Day Two: Zip A Dee Doo Dah!

The kids "slept in" until 6:45, and Griffin's first question was "Can we go downstairs and see Uncle Matt?"

Poor Uncle Matt. He had arrived at 9:30 to the relative peace of just my mom and dad (as no one in my immediate family can stay up past 9 PM, adults included). Crashed out in the living room, he was totally exposed to Hurricane Griffin. After stalling upstairs for another 20 minutes, the Hurricane descended, and the general chaos began.

It is family tradition that our first park is always the Magic Kingdom. Though we had decided to use the rental car to travel around for the most part, due to the strange parking situation at Magic Kingdom (which requires you to park, then take a monorail or boat to the park itself) we would be taking the bus. Fed, bathed and dressed, we all trooped off to catch our ride to the magic.

It is no secret that I don't do lines. I will criss-cross the park as many times as it takes to do the things I want to do without a wait, but I know that not everyone in the party enjoys that type of day, and I was prepared to compromise. The one thing that was not negotiable was the first ride: Dumbo. Some people run for the thrill rides first, but the cold hard truth is that if you don't get to Dumbo ASAP, you are looking at a line.

It was decided that my husband and I would run to Fantasyland, while Grammy, Poppy and Uncle Matt headed over to Tomorrowland. It would be Molly's very first ride, so I was pretty excited to see how she would enjoy it. Even though we had hustled ourselves there as quickly as we could get there, we were still facing about 20 minutes of wait time, which proved to be a little too much for our princess. It was decided that she and Daddy would hop out of line and find somewhere to run around, while Griffin and I waited for our flying elephant. In retrospect, this turned out to be a great idea, as she got some one on one playtime with Uncle Matt, but at the time I was a bit sad that she wouldn't make it on the ride.

No matter. Griffin and I secured a green Dumbo, paid our peanut to the ticket collector, and enjoyed our 2 minute flight. We waved to the family below, including Miss Molly, and landed far too soon. Having tamed the great elephant, we were ready to make a plan for the rest of the morning. We enjoyed some of Fantasyland's fine offerings, including Winnie the Pooh (which turned out to be Molly's first ride, and a wonderful one, as she loves Pooh and Tigger and the gang), then moved back to Tomorrowland, where the thrill seekers among us did Space Mountain, and Grammy bravely took both kids solo on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority.

Griffin had been ready to try Pirates of the Caribbean since we ran into a little pirate (with sword) at the bus stop that morning, so our next stop was Adventureland and Pirates. Like all Disney rides, our pirate ship deposited us squarely in a gift shop filled with pirate booty, guns and swords. All around us were little Jack Sparrows, hacking each other, their parents and innocent bystanders to pieces with their plastic buccaneer swords. Just like that, we had our first carrot: be a good boy, and at the end of the week you can buy a pirate sword. Thank you, Mickey Mouse!

It had been a fun and productive morning, and the little ones seemed to be holding up well. I thought we could fit in one more ride before heading back to the room, so we moved the travelling circus to the Haunted Mansion. Approximately three minutes into the ride, the whole thing broke down, so our "five more minutes" turned into "forty-five more minutes". We were finally released with a fastpass and an apology, and it was time for our family to call it a day.