Still the happiest place on earth

After realizing that the paper inside her birthday card read, “We’re going to Disney World,” my daughter squealed with delight and said to us in her sweetest heart-melting voice, “You’re the best mommy ever, and you too, Daddy.”

My husband, Chris, asked, “I’m the best mommy?”
“No, the best daddy!”

This would be her first time at Disney and my son’s second. His first was back when he was still free to enter the park meaning that he was a few days away from his third birthday. It was a miserable experience for all of us.

This time, we were going to do it right, even if it was going to be on Mother’s Day which may or may not be a good idea. We were unsure if this holiday would have an effect on Disney ticket sales. I figured more moms would swing toward Epcot, but you never know.

We woke up early and arrived at the gate right about the time we had planned. Our tickets were purchased online so we didn’t have to fool around with all that. We did, however, acquire a birthday button for our special girl.

Our first attraction visited was the bathrooms.

“These bathrooms are weird, mom. I don’t like them.” She was already not impressed.

“Don’t worry, honey, we aren’t here to tour the restrooms. We haven’t even got on the monorail yet. Trust me, you’ll be fine.”

The monorail made up for the less-than-stellar bathroom and when it travelled through the hotel, even my son seemed impressed.

Once we got inside the park, she wanted Minnie ears right away. “No! We’ll get those later!”

This caused a little bit of moping on her part, but time was of the essence. Our goal was to get to the newest area and ride that Little Mermaid clamshell contraption first. The plan after that was sketchy at best.

We were momentarily distracted by the carousel which we got in line for, but didn’t make the ride, so we exited the line and saw “It’s a Small World” with no line. We trotted that direction only to find the ride closed until further notice. Great!

We glanced across the path at Peter Pan, but that line is always long. Why? What do they do to you in there? We never did get to go on it.

The Little Mermaid got our full attention and we were on it within 20 minutes.

We made our way around the park without having to wait long in any line. “Pirates of the Caribbean” is one of my favorites, but it never matters what side of the boat you’re on, it seems like the other side is better.

“Space Mountain” scared me concerning my spinal alignment and my daughter’s driving worried me on the speedway.

Our last two attractions were the “Swiss Family Treehouse” and “It’s a Small World,” which was finally in good working order. We looked into the water at all the coins tossed at the bottom and wondered how much money there was just lying there corroding in all of Disney’s wishing wells, or any standing water, around the park.