(Yes, I’m still writing about Disney World. Yes, I do realize that I’m VERY far behind…)

On the second to last day in Disney World, we planned to head back to the Magic Kingdom as early as we could so that we could beat the heat and the crowds. Since the first day in Disney World was a massive disaster at the Magic Kingdom, Andrew was not very happy to head back there but I pretty much demanded that we wake up early enough to at least do half a day there. We have kids after all. They have to ride something in the Magic Kingdom.

We arrived pretty soon after the park opened and it was a completely opposite experience than the one we had the first time around. It was practically blissful there. The weather was amazing and we walked onto pretty much everything we wanted to ride and were able to enjoy a nice lunch without too much of a wait or crowd.

We started out at the it’s a small world ride which was Jadon and Isabelle’s favorite in Disneyland. Jadon was surprised that things outside were completely different, but that everything inside was pretty much the exact same as Disneyland. After that we went to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. This was my first time ever riding on this ride and it just seemed like a pirates themed small world ride, since we rode them back to back. Jadon was terrified for the first part and closed his eyes, but he opened them for the end of it. He enjoyed looking through all the stuff in the gift shop and ended up picking out a telescope. When we got off the ride, we saw the last part of the Captain Jack Sparrow impersonator. It was hilarious and such an amazing impersonation. It would’ve been fun to see the whole show. Jadon even joined in when they were looking through their telescopes to spot something.

We used Fast Passes to ride Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin which was suppose to be what the Toy Story Mania ride was based on, but this one has lasers and Zurg instead. Jadon loved the Toy Story ride so much that I knew he was going to like this one and he was excited to finally get to go on this one. This one was pretty awesome too and I’m so glad that Jadon was able to ride something similar to the Toy Story ride without the crazy wait.

On a whim, we decided to watch Mickey’s PhilharMagic. My travel book rated this ride as a MUST, but Andrew and I weren’t completely sure of what to expect of this. We worried it would take forever and that we wouldn’t make it to the Buzz Lightyear ride at the time we wanted to, but it was only a 5 minute wait with a 15 minute show so it fit into our timing perfectly. Seriously, this was definitely worth the trip to the Magic Kingdom. The travel book was right. This is a DEFINITE must do. We happened to be sitting at the perfect spot for the ending which featured Donald Duck so Jadon of course loved it. Everyone has got to do this. It’s basically a short 3-D film that plays to all the senses. It’s so worth it for both kids and adults.

After we said our goodbyes to the Magic Kingdom, we discovered that we were able to ride the ferry and monorail over to Epcot. This was our first time traveling from park to park so we had no idea how to do it. It was easy enough. Jadon had been wanting to ride the monorail so this was fun for him and the boat was an added bonus. Andrew and I have decided that we love Epcot, as if you couldn’t tell already by the amount of times we had already visited it. Not only is it close to our hotel, it has a bunch of things to do for every age. When I first went to Epcot in high school, I didn’t know all these things existed and neither did Andrew. Of course, I had read up so I knew more of all the features Epcot has to offer.

We decided to go through the Innoventions buildings first while Isabelle napped. Andrew had no idea this existed and it was a pleasant thing to do to beat the midday heat. There are two Innoventions buildings: East and West. We went to Innoventions East first and spent a considerable amount of time there. I watched Isabelle as she napped and Andrew took Jadon around to the different exhibits. One of the coolest things there was a game where you learned about recycling and Jadon got to push around a garbage truck from center to center. The other thing was the Sum of All Thrills where you design your own ride and then get into a simulator to ride your design. Jadon also got to make his own paper which was cool. Innoventions West wasn’t as interactive as the East building, but it had a couple of really cool things to do. Jadon got to take a picture with a fire truck and go through a fire safety thing, which he enjoyed. The best thing here was the video game they got to play with the image of their own avatars. It was cool because it was the actual image of them playing in a pixel-ated environment.

The other new thing we saw in Epcot that day was the Circle of Life show, which seemed like a public service announcement about how humans have polluted the earth to me, but it was informative and it had Timon and Pumbaa hosting so that’s always fun to see.

Wandering around Epcot was very relaxing this day, because we were able to just explore different areas we hadn’t been to before. We even came across a sand sculptor who apparently just gets paid to be there to work on his sculpture. It was pretty amazing to see. Jadon even got a lesson on how to jump rope.

Stay tuned for the last segment of our trip in Disney World. I know it’s incredibly interesting at this point… Then we’ll move on to more current news.