We came to find out that talking Mickey doesn't talk when he's hanging out with Minnie. Big bummer!! But we still got fun pictures with Mickey and Minnie in their birthday outfits.
And while I was hanging out in line, the kids got to go and see the Walt Disney World train. Although it is not currently running, it was still sitting in the station and available for photos. A consolation prize for Briggs since this was one of his very favorite rides at Disney.
Once we were done with our meet and greet, we headed over to Adventureland where we rode some magic carpets (twice), met Jasmine and Aladdin, sailed with pirates, and had a Dole Whip as a mid-morning snack.
All 3 kids loved the Magic Carpets. We did them a lot!
Jasmine and Aladdin were fun to meet.
And since Briggs skipped out on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, he got first dibs on the Dole Whip.
We filled our day with as many rides and shows as we could fit in. There were too many to list. We did most of our old favorites, like the tea cups, Dumbo, Little Mermaid, Buzz Lightyear, People Mover, and Seven Dwarves Mine Train again. Papa rode with Staley, Adelie, and I for his first mine train experience. Unfortunately, I never got a picture for that one. We also fit in other rides and shows we hadn't done yet this trip like Jungle Cruise, Monster's Inc Laugh Floor, Mickey's PhilharMagic, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
We took a late morning break in the action to boat over to Wilderness Lodge for lunch at the Whispering Canyon Café. I was a little disappointed in our meal there. The food was good with exceptionally yummy cornbread. However, the atmosphere was supposed to be raucous, loud, and fun. There were a few moments of that, like when our waitress had us yell across the restaurant that we wanted ketchup and then they brought us all the bottles of ketchup in the whole restaurant. But for the most part, it didn't have quite the fun atmosphere I anticipated.
I did enjoy the boats as a mode of transportation. Definitely a nice change of pace from all the bus rides.
Our afternoon was filled with more rides and more shows. The girls did Enchanted Tales with Belle once more, where Adelie was again chosen to be the Beast and Staley was Philippe. With as many times as they've done it now, my girls know what the cast members are looking for when they choose kids for certain parts. The kids all wanted to watch the Festival of Fantasy Parade again, so we made sure to fit that in as well.
My girls are such big fans of Enchanted Tales with Belle.
I'll be really sad when they outgrow their excitement about it.
Now the parades are something I hope they never outgrow. I surely haven't.
After our dinner of flatbreads, sandwiches, and salads at Pinocchio Village Haus, Uma and Papa decided that they'd had enough fun for the day, but the kids were still ready for more. We toured the Swiss Family Robinson tree house and did Jungle Cruise, Magic Carpets, and Pirates again. We also happened upon a dance party with the Country Bears, and Staley and Adelie were excited to join in the dancing. Briggs was happy to just sit in the stroller and watch. The kids decided that they didn't want to watch the night time show and fireworks, so we took advantage of the fact that everyone else was watching them to do Winnie the Pooh, tea cups, the carousel, and It's a Small World with no lines. A few minutes before park closing as we were getting off the carousel, we noticed that there was no wait to meet Cinderella and Elena, so we waltzed right in to see them.
The carousel at night is lots of fun.
Adelie was able to give her cards for Anastasia and Drizella to Cinderella. Cinderella was very amused and said she would definitely pass them along, and I truly think she meant it. I'm guessing Anastasia and Drizella don't get too much fan mail.
Briggs had only made about 8 cards for characters, but Elena was one of them.
There is just something extra-magical about the Disney parks at night. I love that my kids are now old enough to stay up for all the night time Disney fun.
By the time we were done meeting the princesses and started wandering towards the exit, we got the unexpected surprise of seeing "The Kiss Goodnight." This is a short musical light show on Cinderella's Castle that plays every 15-30 minutes or so after the park closes. It was a fun way to end our day...and our vacation. We could chalk that up as one more thing to add to our list of Disney experiences.
Good-bye, castle.
Good-bye, Disney.
That was our last park day, although our last planned day of vacation was the following day. We slept in, checked out of our hotel, and then went to Disney Springs for lunch and shopping. It was tainted for me a bit as we found out about our flight cancellation at the beginning of our meal, so I spent the majority of our Disney Springs time on the phone trying to sort out our flight, hotel, and luggage situations. But we still enjoyed a fun lunch at the T-Rex restaurant and the kids got to pick out their souvenirs from Uma and Papa. Briggs got a set of cars from the movie 'Cars' and the girls both got charm bracelets with a few Disney charms.
The T-Rex restaurant was a lot of fun. There were animatronic dinosaurs throughout the restaurant and lots of prehistoric themed areas.
Unfortunately, there was also a meteor shower that occurred every 20 minutes or so where the lights flashed and there were rumbling sounds. This really dampened Briggs' enjoyment of the restaurant.
We didn't have a lot of time to explore Disney Springs, but the kids shopped for their souvenirs at the World of Disney store and then enjoyed some time at the Lego store.
Each of our Disney trips is a vacation all its own. Although there are similarities, the experience is new and different every time we go. Yes, we ride some of the same rides and meet some of the same characters and eat at some of the same restaurants. Yes, some of the parades and shows and night time entertainment remain the same. Yes, the kids all have favorites from the previous trip that are a priority to do again. But each time the magic changes. Each time we try new things. Each time we meet different people. Each time we tweak what we do or how we schedule our time, and we always learn something new. Each time we stumble across something fun that we hadn't planned. And adding Zach's parents to the equation this time made it all the more fun as we all got to share our love of Disney with them.
When we return from our Disney trips, I love to pore over the pictures and think (and write and talk) about our trip. But I also love to start planning ahead. Because we didn't really say good-bye to Disney. We just said...
...see you next time!
