Disney World Day 2

We started our second day at Disney World at the Magic Kingdom.  Our friend Geoff, self-described Disney guru, gave us some great tips for the park and suggestions on how to maximize our days there.  We arrived just after 9 and were glad to see Pluto standing in Town Square.  He was the one character that Mark had been talking about meeting all week long.  So we waited just a few minutes to take our picture with him.  

Then we headed over to Toontown.  Geoff had suggested that we meet Mickey first thing in the morning because the hours are limited and the line can get really long.  It actually didn't take us too long and we got to meet both Mickey and Minnie.  Both kids were star-struck.  It was so cute!  And thanks to the Disney Photo Pass photographer I think we have our Christmas Card photo.  We are actually all smiling with our eyes open looking at the camera.  Amazing!  

Pretend you haven't seen this when you get your Christmas card in December!

We stayed around Toontown for a while and let the kids play in the play area.  Mark also rode his favorite ride, The Barnstormer.  It's a small roller coaster for kids.  He and Tim rode together and they both loved it.  I say this is his favorite, but if you ask him he might say the parking lot tram.  I just pretend that he doesn't say that.  :)  

That pretty much took all of our morning so we headed back toward the front to grab our lunch.  I'd seen a nice spot just below main street with some picnic tables so we ate there.  It wasn't crowded at all and there were lots of ducks.  Mark had a blast feeding them some leftover pieces of sandwich we had.  

After lunch we headed over to Tomorrow Land.  We rode The Monsters Inc Laugh Floor and Mark really thought it was funny.  That's one of his favorite movies anyway, so he enjoyed seeing the characters again.  And he saw the rocket ship ride and immediately wanted to ride them.  So we got in line to ride those.  He was also very impressed that you got to ride in an elevator to get up to the ride.  (I know what you are thinking.  The parking lot tram and an elevator?  Skip Disney World and take that kid to the mall!)  

We needed a bit of a pick me up at this point, so we headed over to Fantasy Land and had some ice cream.  This time Luke got his first popsicle.  He wasn't sure about the cold texture at first, but soon decided he loved it.  Mark and I got in line to ride Dumbo while Tim and Luke finished their snack.  

We rode a few more rides in Fantasy Land, including the ever-popular "it's a small world."  The boys were mesmerized by the music and figures.  They both really loved it and the whole "riding in a boat" thing.  It was a pretty big hit.  We also rode the Winnie the Pooh ride which they both loved.  After getting off the ride we saw Pooh and Tigger and what appeared to be a relatively short line to meet them.  (Appearances can be deceiving.)  We stood in line (in the sun) for an hour before finally getting up there to meet them.  At one point Mark is laying on the ground playing with his car while we wait.  As gross as it was, I gave up trying to keep him standing.  We did finally meet them and the boys loved it, so I guess the wait was worth it.  

It was a little after 4:00 at this point and the boys are definitely starting to fade so we head to a hot dog place for dinner.  We all got hot dogs and relaxed for a while watching part of the "Celebrate You" Street Party.  (Don't ask Tim about that one.  He told Mark there was nothing to celebrate about the depraved human nature.)  :)  We decided that we better head back home to get two tired little boys in bed for another day of Disney World.  

We did stop on the way out to let Mark try his hand at hula-hooping.  I think we still have some work to do on that though...