We wanted to take the monorail to the Contemporary, but for some reason they wouldn't let us at that time. We found the walking path and started on our way. Ava fell asleep on the way, so it ended up working out alright. We went into the lobby and this time it was the grownups that needed to find the bathrooms. We found a little area that Erin could chill out in while she waited for us to take our turns.
Ava really didn't care where she was. How can kids do this?
We went outside and explored the pool and beach area. It was kind of entertaining to see the lifeguards all bundled up in their coats, hats, and mitts. They would never survive a North Dakota winter! The beach area had nice white sand, so we had to take off our socks and shoes to test it out. There was nobody out there since it was pretty chilly, so we relaxed for a little bit in a hammock.
It was time to head in for Chef Mickeys! Our ADR was for 5:05 and we were called up for our picture about then. We were seated in the section directly behind the dessert area. Shortly after we got our first plates loaded up the characters started coming out. First was Donald. He signed Erin's book first and then he grabbed Ava's. A couple of pages flipped back and he saw Donald's signature from the morning, so he refused to sign it! That kind of surprised me.
Next up was Mickey. It's funny how the kids don't even question the fact that he was just at Magic Kingdom and now he is here at dinner.
Now it was time to do some napkin waving. Pluto was in our section.
When he was done with his napkin waving duties Pluto stopped by our table. The kids loved how he signed their books on his nose.
Everybody was excited to meet Minnie since we hadn't met her earlier in the day.
At this point we were done eating and had taken care of the tip. Goofy was still pretty far off from making to our area, so we decided since we had met him earlier it was OK to head out. We had a good time at Chef Mickeys, but I think we will try something else next time. The food was just eh, but the characters that you get to meet made it worthwhile. I was also surprised how many people were dining there that were obviously headed for the party that night. I thought they would already be in the park.
After dinner we finally got to take our first monorail ride. We took it around the resort loop back to MK so we could catch a bus back to POP for some hard earned rest.
Up next: Day 2 at Hollywood Studios