I've had a great time reading others' trip reports here, but I've never written one so please bear with me.

We left Dallas early on a Tuesday morning in June: Me, DH, DD7 and DS5. EARLY - but we wanted to get there and maximize our first day! So after a quick stop in Birmingham (we flew Southwest, so we had to stop somewhere - such a silly rule!) we made it to MCO around 12:30 and walked right onto the DME bound for the Beach Club - my favorite home away from home!

Simultaneously, my mom and dad were leaving Chicago to meet us there. They arrived at the Beach Club about an hour after we did. We met up in the Stone Harbor Club on the BCR's 5th floor, and after a quick snack (those homemade chips are SO yummy!) we headed for the Yacht Club dock to catch the Friendship to DHS.

It's become somewhat of a tradition to go to DHS first. Weird, I know. But it's largely based on my obsession with the crowd calendars and trying to avoid the masses - especially in the summer. We knew we wouldn't get on TSMM that first day, but we got some of the other things out of the way: Beauty and the Beast, TofT, Muppets, and our ADR at 50s Prime Time. Our server Scott (who ended up being from the next town over from where we live!) was AWESOME. Chef Eddie came out to discuss with DS5 what he would like to eat (he's allergic to dairy, egg, and peanut, so we get to meet a lot of the Disney chefs when we go). DS didn't know what a "Sundae" was until we first took him to WDW back in January! We got our meals squared away and enjoyed the atmosphere.

Let me just say - I love at 50s PT. My meal came out not-so-good at first, but I politely told them that it was cold and they fixed it - MUCH better. At the end of the meal Scott-the-server brought out a sundae for my parents and had the entire dining room sing "Happy Anniversary" to them. I don't remember the last time I saw my mother look such a combination of joy and embarrassment. It was pretty awesome.

After dinner we did a few more things before retiring to our rooms on the 5th floor of the BCR. We'd been up early, so we wanted to get some rest before Day 2.