August 2010 Walt Disney World Trip Report - Day 7

9/3 MK

Unlike our last trip to Magic Kingdom a couple of days prior, we arrived around 8:30 to grab a good viewing spot for the Welcome show. If you get there early enough, cast members will set out hula hoops to amuse the kids (and parents). It looks like DD is a great hula hooper, but trust me when I tell you that this picture captures the split second between her letting go and the thing hitting the ground…

On our last day at MK we hit Fantasyland right off the bat, so today’s plan was to hit Tomorrowland first. If you want to ride the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway with no wait, that’s the only time to do it. The car drives about 4 mph, and is kept in its lane by an iron bar anchored in the road which your wheels straddle. If you drift too far left or right, you hit that bar, which jarringly forces you back into your lane.

DD isn’t old enough to ride alone, so I get the honor of being her passenger, while DW takes pictures.

August 2010 Walt Disney World Trip Report - Day 5

9-1 Our Quest to be Family of the Day

This was the day we would do everything we could to be the Family of the Day at Magic Kingdom. But first, a little back story…

Before our trip to WDW in February, DW called around to different Disney Reservations phone numbers, to see if she could “schedule” us for being Family of the Day as a surprise to me. Of course, she quickly found out that you can’t reserve that magical experience – you kind of have to get lucky. But we all really wanted to do it. So between our Feb and Aug trips, I did the research and decided that if we were going to try, we were going to give it our best shot.

I found a number of trip reports where families had been chosen as the Magic Kingdom Family of the Day (or “First Family,” as it’s officially known). The experience sounded incredible. Allowed into the park before it opened, greeted in ToonTown by a dozen or more characters. Riding the train with all of them to the front of the park, where the dancers would be singing “Zip a Dee Doo Dah,” awaiting our arrival. Helping Mickey countdown from ten to one to mark the opening of the park.

All of the families had apparently been chosen at random. But I noticed some common threads between them all and started making a list of little things we could try to improve our chances at being selected.

First – they were mostly families with children. Some families without children are selected once in a while, but in most of the stories I read, there were children as part of the family. Some were older, some were toddlers – no consistent pattern there. But already we had met one of the criteria.

Second – they usually wore matching outfits. Now, in August I always, always, always wear a performance-type wicking shirt. The breeze blows right through them and they never get sweaty. But for our mission I agreed that I would forgo comfort for the (potential) experience of a lifetime. I scoured the DISigns thread on disboards.com and found animal-print mickey heads (we love animals and were staying at AKL). We each got a yellow T-shirt on sale from Target, and using transfer paper from amymickey.com (which I had bought for a previous trip) I made the shirts – leopard for DD, tiger for DW, giraffe for me.

August 2010 Walt Disney World Trip Report - Day 1

Day 1 - Take Off and Splashdown

We spent a week at Walt Disney World August/September 2010. We had a really great time and some very magical experiences. Here's a trip report.

Our flight left from Buffalo at 7:40am. Since the airport is about an hour and 15 minutes from our house, DW and I were up at 4:00am to shower, make a quick breakfast for the trip, load the van, and get DD ready. We were out the door at 5:00, and were at the airport, through security and waiting at the gate by 6:30. The flight took off on time, and we were off!

I had copied some movies and episodes of Kim Possible to my laptop for DD to watch on the plane. As soon as the pilot gave the OK, I set it up for her to watch. My battery must not have been fully charged, though, because it gave out after about 90 minutes – it usually lasts about 5-6 hours – plenty for our two and a half hour non-stop direct flight. So DD listened to Disney Theme Park music on her ipod.

Our flight landed about 10 minutes early. We waited for our bags, then headed down to National to pick out our car from the Executive Aisle. Last year there was a convertible Sebring, but this year, no such luck. We ended up taking a black Jeep Liberty from the regular Emerald Aisle. It had 8,000 miles on it – not the newest, but better than the 18,000 mil SUV parked next to it.

After about a 30 minute drive from the airport – we had arrived!

We always have to take a picture as we drive under this sign. This one came out better than any other we had done – a sign of good things to come, perhaps?

Family of the Day at Magic Kingdom

Here's some video of us helping to open the Magic Kingdom on September 1, 2010, when we were chosen to be Family of the Day. Eventually I'll get around to posting my tips for giving yourself the best opportunity to be selected.