Disney World - Day 1

Our first Day started out well.

We knew there was lots of rain in the forecast for the week we were there, so before we left for the park we bought ponchos at our hotel. We packed our backpack (a necessity!) and took the double-stroller on the bus. Henry loved taking the bus over the Magic Kingdom - I would later ask him what his favorite thing about Disney World was and he responded with "the bus".

I should start by saying that bringing a double stroller was one of my better ideas. I contemplated bringing a single, but thought that with room for more storage in the second seat the double would be better. The backpack also worked brilliantly. We would load up the backpack with our necessities for the day and when we went on rides we would park the stroller, but throw on the backpack so we didn't have to leave anything of value in the stroller.

I had never been to Disney world with a child/stroller before, so I had no idea that there are Cast Members that have the sole responsibility of organizing strollers while you are on a ride or at a show. You had to get used to the fact that while you might leave your stroller in one location when you go into a ride, it probably would not be in the same location when you got out. Sometimes you would have to walk a bit to a huge grouping of strollers and find your stroller. As it turns out, we have a VERY popular stroller. At least 70% of the double strollers I saw in the parks were our same model (City Mini Double), but in a variety of colors.

Side note: by driving to Florida and taking our own double-stroller we saved $186. Double strollers (made of hard plastic that don't recline at all) were $31 per day.  Had we flown we wouldn't have bothered with it, but I am SO glad we had it.

Okay, back to the park.

We met my Uncle Dana at our hotel to get our park tickets (my Aunt works for Disney so I got the hook up), hopped on the bus, and went straight to Crystal Palace for our first character meal of the trip. I had made reservations about a month prior, which was a necessity. We had a lot of fun meeting the characters. Henry was particularly fond of Piglet.

It was during this lunch that my worst nightmare came true.

My camera, which was working fine two days prior, was now not focusing no matter what. I only brought one lens (the most versatile that I have, 18-200mm) so I had no way of knowing if it was the lens or the camera. I had taken the camera to a shop a couple days before because my other lens (50mm f/1.4) was not giving me sharp images. The gal assured me it was the lens and not the camera. I was pretty ticked at this lunch because I was certain the girl was wrong -- what are the chances that both of my lenses break at the same time? Unlikely.

I made peace with the fact that all I would have from this first lunch were -- gasp -- iPhone photos.

When I had registered for this lunch, I filled out a form that said we were celebrating Dustin's "personal achievement" of graduating. (Unbeknownst to Dustin.) I wasn't sure what they had planned, but I was pretty certain it would be something along the lines of a special cupcake/dessert and some acknowledgement from staff (similar to a birthday). When we sat down I noticed there was Mickey-shaped confetti on the table and only two other tables had that confetti. I was guessing this was how they signified that we were celebrating in some way. During the course of our lunch (over an hour) I waited, and waited for them to do something for Dustin. The other tables got their due, but they never did anything beyond the confetti on the table. This was my biggest disappointment during the trip. Had I known this was all they were going to do, I would have made other arrangements. In my opinion, if they have a special form to fill out online, it should consist of more than confetti.

We wrapped up our lunch and headed outside to catch the tail end of the show going on. Dustin and I discussed it and we decided that we needed to go to the nearest Best Buy and get a new camera. I couldn't stand the thought of not having any real pictures of my son's first time at Disney World.

So we left. Went back to the hotel. Got the car. Went to Best Buy. Bought a new camera (D7000) and came back. It sucked spending money we didn't intend to spend, but I knew if I didn't do it I would regret it.

Once we came back, it was smooth sailing!

Henry loved the teacups. 

 

It rained a lot, but that made for shorter lines, cooler temperatures, and really cool clouds and lighting around the castle at dusk.

Being that it was rainy a lot, it prevented me from taking all the pictures that I wanted (ironic, huh?), but we got some good ones along the way.

We ended the night watching the Electrical Parade. It was a very, very long first day for all of us!