MAGIC KINGDOM- DAY 1
Monday was Magic Kingdom day! But someone needed to tell my foot that. I prayed SO hard that night that I would wake up and be able to walk. I'm not a big taker of medicine, yet on this trip between the cold I was vehemently fighting at the start and my fallen arch/stone bruise, I had taken Zicam, Mucinex, Allegra, Benadryl and now Aleve in the hopes of enjoying and functioning at 100%. I had successfully knocked out my cold, but my foot. Ouch. So we headed off to MK and I was mentally prepared to ride in one of those scooter things all day. I wasn't about to miss this with these guys...
Trace, in all his complaining of princesses, was actually the one to point out and direct us to the hidden Tinkerbell. He was really sweet and secretly didn't want his sister to miss her.
There are like 8 stops along Main Street where photographers are set up for pictures in front of the castle. I think we stopped at 5. My kids were thrilled. Lol! As I've rummaged through the Photo Pass website picking my favorites to buy, looks like I'll just be better off buying the big Memory Maker package and get all the 200 pictures that were taken throughout the week. Pictures are my thing. I didn't buy one souvenir for myself while we were there. I would MUCH rather have pictures than a sweatshirt or Minnie ears. (See how I can justify anything ;)
Beauty and the Beast Show: This said a 30 minute wait, that turned into about a 50 minute wait and we were questioning whether it was worth it. That is until Trace got picked to play the "Beast" and the professional snapped dozens of pictures of him with Belle. He doesn't want to admit it, but one day it will be bragging rights that he danced with a princess! TOTALLY worth the wait!
Pirates of the Carribean: I somehow didn't get any pictures in this ride. Probably because from start to finish I was trying to convince Keatyn that none of those terrifying looking guys were real and holding her ears from the cannons being fired. She's not a fan of dark, scary or lightning. Trace, however, loved it!
We stopped for lunch at Peco Bill's and happened to walk out onto the patio about the time the parade started. We had to look through the arbors to see the floats but wow, was that impressive!
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad: This and Splash Mountain were our family favorites. Luckily, they were side by side. While Keatyn doesn't like dark and scary, fast and loopy were not a problem. We all loved it! And Jimmy became quite the master of the action shot selfies.
My reactions. I look like such a goober. And of course, I've been ordered by Sassy to hold her ears closed.
We knew that Lu and her family were somewhere in the park. As we were coming off Splash Mountain, I got a text from her and they were in line right beside us to meet Woody and Jessie. Keatyn jumped right in line with them and then we got to visit for a bit before everyone had to get to their fast passes. I wish we could have ridden some with them, but the park was packed that day and everyone was on a fast pass schedule. Turns out, the Florida schools were on a holiday that Monday so MK was as crowded as ever. :(
Incredibles Dance Party: We just happened upon this on our way to Buzz Lightyear. It was adorable and the kids danced their little hearts out.
Buzz Lightyear: This was the first ride we rode back in 2012. A reluctant and easily motion sickened Nana got on it with Trace and was green for the rest of the day. Poor thing. No one had ridden it and knew what to expect, but when a 5 year old is left to control the spaceship, you can anticipate lots of spinning. Everytime I said, "Buzz Lightyear," both of my kids would say, "The ride Nana got sick on?" Luckily, everyone escaped that this time!
Tomorrowland Speedway: Trace was beyond pumped to get to drive his own car this time. He made the 54' cut off and away we went! Of course, not quite fast enough for my boy.
Tea Cups: Mama can't do those. I can't even watch those. Dad took one for the team.
Space Mountain: So last time, Lucia talked me into doing this one with her and Jimmy and Mike kindly offered to keep the kids. I quickly learned why. It was completely dark and I felt like I was going to hit my head the entire time. Knowing Trace was tall enough to ride this time, there had been a lot of discussion about Space Mountain. Jimmy was all for it. After seeing how much he loved Rock n Roller Coaster, I knew he'd love it too. Keatyn and I happily rode Astro Orbiter alone while the boys tackled Space Mountain. As predicted, he was a fan.
We had gotten to the park around 11, after stopping for Aleve and gel inserts for my ailing foot. See, I'm old. My prayers were answered and by that night, my foot was still going strong. We decided since the park closed at 7 the next day, we needed to stay and see the Castle lighting character show and fireworks that night and I'm SO glad we did. Wow! Disney does it right. It was absolutely beautiful!
These 3 wanted ice cream after the fireworks so we stayed and let the park clear out afterwards. Oh boy, little did we know we were in for a 1.5 trek home when ALL of the crowd leaves at the same time. It was ssslllloooowwww going and by that point my foot was killing me. We pulled back into the condo at 12:08 a.m. after taking the ferry back to our car. It was a long but wonderful first day at MK! He all slept hard.
MAGIC KINGDOM- DAY 2
We took the monorail in the first day, so we decided to do the ferry in the daylight. It's amazing how fast we got in compared to how long it took to get out the night before.
Love these 3 so much!
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: We hightailed it to Fantasyland to try and hit the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train that had had no less than an hour wait time yesterday. When we got there and it said 30 minutes we jumped right in and were thrilled. There is so much strategy to this place it's amazing. I looked at my phone and the My Disney Experience App no less than a thousand times over the course of this trip, trying to plot our next move and checking wait times and Fast Passes.
This boy has my heart. Big time.
Again, I LOVED the action shots. Good job honey! He nearly lost his phone over the rail on this one. Oops!
Haunted Mansion: While the girls tackled the hour wait to meet Anna and Elsa, the boys hit the Haunted Mansion and It's a Small World. We met up with them after and rode It's a Small World again because you can't leave Disney without doing that one. It's a staple.
Princess Fairytale Hall
Cinderella's glass slipper
The Photo Pass photographers got MUCH better shots than I did. This was well worth the wait. My girl was mesmerized!
It's a Small World
The forecast wasn't great for that day. And eventually we came out of a ride to rain. We ran into a gift shop and grabbed some ponchos and kept on trucking. The park was SO much less crowded that day and we had big plans that a little rain wasn't about to stop.
Jungle Cruise: This was Granddaddy's favorite last time. It's a sweet little boat ride where animals "pop" up here and there. My kids were disappointed that they weren't real. I, for one, was a little relieved. ha! It made me regret a little we were missing Animal Kingdom, but I had already cashed in our 5th day pass and although I had held out hope for a 1/2 at Animal Kingdom in the beginning, I knew Jimmy was right. 4 days was enough. (That is so hard to admit ;)
I was very thankful for a sit down ride. My foot was really throbbing by this point and a second round of Aleve was a must. There is nothing relaxing about Disney. We must have walked 10 miles over those 4 days.
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad: With the rain and the early closing for the Halloween party that night, we were looking at far less crowds. It was wonderful! We hit the Big Thunder Mtn. Railroad one more time and I texted Lu this screenshot of the wait times. That's pretty unheard of!
Splash Mountain: Our final ride of the trip, and hands down Keatyn's favorite. It was to the theme of "Song of the South" which I know I saw as a child and am going to have to find to watch again with the kids. We had a fast pass for it, and got to ride it back to back since the lines were so short. They got to sit in the front row, which means they were soaked, and loved it! Dad and I kept our ponchos on and ducked to avoid the soaking. Smart, and old.
The second go around, Trace convinced me to sit in the front with him. Love this kid!!
Sad faces. We knew our trip was over. Jimmy even joined in, although he was secretly smiling inside. He was a trooper and the best Disney daddy there was. He did it all, mostly without complaining. Lol!
Before the trip, I bought both kids a $25 Disney gift card to use on whatever they wanted. I will have to say, they were wonderful about not asking for every little souvenir they saw. There are a million things and a million dollars you can spend in those parks and we saw plenty of meltdowns from other kids when they were told no. Mine didn't really ask except for the occasional popsicle and we saved our gift cards till the end and bought there stuff as we were leaving. I had already warned them we weren't hauling their loot around all day. Trace had designed and made a lightsaber at Hollywood Studios after the Star Tours ride (which came in very handy when changing the flat tire in the dark), but had a little money left so we went back to Pirates of the Caribbean and he got 2 pirate swords and an eye patch. Keatyn went back to Main Street and bought a Frozen necklace, Disney bracelet, and Ariel clip on earrings. Other than that, we pretty much avoided all the hundreds of vendors and kiosks set up everywhere! That's a win!
We got out of the park and decided to have one last fun dinner before heading home the next morning. We found a Joe's Crab Shack next to the condo. After enduring Disney for 4 days, Daddy deserved some crab legs!
Keatyn and all her jewels...
The waiter made us all cute bibs to wear, which of course I had to have pictures of...
And Keatyn got her first steampot of crab legs all to herself. She, like her daddy, loves crab legs and Jimmy always ends up sharing his. They had a kids crab leg steampot and she ate every bite. Of course, guess who had to crack everyone for her? Trace ate his tried and true cheeseburger and I had a huge shrimp platter. We were all happy, tired folks!
The next morning, we headed out of Silver Lake Resort on our way home. There was much debate about staying on or off property when you do Disney. We have now done both. While there are perks to being on property, we really enjoyed the room of a 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo and having our own car. We paid $400 for an entire week in that condo, which was AMAZING and would totally do that again. It was cheaper than staying on property. Parking each day was $20 in the park, but getting back and forth was so quick and easy. The day Trace was sick and we had the flat tire fiasco would have been pretty miserable in a singe hotel room. With the condo, we had plenty of room to spread out and that made for a lot more family harmony. :)
The next morning, we packed up and headed home. But not before stopping and buying half of Florida's citrus before we left. Good grief, go big or go home I guess.
We had a few hiccups but couldn't have asked for a better trip! I am so glad we did it at the age our kids are now. I'm working on a "princess collage " for Keatyn's room with a picture of all the characters we met. I hope to go back someday with all the family!! Until then Disney...
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