A Magical Family Day!

Oh the kids were so excited they could hardly stand it! We were finally going to Disney World! Oh the choices! Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. We decided to do the good old traditional Magic Kingdom.

We conquered mountains and deep space. We tamed pirates and beasts of the jungle. We rode magic carpets and visited haunted mansions. And of course we had fun!

Fam at the kingdom

Brielle is always nervous about amusement park rides, but she was a such a great trooper and she tried a couple of roller coasters. We headed straight to Thunder Mountain and the lines were short! Brielle was scared, but we convinced her to try it once. She thought it was fun. Then we convinced her to try Splash Mountain. She loves water, but not that ride. She was willing to do Thunder Mountain a 2nd time and even a 3rd time! We were all surprised since we thought Splash Mountain was more calm, but oh well everyone was happy and having fun!

In the air Splash mountain

Brielle didn’t want to do Space Mountain and that was a good choice – she would have hated it! But the rest of us loved it and were able to ride multiple times! And sweet girl she is, she talked about how she likes watching the screens while she waits for us as we do the rider swap. The upside is the boys get to do the ride twice in a row (once with me and then once with Huck) and we only wait in line once! Thank goodness for a sweet, patient sister!

All the kids drove on the Speedway ride! I think they all did pretty well. Caden was solo (and got car #23 – his jersey #), Huck rode with Brielle, and I rode with Dacen (who pointed out we had car #81 – my favorite number is 18, so from the right direction our car looked like #18). It was funny watching Dacen discover he actually had to pay attention to what he was doing even though we were on a track.
Driver Dacen

We loved the Jungle Cruise ride, Haunted Mansion (I thought it was cheesy, but everyone else was entertained), of course Small World, Pirates of the Carribean (again B tested her nerves and won!), and climbed the Swiss Family Tree house (even more fun since we’ve read the book aloud as a family!) There is just so much to see and do! And it’s hard since the boys love the fast rides and Brielle just wants to visit the characters. Sooooo tomorrow we will divide and conquer, but today, today united we ride!

Fam at the kingdom

Frontier World

Thunder Mountain

Push it

Hahahahaha

KABOOM

Splash mountain

Bad boys

Look who's driving!

Driver Dacen

The castle

Magic Kingdom

Our favorite

Lunch time

Its a Small World

Its a Small Boat too

In the air

Magic carpet ride

Cute pirate

Matey

Aaaargh

Tree house

Caden is not worried

Jungle cruise

Jungle elephants

Bros

Krazy kid

Nice ponytail

This freaks Papa out!!

Do you like my hat

Princess Dacen

Night time castle

Magic fireworks

At the end of the day while Brielle and Huck saved our spots in front of the Magic Castle, the boys and I decided to stand in the waaay too long line for the Seven Dwarfs roller coaster. It was a cute ride, but way too short especially for the amount of time you wait in line.

We didn’t realize we would be coming back from the ride in time to catch most of the Electric Parade. That was quite a site! Too bad Dacen couldn’t see most of it given our timing and the deep crowds. Finally we made our way to Huck and Brielle and settled in for the amazing visual spectacular as they transform the front of the castle with lighting effects even Huck was impressed with! And of course the fireworks!! Yay for bright, flashing lights!!!
Magic fireworks

Normally I am super stressed about fitting it all in in one day. I was very good this time and I was relaxed, and though we tried to have a plan, I knew I’d be back tomorrow with Brielle for a whole different experience and whatever happened today happened. We would have fun no matter what.

I wish I had done more research ahead of time on “The Best Way to Do Disney and Get the Most Bang for your Buck.” Part of the reason I didn’t was because we thought we would do Disney on our way back up Florida. Up to now my time had been spent researching what to do in each of the cool places we had already been visiting. We decided kind of last minute to do Orlando now in hopes of beating some of the Spring Break crowds the rest of the month. So we were sort of winging it. I knew Fast Passes were necessary. I didn’t realize that you had to use up all 3 before you could sign up for another one AND you can’t sign up for the 4th one on the app on your phone – only at the kiosks, which is another line to stand in.

Another lesson learned – don’t get Fast Passes for the rides first thing in the morning. The lines are so short it’s a waste of a Fast Pass. We got our Fast Passes for Big Thunder, Splash Mountain, and Space Mountain and headed straight over to Big Thunder Mountain to see how long the lines were. They were short!! I’m still not quite sure what the optimum strategy would be for our family, but it was a super fun day anyway!

I think I like Disneyland a little better than Disney World. I’m not sure if it’s because I went to Disneyland first, or if it’s because I was looking forward to a couple rides they don’t have in Orlando (I do love the Indiana Jones ride so much and it was broken the last time we went!) and I do love the Toon Town area in CA better than the Circus Land in Orlando. For the most part though they have the same rides and it is all fun and full of magic!

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