The Magic of the Magic Kingdom

I am still a kid at heart and get caught up in the magic of Disney myself.  We had such a great time at Magic Kingdom.

Almost there!

Just have to pay the $14 to park!  (Boo!)

First order of business:

Write my cell phone number on all of the kids.

Easiest way to locate a lost parent, right?

In accordance with my plan,

we made it there half an hour before the park opened.

So did a couple of hundred other guests.

I had read that they open Main Street early

and thought the girls could shop for souvenirs.

Not this day.

We had to wait until 15 minutes before park open time.

And then they had a little Welcome Show.

They sang the song that says, "Good morning.  Good mor----ning,"

which is an inside joke for Andrew and I.

Cracked. us. up.

As soon as they opened the gates, B and I darted for Space Mountain.

Walked right on.  LOVE that ride.

And we grabbed fastpasses to come back later.

Andrew and the girls headed to meet Rapunzel.

And it's a good thing they did because that place

stays packed ALL. DAY. LONG.

The purple girls!

While we were waiting out a little rain shower

and enjoying a snack, Brandon's curious nature paid off.

He was reaching into

 this beanstalk growing out of the building,

and found a set of old-fashioned looking skeleton keys.

It said to return to City Hall if found.

 Andrew took him there,

and they rewarded him with two five-person

fastpasses for any ride at any time.

Super sweet!

Thanks for being so curious, buddy!

The girls had fun meeting Tinkerbell.

She has an awesome setting.

And she taught Care Bear a little dance.

A fun family ride was Buzz Lightyear: Space Ranger. It's another laser shooting game. Caroline (probably still terrified from the Lego ride) started crying the first time we rode. But then Andrew showed her how she could spin the car around herself.  She liked that. I had read online about a couple of targets that are worth big points.  And during our second time riding, our cars paused right at one of those targets.

Both Brandon...

and Whitney maxed out their scores:  999999.

Galactic Heroes!

Zurg was NOT happy about that.

There's a brand new activity that I hadn't heard anything about called Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom.  It reminds me a lot of Magiquest, which my kids LOVE.  Brandon and Drew heard about it when they were at City Hall.  It is free to play (with park admission, of course).  You sign up and are given a set of spell cards and a map.  You go through a little orientation and then are sent on your way.  It is not timed, so you can go along at your own pace.  The girls didn't really care to participate, but Brandon was totally into it.

There are several different quests.

You look for these keyholds,

hold up your card to it,

and little video screens light up in the windows.

The bad guys are up to no good and you cast different

spells to defeat them.  B-train was enjoying it so much,

he decided to skip the nighttime activities and continue on his quests.

Caroline missed the nighttime excitement...

but for other reasons.

Whitney and I, on the other hand,

LOVED watching the Electrical Parade.

Spectacular.

 And the fireworks show.

Amazing.

The park stayed open until 1 am.  If it were only up to me, I would have stayed until they kicked us out.  But Caroline was SO done and Andrew's back was bothering him.  So, our long, magical day lasted until 11:30.  Awesome.  Awesome.  Awesome.