FL part 4 - Disney!

While in FL, Jubin and I took Watson to Disney's Magic Kingdom for a day. The 4 of us went there for the 1st time for 1 day back in March 2013, and Watson LOVED it. Jubin and I had sort of delayed going, thinking that it was SO expensive and SO overdone and SO commercial. But then when Jamieson was born, we decided that we better bring Watson soon, before Jamie was walking and it would be really difficult to go. Then, for a while Jamie would be too young, and the next opportunity might be when Watson was too old for Magic Kingdom!

From March, 2013 - taking the trolley from the parking lot to the Monorail station

The experience turned out well - Watson loved it, Jamie slept some of the time, was pretty chill in his carrier or stroller or being lugged around by me or Jubin, and the Disney baby feeding/nursing rooms were really great. Overall, Jubin and I were pleasantly surprised. Yes, it is crazy expensive, but the park wasn't as crazy busy (very few long lines actually) or overdone as we had feared it would be. Parts of it were downright amazing, actually (e.g., the Electric Light Parade). And, it was so great to see Watson's reactions to it all...so, we thought that us taking him there for a 2nd day in Dec, just the 3 of us would be the perfect Christmas gift for him. And, it was!

First ride of the day!

Still loving It's a Small World - went on it twice!
And, we were all humming it for days...

We rented a car and drove a little over an hour down to Orlando to Magic Kingdom. After getting a little lost on the way there (just a little), we had a great day. But, it was busier than in March (school break week - thank goodness we went on a week day at least!) and we got there later in the day. Both of these facts meant that the first Fast Pass we got, for Peter Pan, was for 7:30pm! Still, we never waited in line for more than 20 minutes. Then, in the afternoon it RAINED. And, I don't mean rain, I mean RAIN! We tried to wait it out in the stores for a while and finally gave in and bought Disney ponchos and kept going on the rides that we could. The good news about rain at Disney? People with multi-day tix leave! Let's see - highlights? It's a Small World, the People Mover, and the Tea Cups were probably Watson's favorite rides. He also did this really cool thing we hadn't noticed in March - Disney's Sorcerer's Apprentice.  They gave Watson a map and some cards and he went on a scavenger hunt all around the park trying to find portals where he could defeat villains. At each portal, a video plays and he had to pick a card with a special power that could defeat the villains in the video. He really liked it! He still pulls out his map and cards to look at it all...they told him that they'll be good forever and that each time he comes he'll get more/different cards and be able to defeat more/different villains. Guess that's something we'll be bringing back with us from Belfast to Michigan...

Oh, and of course the Electric Light Parade was a hit again. Interestingly, during the day we saw 3 major glitches during parades. It seems that even the big machine of Disney can be affected by the weather!

Can't help but wonder about the cost of each day of operation,
just in terms of energy consumption...

Low points? Well, in Tomorrowland, we waited for about 20 minutes to go on the Astro Orbiter. Right when we finally got to the front of the line, it started pouring again, and the ride has absolutely no shelter. So, we didn't ride it...but, the good news was we then went to the People Mover instead because it is covered, and that ended up being a cool ride (one of W's favs) that we probably wouldn't have tried otherwise. Another low point was the Tomorrowland Speedway - cars that you ride around a course. Watson was NOT a fan. I have to admit that I wasn't a huge fan either - they were very hard to steer and were pretty jerky. Interesting tidbit - Watson was fascinated by Splash Mountain and really wanted to go on it, but when we got there he was too scared to go - he was SO torn! Cutie. But, all in all we had a great day! We left for The Villages after the parade ended and Watson was asleep within a few minutes.