Orlando Adventures - Day 2

Click on the photo to be taken to the first in the set of today's photos.

I woke up at 7:00 this morning with the sun shining right in my face. And although I'm not a morning person, lately I've been finding it difficult to go back to sleep once woken up. So I decided to just get out of bed. My alarm was going to go off in another half hour anyway so I could get up to remote into work and do a couple things that I'm going to need to do every morning while I'm away.

I finished my work at about 8:15 and tried to pull everybody else out of bed. Nobody wanted to move. It must have been a tougher day yesterday than I realized. Eventually the kids were coaxed from their beds (everyone accept David who is an early riser on his own). But all they wanted to do was watch TV.

"We've got the Magic Kingdom out there just waiting for us. We didn't come all the way to Florida to just watch TV," I begged.

And after much more pleading and prodding the kids were fed, bathed, and dressed and ready to head out the door...at 11:00.

We had intended on using the shuttle service the hotel provides for transportation to and from the parks. Unfortunately, they only drop off and pick up twice per day and we missed it already. So we drove instead. It was a very short and pleasant drive. The weather was perfect for a day in the parks. High of 69 degrees. Sunny. Beautiful weather. (I heard it was rainy and cold back in Portland...snicker.)

The Magic Kingdom was gorgeous with all the holiday decorations on display. And the castle...breathtaking. Especially with the lights all over it at night (see picture above). Adam insisted that the first ride we go on be Space Mountain. I tried to warn him that it was a fast ride in the dark (but I didn't try too hard because I didn't really want to scare him out of it, I just wanted him to have some necessary information). It scared him pretty good. He acted like he enjoyed it afterward, but when we went on it again later in the day he wasn't up for it.

We also rode the Indy Speedway (WDW version of Autopia). It was Rachel's first time driving alone and she seemed to have difficulty steering and reaching the gas peddle even though she met the height requirement.

We then rode Thunder Mountain (another one Adam wanted to ride but didn't enjoy too much), Splash Mountain (no complaints from anybody here, other than getting wet), Haunted Mansion (cool new effects I haven't seen before), visited the Swiss Family Tree House (sniff...I've missed it), Jungle Cruise (some cool additions not at Disneyland, but the skipper was dull), Pirates (not anything as cool as the original, but had to ride it anyway), Stitch's Great Escape (I'm not a really big fan of Stitch, but had to see it anyway...I prefer the Alien Encounter that was there before...although that would have been way to intense for the kids), then back to Space Mountain.

By this time it was 6:30 and the park was closing at 7:00 for some Christmas party that was a special ticket event. We could have bought tickets to stay until midnight, but they were $60 each and seeing the crowds that came in for it we're glad we didn't. Instead we grabbed some food. We did stay over the 7:00 cut off to finish eating and we were politely asked by a cast member to finish up and exit as quickly as possible. We did finish up, but took our time exiting due to the crowds and being distracted by some of the changes that took place after dark.

We got lost on the way back to the hotel (took a wrong turn out of the Magic Kingdom) but eventually found our way back and went for a night swim to finish the day off.

Even though the day started out late and was cut short at the end it was a good first day. We didn't try too hard to see everything at the park, knowing that we have plenty of time to come back. We also took the time just to take things in, enjoy the scenery and even some of the wildlife.

Tomorrow...Epcot!