Quite possibly the best vacation ever.  And people wonder why we’d ever want to work at WDW!  Here’s a bit of a recap, since I had planned on doing this daily but didn’t get around to it until now…

Day 1 - Arrival & Magic Kingdom

There’s nothing like stepping out of the airport in sunny Orlando Florida.  NOTHING.  As we headed out the doors towards our bus to Disney, the group of folks we were flying with out of St. Louis all started peeling off layers LOL… and boarded the Magical Express bus.  No chasing down our luggage, no getting lost trying to find the resort and having a huge argument halfway to the most magical place on earth… This is the only way to go.   We checked in at the resort and headed right off to play in the Magic Kingdom.  Some of the park is already decorated for the holiday season, but I think they’ve got quite a ways to go yet even… Anyway, through security, enter the turnstiles and there’s ALREADY a parade going on.  Some flag-wavin’ salute to America.  It looks as if they’ve roped some guests into participating…  A quick detour to the chapeau to buy some goofy touristy hats (I insist, I mean Disney is really the only place in the world you can get away with it).  So my dorky look for the week is a big Sorcerer Mickey hat and Amanda picked a Princess-locked-in-a-tower type pink Minnie hat - covered in sequins of course.  We walk from there up Main Street towards Cinderella Castle after watching the little parade.  We didn’t get any further than that.  A cast member approached us and asked if we wanted to be IN the parade!  Woo hoo!  The Family Fun Parade, which I think they ran every 30 minutes almost all day long.  It takes a little humility to admit, as a woodwind, that I have now had the experience of being a flaggit (color guard or flag corps, for the non-band-geek).  Yep, Amanda and I waved American flags with the rest of our little group after being taught our “routine” — 8 counts wave to the left, 8 counts front, 8 counts right, 8 counts front, repeat.  So yeah, I still have plenty of band geek in me I guess, because the heel-toe roll step came right back.  Lead with the left, stayed in step the whole way.  How’s THAT for pathetic!  This wasn’t a “full” parade, it only went from the Partners Statue area in the Castle Forecourt back to the Esplanade/Entrance area.  Good Times!!!

The rest of Day 1 we spent riding some attractions, starting some of our VMK Quests, watched the 3:00 Parade, ate our $8 cheeseburgers and spent way too much money on Disney stuff.  Back to the Pop Century Resort to crash and get ready to go again 

Day 2 - Magic Kingdom (Again)

Ok, ok.  This is my favorite park.  I’m a big kid.  Day 2 we started at MK, starting with the Keys to the Kingdom tour.  This is well worth the $60 per person or whatever we spent on it.  I’d recommend you take it if you’re interested.  They don’t advertise the behind-the-scenes tours too much, but all you have to do is ask anybody.  Book it with your package though, don’t wait til you get here, they’ll probably be all booked full.  Lunch was included. While waiting to get started we got our picture taken with Santa right outside City Hall (the PhotoPass people).  The start of the tour I’d heard or read about online, a walk up Main Street talking about the use of forced perspective on the buildings, what the names in the windows over Main Street are for (they’re the Opening Credits to “The Show” of course!).  (I may get out of order here…) We strolled to Adventureland for a ride on Walt’s favorite attraction, the Jungle Cruise, where our Tour Guide Rae took over the Skipper duties, told some of the old corny script jokes, made up a few of her own, pointed out a hidden mickey, etc.  We took a quick jog backstage and saw the floats for the afternoon parade and learned about the different levels of float drivers, how they train for that and so on, some Jungle Cruise hippos waiting for a repaint, etc.  Frontierland was next, and I’ll finish the story later.  It’s bedtime here at the Most Magical Place on Earth and we’ve gotta get rested to go see Mickey Mouse again tomorrow!