The Wonderful World of Disney- Part 2

So, day 2 was Magic Kingdom. We went into the park early and had a phenomenal day! We had to fight a little to get everything onto the parking lot tram, but the monorail was quick and fun to ride. Ethan thought it was pretty amazing that the train went right through the inside of the Contemporary Resort.

First stop inside the park was Peter Pan where we had about a 20 minute wait. The boys really enjoyed flying over the towns lit up by black light. From there we walked across the street and almost right on to Small World. There was almost no line! This was definitely one of the kids' favorite rides. There was lots to look at while riding along in the boat listening to Dad's favorite music :-) .

Then it was off to the Jungle Cruise. We grabbed a Fast Pass there and trotted back to Pirates of the Caribbean since it only had a "5" minute wait. It wasn't a bad wait...but it was more than 5 minutes. After Pirates, we had some lunch at El Pirata y El Perico (the Pirate and the Parrot). Amber was able to grab one of the very few tables in air conditioning. Again, no line, so we got our food pretty quickly...and it tasted good!

After lunch it was back to the Jungle Cruise. Fast Pass was great, because the regular line wait was up to 80 minutes! Verity was excited to see the elephants again. (We still haven't reached noon yet. Incredible!) Across the plaza was the Tiki Room. As a kid I can remember sitting outside the doors waiting forever to go into the show. On this day, however, we walked over and went right through the open doors. We were one of the last sets of people into that show! It was great! At this point it was about time for a rest. So, we went over to Buzz Lightyear and picked up a Fast Pass, and then made our way to the exit. Amber and I had decided that since we were staying in the park all day, we should take some time to rest in the middle of it. So, we went back to the car. Everyone had a place to lie down and rest, and we turned on the air conditioning. It really was quite nice to take a break and relax for a while. After an hour or so we went back into the park and hopped on Buzz Lightyear. That was a fun ride. Ethan really enjoyed shooting at all of the targets. After dinner, we met up with Amber's parents and were able to ride Buzz again! Amber's Mom obliterated all of us with her score. I forget the number, but it was multiples more than us!

Then it was off to Toontown. Ethan and I waited for a while to ride the Barnstormer (a kiddie roller coaster) while Amber and the kids played at a nearby playground. During this time Amber had to change Verity's diaper. She was third in line for the changing table! Someone wasn't thinking when they only put 1 changing table in the ladies restroom in Toontown! Next, we rode the train back over to Main Street.

Amber's dad got us some cookies and soda to cool us down and keep us from being cranky ;-) .  He also picked up a really cool toy called the String Thing.  You can see him playing with it in the photo below.  (Obviously I was entranced.)

We hopped back on the train and took the tour around the rest of the park. The kids enjoyed being on a real train! The Country Bears was the next stop. Verity and Micah were both pretty enthralled with the talking/singing bears. We said goodbye to Amber's folks and were off to ride Aladdin's Magic Carpets. This was another favorite for Micah and Ethan. It's basically Dumbo without the 90 minute line. We walked back across the street and got our spot for the Electric Light parade. I had purchased some glow stick bracelet/necklaces for the kids so they'd be content without purchasing all of the fun light-up gizmos for sale on the street. It worked...this night anyway. And then the parade arrived.

It was awesome! Amber and I really enjoyed it. The highlight for the kids was seeing Mickey in the train.  From what we heard, this is the same parade they had back when we were kids, so it was neat to hear the familiar music and reminisce about the times we'd seen it before. It really was a fun parade. Granted, Micah and Verity were asleep by the third float, but it was pretty late for them.

Here is a fun video that Amber took of the kids (and Puppy) enjoying the parade:

By the time the parade ended, it was almost time for the fireworks. We took off toward the castle trying to find a place that would be a good view point. Eventually traffic just came to a standstill, so we just stopped on the side walk. It ended up being a great spot, though. I put up the tripod and took some pretty fun pictures. One lady wasn't too happy about the tripod being in her way, but no one was going anywhere while the fireworks were going. Again, we loved it! We were really impressed with the show. I couldn't really hear the storyline, but the fireworks were impressive.

After the fireworks Amber and Ethan rode Small World again (yes, she rode it twice in one day!), and then it was back to the monorail. We rode the resort monorail back to the parking area. It stops more, but the line was much smaller. We decided to skip the tram and just walk back to the car. It was easier than waking the kids up, and we weren't parked too far away. Overall, it was a pretty perfect Magic Kingdom day! We were extremely pleased with all that God allowed us to do and enjoy. It was a blast!