Magic Kingdom

Our second day at Disney was spent at Magic Kingdom.  After it took us quite a while to get up and out the door for Epcot the day before, Phil convinced me to cancel our coveted 8:45 breakfast reservations at Be Our Guest restaurant in the Beast's castle. I was really excited about going inside the castle, but it was only a quick serve meal, and we would have had to have been on the bus for the park by 7:15am. Yikes. I had grabbed us snacks and breakfast food from Walmart (a great place to pick up some small souvenirs and more Mickey t's for the hubby, btw!) so we made much better time (and were much less stressed) getting to the park. 

Everything was decorated for the fall, and it was truly magical walking through the gates. I like all the parks, but this one is my favorite as it feels the most like Disney. Our first stop once inside was to the Fire Dept. for Sorcerer of the Magic Kingdom cards (Thank you Pinterest!). Although we didn't play the game, the kids were super excited to get the cards to add to their card collections at home (and free souvenirs, woohoo!). 

Nothing like seeing Cinderella's castle in the distance!

The first ride we came to was the carousel, and we hopped right on.

Even Grandpa went for spin...

We all also loved the iconic Dumbo ride! The newish indoor playground where you spent time instead of waiting in such a long line was a great idea, too. The only problem was finding your kids and getting them to leave when the buzzer went off!

We met up with Aladdin in Agrabah (while Phil and I shared a famous Disney Dole Whip) and then rode on his magic carpet.

Up up and away!

The kids loved watching the parades, hearing the music, and seeing all the characters they recognized. They would holler out their names as soon as they saw them.

Trying to get a better view (before he was told he couldn't stand there. boo.)...

We had our character lunch with Winnie the Pooh and friends at the Crystal Palace. Unfortunately, we had the worst luck in timing and sat down just after two characters had gone through our section. We ended up having to wait over an hour to get all four autographs. We had to pull out the phones to entertain the kids, who hardly ate a thing. However, we adults enjoyed our meals and the extra time for seconds at the dessert bar. ;) 

Claire was excited to see them but too afraid to have her picture taken with/give hugs to the characters...the covered faces were scarier than the princesses, I suppose. She did enjoy her ice cream, though. 

Avery asked Eeyore if he was a boy or a girl..because of the pink bow on his tail. He flexed his muscles to let Avery know he is a boy! Glad that's cleared up! :)

Claire cried after this picture because she'd finally warmed up enough to give Pooh a high five, and then he didn't see her. Poor sis. 

They're planning the rest of our day while on the people mover!

Phil was super excited about the Mad Hatter ride. He enjoys spinning it super fast while the rest of us get sick to our stomachs. ;) Mimi and Grandpa had a much more leisurely ride.

Claire always puts her hand like this on fast rides...not sure why.

Spinning!!!!

What a handsome guy! Don't let that innocent smile fool you though. He was out for blood...or vomit. Thankfully, there was none of either. 

Photo op with Dad on It's a Small World

We were so excited to have fast passes to The Seven Dwarves Mine Train (as well as Little Mermaid and The Haunted Mansion). The standby line for this was 210 minutes long when we waltzed in. Oh.My.Goodness. Who waits that long? Don't get me wrong, we all loved it. All like 2 minutes of it. Avery was not in love with roller coasters after riding one at Lego Land, but we convinced him to get on because it was a "train" (bad mommy and daddy), and he actually ended up loving it. Now, he's decided he likes rollercoasters, too. Claire was excited and is all ready to go with her hand over her heart. :)

Speaking of roller coasters, we managed to snag a last minute, late fast pass for the Barnstormer which was all the way back by Dumbo and no where near where we were. We decided to hop on the train, which dumped us off right by the ride. We left our stroller in Frontierville (land...?), thinking we'd just ride the train right back when we were done. Sadly, we didn't realize that the train stops running at a certain time. We then had to huff it all the way back across the park sans stroller with kids on our backs. We survived, but I was even more certain that this stroller is worth its weight in gold.

We thought about staying for the fireworks show, but this is what the kiddos looked like, and the line for the buses afterwards would have been crazy. We instead opted to head out and beat the rush. It was still a very long but fun filled day.