Disney World 2008: Day 1

The Land of a Million Dreams (And a Few Nightmares)

Luckily, Anabelle didn’t notice the tornado of confusion and activity during the days before we left, so she was suitably confused when I returned from the driveway with both the Sunday newspaper AND Grandma.  We told her there was one birthday present that Grandpa really wanted her to have, and gave her a folded piece of paper.  On it was: a picture of Cinderella’s castle and the phrase,  “We’re all going to Disney World!! Surprise!!!! Happy 5th Birthday” 

Still in pretty good shape, considering how long she danced with it.

She seemed pleased but puzzled.  We asked if she knew when we were going, and she said no. We then told her that Grandma set up a big car to take all of us to the airport that morning.  Since she’s my daughter, her first reactions were concern and worry. 

“I have to go to school.”

“I have to go to dance class.”

etc. 

We explained that we already took care of everything, and she went off into her room.  Apparently, after the slight pause, it hit her and she started a huge happy dance, which she maintained throughout the car ride and airport. 

We encountered some minor delays with the flight

(weather related: rain),

and boarding the Magical Express Bus

(me related: I focused so much on making sure our luggage would go to the right hotel when we upgraded, I forgot to ask about us getting there.) 

We arrived at the Wilderness Lodge in time for dinner, to stave off the first of many hunger related mood shifts.  The Magic Kingdom was hosting Mickey’s Halloween party.  It focused on villains and Haunted Mansion characters. Tempting though it was to start the vacation by paying extra have the snot scared out of my child well past her bedtime, we opted instead to let her spend the first night in the pool.  Our luggage hadn’t arrived yet, so I took her in with our regular clothes on while Rosa waited for the bags, and tried to get better faster.  As with every subsequent time she entered the pool...

or the doors closed on a bus…

or we got to the front of a long line…

Anabelle needed to use the bathroom. After a couple false starts she had a good time going back and forth between the main and wading pools, while I tried to find the Lagrange point between them to leave our shoes.  We also talked for a while to a couple on their last night, specifically about how the geyser near the pool only goes off during the day.  Then (of course) the geyser went off. 

We returned to the room to find balloons and a birthday card from Ariel, which temporarily restarted the happy dance.  Then we heard the Electric Water Pageant start.  Mom, Rosa and I were very excited as we hadn’t stayed in a Magic Kingdom hotel in a while and missed it.  We could see the dragon’s head and other parts by peering through the trees from our balcony. Anabelle joined us until she suddenly decided to be afraid of the dinosaur (which we couldn’t see at the time). 

Note that the dragon was fine; this was a good indication of how things would go.  She ran in the room and hid in the closet, refusing to come out even when they all turned to flags.  This led to us peeking at the pageant this way for the first half of the trip.

Anabelle spent the week sleeping with Grandma, which means Grandma spent the week being pushed, hearing random yells, and having toes in her ears.  Fortunately, Disney World makes you tired enough to ignore all that.



Please Click Here to return to the Introduction which has links to the other Disney Days.