Unfortunately this trip got off to a shaky start yesterday. We were set to fly out of Colorado Springs at 8:30am but due to some high winds around town and crummy weather in our connecting city of Chicago we didn't even get into the air until 11:00am. Yeah, an extra 90 minutes in the airport and then sitting on the runway for an hour with a 3 year old was a blast. But thankfully we did finally take off and all was well. Thank god for movies on the laptop! However by the time we made it to Chicago we missed our connecting flight and had to sit around for another two hours to make the next flight out to Orlando. At last, at 8:00pm Orlando time, we walked off the plan to beautiful 85 degree weather and the Disney Magical Express awaiting our arrival.
We are staying at the Coronado Springs hotel on the outskirts of the Animal Kingdom part here at DW. This hotel is amazing, so huge and sprawling, lush green trees, ponds and swimming pools everywhere. There's one right outside our door! We got settled in our room and had a late dinner in the hotel. Getting used to eastern time wasn't easy for the kids and we didn't all get to sleep until almost 10:30 last night. To no one's surprise we didn't awake at the crack of dawn this morning.
For our first day of Disney festivities we decided to start off at the Animal Kingdom since we're right here already. The bus stop to the park was just a short walk outside our door so we waited at the bus stop. By the time we got off the bus, which was maybe a 15 minute ride, Camryn had already made about five new friends, all adults, and had half the bus wishing her a good time on her first trip to Disney. This kid should run for president someday. After the pleasantries ended we got to work on tackling our first park. We began the day in DinoLand USA. I had assumed this would be a hit with the kids with all the fun interactive activities available, but the random growling and chirping of the beasts kind of freaked Cam out. Yes, the kid that loves zombies and vampires was scared of dinosaur bones. So we made our visit to Dinoland shorter than I had planned. It worked out fine anyway since she was too short for the Dinosaur ride and Cori wanted to check out the Finding Nemo musical. This went over much better and we all had a great time. The show is really neat, with costumed actors carrying around giant character props they controlled like puppets, while still playing the role themselves too. It's kinda hard to visualize, but they pulled it off really well.
After the cuteness of Nemo we moved onto the Asia portion of the park for lunch. Even for a semi-fictional version of places like Nepal, Tibet, it was very beautiful and felt authentic. Authentic enough that I wanted to wash my hands frequently as we walked around. We got to see a really cool tiger exhibit where they are actually out and about as opposed to our zoo at home, then some crazy nasty giant bats, and finally watching a few minutes of the giant Everest rollercoaster that we couldn't ride before we moved onto the Africa section of the park. Africa felt even more authentic since it was about two-thousand degrees this afternoon and we were getting sweaty and tired. We took a break and rode Rafiki's train out to the nature reserve they have set up here and got to pet some animals before we decided it was time to head back to the hotel for some rest.
On our journey back we decided to make one last side trek to Camp Minnie-Mickey to see what was happening. I'm very glad we ventured down this path as it ended up being the most entertaining part of my day. They were having character meet and greet opportunities and Cam was all excited. We decided on Minnie Mouse and got in line. Of course, as soon as we step into line Minnie had to take a break to "water the flowers". This is their wording, not mine, and I hope it was not literal. She came back after about ten minutes of watering and eventually Cam got to meet her favorite mouse. Once again, the Camryn magic kicked in, and Minnie knelt down to have a little conversation with our girl. All I could do was shake my head and laugh. And record it in pictures and video of course. We got our photo opportunity and Cam had a few last words with Minnie, complimenting her on her eyelashes, then we took our leave of the Animal Kingdom and ventured back to the hotel.
We wrapped up the evening with an excellent dinner at the hotel. We had a fancy sit-down dinner with all the fixins. It felt like we were really on vacation now! After dinner and a relaxing walk around the gorgeous lake here, we decided to toss on the trunks and hit the pool outside our room. There were very few people out, just some adults enjoying drinks by the pool, so we had the whole thing to ourselves. We just now finished our showers and have started planning our day at the Magic Kingdom tomorrow. I think Cam might actually poop herself when she sees all the princesses. She's even excited to see her favorite of the Seven Dwarfs, Fashbul :)
G'night!
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