Walt Disney World

Sometimes your hands are tied and you simply have to take your toddler to meet their best pal, Mickey!

Last year, our family took a weekend Cruise out of Orlando. Two days before we left town, I was asked if we were going to stop by Disney on the way. WHAT! Why had I not thought of it before?! Just a few short hours later we were booked for a day at "Mickey's House".

In less than a day I found Disney shirts for everyone, dug out my old Disney fanny pack and located my autograph book. We were ready to go! The drive to Orlando took us a little over seven hours, we GPSd our way straight to the daily parking at Magic Kingdom and we were off!

We arrived at Disney right at 3pm, we took the ferry boat to the entrance gate, and headed straight to Cinderella's castle for some classic family photos! Because we knew our time would be limited at the park, each family member came up with one thing they wanted to do more than anything else. The toddler wanted to climb the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House, Haydn wanted to ride Jungle Cruise and I wanted to eat a Mickey Ice Cream! Eventually, we were able to do all three before the grand finale and big surprise for our kiddo: Meeting Mickey! I know Disney (even for a day) is not a cheap experience, but let me tell you it was worth every penny to see my son's face when he walked around a corner and saw Mickey Mouse. My shy toddler ran and HUGGED Mickey without a second thought! It was the most magical thing ever! If your kid is into Mickey and you can spare the cash, GO!

By 8:30pm our family was wiped out. Mind you, our day consisted of a seven hour car ride and five and a half hours in the park. Looking ahead we still had a drive to our hotel, so we decided to leave the park before fireworks and grab Taco Bell on the way to the hotel. Best Taco Bell I've ever eaten!

There were a couple of lows during our day at Disney, though I'm not sure they were anyone's fault but our own. Water. Water was a problem for us. We just assumed we could refill our bottles at a plethora of water stations, wrong! We actually had a really hard time finding water stations and when we did, the water was SO GROSS. We ended up just buying bottled water the whole time we were there and that was expensive! Next time, we will be bringing a cooler of our own water supply! Wait times. Wow were the wait times so long for rides and experiences, especially with a two year old. Next time, we will probably plan our time in the park differently to try to avoid crowds as much as possible. We'll also likely consider purchasing the express passes for our favorite things. Last thing, if you intend to let your toddler enjoy their own Mickey Ice Cream, take a spare shirt, my gosh I underestimated the mess!

Even with the lows, it was a remarkable adventure and we are already in talks of when we can take little sister to meet Mickey!

Until then, "see ya next time"!