Max wasn't nearly as excited as I was. I always get giddy as the bus enters the parking lot of the Magic Kingdom and the bus announces the arrival by playing the beginning of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme.
We entered those magical gates stopped to get Max's first set of Ears from the same shop that millions (including me) had procured their Mickey Ears when making their first trip to Disney World. We place his monogramming order ("Max" in traditional lettering), and made our way into the park to find Max's first ride.
Max decided that "Tiny World" (Small World) would be his first ride. We walked up Main Street, around the castle, and waited in line for Small World. Max was a bit aprehensive of the boats and the water, but we assured him there was nothing to fear. After a brief wait in line, we were being serenaded by hundreds of creepy robotic children. Max loved it!
Peter Pan always has a 60-75 minute wait. We picked up our "Fast Passes" for it and went to Max's next choice, Prince Charming's Carousel. He had more fun than the below picture illustrates, but this was just the beginning of our week long challenge to get Max to not look like a wierdo in most every picture we tried to take.
Try as he might, Max was not able to remove the sword from the stone, thus ending his dream of becoming the king (which is probably best for all of us).
I loved "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride". It was strange. It was great.
Disney replaced it with a Winnie the Pooh ride which I kinda think is crap. It's fun for the kids I guess. They reused the same interior plan from Mr. Toad, so you still "bust through a wall", but it busts into Pooh World. I feel like it's a kick in the groin, reminding me how much I miss Toad. It probably bothers me more than it should. Anyway, Max loved it. I didn't really take any pictures because as I said, I don't really like it. There are a bunch of things for the kids to do while they wait in line (as their dads think lovingly about Mr. Toad).
Our Fast Pass time came and we hopped on the Peter Pan ride. I think this is one of the best "story" rides that disney has. The sets and characters are outstanding. I doubt they've updated the ride at all since it was built and they don't need to. It seems so expansive as you fly above the action. The ride starts with a flight high above London. It's beautiful. Max was excited to see Big Ben. We watched as Peter saved the Lost Boys, and then watched Hook as he fought to keep from being eaten by the Tick Tock Croc.
In November Disney opened their newest expansion "New Fantasyland". They've added two castles, a few rides, and are still working on more. We made a quick walk through to Gaston's Pub (from Beauty and the Beast) and sat by the fountain. This whole new area was pretty packed the majority of the trip.
We wandered some more and picked up Max's ears.
In Adventureland we made our first of many trips into the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. You spend $4,000 on a trip to Florida and the kid wants to spend all his time in a tree house. I love it. Getting to watch him do the things that he wanted was why we made this trip. It was simple things like this that made me smile throughout the trip.
And then we played in the spitting totems.
It was at this point that I made a bad decision.
Max is a giant chicken. I've called him other things too, but never to his face. He gets so worked up in his mind that he gets scarred of things that he has no need to, and we were afraid that this unwarranted fear would cause him to miss out on lots of things. Somehow I convinced him to go on Pirates of the Caribbean. I don't know why I thought this would be a good idea.
We waited in line where we saw the skeletons playing checkers. "They aren't scary skeletons", I told Max. "They just played checkers so long they died". He wasn't buying it. We were reminded that "Dead Men Tell no Tales". We ignored that warning. We boarded our boat and entered the world of the Pirates. Within minutes Max was a wreck. Not a "close his eyes and squeeze my hand" kind of wreck, but the embarrassing crying, screaming, and begging for the ride to stop kind of terror. I held him tight, whispered happy things in his ear, and used the light from my phone to help ease his fear. I was worried that my lapse of judgement would ruin our trip. I expected that he would never want to leave the hotel again. After what seemed like an eternity the ride ended. We hustled outside. He was ok. We weren't going to see the Pirates again, but it appeared that no permanent damage had been done. Maybe we should do something a bit more 'simple'. The Tiki Birds shouldn't be scary, right?
I think the Tiki Birds is one of my new favorites at the Magic Kingdom. As we waited in line, I promised Max that these birds WOULD NOT BE SCARY! We all loved it. Max and I annoyed Mommy throughout the entire trip by singing the theme: "In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room. In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room......."
It was time for the Jungle Cruise. When Bobbie Jo and I were here 9 years ago we missed out on it due to a storm. Max enjoyed this, but only after being assured that the animals on this cruise had no interest in eating him. Our guide was great. This is always a fun ride, filled with bad puns. I think I had heard that this is one of the most coveted jobs for park employees. It hasn't changed in years. I'm pretty sure I remember them "shooting" one of the crocodiles before, and they don't do that anymore. I could ride the Jungle Cruise 100 times.
It was almost 7:00. It had been a very long day, and we had a very busy week ahead of us. We decided it was best for us to get some rest so we would be ready to get up bright and early for Animal Kingdom. We took the long way through the park and made our way back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.
Tomorrow we would see some real animals. And Max would be 5.
