Disneyworld: Planning and Day 1

The Prep:  Oh Disney, you Magical place you. Lucky for us, my parents plan to take each grandchild to Disneyworld when they’re 3 years old as their Christmas gift. Now, we’re not talking a day in Magic Kingdom. This is a resort staying, multiple park hopping, several day trip. And, parents get to go to. Lucky much?

Last summer, Todd and I went to Disneyworld as a Birthday/Maternity Leave Ending/Disney research trip. We just went to Magic Kingdom and it was STILL awesome. Yes, adults can have quite a bit of fun at Disneyworld.

Anyhow, as soon as we started making plans, I knew I wanted to stay at the Caribbean Beach Resort in a room that looked like this:

Why? Because Ty thinks he's a Pirate these days.  Yes, this was our room.  They have adjoining rooms and Ty thought itw as too cool to have Mimi and Papaw next door sleeping in Pirate ship beds like him!

I also knew that I wanted to attempt all 4 parks. I’d never been to Animal Kingdom and I went to Hollywood Studios when it was MGM and it was back in High School. We were staying 4 nights and spending 3 days at the parks. So, dividing our time up was going to be tricky. And, since we were going the first weekend of the Christmas festivities and the last weekend of the Epcot Food and Wine Festival weren’t sure how those extra little perks were going to fit in our weekend.

Where to turn? http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/  (Official Website. You can do ANYTHING on here. I suggest you set up a profile, make reservations NOW (if your 180 days away from your trip, you can), and just navigate. You can find out so much here). http://disneyworldforum.disney.go.com/home.aspx
(this site is FANTASTIC. Awesome. Seriously, it’s great.) And, social media.  It’s amazing what you can find out from Facebook and Twitter. Everyone’s schedule, agenda, and goals are different at Disney. Make sure you plan your trip for YOU. That being said, here’s our Day 1.

Disney: Day 1

(for the record, we had a direct SW flight and the Magical Express picked us up at the airport. That is totally the way to go!)

First flight that Ty will MAYBE remember someday.  He was the loud kid on the plane.  Good, but LOUD.

Up and at em’ at 7am. Eastern time. For the record, we live in the Central time zone AND Ty didn’t go to bed until like 10:30pm the night before. He was up on his own at about 5:40am and we were literally out.the.door at 7am. Big Mistake. HUGE mistake.

The first park on the agenda: Magic Kingdom!

My Dad, Mom, Myself, and Todd.  This was Ty Man pre-haircut.  Yes, my Mom and I look alike.  Which is not a bad thing ;)

We left building 35 and heading to the Trinidad South Bus stop. And, we waited. Someone had called a cab and was a no show. So, we took it. And, I’m pretty sure we beat the Disney bus by like an hour for a mere $20. Not too shabby.

We walked in a saw Pluto immediately:

Ty was in awe of him and he really liked his whiskers!  Notice Ty's hair here.

Then, we had our standard Disney photo in front of Main Street (on Disney Photo pass currently as I debate on what to do about those pic's). By this time we were in limbo on time...we were hungry and eager to get to the fun stuff. But, we had a 9am hair cut appt. for Ty at the Harmony Barber Shop.  I had this brilliant idea that we just HAD to get his hair cut at Disneyworld. It was…okay. And, for $15, it was cheap.

I must admit he had some rock star hair afterwards. But, the whole idea of having a cool experience? Yeah, we didn’t make our appt. at 12pm when the Barbershop quartet “may” visit and sing. That was disappointing because no one told us that. I had opted for this instead of the Pirate's League because I thought the whole makeup on the face thing would be too messy to have on all day.  Maybe next time we'll do that.  We'll see...

After the haircut, it was time for Tomorrowland because we’re Buzz Lightyear fans around here!

Todd and Ty getting all the bad guys!

Then, Monsters Inc., the Magic Carpets, FOOD, the Parade, and the list goes on.

Hey Ty, where did your eyelashes come from?  Mama wants some.

Ty was infatuated by the characters.

Oh Woody, you just made Ty's day!

He loved them. All of them. He wanted to talk to them and know where all their friends were. THAT was awesome. He had NO CLUE they were not real. And, it was supercool.

This picture makes it look like it's all part of the Castle.  These floats were crazyawesome. 

11/11/11: Where were you at 11:11am? Ty was making wishes with Buzz and Stitch.

Buzz couldn't "sign".  He stamps his name!  Such a little problem solver is he!

Ty was trying to cross his finger's to "wish".  In his hand?  The picture of him and his bro' last year on Halloween dressed as Buzz.  Buzz LOVED it!

We rode almost everything…Ty’s favorite was definitely Splash Mountain. He LOVED it. Most 3 year old’s are too short, but he rode it and loved it. And, wanted to do it again!  He also liked the Jungle Cruise quite a bit and the Pirates of the Caribbean. I was an official timer for that ride. Woohoo.

Papaw and Ty Man...chilling!

Note: Make sure you give your child a nap. We pushed Ty until about 5:30pm the first day and he was miserable (and so were we). He whined and pouted continuously. But, I’m going to take the blame.

Ty and I.  We're Rock-Star's like that.

Funny Story: As soon as we got on the bus, Ty was heading bobbing—he could not keep his eyes open. Todd was holding Ty and he pee’d all over him. Like, dripping on the floor, down Todd’s legs and all over the floor of the bus. Gross, right? I told the driver, apologized, attempted to clean it up with the tiny little towel he had but honestly, I needed a mop. Now that I think about it, it was funny. Ty has been potty trained for nearly a year now and never does that. Again, I’ll take the blame. The poor kid was exhausted!

We went to dinner that night at Shutters in our hotel. It was…okay. We didn’t make reservations anywhere so we were limited on our choices. And, at 8pm we didn’t really want to take a bus to somewhere else because we wanted Ty to get a good night’s sleep for an early day on Saturday.

Lesson’s of the Day: Eat breakfast. Give the 3 year old a nap. Get a stroller before 2pm.

You may be too big for a stroller if you have to "duck" to sit in it.

And, make dinner reservations. I knew we should have but we thought we'd be too busy to "stop" and nose dive to another place to eat and yada yada, we should have made reservations.

Happy Little Boy watching the parade with a popsicle.  Like this adorable shirt?  Check out my friend Mollie's site. 
She is awesome. 

And, something cool to check out if you're staying for a week?  The Disney Florist  These would be cool to have as an "arriving" gift for the babies.  As if arriving at Disneyworld isn't breathtaking enough!

Coming Soon:  Day 2 at Disneyworld!