I'm happy to report that the kids did great on their first flight and the entire airport experience was pretty low stress. We got to the hotel around 2pm yesterday and headed straight to the Magic Kingdom. We knocked out quite a bit, hitting some of the tamer rides to see how the kids faired. They really loved the Tea Cups--best quote from Nick, "Daddy, I can feel the wind in my hair!" The rides may have been great, but the winners of the day in the kids' eyes were the giant lollipops.
The winner of our day was our hotel. Such an amazing location and much bigger than I was expecting. We sprung for a condo (although at a very discounted rate through the DVC Rental Store), so we have a full kitchen, washer/dryer, and Mark and I have our own bedroom. But, it also has two bathrooms and the kids each have their own pull-out bed. We were able to have groceries delivered to our room while we were at the park yesterday, so we were all set when we came back last night. Awesome!
Nick had kind of a tough day today, because he got shorted a bit on sleep and the poor boy hadn't pooped in almost three days. But, everything is righted in that department now and he is happy as can be. He wasn't really into the rides today (and who could blame him, given how uncomfortable he must have been), but he did enjoy some of the shows. His big moment of the day, however, was meeting Pluto--who would have thought?--but, he was really into him. Lainey chose to hang in the stroller for this one, because she was not into Pluto. No biggie, she got to bask in all the princess glory at our breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table, where Snow White, Aurora, Aerial, and Jasmine also stopped in for a visit. Lainey was GLOWING!!! We were worried after she completely melted down over being in arm's reach of Belle Sunday night, but she was nothing but smiles and twinkling eyes this morning.
Another awesome event today was the Fantasy Parade, because we got excellent seating through a contact I have. We were on benches in the shade right at the start of the parade route. The kids got to directly interact with all of the walking characters, including high fives and a belly tinkle from Mr. Smee for Nick. And they could hear the characters on the floats shouting to them. It was pretty great; even Mark seemed to really enjoy it.
Final note, before wrapping it up for the night, is Lainey is a dare devil it seems. She LOVED the fast rides and was so enamored with the Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride that she said, "I don't care what it takes or how long I have to wait. I want to ride it again!" But, that ride has a 90-minute wait (we had a FastPass to jump to the front of the line for the first spin), so we were NOT waiting for another turn. She accepted Splash Mountain as her consolation prize and loved it even more than the mine ride. So, it seems we'll have to hit Big Thunder Mountain Railroad before this trip ends.
Ah! I was worried I was going to regret the investment we put into this trip, but so far it has been well worth it. Even with the tantrums and the crowd stress, we are making some awesome memories--that perhaps (most likely) won't stick with the kids, but will stay with Mark and me forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment