Disney: Day 1 - Magic Kingdom

Monday was a travel day. Our flight was delayed nearly 2 hours but our driving service to the Art of Animation resort was ready when we got into the Sanford Orlando airport and we were in the room by late evening. The section of the resort that we are in is Cars themed, so our room has a Mater fold out bed, cars inspired sofa bed and cozy cone designs everywhere. It's pretty cool. There are full size replicas of all the main characters outside of the building too. So I am calling Tuesday, Day 1. 

We started our Disney adventure at the Magic Kingdom. The Disney Magic Bands make getting into the park quite easy and bag check was pretty quick. We walked down Main Street admiring the shops and feeling the blasts of cool air billowing out of every open door.  Leigh made note of a Starbucks for later. We snapped a few pictures of the castle and headed into Tomorrowland. We jumped onto Stitch's Great Escape. The line was short so it seemed like a fun way to start... Well the experience had a lot of darkness with our seats shaking, air blowing on us and the smell of Stitch burping while the space adventure unfolded. It scared the kids a little and was not the best start, so we hopped onto the Tomorrowland Speedway where they were able to drive gas powered go carts around an open air track. From there, we took a spin on Mad Tea Party tea cups which was fun and no one got sick ;)

We took a walk through the Swiss Family Treehouse which gave me some ideas for how we can improve our treehouse. Then we strolled through the rest of Adventureland in search of Pirates of the Caribean. The wait looked short so we took a chance and found that the line moved quickly. The kids were a little scared of some of the skeleton pirates in the beginning but liked the second part where Jack Sparrow was popping up throughout the ride. Jack found a cool pirate hat that he liked at the gift shop but is thinking he will get a sword instead when he decides at the end of the week.  

We had a FastPass for the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster around lunchtime, so we headed off to Frontierland. We were a little early, so the kids had a Mickey ice cream while we waited. Once we got on the coaster, I think it is safe to say that this was the highlight ride for the day. The kids really liked this one. After the ride, we we're ready for lunch. We decided on Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe. It was very crowded and a little chaotic, but once we got our order in and paid with our Magic Band, we had a lot of food and it was pretty good. The kids really liked the churros.

At this point, it was pretty hot in the late afternoon, so we hopped a bus back to the resort and took a swim in the Cozy Cone pool. The kids seemed to recharge after a nice long swim in the unusually warm water.  We cleaned up and headed back to the Magic Kingdom by bus, then caught the Monorail to the Grand Floridian Resort for dinner.  It was a buffet dinner with Cinderella, Prince Charming, Cinderella's Stepmother and stepsisters. Nora seemed to feel a little shy about getting pictures with them and Jack was not overly into the princesses, but it was fun.  After dinner, we went back to the Magic Kingdom. Leigh got a Starbucks coffee and we headed off to try to ride the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train but the wait was too long. We gave up after about an hour to head back to the room for the night.  We have a FastPass later in the week for that one. 

We stayed up late watching some tv and then crashed after a long day. Day 2: Epcot was coming on Wednesday.