Team O Hits Florida: Day 3 (9/23/03), In Which We Meet Pooh & Have a Magical Time

[KaityBsMom]

Cast: me (30), DH (30), DD (4). Mommy and DD are huge Pooh fans, particularly Mommy!!

Today’s the day! We have an 8:05 PS for Crystal Palace (eek!). Somehow, we manage to get ourselves up and to MK in plenty of time (DH & DD took showers the night before). We walked over to MK from the Contemporary and were there by about 7:40am. Waited at the turnstiles until right around 8 am when they let us in (was starting to get nervous). Walked briskly to CP and made it in time. We were seated right away.

We loved the character breakfast here. So cute and sweet. The restaurant was beautiful and our server Paul was great. The food was very good, as well. DD had two Tigger waffles (very cute), a doughnut hole, and some grapes (with choc milk). I had OJ, two Pooh waffles, a croissant, and some strawberries. DH had bacon, waffles and I’m not sure what else.

DD and I being big Pooh fans, this breakfast was at the top of the list of things we were looking forward to and we were not disappointed. The first to come around was Eeyore. I just love Eeyore and am known to quote him from time to time. He was adorable and I got a cute picture of him hugging DD. We had fun saying hello to him. Piglet was next and he was very sweet with DD, making it clear from his gestures that he thought she was precious. The feeling was mutual. Once we were mostly done with our food, we went to the center area where Pooh was standing (he was not making the rounds). We just had to wait behind one other family and then it was our turn. DD and I excitedly went up and got his autograph, said hello, told him we just loved him, and posed for a cute picture. So much fun! We went back to our table, got some more juice from the ever-helpful Paul and waited for Tigger, who was taking a while to make the rounds. It was fun to watch him make his way to us. He was playful with all the families, kissing all the women on the hand and playing with the kids. We had decided we would see if he was allowed to bounce when he came to our table. He came up, signed DD’s book using DH’s head to rest on and DH asked if he was allowed to bounce. He indicated ‘just a little’ with his fingers and bent at his knees as if to bounce for us. Meanwhile DD tickled him and he tickled her back. Then he got down face to face with her and we got a very cute picture. He bounded off then, but not before making sure to kiss my hand.

We got our check and headed out for our big day at the MK. It was right at 9 am now and drizzling rain. We congregated with others inside the walk-through of the castle and waited about 5 minutes for rope-drop. Then, on to Fantasyland, where we just had a magical time and waited for nothing. I keep thinking how awesome it was that we were finally here and everything was going so well.

We headed for Dumbo first and walked right on. DH rode with DD and I got a couple of pictures. She wanted to ride again, so I went on with her and more picture-taking ensued. We then walked on to the Pooh ride, which was so cute. We all really enjoyed it, particularly after just meeting the gang. We should have ridden this again. We browsed through the Pooh gift area next and DD used some of her money to buy a cute magnet of “all the guys”- Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore. We all rode the carousel next and silly me did not think to chose a stationary horse and get some pictures. Oh well, a nice ride all the same. Next was Snow White, which we waited maybe 2 minutes to get on. DD was mildly bothered by the witch, but had heard the story enough times that it didn’t get to her much. We then walked on to Small World, which we loved. It is just so sweet that you can’t help yourself, despite that infernal song. DD enjoyed seeing all the different ‘kids’. We walked on to Peter Pan next. This is a great ride. We all love the story of Peter Pan and the ride was well done. We passed by Ariel’s Grotto, where we encountered our first wait of the day. It was listed as 40 minutes and we decided to forgo it at that time, hoping to get it another day. We went over to the tea cups next. We saw Tweedle Dum & Tweedle Dee but there was quite a line for them and we decided to pass by, since DD does not know the story of Alice In Wonderland. Due to my motion sickness issues that are brought on mostly by spinning motions , I sat this one out. DH and DD waited about 5 minutes and then got on. DD loved this ride and insisted they spin around more and more, to a lukewarm reaction by DH.

After this, we headed for Mickey’s Toontown. We rode Goofy’s Barnstormer first, which was a big hit with DD. I was surprised it went as fast as it did and enjoyed it a lot myself. We then went through Minnie and Mickey’s houses, which DD thought was neat. She liked looking at all the things, especially Mickey’s bedroom. Upon exiting into County Bounty, we saw that Cinderella was there and there was not much of a line. DD loves Cinderella, so that was an easy decision to make. We waited maybe 10 minutes, then got in to see Cinderella. The mice Suzy and Perla were also there, which was neat. They had us make one line for Cinderella and let us just pop out of line to see Suzy and Perla. DD had a magical time meeting Cinderella. She was very good with the kids and greeted DD warmly. She asked her her name and how old she was, if she was having a good time. She signed DD’s book and posed for a picture with her. They gave each other a little hug and said good bye. Cinderella told DD she was so cute and that she liked her Buzz bag. Wonderful moment and our picture turned out great. Donalds’ Boat was closed, which was just as well since I had forgotten to bring DD’s swim suit along.

Next it was on to Tomorrowland. DD saw the Speedway in passing and just had to ride the “race cars”. This was our longest wait of the day at 15-20 minutes. DD and I rode in one car with her steering and me manning the gas pedal. DH rode in a car behind us. DD had fun, although she was annoyed that she could not do the gas pedal herself. Then we walked on to Buzz. There was a line inside the building but it never stopped moving. Buzz was a really neat ride. DD and I are big Toy Story (esp Buzz) fans, so this was a highlight for us. With DH’s help, DD kicked my butt in points. We stopped at the Buzz souvenir stands, where DD used her money and bought a Buzz baseball. I bought the Buzz die cast vehicle for her (or was it for me? ) and surprised her by buying her a Buzz light spinner toy, which I knew she would want but she had managed not to notice yet.

On our way to decide on lunch, we saw Buzz was out. Yay! We waited in line around 5 minutes and met him. Cool! DD thought it was neat that he stamped his name inside of writing it. We walked toward Liberty Square and decided we were ready for a break and some air conditioning and decided to have lunch at the Plaza Restaurant.

This was a nice relaxing lunch for us; a good choice. The atmosphere was nice (the mirrors were beautiful) and it was just good to sit and watch the activity for a while. DH and I had cheeseburgers, which were a little dry but pretty good. DD had the grilled cheese kids plate. She doesn’t eat fries (which it came with) so DH and I ate some extra fries we didn’t need. Often we’ll ask to substitute something for fries, but she claimed not to be very hungry and we didn’t try to do that here.

After lunch, we headed for Haunted Mansion. On the way, we saw Pinocchio and Gepetto, so we stopped to meet them. Cool! We had explained HM to DD and she said she wanted to ride. Inside, she got scared and we were ready to exit when she suddenly said “Walk that way, Daddy, I want to meet the ghosts”. So, we stuck it out. DD continued to be scared through the mansion, but said afterwards that she liked it. I think it was mostly the darkness and the unknown that she didn’t like. The riverboat was not running and we decided to skip Hall of Presidents as our timing was bad and the next show was at least 30 minutes out.

We headed for Frontierland, buying water and a soda along the way. We got on the raft for Tom Sawyer Island first. Waited 5-10 minutes for the raft each way. It was fairly hot and humid by this time (2ish) and I was grumpy for some reason. The island was neat, though, and we enjoyed caves and the fort (DD particularly).

After we were back on the ‘mainland’, we headed for Splash Mountain. There was a line, but it moved right through just like at Buzz. Dh is not much for water rides, but he was a sport for our sake and did enjoy the ride. DD absolutely loved it and wanted to ride again. We told her there was lots more to do and we wanted to make sure she saw it all but we would try to come back later in the day. She agreed, so off we went. We met Brer Bear once we got out of the photo/gift shop. Still very muggy so we stopped for a soda for DH, an orange slush for me (yummy) and chocolate frozen yogurt for DD.

We made our way to Adventureland and rode Pirates first. I know this is a big favorite of many, but it didn’t do much for me. It wasn’t bad, just sort of bland and/or dated. I don’t know? Maybe it was just me! Worth riding, though. Next was Jungle Cruise, which was cute. I remembered this from my ’88 trip. Our boat full of people were going along with all the corny jokes pretty well, so it was fun. Next we were on to Aladdin’s carpets, which I rode with DD while DH took pictures. It was fun even though it is just like Dumbo. DD wanted to ride again, but we made the same deal we did before with no issues. We saw the Tiki birds show next, which was cute. DD liked seeing Zazu from Lion King.

Then we were ready to go back and do some of DD's favorites. We headed straight for Splash Mtn again at her request and she and I rode. She had even more fun this time and decided to raise her arms for the hills, even the big one. Our little daredevil!! We were in the front this time and got quite a bit wetter than the first time, much to her delight. She was very satisfied that “we made a big splash”. We went to check out our picture and just had to buy one. DD looks terrified in the picture, but I know she wasn’t and was having lots of fun. Pretty funny. She looks so cute with her arms raised in the air. I bought a 5 X 7 and even souvenir-scrooge DH couldn’t disagree.

Next we rode the train back to Toontown and rode Goofy again. DD had too long of a list of other rides she wanted to do over and we instead suggested that we go back to Tomorrowland and ride Astro Orbiter (which we had forgotten about before!). She agreed, so off we were. We waited about 15 minutes in extreme heat for Astro Orbiter, but I have to say surprisingly enough that it was worth it. It was really neat to be so high up and have such a great view of the park. DD and DH really enjoyed that the ride went pretty fast; I got pretty quesy (that pesky sensitivity to spinning motions again) but still enjoyed it.

It was getting close to closing time, so we headed for Main St. We stopped to browse in the fire station gift shop and went to The Chappeau. DD had fun trying on all the hats before finally deciding on the Minnie ears headband, which she then decided she didn’t want to wear, just carry around. I did get a cute picture of her before that, though. (Once back home, she proudly wore them into school to show her preschool class, though.). Last, I waited quite a while in line to pick up our family photo in front of the castle, which we had taken somewhere along the way. I bought a 5 X 7 and was very glad as there were no other pictures of the 3 of us together the whole trip!! (due to the hectic schedule and DH’s aversion to asking others to take our picture )

We left right at 7 pm closing and walked back to the Contemporary. I was in the mood for Dominos pizza, of all things, so we went back to our room and ordered that for dinner. It was neat to sit there eating Dominos while looking out over the castle.

Next we gave DD a bath and she watched two of the bedtime stories on TV (Toy Story 2 and Little Mermaid). We were just certain that she was asleep enough for us to turn on the TV when we heard fireworks (this was around 9:45 pm). We looked outside to see fireworks going off by the castle. There were no MK fireworks scheduled for that night, so I’m not sure if they were testing them or if there was a special private event. ? They were so beautiful going off next to the castle. Just when we decided we would chance waking DD (she is a bear when woken up from a good sleep), they stopped. Better luck next time, but it was very neat to see these unexpected fireworks.

Highlights of the day: Crystal Palace and meeting Pooh in person
, Splash Mountain, and the just the fact that the day went off without a hitch in general

 

[Minniespal]

Great report ~ Thanx for sharing.