Make-A-Wish Trip, Day 2: Magic Kingdom

Monday morning Finn still had a fever and didn't seem himself. We seriously contemplated having Amanda stay back with him and me just take Julia to Magic Kingdom. We decided to all go when he perked up a little after some Tylenol.

Before we headed out we got to experience our first morning at Give Kids the World (GKTW). We had breakfast at the Gingerbread House, their cafeteria-style eating establishment. Most mornings, GKTW brought in characters from one of theme parks. Some of the kids aren't able to travel as easily as others, so they bring the characters to them. That morning we met Mickey and Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Mary Poppins.

We stood in a short line for the mice and the other three were wandering around the village.

After that we made the short drive to Disney World, made our way to Magic Kingdom parking, hopped on a tram to the monorail, rode the monorail to the entrance, waited in line to have our bags checked, got in line to get through the gates, and just like that, we were there!

I'm really not complaining about any of the waits we had. Kids on a Make-A-Wish trip at Disney are treated like royalty (and so are their families). Julia had a GKTW button on her shirt and Amanda had a special access pass around her neck. Besides the entrance lines and food lines, either of those two things would get us all to the front of any line. There are Fast Passes you can get for different rides, but those can only be used periodically and not for things like character meetings. At times I felt a little guilty about it... but only a little. I'm not sure if we'll be able to go back any time soon because we won't be able to stand having to stand in the lines. The only bad part about the trip is that it may have spoiled us.

Our plan was to wander around the park in counter-clockwise direction and see what we wanted to see along the way.

We stopped right away to get a triple dose of princesses in one of the buildings on Main Street, USA. Cinderella, Belle, and Aurora were all in one place. Julia happened to be wearing a hat that had those exact three princesses on them, so she had them sign that as well as the kids' autograph book.

As we continued walking we ran into Pinocchio.

Once we got to the center of Magic Kingdom, there was a parade starting, so we paused on our walk and watched it. While the floats, characters, and dancers filled up the street around the center of the park, they stopped and invited people out in the street to dance. Finn was content to sit in the stroller and so Julia and went out there and tore it up, Disney-style. Frozone (from The Incredibles) was in our area and he took Julia's hands and was dancing with her for a long time. It was really cool!

After that we headed in Tomorrow Land and saw the Monster's Inc Laugh Floor show. It was an animated improv comedy show and it was a lot of fun. They would show a member of the audience with a silly caption under their face on the big screen and then work that into the act. I smiled and waved when my face ended up on the screen and then I noticed it had a caption that said something about a dancing guy - so, of course, I obliged by standing up and dancing.

We next went on the Tomorrow Land People Mover that takes you around the area. Then we headed toward Fantasy Land where we got a bite to eat and went on the flying Dumbo ride.

We walked past the sword in the stone and we asked the kids if they wanted to try to pull it out. Julia gave it a shot and it slid right out. Finn went up and tried and it wouldn't budge. I was watching the staff members standing nearby and didn't see them operating anything to control it so I just figured he wasn't pulling hard enough. Julia tried to help then I did too. It wouldn't come out. We started to step down and Julia tried again by herself and it came right out again. It may be a sign.

We rode the boats on the It's a Small World ride. The picture below is from there.

We then ventured over to Frontier Land and since we were getting really wiped out we took a break by riding the train all around the outside of Magic Kingdom. Finn was just sitting in the stroller and wasn't interested in anything at all anymore so we decided to head back to GKTW. On the way out of the park we got stopped by another parade and so we hung out on the side of the street and watched it go by. Ariel looked down from the float and told Julia she liked her hat. It really lit up Julia's face. We still had Adventure Land to do, but we decided to save that for another day.

Back at our villa, we ate leftovers from the previous day's lunch and then headed to the Halloween Party that GKTW was putting on that night. They had trick-or-treating and activity stations all around. Julia and Amanda stayed for a little while longer while I took Finn back to the villa. On the way he nabbed some cotton candy and then we stopped for a train ride.

After this first long day, it felt like we had been there a week already!