rider Switch for people who have little kids. It works great. You have one parent go through first and tell the attendant you have a kid, and the other parent gets a fastpass so they don't have to wait in line again. It worked really well for us. Daniel loved it. He got to ride everything twice.
While Dad and Daniel we doing the Mine Train, Josh, Patrick and I headed over to Winnie the Pooh. Patrick is at a great age and was getting really excited about seeing all the characters.
Then Patrick and I went over to the Dumbo ride while the big boys and Dad drove in the Tomorrowland Racers.
Then the entire family flew on Dumbo. It is nice having rides Patrick is allowed to ride on. He didn't miss out on too much fun.
After Dumbo, we headed over to the Jungle Cruise, another ride we could do as a family.
The boys liked it and our driver was hilarious.
After the cruise, we headed over to the Be Our Guest restaurant for lunch. It was fun and impressive. You ordered your food before you sat down and choose where you got to sit down and somehow they could find you to bring you your food.
He tried the gray stuff...
...it was delicious!
Since it was so hot, we decided to make our way over the Splash Mountain to cool off. We couldn't talk Josh into going so Daniel and I waited in the hour long line while Dad and Josh did a pirate scavenger hunt.
This sounded pretty cool. I'm sorry I missed it.
They also caught a parade.
Daniel loved Splash Mountain.
And was thrilled to be able to do it again (he convinced Josh it wasn't so bad).
I don't know if Josh agreed.
Meanwhile, Patrick slept while Daniel and I waited in line.
Then he woke up and we played at a play place while the big boys and Dad went down.
Then we were able to walk around for a while and enjoy some things around the park as we made our way over to Tomorrowland.
The boys each took a turn trying to pull out the sword.
Then Josh and I got in trouble. I guess they thought we were having too much fun!
Of course, you have to get Mickey shaped ice cream while you are here.
And then there are the pictures in front of the castle.
While waiting for our Space Mountain fastpasses, we took in the Monsters Inc show at the Laugh Floor and then jumped in line for Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters.
Patrick was very excited to see Buzz Lightyear.
The boys were excited to get their own car for the ride.
I think Mom gets a little too into the game.
I guess they didn't do so well so got thrown in with Zorg. Sorry guys!
Afterwards, we got to meet the real Buzz Lightyear. Patrick was excited to see him and give him a high five (even though you doesn't look it).
Then we headed over to Space Mountain. This was Daniel's favorite ride at Disneyland and it didn't disappoint here.
He got to go twice in a row. He loved it!
After Space Mountain, we headed over to Pinnochios for dinner over the entrance to Small World. The boys liked watching all the people getting on the ride. So of course afterwards, we had to go on the ride, too.
Then we hit the Peter Pan ride before heading to the Rose Garden for VIP seating for the fireworks. This was the one Fastpass we really wanted to make sure we catch the fireworks without having to stake out seating for a while beforehand. It was a great place to sit and watch the great show.
The orignal idea was to leave after the fireworks (which started at 10pm) but we ended up walking around the park for a little bit longer. One souvenir the boys have been into are smashed pennies and they have machines all over the park. The boys had specific ones they wanted so we went on a search for them. We also tried the Pirates of the Caribbean ride for Dad but it was closed. We ended up walking towards the exit closer to 11:30 and walked past Mickey's house (which closed at 11:30). Since it only had a 5 minute wait, we decided to go meet him. It was great. He talked and everything. The boys loved it.
That's one happy boy.
It was a very long day, but a great one. We ended up staying the entire time the park was open. Yikes! I hope we don't run out of good attitudes for tomorrow.
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