For our first family trip to WDW (Matt and I have been there before), we took a low key approach and I think it really paid off. We were there from a Tuesday night to Friday mid-day which was a good amount of time for us. Our Disney experience started off with a shuttle ride from the airport to the resort and I only mention this part because Luke was thrilled to ride on a "coach" bus with red velvet seats and drop down TVs. We arrived at our hotel, the Carribbean Beach Resort and immediately hit up the main building for some food. Luke found an arcade which we played in for a while after dinner then off to bed to get ready for the next day, our first day at the Magic Kingdom.
With every known baby product in tow, we headed off to the promised land. Once inside the entrance, we stopped quickly for some food...and I should mention here that ALL of the food was great-decently expensive, but always quality. Not having a specific plan of attack, we decided to go "left" at the first opportunity to do so, which meant we veered off at the circle in front of the main castle. Luke's first attraction was the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House which he loved. Next up, Aladin's Magic Carpets, one of our favorites. We did this ride twice, I rode with Luke once and my mom rode with him once. I was kind of shocked that they let little kid ride these rides only because growing up, I felt like I couldn't ride most rides until middle school, regardless of their safety level. Maybe it just sticks out in my mind that I was so small and couldn't ride the rides that everyone else my age could. Anyway, at this point, Luke started asking to leave. Yes, you read that right, Luke already wanted to leave the Magic Kingdom. He wanted to go back to his Beloved hotel with the fun pool. Well, of course, we weren't going to leave yet so we continued to torture Luke with more rides at the happiest place on Earth.
We did a whole bunch of rides, but my favorites were the Tea Cups and Space Mountain. I was definitely in a mission to make sure we did the Tea Cups. I'm not really sure why, but I had it in my head that we had to do the cups. Maybe I wanted to make sure we had the All American experience while there. Luke went with mimi and he made sure that they rode in a purple tea cup - it had to be purple. And even later in the day, I made my mom ride the tea cups with me, but I didn't make her ride in a purple one again. After about 3 hours or so, the kids starting dozing off in the rental strollers...it seemed so funny that we were at this fabulous kid place and they were riding around in strollers sleeping. So Matt and I took advantage of this and rode a couple of rides ourselves while my mom watched the sleeping beauties. The only ride that Matt really really wanted to do was Splash Mountain and it was the only one that I really really didn't want to do, naturally (I'm not a fan of big drops) . So Matt and my mom did Splash Mountain while I wondered around with the kids looking for a bathroom. After a few more hours and one MAJOR fit by Luke at the Race Cars, we decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel...music to Luke's ears.
Now don't get me wrong, I can see why Luke loved the pool, but seriously, he could have at least humored me with enjoying the parks a little more. So we spent the rest of the day at the pool - luckily the pool also had a bar that served Blue Moon. score! Later that evening we headed to Downtown Dinsey which was cute. We walked away from there with a mini mouse princess and a purple light saber compliments of mimi.
The next day we went back to Magic Kingdom but this time, there was double the number of people there than the day before...the first day of their peak season. We had a similar experience on day #2 in that we did some rides (and this time we did the race cars successfully with no fits!) but Luke still wanted to be back at the hotel. So after a few hours, back to the pool it was.
We concluded our Florida trip with my friend Kevin's wedding and for this we switched hotels and went to downtown Orlando. This hotel was not like the kid friendly Disney hotel but was very posh instead. Luke loved the deep purple velvet chaise lounge in our hotel room and designated the coordinating pillow as his caterpillar, Fuzzy's bed. Because this hotel was a Marriott hotel, and Matt still has his platinum Marriott status from his work travel, we had access to the concierge lounge. Luke and Adrienne were the only visitors to the lounge that made any sort of noise...but we didn't care and went daily anyway. Mimi watched the little people while Matt and I attended the wedding on the pool deck of the hotel with the reception in the ball room. All in all, it was a great trip and we did not love coming back home to the frozen tundra.
I think it will be a number of years before we do Disney again but I definitely think we'll be back there in the future.
Looks like so much fun Roach!!! Must see a pic of Lukey in his purple tea cup!!
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