Our Disney Trip: Magic Kingdom

Let the memories begin!

Our first and fourth days at Disney were spent in Magic Kingdom. We arrived a little early to see the characters pull up on the train to open the park for the day. Cora was so excited, she decided to practice flying while we waited. I think she could use a little more pixie dust. . .

Our very first stop was to see Tinkerbell and her sister Periwinkle.

Cora's outfit distracts from her messy hair, right?

Let's stay with this theme of Ally and Cora hanging out with their Disney heroes for just a moment. Chris did a lot of homework before our trip, and he new exactly where (and when) we should go to visit the characters. We didn't have to wait very long to meet any of them, so even Daddy could enjoy spending time with the princesses. Here are several other Meet-and-Greet pictures from Magic Kingdom:

Cinderella

Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel

Snow White

Ariel the Little Mermaid in her new grotto.

Daisy Duck in the new circus-themed area.

Minnie Mouse the circus poodle trainer

The Great Goofini, the daredevil

Donaldo, the snake charmer

All in all, we were able to meet over 20 different princesses and characters during our trip. The only person the girls really wanted to meet but couldn't was Merida from Brave. (That line was horrendous!) We did, however, watch from a distance as she greeted other people. And, just before she was to welcome a new crowd of guests, my curly hair must have caught her attention. She grabbed her own hair, pointed to me, and then excitedly jumped up and down and waved at Cora and me. Cora (and I) felt very special, and we giggled excitedly and waved back.

Random food picture from the Main Street Bakery.

This is what the street in front of the castle can look like on a morning when you visit during a semi-"down" time for the parks. There were still a lot of people wandering around, but the crowds were not bad at all. (Once again, I'm so thankful for Chris' research and for our decision to pull Ally out of school for a family field trip the week after Thanksgiving.)

Our longest wait (1 hour?) occurred at the Enchanted Tales with Belle. This experience was located in the new section of Fantasyland and had only been open for about two weeks. This was our second stop on our first day. It was amazing!

Waiting to enter Maurice's cottage

Belle's growth chart and stack of books

We started at Belle's father's cottage, walked through a magical mirror in his workshop, and entered the Beast's castle. We surprised Belle, who then invited us to act out a play with her. Ally got to be Maurice and Cora was a dancing plate. Here's video of Ally's "shaking and shivering" performance as Belle's father who was trapped in the Beast's dungeon. The lights were low, so video/pictures aren't that great, but the girls really enjoyed the experience. And Chris and I are still trying to figure out that magically-growing mirror!

Ally and Belle

Cora got a big "Ahhhh" from the crowd as she interacted with Belle.

On our second Magic Kingdom day we had lunch at the Be Our Guest restaurant inside the Beast's castle. That was amazing as well. We chose to eat in the Rose Gallery near the giant spinning music box. We strolled around the Ballroom (which looks just like the movie) and also peaked into the West Wing-- where there was occasional thunder-and-lightning and a magical, wilting rose. Our food was good, but my favorite part of our meal was the dessert.

The Beast's Castle

Yummy French Desserts

By the way Cora talks, it's safe to say that the kiddie coaster Barnstormer was her favorite ride of our entire trip. We had three fastpasses for it, and since Ally didn't want to ride it and Cora technically didn't need a ticket, she was able to experience the thrill of the coaster three times in a row. I wish I could've gotten a good picture of her face, but here's a video of Cora and Chris riding. (You'll have to believe me. They are in the third car from the end. It's the last one with a yellow roof across it.)

The first time around, she was very excited and tried to pull the bar down on my lap before I was even situated. As we left the station, she had her hands up in the air. She scrunched down in the seat at the first drop and turn, but I don't know if that was due to nerves or the gravity and inertia forces on her tiny body. When we pulled back in she said she loved it and wanted to go again right away. As we waited for our second turn she kept saying things like "Mommy, I know when to scream. Do you think Daddy will know which part to scream at when he rides with me? I should tell him when to scream."

While Cora was getting her fill of screams with Daddy on her third go-round, Princess Ally and I safely waited on the ground near the strollers. One of the cast members, Sidney, engaged Ally in conversation. They talked about Tinkerbell and pixie dust. They talked about princesses and Dumbo. They talked about how swapping the S and D in her name spells Disney. They talked about Ally's ballet lessons, which then prompted Sidney to give Ally a waltzing lesson. Their interaction lasted about 10 minutes, and they were great friends by the end, so they had to get a picture together. Thank you, Sidney, for making Princess Ally feel so special!

Waiting for Daredevil Cora

Because the classic Dumbo ride is so popular, Disney recently opened two Dumbos and a circus tent where you can play while you wait for your turn to fly through the sky. Although crowds were low, we choose to play for a little bit before boarding our elephants. Truthfully, Ally was upset that we didn't let her clown around more, but we had rides to ride!

Dumbo's Flying Circus

Our Family, second Magic Kingdom day

Captured by Zorg at Buzz's Space Ranger Spin

Chillin' with Goofy

Another Favorite: Prince Charming's Regal Carousel

Weeeee!!!

Ally and Cora liked the People Mover so much that they asked to ride it twice. They got a kick out of pretending it was a rollercoaster as it went around some of the turns. At one point, as it rides through the Space Mountain Roller Coaster, things get pretty dark. And darkness tends to freak my children out. Below are some of their expressions revealed through the flash on my camera.

Scared?

Riding the Train

Looking cute outside the Tiki Room

The girls wanted to ride the Mad Tea Party teacups. This was not an option for Chris, so I got to do it. We had one rule-- no one was aloud to spin the center circle. Chris says we were spinning very slowly compared to everyone around us, but I was still dizzy by the end. Thankfully I recouped quickly and didn't get sick.

Smiling before the madness begins.

Which leads me to Chris' biggest regret of our trip-- getting on the Tower of Terror. (**Chris has pointed out to me that this ride is in Hollywood Studios and not Magic Kingdom, but I'll be keeping this write-up here for now.) He describes his experience on that ride with the same tone of voice and similar verbiage as he would describe a prostate exam. The Tower left him pale, clammy, sweaty and vertigo-y for a good 30 minutes and headache-y, drained, and off-kilter for a good portion of the afternoon. Although he's not a fan of confined spaces or jerky motions, he had wanted to give the Tower a try ever since he'd skipped it at Disneyland. He had some doubts about doing it just prior to getting on this time. He has no doubts now: He will never be getting on that ride again. (Unless someone paid him a substantial amount of money and promised to hold his hand-- 'cause he almost grabbed the hand of the stranger-lady sitting next to him as the elevator dropped & shot up, and then dropped & shot up again, and then dropped again . . .) So, learn from Chris. If you have your doubts and are prone to motion-sickness, don't do it.

Chris and I both (separately) went on the Haunted Mansion. That ride had some really neat effects, but Ally and Cora would've been way too scared-- like the one 8-year-old boy who was near me and cried/screamed bloody murder for a good portion of the tour. At the end of my ride a ghost took my head off, blew it up a little larger, and put it in a Mickey balloon.

Enough of the "scary" stuff. Let's get back to some cute pictures of our kids.

Cinderella Fountain

One of many mosaics around the castle.

Waiting to see the talking "wax people". That's what Cora calls the animatronic presidents.

Ears of her own.

Snack Time

And this post is almost done. (Yay!) If you just have to know everything we saw and did beyond this posting, you can always read Ally's worksheets. Basically, we rode every ride that interested us (even the nerdy ones), saw all the shows that appealed to us, and ate a lot of yummy bakery sweets.

Just a few memories I know did not get specifically recorded:

When we visited the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor Cora got to be on the big screen. The caption under her screenshot read "She doesn't know there's a monster under her seat." The girls thought that was so cool.

Chris likes the bouncy bouncy part with Tigger on the Winnie-the-Pooh ride.

Ally was very frightened during Peter Pan's Flight because she believed we were really flying. It took me until the very end of the ride to convince her otherwise, and she only became convinced when she saw how the ships hung from the track above.

Our second day we saw part of the Celebrate! parade, and Ally joined in the dancing in the street. Chris said he had a hard time keeping track of her as she spun around and showed off her moves.

We ate a Dole Whip float while watching the decorating of the Christmas-themed, icicle-bejeweled castle. Yummy!

3-D movies, like Mickey's PhilharMagic, leave Cora very confused and frightened. She always starts with the glasses in place and immediately removes them at the first "popping out" sequence.

We watched the stunningly bright Main Street Electrical Parade-- wherein Drizella (Cinderella's stepsister), with hands on her hips and finger point, loudly called our exhausted Daddy out for not smiling. He obliged her by lifting his chin up off his hands and giving her a cheesy grin.