Thursday, June 2, 2016

Disney Surprise: Days One and Two

We told the boys about our surprise trip to Disney the morning before we left. That meant I only had to deal with their excitement for just over 24 hours until we got on the plane.

Our flight to Orlando was two Saturdays ago, May 21, at 1:15pm. Nola dropped us off at the airport around 11:30am, and we got through security quickly with no issues.

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The boys occupied themselves by eating snacks and looking at the books and playing with the toys that they brought with them. Daddy took them on one final run to the potty and when they got back, our plane had arrived at the gate and we were ready to board: it was Rory’s first time on an airplane! He didn’t want to see the cockpit, but Riley stopped in to greet our captain before we found our seats.

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Both boys did great on the flight, although Riley’s ear understandably bothered him a little on takeoff and landing. We ended up being the last ones off the plane, and when Riley went up to thank the captain, he offered for him and Rory to climb up into the cockpit. This time Rory didn’t hesitate. So cool that they got to do this!

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Once off the plane and into the airport, we took the train to the main terminal and went downstairs to get on the Magical Express. We were on our way to Disney!

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We passed under the official “Welcome to Walt Disney World” sign and eventually ended up at our home for the next four nights, Disney’s Pop Century resort. The boys loved discovering the huge foam Legos on a rug outside of the entrance!

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We spent the rest of the day swimming in one of the resort’s pools and had dinner at the resort’s restaurant. It was the perfect way to end our first day; the boys had a great time getting some of their pent up energy out. Then we went back to the room to get PJs on and head to bed to rest up for our first day at the parks.

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The next morning, we picked up a quick breakfast from the resort restaurant and got in line for the bus. We spent our first full day at Magic Kingdom. We took some pictures in front of Main Street Station, got Rory his official “1st Visit” pin, and then headed to Tomorrowland.

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The line for Space Mountain was next to nothing, so Riley and I jumped on that. Nothing like starting out his second trip to Disney with one of the fastest rides, right? Well, it was a good decision because it ended up being his favorite ride of the whole trip.

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Kenny took Rory to do the racecars and then we all met back up to head over to the Big Top area in Fantasyland. It was time for Rory’s first rollercoaster ride: the Barnstormer. He seemed a bit scared but didn’t cry. (I will post the video later.) Then we all rode Dumbo. The inside play area would become a favorite of both boys. They constantly asked to go back to it!

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After Dumbo, we walked over to Frontierland. We determined early on that Rory unfortunately wasn’t tall enough to ride very much, while Riley was tall enough to ride everything. And since I reserved fast passes for all of us, Riley lucked out and got to ride some things twice using his brother’s fast pass. The first of these was Big Thunder Mountain. Then we hopped over to do Splash Mountain twice, which Riley declared his second favorite ride of the trip. I love our photo from our second ride on that; the group of guys in the front of our boat cracked me up.

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Meanwhile, Kenny and Rory entertained themselves.

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The next hour or so was a bit of a blur; I can’t remember what we did. But then we were finally able to use our fast passes for the new Seven Dwarves’ Mine Train ride. Rory was able to ride this one, so all four of us got to go together. It was so fun!

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However, this was Rory’s face throughout most of the ride. Too funny. I have a video of this ride as well. I’ll post both sometime next week!

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After the mine train we took a break for lunch at Cosmic Ray’s in Tomorrowland. We all needed to sit down inside and refuel. Rory was becoming increasingly whiny; in fact, Kenny and I wondered if he was actually running fever. He didn’t have the best day, and we probably should have gone back to our room to rest, but we powered through and got through the day.

After lunch we walked through the castle and then headed up Main Street (pausing a couple of times for photos) to take a relaxing ride on the Disney railroad. Rory was excited to do this!

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When we got back, the afternoon parade was passing through the circle on Main Street, and we got a glimpse of the really cool Sleeping Beauty dragon float that actually breathed fire.

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We attempted to go see Mickey since we were very near his meet and greet, but the line was too long. So instead I snagged a fast pass for the Haunted Mansion and we headed that way. However, Rory fell asleep in the stroller, so Kenny ended up holding him through the entire ride.  Awkward but he managed!

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Rory slept a bit more in the stroller once we were done. We walked back over to Tomorrowland and I stayed with the sleeping one while Kenny took Riley on Space Mountain again.

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We had dinner reservations at Tony’s on Main Street that evening, and we seriously debated canceling them. Rory was just done. But we all needed to eat and it was inside and air conditioned and on our way out. So we went. Rory hadn’t eaten much all day and he didn’t eat much at dinner until our waiter brought a dish of fruit out. He at least agreed to eat that and drink his milk. But it was touch and go for awhile!

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Then, as if we hadn’t pushed our two boys hard enough, we decided to take them on the monorail (after taking a few more pics in front of the train station on our way out….with no one in the background!). They were both super excited, and it was actually a really nice ride.

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We rode all the way to Epcot, where the boys got to see the big ball and where we also got to see some of the impressive landscaping that was a part of the annual International Flower and Garden Festival. So pretty.

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We arrived back at our room just in time to see an amazing sunset. We gave the boys a quick bath and they were asleep almost as soon as their heads hit their pillows. And they didn’t even wake up when the fireworks show at Hollywood Studios lit up the sky just outside our window. I enjoyed it though!

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Day Three recap coming up next!

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