We have been at both extremes at Disney in the last month. As I wrote about last month, we took my 94 year old dad to the Animal Kingdom for his birthday. Now the opposite - we took our 2 great-nieces (ages 10 and 5) to the Magic Kingdom on Friday. We had an absolute ball!! We have been to the MK with them before, but their mom and dad were with us on previous visits. This was the first time we had them there by themselves!!!
Our day started out by taking a monorail ride from the Ticket and Transportation Center down to EPCOT and back (the girls wanted a LONG monorail ride first). We then took the ferry across to the Magic Kingdom. While on the ferry, we met a family from Poland, who now live in Colorado. Their little girl looked to be about the same age as our younger great-niece, so I asked how old she was (we also found out this was their first time at Disney). They told me she was 5. I asked them when her birthday was and they said July 2nd. I couldn't believe it! I told them that was Ashley's birthday also and they asked me what time she was born. I couldn't remember, but after a call to Ashley's mom, I said 1:40 AM which would have been 9:40 AM Poland time. Their little girl was born at 8:30 AM Poland time, so she was just an hour older than Ashley! What are the odds of that happening with all the people on the ferry!
The first thing the girls wanted to do was ride the train, so we took the train around to Frontierland. I was thinking we would eat at Pecos BIll's, but they didn't have chicken and fries (which the girls wanted) so we walked over to Colonial Harbor House where we ate lunch. The girls had never eaten there so it was a new experience for them. Both girls ate VERY well (in fact, they finished my lunch!).
After lunch we headed to Fantasyland on our way to Tomorrowland to ride the Speedway. However, on our way through, the girls decided they wanted to do some rides in Fantasyland. We hadn't ridden Small World since they refurbished it and I wanted to do it to see the changes. Initially, the girls were resistant, but once assured we would do what they wanted after Small World, they were all for it. As it turned out, both girls thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Ashley didn't know where to look and kept telling Taylor to look here, look there, etc. Taylor had fun naming all of the countries that the different rooms represented. There were only two that she didn't recognize. As the ride was coming to an end, Ashley said she wanted to do it again!
After Small World, we started to head to Pooh. While on the way, they saw the carousel, which both girls wanted to do.
After a ride on the carousel, we started to head to Pooh, but then Ashley saw Dumbo, so we did Dumbo. We can't remember the last time we did Dumbo, if we've ever done it at all! After Dumbo, we finally got to Pooh which of course both girls thoroughly enjoyed. We then headed to the play area where we spent time just letting the girls be little girls. They played in the water and got soaked! After 45 minutes or so, we got the girls dried off and changed and headed over to the Speedway. We got off the Speedway and headed back to Toontown to go through Mickey and Minnie's houses. After leaving Toontown, we took the "quiet walkway" on our way out of the park which was through Tomorrowland where we wanted to ride WEDWAY (also known as the TTA). After getting off WEDWAY, we headed for the exit on our way to meet their mom, who was getting off work (she works near Disney). On our way down Main Street, they announced the flag retreat ceremony which Taylor immediately asked if we could wait for. We said of course. The flag retreat ceremony is very patriotic and musical and was a wonderful way to end the day. We then headed to the monorail for one last ride to the TTC and our day with the girls was over :(.We drove the 2 hours home reliving the day and though we were exhausted, we were so glad we had the opportunity to have spent the day with our precious great-nieces!!
