Our son Peyton naturally loved Disney, at the time it was Toy Story, mainly Buzz. So my husband started his research of Disney World and off we went, May 2008 our first trip.
We stayed at the All Star Movies resort, Toy Story room of course. Loved it! I'm not sure who was more into this trip me, my husband, or our son. Talk about feeling like you are 5 all over again. For someone who has never been there I simply cannot explain the feeling you get when you walk into the Magic Kingdom, look down Main Street, and there it is...Cinderella's castle.
We visited all four parks on this trip however we only went to Epcot for a very short time. We actually bought a slushy and basically left. We didn't think Epcot was meant for children which later found out we were wrong, more on that in a later post. The Magic Kingdom of course was a favorite, I think mainly because the three of us could ride almost everything in the park together even with an expecting mommy on board. Big Thunder Mountain was Peyton's first roller coaster experience and still remains a favorite. That year we started a tradition, the Tea Cups was our first Disney ride, and has been every time since.
Meeting characters became something we really enjoyed as well. The first character meet for us was Chip n' Dale, boy are they fun in person ;). You need to be ready with your autograph book and pen in hand, the characters will sign your book which makes for a really nice and memorable souvenir.
Let me tell you that Disney knows how to Celebrate. It all starts with the "birthday button", wearing this ensures hundreds of birthday wishes from cast members, characters, even complete strangers who are vacationing just like you. Even a few cast members sang to our son, so neat. We ordered a special cake for our son's birthday and had it brought to our table after our birthday dinner at Chef Mickey's. The Big Cheese himself came out to start the birthday dance, the entire restaurant gets in on this, waving their napkins and dancing, brought tears to my eyes, my boy was turning four and celebrating in such an awesome way.
Hard to believe that we had only been to one park and we were already hooked. I can honestly say that the Animal Kingdom was just as breathtaking and shocking. You feel as though you were just dropped right into the middle of Africa. The safari in the Animal Kingdom is one of my personal Disney favorites. This experience is different each and every time, you board a safari like truck and off into the African Savannah you go. To see giraffes, lions, rhinos, even a cheetah that close in such a beautiful setting is like no other. This park has so much to look at, and you can go from Africa to Asia all in the same day :). We also found one of our favorite counter service meals at the Animal Kingdom during this trip, Flame Tree Barbecue which also has a very neat outdoor seating area.
One of my best memories of this trip was a Dash tattoo that my son had put on his forearm. The tattoo had lasted until about three days after we returned home. I can still remember him crying in the bathtub that night when Dash washed off.
I must say that I was so happy we had decided to go when we did, but I do wish we had thought of it sooner. I disagree with many people who say a child can be to young for Disney, or too old for that matter. There is something about shooting lasers on the Buzz Light year ride, or sword fighting with your son after getting off of the Pirate of the Caribbean ride. There is no set age to get that magical feeling while watching the wishes firework display above the castle.
When the time came for our trip to come to an end it was harder than I thought it would have been, waiting for the magical express coach to take us to the airport was kinda painful, but on the plane ride home we decided one thing was for sure, we were going back!
My husband Eric will be adding his thoughts on this first trip and will more than likely go a little more in depth on Hollywood Studios and some of our other 1st visit memories.
Do as Dreamers do~ Kim
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