Day 1 in the Magic Kingdom

Late here and the boys and Jeana are in bed. Long but fun day for the kids. Hope you all like the pictures I posted through the day.

We have quickly caught on to the nuances of Disney's "system." We raced to Space Mountain and rode that first this morning. It was the highlight of the day for both boys... Zach said it was "scary" but he was grinning as he said it. I think both kids are true adrenaline junkies.

 

I did take a video of the ride, but posting it would be a waste of time because the whole thing is in the dark.  I quickly realized after Space Mountain that my own body, once upon a time having enjoyed roller coasters, no longer does so.  It took me a good 5 minutes to recover.

Anyway, we have conquered Disney's FASTPASS system.  Basically, you can go to certain popular rides and "reserve" tickets to line-jump... the drawback is that it may be 3-4 hours away, and you cannot FASTPASS more than one ride at a time.  What we found was that if we FASTPASSed moderately popular rides, we would be able to exhaust 1-2 hours in between going to less popular rides, then (because the FASTPASSed ride was less popular) we could basically go straight to the front of the line when we showed up.  This doesn't work for rides like Space Mountain because even with a FASTPASS you'll wait for 20-30 minutes (granted, instead of 60, but still), and your reserved ride may be for 6 hours later.  Which means you can't FASTPASS anything else until your Space Mountain ride comes up.

Using our strategy, our longest wait of the day was 30 minutes for Thunder Mountain, and most of the FASTPASSes we walked straight on to the ride.  The only place we missed all day was the Haunted Mansion... we were going to hit it after Thunder Mountain, but the long wait at TM led to the HM line being 50 minutes long by the time we got out.  As possible vindication, TM then broke around 2 PM, so we managed to ride it before it died.  Yea for us.

After Space Mountain, we peeled off Toy Story and Stitch's escape in about an hour.  Toy Story is kind of cool... you get a laser to shoot Zurg targets as you ride through, which the kids thought was "awesome".  I managed to hit some target worth 100,000 points in the first room, catapulting me to the top of the family in scoring.  As you can see from the video, I kind of outscored Zach.  But he still thinks he beat me, so don't tell him.

Stitch's Escape... kind of a waste of time.  You get sprayed by a small amount of water, which is supposed to be Stitch spitting a loogi on you.  Not impressed.

Thunder Mountain was a long wait, but as you can see from the video, worth it.  All of Disney's coasters are pretty tame (though I hear Aerosmith and the Everest one are a bit more exciting) compared to Cedar Point and King's Island, but that's OK.  The kids were convinced they were awesome.  Too bad it meant they weren't as impressed with the classics like Peter Pan and Pirates of the Caribbean.  Then again, I don't totally blame them... how many times do you have to watch plastic animatronics and no longer be impressed?

The other element of Disney we have conquered is the meal plan.  Without pre-paying for a meal plan, we knew the park would destroy us on food, so we forked out the extra $550 for 6 days of meals for 4.  I know that sounds ridiculous, but that comes to about $20 a meal.  If we were paying these at each meal, we'd be paying $15 a person!

The problem we were running into is the stupid kids plan.  Kids 9 and under are supposed to eat off the kids menu... which is pretty much limited to Mac n' Cheese or Chicken Nuggets at every freakin' restaurant.  Sorry, but even my kids get sick of that.  Besides, tonight Zach wanted a hot dog, and what kind of place doesn't offer a stinkin' hot dog on the kids' menu?

Well, we figured this sucker out tonight.  As long as you don't have the kid standing there next to you, you can just go to the window four times, order four adult meals, and they are none the wiser.  So tonight Peyton his his hunk of turkey leg and Zach got his hot dog.  And I don't feel guilty, because Disney shouldn't limit kids to eating chicken nuggets and grapes for every meal for a week.

We stayed in the park late to watch the fireworks show over Cinderella's Castle, which both kids thought was great.  I also got my favorite photo of the day (and probably the trip)... Peyton and Zach silhouetted against the castle with fireworks going off.

Of course, that wasn't my only shot of the fireworks of the castle. We got the standard family photo in front of the castle by night as well...

 

  

So after one day, I have come to several conclusions about Disney World and have some suggestions on how to make it better:

1. You know those signs that say, "You have to be this tall to ride this ride"? Well, they should also have signs that say, "You child must not be taller than this to ride in an f%@#ing stroller.  Seriously, I saw more 6 and 7-year olds riding in strollers today.  Is there any wonder why our country is so fat?
2. Corollary to (1): if you drag your stroller into a shop, the child (a) must be riding in it and (b) must either be asleep or incapable of walking on his or her own.  It's a bloody GIFT SHOP.  I think your kid can actually set her feet on the ground for five minutes.  Kids are not Chihuahuas (Chihuahuhas shouldn't be carried everywhere either, but that's an unrelated rant).  Anybody who breaks the rule, there should be a smiling Disney employee with a baseball bat that simply beats the hell out of the stroller in front of everyone, with one of those classic s&%t-eating Disney smiles on their face the whole time.
3. Most amusing spoiled brat moment of the day... guy is wheeling his mother in a wheelchair and wants to tuck in a corner out of the way while he goes to the restroom.  His 13-year old daughter is sitting on a wall with her legs in the way so Grandma can't get out of the way.  Dad asks daughter to move, daughter whines, "But I was here first!"  Seriously, you are not going to move so your handicapped grandmother can be trampled?  And Dad, you're letting this snot get away with this?  Our society should just be burned to the ground right now.
4. It was only 55 degrees today as a high, and there were a lot of people who apparently thought, "Screw it, I'm in Florida, I'm wearing Daisy Duke shorts and a halter top."  And they were in pain.  And I enjoyed their pain.
5. Lastly, unbeknownst to us, today was Mardi Gras.  Not a huge deal, really, except we learned that everybody in Louisiana gets Mardi Gras week off.  OK.  But apparently, instead of staying in New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras, apparently every person in Louisiana comes to Disney World.  I have never seen so many Saints Drew Brees jerseys (OK, they did win the Super Bowl, but still) and LSU clothes.  To be fair, they seem like very nice people, not at all obnoxious like Ohioans.  And besides, I saw several people with shirts commemorating LSU's National Championship win over Ohio St.  Bully for them.  Still, it makes the park that much more crowded, which is annoying.  But all in all, I have nothing really bad to say about Louisianans.