Goodnight Magic Kingdom

After dinner, we went to scope out a spot to watch the parade. It was crazy busy EVERYWHERE! Thankfully, we found a second row spot behind some people who were sitting down (and they stayed seated the entire time)! 

We got to talking to them and they told us it was their 13th time to go to Disney World (they had a thirteen year old and an eleven year old daughter). Their family makes an annual trip to Disney and already had their next trip for the following year planned. 

They were what I would call extreme, die-hard Disney vacationers . So it was kind of fun to get their expertise on what and when to do things. The dad told us that "This time of year (early February) is a great time of year to go, but summer is an absolutely miserable time of year to go." He went on to say that their family did it one year, and they would never do it again, "It was ALL just sweat and lines!"   

There you go...that was a piece of encouraging news that our family picked a great time to go, at least according to this Disney expert! :-)

Onto the parade, of the five parades we attended, we waited the longest for this parade to start. And the longer we waited the more we became packed in like sardines with more people trying to squeeze in to get a view!

Nevertheless, Disney's Electrical Parade was a special way to end our time at Disney's Magic Kingdom.

We saw Tinkerbell,

Cinderella, Prince Charming, and the fairy godmother

beautiful dancers, 

princes with chandeliers,

Big Ben,

and pirate ships.

After the parade, we decided to leave before the fireworks started. That was not our original plan, but little Anna is not a big fan of what she calls the "scary boom-booms"!   Some of us were a little disappointed, but we all knew it was the right thing to do for the littlest one in our family.  

But amazingly, it ended up being a magical night with fireworks anyway! Jillian, Faith, and I chose to sit on the last row of the bus back to the resort, and as we drove away, we had a full five minute show of fireworks.  It was memorable way to end the night.

Crystal Palace: Winnie the Pooh and Friends

After our second afternoon at Disney World, we went to the Crystal Palace for our 5pm reservation for dinner.  It is a beautiful building built in a Victorian style, with very special characters inside to stop by our table for a visit.

"Winnie the Pooh and Friends invite you to indulge yourself in our bountiful buffet. The room comes alive with the sights and smells of the day's offerings being prepared in our live on-stage kitchen."


It was rush-hour for dinner time and it was pretty packed. Thankfully, we didn't have too much of a wait, only about 15 minutes.   We took a little time to explore and took a photo of the girls on the bridge.

We also captured a view of the castle from the front of Crystal Palace.

Then our hostess found us and told us it was time for dinner! :-)
We were greeted very warmly and then we entered into the beautiful Crystal Palace.

Soon after our arrival, we met our first Hundred Acre Wood friend, Piglet!   

We told Piglet how we watched his movie only last week!
We also told him too how we thought he was the best kind of friend anyone could ask for! :-)  

This was our view from our table in the restaurant.  Couldn't ask for much better!

Faith thought it was such a beautiful view, she asked to have her photo taken in front of the window. Unfortunately, it was too dark to get a photo of pretty Faith and the castle in the background.

Jillian sat in front of the window for the photo-opportunity too! :-)

Then Eeyore came for a visit.  We asked how his day was, and if a rain cloud had been following him again.  He nodded sadly.  The girls tried to cheer him up by loving on him.

It was announced shortly afterwards that there would be a parade! Anna gasped with excitement and said, "I was in a parade with my friend, Mary Poppins!"

Anna was delighted to have a new friend for the parade at Crystal Palace!


She jumped and skipped right along with her "friend" Tigger in the parade! :-)

Jillian had fun clapping along in the parade too!

With all of the fun going on, it was hard to find time to eat our dinner! But thankfully, we did find the time and ate some yummy food.  I had a more traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, stuffing, vegetables, mashed potatoes, and salad. Brad had roast beef, meatballs, and several different salads. Jillian had macaroni and cheese with some other sides, while Faith and Anna mainly had chicken nuggets. It was a more traditional variety of food and was just what we were all craving.


Then Tigger came by to say "hello" to all three of the girls.

And then it was dessert, Faith had ice-cream with sprinkles.

Jillian and I both had a hard time deciding which dessert to have at Crystal Palace. So, we shared a sampler plate of chocolate cake, turtle cheesecake, a lemon tart, and another lemony dessert too! 

Brad sampled the bread pudding and cobbler, topped with ice-cream for his dessert.  He said they were both delicious!

Then Pooh came to our table, and Anna gave him the biggest hug!!

Faith gave him a big hug too!  It was an adorable photo but I also wanted a photo of her with all of her face showing. So, I said, "Turn Around."

Pooh was so funny, he looked a little confused, but then he turned around! The girls could not stop laughing! 

Anna worked on getting him to turn back around.

Ta-Da.  At last :-)  I think Anna was holding on tightly to Pooh's hand, to keep him from turning back around.

The girls really enjoyed meeting Winnie the Pooh!

Pooh was so nice and wonderful, that Brad suggested that we get a photo with Pooh too. :-)
Pooh's visit was the perfect ending to a wonderful evening at the Crystal Palace.

Magic Kingdom- Day 2

After our first day at Magic Kingdom, this post is going to seem a little anti-climactic. But as I have already said, we spent our first day, like there was no tomorrow. So our second day was a little more simple. We spent our day re-experiencing our favorites for a second (or third) time and seeing the few things we missed the first day.

After Be Our Guest, we used our double- fast passes (that we picked up earlier) to ride The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Dumbo!

Then all five of us rode Barnstormer together.


Barnstormer was Anna's first roller-coaster experience. She rode it with her Daddy. Overall, it went pretty well.  She wasn't the biggest fan of it, but wasn't terribly scared either!  She did better than Jillian did on her first roller coaster, but not nearly as well as Faith did (Faith laughed the entire time, she was exuberant with joy!). :-)  

It was the warmest day of all days we were at Disney World. So the girls loved spending a little time in the Casey Jr. Splash 'N' Soak Station.

Then, we rode Anna's beloved (can't you tell by her face?) Mad Tea Party!

Even when we looked at this picture, she said to me, "Momma, I sad.  I want to do it by myself!"  She wanted to do all the turning by herself with no help from her big sisters.


Then, we went to see Mickey's PhilharMagic, a 3D Movie experience. Both Brad and I agreed that of all the 3D films we saw at Disney World this was by far the best experience!! Our only regret was that it wasn't higher priority on our list for our first day. We would have loved to see it on both days!

A Review of PhilharMagic

"The show brings you on a magical trip through many of your favorite Disney films. In hot pursuit of his runaway "prize", Donald is asked to "Be Our Guest" by Lumiere (Beauty and the Beast), washed away by brooms (Fantasia), joins Ariel under the sea wishing she could be "Part Of That World". He flies high above London with Peter Pan and Tinker Bell, sees that Simba "Just Can’t Wait To Be King", and led by Aladdin and Jasmine on a Magic Carpet Ride through a "Whole New World" before Mickey saves the day."

Then we rode on Prince Charming's Regal Carousel.

Then we ventured onto Adventureland for our afternoon snack. Faith and Anna had a pineapple float, Jillian had plain ice-cream, and Brad and I both had a coke float from Aloha Isle!

While we were finishing our snack, Brad ran to nearby Thunder Mountain to get fast passes. The fast pass machine wasn't working at the time, so the cast member at the ride gave Brad complimentary fast passes! Which meant, we still had our tickets to get fast passes for another ride!  So, when Brad came back, it was my turn to make the run. I made my way to Space Mountain for fast passes!  

We met up at the Hall of Presidents!  Here is Brad showing off all eight of our fast passes!  While we waited, the girls enjoyed looking at all the presidential memorabilia and the presentation was excellent! 

Then, I rode Space Mountain with Jillian!

After our ride, we saw a funny clown show in Fantasyland on our way to Frontierland!

Then, Brad, Jillian, and Faith rode Big Thunder Mountain together.

The on-line predictions of which day would be a "red" or "green" day were right on! We saw at least a half-a-dozen groups of these girls....


and this is other half of their one group!   All I can say is I can not imagine what Disney is like when it is not "off" season! It was a super busy day. 

Then, we enjoyed a little traditional, country music from home before it was time for dinner!