We celebrated Spring this week by escaping Ithaca’s frigid temperatures for the much more pleasant weather in Orlando, Florida. We travelled with our friends, the MacLennans, which really made the trip awesome!
Once upon a time I spent about 9 months working at Walt Disney World, and this trip, seven years later, was the first time I have been back. Luckily, I still have some friends down there, so it was nice to spend a little time with them and show Jonathan and Lincoln around my old stomping grounds (our hotel was even right next to my old apartment complex!)
After a brief stop into Epcot (Lincoln wasn’t impressed), we spent most of our first day at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This is the park where I worked, so I was especially anxious to visit it. There were still a few people I recognized working in the stroller area, which surprised me. Lincoln especially liked the Finding Nemo show (maybe we should pick up that movie because he sat perfectly still on Jonathan’s lap the entire time), the petting zoo, and the Safari.
I had plans that evening to have dinner with my good friends Christine and Lisa. It was so fun getting to catch up! A lot can happen in seven years and one dinner wasn’t enough to cover it all. I wish we’d had a few more days to spend down there!
After dinner we headed over to the Magic Kingdom to meet back up with the MacLennans and watch the fireworks. They were just as good as I remember.
We decided to split the next day between Hollywood Studios (but I still call it MGM) and Magic Kingdom. Looking back, I wish we’d just gone to the Magic Kingdom, but we had a lot of fun at both. Lisa had warned me that there was a very popular new attraction at the Studios called Toy Story Midway Mania, so we headed there first. I can see why it’s so popular, it was so fun Lincoln didn’t even mind waiting in line. (Though, as you can see, he wasn’t quite ready to go until he finished off his morning cup of coffee milk.)
Next we headed to the animation section of the park were we watched a little show about Disney animation and then went and looked at some examples. While we were wandering, Sorcerer Mickey walked by, so we hopped in line to meet him. Lisa bought Lincoln a little Sorcerer Mickey doll that he had immediately become attached to, so we thought this would be a great photo op. While we were waiting in line Lincoln seemed so excited to see Mickey, but when our turn came he got pretty scared, which we were expecting. It’s okay, I still like the photo.
The last thing we did at the Studios was watch a Beauty and the Beast show. Since Lincoln had liked Nemo so much, we thought he might enjoy this one too. He did, but we didn’t. It is just not well done. (Lincoln took the picture of Jonathan and the sandwich.)
Finally we headed over to the Magic Kingdom. Our first stop was, of course, to buy Lincoln and Graham their mouse ears. Unfortunately there was a long wait to get them embroidered so his name is not on the back. I am bummed, but it will be okay.
We rode the teacups, of course. Lincoln loved it.
We drove on the Tomorrowland Speedway…
And we rode Dumbo.
Up until this point on the trip Lincoln had not taken a nap. He finally crashed just before we got on Pirates of the Caribbean, but I didn’t mind sitting out since it meant he was finally sleeping! We headed back to the hotel early so we could watch the BYU game, and because we were all exhausted.
For oiur last full day we just hung out by the pool at our hotel. Lincoln loved playing in the kiddie pool and took a great nap when we finally went back to the room.
That afternoon we went to Downtown Disney to do some souvenir shopping and hang out with even more friends from Ithaca (It’s really cold here. We were all fleeing to the south.) It was such a nice way to end a really great vacation!
Going to Disney World with a child was really a special experience for me. I think I got a little jaded when I was down there in 2004, but going with Lincoln was like looking at the parks with new eyes. It was so fun watching him have so much fun. Big thanks to Erin and Lisa for the tickets!
