How Things Move | Three Mousekateers

The sun rose cool and clear on our first day of the Disney Youth Education Series Program. Day six in the parks with an 8:15 meeting time?

Good morning! Good morning! It's great to stay up late!

No problem.
We were even early enough to use the wash rooms and plop on the ground to invent our very own version of Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.



Do Dalmatians beat fairies? The world may never know.

We met our group leader who lead us in to the park and straight for a restroom break (just in case!) and then introduced our merry band of six kids and their adults to Main Street U.S.A as you've never seen her before...



Waving hello to the cast members as they ride down Main Street in the morning quiet.

Main Street, U.S.A. slowly wakes up as the cast members call merry greetings in a way that makes the whole "transported to 1900" even more real.

The kids searched high and low to fulfill their first mission: to count how many kinds of moving machines they could spot in our walk to the hub. Trolley cars, old time cars and the crane? All fair game. We followed our fearless counselor past the cast members who would be guarding the ropes near the Cheshire Café to keep eager park goers at bay until rope drop. We stowed our cameras as instructed as "the park may not be show ready this early" and headed over to a pre park opening ride of Winnie the Pooh. The kids each got handed a slinky or gear toy or piston to try out different forms of mechanical energy and did a brief show and tell on how the item they received worked. (One shy kid wanted the counselor to explain instead and she was more than happy to oblige.)
After that we scampered off to Dumbo the Flying Elephant just as the park opened.



Kylee and our counselor

Kylee was super happy to ride with our counselor and Chris, after being odd man out (and the only one old enough to ride single) enjoyed re-riding with me. She explained how hydraulics and air pressure helped Dumbo fly us to the sky. All of the kids (5-8 years old) managed to understand and were warming up to asking and answering her questions. This is a very age appropriate introduction to physics.



Chris made sure his included a FastPass+ queue. #FutureImagineer

After Dumbo we headed to the Storybook Circus tents to let the kids draft their own rides on paper in crayons and present to the group. (Again, one of the shy girls sat out, but it was no biggie!) After talking some more about the different types of energy, we headed for Goofy's Barnstormer (the only ride with a height restriction).
After a little walk to Tomorrowland and fun playing with magnets, we hopped on the Peoplemover for the last ride.

Our fearless leader!

We did not get FastPass onto any of the rides, but there weren't any lines to speak of either. At two and a half hours long, this fun, educational start left plenty of time left to explore Magic Kingdom!

(I also blogged about saving money on park tickets through the Disney Student Seminars, open to both homeschoolers and traditionally schooled students.)
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This is Part 16 of the world's longest ongoing Trip Report "The Three Mousekateers."
Additional sections will be found on the Trip Reports page after they are posted!