We took Sam on his very first Disney World Trip at the beginning of February, and we had a great time. It will probably take me several posts to get through everything, but I want to make sure to put up as many pictures as possible since this is essentially our family journal.
We've had the trip booked for several months, so I've had plenty of time to read every piece of planning literature I could get my hands on. At this point, if there's something you want to know about Disney, I can probably tell you. Sadly, I'm not kidding.
For the past 2 years or so we've put any spare change we've had into empty apple juice jars. We don't use a ton of cash--mainly debit cards--but you'd be amazed at how fast it adds up. We paid for our flights with loose change. Seriously. 3 tickets.
Anyway, we flew out of Jackson on a direct flight to Orlando on Feb. 3. It was Sam's first flight, and I was a little nervous about how he would do. He was great, though. I don't know why I ever worried.
Yes, that is the brightest pink carry-on bag ever made. It was free.
He was completely intrigued by the safety instructions. He asked if our plane was going to "land in water," and I responded, "I hope not." He was fastidious about keeping his seat belt fastened, which amused me greatly.
The plan was to use the Disney bus, (which they send for free if you stay with them) but there was a huge wait when we got there. We were faced with waiting for a minimum of an hour to catch a bus, but it would probably take 2. We decided to take a taxi. It was well worth $60 so that we wouldn't have to wrangle Sam in a airport line all afternoon.
We stayed at Pop Century, which is one of Disney's Value Resorts. We didn't think we had any need to stay somewhere bigger since it would only be the 3 of us, and we would be in the parks the majority of the time. PC was nice, VERY kid-friendly, and a really fun atmosphere. The pools are heated, and the weather was awesome, so Sam got to swim while we were there. However, we will definitely stay at a bigger resort next time. The rooms at the value resorts are very small, which was fine this time, but when Alex goes with us, we'll need way more space.
We were going to stay at the new Art of Animation, but our travel agent let us know that if we booked elsewhere, we would get Disney's free quick-service dining. As picky as Sam is, we knew better than to schedule many sit-down meals, so the free quick service was a big plus for us--2 meals a day plus a snack each. We had so many snack credits left at the end of our trip we ended up bringing home sweets.
ANYWAY....
We got to Pop Century, checked in, dropped off our carry-ons, and picked up our stroller rental. The stroller was something I agonized over for months--just ask Anthony. The thing is, Sam probably hasn't been in a stroller for almost 3 years, and I couldn't imagine that he would get in one. However, my child is either slow as molasses or disappears within seconds. There is no in-between. I thought a stroller would help us contain him. I decided to rent from an outside company so that we wouldn't have to stop inside the parks to rent one every day. THANK THE LORD that I decided to rent one. It may have saved our trip. Sam never would have made it with all of the walking we did...I should have tried to clock how many miles we walked and how fast we were going. We took the stroller, got to the general area we wanted, parked the stroller, and walked from there. He didn't even blink when I told him to get in, and after the first day he understood why. Disney is BIG. Way bigger than when I was little, that's for sure.
We knew we wanted to take him to the T-REX restaurant in Downtown Disney, so as soon as we had our things together, we hopped on a bus and headed that way. As for food, T-REX is essentially a pumped-up Applebees, but then you throw in really loud, animatronic dinosaurs. He loved it.
It was loud. Really loud.
After a very early dinner, my original thought was to head back to the room and call it a night. But then we got excited...so we headed to the Magic Kingdom. At night. On a non-recommended day. (In my research I found this great website that tells you which parks are statistically the best to go to-- www.easywdw.com . It's a great site, and the guy is pretty spot-on. I used his recs for our plan...except for the first night. :)
Sam was pretty darn tired, and we were too, but we did walk right into the park and meet Mickey. We waited 5 minutes, and it was the first thing that Sam did, so that was pretty cool. We rode a ride or two--Buzz Lightyear would prove to be his favorite--and took the bus back to the hotel to crash. It was a long, long, day.
Be prepared for lots of Mickey applique shirts. See Sam's "First Visit" button? It was waiting on him when we checked in to our hotel. I love Disney.
Ok, I cannot take credit for this idea...I can't remember where I saw it, but instead of an autograph book, we did an autograph mat. I bought an 8 x 10 white mat that would hold a 5 x 7 picture. We took that in a folder and gave the characters markers to sign it. We now have a Disney pic in it and have it framed, so Sam can always see his autograph collection. It turned out really cute. Getting signatures was one of his favorite things to do while we were there, and he had to make sure the marker matched what the characters were wearing.
First day in the books!
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