ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

I have to admit to being a little to intimidated to dive into the actual park touring part of our trip because there's so many details to remember and pictures coming from a few different sources. Deep breath....let's give it a try! Warning: this is a very long day as we did so many things. Report will be very lengthy!

Friday, September 28, is our first day to tour the parks. I had lots of work put into this trip and I think Kami may have started to see why. It's a huge orchestration to get everybody going where we need to go, on time, with everything we need. In addition, navigating WDW (which is the size of Manhattan) is a feat and having it well researched ahead of time helps navigation to run smoothly. The backpack packing list that I had pre-typed was something we referred to each night as we prepared for the next day, outfits were laid out, plans for the next day were discussed. Kami and I really had it down even from this very first morning without it feeling stressed or too hurried.

The kids had set out their Tinkerbell gift bags and when we woke them up, they sprang up to see what Tink had left them. Looks like she filled the bag with some things and also left us a few rules for our trip!


This short list of rules worked much better than I ever thought they would throughout the week. Kami was often threatening to email Tink if behavior was bad but I don't think she ever actually did that. ;)

So we were off around 7:20 to head to the Magic Kindgom's Little Ones Extra Magic Hour where Fantasyland will be open for an hour before the rest of the park. We are about 20 minutes early which gives us enough time to get our backpacks searched and use our room keys/tickets for the first time. We do end up waiting for a bit before we are let in but the weather is nice and the crowds are relatively light.

The countdown is yelled out and as soon as we hear the 3....2....1...we are off! We opt to skip the stroller rental right at the front of the park since it will be very crowded initially and opt to pick one up in Fantasyland a little while later. Kami snapped a few shots on our way in...



First ride is Dumbo which took a few minutes to get onto. If you don't do this ride first, you don't really get much of a chance to do it later in the day as the line grows so quickly. I will probably choose to skip it on future trips since none of the other rides have waits like this one!


After that, we were off to Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan with no waits. Reaghan didn't like Peter Pan because it was dark but did like the Pooh ride. Then we're off to It's a Small World with no wait again.

Kami had to point out to me that this last part of the ride is where all of the various cultures come together in one room. I hadn't noticed but now it's so obvious. I'm not very perceptive sometimes.


I wanted to be out of Fantasyland by 9 to move onto other sections so we head toward Tomorrowland. We stop at the Indy Speedway cars on the way. This ride isn't great but it's so visible from this section of the park that if you don't do it and then the kids beg to do it, you'll probably have a long line. Better to do it early while the line is short and get it out of the way. The line was short until the Cast Members stopped the ride to pull out more cars which took probably 10 minutes.



After that, we were off to Buzz Lightyear which was Blake's favorite ride last time. We walk right on and it's fun and we're able to get more points than our previous trip. I'm not sure Reaghan understood the concept of the laser gun at first but it's still fun to ride and spin and look at the visuals. After that, we were off to ride the Tomorrowland Transit Authority a.k.a. The People Mover. This basically gives you a tour of Tomorrowland and lasts probably 12 minutes or so. Blake loves it. LOVES it. He loved it last time too.

At this point, we're off to Toontown to meet up with some characters! I'm really, really not into characters and Blake's only into Mickey but Reaghan likes the characters so we are making time for them for her. We head into see the princesses. Reaghan gets to meet Aurora, Cinderella and Belle. I comment to Kami that these are really pretty princesses and I'm surprised to find "the pretty ones" in this location. She had nothing to compare to so she wasn't quite sure what I meant I don't think. She will find out exactly what I mean later in the trip. :)



After Blake had waited patiently for Reaghan to meet with the princesses, we were off to Mickey's house to meet with Mickey since Mickey is the only character Blake will meet. Let's see how many times we meet Mickey on this trip. We met him at Chef Mickey's last night and then today at his house. Mickey count: 2.


At this point it's 10:30 and we are scheduled to split off. Miss Reaghan has an appointment at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in the castle for her princess makeover and Blake wants to head to the barbershop for a haircut and maybe a few rides while we wait for their appointment to finish. Along the way, Kami and Reaghan stop for a whirl on the teacups.


We are up to 11 am on Day 2 and I'll have to continue with the rest of the trip report for this day tomorrow. This report takes as long to compose as it did for us to actually do it! :) Next installment will include Reaghan's makeover, Blake's haircut, our photo shoot and some shopping and eating in Downtown Disney!