Hi everyone - Adam here! With my first ever Bump to Baby blog post debut (although I know I've featured in a fair few of them already!). So, Disney World - what an awesome holiday! And for a Star Wars fanatic like me - it was heaven! I'm trying to get Ethan in to Star Wars, and so far it seems to be working, so when Mum and Grandma went off to do some shopping me and the little man went and had some fun!...
Magic Kingdom, wow, just wow! Here I was thinking it was going to be all princesses and frilly dresses and instead we got to experience things suited for all of us! Some of Ethan's favorite rides we went on together included:-
Peter pans flight - What little boy doesn't think pirates are awesome? You get to ride on a pirate ship and see all the characters in a re-telling of the famous animated movie and of course Ethan's favorite part:- tick, tock, tick, tock.. CROCODILE!
The Barnstormer - Oh my, this 'mini' rollercoaster was Ethan's first ever rollercoaster and after being whipped to the left, right up and down you couldn't wipe the grin of excitement off his face! As soon as we got off - 'Daddy - we go again?'
Haunted Mansion - The whole experience of this ride starts as soon as you enter the first set of doors. You start off in a small room with live actors who Ethan couldn't take his eyes off and then you shuffle down to the ride part which takes you on a tour of the house. Luckily it wasn't too scary for a 2 year old but there was no grinning this time, just eyes wide-open looking for ghosts and the zombies!
Pirates of the Caribbean - The level of detail that went into this ride was amazing, from queuing to actually getting on the boat part of the ride, you go down into a dungeon like area with props and music throughout twisting corridors. I was able to take both Logan and Ethan on this one which was great! Except for the big drop half way through which got us thoroughly soaked which Ethan thought was hilarious, not so much his brother who got rudely awakened from his nap haha! After 'sailing' thought the different areas seeing captain Jack sparrow at his finest we came out into a massive pirate shop in which I couldn't say no to a toy pirate sword for Ethan.
Epcot - Although there are definitely not as much rides here as the other parks there was still a few things me and Ethan got to do. The Finding Nemo ride for example, which fascinated him from start to finish with an almost 3d looking sea world you get to see all the characters as you ride along re-telling part of the story and then at the end you come out into a massive prop area with a giant shark and sunken ship which he absolutely loved!
Blizzard Beach water park - This was a seriously awesome water park which catered for all ages. Over in the toddler splash zone you couldn't wipe the grin off Ethan's face! You had to be under a certain height for most of the slides so Ethan got to be a 'big boy' and go down them all by himself whilst I waited at the bottom. One even had a rubber ring he sat in which of course I had to carry to the top about 10 times because he loved it so much. After spending a few hours there we then headed over to the wave pool where we grabbed a big rubber ring and sat in it together and rode these humongous waves like surfer dudes - Ethan had so much fun he wouldn't let me get out! At the end of the day I considered going on Summit Plummet, but staring at it for about 5 minutes I chickened out, maybe Ethan can show me how its done when we go back in a few years?
Hollywood studios - Last but not least my favorite place of them all! Home to all the new Star Wars attractions and soon to be Star Wars land, I think I was more excited than any of the kids around me! What me and Ethan enjoyed the most included:-
Star Wars Launch bay - Before you even enter this area there's a little booth outside selling refillable cups shaped like BB-8! Of course I had to get one before we did anything. Seriously the amount of times we got asked where we got our little BB-8 cup was easily over 20, Ethan loves it and still drinks from it at home.
We then entered the bay and straight away there were two storm troopers patrolling up and down, Ethan and I tried to get close enough for a picture!
We then headed into the the Star Wars celebration area where we got to watch a short documentary about the making of Star Wars and then got to see all the props from the new film. Ethan loved pointing out all the vehicles shouting "X-WING" at every available opportunity.
As you exit the prop area you come into every Star Wars fan dream - a shop full of collectibles including rare figures and memorabilia, even the staff walk around with Lightsabers! Which I just 'had' to borrow for a bit!
Star Tours/Jedi Training - Unfortunately Ethan wasn't tall enough for the virtual simulator ride of Star Tours so Mummy looked after him whilst me and Grandma went on and wow, seriously awesome stuff especially as its been upgraded for the Force Awakens. And whats even better is the footage mixes and changes each time you go on so its like a different ride each time! Even though Ethan wasn't able to go on the ride, outside of it is the Jedi training academy where they train young ones how to use Lightsabers, (Ethan wasn't tall enough to join in) but it was a big show we were able to watch and see Darth Vader, Darth Mail and Kylo Ren in an epic Lightsaber fight!
Toy Story Ride - There wasn't just Star Wars attractions, one of the best rides Ethan enjoyed was the Toy story Midway Mania ride as he got to hold a blaster and shoot things as you get to ride along with Buzz and Woody!
I hope you have enjoyed reading this post and hopefully this has given you an insight into just a couple of the things their is to do at Disney world as a Dad with your little ones. Next week we're going to be talking all things food at Disney World - so make sure you come back next week to see and hear about our favorite Disney restaurants!
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