May 14, 2014
It was so fun to wake up at DISNEY WORLD on the morning of Ella's 6th Birthday! I had a couple of small presents for her to open and then it was off to the parks to "ride rides"! That's all the kids wanted to do!!
^^The kids got to stare at the beautiful castle while they ate breakfast that morning. ^^
The monorail went through our hotel so we jumped on and arrived at Magic Kindom at 8:30am...30 minutes before the park opening at 9am. We waited in the crowd for a few minutes and then watched the opening ceremony. As soon as the park opened we headed straight ahead, through the castle.
^^Soaking it all in, ready to see what Disney is all about. ^^
Our first stop at 9am was "Enchanted Tales with Belle". I knew there was an opportunity for kids to volunteer for a part in her story and spend extra time with Belle, so I talked to Ella about it before hand and encouraged her to do it if she wanted. At first she didn't, but I was proud when she volunteered to be Phillip, Belle's horse. And Daddy was picked to play one of the guards.
It was a fun way to meet Belle and Ella says one of her favorites from the trip! Even at 9am we waited 20 minutes for this experience and then spent another 20 minutes inside with her. However, even almost an hour later, there were hardly any lines in Fantasyland. We used a fast pass to jump on Winnie the Pooh and then had a short 3 minute wait for the Tea Cups. We all loved the tea cups, however, I can't quite do the spinning rides like I could as a kid!!!
Barnstormer was perfect for Easton's first ever roller coaster experience. Easton loved it and Ella was sad it was over so quick! I already knew Ella would love all the rides, but wasn't sure what Easton would think.
They both loved the classic Dumbo Ride.
After Dumbo the kids ran through the Casey Jr. Splash Pad to cool off. They loved anything where they could get wet!! We made our way over to It's a Small World and then used another fast pass to skip by a 40 minute wait at Peter Pan's flight. Peter Pan was one of our favorites in Fantasyland!
We rode the Carousel after Peter Pan and watched Mickey's Philharmagic 3D Movie. This was an awesome movie that the kids LOVED! They were trying to grab at everything and were laughing the whole time. Loved it!!
We had lunch at Pinocchio Village Haus and then headed out of Fantasyland to use our fast passes for Splash Mountain. We walked right in and just as we were about to be first in line, it started raining outside and the ride was closed due to lightening!! We decided to wait it out anyway and spent an hour and a half waiting out the lightening. This was the only long wait all week and it was worth it because the kids LOVED this ride and immediately wanted to ride again. Ella was actually the one who got a little scared and Easton surprised me with how brave he was. This was his favorite ride of the day.
As we walked out of Splash Mountain we saw Woody and Jesse and just waved hello. It was time for the new Festival of Fantasy parade so the kids and I grabbed a spot for this while Michael grabbed another fast pass. I loved this parade and thought the floats were AMAZING! By this time it was 3:00 and Easton slept through the whole thing.
We grabbed a snack at Gaston's Tavern...the hugest cinnamon roll Ella had ever seen and she was certainly bouncing off the walls after eating it.
We did Under the Sea Voyage of the Little Mermaid with a fast pass, and then headed over to Buzz Light Year while we waited for our last fast pass to open up for Space Mountain.
This picture of the boys on Buzz light year cracks me up!
Ella was tall enough for Space Mountain and wanted to ride. Easton was too short so Michael and I were going to switch off. Ella wanted to ride with me first. When we got on the ride, I was so worried that it was too scary for her and I was talking to her the whole time. Letting her know I was right there and that she was ok. I never heard a peep out of her. The way the ride is we couldn't sit next to each other, just in front and behind. This is a super fast roller coaster in the PITCH BLACK!!! Ugh...it killed me not knowing how she was doing. As soon as the ride was over, she seemed ok, but then she started crying saying that her head had been hitting the side and it was hurting her ear. She didn't know how to brace herself, poor thing. She immediately said she didn't want to ride again with Daddy, and I didn't blame her because I didn't even care to ride again. Well, by the time we made it to the exit she had already changed her mind and said she wanted to ride again with Daddy!! I was shocked and actually tried to talk her out of it!! Well, the second time, she figured out how to brace herself and ending up loving it. Crazy girl.
While waiting for Ella to finish Space Mountain for the second time Easton saw the race cars. He was in aww and wanted to ride SO bad! We needed to head out for dinner reservations so we promised him we would do it first thing on our next day at Magic Kingdom. Even before getting to ride, he told me that it was his favorite ride!!
At 6pm, we left Magic Kingdom for the first time that day and felt like we had accomplished a ton for our first day!
