Twins Squared: DisneyWorld Days 1 & 2: Chef Mickey's and Magic Kingdom

Day 1 of our vacation mainly consisted of traveling. Our family of six, plus my mom, Mike's mom, and Mike's sister (in total we were nine) flew to Orlando. It was Ashley and Reagan's first plane trip ever. Mike's mom (NaNaw) has a major problem with motion sickness but even with a somewhat bumpy landing she did okay. None of the kids really cared for the airplane.

What I didn't take into account was the fact that we lost an hour due to daylight savings the night before. Apparently I didn't get the memo when I booked that trip. That would have been one thing but we also moved another hour forward into another time zone. Oh yeah, and my clock radio, though I moved the clock up an hour the night before, changed on it's own, so it went off an hour early, we really I lost 3 hours of sleep the night before the trip and really never caught up til a week later when we got home.

Anyway, so getting from the airport to checked in to our hotel took WAY longer than I planned for, so between that and all the time change it really threw us off. We ended up having a late dinner at Chef Mickey's. It took a while to get there and get our table, but once we sat down it was fun and we enjoyed some yummy food!

Here's the man of the hour himself!

I think everyone was even more excited to meet Minnie!

The next day we were up and running. It was off to Magic Kingdom! We got there just as the gates were opening. While at least for me there did not seem to be as many magical moments as our prior trip to Disneyland, walking up to those gates at the opening my mom and I both got all teary-eyed. What is it that's so magical about Disney? Even NaNaw got all choked up when she met Minnie Mouse - it was her first time at Disney and so it was a real moment for her.

Here's the gang just heading down Main Street.

The beloved castle. We can say my mom (MeMe) is obsessed with the castle. She is a Disney freak and hasn't been to Disney since I was 3 years old! We have MANY pictures of the castle. Ashley said at one point, "Why does everyone care so much about the castle?" (Envision a very annoyed child saying this.) But we must admit, it is so grand from every angle! What a symbol of I don't know what. Just something magical I guess.

We went straight to Fantasyland and hopped on Dumbo.

DisneyWorld has two Dumbo rides now. Something happened on our first ride so they brought us down and walked us onto the other one for another ride! Um, okay! Sounds fine to me!

I like how little Kaitlyn looks in this picture!

Then to the teacups! This ride and Dumbo did much better for me on this trip than the last!

More characters - Daisy posed all the girls which they thought was funny.

Everyone was all smiles after the cute little Pooh ride. (Though it was pretty twisty turny for NaNaw - probably not to her liking but she was a great sport.)

One of the things I loved about DisneyWorld vs DisneyLand is that there were many more oddball characters, including villains. We saw the wicked step-mother walking around and she seemed to be cursing of some sort and wasn't speaking to anyone. I dared my big girls to go up to her but they wouldn't do it.

Peter Pan's Flight was the one MeMe looked forward to the most. And so were we since it was closed when we went to DisneyLand. The kids all really enjoyed it - they love the story of Peter Pan, but I think my mom was a bit disappointed it was not quite as she had remembered. She said it had definitely been changed over the years.

The whole crew (minus me) on It's a Small World. Love looking at every little thing in there.

I think we all felt like Ashley below gazing up at it all.

The beloved castle again.

The new Ariel ride! It's about time that Disney updated their parks with some more princess rides! That was the one thing I couldn't believe at DisneyLand. In all these years of new princess movies no new princess rides? But here's Ashley and NaNaw riding in a clamshell through one of her favorite movies.

Another villain - Gaston! Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorites and I love the character of Gaston! We were lucky to be the last people to get to meet him. He was hilarious! So conceited and full of himself. The little girls wouldn't meet him but the big girls did. One of his funny comments - "Everybody say my favorite word. It's 'ME!'."

Time for ears! Mackenzie brought her hat from her first trip but the rest needed their own. Reagan was looking for the headband you see now. She had seen it on someone, but then couldn't find it in the hat shop. It wasn't until we paid for it and were having the other hats embroidered when in the back we saw the one she had been looking for. Well, what do you do when your child is in tears because we made her get the headband that wasn't her first choice and you're at Disney? You return it and get her the one she wants. It's Disney, for crying out loud! She was happy girl after that (at least for the moment).

Ashley couldn't decide. They all frustrated her because they were so big. So we bought her an "infant" hat. She was happy with it except the strap was a little tight. She had her own little fix for that that you'll see in some later pictures.

Kaitlyn thought her first Mickey Mouse hat - the original design - was boring so we let her get a new hat. Never dreamed she would choose the big sorcerer's hat! Then again, I'm not totally surprised. She likes to be different.

We drove the cars in Tomorrowland. I never like Tomorrowland. The Toy Story ride is really the only cute thing there in my opinion. But back to the cars. The big girls got to drive themselves. Mackenzie was in front and kept tiring out. After seeing this photo now we know why she had such a hard time. Look at where she is sitting compared to the steering wheel! That being said it WAS hard to keep the pedal down the entire time. Even I was getting tired. Kaitlyn was behind Mackenzie experiencing her first bout with road rage. There were arms flying and there was yelling as she had to keep stopping so she didn't hit her dear sister.

Parade time!

Me and the two grandmothers got in on it at the end. You gotta live a little, right? Except my one child who is a dancing QUEEN refused to participate. I was really bummed because of it. She dances EVERYwhere else, no matter how inappropriate, but didn't dance here. I thought maybe she was too cool to do it suddenly, which saddened me, but she later said she was feeling sick from Space Mountain. Well that is a little more understandable.

NaNaw and Ashley having their own party!

MeMe, the little girls, and I split off from the others and somehow got stuck behind the castle trying to leave. Every time you turn around they're closing it off for parades and you can't get through. By the time we got around to catch up with everybody, darkness was setting in, and as exhausted as we were, we ended up seeing most of the electrical parade. Very cute but the only way to actually see (because we had no spot on the route) was to hold the kids WAY up. It was one of those moments where they were upset because we hadn't done much that evening, we were stuck in the crowds, walking forever and ever, tired, etc. The least they wanted to do was SEE the parade coming by. So I kept switching them and holding them up. Where is Mike when I need him? It was killing me but I kept doing it. It actually WAS neat to see. Oh - and then MeMe and I got split up too. It's a bit scary for a minute but we finally reconnected.

Then the journey back to the hotel. Mike and the others had already gone. Kaitlyn was tired. Mackenzie certainly found the humor in their dad taking Kaitlyn's picture!