I've been away at the Magical Kingdom for the past few days. Seriously, we just got back from Orlando and visiting the happiest place on earth. Now, I've never been to Florida, so this was my first visit. The first thing I noticed as we were coming in for a landing was how much water there is - ponds and lakes everywhere.
We got in in the late afternoon and headed to Winter Park where Mike used to live. We had dinner with some of Mike's friends from high-school, their kids and josiejunk's mother-in-law, sister-in-law and her two boys. The dinner was great, and it was nice to see everyone.
Alex had a great time, playing with the other boys, who were all about the same age. He also loved petting the cats, which he called "puppies". They had 4 cats and Alex wanted to play with them all. I think he called them "puppies" because they were the same size and fluffiness as Maggie our Japanese Chin. He huged and chased them all night.
One of the little boys had to leave early because of his allergies, but Alex seemed fine. That is, until we left the house. His face got all blotchy in the car ride back to our hotel, and his eyes swelled up and his nose was all plugged up. Poor Alex - no kitties for him!
The next day we travelled to the Magic Kingdom. We hit Disney World and Epcot on the first day. I must say that it was pretty overwhelming since the parks were so big and so far apart from each other. The first day we were there it was pouring rain in the morning. Everyone was walking around in $7 Mickey Mouse ponchos (except me who brought a raincoat because I checked the weather before we left!). The rain cleared up in the afternoon and the rest of the day was beautiful. The park was not very crowded because of the rain and so the lines were not very long.
Epcot was pretty neat - especially the different countries. Mike and I did a 'around-the-world' beer tour starting in England and finishing up in Mexico!
The next day we started in Disney's Animal Kingdom, which was okay. They have a new ride called Expedition Everest, which is a roller-coaster with a Yeti theme. It was a fun ride, and Mike and I both enjoyed it. There is a viewing area outside the ride where people waiting for their party to finish the ride can watch the riders as they go into the mountain and then plunge back out of the mountain (think Splash Mountain). Alex wouldn't leave that area. As the riders slowly rode up into the mountain he would waive at them and say "bye bye" then watch as they plunged down the mountian. He didn't want to leave, so we watched the riders for about 30 minutes.
That night we went back to Epcot and ate dinner in Germany. They had a Biergarten and Octoberfest type restaurant that we ate at. They also had musicians and singers and the kids were able to dance on the dance floor. Alex loved it. He danced all over the dance floor - although there was this one kid who kept following Alex around the floor and running into him on purpose. Alex loved the dancing.
We spent the last day at the Magic Kingdom. We went on almost every ride. Everytime we went by the carousel in Fantasyland Alex would start grunting and trying to get out of his stroller. We stayed for the parade and then took the ferry back to the parking lot before the fireworks.
We had a fun time. Personally though, I favor Disneyland - mainly because everything is close together - Magic Kingdom, California Adventure and Downtown Disney. Plus, California Adventure has a whole section for small kids based on A Bug's Life. It doen't take you 45 minutes to get from one park to the next.
