DisneyWorld Vacation Part 1

This post with pictures will be too long for one post only, so I am going to post in parts.
Monday January 24
We left for the airport at 6AM. Grandpa Hafen dropped us off. We checked our big 50 pound suitcase, and our vacation had officially begun! Our first stop was the Atlanta airport, then finally Orlando! We headed straight for our Disney’s Magical Express bus and a short 25 minutes later we were checking into our hotel Pop Century! I loved that they had an area for the kids to watch Disney Channel while we checked in. Our big suitcase was already in our room when we got there. Then we headed to dinner. It was like a food court with different options for everyone. Each lunch and dinner included a drink, entrée, and dessert. Our cards opened our room, and acted as our credit card that kept track of our meals used during our stay. We stayed in the 90’s building and there was a giant Rubik cube lit up outside our room. Christel and her family were there early and were nice enough to grab us a few breakfast things at Wal-Mart while they were doing their shopping. So we ate breakfast in our room each morning before we left for the park.
Tuesday, January 25
We all met at the bus station for Magic Kingdom at about 8 AM and rode over to the park together to be there when it opened. We took pictures in our matching shirts and headed straight for Tomorrowland when the park opened. The kids wanted to start with Space Mountain. The crowds weren’t big, so 20 minutes was our longest wait all day. The boys all got to participate in the Jack Sparrow pirate training and got a certificate for it. Another special treat was our character dinner at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian Hotel. As we were leaving the park that day it started to POUR and we all got drenched and soaked through, so we all looked like wet rats when we arrived for our reservation. We enjoyed a delicious buffet, and all the Cinderella characters were at our dinner signing autographs and posing for pictures. Rachel was chosen to do the waltz with Cinderella in the middle of the restaurant! Our meal included dessert so we ordered this humongous ice cream dessert with sponge cake, bananas, and strawberries. We were stuffed! It was really fun.