Disney09 - "Be Our Guest"

It's finally here! After months of planning and getting the kids hyped up for it, we're ready to go! Bags packed, boarding passes in hand, we throw open the garage door to begin our... SNOW! What the...!? Yes, friends, we left early Monday morning in an APRIL snowstorm. Which then delayed our flight by over two hours because all of the airport's deicing machines had already been put into storage. Despite the rocky start, the kids behaved reasonably well and things went fairly smoothly after that.

We used a service called the Magical Express to take us to Disney's Caribbean Beach resort, which we would call home for the next week. The Magical Express also picked up our bags for us and delivered them to our room. While this was a nice service, it meant we were without our luggage until nearly 10:30 at night! Nicole had the brilliant idea to pack our swimsuits in our carry-on bags. So we spent the afternoon poolside before having dinner.

The alarm was set for early the next morning and we were at the gates of the Magic Kingdom shortly after it opened. In no particular order we hit the Dumbo ride (one of Zoe's favorites), Teacups (so... dizzy), It's A Small World (big hit with both kids), Snow White's Scary Adventure (not really), Stitch's Great Escape (really lame), and Pooh's Adventure (another big hit). We also caught several shows and parades. The big hit of the morning was Storytime With Belle. Belle pulled kids out of the audience to help her act out Beauty And The Beast. They also pulled one Dad in particular out of the audience to be the Beast. Haley and Zoe got a kick out of seeing me fight with Gaston and dance with Belle.

We took a boat ride to Disney's Polynesian Resort for a fantastic dinner at the Kona Cafe, and caught the monorail back to the Magic Kingdom for a few more rides. Because it was later in the evening, there were very short lines for some of the most popular rides. We went on the NEW Pirates Of The Caribbean (which is now crawling with Johnny Depp and references to the movie) and found Haley's favorite ride of the trip - Splash Mountain! We wound up riding Splash Mountain a few times in a row until the fireworks started. Then it was back to the resort for some much needed sleep.

All of this was the first day! We still had six to go!