Thursday, November 6, 2014

KeyCon 2014 Trip: Day #1

The first day of my trip started bright and early- well, not so much bright, but definitely early.  My parents drove with me to Boston the night before so I could catch my 6:00 am direct flight to Orlando.  I was up at 3:00 am, after not going to bed until almost 1:00 am. However, I was on my way to Disney World and I was pretty pumped.  I insisted on cranking my iPhone and serenading Mom and Dad to my (out of tune) edition of "Let It Go" in the car on the way to the airport.


I was exhausted by the time we took off.  I planned to sleep on the plane but I started talking with the nice ladies next to me.  They were two older women on their way to a Disney wedding at Epcot.  (I think their names were Rita and Janet.)  I told them we got married at Disney and showed them a few photos I happened to have on my phone. Before I knew it, we were landing in Orlando!


Upon arrival in Orlando, I went to the monorail and saw my first palm trees!  Shortly after, I spotted the Magic of Disney store and had my first Mickey sighting!  (It finally felt real.)  I hoped on the Magical Express and went to Pop Century.  I've never arrived at Disney so early before.  (We usually take a late flight and arrive after the parks are already closed.) I checked in and would get settled later when my room was ready.  Instead, I met up with Wanda, one of the other Key to the World agents staying at Pop Century.  She offered to let me freshen up and leave my stuff in her room while we went to the Magic Kingdom. After talking for a bit and changing into my park clothes, we headed over to the Magic Kingdom.  I'm not on a trip to Disney until I see Cinderella Castle!


Wanda was up for anything since she'd arrived the day before.  We decided that we'd head over to Pirates of the Caribbean first.  Unfortunately, the ride was broken and it was closed.  Instead, we went towards the Haunted Mansion.  I always try to go on the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean first.  They're my favorites!


The line at the Haunted Mansion said it was 30 minutes, but I'm pretty sure we waited at least 45 minutes to an hour.  Thankfully, Wanda and I had plenty to talk about.  I had a few moments of exhaustion sneak up on me while waiting in line.  I felt like I was in a dream like state since I hadn't slept much.  It hadn't really sunk in that I was actually at Walt Disney World.  We enjoyed the ride and then I took a quick stop to check out Momento Mori, the new Haunted Mansion store.


Next, we walked over towards Fantasyland and stopped to admire Rapunzel's tower and the restrooms.  I insisted that we go inside them since Wanda had never seen them before!  As we continued along, we saw the line for It's A Small World wasn't too long so we decided to do that as well.


At this point, it was almost 3:00 and I was starting to crash after being up for 12 hours with less than three hours of sleep.  We decided to walk through New Fantasyland so I could see the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Ride before we headed back to Pop Century.


We made our way back to the front of the park and decided that we'd take the monorail over to Epcot and then take a bus.  I wasn't quite ready to crash, and I still wanted to see more of "home".  Plus, the Monorail is totally a ride.  ;-)


I'm glad we took the monorail.  I got to see the Wedding Pavilion along the way!


Eventually, we made it back to Pop and I got my room number.  We grabbed something for dinner and I headed to my room to eat and take a much needed nap!  Wanda was amazing and brought over the bags I left in her room.  We agreed to rest for a while and that we'd meet up later on to go over to Epcot.


After dinner and a two hour nap, I felt like a completely new person.  I got up and took a quick shower, changed and headed over to Epcot to meet Wanda.  Upon seeing Spaceship Earth, I really felt like I was at Disney World.  (A bit of sleep will do wonders.)


We met at the main entrance and decided to go on Nemo and Friends since the line wasn't long and we wanted to have a nice, relaxing evening.  Afterwards, Wanda took me to see Turtle Talk with Crush since I'd never seen it.  It was really cute and I enjoyed it a lot.  I can't wait to take Eliot to see it when we go in January.


After Turtle Talk, it was so close to park closing that it wasn't worth walking around the World Showcase.  Instead, we headed into MouseGears to poke around.  I saw a ton of cute items, but naturally I was most attracted to the holiday merchandise.  I found some awesome holiday jewelry.  (I later went back to get some Disney Christmas earrings.) The store was fairly quiet since everyone was preparing for IllumiNations. Wanda and I took advantage of it and looked at the Alex and Ani bracelets.  The cast member even let me try one on!  I'm definitely adding those to my Christmas wish list!


After MouseGears, we decided to call it a night and to head back to Pop Century.  Wanda and I agreed to text each other the next day to see if we could meet up.  When I got back to my room, I fell into a deep sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.  °o°

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