It's Magic Kingdom Day! (part 2)
Thank you all so, so much for the congratulatory & kind comments following my last post! We're booking our venue today and setting a date! I can't wait to add little touches of Disney to our wedding.
We last left off with the proposal and lunch at Columbia Harbor House..let's dive back in!
The parks started to get crazy crowded and we decided that it was time for mid-day break. After stopping at the Confectionary for cotton candy, like a pound of skittles, and celebration pins (Mitch's first Disney and Happily Ever After) we hopped a bus back to the resort for a couple of hours to relax & recharge. I ended up taking a nap nearly the whole time.
We were ready to head back to the park in the early evening (with a change of clothes and ears!) and I had picked up a LL PP Flight for our arrival. We were walking under the train station just in time to catch the Mickey and Friends cavalcade (spoiler alert: it made me cry).
While walking down Main Street, Delaney decided that she NEEDED a Mickey balloon and having that thing became a full-time job for all of us. It was flying into people, getting tangled around her legs, and of course having to check it before getting onto rides and picking it up after rides.
We made our way back into Fantasyland, balloon child in tow, but not without stopping for a few pictures with a very golden Mickey and Minnie:
We were ~5 minutes early for our LL at PPF and were not allowed to enter. This move was always successful under the old FP+ system, but not a big deal to us, we got out of line and spent 5 minutes taking selfies:
We boarded Peter Pan's Flight for a quick flight in the stars (where I also picked up a LL for PoTC) - to me, this is such a classic ride and my kids just don't get "it" (maybe one day..) and then decided that since it was Mitch's first Disney, we absolutely had to hop onto It's a Small World!
The stand-by was posted at 25 minutes, but I don't think that we waited more than 10 minutes for the ride. The group behind us noticed Mitch's "first timer" button on his backpack and we had a lovely conversation with them. I love connecting with people at Disney so much, but it's funny how that doesn't carry over to real life, I'm a pretty quiet person. At Disney, I will talk to anyone endlessly about Disney and how much I love Disney. I have a whole other personality just for Disney - I don't even really know her...
Another thing about me is that I love boat rides at Disney - mostly the smell of them - which is probably weird, but I don't care. I do NOT enjoy constantly telling my kids to get their hands out of the water! While we were on IaSW, Mitch and the kids looked bored to tears, but I tried to entertain them by trying to guess what countries are being represented while on the ride.
We left Fantasyland and decided to hop in line for Splash Mountain since the stand-by wait was only 20 minutes. After standing in line for what felt like 20 minutes, we were informed by a Cast Member that the ride was down temporarily and that we could wait it out or try again later. Since it we had an upcoming LL for Pirates, we slowly made our way in that direction as the sun started to set (I love twilight at Disney, it's my favorite time of the day).
We got to PoTC right when our LL window opened, checked the balloon, and basically walked right onto PoTC. Funny story about this one - I was the only one that knew about the surprise drop on Pirates! On our last trip, Pirates was down for the majority of our MK day, so the kids never got to ride it (I rode on my trip later in the year), and hearing them yelp at the drop was hilarious. Mitch was amazed at how life-like some of the characters on PoTC are.
We shopped around in the gift shop after we finished the ride - Mitch bought a pirate flag, the kids bought a bag of gemstones, Dillon bought a leather bracelet, and Delaney got some gold coins.
With some time to kill before our dining reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern, we popped into the Enchanted Tiki Room - it's so silly, but the kids and I love it and often sing the song at home. I assume that families use this attraction as an opportunity to get off of their feet, which it's a good one.
After a nice break in the Tiki tiki tiki room, it was finally time to check into LTT and after a short wait, we were escorted to our table and promptly greeted by our server - who was fabulous.
I ordered a glass of red sangria along with dinner and it was so good that I decided that I needed another.
LTT is a favorite of ours and now it's a favorite of Mitch's too! We ordered extra servings of the mac and cheese at the kids' request, but honestly everything is so dang good. The salad, even as simple as it is, is one of my favorite salads at Disney - it's always crisp and fresh and the dressing is delicious. I always, always, always recommend Liberty Tree Tavern to people visiting Disney.
The green beans, pot roast, and stuffing were extra delicious that night. We were so full after dinner that we barely made a dent in dessert, but of course, enjoyed the couple of bites that we had.
As much of a Type-A and organized planned that I am, admittedly, I timed dinner very poorly because we were eating during the fireworks and missed them - bummer! At least we have an excuse to come back --- or something like that.
As we were finishing dinner, I saw on
MDE that Splash Mountain had a really small wait, so we made our way onto Splash Mountain and basically walked right onto it. Splash Mountain is a favorite of ours, plus the quick view of the castle is unbeatable. During the ride, Mitch and Delaney got SOAKED - thank goodness it was basically the end of the night.
We had one final task..
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
BTMRR boasted a 15 minute wait and we hopped in line and found that the posted wait time was accurate, but totally worth it for the wildest ride in the west! Behind us in line was a local couple, who also happened to be a TA, and we had some great conversation about Genie and how we felt about it.
Dillon and I rode together and Mitch and Delaney rode behind us in the last row and she screamed the whole time. The only thing that I could hear above her screaming? Mitch dying of laughter. Dillon and I kept our arms high up in the air and were cracking up over those two goofballs behind us.Mitch very quickly declared BTMRR his favorite ride.
The park was now officially closed, but I knew that the bus stop would be a madhouse, so I told everyone to let's take our time, take some pictures, and not make a big rush anywhere.
Those faces - pure joy!
Unfortunately, we had only one day at Magic Kingdom on this trip, but I think we made great use of it! This was my first time seeing Magic Kingdom all decorated for Christmas and while I am more of a Halloween-person, I loved seeing Main Street decorated for Christmas. It makes me weepy.
We made our way out of Magic Kingdom and while the buses were still crazy busy, it wasn't anything unbearable and we got lucky with a motor coach, which Delaney promptly fell asleep on.
Stay tuned - Epcot was on our radar!
