Disney Part 1

I know every post I do has a ton of pictures but this is definitely going to be an overload.  I'm going to do two posts about our Disney trip, Day 1 and 2.  It might be a lot but I wanted to document it all.  

We had a wonderful trip.  Mason was absolutely perfect.  Obviously, you can't do all of Disney when you only have two days but we wore ourselves out!  We went to Magic Kingdom the first day and Hollywood Studios the second day.  

Here is the day of with his last countdown sheet.  He seemed pretty excited but I don't think grasped onto where we were going.  

This was Mason's first time on an airplane.  He was most excited about "going way up high in the sky".  This was the only part I was a little nervous about because I was by myself with him.  I had talked to him multiple times about needing to listen to me in the airport and stay close.  The other thing I was worried about was the time.  Our flight didn't leave until 7:45 after a long day of school.

Here he is walking in the airport with his cute little backpack.

We had to grab a bite to eat before we headed to our gate.  We met a very nice man who worked for FedEx here in town but lived in Orlando.  He also had a kid Mason's age and seemed pretty excited for him to be flying for the first time and going to Disney.  We talked to him for a total of one or two minutes and never saw him again until we boarded the plane.  He had already boarded (because he was sitting in the fancy section) and had talked to the pilots about this being Mason's first trip.  They were looking for him so he could take a picture in the cockpit.  Mason thought it was pretty cool...I was worried he was going to start hitting all of those buttons and our plane would go down!

When we landed and were walking off the plane, the co-pilot was again waiting on Mason.  He gave him a shiny set of wings and a card that says the type of plane he flew on.  I thought it was just the nicest thing those men could do.


I had patients tell me to take suckers and have Mason suck on them when we took off and landed.  Turns out, none of this scared, bothered, or phased him.  He was just pumped I was letting him have suckers.

"Mom, stop making me take pictures!"

Like I said, it all went perfectly.  We landed about 10:30 (9:30 Memphis time) and then caught the Disney bus to our hotel.  Mason crashed the minute that bus got moving.  We put him to bed and he had no idea where he was the next morning.

So he was pretty excited when he saw all of this....

We stayed at Pop Century, one of Disney's "value" resorts...aka cheaper resorts.  The rooms are just normal hotel rooms with nothing fancy.  But the decor all over the resort is perfect for kids.   Not to mention, several pools, an arcade room, and a big dining hall.


We all got ready and headed to breakfast there.  Little Dude picked out Mickey Mouse waffles.

And here we are at Magic Kingdom.

As soon as we got there, they were performing on stage.  Mason just sat there and watched with his mouth opened in amazement.  The only thing is there is a part where Peter Pan calls for the crocodile to come get Captain Hook.  The crocodile scared him (there was some loud noise with it) and he has not stopped talking about that thing since.  If you asked him today what his favorite part was...he would tell you he didn't like that crocodile.  So we watched Peter Pan tonight.  Hopefully this will help.

We went straight to Fantasyland when the show was over.  They have Fast Passes set up at all the popular rides.  It is awesome.  You go around and get a couple of fast passes and it will tell you when to come back.  You literally are almost in the front of the line when you return and everyone else has waited for as long as 80 minutes!  Get the Fast Passes!!!  (they are free!)

 First ride we did was Its a Small World.

Then we headed to the carousel.  He always loves these things.  

 

Not happy when it was over.

Only picture I got of him on the teacups.

We met Goofy.  I think he is actually Mason's favorite character.  He talks about him all the time.

And Donald Duck

I have to order the CD from Disney but I stole this picture.  That's why it is blurry.  They give you a photopass card to use at all Disney locations.  They have photographers there who take your picture, they then scan your card, and you can see your pictures online.  The photographers will also take pictures with your own camera.  I think Disney is brilliant.

After meeting Goofy...we HAD to have a hat.  =)

Let me tell you, it was HOT.  It got up to 89 degrees and sunny.  We ended up getting a good amount of sun.  Well John and I did, of course we lathered up Mason.

His first roller coaster.  It went pretty fast.  Faster than I thought it would.  He was very quiet the whole ride.  When we got off he told me he was a little bit scared of that one.  He was a trooper though, never  said he was scared during the ride.

Gotta have some popcorn.

Here was our lifesaver.  You can rent these strollers at all the parks.  We wouldn't have gone back the second day if these weren't available.

I had scheduled a character lunch at The Crystal Palace.  It was great to be able to cool off and eat.  Not to mention the characters walking around.

Giving Piglet kisses.  I had to turn my head...who knows how many kids have given him kisses.  Eww

And of course Pooh.

After lunch we hit up the rest of the rides and shows.  We saw the 4-D short movie Mickey's Philhar Magic.  It was awesome.  John and I both said this was our favorite and Mason absolutely loved it.

And who goes to Disney World and not see Mickey Mouse himself.

Then we had to have Mickey Mouse ice cream.  We had to change shirts after this snack.

We could not believe this kid had not crashed at this point.  I think it was about 6pm.

Waiting on the electric parade to start.  You can see he is getting pretty tired though.

 Spent a whopping 30 bucks on light up gadgets.

(note John's red face)

Tinkerbell on one of the floats.

Pretty amazed.

After the electrical parade, everyone headed closer to Cinderella's Castle.  Before the fireworks, they did this cool light show with great Disney movie music and Walt Disney.   It was a production for sure.

Waiting on fireworks!

We headed back to the hotel immediately following the fireworks.  Somehow Mason managed to keep his eyes open until we got back, but he went quickly to sleep.  It was a very exhausting day but worth every minute of it.  I would say Mason would have to agree... except the whole crocodile part...