Disney Holiday Firsts At Last! - Final Thoughts Finally!

[PracPerfPatricia]

Love the whole concept of Mom/daughter ... Dad/daughter days... although I had to snort when I read that Roxy and Pumpkin Girl just rolled back over in bed when you tried to wake them up...

I think it's great that they had a opportunity to do so much of the entertainment in WS... especially the extra stuff for the holidays... I think you miss out on a huge element of WS if you just rush country to country without experiencing some of that...

I like some extra time at AK... I think that it is the park that seems to get the least love... (maybe because there aren't as many headliners there?) Although EE is worth two headliners... hmmm... 3 times in a row huh? You guys are made of sturdy stuff... I think 2 would be my max...

So much well just natural (and man made...lol) beauty in there....

Love the photo of the lioness just keeping watch over everything...

I think an hour to get from AK to DS is pretty good... Plus what is it they say about the journey being part of the destination... ok that's wrong... I need more coffee... I all discombobulated because of Daylight Savings Time...

Great Photos of the detailing in the railroad display at Yacht Club... Love toy trains... especially elaborate set ups with Disney theming...

Such a cute photo of Bean littler at ToT... makes you realize how special photos are in the first place...

ToT & RocknRC...wow... you two were really making tracks...

& the GMR... that's a sentimental favorite of mine too...

 

[mnmrmustard]

Love the whole concept of Mom/daughter ... Dad/daughter days... although I had to snort when I read that Roxy and Pumpkin Girl just rolled back over in bed when you tried to wake them up...

I think it's great that they had a opportunity to do so much of the entertainment in WS... especially the extra stuff for the holidays... I think you miss out on a huge element of WS if you just rush country to country without experiencing some of that...

I like some extra time at AK... I think that it is the park that seems to get the least love... (maybe because there aren't as many headliners there?) Although EE is worth two headliners... hmmm... 3 times in a row huh? You guys are made of sturdy stuff... I think 2 would be my max...

So much well just natural (and man made...lol) beauty in there....

Love the photo of the lioness just keeping watch over everything...

We've really enjoyed that tradition, kinda sad to think that this last one may have been the last time before at least one of them is all grown up. And yeah, the ladies were having nothing of getting up early - sleeping was a much higher priority and a fitting part of a mommy/daughter day since both of them like to sleep in anyways

You really have to plan to catch as much entertainment as they did in WS, and the whole fam did when we were there. They do a LOT during the holidays and I was happy that we saw as much as we did.

I really enjoy AK too, headliners don't make a park. It is such an immersive place and I love that aspect of it. But yes, we love us some EE!

The lioness looked very regal just sitting there observing her kingdom, didn't she?

I think an hour to get from AK to DS is pretty good... Plus what is it they say about the journey being part of the destination... ok that's wrong... I need more coffee... I all discombobulated because of Daylight Savings Time...

Great Photos of the detailing in the railroad display at Yacht Club... Love toy trains... especially elaborate set ups with Disney theming...

Such a cute photo of Bean littler at ToT... makes you realize how special photos are in the first place...

ToT & RocknRC...wow... you two were really making tracks...

& the GMR... that's a sentimental favorite of mine too...

I hear what you're saying and totally agree. We took that route so we could experience more than your average parkgoer would, especially those staying at the value resorts who miss out on some of the cooler features of the moderates/deluxes.

The toy train was cool looking, only downer was that you had to wait until a certain time for them to turn it on. That seemed a bit silly to me - I'd have that sucker running all day!

I love that pic of Bean with the ToT bellhop, it ranks right up there with favorite Disney pics of all time

Oh yes, we can't to one thrill ride at DHS without hitting the other! Back in 2008 we rode each of them 7 times in one day

GMR was such a great way to finish the day, such a mellow experience and Bean was loving being in charge of the camera for it.

Thank you so much for stopping by and for the great comments

And now it's time to get going with Day 9 - just finished writing it up and am ready to start posting!

 

[mnmrmustard]

Here we are already the final day of our adventure. During the trip I did my trip notes as texts to myself as we went through our park days. Usually texting away at lunch, dinner, and back at POP before settling in for each night. As Ive created the TR Ive been deleting each post. It has been interesting and slightly sad watching all of those texts shrink down to the last few. Kind of like watching your vacation evaporate before your eyes.

But just scanning over the texts I can see that there is no doubt we packed in as much fun as we could into that last day! And of course now I have the TR itself with all of its pictures and stories to keep it alive. I will be buzzing through this last day and our trip home pretty quickly as I want to be able to export all of it into a format that I can take to my MiL so I can share the adventure with her. So buckle up, I have over 400 more pictures and a LOT of story to get through to get us home!

Our parent/daughter day had ended reasonably early ..for us anyways. We were asleep by 10pm at the latest and we needed every minute of rest before tackling this day. I had originally gotten Crystal Palace reservations for 8:15am with a park opening at 9am. We were looking forward to strolling down Main Street USA with no crowds and getting a few cool pictures before we ate.

But then a few weeks before our trip Disney in their infinite wisdom changed the park opening to 8am ..grrrrr. I talked it over with my family and we werent concerned about seeing rope drop so we looked over options and decided to change our ADR to 1900 Park Fare, which had an 8am opening. Now I had been contemplating what route to take to get to GF from POP and since Roxy and PumpkinGirl had missed out on the two boat rides Bean and I had taken between EPCOT/Yacht Club and DHS I thought that would be a good option after arriving at MK by bus.

So our plans set I came to that morning with all of us feeling pretty worn out. It had been 8 solid days of long days and high adventure and we knew this one would be a doosey too. But with the promise of a hot meal and good character fun we got ourselves together and were out the door before 7am.

At 7:19am we were rolling through the entrance to MK

As you can see it was looking pretty grey out. We had been blessed with sunshine and white fluffy clouds most of the trip, but today it was trying to reprise out last day from 2008, in which it topped out at maybe 60 degrees and drizzled on us off and on.

Not to be daunted we disembarked from the bus and headed for the docks. Unfortunately we got down there just in time to see the GF boat leave the docks. So plan B kicked in and we headed uphill to the resort side of the monorail station and scored in getting to hop on a very cool monorail (pic to come).

We cruised on towards the Contemporary, passing the Bay Lake Tower, which was still being built the last time the girls were here

..and on to the Contemporary love that giant Mickey-head wreath!

Better shot of it from inside I ducked out when the monorail stopped to snap a pic of it

And through the windows I was able to snap a quick pic of their exterior tree before we headed out

We did the stop at Poly and I was a good boy and stayed on board. Once at GF I got out and was able to get a panorama of our morning transportation the Avengers Monorail!

By now it was about 10 minutes till reservation time, but we had to take a couple of quick minutes to take in the Christmas cheer of the resort

It is quite the tree!

We had been reading about the gingerbread house for months so it was nice to finally be able to see it in person what an amazing creation!

What kind of bird do they keep in that???

The girls really werent in the mood but I still had them sit for a pic in front of the tree

It was just before 8am so we headed down to the entrance of 1900PF.

Bean really liked this horse, it looked like it was about to eat the flowers ;-]

The carousel theming was very cool

We got checked in and had a couple of minutes so we went outside real quick to check out the Mary Poppins topiary

Soon enough our name was called and it was picture time

We were in there pretty early and were seated very near the entrance to the buffet line so it was a quick sit down of gear and off to the races to load up plates. The food was pretty good, as usual no pics of that - it filled my stomach and the coffee was strong. Soon the characters made their way to us first to come by was Pooh

He said hi to Roxy

And then moved on to Bean

He REALLY liked her hat

More character mischief to come!



Click here for the next Chapter: Day 9 Part 2 - More Character Fun!

 

[mnmrmustard]

Pooh continued having fun with Bean’s hat

Nice fit, aye?

Smile!

Next up was PumpkinGirl

And I even got in on the act

The characters were coming from behind Bean and I so Roxy took the camera. Good call as she caught this moment :-D

Hi Bean!

PumpkinGirl jumped up for her turn

And Roxy had to get a couple of pics with him

Mary Poppins was next, saying hello to Bean

Big smiles

PumpkinGirl jumped in for one with Mary and sis

And then her turn

Our last character was Alice (we heard that Hatter was supposed to be there but got lost on the way to the tea party). She was very interested in Bean’s pins

Pretty pose

A couple of just PumpkinGirl

And a contemplative shot back with Bean

Next up we make our way to MK and take in Main Street!



Click here for the next Chapter: Day 9 Part 3 - Main Street and a Character Meet!

 

[mnmrmustard]

After they finished making their rounds and I finished eating I snapped a couple of pics of the carousel animals

We headed out, cruising on to the elevator. Roxy loved the flower arrangements they had out for the holidays

Once back up at the monorail station I took a quick shot of the deer grazing below

We rode the monorail back to the MK stop and headed down to the entrance. Security was a breeze and we found ourselves posing for our Train Station/Mickey Head PP pic by 9:15am

Nice Christmas Mickey head

On through the tunnel, maps grabbed we headed in towards the flag pole. I’m not sure who it was at half-mast for.

Loved the toy soldiers

On down Main Street we traveled. As you can see the crowds weren’t bad at all.

We really liked the Scrooge dioramas they had in the shop windows

On towards the hub we went, stopping for a moment to watch a little show

Which way to go? Since we had pretty thoroughly explored Tomorrowland and Fantasyland during MVMCP it was going to be a left turn into Adventureland for us today!

And what a lucky turn it happened to be as Peter Pan had just come out near the entrance. Now I know all of the CMs and characters do what they can to make our days magical. But Pan really went the extra mile with both girls. As you will see from the pictures he took his time to kick back and have a conversation with them ..even carrying on a great conversation with PumpkinGirl, who still couldn’t talk. Yay for these moments!!!!

No more commentary from me – I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves – first up was Bean

Next up its PumpkinGirl’s turn with Pan followed by more Character Magic!



Click here for the next Chapter: Day 9 Part 4 - From Neverland to an Arabian Adventure!

 

[mnmrmustard]

Now came PumpkinGirl’s turn with Pan

After an extremely magical interaction with Pan we headed on into Adventureland

When we got in there we asked the girls what they wanted to do first and they were so pumped from their character interaction that they wanted more. Luckily for them and us Aladdin and Jasmine were due to come out in a few minutes. So to the bazaar we went!

The bazaar itself was still pretty empty

Hello Mr. Camel

After a bit they came out and made their way to the magic carpets

They waited their turn and gave a little girl and her dad a special treat of riding with them

While they were busy flying the skies of Arabia I spoke with their handler. He was an older gentleman who had been a handler for years and it was a really great conversation. During it I asked him what character was the hardest to deal with. He said that by far it was Hook! Hook never did what he was supposed to and would run away from the handler, trying to make mischief with the guests. I love hearing those kind of stories :-D

Soon enough Aladdin and Jasmine were done with their ride and were walking past us

Roxy and the girls had been holding the first spot in the line while I had been over by the carpets. As they approached I thought about the last time one of the girls had an interaction with them and I flashed back to PumpkinGirl’s mommy/daughter day at EPCOT!

The only bummer today was that the PP photographer was a no-show. Nobody knew what happened but I was happy I had my camera ready!

Big hugs all around

Then lots of good banter between the girls and them, with Bean providing some interpretation for PumpkinGirl

Next up, more character fun and on to Frontierland for Shooting and even more character fun!



Click here for the next Chapter: Day 9 Part 5 - From Arabian Adventures to Frontier Fun!

 

[mnmrmustard]

They were all talking like long lost friends :-]

It was very funny to watch, they were having a great time! Time to strike a pose!

And then MORE banter!

Between Park Fare, Pan, and them we were full to the brim with Disney mojo :-]

Where to now after such fun??? Well quite honestly it was for a restroom break. I took them to the one that joins Adventureland to Frontierland. After finishing the girls couldn’t resist the siren call of the old shooting gallery

This is when Bean first caught sight of the adventure windows and a bug was planted in her brain right away

Meanwhile I took a couple of quick snaps of Frontierland itself. I wish there was still a show going on in here

It was just shy of 10am and you can see how quiet it still was

Roxy and Bean did a little pin trading while PumpkinGirl headed to a meet with cowboy Chip and Dale

What to do in Frontierland now? How about BTMRR with hardly any line? Thankyou please!



Click here for the next Chapter: Day 9 Part 6 - Anyone Up for some Thrill Rides?

 

[mnmrmustard]

Because of Roxy’s ECV we went to a different entrance than the regular queue. From there it was a short walk into the boarding area where we were literally corralled into pens until it was our turn to board – loved that extra bit of theming. We decided to ride up front.

Up we went through the dark tunnel and the water spray

Here’s my ladies

..and here they were the last time we rode the train together at WDW

We came up around the bend and ran into the big train – bonus!

Zoom through the tunnels

That’s the wrong track

We had a great ride and all too soon we were headed to the boneyard and hot springs

I love the old mining equipment. My family used to go cave/mine exploring in the Arizona hills when I was a kid so I’ve actually played on abandoned equipment like this.

The girls were very animated as we headed back into the station

We had so much fun we had to run back around and go again – no waiting! This time we sat in the back and had a bit more thrilling ride. No pictures from that run. When we were done I snapped a shot of the geyser

PumpkinGirl was all smiles coming down the trail

The Liberty Belle was churning along

What to do, what to do? Gotta be Splash Mountain!

But PumpkinGirl needed a pit stop so we split up. Her and Roxy veered right and Bean and I headed to the ride entrance. When PumpkinGirl came out she happened upon Woody!

Next up the fam takes a trip through the Briar Patch!



Click here for the next Chapter: Day 9 Part 7 - Let's Have Some Splashtastic Fun!

 

[mnmrmustard]

While PumpkinGirl was doing all of that Bean and I had rolled through the entrance to Splash

The wait was around 15 minutes so we were soon through the queue and on our log. Up we go!

Into the briar patch

Up we go again

On through the wee animal world

We wound our way indoors

Play time is over and up the big tunnel we go

And then our big drop

And then the riverboat and the baddies just desserts

We headed out the exit and received a text that the ladies were about to board their log. While we waited I snapped a pano of the area near the screens

Soon enough the ladies were coming down

We decided it was time to roll back to Adventureland and hit PoTC. On the way through I took in the sights of Splash

Next up we run into some Piratey Mischief!



Click here for the next Chapter: Day 9 Part 8 - What Say Ye Pirate Recruits?

 

[jecskc]

I am still here reading along and enjoying all of your wonderful photos. I am sad your trip is almost over. Hope you guys can get another one together again soon !!!

 

[mnmrmustard]

I am still here reading along and enjoying all of your wonderful photos. I am sad your trip is almost over. Hope you guys can get another one together again soon !!!

Hiya! Thank you for checking in - I'm glad you've stuck with me through what has turned into a posting frenzy

Yes, the trip is almost over and sadly no, there is nothing in the works for a future trip. The next couple of years will be focused on our girls and speciifically PumpkinGirl's transition from HS to college. Plus we need to pay down that pesky Disney credit card

This summer we'll be doing some pirate fests, camping, and visiting family. On down the road we've decided that Roxy and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary on a Disney Alaska cruise on the Wonder. But that's 6 years from now ..guess I could start the longest-lasting PTR in DISboards history

 

[Trentmom]

Great Choice for breakfast


I love the Alice there. She looked so animated in your pics

How cool the girls had great interactions with Peter Pan and then again with jasmine and Aladdin. It was like they were a bunch of friends just hanging out, love that


That is awesome how empty frontierland was...


So sad your trip is almost over

I hope you have another one planned soon

 

[mnmrmustard]

Great Choice for breakfast


I love the Alice there. She looked so animated in your pics

How cool the girls had great interactions with Peter Pan and then again with jasmine and Aladdin. It was like they were a bunch of friends just hanging out, love that


That is awesome how empty frontierland was...


So sad your trip is almost over

I hope you have another one planned soon

Thank you, it was our first time eating there - we were very happy with the result. She was a great Alice for sure, very interactive.

That is exactly it for the Pan/Aladdin/Jasmine interactions - just like friends shooting the breeze

The park didn't really get crowded until evening, it was a great MK day crowd-wise.

Yeah, almost done with this one. And sadly nothing official planned other than our 25th anniversary 6 years from now, which will be an Alaskan Cruise on the Wonder.

We'll see what comes our way other than that but right now we have to pay down our Disney credit card.

 

[SAT887]

Ok.... I know you said you were on mission to complete your TR.... Soooo I decided to read it I am also posting to have a spot to act almost like a bookmark. Plus NO WAY could I ever remember all this stuff... Heck I probably already forgot half of it already!!

The last I left off was right before your MVMCP. Yep, sounds a lot like mine!! It happens though and what do you do! We saw Wishes from behind the castle which is a great vantage point, you don't see the "castle show" but watching the fireworks go off behind the village and the Beasts castle is pretty awesome. Plus there is a ton of room to spread out back there! What I have noticed about PP pictures from Buzz and SM - they really need to do something with the angle, lighting and surprise factor..... However, I LOVE you Gaston Tavern shot and Eric's Castle at night. That area has such and awesome feel at night, the outdoor lighting is fabulous! I also liked your shots from the HM queue (as well as LM, love the new style of interactive queues!)

OMG!! (And I don't use that very often.....) LOVE LOVE LOVE your pictures from 2002. Your girls are so the same and so different. The smiles - 100% the same. I enjoyed how you flashed back and forth. It was very sweet. One flash I found a little scary... Olive Oil... Yeah.... Im going to leave it at that. I really loved Bean's photo on the Jurassic Park ride - that smile, its what family vacations are all about, whether in FL or in your back yard

We were at MK that Friday too! In Fantasyland though. I Really think you Peter Pan interactions were great! You got a lot of great shots. We had CP reservations for that day too, I was so annoyed about the hours change!! However, I did manage to score a pre park ADR for the Wednesday earlier in the week. However, the audacity, didn't they know we had our ADR's set and calendars planned?!

Well, I can't wait to read more. It's bittersweet though, heck I didn't want my trip to end in real life, I hate seeing them end online too!

 

[mnmrmustard]

Ok.... I know you said you were on mission to complete your TR.... Soooo I decided to read it I am also posting to have a spot to act almost like a bookmark. Plus NO WAY could I ever remember all this stuff... Heck I probably already forgot half of it already!!

The last I left off was right before your MVMCP. Yep, sounds a lot like mine!! It happens though and what do you do! We saw Wishes from behind the castle which is a great vantage point, you don't see the "castle show" but watching the fireworks go off behind the village and the Beasts castle is pretty awesome. Plus there is a ton of room to spread out back there! What I have noticed about PP pictures from Buzz and SM - they really need to do something with the angle, lighting and surprise factor..... However, I LOVE you Gaston Tavern shot and Eric's Castle at night. That area has such and awesome feel at night, the outdoor lighting is fabulous! I also liked your shots from the HM queue (as well as LM, love the new style of interactive queues!)

OMG!! (And I don't use that very often.....) LOVE LOVE LOVE your pictures from 2002. Your girls are so the same and so different. The smiles - 100% the same. I enjoyed how you flashed back and forth. It was very sweet. One flash I found a little scary... Olive Oil... Yeah.... Im going to leave it at that. I really loved Bean's photo on the Jurassic Park ride - that smile, its what family vacations are all about, whether in FL or in your back yard

We were at MK that Friday too! In Fantasyland though. I Really think you Peter Pan interactions were great! You got a lot of great shots. We had CP reservations for that day too, I was so annoyed about the hours change!! However, I did manage to score a pre park ADR for the Wednesday earlier in the week. However, the audacity, didn't they know we had our ADR's set and calendars planned?!

Well, I can't wait to read more. It's bittersweet though, heck I didn't want my trip to end in real life, I hate seeing them end online too!

I understand completely – I’m posting a flood of information and every chapter has the 25 picture max (that’s the way I always end up gauging my chapters) so I know it is a staggering amount of information.

You’re right about the whole ‘it happens and what do you do?’. Just gotta take it all in stride and recognize that all trips will have those moments. Silver linings, right? I’ll have to remember to try Wishes from back near Beast’s castle, anything to avoid being in the crush of humanity.

I totally agree about the Buzz and SM pics, what is the deal? Everyone always looks slightly constipated in them!

Thank you on the Gaston Tavern shot – I love the rich dark colors that came out of that one while still showing great detail. And Eric’s castle and the whole outdoor queue area for Ariel is just beautiful at night.

I’ve gotten more comments on the flashback/then & now pics from Universal than anything else on the TR. It has been so much fun sharing those and to do it almost exactly 10 years later was a real treat. Olive Oil was pretty scary but you didn’t see the scariest one, check out Shrek from the same timeframe – I didn’t post him because Bean had her eyes closed and I thought he might scare little children!

I too love that pic of Bean finally on the Jurassic Park ride. That is something you have an eye for already and that I still work on, catching the family enjoying the fun instead of just taking pictures of the rides and landscapes. You did very well with the shots of Zoey on dad’s shoulders watching Wishes – those were such great moments to capture. The more smile/fun pictures the better!

We had a couple of days in the same parks – very cool. Peter Pan was the best, he was the perfect mix of upbeat/mischief Pan and casual conversation Pan. Yeah, no kidding about those hours changing at MK! But it worked out for the best given the great time we had at 1900PF.

I might finish posting the MK day today, it is all done so I have control on how much I put out there. So sad to watch them finish. But at least we can cruise the boards and live vicariously through everyone’s TRs until our next trip comes up!

 

[mnmrmustard]

When we arrived in Adventureland Jack and Mack had just come out. Instead of taking a ride on Pirates we decided to learn from a couple of Pirate pros!

Their Jack was very good very expressive

Jack spotted us and I got a great shot of him pointing our way

Him and Mack continued on with their tutorial

After careful selection 3 recruits were found

The tools of the trade were broken out

Proper swordplay at its best!

Now its the mighty recruits turn!

I had been keeping track of time and waived the ladies over it was time to head back to the front of the park for our lunch ADR at Tonys Town Square.


Next up, a good meal, a surprise parade, and the Dapper Dans go Christmas!



Click here for the next Chapter: Day 9 Part 9 - A Pastatastic Lunch, Dans with Bells, and a Bright Day on Main Street!

 

[mnmrmustard]

On through the flow of people and back to Main Street

..and our destination!

Bean LOVED watching the movie while we waited

Soon enough we were seated at our table

It was a good meal, the girls and I are all pasta lovers and Roxy puts up with it well. Bean ate as fast as she could so she could go back out and watch more of Lady and the Tramp. And guess what movie we owned by Christmas?

I finished up and got a shot of the fountain loved the Santa hats!

When we were all done we started to head out. Roxy and Bean stopped off in the restroom while PumpkinGirl headed outside. She took the opportunity to get a photo with a very dapper Goofy

The ladies came out and we walked right into the afternoon parade

Well we missed Hatter this morning but at least we get a wave from him now

Incredibles and Genie, interesting combo

Hello Sebastian

Hi Goofy!

Woody and Jessie ..

.. and Lumier?

An eclectic parade for sure!

We ambled up the street and ran into the Dapper Dans doing Silver Bells on the Deacon Organ Chimes (had to look that bit up)

As you may have noticed the gloomy grey skies had run away while we were at lunch the rest of the day was a beautiful partly cloudy and 75 degrees!

We ambled back up towards the hub, taking our time and stopping off to do pin trading through several shops as we went. What a lovely day!

Loved those Mickey Ear wreaths!

Next up the ladies get some smooches, I camp out for Merida, and we witness a MaW moment



Click here for the next Chapter: Day 9 Part 10 - More PP fun, Waiting for Merida, and a MaW moment

 

[mnmrmustard]

We looked at the character schedule and saw that Merida was out from Brave. On our way forward we looked left near Crystal Palace and score again saw a Photopass photographer just setting up!

Time to say hello to Tink and Froggy!

No, I didnt feel the need to say hi to Tink or Froggy myself. I also don't know why PumpkinGirl was the only one to get a pic with Tink. She must have needed some extra pixie dust to help with her throat ;-] We headed back towards the hub, crowds still not bad at all.

We made it up to the line for Merida and it was LONG!!!! And a good chunk of it was in the sun. I sucked it up and told the ladies to go have fun while I waited out the line. They did some shopping/exploring/pin trading and I sweated. I was sooo thankful that I had my hat and that it wasnt any warmer than 75!

While waiting I caught a nice shot of the castle

As I got close to the front of the line I texted Roxy and they came back. She stayed near the entrance gate in the shade with the girls while I continued to creep forward. While waiting Roxy started talking to a family who were there as their daughters Wish from Make-A-Wish. As some of you may know I am a Volunteer Wish Granter for the organization and my wife couldnt help mentioning it to them. When I got up to them we had a great conversation they were so thankful for all of the magic that had happened on their trip and for the work MaW does. Their daughter was confined to a wheelchair but was so full of smiles and life. It was wonderful to see for me as I send families off to WDW and DLR but usually dont get to see the magic itself in person.

They gave me permission to snap a pic of their interaction with Merida, who was so fantastic in making another Magical Moment for them

After that I just enjoyed the shade and took a couple of shots of the theming outside the themed queue areea

We then moved 'inside' to the courtyard. It was cool that they had activities for the wee ones to do and that the area was mostly in the shade. You had to work your way around the wall and up to a platform where Merida was holding court.

Cool tapestry

Soon enough we were coming up to meet the Scottish Princess herself

Bean was up first

Next up PumpkinGirl waves hi to the Scottish Princess and we dive in to the Jungle Cruise!



Click here for the next Chapter: Day 9 Part 11 - From the Scottish Highlands to the African Jungle

 

[mnmrmustard]

And then our PumpkinGirl had her turn with Merida

Both interactions were wonderful, she took her time and made for some special moments for our girls.

With that out of the way we made a quick pit stop and then headed back towards the hub with me stopping off for the obligatory postcard shot of the castle

Where to go now? Why back to Adventureland!

Once there we made a beeline for another family favorite - the Jungle Cruise!

Our boat was to be the Sankuru Sadie

Our guide was great, rapid-firing the classics with a few bad jokes I hadnt heard before

Waterfall

Ye ole native settlement

Big snake!

Primates having fun

Hi Mr. Elephant!

The Circle of Life scene

Caravan in trouble!

Big smile!

Next up more Jungle Fun!



Click here for the next Chapter: Day 9 Part 12 - Not the Disney Cruise Line, but a Fun Cruise Nonetheless!

 

[mnmrmustard]

I loved the downed plane

The hippos were right on queue

Someone has a head for business!

Must be those guys

More scary natives

We come around the bend and run into some more adventurers heading into peril

And we move on into the backside of water

More hungry crocs

And now we pass under the arch into the temple.

The last time we were here as a family our intrepid guide gave the wheel over to none other than Bean!

Love the guides expression and the obvious concentration that Bean was putting into piloting the boat :-D

Back to the present and our trip through the temple

We survived the little boy that was chosen to drive this time and moved on out to the iconic bathing elephants

Theres a trustworthy fellow

That is some well-traveled luggage!

Our guide actually went on break as we disembarked and we all gave her great praise on the job she did

She was happy to be recognized and said she really enjoys the job


Next up a Pirate Adventure, Tiki Room Fun, and the Fam Splits up Again



Click here for the next Chapter: Day 9 Part 13 - Pirate Adventures, Tiki Room Fun, and the Fam Splits up Again