Planning when to be in Disney World was probably the trickiest thing about this trip. Thanks to the pandemic, Disney World was operating on a limited capacity and required reservations to enter the parks. So, we had to decided on which days we wanted to be in which park. There are four big theme parks in Walt Disney World, as well as a couple of water parks and a few sports venues. The biggest pass they were selling at the time was a 10 day pass. I really wanted to get the 10 day pass because we were going to be in Orlando for about 22 days. The problem is that they only gave 13 days to use a 10 day pass, and that was just going to be too much park in not very many days. We also wanted to be in the park for Gabe's birthday on the 15th. Our friends planned to fly into Orlando on the 6th, and they were only getting a four day pass. We looked into getting two 5 day passes so we could spread things out more, but that was going to be pretty expensive in comparison to the 10 day. It made more sense to buy the water park + sports package to a 10-day park hopper because then we had 15 days to use our 10-day pass. We didn't plan to hop parks because they are so spread out and we didn't plan to go to water parks because we just didn't have the time. We were essentially paying for 2 extra days to use our pass.
After buying our tickets, we had to make reservations. We wanted 3 days in Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios and 2 days in Animal Kingdom and Epcot. A little over a month before we went, we made our reservations.
On April 1st, our feet were incredibly tired from already doing 3 days in Universal, but we had reservations to keep, and there was not way to change them. We were pretty excited to go to Disney. I'm not sure about the rest of the crew, but this is what I had come for. We packed some food (we'd gotten pretty good at this routine by this point), donned our ears, and headed to the Magic Kingdom! After parking, we caught the monorail to take us into the park.
Our first order of business was to have a Disney Photographer take our picture. I wanted one before we got all sweaty from the Florida heat!
And then we were off to the rides! Did we really start with Dumbo?
Did I mention that I had purchased a motion sickness wristband for this trip? Brian and I were a little skeptical that it would work, but we figured it couldn't hurt. After testing it out in Universal Studios and on the plane, I was a believer. I haven't been able to ride any kind of spinning rides for years because I'd feel sick the rest of the day if I did. I'd usually watch from the sidelines as the kids rode Dumbo, the tea cups, Star Tours, and other rides like that. With my wristband, I was able to ride everything again! I could feel that my body acknowledging that it wanted to be sick, but the wristband would send pulses into my skin that kept me from actually being sick. It was miraculous!
We had such a blast that day!
Florida's Space Mountain has a similar ride vehicle to the Matterhorn, so it almost made up for Magic Kingdom not having the Matterhorn. Almost.
We all loved the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.
The bummer about Covid was discovering the secret of the stretching room at the Haunted Mansion. In Florida, the ceiling stretches up. With the pandemic, we just walked on through the stretching room and got on the Doom Buggies. It is still a pretty sweet ride though.
The characters were tucked far away from everyone. We saw Mickey's gang up on the railway platform as we were heading out. (We were fairly good about not closing the parks down each day. We knew we needed to pace ourselves!)
We came back and ate our crockpot meal and then headed to bed.
On Friday, we were at it again, this time headed for Hollywood Studios. By this time, Michael just really didn't want to go. He'd done a lot off complaining everyday in the parks about how much his feet hurt. He begged to stay behind in the Condo. We told him he wouldn't be allowed to play in the pool while we were gone. He said, Okay. We told him he'd have to work on Homework the entire time and that he wouldn't be able to be on screens other than for school. He was okay with that. We told him to keep the doors locked and not venture outside AT ALL and to call us if there were any problems (he had his Gizmo watch). With a little apprehension, we headed to Hollywood Studios without him, shaking our heads at him. Apparently, he's a little spoiled when it comes to Disney parks. So for the first time in over five years, we went to the park as a family of four. It was a little weird.
We took pictures again first thing (I paid for the Memory Maker and was going to get my money's worth, darn it!)
It was so fun taking the kids to this park. This was their first time in this park. (It was Gabe's first time in Magic Kingdom, but it's so similar to Disneyland that it felt very familiar). We all adored the Mickey and Minnie's ride.
And we had so much fun exploring Star Wars land, especially because we didn't even try to get onto the virtual queue for Rise of the Resistance.
Thanks to Covid and social distancing, they had to wrap the line for Smugglers' Run outside of the park to the area where only cast members were supposed to be allowed. Walt would have been so sad about this.
The photo people even added some magic into our pictures:
We loved taking them onto Slinky Dog Dash. These kids are rollercoaster kids.
And we always love Toy Story Mania.
Toy Story Land is one of the most magical parts of this park. The details are so fun.
Gabe was a trooper for this entire trip. All the other kids had access to a stroller on these Disney trips, clear up until this trip. So, that meant that Michael was sneaking rides in the stroller clear up until the age of 10. We opted to leave the stroller at home, which was a FANTASTIC decision. We really only needed to carry him/hold him a couple of times throughout the whole 13 days in theme parks, which was pretty darn good for this little guy. It also got a little chilly that night, with the wind blowing fairly hard. We didn't bring a jacket for him, so he was a little cold.
On Saturday, we were back at Magic Kingdom. When we originally planned it, we wanted to go to Animal Kingdom on Saturday, April 3, but I messed up and accidentally booked Magic Kingdom instead of Animal Kingdom. Thankfully, I figured it out a few weeks before we were supposed to head to Florida, but by then, most of the parks were full. We were able to book Animal Kingdom for another day, but not the day we originally wanted. That was okay. We got to enjoy a mini parade:
We went on Pirates. We missed the New Orleans aspect that Disneyland has, but the queue in Florida is much cooler.
And we also went on Jungle Cruise. We had the BEST skipper on this ride. It was so awesome!
Just outside of Jungle Cruise is Aladdin's Magic Carpets, and I got to ride it for the first time, thanks to my wristband. This is the ride the kids got to ride three times in a row the last time we came to Magic Kingdom back in 2016, thanks to rain and not many people in the park.
We crossed the hub in time to see the Princesses go by on a little float.
We rode Autopia, only I think it's called something else in Florida. Oh yeah, Tomorrowland's Speedway.
We fought Emperor Zurg in Buzz Lightyear's ride.
And rode Space Mountain again.
It was a little cooler that day. We even needed jackets!
We loved Seven Dwarfs, so we made sure to ride it again.
We stopped at the restrooms in Fantasy Land that are decorated like the land in Tangled. This wanted poster was there and it made us laugh.
We ended the night by going down Splash Mountain. This is a family favorite ever since we dragged Gabe onto it last year. The kids often listen to the soundtrack at home. The first time down, I took the front.
The line was so short when we got off that we decided to run and do it one more time before the park closed.
We all just love this park!
We took the Ferry back to our car in the parking lot this time.
I wish that Magic Kingdom was a little easier to get to. There's so much walking! We were ready to put our feet up and relax the next day. Thank goodness we decided to rest on Sundays! After 6 straight days in major theme parks, we were ready for a rest!
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