Disney: Magic Kingdom

We decided to avoid all Halloween related events on Halloween to allow for early bedtimes for our dark-thirty morning ahead of us.

We hit the ground running with a 7:05 AM character breakfast at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary Resort.  We were thrilled to have first row parking at the transportation center AND no one at the ticket booth to collect money for parking; let's hear it for something that was FREE!  After walking in circles to find open transportation to get us to the Contemporary (we missed the memo that nothing opened until 7 AM), we were finally on our way around 7:05 AM via bus.

But this is Disney and no one was going to turn away two little ones for breakfast, right?  :)

Evie was nervous going into the breakfast, but by the end, she was willing to stand with the characters without clinging to an adult.  Here's the photo dump of the breakfast; it was such a fun way to start off the Disney experience... and a good way to stuff our bellies before a busy day.

Eat up kids, it's like $40 per person for breakfast!

The Mickey waffles were so cute

First up, Goofy

Mickey was the one they were least
enthusiastic to see

Evie was excited to have Minnie's autograph

No adults!  Go Evie girl

Pure joy from Braylen

Donald got confused which tables he visited,
so we got to see him two times.  By the second time,
Eive was ok to go without Poppop

Pluto was my favorite as a kid and still is.  

Braylen thought it was hilarious Pluto signed on top of his snout

The group with our 2nd favorite dog

We took the scenic route to the Magic Kingdom on the monorail.

We're here!

The crowds were light, so we thought we would try to the 7 Dwarf Mine roller coaster.  HA!  Already a 50 minute wait.  Clearly that is where everyone was!  The crowds were actually manageable, if not light, for the first two hours.  We hit up way more than I expected, even characters!

A classic: The tea-cups

Evie at the wheel at the Speedway

Everyone survived Bray and Evie's driving

The Barnstormer roller coaster

Another classic

G, normally not a ride person, going all out!  :)

5 minute wait to see Ariel, don't mind if we do

You couldn't pay me enough to wear
shells in front of millions of people

The Little Mermaid is a favorite of mine
I enjoyed singing along on the "ride"

Since our experience with Ariel wasn't disastrous and the line for Enchanted Tales with Belle wasn't long, we went for it.  Lisa had prepared me ahead of time what to expect, so I was a little hesitant my slow-to-warm-up children would dislike participating in the story.  I am so glad we waited in Belle's little cottage for 20 minutes.  This was probably the highlight of my day; Jason was the first one to be picked to be in the play.  Talk about slow-to-warm-up kid ;)  Braylen was a dish while Evie was completely content to be in the audience with me.

Beautiful Belle having a talk with Lumiere

Braylen... could he be any cuter?

Yes.

We moved to the "older area of MK" as I like to call it since Little Mermaid and Beauty and Beast were not made when I went in 1988.  We rode Peter Pan's Flight, which I remember as a kid and I was impressed how current it seemed.  Disney does a fabulous job of up keeping their rides.  We spared ourselves singing "It's a Small World" the rest of the day by doing Mickey's Philharmonic 3D show instead.   What a treat that was (besides the toddler behind us that wanted nothing to do with the show).

There is nothing cool about 3D glasses

The Sword in the Stone was one of the few VHS my grandparents owned, therefore Laura and I grew up watching that one many times.  It was my little reminder that this trip was more possible because of them.

The further we got into the day, the less the camera came out due to more management of tired children.  We spent some time over in Tomorrowland riding the orbiter, Space Mountain for me and Jason (first time for me), and Buzz LightYear's Ride.  Braylen LOVED the Buzz ride; shooting all the targets is a boy's dream I guess.  I preferred the pretty music of The Little Mermaid :)

I think the operator said this is one of the highest
rides in the Magic Kingdom

Our travel agent (moi) neglected to schedule in the 3PM parade.  G and Poppop were separated from us at the time and happened to be in the right place at the right time.  The kids totally missed it.  G had to rub it in that I missed "all the characters" and how "fabulous" it was.  Thanks Mom.  But Disney is magical and God hooked me up with being at the right place for another "fabulous" opportunity to see characters; a friendship party at the castle.  Evie had been wanting to see Rapunzel... she got to see her.  Plus some other bonuses!

Oh yes, Anna, Elsa, and Olaf.  

Elsa sang "Let It Go".
All is well.

And fireworks?!   Guilty feelings are gone

At this point it is after 4PM, we started our day around 6 AM, and things started to unravel.  We hit a few more rides and caught some Muppets in action.

Good ole Kermit and Ms. Piggy

The chickens...

It was close to 6 PM when we got the ferry back to the transportation center.  Yes, we used just about every mode of transportation over the last 24 hours...  Dinner, bath, and bed all done by 7:30 PM.  Tomorrow, a "rest" day at the resort.

Good-bye Magic Kingdom!
(Notice the Christmas decorations up!)