I did tell him he might want to sit out my crazy morning plan, however. The girls and I (and my parents) woke up early enough to get ready, grab a couple of muffins, and head out to catch the first ferry over to the Magic Kingdom. At that point, it was only drizzling, and I (mistakenly) had hopes that it would stop later in the afternoon. My goal? To let the girls meet Elsa and Anna. When we first planned the trip and were able to make our FastPass reservations, all the Elsa and Anna slots were gone. And with nearly two-hour waits, this was going to be my only attempt to make the meeting happen, especially since Elsa has really lost interest in anything Frozen-related, and Avie is heading that direction as well. But Elsa had decided that since she was Elsa, she should really meet the ice queen. So I figured I'd give it the ole' college try.
We floated across the water and arrived at the park probably about 10 or 15 minutes before it opened. By that point, it was starting to come down a little harder. For some reason, I was a little shocked at how many people were there that early (7:45 a.m.) and in the rain. My dear parents went through the bag check line for me with our backpack, and then said their plan of attack would be to rent the stroller and meet us at the Elsa and Anna building. Thankfully the rain had died back down for the most part, as we waited for the gates to open. The girls and I stood close together, with me holding Avie on my left hip and holding Elsa's hand with my right hand. This is how we remained while hearing the final countdown to the opening of the park and watching fireworks shoot off into the sky. I think it was equal parts totally insane and completely whimsical, as we raced down the street, as fast as our feet could carry us without running, "Zipp-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" playing over the speakers, and all the storekeepers in costume, standing at the curb, waving and singing along. I was gripping poor Elsa's hand to make sure we wouldn't get separated, and things started getting interesting as paths split and narrowed as we approached the castle. I opted to route us directly through the castle, figuring that would be the most direct route, albeit the narrowest path. Elsa hung in there as we walked faster and faster. We nearly reached the carousel as we exited the castle, where under normal circumstances you would veer right and be right at Elsa and Anna's building. However, the Disney staff were smart to avoid the chaos of complete swarming, and forced us all to go completely around the carousel and enter the line from the opposite side. As we got in line and wove through the maze of ropes and railing, I squeezed Elsa's hand, saying "We made it!" And made it we did. Somehow we ended up being the third group to meet Elsa and Anna. (Now I am certain there is more than one set of Elsas and Annas, so we likely lucked out with missing a cut off for one set and were put in line for a second set or something.)
The princesses were really in character and, that being the case, Elsa was not the warmest person to meet. The girls were more in awe of her than anything, and Elsa decided not to even tell her that her name was Elsa. Anna, on the other hand, was the warm, sweet, bubbly princess she plays in the movie, and the girls have her big hugs. The girls really enjoyed meeting them, and the craziness of getting there just made the entire experience more rewarding.
When we exited, we noticed the wait for meeting Cinderella and Rapunzel, who resided in the same building, just the opposite side, was only ten minutes, so we went ahead and knocked them out while we were at it. My mom came in with us to meet them. Cinderella was lovely, and Rapunzel ended up being Elsa's favorite. I am sure that had something to do with the fact that Rapunzel asked Elsa questions, and told her that purple was her favorite color as well, and that she also loved art and hoped they could draw or paint together sometime.
After Princess Lalapalooza, we headed to meet Jarrett at our breakfast reservation at The Crystal Palace—a character breakfast with the Winnie the Pooh gang. As is protocol for Disney, the chef let me know what was safe to eat as far as being gluten free, but since this was a buffet, I got a full-on tour. The whole having-to-talk-to-the-chef-every-time-before-I-ordered thing honestly had begun to get a little annoying, but I totally understand why they do it, and I think it is great that they are so serious about food allergies and sensitivities. And talking with this chef made me realize they really do care. He seemed very proud of his job and the food they offered. The food ended up being pretty good, and it was fun to meet Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eyeore, and Tigger.
Sadly, while we were enjoying our breakfast, the rain really started coming down outside. Thankfully, Jarrett was smart before he headed over to the park that morning, and purchased a couple of umbrellas and a poncho to put over the front of the stroller. As usual, it was taking awhile to settle up and pay at the end of the meal, so I went ahead and took the girls and told Jarrett and my parents to meet us at the front of the park, hoping we might run into another character or two. There was quite a line for Minnie Mouse, though Pluto's line was not much shorter. I gave the girls a choice between the two and, somewhat surprisingly, they both agreed on Pluto. So Pluto it was.
Our first FastPass reservation was for Pirates of the Caribbean, so we headed to Adventureland. Before riding Pirates, though, we decided to do the Tikki Room show. This was at least a dry place to sit, which ended up being a common theme for our day. The girls seemed to enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean, with a little hesitancy from Aveline. I think they were beginning to wonder why Mommy's favorite rides were on the scarier side of Disney's attractions. Next up was Jungle Cruise. Another ride on water. How ironic. Elsa and Avie really liked seeing all of the animals, and I had forgotten how fun the elephants are.
After Jungle Cruise, we split off from my parents again, with the plan to meet up with them early in the evening at It's a Small World, for which they and the girls had a FastPass reservation. They were going to take over watching the girls from that point, and Jarrett and I were going to have the evening to do our own thing.
Our afternoon consisted of attempting to stay as dry as possible, which proved to be difficult since we had to fight to keep the girls in the double stroller, where we could cover them with the poncho as much as possible. Their poor feet were soaked by the end of the day. Those shoes did not dry out for days after getting back home. But, otherwise, we did stay decently dry, mostly by doing a lot of the indoor attractions, watching the shows, etc. We had quite the frustrating lunch—it was so crowded and, of course, everyone wanted to be inside. Otherwise, we watched the Bear Country Jamboree, Mickey's Philharmagic show (which ended up being really good), and the Hall of Presidents. We also road the Buzz Lightyear ride, as well as the Carousel of Progress. It actually worked out very well that we saved all of these activities for the second day.
We handed over our wet and tired girls to my parents for their one last exciting ride, and then they headed back to the lodge for a dry off and dinner before getting ready for bed. In the meantime, Jarrett and I took off for our FastPass reservation for Space Mountain, which was a lot of fun, and a good start to the remainder of our evening. We then also headed back to the lodge, after a quick stop by the Disney Starbucks, to get ready for a dinner reservation at the more upscale restaurant on the Wilderness Lodge property, Artist Point.
Dinner was really delicious. I had read reviews that it was quite good, but I still had reservations as to how true those reviews really were. The restaurant is themed after the Pacific Northwest, so there is a lot of Oregon wine on the menu (perfect), and the food is also themed after that area's cuisine. So I started with a beet salad that was divine, and then had a steak with a mushroom sauce that was very yummy. We decided to hold off on dessert and get something later, as we were headed back to the park, sans kids.
Oh my goodness, we really had a lot of fun together that evening. Parents becoming kids. What could be better. And we really lucked out, as the rain pretty much stopped and it ended up feeling warm enough that we were able to don short sleeves. We rode Thunder Mountain Railroad (super fun!), Pirates of the Caribbean (again... because I love it), Splash Mountain (ended up being Jarrett's favorite), climbed the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, and even stood in line for the newest ride, Dwarf Mine Train, as the wait had gotten down to 50 minutes (stayed around 2 hours most of the time we were there). Honestly, it really was not worth the wait, but it was fun to say we had done it. The park was open until 1:00 a.m., and we nearly closed the place down. But, as we were headed out of the park, we decided to see Mickey one last time. He was still amazing.
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| Space Mountain |
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| Splash Mountain |
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| Dwarf Mine Train |
We even saw some of the fireworks and part of the electrical parade, as we strolled through the park in the dark. It really was such a fun time together, and a nice way to end our time in the Magic Kingdom.
Sunday morning consisted of packing up, eating breakfast at the Whispering Canyon Cafe once more, and then getting on the Disney Magical Express (full-size travel bus) to head to the airport. My parents woke up and left early enough that morning that we did not even see them. Our connecting flight was delayed out of Atlanta, which made for a later arrival time home, but we made it. It was a whirlwind, very full trip, but so fun. I am thankful for the memories we were able to create. Next time (many, many years from now), though, bring on the sunshine!
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| My brother wanted a picture of the girls with Goofy... we finally found him in the Orlando airport. |
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