Florida Part II

After we arrived at our Magical Destination via the Magical Express, we headed off to Downtown Disney. On a Saturday night. During Memorial Day weekend. Bad idea. It was super busy. We could barely make our way through the crowds.  If you are going to go to Downtown Disney, do it on a week night. In my opinion, it will be easier to navigate on a week night. Less locals. As far as shops and eateries at Downtown Disney, we really like Cookes (fish and chips are great!). We also ate at a sandwich shop that makes great smoothies. A little expensive, but everything is expensive at Disney.

Don't forget to browse the Pin Shop, Lego Store and Team Mickey. These were some of our favorite stores in Downtown Disney. If you want sweets, there's Goofy's (candy) store and a lot of ice cream places around too.

The next morning we headed to the Magic Kingdom. No transportation problems. We went right to Space Mountain for a very short 20 minute wait and then to Buzz Lightyear for another short 15 minute wait. Then we cruised to the other side of the park, got fast passes for Big Thunder Railroad while we rode Splash Mountain. In between the two coasters, we had enough time to eat lunch. If your kids are weary and weepy, feed them. A snack probably won't cut it. Get them out of the sun and into a place where they can sit down for a bit.

We did not buy any type of meal plan this trip. Our kids just don't eat enough to make it worth it. We took (in our checked luggage) two sleeves of bagels and a small box of individual Jif Peanut butter cups. Steve eats a bagel and peanut butter every morning for breakfast so for him, add a cup of coffee on our trip and breakfast was served. For the boys, we went down to the cafeteria style restaurant and asked for some cream cheese. Because we had a fridge in our hotel room, we also bought a container of milk from the gift shop and two individual bowls of cereal. Much less expensive than buying breakfast everyday in the hotel restaurant. Also, quite a time saver in the morning. The boys could wake up, have breakfast in bed and watch a little tv and then head out for the day. We weren't against buying them breakfast from the restaurant but our kids are cereal and bagel type kids. We did get them waffles twice on our trip along with chocolate milk to drink.

I also brought a lot of portable snacks. I actually packed apples in our checked luggage too. I put in a few plastic knives so I was able to slice up some cold apples (stored in our fridge) and serve them with the Jif peanut butter. This was a nice treat when we got back to our room each night.

Everyday when we headed out the boys helped me fill up their water bottles with ice. Then we put a little water in them. They had a nice cold drink when they needed it at the park. We also packed a bag of snacks for each day. A safe bet is two snacks per person per day. We never ate that many but had them just in case. In the afternoon the kids had ice cream or a cold snack from one of the vendor carts.

Sunday happened to be our first full day at Disney. Every Sunday at Magic Kingdom they have a 9pm light parade followed by a 10pm fireworks show. We didn't think it would be a problem for our kids to stay up this late since they hadn't caught up to "Florida time" yet but it proved to be too much. Sitting for an hour to save our spot for the Illuminations light parade took the stuffin' out of our kids. Cam fell asleep on Steve's lap and never really woke up for the parade.

When the parade was over, we moved out into the Magic Kingdom street to watch the fireworks. Too much. Cam fell asleep standing up. Colin was very unhappy (tired). It was not that big enough of a deal to any of us to stay and make our kids miserable so we walked on out to the bus station.

Ironically, we missed our bus by about 10 seconds and had to wait for the next bus. 5 minutes into our wait, the fireworks started. Although we couldn't see the fireworks that were near to the ground or the drama between Tink and Captain Hook in Cinderella's Castle, we still got to see the fireworks that were high in the air. The kids were delighted and we missed the 2 hour rush that happens after the fireworks.

My recommendation, don't try to do Illuminations and fireworks in the same night. Illuminations was neat but outdated. The parade was not that long and the music is annoying.

They have the fireworks every night at 10pm. It's worth the watch if your kids can stay up that late. But don't try to combine the parade and the fireworks. Too much waiting around for the kids. However, if you stay for the fireworks, be prepared for a rush out to the transportation station and a long wait back to the hotel.