Disney: Day 1 (Downtown Disney)
Disney: Day 2 (Animal Kingdom)
Disney: Day 3 (Downown Disney and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party)
Disney: Day 4 (Universal's Islands of Adventure)
Disney: Day 5 (Magic Kingdom)
On Thursday we spent the day at Magic Kingdom. The park was open an hour early for those staying on Disney property, so we got there early and saw the opening ceremony. The characters come out and do a little song and dance and a family gets invited to cut the ropes. They started the ceremony at about 7:50, we were walking up just in time. Sam enjoyed watching this and we didn't need to get there early to get a good spot, you can see it from everywhere.
Main Street was busy, but we wanted to stop at Main Street Bakery to get a cinnamon roll for breakfast. It was delicious, and counts as a snack on the meal plan.
We headed back to Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain.
We were lucky and saw Stitch near Space Mountain with hardly any line to meet him. Sam was excited, so we decided to go see him.
We were then sitting on the bench waiting for Brad and Eric to finish Space Mountain, and Sam saw Stitch again, this time with no one waiting. Sam said "Stitch, High five!" I told him to go see him since there was no line. Sam ran over to him, but then stopped short. Stitch was very nice and played peek-a-boo with Sam.
After we all rode Space Mountain we ran into Chip and Dale.
Then, we rode Buzz Lightyear's ride. Sam was able to ride this one and liked it. There were no scary parts and there are ray guns attached to the cart and you are supposed to try to shoot targets throughout the ride.
After that, we waited for Brad and Eric to ride Stitch's Great Escape. Sam didn't ride that one because I had heard it was scary (I'm not sure if there is a height requirement for this one).
We rode Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride, which is very similar to the Dumbo ride except you can use a lever to tilt it front and back. There is also a camel that randomly spits water out. Sam liked this ride too. As an added bonus, Aladdin and Jasmine were riding on it when we got there! Sam doesn't know those characters, but my inner 4th grader was impressed. :)
Then, we headed to Crystal Palace for brunch with the Winnie the Pooh characters.
Crystal Palace breakfast was similar to the other character breakfast complete with waffles, eggs, sausage, pancakes, pastries, etc. Oh, and the Winnie the Pooh characters. They each came around to our table for a visit.
Sam's favorites were Tigger and Piglet. He kept feeling Piglets ears and face. :)
As we walked out, it was perfect timing, as a small parade was going on. This is the Shake it, Move it, Celebrate it parade. It still includes all the characters and a catchy song.
Sam saw Woody up close and gave him a high five... although he keeps calling him "Buzz", and calls Buzz Lightyear "Buzz the Bee"... I don't think Sam quite understands Toy Story.
Goofy came off his float to dance with everyone. We stayed close for a minute and then backed out to give other kids a chance to see him.
Throughout the day we also rode Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Dumbo, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Carousel.
Splash Mountain was very fun but very crowded on the hot day. The entire Frontier Land was actually crowded and hard to walk through with strollers. We took turns using ride swap so we didn't have to stand in line too long. Sam didn't ride this one, but Brad and I enjoyed it. We sat in the front cart, which scared me on the way down the big hill.
We used fast passes for the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This is a fun roller coaster on a smaller scale. It still goes pretty fast, but nothing too intense.
Enjoying the carousel.
Disney recently updated the Dumbo ride area. They made a second Dumbo ride and in between them there is an (air conditioned) indoor playground to play on while you wait for the ride. There was no line for the ride, but we let the boys play anyway.
Sam went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which is similar to It's a Small World, but with pirates. It is not meant to be a scary ride, and there is no height requirement. The very beginning gets really dark and you do go down a small hill in your boat. Sam thought it was a fun slide.
We also saw Jack Sparrow's presentation about Pirate Training. It was very funny and entertaining.
We took the monorail to the Polynesian Resort for dinner at Ohana. This was another family style meal with so.much.food. We had chicken, steak, pork, shrimp, noodles, veggies, bread, salad, dessert... it was all delicious. The restaurant has beautiful views too. It started raining when we got there and there was a rainbow right outside.
It stopped raining, so we headed back to Magic Kingdom after dinner and rode Peter Pan's Flight. We used fast passes for this one. For some reason there is always a long line for this ride. We stopped by around 3:00, and the earliest fast pass we could get was for 6:15-7:15 pm.
The ride was fun, and Sam was able to ride it. You travel on a pirate ship about 10 feet above the ground and see various scenes from Peter Pan. It's a unique ride, but I don't really understand waiting longer than 10 or 15 minutes for it.
Sam reallllly tried to get the sword out of the stone!
We rode Dumbo again with no line.
We watched a few minutes of the night time parade, which was very crowded. Then we decided we'd rather ride on a few more rides than stand by a bunch of people and try to see the floats.
Eric and I went on Haunted Mansion, which was pretty spooky. The waiting time and the various rooms you walk in were more scary than the actual ride. The Haunted Mansion characters are very good and creepy. At one point, the room turned pitch black and a character moved to the center of the group and the lights turned back on and he was about 5 inches from my face. That scared me! Sam didn't go on this one, although I don't think there is a height requirement.
We went to ride on Space Mountain one more time and watched the fireworks from Tomorrowland. Sam had fallen asleep, so I took him inside a shop so he wouldn't wake up from the loud fireworks.
The park closed after the fireworks, but it took us forever to get home. Crowded walkways and busy buses. We got back to the hotel around 11:00, the fireworks were over by 9:20. Luckily, Sam stayed asleep the whole time.
Once we got back to the hotel, we had to start packing up since we were leaving to go back home in the morning. It was a busy and fun last day at Disney!
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