Disney Recap: Magic Kingdom (Day 1)

I have way too many pictures and way too much to share to cram our entire Disney trip into one post, so I figured I'd just split it up and give a day-by-day recap.  So...are you ready for some magic??  :)

Before we begin our journey, I'd like to say that I'm pretty sure that going into this trip, at least 80% of the people traveling in our party thought I was crazy with all of my planning.  There may have been spreadsheets.  There may have been park attack plans.  There may have been instructions given that everyone was to be dressed and ready to get on that bus by 7am that first day or so help me, they would have to face my wrath.  (that last part was imagined in their heads, but I KNOW they were thinking it)  Fortunately for their sake, everyone was ready that first day, bright and early! (too excited to sleep, haha!)  And...I think it's safe to say that everyone understood once we got there why I was being so crazy for wanting to get on the bus early.  It was astounding all week to see how quickly the crowds went from "oh this isn't so bad" to "OMG, where are all of these people coming from???".

Day 1, we were at Magic Kingdom by 7:30am, secured a spot near the front of the crowds so we were ready to go in, then watched the little opening show they do where Mickey and Co. arrives on a train.  Then we were off!! I was on a mission: I wanted to get to Enchanted Tales with Belle first.  It's a new interactive attraction where kids get to participate in the story line and meet Belle.  I had heard it was cute but that the lines can get out of control as the day goes on (and sure enough, later in the day, the line was up to 80 minutes!)

Even though I was on a mission to get us back to that section, I couldn't resist stopping for our first picture in front of the castle (because, really...that's what this was about.  It wasn't about going on as many rides as we could, or running around like maniacs....it was about a family vacation, and snapping their picture in front of the castle for the first time was a must).

reason #982 to get there early: you get the whole castle to yourself for a picture!

Ok, castle shot done...moving on!  We were the first group in Enchanted Tales, and it was as cute as promised!  The kids each had the part of utensils and they ROCKED those roles :)

Video (on the long side) of them in the parade part of the show:

Mission accomplished!  I felt much better after getting that out of the way, so we were able to make our way through the New Fantasyland for the remainder of the morning.

 

You want to see the look of pure joy on some kids faces (and maybe some grown-ups, too)?  Watch this video of the Mad Tea Party :)



And some more video fun on Dumbo:


The boys loved the water play area in Storybook Circus:

After a fun morning, it was time to unwind a bit at lunch with Pooh and Friends at the Crystal Palace (for now, I'm just doing pictures...I'll try to do some full dining reviews later on):

Meeting Piglet video:

Feeling a bit more energized, we headed back out to the park!  It didn't take long before Liam was sound asleep in the stroller.  (this kid was the CHAMP at stroller naps all week! Chaos could be going on all around him and he'd just snooze the afternoon away, 2 hours pretty much every day!)

We made a pit stop to get some more castle shots:

Once Liam was awake, we went on a few more rides and then it was time to meet the man himself...drum roll, please......

I had read rumors earlier in the week that a new talking Mickey had been introduced; unfortunately, it seems they rotate that one in and we didn't happen to be there at the right time :(  But that's ok, the kids didn't really care. 

Video of their interaction with Mickey:


Confession: I totally teared up when the boys met Mickey. This is going to sound so cheesy, but I felt like the whole trip fell into place right then.  I did all of this planning, and researching, and hoping that everyone would love the trip for over a year...and in that moment, I was like "Yeah.  That's why I did all of that.  We made the right decision by coming here."

After meeting Mickey, we pretty much wrapped the day up with some quick service dinner, then headed back to the resort to turn in for the night.  We needed to rest up....big day the next day planned for Hollywood Studios!! Stay tuned....