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Disney Recap – Day #4

Before I begin, let me start by saying that Henry was indeed on this trip with us.  He preferred to watch the characters from a safe distance rather than having his picture taken with them.  As a result, he’s not in as many pictures as Eliza.  Believe me, he was having a blast, so no need for concern over favoritism or anything like that.  Ha!
Now that we have that covered, let’s go have some fun!
Our second day at the Magic Kingdom consisted of a lot of character meets.  Some planned, some not.  
This little lady was ready to go!
We arrived bright and early and I was determined to be part of the Main Street Trolley Show!

I could toooootally do this for a living!

Our first character meet was with Tinker Bell.  Since we were inside the gates right when the park had opened, there was only a 5 minute wait.
Eliza was a tad hesitant.

After meeting up with Tink, we hustled back to Fantasyland for our first Fast Pass of the day, Winnie the Pooh!
Then it was off to Tomorrowland Speedway (one of Henry’s favorites).
Ummm…I have some concerns about his driver…

We met Buzz Lightyear!  Well, I did anyway.  
Eliza wasn’t thrilled, I mean, he wasn’t a Princess, so I get it…
 After Buzz told us about his space adventures, we thanked him kindly and then headed over to The People Mover.
The kids looooved this!  
It wasn’t exactly a thrill-seeking type of ride, but it’ll do if you want to sit and take a ride for 10 minutes.

Ariel was up next.  
You guys, I cried after these moments…real tears, people.
Real.Tears.

Our itinerary included the 3:00, Festival of Fantasy Parade.

I had never watched a Magic Kingdom parade before, so I didn’t know what to expect.  We found a spot, but we weren’t sure about if we were in the right place or not.  Upon asking, some Disney “cast members” told us that we were in a great spot and to not move.  The parade wasn’t for another 30+ minutes, so Jon walked the kids around and he bought popsicles while we waited.

It quickly started to get crowded.

Imagine if you will a human attempting to spread out their arms and legs (in the least obvious, yet totally obvious way) in order to keep from someone else getting in front of the coveted parade view.

That was me.

Believe me, people will step right in front of you, so you gotta hold strong.  I’m not kidding.

Oh and the kids also decided to have an impromptu dance party, so that helped!

A Disney photographer secretly took these pictures of the kids…
I love that they were “in the moment.”

The parade began and we were pumped!  
One of the characters from the front of the parade came up and talked to Henry and Eliza, too!  
How cool!

Here we go…

Totally
Worth
It!
I caught myself, multiple times, waving to the characters as if I were a kid.  I wonder if I was the only adult doing that?  Hmm…I’ll never know.
The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride was next.  
We had to see what all the hype was about.  Oh and Fast Pass is the way to go with this puppy.
  
The wait time was aaaaaalways an hour and a half long.  I tried Fast Passing it forever, then while at the park, that day, a spot opened up and I jumped on it!  We were super lucky and I must say that it was one of the best rides at Magic Kingdom, especially since both, Henry and Eliza, could ride it!  
Score!

Next up were a couple of photo opps with this hunk!  
Who else thinks Gaston is THE best Disney villian?!

After meeting Gaston, we were off to dinner with his nemesis, the Beast.  

He was kind and gentle….and he had really big claws.

Dinner was amazing.  
If you’re at all interested in eating inside the Beast’s/Belle’s castle, be sure to make reservations far in advance.  You can eat IN the castle, in one of three rooms, one being the ballroom which is a replica of the one in the movie.  
If you know me (ahem – Mom, Dad, and my sister, Kim), then you know that I was beyond….beeeeeeyoooooond excited to be in that room.

We thought after dinner we would start to head out of the park, that was until we spotted Sleeping Beauty.  
We decided to get in line and say, “Hello.”
This was by far the cutest meet and greet.
I told Eliza to show Sleeping Beauty her shoes (because the Sleeping Beauty character was on her shoes).  
When Eliza showed off her shoes, her shoes lit up.  
Sleeping Beauty then asked, “Oh…do you have fairies in your shoes?”
Cutest.Moment.Ever.
Ever.
She was an aaaaahhhhhmazing character and she gave Eliza a lot of time, love, and cuddles.

Eliza was in the middle of talking to her when she suddenly gave this lip.  The photographer caught it and we all jumped for joy that the moment was captured.

For some reason, after that meet and greet, we mustered enough courage to stay in the park for the 9:00 Electric Parade.
We had about two hours to burn.
We checked the wait times for Ariel’s ride, Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid.  It wasn’t a long wait, so we jumped on the train on Main Street and hightailed it all the way to back to Fantasyland…again.  Whew!
It was our second time riding it and it was just as fun as the first time.
It was so cool being in the back of the park at night.

We rode The People Mover again and the view of the park was outstanding.  
Once we exited the ride, we started back to Main Street to find a spot to watch the Electric Parade.
We had returned the stroller by this point, so we were holding the kids, for what seemed to be hours, when in reality the parade was only about 20 minutes long.  My arms and back were hurting from holding a 4-year-old boy for 20 minutes, but man, it was worth it and.it.rocked!
Our little ones were beyond tired.  Eliza fell asleep in my arms as we walked to the Monorail.  The girl never passes out like that, so I tried to soak up all the snuggles.
After we returned to our hotel, we decided, “Hey, let’s be wild and watch the fireworks!”  We tried to keep the kids awake, they watched for a few minutes, then they were out.
Jon and I patted each other on the back for spending 13 hours in the park!
It was the longest, yet shortest day in the history of days, but it was one of the best days in the history of days.  
These two made it all worth it!
Thanks for stopping by my little blog!
This Disney train isn’t over yet, I have a few more posts up my sleeve, then I’ll call it quits, I promise…maybe…  😉
Marie 🙂

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8 Comments

  1. NOOOO THEEEEY DOOOO NOOOOT have a replica of the ballroom from Beauty and the Beast! OMG that's my Disney movie of all time!! Now I want to go to Disney World just for this!!

    It looks like you guys had another amazing day and it looks like the kiddos held up really well! That's crazy! That's the main reason why we're waiting a little longer to go because Olivia still HAS to have her afternoon nap or she's completely crazy for the rest of the day. Haha.

    I can't wait to see more!!

  2. Reading your Disney recaps make me want to go back again so badly! How old is Eliza? I love that she was so into meeting the characters! We opted to skip any characters at MK (we only went one day and wanted to squeeze in all the rides) but we did a character breakfast and lunch. Mila was terrified. Hopefully next time she will be more into them! The People Mover looked so boring to me, but we had so much fun on it and it was definitely one of the favorites of the day. You got so many great photos – love them all!

  3. Looking at all your pictures is making me want to go back NOW!!! I seriously also teared up at some of the meet and greets, definitely the Ariel and Tinkerbell ones because they were so cute with the kids! And you better believe I was also waving and freaking out during the parades (or really any time we were anywhere in Disney, ha) I think my hubby was trying to act like he didn't know me.

    I'm so jealous you met Gaston! We didn't but I wanted to! And you ate in the Beasts castle!?!?! Amaaaaaaaazing!! That's definitely on our next trip!!

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