June 5, 2014- a LONG day at Magic Kingdom!

We had a long day Tuesday, but we attempted a break and Nick did get a nap. Thursday, we stayed in the park all day. Prepare yourself for a long post. I know my others have not been short, but I bet this will be the longest one! I promise there are some fun pics to share along the way.

Norah wasn't ready to get up!

It was an early extra magic hour day at Magic Kingdom, so we got there at about 7:30 AM to get ready for the rope drop show. I had read that it was about 20 minutes before opening, and the park opened at 8 that day, so I wanted us to have some time to get through the bag check. It did not end up starting until 7:50, so we were there plenty early.

Then opening show was fun. Mickey, Minnie, the fairy godmother, Elsa, Anna, Alice, Snow White, Pluto, and others showed up on the train to help open the park. Wes was excited to see Elsa and Anna again. Of course, Norah was most excited to see Minnie!

Cinderella dress made by Aunt Allyssa for Norah to meet the real Cinderella!

After the park was open and we were in, we put our plans into play. We went deep into Fantasyland first and met Ariel (with tail) at Ariel's Grotto. We walked right in. Ariel was super sweet and both kids loved her. Her fin was gorgeous. It seems weird to say that, but it is true!

We then went to Under the Sea- Journey of the Little Mermaid. Again, no wait, just had to walk through the line area and hop on. It was a very neat ride!

Ursula...she haunted my childhood dreams!

That was one of my favorite rides of the week for sure!

The plan was to ride Dumbo again next, but Wes saw the Barnstormer and wanted to ride it again. Norah needed a diaper change, so I took her and changed her while Nick and Wes rode it again. He loved it all over again. We decided to wait on Dumbo because they have a play area waiting area that is air conditioned, so it would be okay to do after the parade.

We headed over to Tomorrowland and rode Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. It was super fun. I rode with Norah on my lap and Wes rode with Nick. Unlike Toy Story mania, the guns had triggers and were a little easier to shoot. I could tell the ride was a little older, but it was fun.

Poor Wes could barely see!

My score... Nick won again... or so he says, he didn't take a picture for proof!

When we got done, we saw Stitch and Nick wanted to meet him, so we got in line. Wes had no interest and pouted in the stroller while Nick and Norah got their picture taken and collected autographs. Stitch was awesome for interaction. He swiped Nick's hat and picked his nose and was the naughty alien he is in the movie. Norah liked Stitch a lot, which surprised me a bit because he was really in their faces. He also took the sharpie for signing and colored in my thumb nail. A manicure from a character. It doesn't get much better than that!

After saying goodbye to Stitch, it was almost 9. We headed across the park to Adventureland to ride the Magic Carpets. Both kids liked this ride. It was about a 5 minute wait is all. The camels beside the ride spit, which Wes thought was hilarious!

Then we rode the Jungle Cruise with again 5-10 minute wait and it was fun. The tour guide told lots of Dad-like jokes. The kids both enjoyed being in a boat. Norah liked the fake animals a lot, too! She yelled "cow!" at them just like the real animals on the safari on Monday!

We then rode Pirate of the Carribean, which the kids did not love. Wes thought it was scary in parts and Norah didn't like getting splashed. We had about a 5 minute wait on this as well.

We had a little time to kill before our 10:15 breakfast reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table, so we attempted a castle pic again. Both kids finally cooperated at once! Yay!

The best of our castle pics. Not perfect but pretty good.

Waiting for Cinderella's Royal Table

Taking a breather

Castle detail

We went to check in but were 5 minutes early and had to wait to officially check in and get in the line to have our pic taken with Cinderella.

The inside of the castle was pretty neat!

It wasn't until 10:25 or so that we got called in, so I was a little annoyed with that. We could have gotten another ride in. Oh, well. Cinderella was sweet and it was fun to be in the castle.

We followed a spiral staircase up to the restaurant. We were the third to last seated for breakfast, which was fine except our served seemed overly busy. Our drinks were empty more often than not. There was a a pastry plate at first, which the kids loved. Nick was hungry and even ate something with baked apples, which he normally refuses to try! We waited a long time for our food. Luckily, the kids ate a lot of the pastries/muffins and were busy with their sword and wand. They could also see the princesses making their rounds.

Wes has never been too into coloring. Norah seems to like it better.

Norah and Wes enjoyed these Mickey-shaped muffins. I can't say how they were as the kids devoured them.

I ordered the stuffed french toast, and it was awesome. Nick got a tenderloin dish, and he didn't care for it. He also thought it was too small. Wes and Norah had french toast sticks, eggs, and bacon. Nick actually ate most of their bacon, so it was good that they didn't want it. Wes ate his eggs, so he must have been hungry because he doesn't usually like them.

My french toast. YUM!

Nick's Grilled Beef Tenderloin- He didn't enjoy it. It wasn't great from the bite I had either.

Wes and Norah had this!

I was annoyed at our service and wondering why I splurged on this until the princesses started to come. Snow White was first and she was so sweet. Wesley was so excited to see her. He hasn't even seen her movie, but Norah got the Little People Disney castle playset for Christmas, so they both know all the princesses from that. Wes hugged her goodbye and Norah waved happily to Snow White.

Good bye hugs

Norah waving to Snow White

We then saw Aurora. Wes was so happy to see her again. She was again, awesome. She asked where we were from and Wesley told her Ames, Iowa. So she asked if he had fought the dragons of Iowa to protect his sister and he proudly answered that he had. She totally doted on him and was very sweet!


Jasmine came next and was also very sweet. Wesley asked her about Aladdin and she said he was helping out in the kitchen with Genie  but that they were probably just using that as an excuse to eat cinnamon rolls. He showed her Norah's wand and she said she didn't have a magic wand but she talked about how Genie was magic and the carpet. Aladdin is Nick's favorite Disney movie so he had to get a picture with her too. She said Aladdin would be very jealous that she was getting her picture with another man so they would have to keep it a secret.

Ariel came just as we were finishing our breakfast. She was very sweet, too. She what ride we were headed to and we told her splash mountain, which she said was one of her favorites. She told us to be sure we got to splash around on her ride, too.


We left at that point. Nick tolerated this experience, but it was definitely not his favorite. It was neat to eat in the castle and the princesses were great. It was slow though, our server wasn't good, and he wasn't thrilled with the food. I doubt I will get him to go back ever, but we can say we did it once!

We headed to Frontierland and got a rider swap pass for Splash Mountain. I forgot Nick had Wesley's magic band  and we needed it for the FastPass, so I had to hunt to find him. Once we had that, we quickly moved through and were on in no time. It was such a fun ride. Wes loved it and so did I.

Why am I the only one in our boat with my hands up? Wes had his up for all the little hills and a little on this one but had them down before the pic. I must say getting the ride pictures is one of the best reasons to buy the memory maker package. The photo pass photographers are more than willing to use your camera to take pics, but the ride pictures are such a fun thing to have!

We found Nick waiting in line for Jessie and Woody and they were almost to the front. We joined them. Wesley loved them. Norah did not. She was hot and tired, so I was surprised to find Nick in line to see them.

Oh, well. Nick and Wes then headed to splash mountain. It's a long ride and Norah was tired, so I decided to go for a walk after redoing our sunscreen. I found some lemonade and a bench and waited after a little walk.

Nick's boat was obviously more fun!

The next ride was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Wes asked me to go first again, so I did. We rode in the very front. It was fun but not nearly as smooth as the brand new Seven Dwarves Mine Train was a couple of days before. Wes loved it though and was delighted to take Nick on it. Wesley definitely got the best end of the rider swap, getting to ride all these headliners twice, once with each of us!

While Nick and Wes rode, Norah and I started walking to Haunted Mansion, our last scheduled FastPass. She was still up and in need of a nap. She did fall asleep on the way there. Nick and Wes met us there and we went in. It seemed like more waiting than we had for most of our FastPasses, but it was still much shorter than standby. It may have been that I was just tired of standing and walking at this point in the trip.

After that, I scheduled another FastPass. The parade wasn't available, and the Peter Pan ride was again out until late and meeting Tinkerbell wasn't open until 8, so I signed up for Tomorrowland speedway.

We had lunch at Be Our Guest. There was a ridiculous line for lunch as supper reservations are mostly impossible to get and it is brand new. Luckily, if you stay on property, you often get invited to sign up for a lunch time ahead of time and forego the line. We did this and even pre-ordered. It was a little weird to order our lunch around 3 weeks ahead of time, but they did ask if we wanted to change anything. It was around 2 and we were hungry, so we didn't. We sat down and minutes later our food magically appeared. Okay, they tracked us with our MagicBands, but it was still cool. Wes had grilled cheese and a cookie. Norah had macaroni and a cookie. Nick had a beef sandwich, fries and cupcake, I had a turkey sandwich, fries (well the kids ate most of mine), and a cupcake with the grey stuff (You've all seen the movie, right?! "Try the grey stuff, it's delicious!")


It was nice and cool in there and the drinks actually had free refills, so that was nice. Wes and Norah didn't really care for their food. Wes only ate a tiny bit of his grilled cheese, but of course ate his cookie and a bunch of my fries. I thought Norah would be getting macaroni and cheese, which she did... sort of. It was macaroni and a bowl of shredded cheese, which was weird. She didn't eat much of it and didn't want her cookie either.  I think she was hot. She drank all her milk, lots of water (which she normally doesn't love) and she did eat my fries. Nick and I had plenty of food, which was good since the kids liked our food better!

Outside of Be Our Guest

This was in the room we sat in.

These were in another room. The windows were made to look like it was snowing outside, which Wes found mesmerizing

After eating, we had a bathroom break and went to find a spot for the Festival of the Fantasy parade. We found a good spot on the curb near the castle, but it was HOT. It was sunny, and when I sat on the curb it burned through my shorts. I had heard great things about this parade and was stubborn enough to stay but put the kids' sun covers up on the stroller. We had luckily stopped for ice water (it's free in the parks, thank goodness), but Nick went for more pretty quickly when we realized how hot it was going to be.

We saw Cinderella's Step Sisters as we walked to the parade.

It was about 2:45 with the parade starting at 3. A nearby cast member said it would be about 3:15 when they got to us. The kids were grumpy. I finally caved on the water spraying fan Wes had wanted since the first day but I thought was too expensive. He wasn't asking for it right then, and I knew the water would feel good for all of us, so we bought one. Worked like a charm for us! The girl next to us bought a bubble gun, which was a godsend as well. Norah thought it was so fun to see the bubbles (as usual) and Wesley blowing him with the fan was just too much! Ah, tantrums ended.

I was still so hot sitting on the cement until someone near us must have spilled their entire cup of ice water. It felt good but my butt was soaked! It was fine until we got up after the parade and I was so uncomfortable. I asked Nick if I looked like I peed my pants. He said we would just tell people I had just been on Splash Mountain, so I am pretty sure the answer was yes.

Prepare yourself for a bunch of parade pictures.

We had already met Anna and Elsa on Tuesday. Wes waved and said hi when he saw them in the parade which is considerable more than he did at the meet n greet. He was excited to see Olaf, too!

Rapunzel is so cute. Would have loved to meet her, but we had too many other characters that took priority!

Wes really liked the Peter Pan float!

Merida always had a huge line, too, and my kids haven't seen Brave, but it was fun to see her in the parade!

Malicent Dragon! This was really cool!

Snow White was walking with her dwarves

Alice and the Mad Hatter were hilarious. They came over to play with the bubbles that the little girl next to us had. 

The kids were delighted to see Minnie and Mickey at the end of the parade. 

Norah pointing out Minnie and Mickey!

Anyway, the parade was great. We got to see so many characters and the kids had fun. The floats were impressive! Norah was delighted to see Minnie again, of course, and Wesley liked the floats, and Anna! After the parade I attempted to find more shorts by they were so expensive and either too little or too big anyway, so I decided I would just walk around like that, annoyed as I was.



We went over to Tomorrowland Speedway. The height restriction on this is 32 inches, which I knew Norah was, but since she will only stand with help and only if she is in the mood, I was nervous. I really wanted both kids to ride since I remembered it from when I was little. I remember thinking Dad was really letting me drive and it is so vivid. Anyway, Norah cooperated and we were sent on our way. Wes rode with Nick and me with Norah. It was fun and Norah liked it once she got used to the noise.

After that, we let Wes and Norah play in the splash area again while I signed up for another FastPass. I was hoping for the Electric Parade since Nick and I decided to try to stay through the fireworks. It was out, so I signed up to meet Tinkerbell at 7:45. The kids were having fun in the splash area! I asked Wes if he wanted a dry shirt. He didn't. He was good with being wet since it was hot.

At this point, I asked Nick where the camera was. He looked worried and said he left it at the speedway. He took off in a sprint. I was so worried we had lost all of our pics. I didn't really want to have to pay for a new camera either, but to lose the pics from our first family trip to WDW would have been awful. Since you are seeing lots of pics, you know this story has a happy ending. He got there, described the bag, and it was there along with everything that was left it it. Crisis averted.

While that was happening, the kids and I headed for Dumbo. I saw groups of three and figured worst case scenario, I could take them both on it. But... Nick came back quickly and joined us in line. It was nice and cool in the waiting area and there were benches, so the wait was a piece of cake. The kids played and our buzzer went off in no time. They need more waiting areas like Dumbo's!

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We rode Dumbo again and it was fun this time, too. It's such a nice, classic ride!

After Dumbo, we went to see Mickey's Philarmagic. This was another great show, but Norah didn't care for the water spray. Wes wore his 3D glasses, which was a pleasant surprise. It was nice to be in the a/c since it was pretty hot.

We started walking for main street with the intention of riding the train around once to get a break. The short Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it! parade was about to start again, so we stopped to watch that.

After the parade and two separate potty breaks (can't trust Wes when he says he doesn't have to go, I guess...), we waited for and rode the train. We rode the train around and it was a nice break. I was hoping to be able to see more of the park from the train, but it was nice anyway.

We got off and had dinner at Cosmic Ray's. I wasn't hungry, but the kids were. They had a hotdog meal and both ate a ton. My phone was dead, so I was hoping to use their charging stations, but they were full the whole time. Oh well. Nick and I took a few pics in front of the Castle, including some magic shots! I wish we had done more of these.

We were supposed to look down. Nick doesn't follow directions, as you can see!

We then walked to meet Tinkerbell. It was a cute set up and Wes really liked her. I asked her about flying during Wishes and Wes told her we had met Peter Pan.

Aw.....

 After we left Tinkerbell, we realized the people on Main Street were already lining up for the Electric Parade at 9. So, we sat down with nearly an hour's wait ahead of us. Wes played with his fan and I let Norah look at pictures on Nick's phone which she liked. In hindsight, I would have ridden another ride or two and found a spot to watch in Frontierland, which is the last viewing area to fill in.

Waiting. This fan provided lots of entertainment. He even still plays with it at home.

These balloons were neat and lit up. 

The electric parade was great. I have never seen anything like it and the kids loved it. We moved further from the castle, closer to the train station to watch the projection show on the Castle and Wishes. We had a dead on view, but it was way less crowded and it would be easier to leave. The kids both fell asleep waiting, so only Nick and I saw the projection show (Celebrate the Magic). It was so neat. I wish the kids could have seen it, but I am glad we did.

Nick tools lots of pics of the castle as it got darker out.

Then, it was time for Wishes. We could clearly see Tinkerbell's flight this time, which was really neat! From the boat on Tuesday it was more of a green dot, but not this time! We watched a while but left during the finale. I felt like "those people" leaving early, but we were tired. We had been at MK for over 14 hours and it was time for rest.

We saw the bus for Pop Century leaving as we approached the bus stop. This ended up being fine as we were first on and got good seats. The bus was there within 5 minutes and left shortly after since it was a busy time of the day. The kids were both asleep the whole ride. We had a hard enough time waking Wes up to get on the bus so Nick could carry the stroller, but he did. When we got back to Pop Century, another woman on the bus offered to carry the stroller off the bus so we could carry the sleeping children. That was SO nice. We could have made Wes wake up, but it was nice not to have to! The kids slept in their clothes that night and barely noticed being put into bed, if they noticed at all. I think Nick and I were both asleep about as soon as we hit the bed.

Thursday was such a fun day but definitely tiring. Having done a break back at the resort one of our Magic Kingdom days and not the other, I am not sure what was best. The kids didn't nap at all when we did come back, but it was more downtime. Taking a break on the train was nice and the kids did both sleep in the stroller at different times. Being at one of the monorail hotels would definitely make breaks easier or having a car. Having a car is probably more feasible that paying for a monorail hotel, so we will consider flying into Sansford airport next time and renting a car since the money would have been about a wash. I did truly enjoy the magical express bus ride to the resort though! The kids will likely be much older next time but breaks might be okay anyway!