Our Disney Trip

As promised, I am going to write about our trip to Disney MGM. We left our home early Friday morning to make our 10:10am reservation at Hollywood&Vine restaurant in MGM. We had a scheduled breakfast buffet to celebrate Arjay's upcoming birthday. Disney has this play n' dine program that I think is phenomenal for young children. Arjay was ecstatic when we got there and he saw the characters. We were somewhat apprehensive because we were not sure if he would be scared of a life-size character. It's one thing when you see the characters on TV and a totally different thing when you are up close and personal to them. However, it was a welcoming surprise to watch his excitement. He was in awe of them and he couldn't get enough of them as they made their rotations to different tables. I have to admit I was just as excited watching Arjay and his interactions with the characters. He was giving them numerous amount of "bear hugs" and he didn't mind when they held him or even gave him kisses.

Even people surrounding us was enthralled watching Arjay. Adryana was a bit nervous in the beginning but Arjay's excitement quickly became contagious and she was right beside him handing out hugs and kisses to the characters. When it was time to dance and sing with the characters neither one of them hesitated. It was beautiful watching them!

Arjay was beyond excitement when they brought out a cupcake and gathered around him to sing "Happy Birthday to you!" Even his eyes lit up and danced. He was definitely on cloud nine through this whole experience and we couldn't be happier. Since we decided not to celebrate with a birthday party, I was very relieved to see that this alternative form of celebration was a huge hit among our family. It might have been nice to have members of our extended family with us but all in all I think everything worked out for the best.

After having all that fun in just one place, we couldn't imagine our day getting any better. I mean it would have worth it all just to watch our children enjoyed that one experience. So, could our day get any better? In a word, yes. As we were walking from the restaurant, we came to a place where lots of people were gathering and we inquired what was happening. We were told that in 10 minutes there was going to be a High School Musical Performance. Adryana absolutely loves this show and Greg and I are right there with her. We all enjoy both High School Musicals. So we were delirious with happiness when we got to watch a group perform all of the popular songs and dances from both shows. Adryana even went up on stage for a little while and did some of the dances. It was awesome!!

Later we did the Great Movie ride which I didn't personally think was so great but I guess if you saw all those movies then it would be great for you. We also saw The Little Mermaid which I loved. We stopped in to watch Playhouse Disney in concert. You sit on a carpeted floor to watch this. You have to be familiar with the Playhouse Disney shows, which we are. So we had a blast singing and dancing with the kids. Arjay started getting a little fussy and we knew it was because he was tired so we called our hotel to see if they could check us in early. And they said yes.

We left to go check in to our hotel. Before we did that we also grabbed lunch at Steak N' Shake, one of our favorite places to eat. Once we got to the hotel, Greg and the kids took a nap. I just read for a while since I'm not a big nap-taker.

We went back to MGM around 5pm and was able to watch the Muppets in 3-D. That was pretty much it because we didn't realize that everything was going to be closed down around 6pm. Since the park is opened until 7:30pm we thought we had more time to watch a few more shows, unfortunately that was a bit disappointing. So we just walked around for a while and then off to sit and wait in the stadium for about an hour until their 7:30 show Fantasmic. This was a water feature show with fireworks and boat performances. Most of it was very nice. However, as most of Disney's material seems to be now there were some scary parts to it. I was saddened by this because the kids were scared and we had to even cover their ears and eyes. I don't think I would recommend this for people with young children. I prefer the parade and fireworks at Disney's Magic Kingdom instead.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience with my family. I had never been to MGM before and the last time Greg was there was more than a decade so it was very exciting for us. I wish we had more time to see more of the other shows we missed but I think we'd definitely go back in years to come. I also think it's a great park for preschoolers. Our trip didn't end there so stay tuned to hear more about what we did the other 2 days we were in Orlando.