Disney Vacation - Day 1

We have been planning to go to Walt Disney World since shortly after Michael was born around the time he was going to turn 5. Since he will be starting school next year, we decided to go this fall instead. It turned out to be a family vacation with my parents, sister and her husband joining us also.

We drove into Orlando on Saturday and spent the night at a hotel close to Disney. We got up this morning to check into our hotel, the Caribbean Beach Resort. This was the 3rd trip to Disney for Todd and I, but the first for Katie and Michael. We have been preparing Michael for it for a few weeks.

After checking in, we hopped on a bus and headed to the Magic Kingdom.





Since it was a weekend, it was a little busy. We rode the railroad around the perimeter of the park before getting off to ride a few rides. The first one we decided to do was Splash Mountain. We did it in shifts since Katie wasn't big enough. Michael wasn't crazy about getting his glasses wet and I don't think he cared for the big drop at the end.



We decided to eat lunch after that and then went back over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Michael, Todd and I got a Fast Pass to ride it. My sister, Michelle, and her husband, Alex, offered to take Katie back to the room with them. We took them up on their offer and spent a few hours with Michael.

Michael got to meet Goofy at Pirates of the Caribbean and then we went to watch the afternoon parade. It was pretty hot so we treated ourselves to ice cream after the parade. We headed back to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. We also got to meet Woody and Jessie from Toy Story and take some pictures with them. We had just enough time to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad before heading back to the hotel to get Katie for dinner.





We went to T-Rex for dinner. They had huge dinosaur replicas outside the restaurant, as well as inside. Every 20 minutes, there was a meteor shower that caused the lights to dim. They also had an awesome aquarium in the middle of the dining area. Michael loved seeing all the dinosaurs and thought the aquarium was neat too. Katie wasn't scared by the dinosaurs and that was really all we could ask for.





We were exhausted at the end of the day and crashed shortly after returning from dinner!