Disney 2013: Day One

Disclaimer:

I made the decision to leave my fancy pants camera at home for this trip.

It almost caused me to have a panic attack when we left. It felt so wrong!

But I am super glad I just went with the old point and shoot. It was so easy

to just stuff in my back pocket and go!!Maybe another trip when Olivia is older 

I can bring fancy pants along!!

A few months ago Jon was approached by some elderly members of our church who have a granddaughter that works for Disney. They asked if we would be interested in taking the children, that their granddaughter could get us FREE tickets. What to the what? YES, please, was his response. After some serious calendar finagling between the granddaughter and ourselves, we landed on the last Tuesday and Wednesday in May. We decided to totally surprise the kids (who btw, ask with regularity when we are going back) and not tell them until we had the van packed and were ready to go. We surprised them so much that they didn’t even believe us at first! It was funny. We expected them to jump up and down and go totally nuts but we had to convince them first that we were indeed going to Disney world as soon as they could get in the car. We had a good trip down to Orlando, the first relaxing, take our time trip we’ve had in a while. We had one more surprise for them at the hotel and that was that SuSu and PawPaw were there and were going with us to Disney World!! 2 great surprises in one day!! We took our bags to our rooms, put our swim suits on, went down to the pool that felt like a hot tub and swam for a while. Then we went and ate at Cracker Barrel. A James Mizell pick. He’s definitely got a little Big Mo and a little Bro. Sam in him!!

We tried to get in the bed fairly early that night (9:30) and we all got a pretty good nights sleep once Miss Olivia finally went to sleep. I ended up having to put her in the bed with me so Audrey came got in the bed with me and Jon and James bedded up together. We got up at 6 the next morning, went and ate breakfast at the hotel and then loaded up and went to find Mickey. Well, first we had to meet up with our ticket friend who also got us a free stroller rental and told us she could get us free parking the next day. What a blessing!!


I have to say that out of all the kids Olivia was the most excited. Her little self yayed and me’d everything we said we were about to do. She had no idea what she was heading for but she was EXCITED any way!! Once we met our nice ticket lady and got our stroller, we saw Marie and Pluto. The kids have been watching Aristocats almost every day in the car and Olivia just loves it so to get to see Marie right off the bat was so cool!!! She’s also one of Audrey’s favorites. James didn’t want to see Marie so him and Jon got in line for Pluto.

It was hard to decide what we wanted to do first but decided to start at the back of the new part to Fantasy land and ride Dumbo. Oh my word I can’t even tell you excited Olivia was. And James and Audrey too, they remembered Dumbo the best from the last time they came. Dumbo now has 2 rides and a little play area while you wait which is really cool.

Then we went to a little shop next to the Cindy’s castle, Castle Coture, so Audrey could get a *free* sprinkling of Pixie Dust. (She still has some dust left in her hair too. I think it’s stuck to her scalp for good.) Then we rode the carousel which was another HUGE hit with Miss Priss and then on to the sword and the stone for James to try and get that sword out again. While we were there they did a little show and picked PawPaw out of the crowd. We all got a good laugh.

*The night before we left I started freaking out a little thinking about Olivia getting lost in the crowd. She’s so independent and I knew there was no way I could possibly keep her in my arms or the stroller the whole time; she was going to want to walk around some. So I had the brilliant idea to go buy a “leash” when we passed through Tallahassee. Hands down the BEST $10 I have ever spent on the little lady. She didn’t mind wearing it one bit and kept it on the whole time both days we were there. It saved her quite a few times from getting away from me. And it proved to be a good pillow to nap on and a soft cushion to change diapers. And the nest place to pin her 1st visit pin!!

We then went to ride the Barnstormer, a new roller coaster for tots in Fantasy Land. SuSu took the baby to go nap while the rest of us waited in line for a little more than an hour in the hot, hot sun. It’s a fun roller coaster for kids (and adults!) and the twins absolutely loved it!! It didn’t last nearly long enough for the amount of time we had to wait for it though :)

After the Barnstormer, Paw Paw went to check on SuSu and me and Jon took the twins to go ride the new Little Mermaid ride. About the time the line filled in, a little boy with a teeny tiny bladder had to go potty. So Jon got out of line with him knowing he’d never make it back to me and Audge :( Well me and Audge waited for EVER to ride in Ariel’s clam shell and see her under the sea home. She finally fell asleep about 10 minutes before we got on the ride so I had to wake her up and when I did her little face was priceless. The ride was really cool and worth the wait. I guess. Audrey’s excitement was worth the wait, I should say! After we finally got out and went and found Jon and James, he said they had actually gotten back in line but had to get out again to go back to the bathroom. Haha!!! We quit pumping them full of water after that :) When we were done with Ariel, we got in touch with Su who said they were in line for Pooh and Tiger so we raced over there to snap a pic! Then we did Peter Pan (which we had a fast pass for!), Small World and then Paw Paw treated us all to some ice cream that melted faster than they could lick it!

I think after that we headed over to Adventure Land to do Pirates of the Caribbean. Or the Jack Sparrow ride as the twins call it! I decided it best not to take Olivia cause it is a little bit creepy. At first. I’m sure you remember the James freak out from the first trip. He was determined though that this time he would not be scared!! Any way, I took Olivia to ride the Aladdin’s Magic Carpet aka the flying couch in her world! She loved it of course. After that I we ate supper and then headed over to stake a spot out for the electrical parade. After we claimed a good one, Jon and I took Olivia to go see Mickey, finally!! James and Audrey had no interest in going to see him which broke this mama’s H.E.A.R.T.
But the delight on this little face helped ease the pain. :)

The electrical parade and fireworks was amazing, as usual. I think watching the twins faces during the parade was my favorite part of the whole trip!! We had a spot right on the curb and Olivia sat in my lap for a while and was digging being so close. Until a snail from Alice in Wonderland’s line got a little to close for comfort. Then she wanted to go back there with daddy. Said it was to skeery. Really, she said skeery! So she stayed with Jon the rest of the time!

** I am extremely tired at the moment. Like so tired my face hurts. Really. So maybe tomorrow or when ever I blog about our 2nd day I can give a few more details about some of the things I brought for entertainment and snacks and food to save money.