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Now, before I go any further, I have to mention that we had some sort of magentic
attraction to the lime monorail during our trip. Without going into too much detail
on this topic, I'll just say that every single time we looked up to see a train
going by, it was always the lime one. Just an oddity worth mentioning I guess. I began to think it was some sort of sign... Bill began to think his wife was crazy. :lol:
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We hopped into the car around 8:15am and headed over to the Ticket and Transportation Center. Of course, being Aaron's first time on a monorail, we had to
sit up front.
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We had to wait in a small line but 2 trains later we were boarding the front car of the blue monorail. Our pilot was really nice and handed us three co-pilot's licenses... something I've never received before when riding up front so it was a nice touch. We chatted about our Disney "experience" and talked about it being Aaron's first trip etc. and then, after what seemed the shortest ride ever on
the monorail... we were there!
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Yay!! Welcome to the Magic Kingdom! The weather was absolutely perfect (for the time being) and Aaron was already having a blast and we hadn't even made it to Main Street yet! We went into City Hall and grabbed a birthday button for me and Aaron as well as a 1st Visit button for Aaron and off we went!
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Oh... My... God... IT'S PINK!! It's pink. That's all I'm saying... It's pink.
Ok back to it now...
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Our stroll down mainstreet was lovely. We had arrived at a time that very few people were entering and we had an unencombered walk toward the castle. What was a nice surprise was that they had brought back the horse drawn carriage... something I hadn't seen in years.
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After a quick shot at Lou's Spot (I'll be sure to post it there too) and a shot of
Aaron and daddy in front of the (*ahem* pink) castle, it was off to Tomorrowland!
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Aaron's first official ride was on Buzz and he LOVED it. The entire time he sat
looking around, mouth agape, and attempting to spin the car using the joystick.
Because I was holding onto Aaron and controlling the car, I didn't get to play, but
Bill scored 39,400 for anyone interested. :) We of course purchased the shot of us
on the ride (being Aaron's first and all) and then it was off to the TTA.
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Aaron pretty much reacted to the TTA as we expected. He looked around, seemingly relaxed (until we hit Space Mountain and he couldn't see anything) and just sort of enjoyed the ride.
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After the TTA it was time for a diaper change and some lunch for mommy and daddy. This meant it was finally time for Jenn's first official TURKEY LEG!! Yes, in all the times I've been, never once have I had a leg, and man let me tell you... WOW!
How good are those things?
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After grabbing a shot of the YOAMD cups I noticed PUSH roaming around beside us. We tossed out our trash and headed over to give Aaron a closer look. This was the first time that I managed to pick out PUSH's controller human in the crowd. Funny how they dress him to blend in and look like every other guest in the park (Disney hat and shirt, baggy jeans, etc.).
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From Tomorrowland we headed on over to Toontown Fair. This area was surprisingly over crowded and we didn't spend all that much time hanging out back here. I did manage to grab a great shot of Aaron on Minnie's living room chair though!
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On the way out I grabbed a shot of the shutdown Tomorrowland Speedway. While on the TTA we had seen the guys working on this. It's tough to see but in the below shot you can see parts of the track missing. Basically they were going through and, in addition to generally cleaning and painting etc., they were replacing damaged
sections of the track.
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We grabbed some fast passes to Pooh and then it was time to wait in line for Aaron's first official character encounter. Now... for those who don't have children it's important to note that this usually either goes very well or horribly wrong. I had
heard horror story after horror story of how little ones flipped out and the big
characters. As you can see in the below shot however... this was not the case with
Aaron at all. He LOVED Pooh. We stood there for what seemed like forever while Pooh rubbed noses with Aaron and tickled him. It was at this point that I realized CMs LOVE babies. LOL!
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After Aaron had his fill of Pooh (and the folks in line behind us had their fill of
us) it was off to Dumbo. I hadn't ridden this ride since I was probably 4 years old
so this was a big deal for me. 10 minutes into the wait, Aaron fell asleep on my
shoulder. I was so upset. I thought for sure he was going to sleep through our first
ride together but he didn't. About 2 minutes before our boarding time, he popped
awake and at seeing the flying Dumbos all around him, got really excited. He
absolutely loved this ride!!
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Then it was back over to Pooh to use our fast passes. While we were waiting for our 1:00 time frame to tick onto the clock, I spotted the first of many dream makers. Unfortuantely not he, nor any of the others we saw, "spotted" us. :( Oh well!
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After our ride on Pooh we headed on over to IASW. My husband absolutely cannot stand this ride but Aaron LOVED it! He went nuts looking around at everything and had an absolute blast. What we didn't particularly enjoy was what came next.
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As we exited IASW we noticed a large line of people waiting to exit. Now why would people be just standing around inside instead of heading onto the next attraction you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Because it was POURING rain and they didn't want to get wet. Ok, a littel rain never hurt anyone right? Wait... what do you mean we didn't think to put a poncho over the stroller when we saw clouds rolling in? Come on we're smarter than that aren't we? .... Apparently no. SOAKING wet stroller.
After grabbing the ponchos and attempting to put something dry down for Aaron to sit on, we made the quick trek over to The Haunted Mansion. Here we found absolutely NO line. We walked right into the preshow area. I was a little unsure of how Aaron would do but as history has shown so far, he loved it!
So what next? Pirates of course! I absolutely had to see the refurb of Pirates. I mean, it was one of my main desires for wanting to hit MK. Wait... what do you mean it's closed due to technical difficulties? NOOO!! Will it reopen? You're not sure? Wait... hold on a second.... who is that coming from inside the ride toward the entrance? HOLY COW IT'S JACK!!
Now, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of catching this guy yet... his impression is DEAD ON! I stood here watching him for about 10 minutes as he entertained the wet disappointed crowds outside the ride, waiting for it to open.
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Do you think his wife asks him to keep the bandana on when he gets home? Oh ok sorry wrong topic for this forum... continuing.
Well, it's rainy and we've done pretty much everything we wanted to do except for Pirates, sounds like a perfect time to head back to ASMo for a nap. And just then...
*BOOOOM* *CRASH* *BOOOOM*
No, it's not the sounds from another ride... that's thunder and lightning... and what accompanies thunder and lightning kiddies? That's right! An absolute DOWNPOUR!!
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In the time it took to make it from Pirates to the end of mainstreet, we were drenched.
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We arrived back at ASMo with a sleeping wet baby in his stroller. He was totally worn out. When we opened the door we were pleased to find some surprises! We had a red "Happy Birthday" balloon along with two cards! One was from Cinderella, with an autographed picture addressed to me wishing me a Happy Birthday and the other from Mickey and Minnie with an autographed picture addressed to Aaron wishing him a Happy Birthday! How cool?
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Aaron's stuffies were also arranged in his crib!
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We put the wet, completely asleep, totally worn out baby onto our bed. He was soaked and his little feet and hands were absolutely freezing. We had to get him out of his clothes.
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Surprisingly, Aaron slept through being undressed down to his onesie. We put his blankie over him and let him nap here on our bed. He was out for at least an hour.
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We made it back over to MK after the sun had gone down. Our first stop was to see if Pirates had reopened and indeed it had. After a 45 minute queue (that claimed to be a 30 minute one) we were up!
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Now... let me just say that I was completely and totally blown away by this refurb. Everyone said it was just a new fog effect, a few animatronic Jacks and a Barbosa but that's not entirely true. The entire attraction had a new life. The colors of the costumes and scenes were more vibrant than I had ever seen them and every single animatronic seemed more fluid and smooth. My husband and I both left this ride incredibly pleased. Aaron loved it too (shock!).
Our plan after Pirates was to head back toward Main Street to find a good spot for Wishes. We went to take that little shortcut between Adventureland and Frontierland and found ourselves listening to the very beginning music of Spectromagic. We pressed forward to find a spot the size of Aaron's stroller directly in front of us had been left available and the parade was about 50 feet to our right (heading toward us). Now I have to note... this is where my emotions finally caught up with me. It just seemed like fate that we were able to catch the parade. Not only had it just started but the spot was absolutely fantastic. Bill took Aaron onto his shoulders, I grabbed my camera, and started to bawl my eyes out. My emotions had found their reason to show.
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After the parade we hopped on over toward Mainstreet. We took the main Aventureland entrance/exit to avoid the parade traffic in Frontierland and found an open corner with a great view of the castle. I turned around to see a gorgeous view of the soda shop on main street reflecting into the water.
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Now I should mention, this was to be Aaron's first time experiencing fireworks. And this was another one of those things I had heard horror stories about... how the child was just so scared and screaming and it was just horrible. But... that wasn't the case with my super happy baby. He LOVED Wishes. We were right beneath a speaker and he was just in awe. We got a LOT of great shots during this one (because I brought out the tripod) but here's just a few random ones...
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Afterwards we hung out for close to an hour to let the crowds out. Aaron rather enjoyed standing on the benches and pulling on the umbrellas. It's amazing what amuses children.
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We made a stop at the soda shop to get some hot dogs and drinks and then it was off to the monorail to head back to ASMo. Our always happy baby finally felt the effects of being overtired and lost it the whole way but as soon as he hit the car, he was out, and stayed that way until about 3am when he woke and I had to change him out of his pirate shirt and shorts. What an absolutely fantastic day we had. My husband and I are still in awe of just how great Aaron was and how much fun he had. It was exactly what we dreamt it'd be.
Want to read more? Head onto Part Four!!
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Jenn, it looks like you guys had an amazing time! I'm so happy that it was all you've been dreaming of! Your photo's are amazing and it's a joy to read all about your adventures!
Jenn, awesome report and you captured some lovely shots... I'm so glad that Aaron had such a wonderful time, but did you doubt it... HE WAS IN DISNEY!!!!:yahoo: . I sooooo can't wait to go back with the kids:bandana:
Ahhh, super happy baby had a great time - lucky him and lucky you guys too!
Great report!!!
Rofl!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by BamaJenn
If I were her I totally would.
Great report and great pics. I hope to see Jack Sparrow this trip. He wasn't around in October when we stopped by POTC.