Disney World: First Night & Magic Kingdom

OK, I'm FINALLY getting around to posting some pictures from our trip to Disney World at the beginning of the month. Our trip began on Monday, January 2 when we drove from home to Orlando. We got to Old Key West Resort on the Disney property around 2pm. Since our suite wasn't quite ready yet, we looked around the resort a bit before taking the ferry to Downtown Disney to transfer to a shuttle bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge for our first Disney dinner at Boma African Buffet. What an amazing dinner! So many fun things to choose from. My favorites were the couscous with dried cranberries and nuts and the fufu (a kind of mashed sweet potato dish). Yum!!

Dinner at Boma:

On Tuesday, we set off early in the day to take the shuttle bus to the Magic Kingdom. What a wonderful day we had! True, it was unusually cold for Florida (lows in the 30's and highs in the upper 40's), so we had to wear plenty of layers and take along the gloves. Fortunately for us, the cold kept the crowds at bay until after lunch, so we were able to hit several major rides, including the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain (yes, Cliff and Nathan rode it despite the cold; they'd turned the water jets down so you wouldn't really get wet), Big Thunder Mountain and the Haunted Mansion, with little to no wait time.

Our first character photo, right inside the entrance with Pinocchio!

Ready to attack our first ride, The Magic Carpets of Aladdin:

After the ride, we got to meet Jasmine & Aladdin:

The kids got to ride their first major coaster, Big Thunder Mountain. Nathan was just tall enough to ride. Both kids LOVED it!

In the afternoon, we watched a show in front of Cinderella's castle, and then saw a great parade. The kids got to see tons of characters. In the evening, we went back to our same great spot we'd had in the afternoon to enjoy the Electric Light Parade, the light show on the castle, and the fireworks. The castle just looked so amazing all lit up. Every 5 minutes or so, they would change the color so it would glow in different colors.
Tuesday also included the following hits: lunch at Tony's Italian Restaurant (themed after Lady & the Tramp), It's a Small World, Dumbo's Flying Elephants, Snow White's Scary Adventure, and the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups (it turns out my husband is just wicked to ride the Tea Cups with!).

Because the Magic Kingdom is so great, we couldn't fit it all into one day. On Friday, we went back for another half-day of MK fun before we hit the road for home. On Friday, we were able to cover all of Tomorrowland, including Space Mountain (Laura even rode it!), the Astro Orbiter, and The Carousel of Progress. After lunch, we hit the Hall of Presidents before ending our fun with one last ride on Big Thunder Mountain.

Friday lunch with a great view!

Before leaving the park, we had to get some pictures in front of Cinderella's castle. This one will be our submission to the Georgia College "Prowl with the Towel" series. The idea is to take your picture with the Georgia College towel at neat places you visit and submit them to be put up on the big board at the basketball games.


More to come soon on what we did on Wednesday and Thursday of our trip!!

Gina