Thursday, January 24, 2013

WDW: Day One

We all woke up bright and early to catch a flight to Orlando. Finley had all her Disney friends packed and ready to go, but Donald was chosen as the character to accompany her for the day. Our flight got in a touch early and we were on our way to Walt Disney World. The room at the Polynesian (notice Finley's pink lei!) was ready early and they happily switched us to a room with a view of the monorail. I am guessing they don't get a lot of requests for that. It was getting well past lunch and we were a hungry group, so we set off for the Magic Kingdom for the afternoon. We couldn't start the trip with lunch, so Finley chose to ride Grandad's favorite: The People Mover. The crowds were a bit heavy, even the People Mover had a bit of a line. We grabbed a quick lunch, saw the parade with perfect timing. The parade is the same parade as the one that was being performed Finley's first visit back in 2010. We arrived just as the parade was starting and Finley was speechless. It holds a special place in my heart because it is her first Disney experience. We then rode the teacups (they were supposed to be closed, luckily for us the website was wrong!) and Buzz Lightyear (I won!) After Buzz, we saw Monsters Inc Laugh Floor and we headed over to ride Winnie the Pooh. In Disneyland you can walk right on, but WDW is a totally different story. We had Fastpasses, so we didn't wait too long, but we certainly couldn't stay in the honey pot for 5 rides in a row like you can in Disneyland. We had lucked out with a bonus Dumbo Fastpass, so we checked out the new Storybook Circus. It looks very much like Toon Town Fair, just no Minnie or Mickey houses. There are now double Dumbos, so we got to ride on the Fastpass one. There is a really neat play area in the regular line, so we will check that out before we go. After Dumbo, we got to meet all the characters in Pete's Silly Slideshow. Sadly, there was no Pete, but Finley had fun with Donald, Daisy, Minnie and Goofy. We rode the Barnstormer, which was Finley's favorite ride of the day. Then it was time for another spin on the teacups and a ride on the People Mover to kill some time before the Main Street Electrical Parade. After the parade, we headed back to our hotel for some dinner and a lot of sleep. Epcot comes early tomorrow!
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