Orlando – Part 4

If you remember at the beginning of this re-cap of our Orlando trip I said we didn’t plan on going to Disney World.  I wanted to actually take a day off from the parks where we could relax and hang at the pool and well…relax because we were on vacation.  Mr. A had other plans.

A long time ago Mr. A’s family went to Disney World.  At the time they offered tickets that never expired, this was before Animal Kingdom was around.  They ended up only using one day and never returned, so Mr. A’s mom asked for us to bring them and see if they were still valid.  So on the day we went to Disney Springs Mr. A went to customer relations while I took the children and shopped a bit.  He had 3 adult and one child park hopper tickets, when he came back he had 4 adult park hopper tickets that still didn’t expire.  We decided we would buy Ian’s ticket and give back two adult tickets to his parents.

We took a taxi from the hotel to the Magic Kingdom.  It was a $50 taxi ride…we should have rented a car for the day.  It was also hot hot hot.  We put on sun screen like it was going out of style.  There was not much shade, we saw everyone hiding on the planter walls to seek shelter from the brutal sun.

Not only was it hot, it was way more crowded than Universal.  All the rides had at least 30 minute waits, for Disney that was probably super short, but for the past 3 days we had almost no waits for the rides we wanted.  When you buy your tickets you can pre-plan 3 fast passes, the first one we got was Tomorrowland Speedway, we all could ride this one the minimum height is 32″.  Our kids love driving cars, so this was perfect for them.  The car seats two riders and the pedal is in the middle.  At first Jensen liked the idea of driving, but then he got lazy…Ian drove the entire time, unfortunately he couldn’t see over the steering wheel, so he kept driving to the left.  I laughed so hard the entire drive.

Next we headed towards Adventureland.  Where we did the interactive adventure, you go and get a map and a special tailsmen.  You have to find symbols hidden around Adventureland and follow the clues to the end.  Ian loved this, he thought it was so cool when things happened.  Some things surprised him like a cannon going off.  We ended up actually finishing it through the end.  We rode the Aladdin ride and the pirates of the Caribbean ride when the line was short enough.  We also may or may not have gotten a couple of pineapple dole whips 😉

After the adventure quest, we were all kind of miserable because of the heat, so we decided to go find something to eat.  We ate at Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe where there’s a topping bar for your nachos/tacos.  It also has inside seating which was nice to take a break.  After being revitalized by food, we rode some more rides.  At some point we rode the train around Magic Kingdom for a good 10-15 minutes.

In the late afternoon, around 5ish the crowds really started dissipating.  This is when we rode a lot of rides.  As the sun started setting we rode the people mover in Tomorrowland.  Parents of young children, this is the best ride in the park!  It moves at fast pace after you leave the boarding area and it is elevated and goes around all of Tomorrowland and shows you all the rides in the area.  It even goes through Space Mountain!!  It’s very neat, plus you can take some cool pictures while on it.

The newest ride when we went was the Seven Dwarves Mine Train.  The wait time for this all day was never less than an hour and half.  Since we bought tickets so last minute we couldn’t get a fast pass for the ride.  Well right before the fireworks the wait time got down to 40 minutes.  This ride also offers parent swap, unlike Universal the whole party does NOT have to wait in the line.  The park attendant gives the party riding a laminated card and the people not riding (in my case Jensen and myself) can go off and do something else.  So while Mr. A and Ian were riding the ride I took Jensen to the Winnie the Poo ride right across from the ride entrance.  We rode the ride and came out in time to watch some of the fireworks.  Then Ian and Mr. A came and I took Ian to ride the ride again.  It’s a fun coaster, there’s a part where you go through the mountain and see the dwarves mining for all the gems.

Ian enjoyed this ride so much that when we got back for a week he would wake up telling me he had a great dream.  I would ask him what it was about.  He would reply “I was riding a roller coaster and there were fireworks in the sky and a silly guy with gems in his eyes.”  Mr. A and Ian just happened to be on the roller coaster while the fireworks were going off and Dopey is there with diamonds in his eyes like in the movie.

After we rode the rides we went to watch the ending parade.

The kids fell asleep before we could exit the park 🙂