Oh Disney World…can I please, please visit every single day??? I am a TRUE believer in all things Disney and am so thankful for our trip!!!
When I booked the trip I knew that there was a Magical Morning Hour the day we were going to the park. I really wanted to see the opening show, but figured missing it (yet again!) was worth it to have the low crowd levels and to be able to see the fireworks show that evening. I mentioned to Zach that we’d be missing the opening show and my sweet husband suggested that we go to the park when it opened for the resort guests only so we could see the show 🙂 I asked Guest Relations at Downtown Disney and they told me that they would have the opening show at 7:45 am and that it wouldn’t be a problem for us to go watch 🙂 Perfect!!! We woke Kye up at the last possible second, hopped in the car at 7 am and headed that way!!!
Sleepy on the Monerail
We got there plenty early and got to take a few pictures outside…can I just say that I am NOT a fan of the Halloween decorations?!?! Christmas at Disney is AWESOME…Halloween junk, to me, is just tacky looking though. Maybe it’s my inbred hatred for the Florida Gators that makes me cringe when I see all that orange?!?! I prefer just classic Disney!
When we went to Disney with Zach’s fam back over the summer I talked to Zach about starting Kye on the Disney pin collection. I bought him a lanyard and his first pin on that trip but wanted to wait to give it to him until we visited the park on this trip. I also hunted around on Ebay and ended up buying 25 hidden mickey authentic pins for only $15. SCORE 🙂 In hindsight I should have given Kye the lanyard prior to the trip and gotten him pumped up about it, I think he would have been more into it. Now that we’re home he’s OBSESSED with it and I do think it’s going to be such a fun Disney tradition!
Since we had some time before the opening show, I gave it to him!
Showing off his pins!
A few minutes before the opening show a cast member handed out little Mickey Mouse confetti to the kids to toss. Kye was so excited he tossed it in the air right away and it landed all over me. He’s asked me many times if he can get Pixie Dust next time so he can wait to throw it! Zach was picking Mickey’s out of my hair the rest of the day. And I loved it 😉 The opening show was everything I had remembered and more. I know it’s silly but I get CHILLS watching it and that little kid Christmas morning feeling comes over me. For real, I got tears in my eyes. It was special to me, and I’m thankful Zach allowed us to put in the extra effort to be there! Here’s a video of it!
Once we got in the park we knew we’d be able to throw any strict itineraries out the window…it wasn’t hardly crowded at all. THE longest line we waited in all day was 25 minutes long. FOR REAL. Isn’t that awesome?!?! We went ahead and got our castle pictures right away. I knew we’d be breaking a sweat at some point (and there was a HIGH chance of rain that day too) so I wanted to make sure we got one. They were doing construction so there was a HUGE crane by the castle…I edited out of these the best I could 😉 Which I also had to do last year!
It’s nice not being pregnant in these 😉 Gotta replace the one on our photo wall!
First stop was to get some breakfast. I knew from Rachael that there isn’t a place that serves legit breakfast food at the park…but I hadn’t thought to tell Zach that. So he was pretty bummed. We did pass some type of recording going on…maybe for The Disney Channel???
We found a foot stand in a section of the park we never go to…by the tea cups. Kye and Zach each got a HUGE blueberry muffin. I opted to eat some apple slices I packed instead as I’ve been working hard to stick as close to my Advocare plan as possible and didn’t want to cheat on something I didn’t really like that much…I planned on saving my “cheat food” for later in the day haha
Apples!
First ride of the day? DUMBO, of course!!! They have the whole thing completed and both Dumbo rides opened. It’s a great set up! They have a play area inside the tent and they will buzz you (like they do at restaurants) when it’s your turn in line. So you can stay cool, your kids can play and have fun, and still technically “be in line.” Great concept! Thankfully, we ran through the tent as we didn’t have any wait time. I’m hoping, with my planning, that we won’t ever need to use the play area!!!
We all three got to ride together 🙂
When we exited Dumbo I wanted to take a peak at the remodeled Barnstormer and splash area. We decided to see if Kye would be tall enough and if he’d be interested in riding the Barnstormer. I’ve never ridden it. Like I DO NOT do roller coasters in any form. Don’t try to talk me into it either. It’s not going to happen. Ever. 🙂
Tall Enough to ride!!!!
While the boys rode, I checked out the splash play area. It’s smaller than I had imagined…but I’m sure it’d be heavenly in the summer heat. I did bring Kye’s suit in case we had down time and he wanted to do it but since we start the day in Fantasyland there wasn’t “down time” while in that area of the park and we never made it back that way. He did mention it a few times and I do think he’d enjoy it!
Front car!
So Kye was IN LOVE with his first ever roller coaster. Seeing how excited and happy he was after riding it was one of my favorite moments of the day! He loved it so much they went to ride it again! It’s a new favorite, for sure. It was one of only two rides we rode twice (the other being Pirates, of course).
Thrill Seekers 🙂
Tired of Mommy being the paparazzi…
We decided to skip Winnie the Pooh this time…the ride is cool but we’re not fans of Winnie the Pooh so we went to the carousel next! Kye was SO EXCITED to ride the horsey! He picked one out and had so much fun. He was in a cute mood so Zach snapped a couple pictures of us together for me 🙂
Not saying they are skinny by any means…but I can REALLY see some changes in my arms can’t you?!?! It makes me super excited!!! Yay for Advocare!
“Giddy Up!!!”
Haha
Crazy Boy Kye
Testing their manly muscles on the sword in the stone
Looks like he’s trying really hard…
When we went back to get our stroller there were TONS of birds all over it pecking away at Kye’s muffin. Zach later said he should have snapped a picture before scaring them all away. Kye did a good job not getting overly upset about the muffin. But, obviously, we had to toss it. I brought more than enough snacks to keep him eating to his hearts content though!
Recently Kye watched Peter Pan for the first time and it’s become his current favorite movie. Zach and I had forgotten how awesome it is. Like we love it too! He’s ridden the Peter Pan ride before but I was excited for him to ride it now that he loves the movie so much 🙂 Peter Pan’s Flight is actually one of the rides with the longest wait times. It’s the longest line we waited in all day (25 minutes). It went by quickly and was well worth it…but it’s for sure not a ride we’ll ever ride twice!
Found one last piece of “pixie dust” and he wanted to hold onto it 😉
The ride was SO FUN. Kye kept pointing out all the characters and saying hi to all of them and it was neat to pretend we were flying right along with Peter Pan! 🙂 My favorite is the crocodile. Those eyes are hilarious!
Pointing to the crocodile!
Next up was It’s A Small World
Pointing at everything
AFLAC!!!
The nice lady behind us offered to take our picture. You know I wouldn’t turn that down 🙂
We headed to Phillarmagic next and for the first time EVER we walked right into the theater. Which was awesome but it also meant we had to snap a quick 3d glasses picture after the show. I seriously love Phillarmagic. Who wouldn’t? I love all the Disney songs. It’s so fun! Kye loved the Simba part this time a lot and now that we sing the Disney music all the time, we talk about this show a lot.
Quick photo stop!
I look like I’m totally on something haha
Just like last year…Kye asked to get out and have a picture too!
We headed over to Frontierland next. Sadly, Country Bears was closed for repairs. Since Kye loved the barnstormer so much, Zach wanted to take him on Splash Mountain. Not tall enough…even when he tried to be sneaky and stand on tip toes haha. We even went back again later in the day and tried with a different person working there and they wouldn’t let him either. Something to look forward to next trip!
Woody and Jesse were out and about in Frontierland. Zach and Kye went to play on the playground under Splash Mountain while I waited in line. I had NOTHING with me. Just standing there. Plus it was almost time for me to pump so I was uncomfortable (which is more noticeable when you’re doing nothing). And everyone around me didn’t speak English. The line was decently long. They say to average 5 minutes of wait time per child ahead of you so that ended up being roughly 40 min. 40 min wait for characters he’s already seen twice??? I left the line and decided he’d be fine without meeting them again. And he was. It NEVER came up!!! Glad I made that choice 🙂
Instead we headed up the stairs to ride the choo choo. We had a 7 min wait for it and it felt like an eternity for some reason? Maybe b/c we were the only ones standing there waiting???
That morning while waiting for the show, Zach’s SHOES BROKE. Like his nice Nike’s! He started walking to enter the park and the bottoms fell off. Poor guy. The heels were missing so he had to walk around all day on his tip toes. He didn’t complain about it and, hey, he got a great calf work out…
Haha this face kills me!
Proof that our little boy is growing up…the choo choo was no longer something to get excited over. Typically it’s a favorite ride for him but this time he was pretty bored and asked to get off at the first stop. Yay for skipping this one next time we go 😉 But as his mama it does make me a little sad to see him becoming less and less of a baby and more and more of a kid.
Pirate time!!!
On the way to walk into Pirates Kye fell. He skinned his knee and was pretty upset about it. I didn’t want to go into his favorite ride with him upset so while Zach calmed him down I hopped in line to meet Pirate Goofy. There was only one kid in front of us so why not? Kye had ZERO interest in him but we took a quick picture then moved on. At least he got to meet one character this time!
Pirate Faces!
After pirates we hopped in the line for Jungle Cruise. I sacrificed and agreed not to do Tiki Room this time. When we originally planned the trip we planned to stay at the park ALL DAY. From opening till close and skip Kye’s nap. With the drama the day before Kye hadn’t gotten a good nap. And with him skipping his nap for the FSU game the weekend prior to our trip…I knew he needed a nap. I know some kids may be able to run off very little sleep, but Kye is at his best when he’s well-rested. I am ALL about Disney being about my child’s happiness, that makes ME happy. So we decided we would leave for naptime. That way, too, Zach could change shoes 🙂 While I was fine with that decision…it also made things a little more rushed in order to make sure we could fit it all in! I was fine with skipping Tiki Room as that saved us some precious time 🙂
While waiting in the Jungle Cruise line Kye started to get lunchy. I pulled out his notepad and pen and let him doodle while we waited. He was SO focused on drawing that I had to keep reminding him to move forward. The people in line behind us couldn’t get over his focus and concentration. They couldn’t believe he had such a long attention span at his age. Def a feel good mommy moment 😉
The night before Zach had gone to Publix and picked us up some subs to eat for lunch. We didn’t want to spend money or calories on eating lunch at the park. I also packed Kye a lunchable. So we went to eat lunch in Adventureland by “our spot” for our special ice cream treats. Perfect dessert 🙂 Kye enjoyed the ice cream we accidentally got on our last visit so he got that again but Zach and I got the REAL DEAL. If you go to Magic Kingdom you MUST go to Adventureland and get the Orange Fanta Float…AMAZING 🙂
I was shocked at it being September in Orlando yet not being that hot AT ALL. We legit barely broke a sweat all day and never busted out any of our fans! It was perfect Disney weather and it was great timing for a refreshing treat! 🙂
After eating our treats it was time to head out. Zach made a napkin bib to cover Kye so he could finish his ice cream on the go (child is the SLOWEST eater…which is a good thing. Better for his metabolism!)
Being silly on the monorail ride back
We played the Pirates of the Caribbean song over and OVER the entire way back to our condo. Kye created his “pirate face” and it was hilarious. We saw a boy at the park who had done the face painting thing and Kye has asked many times if he can do that next time. Oh child, we won’t be spending that kind of dough just for face painting! Hopefully he won’t remember it!
We got back to the room and put Kye down for a nap. Of course he was SUPER pumped up but he did fall asleep and got a good couple of hours. I pumped and relaxed and Zach caught up on some tv watching 🙂 I felt antsy the whole time, like I was wasting precious time at the park but it was well worth it to make sure Kye would have a blast during the second half of our day! More of that to come 🙂
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Looks like such a fun morning! I am SO pumped about our trip in the spring now. I will probably use your days as a guide and do the same thing. ha!
looks like you guys had so much fun!we LOVE Peter Pan too, I never ever paid it much attention before, but it's great, it's my choice when it's my night to pick the movie 🙂