Disney Trip Day 1

Sunday morning we got up around 4:30AM and where on the road to the airport by 5:45.  Thought we'd have time to get coffee on the way but no such luck.  We were in the car eating donuts when I remembered that I'd forgotten an extra luggage tag.  Oh well, we will just have to deal with it when we get there (which we did).  Matt and Tim dropped us, 4 boys, 6 checked bags, 2 strollers and 8 pieces of carryon luggage at the terminal while they parked the cars.  We immediately put the boys and the strollers to work carrying everything.  We got in the line to check in and eventually everyone caught up with us before we actually got ot the front.  Free of luggage until it arrives in our room (YEAH FOR Disney magical express) we got in line for security.  That was an experience to get everyone's shoes off and go through security.  Luckily it was a small airport and just about everyone there is going to the same place.  Here we are waiting for the airplane.

 Daddy finally has his coffee although he still doesn't look awake.

 Looking at our plane.

The plane ride was exciting but uneventful.  Nathan took his dramamine and had no problems.  The boys all had gum to help with their ears.  Logan was saying that he couldn't hear but I think that his ears popped evenutally.  All the kids cheered upon take off and landing.  It was our first ride of the day.  Before we knew it we were in the orlando airport. We even landed 15 minutes early.   Much much bigger and crowded.  We rode a monorail to the main terminal then followed the signs to DME (disney magical express).  Soon we were on our way to the hotel. 

I was more excited about seeing these signs than the kids.

 Our first glimpse of the contemporary.

We got in and the cast members (CM) were very helpful.  They came up to us and showed us which line to stand in and chatted with us as we waited.  We all got to the front and our rooms were ready (at 11:30).  Then we stood in the concierge line to have our disney passes added to our room key.  As we were standing there someone walked up to the CM next to ours and low and behold it was a friend from college who was also checking in that day with his family.  What a small world. 

Then we headed to our rooms and unfortunately one of them was pretty far from the rest.  So I called room assignment and they said they can get us a room that's closer to the other two but it's not ready yet.  We said that was fine with us.  So we had three rooms that were right next to each other.  I thought adjoining meant we would have the door between the rooms but nope.  Oh well. 

Finally we had lunch and then got on the monorail and headed to the Magic Kingdom.  The heat was about 90 but the humidity was well over 90% so it was hot.  I had my laminated maps with the list of rides for the day and we were off.  There were a lot of people in the parks but we moved at a steady (slow for me) pace.  We knew exactly where we were going.  We got FP for buzz lightyear spin and then stood in line for Tomorrowland speedway(20 min wait).  Astro orbiter was too long so we went on Carousal of progress.  Then we had our first Fast pass experience.  The standby line for Buzz was about 60 minutes.  We went into the fast pass line and walked right up to the front of the line.  We all felt kind of guilty that we got to go right to the front but we weren't doing anything illegal.  Buzz is a pretty cool ride and the kids loved it so we immediately got another FP.  We did people mover, hit the bathrooms, had something to drink and then did Buzz again.  Then we walked over to Adventureland and watched a little bit of the move it shake it celebration while we were walking over. 

Nathan has had a fear of parades ever since the mystic, CT parade and those darn pipers when he was three.  That is why he is not pictured below.... he is standing about 20 feet behind me, as far from the parade as he could get.  (He did get over this eventually). 

 We got FP for jungle cruise and rode Pirates and Magic carpet of Aladin while we waited for the FP.  Pirates they thought was scary at first but then it was ok.  Carpet was ok but it's just like any other carnival ride.  Then we rode Jungle cruise.  The adults liked it better than the kids because we got the corny jokes.  The kids liked it but were constantly asking if that animal was real.  Then we walked through the swiss family treehouse.  Nathan liked it, Nicholas was ready to be out of there.  Finally it was time for the last thing of the day, dinner at Crystal Palace.  We had a 6pm reservation.  6:15, 6:30, 6:45 and still they never called our name.  Finally my dad started making a fuss and they said they had our table on hold (?) It was after 7 till they seated us.  Here are some pictures we took while we were waiting. 

We finally got seated and they were very apologetic blaming it on our big group size (this was the worst wait we had for any reservation, no one else seemed to have a problem with a group of 10, but this was the first one so we were then worried that the rest of the reservations would be like this).  They gave us a fast pass for any ride as compensation.  At least it was a buffet and we could start eating right away.  This was also a character meal. 

Nathan wasn't so sure at first about the characters but he quickly got into it. 

Logan was tired and it took him a little longer to warm up to the characters. 

Nicholas and Logan were getting food when Pooh came around. 

We had been thinking about doing another ride before going back to the room but after waiting over an hour for the table we were too tired.  We got back to the room around 9pm, hit the pool for a little bit and then in to bed to rest for the next day.