Disneyworld, 2009--Day One

Saturday, April 11th--We flew into Orlando the day before. Nate and I had got a pretty nice offer, via email, from "Disney Destination". Basically, the kids hotel, park entrance and food was free with 2 paying adults. It ended up being a fantastic deal and we got a killer deal on airfare too. Part of the package is that we had to choose from one of the Disney "value" (cheap) hotel resorts. We chose "Pop Century Resort". Pretty neat place full of giant-sized figures from different decades all over the place. The rooms were basic but the resort more than made up for it with pools, food court and an over-all great atmosphere.
Day 1 we woke up pretty early and got ready to go. Our first day plans were to be in Magic Kingdom. We opened the door to our room and found the resort was covered in thick, muggy fog (not good for my hair!). The hotel provided buses to whichever of the 4 parks we wanted to go so we caught the one to Magic Kingdom. Once we got there we noticed the park was foggy as well. Fortunately, it cleared up a few hours later.
Once we walked through Main Street we veered to the left side of the park and that's where we stayed all day. The left side consists of: Adventure Land, Liberty Square, Frontier Land and Fantasy Land (more in the center). The crowds were big, as expected, so we got Fast Passes as often as we could. There were a HUGE amount of British tourists. I asked one of the cashiers, from London, why so many and she said it was because England takes a 2 week "holiday" off around Easter time and many come to Disneyworld. Lots of Europeans and Middle Eastern tourists as well. As weird as it is to say, we kind of felt like the foreigners but didn't mind at all. I loved talking and chatting--I even met a lady from Camaroon, Africa!
The rides in each of the "lands" were similar to Disneyland, as was Main Street. Nate was thrilled that Elise and Brady were willing to go on any ride he wanted to go on. And while they rode on the rides I can't stomach, I gladly hit the shops!
One of the highlights of the day was when we were on the "Jungle Cruise". The "tour guide" let Elise drive the boat through a dark tunnel. She thought it was so cool and even got a card/certificate because of it. Elise had a smile from ear to ear after that!
This day was really hot! That would continue to be the trend for the rest of the trip, minus one of the days when it rained. We managed to keep as cool as possible by going on indoor rides and finding shade, which was plentiful.