I know. I know. It's been far too long since I've updated this. The day came and then life took over. The kids reacted to the surprise as I expected. Wes pitched a big fit about not going to Texas and Jonah just had a hard time believing us. Click here for full details
Magic Kingdom was.. Well, magical. haha. The whole atmosphere was just amazing and the crowds weren't so bad. I will say that waiting in line for the Peter Pan flight was insane. Out of all the rides needing a queue update, this one is it. The boys were able to meet Mickey Mouse, Belle, Mary Poppins, Ariel, Rapunzel, Cinderella and Chip and Dale. I have to say that story time with Belle was amazing. Jonah was picked to be the beast. Easily the best memory. Click here to watch him dance with her. I can't think of a single ride that was disappointing. The Haunted Mansion was, as expected, my favorite... But, some of that was because the boys were TERRIFIED of it. They screamed and cried the WHOLE time. What was even better was that Jonah decided to overcome his fear. By the second day we were at Magic Kingdom he rode it, voluntarily, two more times. While there we also got to see Anastasia ride the Carousel while her mother, Lady Tremaine, watched.
Next up was Hollywood studios. It was significantly smaller than the other parks but it also had lots of fun shows to watch and participate in. This was one of the easier parks to take on with the kids. The Honey I Shrunk the Kids park was a blast and the kids really enjoyed the Muppets 3D show. And, as everyone says, the Toy Story Mania game was amazingly fun... But the line was simply too long to do it more than once. With that being said, my favorite memory from Hollywood Studios is a tie between Matt being an active participant in the Hollywood Back lot tour and Fantasmic (Just as a note, the link to the Fantasmic video was not taken by me. We were far too busy enjoying it to actually video tape it. While there the boys got to meet the Army men from Toy Story.
Epcot was wonderful but, admittedly, we would have enjoyed it more without the kids. Eating our way around the world was exceptionally fun as was Test Track. There was plenty of interactive computers around the park to go with the various rides to explore. Admittedly, Soarin was boarin'.... as were some of the educational videos but, that's okay. We told the kids it was Disney School day and there is always at least one boring thing at school, right? The firework show was a bust too, however, in all fairness, we couldn't find a good spot so we barely saw any of it. I'm sure it deserves another shot. While here the boys met Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy.
Animal Kingdom was wonderful. The boys joined the Wilderness Explorers and had fun earning "badges" all around the park and the animals were simply stunning. We were mean parents and made the kids go on Expedition Everest.... They were SO terrified afterwards that we ended up buying them stuffed animals. Wes was terrified after riding the Dinosaur ride but Jonah loved it so much that he and I rode it 3 times. While here the boys met Donald, Daisy, Dug and Russel.
The one downside to the entire trip was Wes. He threw fits EVERY day. Several times a day about everything and anything. His big theme was that he didn't want to wait and that he didn't want to be here, he wanted to be in Texas. Even when we were back he complained that he never wanted us to go again and that he wished we hadn't gone etc. It really was a MAJOR damper on the entire trip. Two valuable lessons were learned from this. 1. Wesley really doesn't like surprises 2. He might have been too young for this trip.
On the upside, the rest of us loved it so much that there is no doubt we will be going back. As a matter of fact, Matt and I will be going back next year for my birthday, just for a few days. Our hope is to do one day at Magic Kingdom and spend a whole day hanging out at Downtown Disney at their arcade We also will be taking the boys to Texas in 2015... It's been made apparent that we need to get that out of Wesley's system.
