disney vacation - day 2: magic kingdom

May 13

*Warning - lots of pictures and details. I want to remember EVERYTHING! Feel free to skip the reading and to just look at the pictures :)

The morning started out with a lot of excitement! I was actually the first one up, due to being the only one use to eastern standard time (ok, Mitch and the girls were also use to the time, but I set an alarm). I knew it would take me a while to get us ready to go, so I wanted an early start. Plus, I was pretty excited!

We came up with a meal plan for the week and decided on heartier breakfasts to help us have the energy we would need through the day. We also decided to pack sandwiches in for lunch. So, I got breakfast started (Matt finished making the pancakes) and our lunches made. It ended up taking us all longer than we thought to get ready, but we were finally able to get out the door and on our way to Disney World!!

Family picture. All ready for some Disney fun!

The group shot.

All 18 of us.

Carolyn got us all matching shirts!

Tara is the mastermind behind the design.

We had several people stop us and ask about them.

In front of Cinderella's castle.

Makenzie was so excited to see it!

The game plan was to head straight to Fantasyland. We decided to get a Fastpass to the Winnie the Pooh ride. We had a little bit of a wait before the ride so we checked out some of the other things in Fantasyland. We discovered that it was hard to keep a group of 18 together. Most of us went into the 3D show Mickey's Philharmonic. Makenzie sat on Mitch's lap during the show. She knew every single character that came up and she would yell it out. She had a grin from ear to ear and was just in heaven. As we were walking out, Mitch turned to me and said, "that right there made this all worth it!"

Our first ride!

Prince Charming's Carousel

Look at Makenzie's face (she's on the left)

Pure joy!!

Finally on Winnie the Pooh.

We came off of the ride and Makenzie immediately asked if we could go on another ride!

Look at that face!

Oooo!

After riding Winnie the Pooh, we decided to all go our separate ways until lunch later in the afternoon. With our large, diverse group everyone wanted to do different things. It just made sense. We stuck around Fantasyland with Nate and Melis. First up, Enchanted Tales with Belle. Matt and Nikki saw us in line and jumped in with us.

Waiting in line.

The line goes through Maurice's cottage.

I love all of the details Disney puts in.

Once in Maurice's workshop you go through a magic mirror to the Beast's castle. At the castle we help Belle act out how her and the Beast met.

Makenzie was chosen to be Chip.

When she went up to Belle, she was seriously star struck!

Alex enjoyed the story too!

After enacting the story, each child was able to go up to meet Belle and have their picture taken. Belle gave each one a bookmark.

Makenzie

Ryker

Madyson

Nikki and Lynlee

(I wish I took Alex up to meet her)

After Enchanted Tales with Belle we headed over to the Little Mermaid ride (we had picked up Fastpasses). Melis took this picture on her phone during the ride. I love that it got all four of us! Alex LOVED the rides!

Meeting Ariel

Next up we walked through another part of Fantasyland as we headed to meet up for lunch.

Madyson needed (just because it was Rapunzel) to stop and use the Rapunzel bathroom, which means so did Makenzie.

Those girls love Rapunzel!

We all met up for lunch and decided we were going to head towards Splash Mountain. I ran and picked up Fastpasses while everyone finished their lunches. As we all headed towards Frontierland we saw Tiana. Of course Makenzie needed to stop to meet her!

Makenzie and Tiana!

The whole time in line she kept telling me she was going to ask Tiana different things. Once it was her turn to talk with her she was speechless!

Mitch sat with Alex and Tara while Makenzie and I met Tiana. Poor Tara had the flu and mostly just moved from one bench to the next. We had to wake her when we were ready to head to the next attraction. As we walked through Frontierland we rode Pirates of the Caribbean, which the girls enjoyed. Next up was Splash Mountain. Matt and Nikki stayed with the kiddos that couldn't ride. Madyson and Makenzie were going to go on this. Unfortunately, Makenzie ended up not being tall enough. For the last 6 months she's measured at 38", 2" too short. With her shoes she's only been an inch too short. I had been hoping she would grow the one inch, but she didn't. I also put a hat on her and had it loose on top of her head. It didn't work. So, I had to take an upset Makenzie to the part of the group waiting. Luckily, there is a little playground for the kids to play on.

We stuffed our boat as full as we could and got us all on it.

10 total.

Nate, Melis and Madyson are in the back row.

You just can't see them very well :)

We got a few rider swap passes so that Nikki and Matt could go on after us. Can I tell you that Fastpasses and rider swap are awesome! Disney definitely knows how to take care of their guests and make things easier for parents with little kiddos.

While by Splash Mountain some of us rode Big Thunder Mountain. Madyson surprised us by loving the rollercoasters. But then, Melis loves them! Mitch passed on Thunder Mountain. He tends to get motion sickness pretty bad. Most of his siblings do. Bret (Mitch's dad) wore a Dramamine patch all week. It worked so well for him that Mitch said he was acting like a teenager and riding all the big rides! 

The kids were able to meet Woody and Jessie.

The girls giving Jessie a hug!

Uncle Nate, Woody, Jessie and the kiddos (minus Alex, she was asleep in her stroller).

Around dinner time many of the group decided they wanted to head back to the house to eat and swim. A few of us wanted to stay for the evening. As we were walking towards the main gates we stopped for a visit in Pixie Hollow!

Waiting to meet the fairies.

You wait in a lobby type room and when it's your turn to meet Tinker Bell, you walk through a special portal that shrinks you so you're the same size as the fairies.

Makenzie and Elyse

Rosetta

She's a garden fairy.

Lynlee didn't really like Tinker Bell.

But Makenzie loved her!

Mitch took the girls back to the house while I stayed and played with Nikki, Elyse, Bret and Carolyn. All the kiddos were able to have a cousin bath together!

Bret, Carolyn and Elyse riding the WDW Railroad.

While staying later we hit up Tomorrowland and Bret and I rode Space Mountain. We got a little something to eat and watched the Main St. Electrical Parade. And we can't forget Nikki, Elyse and I skipping with arms linked through the park!

It was a good first day at Disney!