Their First time in the Magic Kingdom.

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We were so excited to be off to the Magic Kingdom that we neglected to change Aaron’s diaper before we got on the bus. This only delayed us a little bit and soon Marc, Aaron, the “Mickey” bus and I were off to catch our first glimpse of the Magic Kingdom.

We stopped at the front gates for a few pics in front of the train station and Aaron noticed all the Mickey confetti on the ground. He had to pick up every piece that he saw. It was really cute and he drew an awful lot of attention because every time he saw another piece he’d say “Mickey! Daddy/Mommy nook (look) MICKEY!” and pick it up. Needless to say, they all ended up in my pocket.

We walked into the centre hub and immediately realized that we were surrounded by CMs who had the area roped off for the beginning of the Family Fun Day parade. We quietly exited and made our way up Main St. USA towards the Castle. We of course stopped for the obligatory Castle pics, and then stopped for the parade. If it hadn’t hit Aaron before hand, it certainly would have hit him as he saw Pluto come dancing up the street towards him.

After the parade, Marc spotted an ice cream cart and we bee lined for it in order to try our first Mickey bars... HEAVEN ON A STICK!!! That is, until my half eaten bar fell off the stick and landed squarely on my flip flop...

I wasn’t looking for another Mickey bar... It was awesome and wonderful. But I was getting full anyway and at that point on our journey (notice: at that point) my mind was still clearly focused on maintaining my pre-trip weight loss. But, I did need something to take the ice cream & chocolate concoction off my shoe & foot. So, I walked back over to the ice cream cart (we had only walked a few feet away from the cart to eat the bars) and asked for a couple of napkins. The CM asked me what had happened and I explained that the ice cream bar had fallen off the stick and landed on my foot. To which she replied “oh no. THAT is NOT happening in your first 2 minutes in the park!” (When I’d gotten the bars, I had been really excited and told her that we had just gotten there and we had only been in the park about 2 minutes... ) I was surprised that she remembered what I had said. And even more surprised and touched when she handed me a new Mickey bar!

New Mickey bar in hand (and totally in awe of the kindness that was shown to me), we began to make our way around the Castle hub and into Adventureland to experience the first ride listed on our touring plan... The Jungle Cruise...

This was my Grandfather’s favourite ride and I can remember him telling me about the hippos popping from the water before my first trip in April 1988. So, it was kind of a nod to that when I chose it as our first ride when I did the touring plan.
It was a good choice because Aaron LOVED it! And it was a good introduction to old time Disney for Marc!

The park was so low traffic that day that I wished we had been in the park earlier. We did 4 rides in an hour and waited no more than 5 minutes for any of them. After the Jungle Cruise, we headed over to the Magic Carpets of Aladdin which Aaron adored. He (and we) hated to leave it.

Next up was the Enchanted Tiki room. I remembered seeing this with my family in 1988. Although, its changed a fair bit since then, it was still pretty cute. It did scare Aaron a bit when the lights went off. But, I figured he was getting to nap time and was a little more sensitive than usual.

He was out cold in Marc’s arms by the time we got to Pirates of the Caribbean and he slept right through the entire ride and into the next couple hours as well. The reaction Marc had to Pirates was just as I had hoped it would be. He had a look of amazement and admiration at the special effects (the “water” at the top of the waterfall wasn’t there in ’88 and I thought it was pretty cool too.) and at the detail that he doesn’t have very often. He told me afterwards that he couldn’t believe that the ride had been around for so long and yet everything looked so new.

In the time it had taken us to ride Pirates, the skies had opened up and were raining down on us. So, We put Aaron in his stroller (still sleeping) and headed around to check out Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. We figured that the best time to ride a water ride is when its raining and you’re already wet. But, not when there is thunder and lightning. And that’s what started just as we rounded the bend.

So, being that the rides were closed, we wanted mouse ears anyway, and it was almost time to catch the ferry over to Fort Wilderness for our 5pm seating at the Hoop Dee Doo, we made our way back to Main St. USA and hit Le Chapeau. We debated at making our own ears, but went with the traditional black instead and had our names embroidered on the back. Afterwards, I saw a Birthday Cake top hat that I considered buying, but decided not to. (Now I kind of wish I had it though.)

As we were heading out through the left arch, my croc flip flops hit a pretty deep puddle and my left foot hydroplaned through it sending me down square on my right knee. OUCH! The pain shot right up my leg and into my back. I grabbed Marc’s outstretched hand and made it back to 2 feet. People coming the other way (into the park) were really concerned and asking if I was ok. It was really nice of them. But I was really embarrassed, so I told them I was ok and got moving. Marc could tell I was hurt and kept asking if I was ok and if I needed to go to first aid. But, I didn’t want to miss our dinner reservations, so I declined and once we got on the ferry, I checked it out. There wasn’t any noticeable cuts. But it was swelling up pretty nicely.


The rain was nice enough to stop while we were on the ferry. But, I was still very careful walking from the dock to Pioneer Hall (where the Hoop Dee Doo is held). We were a little too early to check in, and by this point Aaron was awake, so we went over to the ranch and had a good conversation with the horses. After a bit it was time to check in and have our pictures done. The 5pm show was sold out, and there was quite a crowd. After some confusion in the lines to get in (Apparently the hostess was quite confused), we entered and were seated on the first floor, just under the balcony to stage left. The seats were great and we were able to see everything very well.

There were 3 reasons we chose to book the Hoop Dee Doo. The first one being that our son really seems to love hokey country music and we knew he’d love the show. The second being that its been around forever and we felt we should see it. And the third (the thing that sold Marc on it) being that it came with “unlimited beer and wine”.

So, you can imagine our surprise when the waiter refused to serve us.
You see, we didn’t have any id with us to prove our age. We had gone into the parks with only our Key to the World cards and a small amount of cash for tipping. No one (not when I made the reservation, nor when I picked up the tickets, nor when they called to confirm the reservation to the room) told me that we would need to have our id. I guess in retrospect, it makes sense. But, I know that no one said anything because I would have written it down in the Passporter like I had written everything else down. I also know that no one said anything when we got the tickets that day because Marc was playing attention to everything like a hawk because he was afraid it would get charged to his mastercard. And, the CM at the check in desk told us not to take anything else but the KTTW card with us to the park. So that is what we did.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if the waiter hadn’t been so snippy about it when Marc tried to order a beer. Neither one of us look like we’re under 25, much less under 21 (oh how I wish I did though) and he actually went into a bit of a rant about why he wasn’t serving us and that he knew we were told that we needed to have our id there. After a while, Marc went up and asked the manager about it. The manager apologized, got us another server, and our drinks were on the table a few minutes later.

The food itself was great! It was plentiful and so tasty! Not the best meal we had in the park. But, pretty darn good. Aaron ate so much that night that he was actually a little sick after. This says a lot because he’s more of a child who grazes than gorges himself on food. The show was pretty funny as well. We all enjoyed it, and Aaron had a great time too.

When the show was finished, we were greeted with another torrential downpour. And, a crowd of people waiting to get in to Pioneer Hall all clustered under the cover of the porch roof. It was impossible to get around to the stroller (buried in the crowd. But thankfully under cover) so we had to go the long way and then make our way to the bus stop because the ferry back to the Magic Kingdom was closed because of lightning.

This was what the entire rest of the 5pm Hoop Dee Doo patrons were doing so we found ourselves a spot under the shelter and waited it out until the buses leaving for Wilderness Lodge weren’t so crowded. In the meantime, we had a nice conversation with a couple from Boston who was just finishing up their trip. It was a good way to pass the time, and I think that is when it dawned on me that I truly was in a whole different world here. (I didn’t have a birthday button yet, so it wasn’t as blatantly obvious to me then as it would be in the days to come. :P )

We made it back to the Magic Kingdom in one piece and saw that the line for the bus for the French Quarter was almost spilling out of the stantions. So knowing from my Passporter research that it was only about a 20 minute walk between Riverside and the French Quarter, we decided to hop on the Riverside bus that was waiting and only had about 3 people on it. We weren’t the only ones that decided to do this and found ourselves 2 other friendly families to walk back with. We were back in our room about 10 minutes later. And, it was a really pretty walk.

We got our swimsuits on and went for a before bed swim and then called it a night. (Incidentally, this is where my “OH-I-HATE-SWIMMING-SO-MUCH” child became my “PLEASE-DADDY-CAN-WE-GO-FIMMING???” child.)