Disney 2011- Day 1 Wednesday May 18th

I am reviving the blog with some posts on our first Disney vacation with Brady and Tanner. I reluctantly went with Tim's recommendation that we schedule a trip to see Mickey. I wanted to go for as few days as possible, with time only to see Magic Kingdom. My former neighbor in the office next door at Baker Hughes goes very often, and his wife is a travel agent. We used her help to coordinate a trip. All of the planning took less than a month for us. This meant we didn't get to do things that must be planned six months in advance, but we didn't miss those.

These are are en-route pictures. Eating in the towncar on the way to the airport, Brady sleeping on the plane and Tanner being Tanner on the plane- no nap for him.

We arrived at the Polynesian at 2 pm, checked in and had a snack at Captain Cooks in the hotel. Then we went straight to the Magic Kingdom....well, nearly. The monorail had some issue and they didn't know when it would be fixed. From our hotel, we could also take a boat. We did that, and it worked out well. These are pictures of the hotel dock and from our boat ride.

We started in Tommorowland, and immediately initiated ourselves to the Fastpass system by obtaining Fastpasses to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. We rode the Peoplemover as a warm-up ride. The boys were able to practice loading onto and getting out using the escalators and moving walkways...no problem. From there, we went to Tomorrowland Speedway, the cars that they can drive (nearly) themselves. Tim said he didn't know how anyone could be a worse driver than Brady, but I promise that Tanner was. He wouldn't hold the steering wheel when the car's wheels hit the guides. That meant that we were being kicked from side to side each time there was a turn in the road. Apparently, the same thing was happening in the Tim/ Brady car.

We then got Fastpasses for Brady and Tim to ride Space Mountain, the roller coaster. While we waited for their ride, we saw Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. Everyone enjoyed it! Tanner was consoled for not being tall enough to ride the roller coaster by me taking him to ride the darn cars again. This time, they gave him a driver's license! He didn't deserve it!

Since Tim didn't take his cell phone to the park, we had a designated meeting place near Space Mountain. When Tanner and I arrived back there, Tim and Brady had been there for a while because Brady got all the way to the front of the line and decided that he didn't want to ride.

We went back to a character encounter, the only encounter that we did at the park. The character encounters were a little crazy...we waited in what looked to be a short line, but it took nearly an hour. Of course, once it was our turn we had him all to ourselves also. Buzz Lightyear was a great sport when Brady literally pushed his buttons. He moved around and was incredibly agile for someone in a real space suit.



We were following part of a plan from The Unofficial Gide to Walt Disney World With Kids (thanks to the most organized person that I know- former coworker at BHI). He would never have let the following occur...We were on our way out of the park at around 8 pm when the parade began on Main Street. Brady and Tanner didn't seem particularly exhausted and they wanted to see the show. We saw it and headed out before the fireworks. It wasn't early enough. We had to wait a little while for the monorail. Then I had to get a Dole Pineapple Whip- a tangy ice cream dessert available at our hotel! These things were enough to throw our bath schedule off because we had big plans for super-early Thursday morning. No baths and everyone to bed by 10...pretty successful day!

At bedtime, Tanner's favorite activity of the day was driving the cars. Brady's favorite activity of the day...the boat ride to the Magic Kingdom.