Disney World Day 1

Disney World was just wonderful.  We had a great time and we can't wait to go back.  I went to Disney World when I was 2, so this was essentially my first time, along with Benjamin and Sarah.  Geoff had been a few times when he was younger, and it had also been a long time since my mom had been there.   

We arrived at Disney World's Magic Kingdom on Sunday morning for our first day there.  As per Geoff's plan, we arrived at Magic Kingdom's gates at 7:30, 1 1/2 hours before they opened.  We walked right up to one of the ticket scanners basically to wait for the park to open.  We were approached by Santa, one of the ticket scanners and she asked me if we wanted to be the family that opened the park that day.  I said, "Sure," not having any idea what that meant.

At about 8 o'clock, they took us through the gates.  It was just us and the cast members making final touch-ups to the park.  An antique firetruck picked us up at the front gate and took us into Magic Kindom, driving right down Main Street.

They stopped to let us take a few pictures at Cinderella's Castle.  The whole time we were wondering what was going to happen, but no one is telling us anything other than to have our cameras ready.  They just smiled and said we were going to love it.  We drove though Magic Kingdom until we reached Mickey's House in Toontown.  We got out and played on the playground across from Mickey's House as the first steam train of the day pulled into Toontown Station. 

The cast members then told us that a bunch of characters would be coming out of Mickey's House in a couple of minutes and we could spend some time with them and take a group picture (see above).  Each of the characters also signed Benjamin and Sarah's autograph books.  After our group picture, we got on the train with all the characters.  We sat beside Mickey Mouse and Alice sat behind us and she and Chip and Dale entertained us the whole way there.  We arrived at Main Street Station at the front of the park and the Disney dancers and the characters welcomed the crowd of people waiting to enter the park at 9 am.  They announced us to the crowd and then we got out of the train and waved to everyone while the characters kept singing and dancing.  Geoff and I got to throw streamers along with the characters as the park opened and the mass of people poured through the gates.  We took another group picture with Mickey Mouse and then headed into the park to start our "regular" day riding Dumbo.  The whole experience was beyond anything we could have imagined.