Day 1, Part 2: Magic Kingdom & Epcot

We got checked into our room and of course headed straight for Magic Kingdom!! It rained while we were getting settled, so we made our first Disney purchase of...ponchos. Thanks to the 2012 DNC in Charlotte, there were no ponchos anywhere I looked haha! So we grabbed some and followed Tour Guide Mike's advice to head straight to Dumbo as our first ride..which we all got to go on! There is a video somewhere and if I can find it I'll edit this post. 

Before I dive into our schedule, I wanted to mention that we got the Park Hopper tickets which allowed us to go to as many parks as we wanted to each day..This usually worked out as one in the morning, and one in the afternoon or night..So, our first day we did Magic Kingdom until right after lunch, came back to the room, went swimming at our awesome pirate pool, got cleaned up and headed to Epcot where we had dinner reservations and plans to watch Illuminations light show (which we stayed for 3 times over the week~the kids, Liam especially, loved it!)  We had done a good bit of research and used a website called Tour Guide Mike to assist us with planning what rides/restaurants, and it was invaluable. We only had to wait for a couple of rides or characters for more than 10-15 minutes, and we loved the restaurants he recommended. It was absolutely worth the $15 one time subscription!!

Okay, so On to Magic Kingdom! We were in the rain, but didn't care, we were so happy! We got to see Main Street, USA all decorated for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween which was starting our last night there~the decorations all over the parks are incredible~no detail too small! And the beautiful Fall colors were just really well done. While walking down the main drag, we saw a singing/marching band!

This perfect baby was an angel all week. I can't even describe her!! She napped for the first two hours after she rode Dumbo and we took turns taking the kids on other stuff~ Josh and the kids did the first real roller coaster: the Barnstormer, while I nursed Emory (*The Baby Centers are a lifesaver if you have babies or even just little kids!! I will talk more about these during Animal Kingdom b/c that was the best one), rode the Tea Cups, saw Mickey's PhilHarmonics interactive "movie", rode Cinderella's Prince Charming Carousel, and a new trial interactive show they were testing for the expansion (Ariel and Belle) parts of the new Magic Kingdom.

Liam was "other castle items" during the Belle show

Seeing Belle for the first time

a really cute and beautifully done Belle "show"?

Riding "the Many Adventures ofWinnie the Pooh" after lunch at the Pinocchio Village Haus: where our meal plan went a long way!! *Let me stop here and explain our meal plan: each person (Emory excluded) had a refillable mug, a snack, a "quick service" (think more than a food stand but less than a fancy dinner) meal, and a "table service" meal (think fancy dinner).  Each (kids included) meal included a drink, entree, and dessert! It was a ton of food and we were so impressed with all of them except one poor choice on our part where we ignored TGMike.. (don't eat at Japan for a quick service meal..)  We also did two character meals to eliminate some of the lines for meeting characters around the parks, but I'll touch on those as they happen. Just mentioning them here because they use a "table service" which by default made our other meal on those days a quick service choice.

First family pic with the famous Castle!!! Ponchos were off for the rest of the day!

Merida was our first character we met! I was very impressed with how long she and all of the other characters we met spent with the kids, talking to them and not rushing us off at all. It was great!! She looked and sounded Just Like Merida!!

Someone didn't make it to dinner awake ;)  Notice the scuba mask and shark shorts for our first table service meal at Coral Reef in Epcot!

 Every table in the restaurant has an incredible view of...

a gigantic aquarium with sharks, rays, and fish a plenty!! (as a non-seafood lover, I was happy to knock this one out of the way first, but it was great~I had a delicious steak dinner and got to enjoy watching my family have a ball with the fishtank. We were also happy to not be right beside the tank b/c even though everyone is looking at the fish, I bet it feels like they are looking at you! lol

 

After dinner but before the light show started, we toured around the Future World Showcase a bit. This was the only time we visited this area..it probably had the least to offer our crew at this point.  "The Land" is a weird 80s mall looking thing with a food court and some boring boat ride about farming that scared Liam a bit b/c it was simulating a very dark rainstorm at the beginning, and the kids and I rode an airplane/hanglider simulation ride called Soarin' that was really cool.

Waiting for Illuminations to start!!

Our champ babe. She loved this whole week because she was held so much!! Josh and I split the time with her in the Beco carrier (although it looks like only he held her! Ahem, he just didn't take any pictures when he had his hands free like I did, wink wink! ;p)