Magic Kingdom was the day that I was most excited about, but also a little nervous about. There is SO MUCH to do at Magic Kingdom, and I knew we would want to experience as much as we could, and the thought always struck me as a bit daunting.
*If you missed the first two days of our trip, we spent the first day at Animal Kingdom and our second day at Hollywood Studios. Feel free to catch up from the beginning before reading this post!
One thing that our Disney travel agent, Alicia, mentioned, that I thought was a wonderful idea, was doing Tinker Bell gifts each night. It works sort of like Santa or the Easter Bunny – Tinker Bell comes in at night and leaves a gift. It was a fun little addition to our trip and the girls weren’t expecting it. I didn’t mention that Tinker Bell sometimes does this ahead of time, so when they saw their first gift, they were very excited. Alicia mentioned getting them small things that are inexpensive or that you were planning on getting them anyway. The first night she left some light up wands that she found in the Target dollar section 😉
The second night (for the day we went to Magic Kingdom) she left some adorable Minnie Mouse ear warmers that the girls wore on and off for the rest of the trip (it was surprisingly cool for a few days).
Day 3 – Magic Kingdom
The very first thing we did when we got into the park was visit Tinker Bell. The wait took longer than we expected, but we made it in there and the girls were so excited. Tinker Bell is a talker! She was cracking me up. Raley told her thank you for the ear warmers. <3
So, the plan was to see Tinker Bell and ride the Ariel ride, and maybe something else before our 10:30 reservation at Crystal Palace. Well the morning got off to a very slow start. The Tinker Bell line took way longer than the wait time indicated. We stood in a line to get a picture in front of the castle and then both girls were whining and wouldn’t smile. That made me quite angry (I failed on not sweating the small stuff on this occasion. Just put a smile on your face and it will be over!) 😡
Then after all of that frustration, we got in line for the Ariel ride, which had a wait time of 15 minutes, but then it broke down. So we had to get out of line and go to lunch. By noon, the only thing we had accomplished was meeting Tinker Bell and I was getting a little worried about how we were going to get everything done. Yes, there was still 9 hours until fireworks, but it seemed like there was still so much to do!
Crystal Palace turned our moods around though. The Winnie the Pooh characters are just so sweet. Tigger was hopping with Audrey. Pooh and Eeyore give the sweetest hugs. And Piglet is just adorable. The food was amazing too – it was buffet style with all kinds of yummy breakfast options – bacon, smoked sausage, hashbrown casserole, breakfast lasagna, waffles, fruit, etc. My favorite was the puffed french toast covered in sugar, which tasted like those donuts you get at a Chinese buffet.
We tried again after breakfast for another picture in front of the castle, and were successful this time. We also got to catch a quick parade down Main Street.
Now that everyone was in a better mood (including myself), it was time to get to having some fun. The girls had been asking to ride the Ariel ride, so that was the first thing we did. Before breakfast, we had grabbed a rider switch pass for David, Raley and I to come back and ride the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We had a FastPass for this ride, but it wasn’t until 8:50 that evening. We weren’t sure if the girls would still be going by then, plus we’d have to make our way over there after fireworks were over, so we thought if there was a way to ride it earlier in the day, we would trade the later FP for a different ride. This worked out great!
Raley was excited to ride this one too, but just like Slinky Dog she said it went too fast. There was a part where it slowed way down and rode through the mine with the Seven Dwarfs singing that she enjoyed. She did say that she liked it better than Slinky, but she didn’t want to ride it again. We were very proud of her for being so big, though.
While we rode Seven Dwarfs, my dad hopped in line to meet Rapunzel and Tiana at the Princess Fairy Tale Hall. We met him there, threw the girls princess dresses on them, and got to meet them shortly after. I’ll never tire of the sight of awe on their faces when they meet their favorite characters. It’s just the sweetest!
One of our FastPasses was for the Peter Pan ride, which had been down all morning. It was back up and running by the time we got done meeting Rapunzel and Tiana. Since the ride had been down, they gave us a Multiple Experiences pass, which meant that we could use it for Peter Pan (if it was working) or we could use it for just about any other attraction in the park. We contemplated using it for something else, but we had never ridden Peter Pan before and we wanted to see what all the fuss was about….and we are so glad we did!
This ride is probably my favorite children’s ride. If you’ve never done it before – put it on your list. You hop in a pirate ship which takes you into the air, flying over London and all through Never Land. It’s pretty fascinating. Raley enjoyed it so much, that she kept asking to do it again. Luckily we were able to make it happen the following night at the Christmas Party!
I love the look of the Rapunzel area of Fantasyland. I wish there were more to do there!
We decided at this point that it was time for a snack, so we made our way to Sleepy Hollow to grab a fruit and Nutella waffle. Holy moly, was it good!!
We found what we thought would be a good spot to sit on a wall next to the castle. We were able to see the parade going by and we all chowed down on pieces of the delicious snack. This was great until the parade was over and this nice spot turned into the main gateway for everyone leaving the parade. We were sort of barricaded in by all of these people around us. We ended up finishing our snack, the crowd cleared, and we were able to get out of there. This is still one of my favorite moments of the day, even with all of the people crowded around. As far as the girls were concerned, we were in our own little bubble, enjoying a nice snack as a family.
Next on the list was Dumbo! Dumbo is unique because it has a little playground where kids can play while you wait in line. We were able to play for a bit, then hopped in line to ride. The girls really enjoy these type rides that go in the air and around in a circle. Audrey was my little co-pilot on this one and she was too cute.
Once this was done, David and I rode Space Mountain twice using FP (my parents were not interested in riding so we used their passes) then made our way to the castle for a show called “Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire” staring Mickey and friends, Rapunzel, Flynn and the Ruffians, Tiana and Prince Naveen, Anna, Elsa, and Olaf. It was a neat little show and it was pretty adorable to see Raley singing her heart out to some of the songs. I think Audrey was a little tired because she was a little more reserved during this show than she typically is.
Since we were able to ride Seven Dwarfs earlier in the day, we traded that FP in for the Jungle Cruise. We made our way to Adventureland to make our FP time. If you’ve ever ridden the Jungle Cruise, you know it’s one corny joke after another….Raley thought this was the funniest thing! She said “Daddy, she’s funny like you!” She still talks about those jokes the girl was telling on the ride.
Next up – Aladdin’s Magic Carpets. Raley did a great job steering the carpets. Audrey was sitting in the back with Mimi and Papa with her hands up saying “Weeee!” It was pretty doggone adorable.
We enjoyed some Dole Whip for a few minutes, then noticed the Magic Carpets line was even shorter, so we hopped back in line and rode it again!
*A note on Dole Whip – the float is the way to go! Agh, I want some now!
We decided to grab a quick bite to eat at our favorite – Casey’s Corner. Their mini corn dogs have always been mine and David’s favorite, and the girls loved them too! The best!
We had enough time to ride the carousel and the tea cups (two rides they’d been asking to do) before finding a spot to park it for fireworks.
David and Audrey stayed put while Raley and I walked to the end of Main Street to the sweet shop for a late night treat. The place was an absolute madhouse when we got in there, which I didn’t expect. I was also going to stop for hot chocolate at Starbucks, but that line was a mile long as well, so that didn’t happen. It was difficult to get back to where David was (we were pretty close to the castle) but we found our way.
Raley sat on David’s shoulders for the Happily Ever After show and belted out all the songs. Audrey was very, very tired at this point. I was holding her, but she had a hard time keeping her head up to watch. She wanted to watch it so bad, but just couldn’t keep her head up for more than about 5 seconds at a time. She managed to stay awake until the show was over, but fell asleep in probably less than a minute after laying her down in her stroller.
The Happily Ever After show is my favorite of all of the nighttime spectaculars. The graphics on the castle are amazing!
It was crazy trying to get out of there after the fireworks were over! People were shoulder to shoulder, pushing and shoving, everyone trying to get to the same place. It took a good 40 minutes to get from Magic Kingdom, onto the monorail, and back to the ticket and transportation center where our car was parked. Raley passed out before we ever got on the monorail, and luckily both girls stayed asleep until we put them in their car seats. They both woke up briefly then fell back asleep, and stayed asleep when we got back to the resort. We changed them into their jammies and we all called it a night.
*Note – when you stay on site at Disney, there is a complementary bus service to and from the resorts. After talking with several people about driving vs. taking the bus, we decided that we would drive to the parks each day, and I don’t regret this decision one bit. On this particular night, my parents had left to go to Disney Springs. If we had rode the bus instead of driving, David and I would have been trying to carry two sleeping children, two folded up strollers, plus our bags on a very crowded bus. Not exactly what I want to do at 10:30 pm after a very long day. I would choose to drive a thousand times over! Also, it allowed us to be more in control of coming and going, in case we needed to leave quickly (if someone got hurt or sick, just really needed a nap, etc.)
The day started off rocky, but overall we had a great day and were able to do more than I had anticipated. We tried to listen to the girls and do the things that they said they really wanted to do, and it ended up working out great!
In case you missed it:
Day 1 – Animal Kingdom
Day 2 – Hollywood Studios
Tomorrow – Ohana + Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
Day 5 – Epcot
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