Day 2 - Magic Kingdom

I'm behind already, so here's day 2.  I'll work on day 1 when I have time.

Today we had to recover from last night's late night, so we used the morning to get stuff done.  I went grocery shopping, then did a load of laundry.  We took the kids to the big pool (as opposed to the tiny, private pool in our unit).  I attempted to give Darcey a nap, but she has learned how to climb out of the crib, and so far is refusing to nap.  What she doesn't know is how hard this week might be for a tired girl, and I'm thinking at some point she'll cave.

By 4:00 we were out the door for another half-day at the Magic Kingdom.  Today is Zack's birthday, and this proved to be quite lucky for us.  Disney is doing a promotion where you get in free on your birthday, but since we already have multi-day tickets, they offered us either a gift card for $63 (the cost of a child's ticket) or Fastpasses to 6 rides of our choosing, for the whole family.  Hmmmm, this was a tough call.  Walk onto 6 of the most popular rides in the park, or buy souvenirs for the kids?  The woman at the Will Call counter could tell I was having a hard time deciding, maybe because I kept saying, "Give me the fast passes.  No wait!!  Give me the gift card.  Wait!  Maybe the fast passes..."  Finally, my indecisiveness was an asset - the woman gave me the $63 gift card and three fast passes for the family.  Best of both worlds!!  I love Disney for allowing their employees to do great things like this for customers.

It was miserably hot and humid.  Before we even got on the first ride, Darcey's face was red from heat and the kids looked like wilted lettuce, all droopy and soggy and rotten.  We did the Tiki Room first, to stay out of the heat.  I have to say, I prefer the old Tiki Room to the new-and-improved version.  The new version is trying too hard to be hip, and the old Tiki Room was funky and classic.  Plus, they don't even sing the entire Tiki Room song (In the tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room...).  But air conditioning for 8 minutes, we'll take whatever they're serving.

Next was Splash Mountain again, as it is Brad's current favorite.  We also did Pirates - Darcey was pretty nervous the whole time, but she never cried, not even once.  I prefer this Pirates because it only has one very, very minor drop.  Disneyland's version is much scarier for a non-rides person.  Jungle Cruise was good, corny as usual.  We ate dinner at Pecos Bill's Something Something Place (obviously I can't remember the name of it) where Noah saw the total for the family's meal and was outraged.  Good!  Let's hope he remembers that the next time he wants a $4 churro or something.  

We saw the Country Bear Jamboree, which Darcey loved - she clapped along to all the songs, even the ones that didn't really invite clapping.  Haunted Mansion continues to terrify Zack, and is scaring his sister just as much, but it's not nearly as gory as the Haunted Manor in Disneyland Paris.  We headed to Fantasyland for Winnie the Pooh, to lighten the mood a little bit.  Then a quick dash to the front of the line for Peter Pan.  At that point, we only had 20 minutes before the park closed, and Noah wanted to go to Tomorrowland to watch Monsters Inc's Laugh Floor show, which was laugh out loud funny.  So we made that our last stop, and got out of there right at 10 p.m., in time for the fireworks, which we saw yesterday.

It took us two hours from that point to get home.  Honestly, that's a ridiculous amount of time.  Here's how the time was spent:

Zack wants to look in a Tomorrowland gift shop.  We take a final bathroom break.  Noah wants to look in a Main Street gift shop.  He can't find anything to buy, but really really wants to buy something.  Zack finds the thing he wants, amazingly it's the same thing he didn't want to buy at the original Tomorrowland gift shop.  Darcey needs a diaper change.  Brad has to go to the bathroom.  Noah looks in another gift shop.  Then another one.  We finally make it out of the park (Noah is sullen and pouting now) and head to the ferry to get to the tram to get to our car.  We decide the monorail line is moving faster, so head to monorail.  No monorail shows up for five minutes, dang it.  Take the monorail to the TTC, where we catch the tram to Pluto.  Wake Darcey up for the tram ride.  Leave the parking lot, but get on the 192 the wrong direction.  Turn around, make it home without further incident, with two kids asleep in the back seat.  

I want to expound on the torture that is humidity and also make a list of the things I've seen here that I haven't seen since I lived in Maryland.  (Dunkin' Donuts, Ponderosa, Edy's Ice Cream)  But I am wiped out and we are trying to get up early for Animal Kingdom tomorrow.  

And this is me trying to be relaxed!