Our next trip to Disney was April 7-14, 2018 right before our annual passes expired. As sad as the thought was, we had decided not to renew our passes because we have an announcement...I'm pregnant! During this trip, I was 3 months pregnant so not uncomfortable yet, but definitely already feeling it. This was the first time experiencing Disney while pregnant and I wasn't concerned, but always aware, taking precautions to drink more water and avoid certain rides, etc. We also brought Grandma back with us again this time.
We were scheduled to check-in at Caribbean Beach Club on April 7, but you know us and we got off earlier than planned and made it to Orlando by April 6. We were unable to get into Caribbean Beach early, so we stayed off property at a Holiday Inn just across I-4 from Disney Springs. We've had good luck here when extending our trips by a day or two. Since we hadn't planned on being at Disney so early, our fastpasses were scheduled for the evening at Hollywood Studios. We didn't want to loose our Toy Story Mania fastpass since this was the last day that fastpasses were scheduled during our trip so we didn't have any morning fastpasses but decided to try Magic Kingdom. (During April and May toy story mania was scheduled to operate on stand-by only due to changes being made in preparation of the new Toy Story Land opening.) You know my thoughts on those early morning hours, so we were in the parking lot by 7:00 and on the ferry by 7:30.
8:00
Since we didn't have fastpasses, this was not our typical first day plan. That being said, when the park opened at 8:00, we decided to visit Tinkerbell, character #1.
We also thought this was appropriate this day, because we were wearing pirate themed shirts. We chose these today based on our arrival at Caribbean Beach Club.
When we finished with Tink, we made our way up Main St and took pictures in front of the castle.
We thought we'd make our way toward the left side of the park since we thought this area would be less crowded. En route, we realized Aladdin and Jasmine were scheduled to start their first meet and greet at 8:30. For some reason, this meet and greet never works in our normal plans, and we've never seen these two here before. Naturally, we decided to stop and were rewarded with no line. So, here's Aladdin and Jasmine, characters #2 and 3.
Our thought was to get to Big Thunder Mountain before the crowds, but it seemed to be having some difficulties this morning so we ended up at Splash Mountain, attraction #1.
9:00
I followed Disney guidelines throughout the trip on which rides to sit out due to the pregnancy. Therefore, I did not ride splash mountain, but I did ride Pirates of the Caribbean, attraction #2.
I also rode Jungle Cruise, attraction #3.
After our cruise, we decided to ride Aladdin's Magic Carpets, attraction #4. While on this ride, we learned that Grandma needed to work on her ability to take selfies if she wanted to continue to ride in the front of these ride vehicles with Littlcjc.
10:00
It was now that we decided to wait in our first real line, a whole two hours after the park opened. It still wasn't all that long, but we waited long enough that Littlecjc got to play with a few of the line entertainment opportunities available at Haunted Mansion, attration #5.
I believe it was while waiting in this last line, that we were able to score an early lunch reservation at Skipper Canteen. After the ride, we still had a little time, but we didn't feel like rushing across the park to try to squeeze something else in so we opted to experience the Hall of Presidents, attraction #6, as a show was just about to begin.
11:00
This worked out nicely and we enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the Skipper Canteen.
12:00
Shortly after noon, we left the restaurant and decided we needed to work off the meal so we walked up the Swiss Family Treehouse, attraction #7. This walk also provided us with this beautiful view.
Once we completed our walk through the treehouse, we thought we'd try something new and stopped to watch the pirate training show. This was fun and Littlecjc thought she had a treasure once she was given her scroll.
She had fun getting on the stage even though she wasn't selected for any of the special parts. As we were leaving Adventureland, we noticed Mary Poppins was out and she barely had a line so we stopped. This made Mary Poppins, character #4.
As I said, Littlecjc thought her scroll was a real treasure and she was fast to show Mary Poppins.
1:00
While visiting with Mary Poppins, we heard a show starting at the castle. We didn't walk right up to the front of the stage, but I think Littlecjc preferred this so that she could pretend her scroll was a spyglass.
I'm pretty sure we stopped to watch Philharmagic at this point, but I don't actually have photo proof and I'm not 100% sure.
2:00
As we walked through Fantasyland, we noticed that Peter Pan was out, so we decided to stop and have a little visit with character #5, Peter Pan.
Again, Littlecjc was super excited to share her scroll saying she completed the pirate training with Captain Jack Sparrow. Peter was great about reading the entire thing and commenting the entire time about the pirates.
After our visit with Peter, we decided to get some ice cream and claim our spot in Frontierland to watch the Festival of Fantasy parade.
3:00
We enjoyed the parade and then left the park so that we could check-in to our room at the Caribbean Beach Club. This hotel had a lot of construction, including work on the new skyway and the main dining building. The hotel had food trucks set up where the food court normally would be, and they had grab and go stations set up in random hotel rooms in each area that were pretty convenient as well. After getting all checked in and visiting the front desk to add a few days to Grandma's ticket, we were ready for our evening at Hollywood Studios.
6:00
Our first stop was Toy Story Mania, attraction #8, using our first fastpass of the day.
Feeling good about getting that one fastpass in, we moved on and introduced Grandma to Star Lord and Baby Groot, characters #6 and 7.
She was clueless then and may still be now. Grandma really needs to take a deep dive into the Marvel world. We were all getting hungry by now, so we stopped in at the Backlot Studios for a quick dinner.
7:00
When we finished eating we used our second and final fastpass at Star Tours, attraction #9, and by we, I mean everyone except me as this is one that Disney advises against riding if pregnant. This worked out just fine though, because my dear friend was working the gift shop at the exit of the ride and I was able to visit with her while waiting. It had also started to rain a little, but that has never stopped us. So, when they got off the ride and we had all visited for a bit, we made our way to the Fantasmic theater.
Fantasmic started at 8:30, and it was the perfect way to end our first day at Disney.
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