Day four: Magic Kingdom/EPCOT

So I was a complete child on our fourth morning. Everything went well. We were up early, ready to go, and at the bus stop early. When we got to Magic Kingdom, we had to wait about 15-20 minutes before the park opened. We were standing at the front of the crowd to get in. About 10 min before opening, there was a little show at the front gate. The WDW train came pulling up to the station with the main Disney characters: Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, etc. I'm not really sure who was all there, because I was standing at the front of the gates. . I couldn't see the show well. And I was NOT about to give up my position to see those characters again. At the end of the show they said something along the lines of Welcome to the Magic Kingdom, and my kids and I took off running for Space Mountain. We were out ahead of EVERYONE. . not kidding. Then we started walking, but ended up jogging to Tomorrowland, where there was a rope. . we had to wait for Tomorrowland to open, what the??!! Don't you think that when the park opens, the whole thing should open, not just small sections of the park? I kind of expected it from the things that I learned in my research, but I thought I had already surpassed all the crowd. No worries, though, we did manage this crowd, too. And we were the FIRST family on Space Mountain. . a huge goal of mine (not to be first, but to wait less than 10 min on SM). Yeah us! After SM, we rode: Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (twice), Peter Pan's Flight (one of MY favorites), Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, & Mickey's PhilharMagic. . all before lunch!! Just try and stop us!

One thing we didn't get to do was Splash Mountain. . we aren't meant for it. When Shane and I were at WDW for our honeymoon, Splash Mtn. was so brand new that only Disney employees were allowed to ride it. It was still in the testing stage. When I was making plans for our trip, I found out, to my disappointment, that Splash Mtn would be closed for refurbishment. . bummer!

After lunch, we went back to Adventureland where we saw Capt Hook and Mr. Smee. While we were waiting in line, we also got to see THE Jack Sparrow. All of a sudden, there he was, just walking across the walkway in Adventureland. I asked the cast member that was helping Hook and Smee where we could get autographs of Jack, and she told me that he never stops for photos and autographs unless you do the "Pirate & Princess party". (another expensive extra of WDW) He usually does a little show where he teaches kids how to be pirates, but he wasn't doing it the day we were there, so we missed out on that, too. Oh well.

Next we visited Frontierland and saw Woody and his gang. . they were doing a show along the street. One of the cast members with them told me we could meet Woody and Jesse at the top of the hill, so we went there to wait. Of course, we were the first in line for that. Then we caught the WDW Railroad from Frontierland around the park to the entrance so we could go over to EPCOT. The kids wanted to ride Test Track again!

There was still quite a bit of time left in the day, so we planned on doing the things we missed the first time around and doing the things we really liked again; and then get a good spot to watch Illuminations, the fireworks/lights show on the World Showcase lagoon. It was a great day! Illuminations was awesome! (Shane's favorite show) And at the end of the day, M fell asleep on the bus before we got back to the hotel. Good thing the next day was sailin' day! Time to relax.