March 27 – Magic Kingdom

Morning came early for us…but we didn’t have EMH, so we were able to sleep in a little.  It was obvious Lydia would be slow moving from this day forward. She’s not a morning person…and neither is Alaina. We headed out the door with no problems and were on our way to MK by 8:15ish.  Again, having a room near the West Depot was pretty awesome.  We were in the park not long after opening. Our first stop was Tomorrowland.  Astro Orbiter and Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin were our first two attractions. The girls absolutely loved AO. Lydia wasn’t fan of BLSRS…and her ride picture made that very obvious.  We took a quick restroom break then Alaina took the girls to the PeopleMover. Caleb made his way to Space Mountain. The plan was for Caleb and Alaina to swap out since Lydia wasn’t tall enough to ride.  However, SM was down when Caleb got in line, so he joined Alaina and the girls on PM. This is one of our favorite rides in all of DW.  The views are awesome and you get to see a piece of the original EPCOT plans.  SM was still down when we got off the PM, so we decided to go on with our plans. We took the back way to Fantasyland…which should be nicknamed “smokers pathway.”  It was a good shortcut, but you have to endure the smoke.  We got in line for Barnstormer…which ended up being Caleb’s very first rollercoaster experience. We all loved it, but it’s very short.

Next we went over to Dumbo. We had heard about the play area inside the que where children could play while they waited. When the girls saw it, they begged and begged to play. Unfortunately, the play area isn’t open if the ride wait time is less than 20 minutes. We could have played, but we would have lost our place in line.  The girls whined about our decision not to play for the remainder of the wait. Fortunately, the line moved quickly and all was forgiven once we were up in the air flying with Dumbo.  From here we walked over to Under the Sea with Ariel.  We had roughly 40 minutes before our Be Our Guest lunch reservation. The wait time said 20 minutes, but it seemed a little longer…I don’t think it was, but Alaina was paranoid about checking in late for the BOG reservation.  The ride was awesome and we finished with plenty of time to spare.  Eating in the Beast’s castle was one of the things we were most excited about for our trip. We very wisely pre-ordered online. Once we checked in we were able to get through the line much faster.  Since this was our first time visiting, we weren’t 100% sure how seating worked.  We knew we didn’t want to dine in the West Wing, but the ballroom would have been our first choice.  A Cast Member who saw it was obviously our first time lead us back to the back room of the restaurant where the statue of Belle and Beast sits. It was a pretty room, but there was nothing extremely special about it.  Caleb had the Croque Monsieur. Alaina had the French dip sandwich. The girls had grilled cheese sandwiches and turkey noodle soup…which they wouldn’t touch. For dessert we had the Master’s Cupcake (we tried the grey stuff…it was delicious) and a strawberry cream cheese cupcake. Lunch was good, but not incredible. We actually preferred the strawberry cupcake over the grey stuff.

After lunch we posed for a few pictures in front of Beast Castle.  Again, Lydia was obviously not amused…but to be fair we were standing in direct sunlight and she had no sunglasses. We made our way to the front of the park. We caught a little of the dance party happening around the castle, but we didn’t linger. Like most mid-day rides, Lydia fell asleep on the bus ride back to the resort.  We all rested and caught our second wind. We headed back to MK. We had a FastPass for Enchanted Tales with Belle but we arrived a little bit early, so we caught Mickey’s Friendship Faire on the castle stage.  This was a cute show. Caleb was able to get some great pictures. We posed for a few pictures in front of the castle while we were there.

We made our way back to Fantasyland and checked in for our FP.  Hattie was given the role of the puppy/ottoman (I think). Lydia was the guardarobe.  The girls really enjoyed being part of the play. They each got to meet Belle. Lydia was very quick to point out she had Belle on her shirt. It was a very adorable moment. After meeting Belle we made our way over to the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. It was time for our FP but the ride was temporarily down. The cast member told us it would be back up soon, so we waited probably 10 minutes and we were allowed to go through the line.  We all loved this ride and wished would could have ridden it again. Next we moved on to the carousel, which never disappoints. We decided to take a break for supper at Pinocchio Village Haus. We all had flat breads and they were delicious. Both girls cleaned their plates. After a quick restroom break we made our way to Winnie the Pooh. This was our final FP for the day, so Alaina searched to see if we find another FP.  We were able to get one for Tomorrowland Speedway. While we waited for the FP window to open, we rode the teacups.  We let the girls control our spinning and they had a lot of fun with that.  We still had a few minutes to kill before our FP so we sat down and people watched near TS. We didn’t get many moments to do this on this trip so it was nice to just sit and enjoy the atmosphere…well “enjoy” as much as you can with restless children. 

We walked over to TS and was thankfully able to bypass a very long line.  The girls enjoyed getting to somewhat “drive”, but this ride isn’t anything special. From here we walked over to the Carousel of Progress. This was a ride Caleb and Alaina really wanted to ride, but we weren’t sure if they girls would like it. In fact, we were actually going to skip it if we didn’t have the extra time to ride it. We had finished our touring plan for the day so we had plenty of time to ride.  While we waited, Caleb made friends with a couple behind us. They thought they were waiting in line for an actual carousel. Caleb had to explain what the ride was. When the doors opened we were able to get seats in the middle of the theater. Not only did Caleb and Alaina love the ride, the girls did too! Hattie sang the song for the rest of the evening. We were so glad we didn’t have to skip it.  We checked the wait time for Space Mountain again and it was over an hour.  No ride is worth that kind of wait, so we all made peace with the fact that SM probably wasn’t going to happen on this trip. We took another spin on the PeopleMover. Seeing the castle lit up this time around was absolutely beautiful. 

At this point it was roughly 8PM.  Wishes fireworks was scheduled for 9PM.  Because we wanted to get a good spot in front of the castle, we decided to make our way to the hub area. Alaina sent Caleb for a Frappuccino and some popcorn.  While he was on that mission he stopped for a couple of solo photo opportunities. The longer we stood there the more the crowd started to fill in.  45 minutes later Caleb was back with our snacks. He said he wouldn’t be doing that again…navigating the crowd wasn’t fun.  Wishes was magical. We all loved it.  Once Upon a Time was scheduled for 9:30PM so we decided to stick around.  The crowd cleared out some, so we were able to move closer to the castle. Since OUAT is a projection show, being near the castle was important. We all loved this show as well. After it was over we made our way (slowly) to the front gate. We probably arrived back to the resort by 10:45PM.  After some quick baths we settled in for the night and quickly fell asleep.  I believe this was the point in the trip where Lydia was supposed to get a turn sleeping on the Murphy bed, but since she’s prone to roll in her sleep we opted to keep her in the other queen bed. This worked out for the best.

Notes for the day:     

We probably won’t do Be Our Guest again for lunch.  The restaurant is a must do at least once, but the food is just ok. Nothing was bad, we just expected it to be better.  Also, we should have ordered more than just 2 cupcakes. The girls probably would have eaten one of their own.

We did some backtracking again on this day, but mainly because of the stroller. We didn’t feel like we were walking in circles like we did the day before…this is largely due to the way MK is laid out.  The predicted crowd level was 8 and that’s the level we actually saw.  It was crowded but it never felt too crowded. Definitely manageable with the right touring plan. 

The next time we set up camp for fireworks, we’ll have our snacks in hand.  It was very difficult for Caleb to find us once he was finally able to get the snacks we wanted. 

At this point of the trip Alaina’s feet were bothering her.  Blisters were starting to form.  Switching out athletic shoes and wear thicker socks would have helped this problem, but she didn’t let this stop her.