December 23rd - Magic Kingdom

After a hard first day arriving in Florida and going to the Magic Kingdom, we decided we would hang around the resort on Sunday morning, December 23rd. The weather was beautiful and in the 70's and Emily had been desperately wanting to go to the pool. So after getting on her bathing suit, we all headed down to the pool. After watching her play a little while, Ansley, Bailey, and I headed off to find a grocery store. As most of you know, we can not make it long without getting groceries. We were in luck in the fact there was a grocery store within a few blocks. When the girls and I returned from the store, Emily was playing in the tub. We all had lunch, got the girls down for a nap, and when they awoke, we got ready to head over to the Magic Kingdom. When we arrived at Disney, we caught the ferry over to the Magic Kingdom and headed in the gates. We just made it there as the 3:30 parade was going through. Emily was very curious so we stopped for a few minutes until she was ready to head on. It was extremely crowded due to the Christmas season, but we slowly were able to make our way around to meet up with Daddy and Blake at the entrance to Toon Town. First thing, Emily and I got in line and rode the Barn Yard ride in Toon Town while John and the girls walked around. Emily really enjoyed the ride. While we were in the Magic Kingdom, John and Emily rode the tea cup, we ate at the cafe in Tomorrow Land, played on the playground in Toon Town, all of us rode the Snow White ride, and all of us got on the Pooh ride. Not long before the Spectro Magic parade started, we headed down the main drag, were not able to find the group, so we made our way out of the park and rode back via the monterale. Emily seemed to have a really good time even though she was exhausted by the end of the day.

As a recommendation for all of you that are thinking about Disney with little ones, I would not recommend going to the Magic Kingdom on the several days surrounding the Christmas holiday. With the crowds, it is impossible to get through with a double stroller, the lines for the rides are extremely long, it is extremely noisy (little ones are not able to fall asleep), and the lines for the bathrooms can be worse (which does not do well when young ones need to go to the potty often and there are diaper explosions). That being said, it is really neat to see everything decorated for Christmas. If would recommend that if you will be in Orlando at one of these peak times, try to hit ones like Sea World or Animal Kingdom on peak days. There is much more to offer that you do not have to wait for and they did not seem as busy.