First Day - Mathemagical

Daily Posts

As we begin our adventures, different students will be giving daily updates on our activities. We, Hayden and Rahul, will be kicking off this with a report from our first day!

Departure

We met bright and early in the morning at 5:45 AM, and after packing our suitcases into the back of the vans left around 6 AM. After some much needed naps by most of the students, the professors kept us entertained as we traveled down 95. Our conversations ranged from high school sweethearts to guessing television shows from their theme songs. With a few pit stops, including lunch at Subway, we arrived in about 10 hours at our hotel. Once we checked in, we did some grocery shopping at a nearby Publix and ate a quick dinner in our rooms, eager to get to the park!

Magic Kingdom

We started with the oldest and most iconic park at Disney World, Magic Kingdom. In true Disney fashion, we made sure to get our first group photo in front of Cinderella's Castle.

We made it to several different rides before the park closed, visiting Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, and Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger. Along the way we even spotted our first Hidden Mickey. A Hidden Mickey, for those unfamiliar with the term, is a silhouette of Mickey Mouse's head hidden within a Disney attraction. One point of interest was comparing our experiences to each other, based on our history with Disney.

I, Hayden, have been to Disney three times before, so I already had a few favorite rides. One of my favorite attractions is Space Mountain; it's one of the first rides I want to do when I get to Disney. I was really excited when I learned we had FastPasses for Space Mountain on our first day! Even though I knew what to expect, by riding with a couple of students who had never been to Disney before I was reminded of the incomparable excitement that comes from your first time on the ride.

I, Rahul, had never been to Disney before, so I spent most of my time following around more experienced Disney visitors like Hayden. The only reason I rode on Space Mountain was because we had a FastPass for it and because Hayden was so excited about it she nearly walked my legs off getting there in time. However, when the lights went out and we were hurtling around at high speeds in the dark, I was having as much fun as any Disney pro!

We ended the night with the Wishes Firework Show. The show incorporated many of Disney's classic movies, but also included more recent ones such as Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph. While today's visit to the park was only for entertainment, learning starts tomorrow. We already feel like the trip if flying by and we wish that we could stay here all summer.