Disney With E

Thinking P might be ready for a full day at Disney, we drove to a close-by motel the night before our planned day of amusement. The combo of enormous excitement and missing black-out-blinds led P to wake up at the crack of dawn. This put us at Disney's front gates before the park officially opened! An unprecedented occurrence in our family (I think my mother's car was the last to grace Disney's lot last year...)

We missed the Peter Pan ride on our previous trip due to the Spring Break crowds, so P was poised to fly first thing. The brief line and the sky sailing ship thrilled the little man so much that we hopped off our boat and right back into line :) Its a Small World, and Buzz Lightyear quickly followed. It was so much fun to watch P take it all in. After that we stopped for a brief snack (as a quick aside, there are No healthy snacks at Disney World. The grapes were beyond questionable and the pickle had food coloring in it (WHY???) that P's tush greatly regretted the next day.)

P takes aim at Zurg



P is miffed about the little girl entering Zurg's cage :)



I'm gonna drive THAT, Mama...



Next came car racing. P was Amazed that He could drive a race car. He patiently waded through the loooong line with BB, chattering to him about his upcoming race. When he climbed in his car I had the camera ready and he performed his first Camera Ready smile:



It was a little weird to see him cop a smile as if on cue (he'd heard lots of parents crying "cheese" all day and must have absorbed it into his little psyche (along with gawd knows what else that day!)) His toes wouldn't reach the pedal but he was perfectly poised to steer. Thank goodness the wheels travel above a metal railing preventing the million crashes we would have encountered. Can you say whiplash? The kid is fairly graceful driving the Ranger and his Vespa but this was a whole 'nuther story :) I think he was too distracted with his enormous grin to really concentrate :)

P and E, loosing steam:


We searched in vain for a decent lunch after which P promptly zonked. We weaved through the Pirates of the Caribbean line while P snoozed, but the line moved faster than planned and we had to wake a sleepy P so he wouldn't miss the show. When he saw we were in a dungeon, surrounded by skeletons and treasure chests his reaction was markedly different than the little 6 year old clinging to her father's shoulders in front of us. It was pretty dark, so I double-checked that he was still interested in a "spooky" ride (the sweet thing ahead of us was requesting a timely exit) and he practically squealed with excitement, so... :)

The ride was Amazing. As our ship drifted through the dark we sailed past a life sized pirate ship full of animatronic pirates shooting canon balls at the ship on the Other side of us. The cannons "landed" near us and splashed us with water. P was beyond mesmerized. We turned a dark corner and it became even darker. Then the tell tale "click click click" started and my internal "oh shit" meter started gonging like it always does when I'm talked into a roller coaster. Nah, I thought to myself, this is a kid's ride, they wouldn't.... Ahhhhhhhhhh! Splash.

Ethan was laughing like a madman at the surprise of it all and Phoenix's body was tensed tight - but he claimed he was happy:)

This new ride exits right into a toy store (sneaky Disney bastards!) and P was sure he needed a pirate kit. After our purchase he said he was ready to head home! We'd been there all of 7 hours :) Heading towards the exit we decided to ride one more ride. The pirate patch combined with stabbing BB and yelling "ARRR" got us through the long line. The jungle cruise isn't like the flashy new rides, but it was P's first time to experience anything like it and he enjoyed the animatronic wildlife.





It felt strange to leave the park so early, but we were all ready to rest (E's crowd quotient was certainly filled) so we happily headed to the car for the long drive home. P swiped his swords the whole way:)