Saturday, February 6, 2010

Our trip to Peter Pan's Flight

Considering we rode the Peter Pan ride more times than should be legal, I think that's a fair name for our trip. We just got back from three days at Disney's Magic Kingdom...a trip many of you know I have been dreading. Truthfully (and as honestly expected) we all had a great time!
Admittedly, I am not a Disney person- there is a very narrow demographic that makes sense in the Magic Kingdom and, frighteningly, there is a disturbingly wide demographic that actually visits. I actually began to take pictures of people I planned to snark about later (like the 50+ year-old newlyweds with no children who we stood next to on the raft out to Tom Sawyer's Island- please ask me about her "ruby" Mickey Mouse shaped earrings later; or the 60 year-old man wearing the fishing vest covered in at least 200 Disney pins- again, no kids in sight; or the plethora of perfectly normal looking yet childless 40-somethings who were dancing along with the princesses at every.single.castle performance; or the people who tell everyone within earshot "I've been here every year for the past 37 years!!"), but Brett told me I was not sly enough with my snarky-picture-taking and was likely to get busted so I quit.
Now- back to the great time had by all :) I planned NOTHING about this trip. Brett did everything. Lodging, dinners out, which rides to hit when...the only thing I did was pack our breakfast and lunch food. Our first day was rainy. I'm talking Florida-monsoon, windless-hurricane rainy (please feel free to use my new meteorological terms anytime "lots of rain" just won't cut it). We had ponchos so we stayed tolerably dry. The trick about Disney in the rain, though, is that it keeps people away. We didn't have a single wait on Tuesday. None! We were able to ride almost all the rides we had planned to ride over the course of our three days there on Tuesday alone!
Wednesday started out overcast and much chillier than we would have liked, but it warmed up by the afternoon. Thursday was beautiful and sunny and, yes, I did spend the morning of my 35th birthday having breakfast with various princesses. Luckily, amongst the 100 people at the breakfast, there were at least 5 of us with birthdays. I out-aged the other four by an average of 30 years so the princesses didn't pay me any extra attention. Beauty before age, after all!
One thing that made both me and Brett happy was the kids' reaction to even the "big" rides. They didn't bat an eyelid at Pirates of the Caribbean or Haunted Mansion and they loved Big Thunder Road roller coaster (the biggest one there except for Space Mountain, which they weren't tall enough for) so much that we did that one four times!
I'll quit narrating and post some pictures. I'll put a link to all the pictures on the left margin so, in all your copious free time, you can feel free to peruse all the little details.
The Dumbo ride- providing hours of eager anticipation in a line for a 37-second ride.
Teacups- I don't do spinny rides. I mean, I could, but the end result wouldn't be pretty
Reese's reaction to the beginning of the 5th time she rode her favorite ride- Peter Pan. She declared "I'm Peter Pan" at least eighty-hundred times.
Reese as Pooh Bear when we had all of Winnie the Pooh's Playground to ourselves
Reese during quiet time on Day 1- I couldn't wake her up she was so exhausted!
Magic Carpet Ride
On the way into our first time on Pirates of the Caribbean
Meeting Cinderella- I won't bore you with all of these- just some highlights
Belle- by FAR the coolest of the princesses. Much less sissy than the other two in this set (and this one actually had a little Sandra Bullock thing going on).
Look! My yellow necklace is the same color as your dress!
meeting Aurora (this girl got the short end of the princess stick when it came to dresses)
This was the hallway in our hotel (Wilderness Lodge Villas- FABULOUS place, by the way- we highly recommend it). It is quite possibly the longest hallway ever built. Great raceway...as proven by the two tiny Briggs children 75 yards ahead of me in this picture.
the ferry ride from the hotel to the park was even exciting
Minnie marshmallow pops- can there be any better way to eat a mouse face and ears?
Reese did her own little dance on the way to have breakfast in Cinderella's castle
Cinderella at breakfast
Snow White at breakfast
Aurora at breakfast
Jasmine at breakfast
Belle at breakfast
(thank you, Lord, that I don't have to be a princess character at Disney)

Here we are eagerly anticipating the "big" roller coaster's start
Reese got to go up on stage with Captain Jack Sparrow. Be ye careful, for she be in his service forever more. (which apparently means she can "shoot" unsuspecting passersby with the little rolled up scroll he gave her)
I do love Captain Jack- with all the hair and makeup, this guy does a good Johnny Depp.
And here is my big birthday surprise...as our final ferry from the park pulled up to the dock at the hotel, we spotted one of my best friends from college and her family! No, none of us knew the others would be there- I literally looked over my shoulder at the dock and noticed people screaming "LOBERG!!" at me. Unfortunately, it was our only overlapping night and they already had dinner plans. We did get to meet each others' kids (briefly) and hang out for about an hour that evening. It was definitely too short a visit, but it was such a fun surprise! I hope the rest of your trip was great, Amy & Brad!

I put a link to the rest of the pictures on the left. Be sure to click INFO once you start the slideshow to read comments and descriptions.

3 comments:

jen hunt said...

Wow, looks like so much fun!! Thanks for sharing the highlights. :)

Anonymous said...

So glad it was such a great experience. They are at the perfect age to make the magic come to life. (come on, admit there is magic there)

The Balog Family said...

Oh, that looks too fun!!! Must be the year Mom's celebrate their bday's at Disney!! We are going in May with Robert, Katherine and all the kids. But,I threw in an extra, heehee...we are flying my mom out to stay with all the kiddos while the four adults head off to spend the rest of my bday in Vegas. :)
Great photos by the way!!