January 1, 2021

 Happy New Year! We celebrated by going to Magic Kingdom today! As we did with Hollywood Studios, we thought it would be a good idea to get to the park before it opened so we planned on leaving the condo an hour before park opening time.  We made our way to parking and then took the monorail to the park.  It was getting busy already! Teddy and Rocky seemed to like the monorail. Thom called it the magic train in the sky so Teddy thought that was pretty fun.  

When we made it to the park we saw our first characters! The train depot ride is getting redone but they had Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Daisy up there waving as people came in! They did so great pointing at people and waving. Teddy and Rocky got Mickey to wave at them.

We then made our way to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train because we knew that line would get long throughout the day.  By the time we got there at 7:45 (park officially opened at 8:00) the wait was already 90 minutes. So we headed over to Space Mountain which we thought would also be a longer wait later in the day. We were able to do child swap and the wait was only 5 minutes! The boys and I wheeled around while the rest of the group rode the ride then Drew and Thom went with me again.  We let Teddy pick the next ride which was the Buzz Lightyear laser game. You had to shoot lasers at little Z (Zurg) targets and earn points. Similar concept to the Toy Story Mania but it was incredible how much technology had progressed between the two rides creation.

While we were in Tomorrowland we decided to hit up the Astro Orbiter, which is a ride we've never done before! It is some spinning rockets above the Peoplemover and it was fun to be that high and see the park! Before heading to our next area we decided to do the Tomorrowland Speedway. Teddy drove a car with Thom while Rocky, Drew and I squeezed into one car. The steering was so difficult on the car and we kept running into the rail that was keeping us in our lane. Rocky thought it was hilarious and would giggle each time we hit it.  

The fun thing about doing Magic Kingdom wit the kids was that we hit a lot of rides we've never done before. We did the tea cups, Dumbo, magic carpets, the Barnstormer and Winnie the Pooh. We also did Ariel, It's a Small World, the Hall of Presidents and Haunted Mansion.  The boys loved all the rides. Rocky would get so upset when we got off a ride because he just wanted to do more! They did so great in the lines and waiting.  Our longest wait was It's a Small World.  We didn't do some rides (Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean) because the wait was too long. We'll do them on another trip! They redid the Hall of Presidents and it was great! Teddy loved it and at one point, when I looked at my phone to see what time it was, told me to put my phone away because I was missing the show. Mom graciously wheeled Rocky around and got him to nap while we watched the Hall of Presidents.

We enjoyed lunch Cosmic Ray's Cafe- they had reasonably priced kids meals which included apple sauce and an orange! Thom, Drew and I enjoyed a spicy chicken sandwich while Mom had a burger and Dad had a greek salad with chicken strips.  

Instead of having characters do close interactions and photos they did small, one float, disney parades. We saw a couple of them! Teddy liked watching all the characters float by.  One was a princess float and Teddy was spotted by Ariel. She used a telescope to spot him, blew him a kiss and made a heart. It was cute! Aladdin told Teddy something about being a good boy and making good choices, but it is only bad if you get caught.  Aladdin (on a different parade) told Rocky he reminded him Abu!

We were going to try to hop to Epcot because it was the first day they opened hopping back up, but it was $80 for Teddy to hop (the rest of us had hopper passes) so we chose not to do it.

Everyone has said that you have to get a Pineapple Dole Whip while at Magic Kingdom and I've never had one before--so this time, we did! Teddy and I shared one and I understand why people go crazy over them! It was delicious!! We enjoyed it while waiting for our last ride--Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I was a little worried about Teddy going on it, but Thom held him close and he LOVED it!! He put his hands in the air and was all smiles and laughter! 

We ended our Magic Kingdom day by checking out the gift shop so the boys could get their souvenir.  Teddy picked out a Mickey for himself and a Donald for Rocky because "Rocky is like Donald. Sometimes he is mean. And he likes ducks." haha!  Teddy also got a Mickey Pez.  

It was a great day at Magic Kingdom. It ended up getting busier than we thought it would throughout the day, but we found little spots to take breaks and enjoyed many rides! We even saw a couple get engaged! Fun was had by all!