Day 01: Magic Kingdom.

Blog? Not Today.

Ok so this is the second day, technically, but after travelling and being up for 24+ hrs yesterday (cant honestly remember and my brain hurts too much to work it out), then deciding that steak would actually be a good idea (which it was not), I was sleeping before I got back to the room (after carrying a sleeping Robert on my back). So no blog update for yesterday, I just aint doing one.

To summarize…

Yeah, you don’t really need to read all of this, its mostly for my benefit, just a brain dump of everything that happened today, while its still fresh in mind. So here’s what we got up to, in short…

Decided to go to the Magic Kingdom, to kick off our holiday. Best choice I think, even though we had debated over it and advised against hitting a big park on our first day. It was great though - quite possibly better than I remember as a kid. I was kinda in the driving seat which helped, maybe because I’m ‘good’ with maps and had an idea where we should be going (being a little OCD and impatient, might be another description). The kids were amazed by it all, as were we all (yup even the folks and they’re like Orlando veterans). Got there a little later than expected and it was really busy, but that didn’t hamper us. Queues weren’t that bad for there being soo many people and the FastPass is just an awesome invention. There were a few rides we didn’t manage to get on but we are going back again next week for longer and with a better game plan, so no big worries there. All in all, a great start to the holiday and really set us up for more of the same tomorrow.

And now for the unabridged version…

I love you, Honey Bunny…

Ok Denny’s for breakfast today, Our first authentic American experience, forgetting the non-event that was the Ponderosa the night before (not that that wasn’t good, everyone was just pretty knacked, me included). Kinda like a smaller version of the diner at the start of Pulp Fiction. Went for the Bacon Avocado Burrito, while nearly everyone else stacked their plate with bacon, sausage, pancakes and syrup. When I was here before (about 17 yrs or so now), I was never a big breakfast lover - I tended to lean towards egg shaped breakfast plates and couldn’t go near sausage or pancakes. I think this time round will be pretty much the same. Burrito was awesome and had some hash browns on the side (which kept getting stole). Our waiter’s name was Travis and I could hear Writing To Reach You play back inside my head every time he came to our table.

To get to Disney, you take a left…

We didn’t have free transfers to Disney, and after costing up various options, decided we would give the bus route a go before forking out the 100 bucks round trip each day in taxis. So hopped on the i-Ride, a wee bus that runs up and down International Drive, which we bought 14 day passes for (from our American rep who turned out to be from East Kilbride). Got off at Sea World and waited for the next bus to take us to Disney. It would cost us $2 each to get that bus which means were were really saving a bit of money. After all that, we were offered a taxi ride from that bus stop straight to Disney for the same price - all good! :)

Drove past a Hooters :D Decided it would be a really good place to go some time and pointed out that kids eat free there. Everyone was kinda joking. I was not.

Did a deal with the King Solomon taxi guy (that wasn’t his name, his name was Paul) to come get us later and take us straight back to the hotel. He also offered to do our remaining Disney days too. Didn’t really turn out to be a deal and after some deliberating, decided it would be best to take the bus from now on.

Brazilians… the actual people not the other thing. There were loads of them, all out on vacation with their schools and all in brightly coloured t-shirts. Yeah it was pretty busy, so much so they moved us over to get the bus transfer (so skipped out the monorail which I was a bit bummed about).

Met a lovely family from Boston on the bus transfer to Magic Kingdom (I think, or at least they used to live there). They also had matching t-shirts which looked brilliant and had nicknames on the back (though I didn’t ask why his name was Beefy Cheese - crazy Americans ;) The guy turned out to be an animator. O-M-G! My dream job (according to Ann, which is almost kinda true) but felt quite bad I hadn’t played any games he was involved in or hadn’t even heard of one of them (Afro Ninja, anyone?)

Magic Kingdom

**

After the ticket gates we hit the entrance into Main Street, USA. Its such an amazing sight and I got a little emotional. Its the one place I always picture in my head each time I think about the Magic Kingdom. Pluto was kicking about but we wanted to get a good start on the park as we had arrived later than we had hoped. Ann picked up an Autograph book and pen and were were all set. We moseyed down the Main Street, with our eye firmly fixed on hitting Adventureland first. The kids were hyped.

And first up was Pirates of the Caribbean. Not too bad a queue but the 'stroller’ parking is a bit of a logistics nightmare. Met some Brazilian girls in the queue who had pretty good English so were chatting to wee Gracie, laughing and joking at how cute she was. She was cute! One of them made a little heart with her hands and Grace did it back - it was the coolest thing ever, but was raging I didn’t get a pic of it (carrying Grace and my camera and bags didn’t really help with that). Pirates was great and Patrick gave it 10/10 Mickeys (our ride rating system). Knowing what was to come, I gave it a 7.

Headed over to Fast Pass Splash Mountain which had a waiting time of 90 mins (Fast Pass is Disney's free queue busting system, which is pretty cool). Did Haunted Mansion after that. A little scary at times for Grace, but had the most amazing special effects I’ve seen for a while, humorous epitaphs, dancing ghosts and spinning heads were all but a few of the components of this amazing, 8/10 Mickey ratings, ride.

Went and got some Ice Cream Coffee and settled down to watch the Mickey Mouse parade at a prime spot in Liberty Square. Grace absolutely loved it and I got some real attention by the characters (possibly due to the lens I was sporting). It was great and even managed to high five a few of them as they walked past (except Jaffar, that guy is just bad news).

Next up was Its a small world. Ahh a classic ride with little people all over the world singing along in harmony - had to be done. Grace was mesmerised. Robert threw a penny into the wishing well and 'wished we could go to Florida every year for our holiday’ Kinda worth it all just for that :) (7/10 Mikeys).

Our Fast Pass for Splash Mountain was up, so me, Ann, my father, and Roro headed back to Frontierland to walking right past the huge queues straight onto the ride. Big grumpy Patrick decided he was too afraid of heights after seeing the big drop earlier, so he waited with my mum and Grace. Apart from the drops, it would make a brilliant children's ride so it was a wee shame Patrick AND Gracie missed it - though if given the choice I think Grace just might have joined us. Robert thought it was brilliant and I screamed like a big girl - just because that's what people do, right? ;) (8/10 Mickeys).

Andy’s Coming!

Queued up to meet Woody & Jesse from Toy Story (seriously didn’t see many others at all). The short queue seemed like it was longer than some of the other rides just because we weren’t moving. Before we go there, they went away! MAN! Someone Brazilians girls did shout 'Andy’s Coming’ to which the immediate response 'He’s in college’ was presented. Must happen A LOT!

Got some Root beer. It was good! Why the hell don’t we have it in the UK???

Met the The Boston Guy again - they referred to us as 'Our lovely Scottish friends’. I love Americans! They recommended Enchanted Tales with Belle - its sounded really good but we just didn’t have enough time and put it on our todo list for next time.

Had FPs for Under The Sea. Was unashamedly good (all the some and story was in there and it showcased some really brilliant effects (more photos to come). 8/10

Headed off to Tomorrowland for one last ride. Grace loves Mike Wazowski so it had to be Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. So so funny and really interactive which kept our tired kids attention. 9/10! Think this was my favourite :)

Taxi!

Really could have stayed for longer, but we arranged to have the taxi pick us up, so were were kinda rushing out the park (and didnt stay for the fireworks). Dropped us off right at the hotel door, which was nice.

Pizza, Pizza

Headed out to Cici’s pizza as we were getting quite tired and no one was really that hungry. Absolutely great value for money (it was like 30 quid for seven of us, which included some beers and drinks too). Pretty standard salad, pasta, pizza affair, though they did have macaroni pasta pizza which was a little weird but quite good. They also had dessert, though not being a big dessert person, decided against the fudge brownie, cinnamon rolls and a weird looking spicy pizza style sweet.

So home to bed now (and sleep, right after I publish this). What an amazing first day and its just gonna get better! Tomorrow. Hollywood Studios!…

Oh and heres a final pic of me and the lovely Pamela :)