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We loved everything about the room at ASMu...I think they look so great now that they've been refurbished. Much better than the old style! There were some Mickey "Junior Security" stickers in the room when we arrived - one on the table and one on the floor, but other than that mousekeeping did a great job the whole time we were there!

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Of course, my only complaint about the room is that the bathrooms are still the size of a juice box. But it's all good when you're in Disney, right?

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As soon as we had dropped our bags and freshened up a little bit, we were off to the Magic Kingdom! I am not exaggerating when I say that one of the highlights of our trip was the ASMu bus service. We never waited more than about 5 minutes for a bus, except for one night of our trip (at PI) and I don't think anyone ever gets great bus service from PI so we weren't complaining.

DH and I determined one of our favorite things about ASMu was being the middle stop on the All-Star bus service. By the time the bus got to us from Sports, it was never full, and we only had to wait through one more stop (and watch some of the poor people from Movies stand when there were no seats left! ) before we were off to our destination.

This particular morning, we were barely at the MK bus stop for a minute or two before a bus showed up. We were feeling pretty fantastic so far - no wait for ME, a room ready for us at 7:30am, and now a practically empty bus to the MK only moments after we arrived at the bus stop. The trip was off to a great start!

Let me just add that at this point, I was really glad to see Ryan getting excited about things. He had a lot on his mind up until the trip, and I think he was apprehensive about going somewhere that was new to him and "old" to me. But already, I could tell he was having fun!

The ride to MK seemed to take forever - probably because it was still foggy and we couldn't see anything! I mean, we couldn't even see the Contemporary until the bus was literally right alongside it.

I was a little nervous when we got up to the turnstiles because we were using complimentary passes given to us by a CM friend from Disneyland (thank you Michael!!). I always get nervous about using those kind of passes. I guess it's just that I didn't actually purchase them myself, I'm always afraid they won't work for some reason.

We had no trouble with the passes though, and we were inside the gates before we knew it. It was about 8:40 at that point - just over 15 minutes to wait before the MK officially opened. And luckily, Scoop Sanderson was there to keep us entertained!

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While Ryan may have been nervous about visiting a place new to him and "old" to me, as it turns out, 4+ years was plenty of time to make everything seem new to me too! We got to experience everything together as if it was the first time for both of us. So many things were familiar, but it all seemed surreal to me, as if I was dreaming. Four and a half years really is too long between trips!

I thought this welcome show was so cute...and again, I found myself wishing I was one of those girls dancing and singing! You'd think I would have gotten my fill of the idea of working for Disney by now, but I guess not. I've done attractions and costumed entertainment...now I need to do this kind of entertainment!

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And of course we haven't been properly welcomed to the Magic Kingdom until we've been welcomed by the big cheese himself - and here he comes! Ryan was marveling how much larger the WDW railroad is than the one at Disneyland. Naturally, comparing things in the Magic Kingdom to their counterparts at Disneyland would become a regular thing on this trip...

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Thanks everyone, I'm glad you guys are so excited for this TR! I honestly think I was more excited about writing a TR than I even was about going on the trip! I love reliving my memories and sharing them with others. DH and I had so much fun taking pictures on this trip and making notes for the trip report...hopefully dizzygirl TRs will become a much more regular thing from here on out!

I'm trying this tactic of writing my days in different colors so it's easier to pick out where you left off while reading. And I'm keeping my side comments, like this, in black. I hope that helps make it more pleasureable to read!

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Finally, it was time to officially open the Magic Kingdom! The whole gang was there to wish us well...

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Our first stop was Tomorrowland! DH was excited to try the "old style" Space Mountain because he's only experienced the new style at Disneyland.

While waiting for the rope to drop at Tomorrowland, we started to notice the groups of cheerleaders. Oh well! We didn't really have any problems with the large groups until our 2nd day. Most of the groups were very well-mannered, and we didn't have any complaints until Day 2 when we encountered the Brazilian cheerleaders.

(The other thing we started noticing at this point was all the purple, green and gold! It took us until the 2nd day to realize it was Mardi Gras and everyone from New Orleans had fled to WDW! The first day though, Ryan kept saying "Look there's another LSU shirt..." and I kept saying "What's with all the beads?" We honestly couldn't figure it out until Day 2 when someone mentioned it at Animal Kingdom, and then we felt a little dumb! )

I don't know what I was expecting, but I was convinced before we left for WDW that I would revert to my old Park Commando ways and make sure we were hitting every attraction in every park. However, that ended up being ANYTHING BUT the case! We soon discovered an attitude that was very new to us - the "let's stroll and enjoy the atmosphere" attitude.

We hit Space Mountain first thing...grabbed fastpasses on the way in, and rode with no wait. I still enjoy the old style Space Mountain, but I do think East Coasters deserve the update like DL got!

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Instead of sticking around in Tomorrowland, I was anxious to give DH the full tour of the park so he could see how different it is from DL.

Already, Ryan was wide-eyed and confused. He kept saying he was "tripped out". We strolled through Fantasyland and noted all the differences - like the exterior of IASW! DH didn't even know what to make of that...it's just so "blah", whereas the one in DL is a landmark!

DH had little interest in riding anything in Fantasyland, since the rides don't vary much from DL. I was looking forward to Mickey's Philharmagic, but I had way too much energy to even think of sitting through a show yet! So we strolled on through FL to Liberty Square. First stop there was the Haunted Mansion! The exterior looks absolutely nothing like the one in DL, so even I was a little weirded out after not seeing this version for a few years.

We rode and determined we like the WDW version better! There are only a few differences, but those little differences make it just a little bit cooler than the DL Haunted Mansion.

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Ryan commented that he likes the MK's Frontierland better than DL's. It's bigger and more substantial...and after watching the Country Bear Jamboree, he had even more reason to like it!

We are both suckers for this kind of stuff...I miss the Country Bears in DL and I will be so sad whenever they are replaced in WDW. (Which is almost inevitable, isn't it? ) We both loved this show and I wish we had gotten a chance to go back and watch it again another day!

I apologize for all of the comparisons to DL. That was really our focus on this morning though, and we ended up spending less time in MK than the other parks because of it. I love MK but I am pretty sure I would choose DL park over it any day, solely for the feel and intimacy of DL. Plus we were so excited to see everything else, we felt like most of the attractions in MK were just repeats of stuff we'd done before!

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I was surprised we managed to get some pretty decent pictures in Country Bear Jamboree, while still obeying the "no flash photography" rule.

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The last time I watched this show, I must not have been old enough to comprehend a lot of the lyrics in the songs - some of the lyrics seemed a little racy! But they really made me laugh. "Mama don't whoop little Buford, oh mama don't whoop little Buford...I think you should shoot 'im instead!"

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Classic Disney at its best

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I love Melvin...I always remember the lyric in the song from the Country Bear Vacation Special "Aw heck, I'm only part moose as it is!"

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By the time we'd accomplished Space, Haunted Mansion and the Country Bears, we were really starting to feel the impact of staying up all night. Not to mention we hadn't eaten any breakfast yet either! (I don't always make the best choices when it comes to taking care of myself while I'm at Disney. Too easily distracted I guess!)

MK hadn't even been open an hour though, and none of the food places were open yet. So we dragged our tired, hungry bodies into Adventureland to see how the line was at Pirates.