Disney - Day 2

Because I'm more type-A that I like to admit, I did some Disney research so that I would have a clue of what to do when we got to the Park. And by "research" I mean that I asked other people, read Mousesavers, and read Dixie Delight's posts on her family's Disney trips. I may actually be a type-A minus. You all need to go and look at Amanda at DD's posts on their trips because, frankly, I want her to be the mom and plan my trips. Her boys look totally adorable in their matching Disney-wear, although I wonder if they won't rebel on her sometime soon. I thought Amanda was the only person who thematically dressed her kids for Disney, but now that I've been here I can tell you that matching Disney attire is a thing. Also, matching clothes, generally. For example, Louisiana schools have off for Mardi Gras, so the Bayou State has reassembled at Disney. I can tell this because they are all wearing Mardi Gras clothes, Saints gear, and LSU shirts. It's like a flashmob, only I don't think any of them actually communicated the plan to each other. They just know, like it's the way of the bayou or something.

Our first real day at the Park was Sunday and we planned to hit Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. We arrived at the park around 10:30, caught the show in front of Cinderella's castle, at which point the Boy wanted to go home because, well, not much to like in singing and dancing princesses for a straight seven-year-old boy. But, we convinced him that it wouldn't all be so lame. I was a little hazy on how Fast Passes work, but I got it in my head that we should get some because avoiding standing in line sounds good to me. I made the K go pull some Fast Passes for the Winnie the Pooh ride that had a crazy long line. He got them and the machine spit out some bonus passes for Dumbo. Score! I thought we could go get some other Fast Passes, but apparently you can get Fast Passes every two hours, so we had to wait to get any more.

Something I read suggested eating at off-times, so at 10:45 we got in line at Be Our Guest Restaurant. This, as you might be able to tell from the name, is all Beauty and the Beast and the restaurant is tricked out to look like Beast's castle, complete with "stone" work gargoyles and other carvings:

I thought this face looked oddly like George W. Bush.

I am SO glad that we got in line when we did because we didn't get up to order for almost an hour. We made friends with the party of 18 in front of us, who were all from Indiana celebrating someone's 40th anniversary. They were lovely, but you do not want to be behind a party of 18 regardless of their loveliness. One old guy showed the kids pictures on his cellphone to entertain them. One picture was of a kid with his hair cut like this:

Given the hairstyle regulations at Disney,
I wonder if this kid could work at the Park.

Once we actually sat down, the palace is really cool. We sat in the ballroom (I guess, I'm not sure I've ever seen the movie) and there are video screens in the windows so it looks like it's snowing outside. The setting is quite elegant with gigantic chandeliers and a mural painted on the ceiling. Here are some bad pictures:

Fancy, no?

While the northeast had the real thing, we enjoyed some CGI snow.

A waitress brought our order to the table in a covered cart, which the kids thought was pretty cool. My food was actually good (I got the quinoa salad), but the kids' food was less of a hit. The Boy and Girl got some Mickey Meatloaf that no amount of ketchup would help, so they ate their side items and were good sports.

So, by the time we left lunch it was after noon, we'd been at the Park for over two hours and we hadn't ridden a single ride. To remedy that situation, we took the kids to wildest of the Park rides, the carousel. Off to a great start, the Baby refused to ride and I held her while the Boy and the Girl enjoyed the ponies.

You can just make out the baby (in a hot pink shirt)
being held by me in the left side of the picture.

Having gotten everyone's feet wet, we decided to venture farther into Fantasyland. The girls went for the Mad Hatter's Teacup Ride and the boys went to the Speedway. The girls all loved the teacups:

The boys thought the Speedway was a little lame and the Boy was bummed that he was a couple inches too short to drive.

 Next we decided to tackle a classic: It's a Small World. This was one ride that we did when I was a kid and Dad mocked it mercilessly the entire time. I decided that I would check my snark at the door and just allow the children to enjoy it without my commentary. It was worth holding my smart-ass tongue, because the Girl looked like this for most of the ride:

It was really sweet. Just between us, though, I will say that apparently the can-can is a dance enjoyed by dolls throughout the world. Also, I guess that namaste means good bye in yoga. See, Disney is educational.

After Small World, we picked up a Fast Pass for Peter Pan and headed over to the Winnie the Pooh ride, which was a journey through the book/movie highlights while riding in a honeypot. Yes, I said honeypot. No offense to Pooh who I think is charming, I thought the ride was a bit meh, but the kids seemed to enjoy it.

Next, we headed to Barnstormer, which is this random junior roller coaster over in Fantasyland. The line was loooong, but we didn't have any ability to Fast Pass it, so we just waited. It moved pretty quickly and it was a good test to see who among the children was going to be a roller coaster person and who was not. Girl and Boy - yes, Baby - no. So, having done that and still holding Fast Passes for Dumbo and Peter Pan, we had some time to kill and went on the train ride. This was also a little meh, although it was nice to not be either standing in line or carrying the Baby hither and yon because she refused to walk.

We still had hours before the Dumbo and Peter Pan pass times, so we hit the Monster's Inc. comedy show, which we all really enjoyed. By that time, the Baby had overcome her fear of the carousel and decided that she wanted to give it a try. Luckily, there was no line, so we jumped right on:

Blurry action picture of the girls (me, included)
on our second carousel ride.

We finally killed enough time that we could go on Dumbo. Poor Baby was very confused and kept asking if we were going to make gumbo first, or go on the elephant ride. I must have explained that the elephant was named Dumbo, but she still didn't quite get it. I hope it was the presence of all the Louisianians that threw her, but somehow I doubt it.

Dumbo was, as advertised, a classic Disney ride. The Boy, Baby and I went together and we got gypped because our Dumbo didn't move up and down. I guess its ears were too small or something. I didn't much care, except that I knew it would be the only thing that the Boy would remember from the ride.

Defective Dumbo

Riding in superior Dumbo

Sure enough, as soon as we got off the elephant the Boy was all about how our Dumbo was broken and it wasn't fair. He is so totally my glass half-empty kid. Sigh.

We shook off the disappointment of the defective Dumbo and hit Peter Pan which we all loved. Even though it's basically the same deal as Winnie the Pooh in that you are just zipping through a compressed version of the book/movie, a flying boat is just better than an earth-bound honeypot, in my opinion.

So, are you exhausted? We were, too. We dragged our asses back to the car to head back to the hotel...or so we thought! We got totally lost on the way back to the hotel, the K lost his temper, the Boy started crying and all the happy memories of the day were slowly fading until the magical GPS fairy saved the day. We thought happy thoughts, and the swagger wagon sprouted wings and flew back to the hotel. We foolishly opted to eat at the hotel restaurant, which should be called, "A Tale of Two Cities" because it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The bottle of wine that the K drank with dinner was free (yay!) because it took so long for us to get our food (boo!) The Girl ate many dinner rolls and a hot dog (yay!) and then threw up in the parking lot (boo!)

So, Disney World Day 2 was in the history books and many vacation goals were accomplished. We played so hard that someone puked, a magical fairy saved the day, and the K got a free bottle of wine. What more can you really ask for?

Tomorrow I'll tell you about our fun in Adventureland and Frontierland and the most random celebrity encounter you could ever imagine. And I mean random.