Disney Trip Part Two

Before I get to my trip, I would like to comment on how mean it is of Mother Nature to bring snow to Maryland in March. And to have it be March 4th, yet still be 10 degrees out while I'm waiting for the bus. Not cool.  Not cool at all.  The nice thing is that it is finally light outside early in the morning, so at least I am not waiting in the cold and dark, I am just waiting in the cold.  That is 50% better, I guess. However, I'd kinda prefer the opposite...waiting in the the darkness in the heat.  To escape this bitter cold, I'd like to transport myself back to Orlando, FL and pretend to relive my Disney vacation.

Day Two: Disney World!!!

Although I felt like Evan was a bit too young for Disney World because he wouldn't remember it at all, I felt like we couldn't go all the way to Orlando, stay in a Disney Resort, yet not actually go to Disney.  We decided we would do one park, get a glimpse of Disney, but save the rest for a big Disney vacation in the future (I say that like we will one day be able to afford a big Disney vacation - haha).  We decided that Magic Kingdom would be the best park to go to since that is the main park and had a lot of rides for kids.  I had only ever been to Tokyo Disneyland so I was pretty excited myself.  Way more excited than Evan or the hubs.

Before the park though, we got up extra early so Evan could run in his kid race.  Very important!  His race was at 9:15 am in the parking lot of Epcot.  That was where most of the weekend races were starting/ending so they just used the same finish line for the kids.  They had a bunch of different distances from a diaper dash to a one mile run.  Evan did the 100 yard dash for kids ages 1-3.  I was super excited.  He got a race number, a tshirt, and medal (when he finished).  I have to say, Disney goes all out for their events.

Waiting for the races to start with his cousins (dressed as Elsa, Anna, and Snow White -
my mom made the Frozen costumes)!

Evan wasn't really into racing, but he didn't do too badly.  We raced together and he ran about half of the distance (he wanted me to carry him for the other half).  It was a bit intimidating because there were a lot of people there and the race line was kind of crowd.  We went in waves, but it made Evan a bit nervous so he wanted me to carry him at the beginning.  He eventually warmed up and ran a bit and high-fived Goofy, who was waiting at the finish line.  He finished his race, got his medal, and picked up some kiddie cliff bars and bananas for later.  It was too cute all the little stuff they had at the end of the kid races, they treated it like a mini race.

From there we hopped on the monorail and headed to Magic Kingdom.

Walking to the monorail - Evan in his favorite stroller position.

Since we were getting a late start, the monorails were already really packed.  Somehow we managed to squeeze on the monorail with our stroller and a bunch of other people and strollers.  It was a tight and awkward fit, but not too horrible.  It was super easy getting into the park because of our Magic Bands, all we did was swipe them as we walked in.  No lines, no money, no paper tickets. Completely smooth.  I loved the Magic Bands!

Now, this is about the time things started to break down.

Although I read plenty of blogs and knew plenty of people who all took their kids to Disney World at the ripe age of 18ish months...they never mentioned any temper tantrums or screaming children.  I'm not sure if they just left that part out or if I have an extra independent little critter, but Evan was in full-temper mode.  It pretty much started the second we entered the park.  We had three fast passes for the day: Peter Pan (10:30-11:30am), Encounters with Belle (11:50-12:50pm), and Dumbo (1:15-2:15).  This meant that we were kind of on a schedule - or at least a very loose one.  Once we got to Magic Kingdom we headed over to Peter Pan, with a few stops to look around and use the bathroom.  Evan had a completely different schedule - he wanted to look at EVERYTHING, buy an expensive Mickey Mouse balloon ($15 - we did not cave), and walk by himself through the park.  This made the trek to Peter Pan a bit painful.  Pretty much he screamed and thrashed around every time we picked him up.  So we carried a screaming child through "the happiest place on Earth".  It wasn't very pleasant.  It also went on all day, unless we let him look at the ducks.  Then he quieted down and put a smile on his face.

Such a sweet face - it's hard to believe he's can even throw a temper tantrum!

I think Disney World was a bit overwhelming to him, along with the lack of naps and the disruption to his regular routine.  Plus he was getting a set of molars in which was very painful to begin with, but then also made him not want to eat/nurse much so he was also hungry.

I didn't really pay $200 for park passes to look at the ducks though, so we limited duck-viewing time to 10-15 minutes every time we passes some ducks.  Evan pretty much wanted to look at the ducks all day though, so we ended up with a lot of tantrums.

Here's a quick review of the (few) rides we went on:.

1. Peter Pan: This ride was great for kids.  We only had to wait in line for about 5 minutes with our fast pass, so that was awesome.  Evan loved looking at everything during the ride and it was very short (I swear it was only three minutes or so), it captivated his attention the entire time.  He's too little to know anything about Peter Pan so it's not like he was excited about seeing Wendy or Captain Hook or anything, but he like looking at everything anyway.  And he loved pointing out the moon.  I do wish it was a bit longer though.
   
2.  It's a Small World: Of course we had to do this ride - it's one of the few rides I remember from our trip to Tokyo Disneyland (aside from the Teapots and Dumbo and the fact that I was too short to go on Space Mountain).  It was right across the street from Peter Pan so we hopped in line, because our nifty little app said it was just a 15 minute wait (which was true).  I thought Evan would love this because there was so much to look at - but he has an obsession with water and since we were in boats the entire time he wanted to put his hand out and play in the water.  All hands had to remain INSIDE the boats so it ended up being a bit of a long ride trying to prevent him from jumping ship.  And It's a Small World is LONG.  I squished to the middle of the boat as far from the sides as possible, but still had to hang on to a squirmy child who's one goal was playing in the water.  I don't think he noticed any of the singing children from around the world.
   
3. Encounters with Belle: This was a new attraction because this area of the park recently opened.  I saw that it had really long wait times so I figured it was good to get a fast pass for it - and it said it was good for pre-schoolers.  Umm, it wasn't my best decision.  It was more of an interactive play and although Evan got a part and got his picture taken with Belle - he spent the entire time running around the castle trying to open "Cast Members Only" doors and touching everything in the room.  I can tell you, the "Cast Members" were not his biggest fan.  He may have also screamed a few times when I had to pick him up.  I couldn't wait for this "encounter" to end!  An important note though - only people with parts in the play get their photo with Belle, so if you go, volunteer for a part!
   
4. Dumbo: Dumbo was another success!  Evan was actually sleeping in the Mei Tai at this point and we even boarded the ride with him sleeping. 
   
   

   

   Sleeping on Dumbo

   He woke up as we were flying through the air and I think he liked the ride a lot.  As much as a toddler can, at least.  I think this ride was the best time-wise - it wasn't too long and it wasn't too short.  Luckily we had fast passes though because the wait was 70 minutes when we got on it.  Waaaaaaaaaaaaay to long to wait, in my opinion.  We waited about 10 minutes to get on - much more doable.

In between Encounters with Belle and Dumbo it started to pour and thunder and lightening, so they closed the rides that weren't undercover and pretty much everyone ran to eat.  We got drenched!  We did mosey on over to Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe for a snack.  Ivan wanted Mexican or Chinese (figures!) but there wasn't really anything along those lines at Magic Kingdom so Pecos Bills was the closest thing - I think they had a taco salad.  We ended up just getting a chili because we had lunch plan reservations at The Crystal Palace at 3pm for a character lunch.  It was a buffet so I told Ivan he couldn't fill up before we got there.  The chili was good though and counted as a snack on our dining plan, so that was nice.

On our way to The Crystal Palace we met up with my sister in front of Cinderella's Castle.

And looked at more ducks.  People were lining up to see one of the parades but we didn't stick around to watch it.  Keeping Evan still for a parade just wasn't the best idea and about ten seconds after this photo was taken he wanted out of the Mei Tai.  So we looked at ducks and wondered over to The Crystal Palace.

The restaurant is the building on the right.

We had heard that this place was "ok", nothing fabulous but still decent.  I mainly made the reservation because I thought it would be fun to have a character meal and this was one of the only places with open reservations at a decent time.  Chef Mickey's was supposed to be one of the best character dining experiences but they were at a hotel and only had free reservations at random times like 11am.  That didn't really work with our schedule so we ended up just going here.  The food was good and we got to meet Winnie the Pooh and friends!

Isn't it the cutest thing that they are holding hands!

Evan absolutely LOVED meeting all the characters.  He wasn't scared one bit and would get excited and clap as he saw them coming around to our table.  It was too cute!  He did pitch one or two fits while we were eating because he wanted to run around the restaurant, but every time a character showed up he put on his best behavior and charmed them all.

Tigger was his favorite, but I think mainly because he was so brightly colored and vibrant.  When he turned around to greet the table behind him, Evan pulled his tail.  Whoops!

Piglet spent the most time at our table and Evan loved his nose. 

After this picture he then poked his eyes (we are teaching him his eyes, ears, nose, mouth - so he was excited to show Piglet that he knew where everything was).

And Eeyore was too sweet looking.  This picture turned out the best, except for me.

Pretty much after our lunch we headed back to the hotel.  I felt like we left really early (before we arrived I had imagined us staying until 8pm - hahahahaha), but by the time we walked to the bus and got back to the hotel it was almost 6pm.  I thought Evan would sleep but he refused so we headed to the pool.  Evan was SO excited.  He played in the kiddy pool for a while and then we took him into the big pool (both were heated) to play for a bit too.  It was a bit chilly out and eventually he was shivering so we headed home - he did throw a fit when we took him out of the water though.  He was all about temper tantrums on this trip!

We stopped by our hotel cafeteria for some snacks (Ivan was hungry, of course) and then retired to our room.  Some of us (ME!!!) had a 2:30am wake-up call to run a half marathon the next morning.

More on that to come!!!!