Disney - Arrival Day

Not only were we all excited to take off for our trip to Disney, but Ledger was very nervous about his first flight.  Luckily, Papa generously upgraded all of our flight seats to first class -- so we were very comfortable (spoiled!).  The flight attendant paid Ledger a lot of special attention and once we got into the air, we settled him into watching a movie on his tablet and he was in heaven.  He did great for his first flight!

Ledger checked out the emergency instructions on our flight.

He earned his WINGS on his first flight and wore these for 2 days.

He gave his flight a THUMBS UP.

As soon as we arrived at the Orlando airport, we were swept up in the Disney magic.  We put on our Magic Bands and didn't bother to pick up our luggage -- don't worry, Disney will get it and deliver it straight to our rooms!  We followed the signage to get us onto the Magical Express, which quickly whisked us away on our Magical vacation.

Our first (fake) monorail ride at the airport!

So we checked in at the Contemporary Resort and since one of our rooms was ready, we quickly explored our digs at Bay Lake Tower.  We had a 2-bedroom villa and it was actually bigger and more spacious than I expected from the videos we've watched.  You walk into a large entry way with full bathroom and laundry closet off of it.  On one side there is the master suite with a king-sized bed and a large en suite bathrom including a jacuzzi tub.  On the other side is a standard room with 2 queen-sized beds and a full bathroom and tub.  The bedrooms are separated by a large shared living area with a full kitchen, large dining area, and a living room with floor-to-ceiling walls with views of the Magic Kingdom and Cinderella's Castle.  

Yeah... we were in heaven.  But we were also hungry.  So we dumped off our stuff and headed down to the Contempo Cafe -- anxious to try out our Magic Bands as well as start working on those dining credits!  At Contempo, the ordering system is pretty confusing.  You use a kiosk to order, then you pick up all of the self-serve items (that you are just intuitively supposed to know to pick up?) and take the kiosk reciept to the check-out.  Needless to say, we were all tired and it took some serious bumbling to get our orders straightened out... but eventually we were all fed and much happier.  (Later in the trip, we were pros at this system and made sure to try to help other confused-looking diners.)

Alright, so we'd officially been at Disney for a few hours and we were all pretty anxious to head into the Magic Kingdom and use the Fastpasses we'd reserved ahead of time to hit all of our favorite classic attractions -- Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, and Big Thunder Railroad!

Ledger ready to hit the parks wearing his "wings" pin, his "first visit" button, and his "birthday" button.
He was really excited about his flair...

We stayed in the park until dark and watched fireworks with the Daltons.  The nighttime fireworks show is called "Wishes", and it's a beautiful show.  Then we joined the thousands of other people headed towards the gate to get some rest after a very busy day!  Our Disney vacation is just beginning!