Disney World: Days 1 & 2

You probably noticed my absence on the blog last week. That's because we spent the week at Disney World! We had the BEST time & I am so glad we got to take the boys before Cheney is here.  We drove to Atlanta last Sunday night so we could fly out early Monday morning.  In typical Griffin fashion, he spiked a fever of almost 102 an hour before we were supposed to leave. I was almost in tears. Thankfully there was one walk-in clinic still open at 6:00 on a Sunday & they told us it was nothing but a fever virus--music to my ears!

 

We didn't get to my parents house until almost midnight and had to wake up at 5:00 to make sure we could make our 7:45am flight. We were exhausted! The boys were so excited about flying on an airplane. I had an arsenal of surprises for them in our carry-on but they actually didn't need much to be entertained. I was surprised at how well they did!

When we landed in Orlando we rode the Magical Express to our resort. We stayed at the Art of Animation on Disney property in a Cars suite. It was such a fun resort for kids. Everything in our section looked like it was straight from the set of Cars. Our boys loved walking by Mater, Lightning McQueen, & Sarge every day!

 

Ben's parents came on the trip with us & met us at our resort that morning. We got there around 11:00, got settled in the room, & then caught the bus to Epcot for our first half day!

Poor Griffin was so tired from traveling & he fell asleep shortly after lunch at Epcot. He missed our first character sighting! We got to Epcot on Cinco de Mayo & Donald was dressed appropriately. Grayson was so excited to meet his first character!

Our first ride was the Finding Nemo ride. Both boys loved it!

Griffin also loved the aquarium after the ride. Here he is checking out the manatees!

We also met Mickey Mouse, Minnie, & Goofy on our first day. The characters were a huge hit!

Overall, Epcot was pretty fun but it was a lot of walking & not too much for little ones. They had fun but I'm glad we just spent a half day there!

We spent our entire 2nd day at Magic Kingdom. After the boys had fun at Epcot, I couldn't wait to see how much fun they would have at Magic Kingdom!

Our morning started out a little rocky. We were supposed to have a character breakfast at a different resort early that morning. We asked several concierge people at the resort about bus routes to get there and everyone said we would go to Epcot & then the resort. We got to Epcot and the bus director said that was not correct. We were so frustrated. We ended up missing our breakfast (and didn't get charged, thankfully, since we called and explained what happened) and just had to hitch a ride on the monorail.

Waiting to go to Magic Kingdom!

 We finally made it not too long after the park opened. Our first ride was Peter Pan and G loved it! It was his favorite of the week!

Waiting to ride the Magic Carpet ride!

The Buzz Lightyear ride was a close 2nd for the boys. G loved shooting Zerg and Griff just loves "Buzzzzzz!"

Griffin had so much fun at all the shops. He loved trying on the hats (but never would let me get him mouse ears) and LOVED all the stuffed animals.

 We rode Dumbo and the kids loved the indoor play area it had while you waited. I love the air conditioning!

The rest of the crew on Dumbo!

We also road the People Mover, Astro Orbiter, It's a Small World (twice), & G rode the Barnstormer with Pops. Grayson was literally just a quarter of an inch below the 40in rides so there were quite a few he couldn't do. We were so bummed! All in all, the boys loved the rides that they could ride. It was so fun to watch their excitement!

 We had an early 4:30 dinner reservation this night at the Crystal Palace. We figured it would be perfect & without meltdowns since it was early. Griffin disagreed. He is not very familiar with the cast of Winnie the Pooh, who was walking around the dinner, & was terrified of them! It was both hilarious & pitiful. He was totally fine waving from afar but this was when Eeyore tried to get close to him. Not a fan!

 Grayson loved it!

This was a fun dinner & it was nice that it was actually at the Magic Kingdom!

We ended our day at Magic Kingdom by riding the giant carousel right by the castle. Both boys loved it!
 

Our first full day was so much fun. We all loved the Magic Kingdom! I am pretty sure Griffin had lots of Mickey dreams that night--he loved seeing his Mickey Mouse friends everywhere we went!

I've decided that this was a great age for both of them to go. It was all so real to them & so magical. I think I had more fun as an adult watching them experience it than I did as a kid. I'll post about the rest of our trip later this week with some more details!