Castle Lighting, Dinner, and More Fast Passes
After leaving Rapunzel and Tiana, we headed to the front of the castle just after 6pm for the 6:15 castle lighting. There were still plenty of spots available. We probably could have gotten a better view if we were there earlier, but I felt like we had a good view, just off to the side a bit.
DD4 fell asleep as we were walking there. I was sad she was going to miss the show, but knew she needed the nap.
One quick rant. I could barely hear the show because so many people were talking right through it – it was so loud! At that point, I wished we were closer to the stage only so we could have heard the show before Elsa lights up the castle.
Rants aside, when the music and castle lighting started, it was really magical, gave me chills, and I was in a happy mood.
At first I wasn’t going to take video because I wanted to just enjoy it, but DD4 was sleeping and we had been talking all day about watching Elsa’s castle light up, so I decided I would record it so I could share it with her later. I tried to keep my camera at my head’s level so I wouldn’t bother other people (you’ll see a few held up high in my video – didn’t Disney ban selfie sticks?!), and then tried to watch the show with my own eyes and not through the camera, which is why it gets off center at times. But here’s the video:
It was a good thing I took this video! When DD4 woke up later she asked me if she missed the Elsa show. I told her she had slept through it and she was so sad – until I told her I had recorded it for her! She watched it about 10 times in a row and kept telling me “thank you” for the video.
We decided to head to Columbia Harbour House for dinner after the show. It was a nightmare trying to get over to the other side of the castle with a double stroller! But we eventually made it. DD4 was still sleeping when we got there, so I asked a CM if we could bring the stroller in with us and she said yes.
We had a hard time finding seats. We got so excited when we saw an empty table in the very back, only to maneuver our stroller back there… and find that someone had left bags on the seats. We eventually saw a family who looked like they were packing up so we hovered to grab that table. I waited until we had found seats to place our mobile order. We didn't want to wait in the long line, but I also didn't want to place the order until I knew for sure we'd have a place to sit.
It was 7:00pm when we got our food and I wanted to be a good documenter, but we were hungry, so I snapped a quick picture of our entire tray.
I was really excited to try the Lighthouse Sandwich, which is hummus with tomato and broccoli slaw. I think I wanted to order this on our last trip and they didn’t have it, but have since brought it back to the menu. It was really good!
I think my MIL had the tuna sandwich and Pat had the chicken and fish combo. I ordered a mac n’ cheese for the girls. I wasn't sure if DD4 would wake up to eat or not. I had ordered apple slices as my side in place of the chips (for the girls), but they accidentally gave me chips too.
DD2 was pretty fussy. I knew she was probably sleepy, but she also had been having some tummy issues and didn’t want to eat much. A Cast Member came over and asked why she was crying. I told her she was having some tummy issue and the woman (maybe a mom herself?) asked if DD2 would like some yogurt to help her tummy. DD2 said yes! This was really nice pixie dust, as it did settle DD2 down and she quickly ate the whole thing of yogurt.
We were still hanging in there, so we decided to head to our Pirates of the Caribbean FP - our 7th FP of the day! I had debated taking the girls on this, but I couldn’t remember just how scary it was and DD4 was still sleeping, so we decided to do rider swap. My MIL and I rode first and I was glad that we didn’t take the girls. I think the loud noises would have been a little scary. I really like the new auction scene!
I did take pictures of all the dogs I saw to show DD4 later. We had talked about her maybe riding POTC and she was excited when I told her there were dogs I think it was the only reason she was going to ride.
Pat and I rode it together next. As we were walking through the FP line, I heard someone shouting, “Jessica!” several times. My first reaction was to ignore it because there are a LOT of people named Jessica (it was the most common name the year I was born) so it’s a reflex to not assume someone is talking to me when I hear it. But I finally turned around, and sure enough, they were calling for me! I had dropped my driver’s license when we first got into line. I forget why, but they had given me a paper FP for rider swap and I had pulled it out of the same pocket where for some reason I also had my driver’s license loose, so I must have dropped my license when I pulled out the piece of paper. I was so grateful that these people decided to call out my name rather than just turning it into lost and found!! Thank you, nice people!
When we got off the ride, the girls were awake and seemed to have gotten a second wind!
So I pulled up the app to see what we could get a FP for and ended up booking our 8th and final FP of the day for It’s a Small World! According to Touring Plans, MK was a 7/10 this day. It felt very crowded but we managed to fit a LOT into our day, especially with all the extra FPs. It was a lot more than I had planned for a day we expected to be very crowded.
I usually take a lot of pictures on IASW, maybe just to keep myself entertained, but I tried to put my phone away for most of this ride and just enjoy the snuggles with my girls. DD4 did want to take pictures in the last room though.
It was almost 9:30pm and finally time for us to go. I was tempted to try to squeeze in the Rapunzel lantern picture, but the line looked really long. I settled for this lantern picture instead.
My husband jokes that when it’s time to leave a park, I suddenly notice lots of details I want to take pictures of. Maybe that is my stalling technique But I really liked this poster.
We could have stayed for the fireworks, but we were all pretty tired. DD4 insisted she wasn’t scared, but we also knew she had seemed scared a couple of days before, and the possibility of beating the crowds out of the park was too appealing to pass up at this point.
We were on the ferry by 9:35pm but it was 10:40pm before we were back to the condo where we were staying. As we were leaving the park, DD2 said, “I had so much fun, Daddy.” Seeing the girls so happy really made everything worth it. This really was the best day ever!
Steps: 20,317
Miles: 8.21
So I've always been worried about it! 
