Dancing with the Beast (but still loving Baymax) TR 5/31-6/7/15 COMPLETE!!!(UPDATED 7/20)

[sjb95u]

WELCOME ABOARD PRINCESS AND BAYMAX LOVERS ALIKE!

As with many others, I gathered such good information here on the DIS I feel duty-bound to at least report on my trip and give glimpses into positives and negatives.

I'm having such a hard time remembering and focusing on all the wonderful aspects of my trip, it's very easy to get carried away with the "should haves".

(EDIT: The more I write this trip report the more I focus on all the fantastic experiences we had and my "should have" list is becoming more of a memory...)

Our trip consisted of me, my DH and DD (5), my brother, SIL and their DD (5), and my parents. 8 in total. My mother really wanted to take her two grandchildren while the magic was still very real! We booked this first week of June trip back in September and I immediately already felt behind in the planning. However, the planning is at least half the fun for me so the longer I get to do it, the better!


*The grandparents (PapaRich and Gran) with their two 5-year-old granddaughters

PLAN: my extended family arrives in Dallas on Saturday, May 30th and attends my DD's dance recital.
Day 1: Fly out of DFW direct to MCO and try to hit the FOF parade.

Arrival day (Sunday, May 31st): no trouble at either airport, getting around MCO wasn't too difficult after we stopped someone to ask how to get to the tram.
Quickly onto DME, we sat there about 15 minutes before taking off. Our flight landed 12:21pm.
The bus ride to the Contemporary was longer than I'd like, but whose isn't? One of my only issues with staying at CR is that we were always the last to drop off or pick up.

We arrived at CR around 1:40pm. Quickly headed to bell services to get the strollers and ECV we rented (my SIL is 7 months pregnant). Wow, WHAT IS THAT SMELL IN THE LOBBY? I love it!

Received 2 texts while aboard DME that 2 of our 3 rooms was ready but we needed to check in with the front desk about the 3rd room. What? We didn't have time for that upon arrival because we were trying to catch the FOF parade (with FP+) and we only had a few park hours due to the early closing (6pm) that evening.

Upon checking in later, something happened that "unlinked" our bands from one of the rooms and they needed to just link the bands back up.

So I used Touring Plans' fax request service, requesting a specific room on the 11th floor and then requested all 3 rooms be adjoining, connecting or at least close to each other.
Our rooms were on the 8th floor but with an almost identical view as the request. So there's that.
*Note: although only on the 8th floor, we never heard noise from the monorail or Chef Mickey's (we were only other end from CM) but the Electrical Water Pageant on the Seven Seas Lagoon was loud enough to wake the dead. I mean it was LOUD. For that alone I would try staying theme park view or at least the top floor to get away from it.

So we've arrived, gotten our carry-ons checked in with the valet, picked up scooters and ECV then hoof it over to the MK! (monorail would take too long at that point since it goes all the way around before it gets to MK). Wow, we were excited!
Our first PP photographer we met up with was right outside the train station, all 8 family members were wearing coordinating colors so we wanted pictures and we had Memory Maker! Too bad, the PP photographer said her camera wasn't working but did take some pics with my camera. Not the best first impression but we never encountered this problem again.



The FOF was still about 30 minutes away, we had our FP+ for the parade so staked out our spot and BAKED. It was hot, no clouds. Wow. I was so glad my Dad pulled out a couple of small umbrellas from his backpack while we waited.

Parade was beautiful and it was all hunky-dorey until mid-way Captain Hook went by and I had forgotten that my DD was terrified of him on our Disney Cruise in late 2013. She was hot and tired and this sent her over the edge, she was screaming and begged to have her stroller turned the other way. She watched the rest of the parade coming up Main Street without issue. Poor Mickey and Minnie, their hot air balloon float deflated before they got to us and it just looked so pitiful.



After the parade we made our way down Main Street and stopped for a family shot with the castle background (after all, we'd all worn coordinating colors!). Unfortunately, we should have taken the girls out of their strollers and I should have remembered to give DD her sunglasses because we ended up with this lovely photo:



We wandered our way back to Fantasyland where we got on our first ride, IASW. Now, my DD instantly fell in love with "the doll ride".


Next was our FP+ for PPF and it was a lot of fun but I cannot see waiting 75+minutes for it. FP+ all the way! We didn't have a 3rd FP as it was prior to the parade and couldn't reschedule it as the park was closing early that night. The girls both love a carousel so we of course rode the best one of all!



Then a quick picture with Cinderella's carriage.



At that point, it was hot, we were tired and had no FP+, so we meandered back up to the front of the park and walked leisurely back to our new home, the CR.

For dinner we started off the week with an ADR for Chef Mickey's.



I was very apprehensive about this due to all the negative reports here on DIS but we were all pleasantly surprised with the atmosphere and food. I mean, I purposely stopped halfway through the meal to listen for the noise and realized it wasn't very loud at all. All the food stations were clean and the food was fresh and hot.





The macarons and dessert bar were fantastic! Our server was attentive and helpful.

 

[sjb95u]

More on CHEF MICKEY'S:

I mean, how excited can 2 little girls be to see Mickey???


My little family---



Then upstairs we went to find our rooms, unpack and get some sleep. But WAIT! Tinkerbell has already come into our rooms and left Minnie Mouse plush dolls!



Room 4415 for reference.

I used a white noise app on my tablet but it couldn't even start to compete with the music from that water pageant after 10pm. Luckily my DD was exhausted and it didn't wake her up that night but it did wake DH. However, resting is for the weak and we've got our first full park day coming up!

 

[leshunlenese]

following along. My son turned 5 on his last trip! Girls are so cute and those matching minnie outfits!

 

[azarine]

Looking forward to the rest! We were there at the same time and also loved Baymax the best

 

[sjb95u]

So after a late night of unpacking...and realizing I’d gotten to Orlando without my nerve pain medication (bulging disc)...I was really hyped up and unable to sleep well. So I was up for the day at 4:30am and just really wished someone else would wake up already!


I finally headed downstairs at 6am to grab some coffee and get some yogurt for my little girl. There was no one taking orders or checking out at Contempo Cafe yet so I had to ask someone behind the bakery counter to help me out. This CM, Ryan, was definitely put out to do so. I saw him later in the trip and he was quite cheerful so I’m unsure why this early morning encounter was so unpleasant. Now it’s after 6am and I know my parents are up so I went down to their room to sit on the balcony and watch the sunrise…




6:45am and finally I see my little girl stirring! We get dressed and impatiently wait for the whole group to get ready to leave. We waited on the bus ~15 minutes then were off to Animal Kingdom. After stopping at 2 other resorts we finally got there around 8:40am and waited with everyone else for rope drop and got some cute pics.







We headed off to the left, spying our first character--Daisy Duck! The girls were really excited to see her and they had fun interacting with Miss Daisy.



We traveled on to Kusafiri Bakery and grabbed pastries and drinks for a quick breakfast. Our first FP+ was for The Lion King. We probably didn’t really need the FP+ but it alleviated any stress over getting in for the early show.





After the Lion King we used our FP+ for Kilimanjaro Safari. After getting all the way to the vehicle we saw the posted sign indicating expectant mother should not ride so my SIL and Mother sat it out while the rest of us rode. Even mid-morning all the big cats were asleep and not visible, my DD is obsessed with cheetahs so she was pretty disappointed. Honestly we saw very few animals on the safari.

 

[sjb95u]

Following the safari we made our way back to Tusker House for our lunch ADR. I thought we got a photopass picture with Donald going in to the restaurant but apparently this isn’t the case for lunch. However, regarding Tusker House for lunch---- the food was fantastic, just the right mix of familiar and exotic. The curries, oh the curries! I would go back just to get those curries again! Two 5-year-olds found enough to eat and the rest of us were very happy with the food.

Note: Tusker House is LOUD. It was significantly louder than Chef Mickey’s.



The dancing with characters was a hoot and several of them came to our table more than once.






After lunch we braved Kali River Rapids and got completely, totally drenched...dripping wet. I really had hoped there were PP photos on this ride but alas, this was not the case. I unfortunately have no photos as I didn’t dare take my camera. The girls had a blast and it was a great use of FP+.

Following KRR we split into two groups, I did not want to take my DD (5) on Dinosaur but my BIL felt my niece (5) would enjoy it---and she did. I took DD to Flights of Wonder. It’s a cute show but I was underwhelmed (probably because I’ve worked with parrots and raptors for years but if these animals are novel to you I think you’ll enjoy it).



After the bird show we met our first princess of the trip, Pocahontas. She has been moved over to the boat dock. Pocahontas was absolutely stunning in person and very kind. She talked to my DD about the necklace her mother had given her. DD got a little fresh for the photos but they’re still very sweet.








Lastly we moved along to Finding Nemo, it was very cute but I was cold in my soaking clothes!

A last ride on the TriceraTop Spin satisfied the girls (the guys rode Expedition Everest in the single rider line in NO TIME flat) and a rain shower was moving in so we made our way out of the park around 4:30pm.






I had thought we would be done earlier and planned for a mid-afternoon break but trying to fit the shows in really extends the time you’ll be in the park. Overall impression, I didn’t see a lot of animals in ANIMAL KINGDOM but with older children you could do the trails, etc, to see more animals I guess.


We had dinner at the Contempo Cafe that evening, it was fine. I had a cute Frozen cupcake--




And then after we all got settled in again for the night...there was that blaring music from the Electric Water Pageant. I’m just sayin’

 

[ArwenMarie]

Cute pictures!

Yeah, that music from the EWP gets annoying after a while. I remember it always waking kids up, gah!

 

[sjb95u]

It’s a princess day, a magical day, a pixie dust day, a sparkling and shimmering day today!(It’s Magic Kingdom day 2)-Smirk~


And my daughter just wants to know when she can meet Baymax and Hiro…


But onwards and upwards!An early day today, the ladies (me, my DM, SIL, DD, and DNiece) are off for early entry to MK for breakfast at Be Our Guest. We had an 8am ADR, park opened at 9am. We were shuffled off to the left for early entry around 7:50am and we were in! Of course you cannot get completely empty park photos because alas, they let in other people too! There weren’t too many people in the photos. First stop, sit the girls on the bench next to Minnie and Roy Disney in Town Square for a photo op with the castle (and construction wall on Main Street) in the background. For some reason my DD freaked out about that statue and wouldn’t cooperate for photos at this spot and I just saw my dream and all of that hard planning to get these magical shots going down the drain.





I let the other 3 go on ahead and we lagged behind, she did perk up on Main Street for some sweet photos (there was no spooky statue there) and then a few more just in front of the castle. Although it wasn’t too hot yet, it was humid enough for us all to have sweat running down our backs before we even made it to BOG.



Photopass photographers did a nice job with these:



Love the green walls and missing partners statue...








*NOTE* ---Get those DSLRs out of their bags and lenses off at least 10 minutes prior to needing them as they’ll fog up for several minutes when you first take them out of their bags.


After spending more time than planned getting our pictures on Main Street and with the castle, it was more like 8:10am when we got to BOG but there was nothing said about it. We had to wait in line to order maybe 5-8 minutes which gave us just long enough to watch the magical suits of armour. Fun!



We sat in the ballroom, it was gorgeous.

 

[sjb95u]

There were 5 of us at the table, we received 2 plates of pastries and they were all tasty. I really appreciated the self-serve refills and missed this option at dinner.

For breakfast I had the Croque Madame, it was very, very good. I would love to have this again! We never felt rushed and were done about 8:50am. With a BBB appointment at 9am we did not have an opportunity to use the early entry to our advantage but I can see how this would be very helpful.





Love this shot of the girls checking out Cinderella's Fountain on the way to BBB


9am--- we were at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. My DD needed to use the restroom when we checked in, only to find out they don’t have one there! Really? Little girls sitting there for that length of time and no restroom? So we made a mad dash back over to the restroom near Pinocchio’s Village Haus then back to BBB.

This may be my favorite picture of DD for the entire week...


My mother was treating the girls to not only this trip but to all the special extras little girls could ever want. We had initially intended to bring our own dresses but Gran wanted the girls to enjoy picking out their dresses and accessories in the castle itself so we went with it and really had fun watching them go through their options. My DD initially wanted Merida but that dress is long-sleeved and a velvet bodice so I talked her out of it. Second choice, Anna’s coronation dress.



We also managed to talk the girls out of the princess bun hairstyle as we knew it would be so uncomfortable within an hour or two. So they chose the Disney Diva hairstyle. When it came time to pick the hairpiece I was a little slow to realize what was happening and she had chosen the red (because it’s like Anna’s, Mommy) which I think looked a little silly on her but she was happy so ultimately, no big deal…


Gran watching the girls get transformed


I mean, look how much joy is on her face!




Cousins, such sweet friends!


The entire makeover took about an hour, my tender-headed little girl did NOT cry during the hairstyling. I had brought her own brush as recommended but the fairy godmother-in-training never asked for it. By the way, both FGIT were wonderful and we didn’t figure out you could only tip in cash until after we had paid for the experience. So bring cash if you’d like to tip.


This was a fun experience for making video and pictures and photopass did a nice job here as well. They’ll give you a card that you need to keep up with to enter a code and add your pictures to your Memory Maker.


The girls get to select their (dress/character if you wish), hair style, hair piece color (if indicated), eye shadow color, and jewel for their face. As previously mentioned elsewhere, the girls get to keep all the makeup, nail polish, extra face jewels and comb in a keepsake bag/backpack. Although I wasn’t the one paying for this experience, I would certainly do so just so my DD could spend time at the BBB---so worth it!

 

[sjb95u]

The moment of "pixie dusting"



The big reveal!


Checking herself out







After the girls’ transformation into princesses at BBB we went over to Castle Couture for their photo shoot. They didn’t manage to get many genuine smiles out of my girl here but there are a couple of cute shots.




Immediately following the photos at Castle Couture we lined up behind the castle for what we hoped would be a meet-and-greet with the real Fairy Godmother herself! (This was about 10:20AM). Instead, we got Cinderella’s stepsisters and stepmother. As much as I’ve heard about them being so fun at 1900 Park Fare I was really glad they showed up. I’d have loved to have seen the FG, too.


While waiting in line the little girls had given their princess wands to Gran to hold. When it came our time to see the stepsisters/stepmother, the Stepmother walked over to my mother and declared, “If we’re going to make this much to have these, they will hold them!” And yanked the wands from my mother’s hands and gave them to the girls. It was hilarious! I had to remind my mother that the Stepmother was “in character”.


Drisella asked my DD what she wanted to be when she grew up, DD immediately answered, “A princess!” but then changed it to “a doctor!”. So Drisella said, “You want to be a doctor for princesses?” To which I replied, “Then she’ll clearly never be your doctor!” I wish I had a picture of her reaction, she was shocked and horrified and disgusted all at once--- we were in stitches!

 

[pollyanna30]

I am really enjoying your trip report so far. We were there very similar dates as you (May 29-June 6) and so far were in the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom at the same times! We watched FoF from Frontierland on Sunday the 31st near the beginning of the route and the balloon was already deflating, but not quite as bad as it was by the time it got to you. Did you get to see the dragon breathing fire? We caught part of the parade again on a later day while heading into the park and the dragon was working, the bears were moving on the Merida float, and the balloon was inflated. It was a great parade, but we did miss some of the special effects that day!

 

[sjb95u]

Our first FP+ of the day was next, the M&G with Cinderella and Rapunzel. We really just needed to meet Rapunzel as we were seeing Cinderella later but can you see the princesses too much? We waited in this M&G line at least 10-15 minutes, even with FP+. The girls where whoosed through quickly, no time to visit with the princesses! I asked to take a selfie with Rapunzel for a co-worker and could tell this wasn’t very convenient although they let me. The lighting in Princess Fairytale Hall is very dark and photos don’t turn out great but they’ll do fine.




FP+ #2, rush over to Enchanted Tales with Belle. This was such a fun experience! I encouraged both girls to volunteer for roles in the story, my DD really wanted to be the beast but a little boy was picked (as it should be). So my DD was Maurice in the dungeon and my niece was Chip. They were both awestruck being in the show and interacting with Belle.






We had an 11:50am ADR for lunch at Cinderella’s Royal Table. After the longer than expected wait at Princess Fairytale Hall and then ETWB we were running about 10 minutes behind. I sprinted over to check in for CRT but was behind a party of 17 so it took them a little bit to get to me and they never knew I had been running late anyway!


Getting pictures with Cinderella in THE CASTLE was another magical moment. What a day we were having! On up the winding staircase to CRT for our lunch, pausing to take “I’m a princess” shots along the way.

Lunch was so much fun, I had the pork tenderloin and it was tender and very good. The mashed potatoes served to the little girls, though, were heavenly (mostly butter and cream with some potatoes mixed in I believe) so we polished those off. We had nice interactions with the princesses here: Snow White (a little rushed; also when I asked her if she could whistle for us she replied she only whistles when she’s working and she clearly was NOT working), Aurora (we reminded her we’d see her at tea the next day and she asked us to dress up and not be late!), Jasmine, Ariel (always fun, she made fish faces with my DD)










Still to come...lunch at CRT with princesses and some extra treats from Gran!

 

[sjb95u]

I am really enjoying your trip report so far. We were there very similar dates as you (May 29-June 6) and so far were in the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom at the same times! We watched FoF from Frontierland on Sunday the 31st near the beginning of the route and the balloon was already deflating, but not quite as bad as it was by the time it got to you. Did you get to see the dragon breathing fire? We caught part of the parade again on a later day while heading into the park and the dragon was working, the bears were moving on the Merida float, and the balloon was inflated. It was a great parade, but we did miss some of the special effects that day!
View attachment 105526

We did NOT see the dragon breathing fire and I don't remember about the bears on Merida's float! It was so hot and my DD was fussy about Captain Hook so I have less than distinct memories from FOF. It was beautiful though and not to be missed!

 

[sjb95u]

So CRT at lunch...



Spending time with the lovely princesses...



And those fish faces with Ariel...



Strike a pose with Jasmine!



And now here come the surprises that Gran had arranged. The girls had princess balloons at their chairs when we arrived then after the meal our server brought out beautiful plates carrying rose petals and glass slippers.



These are beautiful and such a wonderful keepsake!



And then for the final surprise at CRT, a custom princess cake for our princesses. And this cake was sooooo very good. We took the rest back to the resort but were so stuffed all week that we never finished it. Oh how I wish I had a piece right now...





After lunch we met up with the guys (DH, brother, Grandad) for a few minutes so they could see the girls all dressed up in their finery. Eden posed with her Daddy by CRT, he was so lucky he got to hold her balloon!



By now it’s about 1:30pm so we headed over to Under the Sea-Journey of the Little Mermaid for our last FP+ of the day. This was a cute ride and the girls enjoyed it. We’d have liked to have seen Ariel with her tail but the wait was ~45 minutes so we passed.

Let’s go ride Dumbo, that a great idea! (45 minute wait….so never mind today).

But Barnstormer is only 25 minutes so we hop in the line. Wait, no expectant mothers on this one either. That’s fine, I’ll ride alone with the girls and Gran can keep SIL company. Oh, you have to have 1 adult per child under 7? Well Gran, you get to come along! (She’s not a huge fan of roller coasters). Barnstormer was cute and fun for the 5-year-olds.

 

[sjb95u]

We had to go back to Castle Couture to pick up the pictures and while we waited my DD and niece had a great time playing make-believe with another little princess, it was a magic moment!




Then we caught the girls staring at the castle, how sweet is this?




We jumped into Mickey's Philharmagic and were really surprised by how much we enjoyed it! By this time it was about 3:30pm and really starting to rain so we made our way back to the Contemporary for the evening, we were worn out! Have I mentioned how absolutely wonderful it was staying so close at the CR? Un-be-liev-able!!!


After we took a little rest and cleaned up some, we went alllll the way downstairs for dinner at The Wave. Now, it was a little more “upscale” than I really was looking for but it was in the building, we had no ADR and I called there and they were more than accomodating to get us seated right away. I truly wish I had a picture of my niece’s grilled cheese sandwich, the bread was made in-house and was a riotous rainbow of colors! My mother had a steak which she swore was the best thing she’d eaten all week. I had a gnocchi dish that was rich and sinful. Our server was a little over-the-top but attentive.

My DD and I wore our Snow White outfits to dinner--- but she had that hairdo from BBB, no worries!


We had intended to head back to MK for QS dinner and catch the electric parade and fireworks but it was still raining so we had the bright idea to just ride the monorail around the resort loop for fun. It died at the MK stop and we ended up walking back to CR from MK in the rain. Oops.

My DD begged to sleep in her hairpiece but I knew it would just get tangled up so we removed it and all collapsed into a deep slumber…...

 

[skojo]

Great trip report! Looking forward to hearing the rest. I'm planning my trip for next fall and this definitely helps with ideas. My kids will be 5 (son) and 4 (daughter) when we go on our first Disney trip.

 

[sjb95u]

Day 4, Wednesday, June 3rd. It’s “Sleep In” Day.


This morning we have reservations for the 5 girls (Me, DD, SIL, Niece and my Mother) at the Perfectly Princess Tea Party hosted at the Grand Floridian Resort. The price was exorbitant, my Mother had again thrown all caution to the wind (or my inheritance!) and booked this so the girls didn’t miss any princess experience! So I prayed it would be fabulous enough to justify the cost…



Some of us went down to the Contempo Cafe for breakfast, the girls left on the monorail from CR headed to GF around 9:45am. We had a few minutes to shop at GF’s gift shop, my DD wanted some white gloves to wear to the tea party so we picked those up along with a few other small items. We even had time to snap some pictures on the grand staircase.



We lined up outside the tea room around 10:15am and visited with some of the other ladies and little girls in line. There were 8 princesses in total, all dressed up and so beautiful! Some came with Mommies, others with Grandmothers and we celebrated one little Sophia’s birthday.



The tea started when our primary hostess, Rose Petal, greeted us at the door to the tea room. She’s the rose that Aurora turned into a real person and hosts the primary portion of the event. Each girl gets announced, sprinkled with rose petals and crowned before going into the room to find her place already set up.



GETTING SPRINKLED WITH ROSE PETALS


NOW CROWNED AND READY TO ENTER


The details are simply wonderful, each girl has her name tag with a special nickname, Eden was princess of the sunflowers.

At each place there is her special Disney exclusive (to tea party guests only) Sleeping Beauty doll. This doll is exquisite and a real treasure for sure. The girls are asked to leave their napkins in the tea cups until instructed to remove them; when they did open them up there were beautiful bracelets inside. A princess wand is also at the place setting.



The organist comes around and asks each little girl if she has any requests for him to play.

Rose Petal teaches the girls a dance and then how to sign (yes, sign language) a song for Aurora.

Aurora arrives and spends time singing and dancing. Rose Petal makes a visit to each girl and gives them a jeweled necklace.


WITH THEIR MATCHING NECKLACES

 

[sjb95u]

Aurora makes her way to each table to give out roses and certificates.



The girls have plenty of time to talk to Aurora after they eat their finger sandwiches, drink “tea” (apple juice) and have their special cake.





The food was very good, the adults’ sandwiches are especially tasty. When the hot tea for the adult was delivered I inquired about milk or cream and was told I wouldn’t really need it (?) but I insisted they bring some, which they did. I prefer milk/cream in my hot tea. I’m not sure why that was unusual.


After the tea is over, the girls parade through the GF lobby in a princess processional, up the grand staircase to the second floor. There they have a picture made with the doll and rose (by a photopass photographer) then are sent into the gift shop to name their doll and fill out an official certificate for her.














The girls are also given a cinch backpack so they can pack up all their wonderful goodies. We were done around noon.


Overall I will say this was a phenomenal experience, the girls adored it! If you can afford it then it is not to be missed! Afterwards I asked the two girls what their favorite part of the tea party was, my DD replied “the doll”, my niece said “the cake” (it was good cake!).

 

[sjb95u]

DAY 4- PART 2

While the girls were at the tea party the boys went over to DTD to pick up a few things. We all met back at CR and changed clothes. The plan was to rest then head over to Epcot late afternoon but the group decided to go ahead and go to Epcot around 1:30pm. The biggest problem was, no one had eaten lunch! My brother was very hungry and grabbed a mickey ice cream bar, there’s really not any great snack options in the front portion of Epcot like there are in the World Showcase.




First up at Epcot, Living with the Land. Now this is one of the few rides I really remember from my first trip at 11 years old (why?). The girls enjoyed it. There is a significant amount of time before our FP+ to start so we head over to Mexico for the boat ride with the Three Caballeros. It was a nice break from the heat and while we were inside there was a rain shower that started. We saw Mexican Donald but didn’t want to stand in line to actually “meet” him. Next we used our first FP+ for Spaceship Earth. For some reason I really love that ride. Adding the photos is a cute surprise since I last rode it. Second FP+ was for Soarin’, this FP line was very long---probably 20-25 minutes. My Mother gets motion sickness and was unsure about the ride but she went ahead with it and this was one of everybody’s favorites for the week. My DD still talks about flying over California!



So now it’s about 5pm and we have a dinner ADR in Germany at Biergarten so off we go back to the world showcase. Our ADR was for 5:35pm and waited about 5 minutes before getting called in. We had a great table for just our party (there are 8 of us) right by the dance floor. The oompa band was so much fun and the girls had a blast when they were allowed out onto the dance floor!

(MOM!, When can we go dance???)




I mean, seriously!


Regarding the food, there were some good dishes but overall this buffet was lacking compared to others we had during the week. My SIL was born in Germany (military) and her mother makes lots of German dishes so she really appreciated this meal. My DD asked for a big soft pretzel after we left, she didn’t eat much here at Biergarten.

DD with her PapaRich




Following dinner we had our last FP+ for Character Spot but just didn’t feel like it so we skipped out on that one.


Since it had rained the evening before when we had planned to watch the Electric Parade and Wishes, we hopped back from Epcot to MK by around 8pm. My Mother was exhausted so she rode the monorail back to CR from MK but the rest of us went on in.


We parked ourselves in Town Square just under the elevated rail platform (man I wish we’d gotten there early enough to get up there and get bench seats!). We had just as good a view as the FP+ viewers but did arrive at 8:10pm. I should have used the next 45 minutes for souvenir shopping as I just never really did any during the entire week. So we just sat in our spot and visited, the girls danced in the street and just soaked in the experience.





The electric parade was a huge hit with the girls, they enjoyed it more than the FOF parade (perhaps because it wasn’t hot as blazes?). Between the parade and Celebrate the Magic/Wishes the girls continued to dance in the street, I don’t know how they had that much energy!

 

[sjb95u]

There was some pushing and shoving as people tried to crowd or take my spot at the side of the street but I held my own. I wasn’t ugly but had gotten there early to get a nice view so that was what I intended to have!





Peter Pan's pointing at us!


Now from this vantage point Celebrate the Magic wasn’t extremely easy to see but we enjoyed it nonetheless. The girls hopped on Daddy’s shoulders for that part.





Wishes---what can I say that hasn’t already been expressed? It was beautiful, poignant, a tear-jerker and was also NOT TO BE MISSED! (Even if it’s at 10pm and your 5-year-old typically goes to bed at 7:30pm and she’s not had a nap). Do. Not. Miss. It.






Here’s the most beautiful part...we were up at the front of the park when the fireworks were over...we got out fairly quickly then just walked 10 minutes back to CR. I’ll say it again, if you have small children and can swing it, the CR is so awesome and convenient to MK!



Quick bath and to bed...lulled to sleep by that blaring water pageant parade music!