Disney - Day #2

The next morning we were up bright and early!  We had reservation inside of the Magic Kingdom at Be Our Guest at 8:00am.  The weekend that we went was also the weekend of the Disney Marathon.  This means that lots of roads were blocked off and transportation was more difficult.  We decided to just take a bus from the resort to the park because we did not want to chance missing our reservation.  Well.  Because of the race, that meant we had to be read to board our bus at 6:45 am.  It ended up being a good thing because the bus just took us to the parking lot, not the actual park.  So we still had to take the monorail.  We got on the bus at 6:45 at the resort, but we didn't actually get to the park until about 7:40.  So it really was timed perfectly!

Ready for a perfect day!

We thought one of the perks of getting into the park an hour early was going to be that we would be able to get a great castle picture without all the crowds.  Well.  In theory, yes.  But, when the race weekend is happening, they are literally racing down Main Street!  So we couldn't get a picture there at all.  We did get some good ones, though, just not on Main Street.

They had some photographers set up in the circle in front of the castle.  The one on our camera turned out cute, but Cooper's doing a funny face.

I did like the one from the Disney Photo Pass, but we didn't end up buying it.

Honestly, the reservations at Be Our Guest were kind of a bust.  The kids just wanted to see the park and have fun, not go immediately in, pass everything, and then sit down to eat.  We did love looking at how beautiful it all was, but I'm not sure we'll do breakfast again.  It was super expensive and the kids just really weren't that into it.  Maybe next time we'll do lunch or dinner.

I will say this, there was one HUGE perk of being in the park early.  They had most of the park blocked off and were heavily monitoring where people were going.  One place that wasn't monitored?  Mine Train.  We had a fast pass for Mine Train later in the morning, but we got to get on at about 8:50 with no wait.  It was really good for LL, too.  She had been saying that she wanted to ride it, but she gets super scared about things.  When we walked by, they literally yelled and told us to come get on but to hurry!  So we were literally power walking through the fast pass line to get on before the park opened (and we got straight on with no wait).  This means that LL had no time to get nervous because we were hurrying so much!  This worked out to our advantage because, while she was scared, she ended up loving it!  I absolutely love the pictures that the Disney Photo Pass got.  Both LL's and Cooper's faces are absolutely hysterical to me.  I have literally spent quite a few minutes laughing out loud when looking at these pictures.

This is hysterical!  And don't let Cooper's face fool you - he LOVED it!  The Mine Train, Barnstormer, and Pirates were his favorite rides!  The scarier, the better!

After Mine Train, we hopped on over to see Elsa, Anna, Cinderella, and Rapunzel since the park had just opened and the lines were so short.

In these next two pictures, I love how Cooper was more interested in smiling at the beautiful princesses than at the camera.  He's a ladies man for sure!

The carousel is always one of our favorite rides, and we usually ride it multiple times during our day at the park!

Cooper and I took almost this exact same picture last year.  It will probably be the last visit that he's small enough for me to sit with him.  :(  It was one of my favorite parts of my day!

January 2015 vs. January 2016

I love this because this is truly how LL is all day when we go to Disney World - so happy!

It's a Small World is so funny to me.  It is not my favorite ride, but my kids always love it and want to do it over and over.

I always love their faces on Small World.

Potty break!  Cooper did fantastic at Disney World and stayed dry and clean all day!  I absolutely love the bathroom area near Small World.  It's Rapunzel themed (my favorite Disney movie) and is just so so pretty,

Headed out for more fun!

We had fast passes for Mine Train, so we got to go do it again.  Both kids were pumped!!

Ready to go!

Again, their faces crack me up!

We decided to stop and have a snack break/lunch.  While we were eating, a duck came up and begged for food.  The kids loved feeding him!

Another favorite of ours is the Speedway in Tomorrowland!

These pictures of LL while she is driving also crack me up.  Her face is priceless.  She kept telling me, "I'm not good at this!"

Judging by Matt's body language, Cooper wasn't so great at driving either - haha.

Bless.  He can't even see over the steering wheel to even attempt to do a good job driving!

Haha - This is probably pretty accurate!

I really do love Tomorrowland, and one of my favorite things is looking at our pictures after riding Buzz.

And just like last year, I obviously don't know where the camera is.

Laugh factory is one of our favorites!  It was also, randomly, one of our longest waits of the day.

We always love to take a break for a little bit and ride the People Mover.

While we were on People Mover, we saw and area where kids were getting their faces painted.  We went over to check it out, and both kids wanted to do it.  I was shocked at the designs that both of them chose (and how much paint they wanted on their faces!)!

My three-eyed monster and my kitty cat!

We did the Tiki Room this trip, which we've never done before.  Umm.  Never again.  It's up there with Country Bear Jamboree as my least favorite things in the whole park.

Magic Carpets are always a favorite.  They pretty much the exact same thing as Dumbo but with a much smaller wait!

This is why I love Disney World.  The happiness and the love.  They took this exact same picture last year!

2015 vs. 2016

My boys.

We hopped back over to Fantasy Land for a little bit so that LL could spend some of her "Mickey Money" at the gift shop outside of Elsa and Anna.

While we did that, the boys went to Philharmagic.

We rode it again a little later, but this time we switched kids.  Honestly, Cooper had me dying the whole time.  I could not stop laughing.  Every time the car would jerk, he would startle (just like a baby), and it gave me the giggles so bad.

We decided to eat a quick dinner of hot dogs while we were in Tomorrowland.  The kids played with Matt while I got the food.

We went back and rode some of our favorite rides while we waited for it to be time for the fireworks.  We didn't stay for the parade as the kids were exhausted.  But we loved the fireworks!

Our plan was to stop and see Mickey on our way out (because the line was a lot shorter), but Cooper was OUT before we even finished going down Main Street.

He was so sweet.  He even slept in my arms on the bus on the way home.  We call this "Disney tired"!

We walked almost 6 miles around the park!

We got back to the room, got the kids to sleep, and Matt went to get us a pizza.  We had not really had a full meal all day and were starving!

The next morning we got packed up and headed out!

They love their "light up swords" from the fireworks.

Cooper used most of his "Mickey Money" on pirate gear!  He loved the pirate ride!!

We were all back together once we picked up Lola!

We just absolutely love Disney.  And doing this as a Christmas gift really was just a fantastic idea.  We all had so much fun and nothing beats that Disney magic!