Disney - Let the Memories Begin

In the following blog posts are pictures from our Disney trip Day 2 & 3 - Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. I was having problems getting pictures to upload so they are in a very random order. Also I couldn't get text to work with the pics so, after much frustration, this post will be the narrative of the pictures. First of all, this was our first time to take the boys to Disney World. Joseph and I went on a college trip many years ago but had not been back since then which was about 1989... a long time ago! We spent our first day exploring our resort - Port Orleans Riverside & checking out Downtown Disney. I will post pictures of this day later. The second day we went to Magic Kingdom. We arrived shortly after the park opened and had planned to go back to the resort for a while in the early afternoon and come back to the park late afternoon. Sounded good and we were all on board with the plan. Well, at midnight Joseph and John Michael finally left the park for the first time. Samuel and I left about 1:30 A.M. I think we rode every single ride and hit every single show, watched the parade BOTH times, and took in the incredible firework display. If it was there... we did it! Upon our arrival we were all a little overwhelmed. There is so much to take in and at the prices you are paying you definitely want to get your money's worth. Samuel's favorite ride at Magic Kingdom was Space Mountain and John Michael's favorite ride was Buzz Lightyear. We all loved Splash Mountain and Samuel and I really liked the Thunder Mountain Railroad rollercoaster. Pirates of the Caribbean was a favorite as well as Peter Pan's Flight. It's a Small World was a nice break and a fun childhood memory to reflect upon. Our favorite show was Mickey's Philharmagic and Samuel loved Monster's Inc - The Laugh Floor. John Michael slept through this one as it was about 11:30 P.M. when we finally came back to this show. We all LOVED the parade and seeing all of the characters. I think the favorite characters for the boys were Captain Hook and Mickey Mouse, of course. The fireworks were amazing and we enjoyed them while eating our dinner... yes at 10:00 P.M. We had all read about Tom Sawyer Island and the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse and they were fun to explore and imagine living that way. John Michael and Samuel both decided they could live in the treehouse with no problems. It was awesome! Needless to say we were exhausted at the end of the day but were ready for Animal Kingdom the next day. Samuel actually liked this park the best. He loved Expedition Everest, Kali River Rapids, and the Dinosaur. John Michael's favorite was the Dinosaur... even though he was scared to death he claims it as his favorite. He also loved Kali River Rapids which we rode three times. Joseph and I were amazed by the Dinosaur and we both claimed it as our favorite ride of both parks. Expedition Everest was pretty awesome as far as rollercoasters go and Samuel loved it and claims it as his favorite of both parks. I loved the parade at Animal Kingdom! The colors and the costumes were just amazing! We all loved the shows at Animal Kingdom the best and I think we all agreed on The Lion King as the family favorite with It's Tough to be a Bug running a close second. I liked Nemo but it was a little too theatrical for the rest of the family. We all loved the ride through the African Safari and we saved this until late evening in hopes of seeing lots of animals and we did. John Michael and Samuel loved the hippos. Much to our appreciation at the time, this park closes at 8:00 so we left at closing and hit the pools back at the resort. Later that night we rode the ferry back to Downtown Disney for ice cream. Both boys crashed on the ferry ride back to the resort. Great Memories!