Last Day at the Happiest Place on Earth

Our last day in Walt Disney World, (third day in Magic Kingdom) was spent visiting characters, shopping, watching parades and riding a few rides.  We did the things we didn't have time for on the other days; plus a few of our favorite rides. 

When we first got there in the morning, we hadn't eaten breakfast, so we splurged on some yummy cinnamon rolls and croissants from one of the Main Street Bakeries.  After that, we went to meet Cinderella, Belle and Aurora.

I love this one of Paige and Belle!

Aurora made Noah bashful

Then we rode the train around the park

After the train ride, we did some shopping for souveneirs, then all of a sudden, it was lunch time.  The parade was going to start soon, so we got some hot dogs and nachos and found a spot to watch the parade. 

The parade was a ton of fun!  We loved seeing all the characters, especially the ones that we hadn't seen yet. 

Bella and Noah LOVED it!

The step-sisters were my favorite.  I wish we could've met them and gotten pictures with them.  They were hilarious!

After the parade, we had to go ride Bella's favorite, It's a Small World and then Garrett and I went on Haunted Mansion while Maggie watched the kids.  Luckily, Noah fell asleep for her in the stroller and the other girls played with their new Princess Polly Pockets. 

Then Maggie and I went on Pirates, and then we all did Jungle Cruise one last time.  We finished up our shopping and then went back to the hotel to pack and have dinner and get to bed.  We had an early flight and so had to get up really early.  Ugh!

--The End--

Day 5: 2nd Day at Magic Kingdom

After visiting each of the parks, we decided that Magic Kingdom was definitely our favorite.  So, instead of going to the other parks another time (with the exception of Hollywood Studios), we spent the rest of our time at Magic Kingdom.  We didn't even get through the whole park on our first day, so that was our plan for today. 

The photographer told the kids to cover their eyes and told us to kiss.  The girls thought that was pretty silly. 

Garrett and Maggie ran off to get fast passes for Space Mountain, so we found characters and got our pictures taken with them.  First was Mary Poppins!

And then Pinnochio.  Lydia took this picture.

We headed over to Tomorrowland because we weren't able to get over there on the first day.  The first thing we did was to go to the show, "Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor" where you go and listen to the monsters tell jokes.  It's interactive though (kind of like the talk with Crush show), so that made it even funnier when they'd show pictures of people in the audience and they would participate somehow. 

We came out of that and it was raining.  That morning was the only time it rained though, thank heavens.  We split up so that Maggie and I could ride Space Mountain and Garrett took the other kids on the Buzz Lightyear ride.  Buzz Lightyear is kind of an arcade game while you ride.  Bella didn't like it very much, but the other kids did.  For me, Space Mountain was okay.  I'm not a big fan of rollercoasters in the dark.  I like to be able to see where I'm going.  To be honest, for some reason I felt really tall in my seat and I was really paranoid that my head was going to hit something on the ride.  I kept trying to scoot down in my seat so I wouldn't hit my head.  Then my neck hurt after.  I know...I'm kind of pathetic.  Maggie liked it a lot.  So, when we switched kids, Garrett and Maggie went on it twice.  

When I got the little kids, we went on Buzz Lightyear one more time.  And then we still had time so we went on the People Mover that takes you around all of Tomorrowland and tells you about the rides.  Bella loved this one.  She's so funny!

Then we went to race some cars at the Tomorrowland Speedway.  Paige drove me, Lydia drove Bella (I don't have a picture of them because they were a couple of cars ahead of us), Maggie was by herself and Garrett had Noah.

Garrett then took Bella, Noah and Paige on the TeaCups.  They are crazy--I don't do dizzy rides.  He said that he got it spinning really fast because Bella was loving it, but then he looked at Noah and had to slow it down because he looked really sick and dizzy.  He said it was the funniest thing ever.  Poor Noah.  I still can't get over Bella liking the Teacups so much. 

Then they went on it again, minus Noah.  I was walking him around trying to get him to sleep in the stroller.  Then we noticed that Rapunzel was going to be coming out in like 40 minutes.  So, I stood in line to wait for her, since the line was relatively short at that point and Garrett took the kids to eat lunch at the Starlight Cafe.  When she came out, we had to only wait a few minutes for our turn. 

Bella wanted to know where Pascal was.  Of course, she didn't ever ask, but I told Rapunzel that Bella wanted to know where Pascal was, so this is Rapunzel telling Bella.  Cute!

After seeing Rapunzel, we went back into the restaurant so I could eat my lunch, but by this point, Bella's stomach was really hurting and she was having some stomach issues.  So we had to keep racing back to the bathroom.  I really thought that I was going to have to take her back to the hotel, but we went and bought her a banana and had her eat that, and I said quite a few prayers in my head that she would feel better and after about an hour, she was doing much better and we were able to stay for the rest of the day. 

A different view of Cinderella's Castle

So for that hour, we had to stay pretty close to a bathroom.  So they rode the carousel a couple of times and Lydia tried to pull the sword out of the Stone.  She couldn't do it.  She got kind of mad though when she saw a smaller kid pull it out without any problems.  :)

After the Carousel, we went to watch Mickey's Philharmagic, since I missed it last time.  It was really cute.  Then we went on Peter Pan and It's a Small World again. 

Then Maggie and I went on Haunted Mansion and this is what they did while they waited for us.  I love the sad faces!

Lydia, Maggie and Garrett rode on Splash Mountain and I took the other three on Aladdin's Flying Carpet.  After that, we headed back to the hotel.  Since none of us were really hungry and we had a lot of snacks left on our dining plan, we loaded up on snacks and took them back to our hotel and ate some of the snacks, goofed off a little and then went to bed. 

Day 2: Magic Kingdom

After a good night sleep, we had a much better day. We headed to the Magic Kingdom, the place we were most excited about.  We didn't get there when it opened (that didn't happen any of the days), but we got there much earlier.

Trying to stare into the sunshine to get a picture when we first arrived.  It was bright!

A better picture in front of Cinderella's castle

Our first stop was the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House.  I've always loved this movie and the kids have seen it too, so they thought it was fun.

Then we hopped on a magic carpet...

...and went to meet Aladdin and Jasmine.  I know they are supposed to be in character and ham it up, so I have to give it to this guy who played Aladdin.  He cracked me up, he was SO into character.  Garrett, Maggie and I were just dying!

Then we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean and met up with Goofy.  Maggie wasn't too thrilled with the idea of being in the pictures with the characters.  Pre-teens--go figure!  Noah was pretty nervous about seeing any of the characters.

My family went to Disney world when I was about 11.  And one of our most favorite rides was Pirates.  We rode it over and over again and found it so fun and never thought it was "scary".  Maybe I did the first time, but don't remember that at all.  So, I was very excited to go on this ride...some of my kids didn't want to go, but we forced everyone on.  Big mistake.  The four youngest were scared and crying through the first part, where its dark and stormy and this voice is repeating over and over, "Dead men tell no tales"  and they show skeletons with big swords in their stomachs.  Ya, I guess I can see why they thought that was scary.  But after that...it wasn't so bad.  But they hated it and wouldn't go back a second time.  I guess I've got sensitive kids. 

After that, we went on the jungle cruise and everyone was happy with that.  They loved seeing all the animals.  When we got off the boat, we were heading over to frontierland for some lunch when we saw one of the princesses out taking pictures.  (I think it was Belle).  So we went to get in line, but she was about ready to take a break, so we couldn't get see her. 

But in the building next to it was a place to meet the fairies. Bella got very excited about this one and really wanted to stay even though the wait was 30 minutes. Garrett was dying. But, I reminded him that we're here for the kids and if Bella was excited about something, then we were going to do it. So, they got pictures with Tinkerbell and this other one (can't remember her name.)

After the fairies, we had a yummy fish and chips lunch at Liberty Square and when we were done, found another one of my favorite rides, The Haunted Mansion!!  I was so excited about this one.  Maggie was the only kid who would go on this with me, so Garrett waited with the other kids while we went. 

They had changed some things since I was a kid, but they still had my favorite part, which where you look over the banister from the second floor and you can watch all the ghosts dancing and having dinner. I also love the part at the end where you can see the ghosts riding in your "buggy" and they switch our heads. 

Then we watched "Country Bear Jamboree" which the little kids liked, and then we went on Splash Mountain.  Again, we had to split up on this one.  I think we actually had fast passes for this one, so Garrett took Maggie and Lydia and then I went with Maggie and Lydia.  I think this one was Lydia's favorite ride. 

Splash Mountain

Then we went on It's a Small World and this was the perfect ride for Bella and Noah.  Bella got such a kick out of this ride and seeing all the different kids.  She was pointing things out left and right.  Look at that grin!  As soon as it ended she was asking to ride it again.

Noah's big thing is waving right now, so he was waving to all the "kids" in it's a small world. 

We went to watch "Mickey's 3D Philharmagic" Show, but as we were waiting, Noah fell asleep on my shoulder and I didn't want the music from the show to wake him up, so I went out to walk around with him while they watched the show. He ended up sleeping for over an hour in my arms. I was in such pain and I was so angry that I didn't have a stroller to put him in. So while he was sleeping, they rode the carousel a couple of times and had some ice cream.  Throughout the day, I was noticing other strollers from this company called Orlando Stoller Rentals.  So later that night, I got on my phone and checked out their website and found out that they deliver to your resort and pick up the stoller when you are done.  They have really nice double strollers that recline and have a cover to keep the sun out their eyes AND they were so much cheaper than what we had already paid!! So like at 9:00 that night, I reserved one on their website while we were still at Magic Kingdom.  I told them that I wanted it the next morning by 9 and voila, the next moring I had a nice stoller that was delivered right to us.  I was SO HAPPY!!  They made it so incredibly easy! 

So, back to our day...

After Noah woke up, we went on the Winnie the Pooh ride, Snow Whites scary ride--my kids were kind of scared of that one too and then Peter Pan, which we all really liked.  But we didn't get fast passes for this ride and surprisingly we waited like 30-40 minutes to get on this 2 minute ride.  It was a cute one, though. 

The park was about to close, but I guess every night they put on this firework show called "Wishes" and it's a pretty impressive show.  So, we stayed to watch it.  It was fun!

After the show, we went back to the resort and had a late dinner and went to bed.  So, sometime in the early morning hours, Lydia came into our room and told me that Bella wet the bed.  So, being half asleep, I told her to help her get new underwear and send her in with me and I'd clean it up in the morning.  So, Bella came into my bed and I remember thinking that her hair was really crazy, but then we both went back to sleep. 

In the morning, I got up before everyone else and got in the shower and a little later, Garrett came in asking who had thrown up.  I had no idea what he was talking about so I told him about Bella and her accident and he's like, "Are you sure?" 

As soon as I got out of the bathroom, the stench of vomit hit me and I'm wondering, why didn't I smell this when she came and slept right next to me?  So, we had to clean everything up and wash it out as best as we could and help Bella get bathed.  She doesn't ever remember throwing up.  She woke up wet and figured she had peed.  It was all in her hair--hence the crazy hair!!  We probably should have kept her in the hotel that day, but Garrett said to strap her in the stroller and she'd be fine.  So, we did.  She didn't each much that day, but didn't throw up again.   Thank heavens.