Paul made tea while I showered and got dressed and then I dressed Amelia in the Minnie dress I made her
I took a first look on the balcony in the daylight as soon as the sun came up. Not a bad view... 
I packed some bottles of water into the bag I had put together the night before which contained sun cream, wet wipes, a bottle of Robinson's Squash'd, autograph books, pens, plasters, etc and we were all ready for a day of magic
We met up with Daniel, Sam and Sarah and all scrambled into the car at 7:25 ready for a day at Magic Kingdom. We used the Sat Nav that we hired from eBay in the hope that we wouldn't have a repeat of Paul's 2012 Orlando driving (i.e. getting lost EVERY TIME we went out). Unfortunately, it was destined to be.
The Sat Nav completely contradicted the signs. Had we followed the signs, we would have made our 8:05am reservation at Crystal Palace on time. However we ended up around the back side of Disney and saw a bit of behind the scenes action... Disney university, the animation buildings, etc. In the end we used directions on Daniel's phone to get there. We eventually arrived at the Transportation and Ticket centre (TTC) at around 8am and parked in Villians. We weren't parked far from the entrance, so we walked it. The monorail wasn't open yet, so we caught the ferry over. Amelia and Sarah both held hands in their strollers. It was so sweet.
And then at last... that truly magical sight came into view...
We exited the ferry as it came to dock and we raced to bag check. It was 8:30am now. We were so late! It was extra morning hours at MK today, and it was already really busy. So much for photos on an empty main street
Bag check done, we hit our magic bands on the Mickey balls for the first time, did our finger prints and we were in! We entered through the right entrance, grabbing some maps on the way. Then I ran with Amelia to catch our first proper glimpse of Main street. Eeeek. This is my favourite moment.
We hot-footed it to Crystal palace, gutted by the sight of all the construction work surrounding it and went round to check in. Luckily they hadn't cancelled our reservation and gave us a pager and asked us to wait until we were called. We sat on the benches for a few minutes until it started buzzing and flashing and we were shown to our table.
Although we were late, we couldn't have timed it better with the characters. They started coming around to our table minutes after we sat down. We were told if we wanted to get food first we had better hurry, so I took Oliver and Amelia and filled our plates.
Mine was a bit of a mis-mash of sausage, bacon, biscuit, strawberries, Mickey waffle and maple syrup. I apologise for the rubbish photo. I was still getting used to my new camera lens at this point. My Mickey waffle is all of a blur!
I was in such a hurry that I forgot my scrambled egg and pooh puffed french toast so naturally, I had to go up again when the characters had been.
First to come and see us was Tigger. Amelia shied away from him, like she did on her first trip. Tigger was great though and gave us both a massive hug. Unfortunately Paul was behind the camera, and what could have been a great photo ended up like this...
This one is slightly better... apart from the drunk look I appear to be sporting. Oh dear. My Dad was complaining while we were away that I hadn't taken any photos of me... This is why Dad!
Next up was Piglet. Amelia really didn't like him. She wouldn't look at him OR the camera.
But by the time Eeyore and Pooh came over, she seemed to come out of herself a bit more... I think seeing Sarah cuddle them must have helped.
Amelia needed the toilet after her breakfast, so I took her to the other side of the restaurant to the restroom where I experienced our first queue for a toilet. This happened frequently this year. I thought November was supposed to be a quiet month? I suppose it was extra magic hours this morning, and the Dibb busy day guide was showing red for magic Kingdom today. I think it was also Jersey week.
When we come out of the restrooms, Winnie the Pooh and chums were doing a little parade of the restaurant so we quickly jumped in the line of people, only for it to end about 10 seconds later. I did feel a bit silly haha.
After a few more bits and pieces of food for me, and a few more platefuls for Oliver and Paul, we were feeling as stuffed as the characters and asked for the bill. The food here was really nice and the best breakfast we had of the holiday, as was the case in 2012 too. It will definitely be a tradition of ours for our first morning breakfast for future trips. The service was better this time and refills were continuously given throughout the meal, however it did become a little slow towards the end of the meal. This didn't affect us so much, but poor Sam and Daniel... when we first arrived, Sam asked for an autograph book for Sarah which they said they would bring over to the table for her. They had to ask for this again later on and by the time all the characters had come round, they still hadn't brought it over. When the server eventually made it back over to our table and they asked again, he went and got one and told them he would get all the characters to sign it before they left. We asked for the bill and because we were on the dining plan, we only had the gratuity to pay. He came over and swiped our bands and then asked if we wanted the gratuity charged to our room or pay now in cash. We chose the cash option so he went away to get another receipt for us that we had to sign. We waited... and waited... but he just seemed to have disappeared. Our fast pass for Mickey was fast approaching. Paul went off to look for him but had no joy, so we just had to leave it. I'm sure it would be charged to our room when he finally came back. (Upon getting home and checking our room bill, it was indeed charged to our room - $17.29).
We said goodbye to Daniel and Sam as they headed towards Fantasyland and made our way to the Town Square Theatre to use our Fast pass for Mickey Mouse. I love that he talks now. We walked straight through and there was one family having photos taken with him as we got there. I heard the photographer tell the family to say cheese and Mickey started saying "chedaaaar", "parmesaaaaaaan". Hehe.
Then it was our turn and I managed to capture it on video (and download it onto my laptop without deleting it first! Go me!
) Excuse the first part. Oliver decided to stand right in front of me when I was filming so I had to quickly move. Lol. Amelia had become a right lazy bones since we brought her stroller with us. She wanted to sit in it all the time, and when she wasn't in it, she wanted picking up. At the beginning of the video she keeps asking Paul to pick her up. I think this was a mixture between being lazy and nervous of meeting Mickey. Lol. The CM in there spoke to her and told her not to be afraid. You can hear her at the beginning...
What a cheat!
From there we went back up Main street and had our first Memory Maker photos taken. I was hoping to have these done on an empty main street but sadly it wasn't meant to be. Maybe next time...
I wanted to have some of Amelia taken with the doll I made her too, and although they came out nice, I'm gutted that the photographer had something on his lens as there's a black mark on every one of these photos that I have on various parts of her face. I won't upload the one that looks like a bogey! Lol. I need to get Photoshop I think
I also took this one myself which I LOVE. Paul has it set as his profile picture on Facebook
We caught the 10:30am Move it! Shake it! Dance & Play it! Street party parade. Why they changed the name I don't know. Amelia loved it, and I have to say, even though she met some amazing characters this holiday, I think her absolute favourite things to do/watch were the parades and shows. Goofy still remains her favourite character.
I won't bore you with too many of these as I'm sure you've seen them all before, but if you want to see more, feel free you take a look on my Flickr. One of the ladies on stilts came right over to me and bent over for me to take a photo of her...
We took a left off Main Street and headed into Adventureland, bypassing Aloha Isle as I was too stuffed with breakfast to squeeze in a dole whip just yet. Our first ride of the holiday was The Magic Carpets of Aladdin which showed a 15 minute wait. Oliver and Amelia sat together in front of us which was lovely. It's not often that they get on like that I can tell you. I love this picture of them both.
It was really hot now and we were all thirsty, so we took a pit stop at Sunshine Tree Terrace where Oliver got a coke float, Amelia had an ice cream and Paul and I had a coke and an orange juice. All paid using snack credits.
POTC had a 50 minute wait and I don't know how, but we completely missed the Jungle Cruise. Our next fast pass was at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (BTMR) between 11:50am - 12:50pm, so we made our way over to Frontierland.
All the stretching we had been doing over the past six months must have worked, as Amelia was finally tall enough to ride Splash Mountain (just kidding about the stretching
). It only had a 25 minute wait, so to get out of the sun for a bit, we decided we would get in the stand by line, and then we could go on again later using our fast passes. Oliver has been on his before, so he knew what to expect, but Amelia hadn't. She didn't like the dark areas of the queue especially when we got to the picture of Breer Fox with all his teeth showing. But we all stayed happy for her sake and made jokes about him which got her laughing. Well we were almost down to the front of the line, about to be asked the number in our party before being allocated our boat and guess what? It broke down. Cue tears from Amelia. All that build up and she couldn't go on it. I couldn't believe our bad luck. However that changed as we came down the exit line as we were given four fast pass tickets to use on any ride. Whoop! We tried to get on BTMR now, but we were 5 minutes too early and they wouldn't let us on. So we stopped off in Briar Patch where Amelia brought herself a big lollypop using a snack credit. Or so we thought. When we got our bill on the last day, it turns out they had charged it to our room. Numpties. According to the receipt I have in front of me, it cost $4.75.
It was now 12:05pm, so lollypop stowed safely under the stroller and parked up, we made our way over to BTMR where we could finally use our fast passes and walked straight to the front of the line. Again, Amelia wasn't keen on the dark bits and Oliver was apprehensive having never been on it before - none of us had. But when we got off he loved it! So did I, and it's made my top three rides in the park. Amelia on the other hand wasn't so keen - it was just the dark bits she didn't like. She liked the actual ride.
Next up was Splash Mountain which was now open again and so was our FP+ slot. Unfortunately Amelia was adamant that she wasn't going on this time. She moaned and whinged and cried. The man in front of us kept turning around looking at us like we were terrible parents for making her go on. But we KNEW she would love it when we were on there. She loved watching the video on you tube with me before we came (without knowing she would soon be riding it
) and every time we go down a hill in the car she puts her arms in the air and says she's on Splash Mountain. With a lot of encouragement and bribery, we managed to get her on. She sat with Paul in front of Oliver and I, and although she pretended she didn't like it whilst on it, she really did love it! She would NOT stop laughing afterwards and was telling everyone who would listen that she got a wet bum on Splash Mountain before doubling over with laughter. It was so funny. I really need to stop screaming on rides...
We decided we'd see what the wait time for seven dwarfs mine train was like. Even though I booked FP+ 60 days in advance, and 7DMT was the first ride I tried to get times for, I couldn't get a FP for it until our last day. So we took a walk over to Fantasyland.
Unfortunately, like POTC, it was 50 minutes which was over my 30 minute wait time limit. I wasn't going to waste valuable holiday time waiting in a line when there was so much other stuff to see. Yes Barr Humbug! Lol.
It was 12:35pm now and we were getting thirsty again, so Cheshire café was our next stop. I saw the cupcake that I wrote about in my pre-trippy, but unfortunately we were still too full from breakfast to try one. So we just got a lemonade slush for Oliver, orange juice for me and 2 bottles of water for Paul and Amelia - $8.29. We paid out of pocket as we were worried we would spend all our snack credits on the first week and have nothing left at the end of the holiday. Oh how wrong were we? Lol
We passed the Sword in the Stone so the kids had a go. They weren't lucky this time.
We had a look around Fantasy Faire where Amelia bought a lanyard and her first pin - a Disney Princesses one.
When we came out she wanted to go on the Carousel, so Paul took her on while Oliver and I watched.
My memory is a bit hazy from here and so are my notes, so I'm having to go by the timestamps on my photos. The next photos I took are these..
Rapunzel's tower. So I guess we walked past here and through to liberty Square as I have this photo of the beautiful Liberty Belle, which unfortunately I still haven't got around to going on. Another one to add to the list of next times.
From there we crossed the bridge and I took the photo of the castle that I had on my list of things to do...
As we neared the castle, we realised the Dream Along with Mickey show was in full swing, so we stopped to watch it.
Amelia was in it! I think she would have watched it again if she could.
We crossed the bridge to Tomorrowland and had some Memory Maker photos taken.
Next, for some unexplained reason we decided we would inflict a bit of torture upon ourselves and go on Stitch's great escape. I had heard people say it was rubbish. But being the first time we had ever been on it, we didn't really know what to expect. Now I have, I will sum it up in three words - Painful. Boring and Awful. Just awful! There. I could have chosen three different words but I think the Dibb would have censored them out. It was dark a lot of the time and Amelia was in tears. But that was only mild compared the pain of the shoulder restraints. I just couldn't wait for it to end.
The kids had been collecting pressed pennies all day, so we stopped by the Merchant of Venus and picked up some pressed penny books. Amelia got a Tinkerbell one and Oliver got a standard Disney World one with Mickey and Pals on it. They were $8.95 each.
More photos were taken...
And then it was time for The Festival of Fantasy Parade to begin. We weren't in a very good position as we were in the central hub with loads of people in front of us. But I managed to snap these... Love my new lens!
I did warn you there would be a lot of photos today!
This was another first for us as it wasn't in operation when we were here in 2012. We thought it was amazing. Especially the dragon. So much attention to detail.
After the parade we fought our way down Main Street and found Daniel, Sam and Sarah! What are the odds?! I popped in to the Emporium where I bought myself a lanyard ($9.95) and a tin of mints for Neil (Gingermoonman) ($4.45) while Paul went outside and bought Amelia and I a balloon each. Oliver declared himself too old for a balloon (yet at 33, I am not too old ), which was a good job as they were $12 each!
I loved all the decorations that were up in Magic Kingdom today. It felt so festive, but strange because it was hot.
We made our way back to the car and arrived at Old Key West a while later after following the signs this time.
As we approached Daniel and Sam 's front door, Sarah's Birthday surprise had arrived from Disney Floral and Gifts. It was amazing, the attention to detail that they put into it. I was tearing up for them!
They all came upstairs to our room for a bit and we had tea and coffee on our balcony and looked through todays Memory Maker photos on the Surface. I got bitten twice on my foot - my first EVER mosquito bites! They were blimmin' itchy!
At around 6pm I got changed and we all drove to hospitality house and took a water taxi to Downtown Disney which took us to West Side. Wow. What a mess it is down there. Just miles and miles of hoarding. From what the water taxi driver told us, DTD will be unrecognisable once it has been reimagined and turned into Disney Springs. Even Planet Hollywood is getting a refurb inside and out.
From the trip reports I had read on the Dibb, I knew there were two Wolfgang Puck Express', and each one had a different menu, but I couldn't remember which one was the one with the meatballs which is what we fancied tonight. We ended up going to the first one we came to, which is attached to Wolfgang Puck Café. Unfortunately it wasn't the one we wanted, so we all just had pizzas which were delicious. Amelia and I both had margarita, Oliver had pepperoni and Paul had barbeque chicken. We also had a mixture of desserts; key lime pie, carrot cake a fruit pot and a cookie. The food was lovely, although would have been expensive if we weren't on the dining plan. The tiny little key lime pies in plastic containers would have been $9 each (and they weren't that good)! Thank heavens for the dining plan!
I'm afraid I didn't get any photos tonight, but here's a couple courtesy of Google...
The Wolfgang Puck Express at Marketplace was supposed to be the better one with the more extensive menu. We sample this one later on in the holiday (several times ) and it comes highly recommended from us. It's much better value for money if you're on the dining plan as they have huge portions and only uses one quick service credit, despite it being served on proper china plates, and the servers bring it over. You can get half a rotisserie chicken, meatballs and spaghetti, Ravioli, bacon wrapped meatloaf, as well as salads, club sandwiches, etc and the same wood stone oven pizzas that we had tonight. The full menu can be found here. (I don't have shares in Wolfgang Puck honest). Seriously though, Check it out!
We had a little wander around after dinner. It was incredibly busy and Amelia fell asleep on Paul. We left her pushchair in the boot of the car so he had to carry her. We looked in D Street (where have all the Vinylmations gone? ), the Lego store and World of Disney before taking the water taxi back to OKW. Sarah was now asleep too so Paul got off at HH and picked up the car while the rest of us stayed on the bus and met him back at the villa.
It was Daniel and Sam's moving day tomorrow, so Paul helped Dan up the stairs with their luggage and kept it in our villa overnight as they have to be checked out by 11am and we all have an early ADR at Hollywood and Vine in the morning.
I got ready for bed, uploaded todays photos onto Facebook and we were both in bed just after 11:30pm feeling shattered but happy after our first day in our happy place.
Rapunzel's tower. So I guess we walked past here and through to liberty Square as I have this photo of the beautiful Liberty Belle, which unfortunately I still haven't got around to going on. Another one to add to the list of next times.
From there we crossed the bridge and I took the photo of the castle that I had on my list of things to do...
As we neared the castle, we realised the Dream Along with Mickey show was in full swing, so we stopped to watch it.
Amelia was in it! I think she would have watched it again if she could.
We crossed the bridge to Tomorrowland and had some Memory Maker photos taken.
Next, for some unexplained reason we decided we would inflict a bit of torture upon ourselves and go on Stitch's great escape. I had heard people say it was rubbish. But being the first time we had ever been on it, we didn't really know what to expect. Now I have, I will sum it up in three words - Painful. Boring and Awful. Just awful! There. I could have chosen three different words but I think the Dibb would have censored them out. It was dark a lot of the time and Amelia was in tears. But that was only mild compared the pain of the shoulder restraints. I just couldn't wait for it to end.
The kids had been collecting pressed pennies all day, so we stopped by the Merchant of Venus and picked up some pressed penny books. Amelia got a Tinkerbell one and Oliver got a standard Disney World one with Mickey and Pals on it. They were $8.95 each.
More photos were taken...
And then it was time for The Festival of Fantasy Parade to begin. We weren't in a very good position as we were in the central hub with loads of people in front of us. But I managed to snap these... Love my new lens!
I did warn you there would be a lot of photos today!
This was another first for us as it wasn't in operation when we were here in 2012. We thought it was amazing. Especially the dragon. So much attention to detail.
After the parade we fought our way down Main Street and found Daniel, Sam and Sarah! What are the odds?! I popped in to the Emporium where I bought myself a lanyard ($9.95) and a tin of mints for Neil (Gingermoonman) ($4.45) while Paul went outside and bought Amelia and I a balloon each. Oliver declared himself too old for a balloon (yet at 33, I am not too old
), which was a good job as they were $12 each! I loved all the decorations that were up in Magic Kingdom today. It felt so festive, but strange because it was hot.
We made our way back to the car and arrived at Old Key West a while later after following the signs this time.
As we approached Daniel and Sam 's front door, Sarah's Birthday surprise had arrived from Disney Floral and Gifts. It was amazing, the attention to detail that they put into it. I was tearing up for them!
They all came upstairs to our room for a bit and we had tea and coffee on our balcony and looked through todays Memory Maker photos on the Surface. I got bitten twice on my foot - my first EVER mosquito bites! They were blimmin' itchy!
At around 6pm I got changed and we all drove to hospitality house and took a water taxi to Downtown Disney which took us to West Side. Wow. What a mess it is down there. Just miles and miles of hoarding. From what the water taxi driver told us, DTD will be unrecognisable once it has been reimagined and turned into Disney Springs. Even Planet Hollywood is getting a refurb inside and out.
From the trip reports I had read on the Dibb, I knew there were two Wolfgang Puck Express', and each one had a different menu, but I couldn't remember which one was the one with the meatballs which is what we fancied tonight. We ended up going to the first one we came to, which is attached to Wolfgang Puck Café. Unfortunately it wasn't the one we wanted, so we all just had pizzas which were delicious. Amelia and I both had margarita, Oliver had pepperoni and Paul had barbeque chicken. We also had a mixture of desserts; key lime pie, carrot cake a fruit pot and a cookie. The food was lovely, although would have been expensive if we weren't on the dining plan. The tiny little key lime pies in plastic containers would have been $9 each (and they weren't that good)! Thank heavens for the dining plan!
I'm afraid I didn't get any photos tonight, but here's a couple courtesy of Google...
The Wolfgang Puck Express at Marketplace was supposed to be the better one with the more extensive menu. We sample this one later on in the holiday (several times
) and it comes highly recommended from us. It's much better value for money if you're on the dining plan as they have huge portions and only uses one quick service credit, despite it being served on proper china plates, and the servers bring it over. You can get half a rotisserie chicken, meatballs and spaghetti, Ravioli, bacon wrapped meatloaf, as well as salads, club sandwiches, etc and the same wood stone oven pizzas that we had tonight. The full menu can be found here. (I don't have shares in Wolfgang Puck honest). Seriously though, Check it out! We had a little wander around after dinner. It was incredibly busy and Amelia fell asleep on Paul. We left her pushchair in the boot of the car so he had to carry her. We looked in D Street (where have all the Vinylmations gone?
), the Lego store and World of Disney before taking the water taxi back to OKW. Sarah was now asleep too so Paul got off at HH and picked up the car while the rest of us stayed on the bus and met him back at the villa. It was Daniel and Sam's moving day tomorrow, so Paul helped Dan up the stairs with their luggage and kept it in our villa overnight as they have to be checked out by 11am and we all have an early ADR at Hollywood and Vine in the morning.
I got ready for bed, uploaded todays photos onto Facebook and we were both in bed just after 11:30pm feeling shattered but happy after our first day in our happy place.
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