Disney World - Days 1&2

DAY 1

On November 27th, after months of secret planning, we surprised the kids with a trip to Disney World!!!  We waited until the morning that we were leaving to tell them.  They woke up at 6:15 thinking that they were going to start getting ready for school and instead we sent them on a scavenger hunt around the house to find their early Christmas present!  They ran from the refrigerator, to the dryer, to the car in the garage, to the pool gate, to Georgia's dollhouse, up to the playroom, and then finally back down to the big box by the tree.  They opened the box and Mickey and Minnie balloons came out!  They were confused at first and then we said, "We're going to Disney World!" It took a few seconds to process and then once Reid got over his concern about missing school, they were SO excited!!! We quickly got them dressed and then we were out the door by 6:45!  

This was their first time on a plane.  I had no idea what to expect, but they did wonderfully!! I hate flying, but having the kids with us was a good distraction.  Rhett says that his favorite part of the trip was the airplane! :)

We were so happy to arrive at our hotel! We stayed at The Contemporary, which was a great choice!  You can't be the location.  We walked to Magic Kingdom and we had a great view of the castle from our room!  

After grabbing a quick lunch in the hotel, Rhett and I stayed in the room so that he could nap and Chris and the big kids spent time checking out the hotel grounds.  We had dinner reservations that night at Chef Mickey's (which was conveniently at our hotel).  It was such a FUN way to kick off our trip - buffet of "kid food" and getting to meet Mickey and his friends!  Rhett was happy to wave to the characters, but didn't want to get too close.  

After dinner we got everyone to bed to get rested up for our first big day at Magic Kingdom! 

A few things to note before sharing about the rest of the trip... 

*I don't ever want to go to Disney World at any time other than Christmas.   The weather was glorious (kind of cold on our first two park days which I loved and warmish but pleasant the other two park days).  Disney World decorated for Christmas is absolutely magical.  There were gigantic trees, beautiful garlands, lights everywhere, and Christmas music playing everywhere we went.  Going the week after Thanksgiving break meant that the crowds were lower than usual, which was also a huge bonus.

*We did the parks each day from open to about 1:30/2:00 and then came back for some down time.  Rhett took a nap and we put the other two in the bathroom with ipads.  After a couple of hours of rest time, we went back to the parks for more fun in the evenings.  This worked well for us!  

*Based on the ages of our kids, we decided that we would not to go to Epcot on this trip.  We spent two days at Magic Kingdom instead and we were really happy with that decision!

*Thanks to an Amazon prime delivery to our hotel room, we ate breakfast in our room every day except one and played the other meals by ear, usually finding random little restaurants at the parks.  The only meal reservations we made were Chef Mickey's on the night we arrived and then breakfast at Cinderella's castle on our last park day.  

*We went into the trip with the mindset that we would not be able to do everything.  We wanted to get the most out of the trip, obviously, so we planned ahead with some fast passes, reservations, etc. But we also wanted to enjoy it and not feel stressed and frantic the whole time, so we tried to go with the flow and be flexible.  

DAY 2

We are ready for our first day at the Magic Kingdom!!!

Highlights of the day... 

Georgia loved meeting several princesses.  She was shy and looks very serious in these pictures, but she was just taking it all in. :)  Her favorites were Rapunzel and Elena.  They were both SO sweet and personable!  Rhett also loved Elena!  He was so funny and silly when he met her.

The kids discovered their favorite rides!  Rhett's favorite was Dumbo.  Reid's favorite was Goofy's Barn Stormer (a smallish rollercoaster), Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger (we got to meet Buzz before the ride), and Tomorrowland Speedway.  Georgia's favorite was the teacups.  

Before heading back for our afternoon break we saw our first parade!

We went back to Magic Kingdom that evening and rode some of the kids' favorite rides again.  I also talked Reid and Georgia into riding Big Thunder Mountain with me and while I loved it, Reid declared it "a nightmare" and gave it "two thumbs down". :) We decided at that point that we wouldn't ride any of the other big rollercoasters.  The castle lit up at night was absolutely beautiful!

The best way to end a magical first day was to pick out Christmas treats from the shop at our hotel and watch the fireworks show from our room!