WDW Day 3 - Magic Kingdom

Another late start, but we weren't the only ones!

We, quite by chance, met up with family in the resort monorail line headed to the Magic Kingdom.

The girls were ready to rock the parks.

Not sure about Joey in the back there.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

Oh wait.  He's ready.

Granma already looks hot.

It was pretty warm.

After going our separate ways  after we passed the turnstiles, our party headed over to Adventureland to, "encounter awesome wonders of nature amid some of the world’s most exotic locales."

Yep.

The Jungle Cruise.

Classic.

After being amazed by the "back side of water" and hearing the sad news about Trader Sam's shrinking business, we were off to our next adventure.

Never been on it.  Line wasn't long.

Aladdin's Magic Carpets were up next.

We let the kids decide if we would go up or down.

Ugh.  Baaaaaad picture.

Of me.

Think I got hit by "camel spit" about 3 or 4 times.

Mikey thought it was hilarious.

Do you know what is RIGHT NEXT to the Magic Carpets?

ALOHA ISLE!!!!!

Ohhhhhh yeahhhhhhh!  Dole Whip time!!!!

Dole Float for me.  Unlike in DLR, there is no cherry and cocktail umbrella.  Bummer.

Oh well.  Dole Whip is good no matter the accessories that might be missing.

The kids had a visitor.

He was as tall as they were while sitting down.

After recovering from pineapply goodness, we were on to our first FP of the day.

Seven Dwarves Mine Train.

It was really fun.

We all liked it a lot.

The thrill part of the ride was fast and super smooth - the rocking mine carts enhancing the fast corners.  The audio-animatronics were really cute and smooth.

Wheeeeee.

Don't worry.  There's nothing wrong with Katie.

You'll see later why she's bent over.

This is THE BEST VACATION PHOTO of our family ever.

The Best.

This one photo was worth the price of the Memory Maker package.

They also have cool videos of your ride experience.

But the photo above just takes the cake.

Okay.

THIS is why Katie was bending down.

As we sat down on the ride, there was a ladybug crawling on Katie's safety lap bar.

She scooped it up into her hands and protected it during the ride.

We released it back into the "wild" by placing it onto the rock work at the rides exit.

We headed over to Tomorrowland for our next FP at Space Mountain.

When we got there, the ride was not operating at that time.

Grrrr.

The cast member assured us that a FP to be used anytime later that day for Space Mountain or a few other select attractions would appear in our MDE (My Disney Experience App).

Two minutes later the email notification came that we had received a new FP.

Totally cool.

Well, we weren't quite ready for lunch yet and had some time to kill.

Mikey and Huzbend wanted to pay a visit Stitch's Great Escape.

Katie and I decided to skip that one.

Ew.

We hopped onto the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover instead.

She LOVED this.

I think she could've rode this all day.

I mean, look at her face!

The best part was that with Space Mountain currently "down" that meant that the inside lights were on.  You could see the track.

Almost as exciting as the "back side of water".

First time ever for me.

Couldn't resist taking video.

After that, it was time for lunch.

Someone was grumpy.

We perused menus on my TouringPlans Lines app to find some good GF and allergy-safe foods.

We landed on Pinocchio Village Haus.

They have a sneaky upstairs dining area with a balcony that overlooks outdoor seating and the carousel.

Katie was very happy with her GF chicken nuggets.

I don't remember what I ate.

I think we were just in a silly mood.

After a stop to the "World's Most Beautiful Bathrooms", we headed to our next FP destination.

Guess?

Yep.  Splash Mountain.

Mikey's first time ever on Splash Mountain.

(He never made it there in Disneyland. Sigh).

Zippadeedoodah!  We got to go as a whole family!!!!

Singing, giggling and loud, happy screaming ensued.

Planning had ensured that we were right at the kick off point of the 3 O'clock parade.

Yay, me. 

Alas, there is really NO shade there.  At all.

And it was really hot.  Like 90 degrees.

What better way to cool off then to drip Mickey Premium Ice Creams Bars all over yourself?

These things are good, but in the hot weather they are a disaster.

You gotta eat them super fast and well, my kids are just not fast eaters.

Melting already......

Luckily, we were prepared with lots of extra napkins.

Mikey ended up eating his off the napkin after the whole thing melted off the stick.

Ugh.

He still enjoyed it

(including the pieces of napkin he most certainly ate by accident).

Katie's wasn't as much of a disaster, but still....

After taking a wet wipie bath, we were ready for the Festival of Fantasy Parade.

What a great spot to watch!

Except for the blazing sun.

Ouch.

I'm SO happy that my kids like watching the parades.

They love the music, costumes, floats and watching the dancers do their stuff.

There's always lots of smiles.

(Unlike Huzbend who is probably in the background snoring or rolling his eyes)

Katie thought the dragon was "awesome".

I did too.

Snow White says "Hi" to her Prince, aka Mikey.

He must've used the "smolder" on her.....

"Hi, MINNIE!!!!"

It was hot.

Really hot.

If we were efficient, we had just enough time to leave the park, head back to the hotel and jump in the pool.

So, we did.

We raced the parade to the front of the park....just beating it...so we could hop on the monorail back to the Poly.

After an hour or so at the pool, we got dressed and headed back to the MK for dinner.

Katie wanted to take the boat launch this time instead of the monorail.

Mikey didn't.

"Boats are SO SLOW."

No smolder here.  Just a simmer.

No worries.

It's pretty easy to get Mikey's attitude to turn a quick 180.

Get him a lightsaber.

Although, I'm pretty sure that Kylo Ren does NOT carry his lightsaber this way.

We arrived a bit early for our reservation at Be Our Guest.

So we wandered in New Fantasyland and visited with a Photopass Photographer.

The kids missed Ralph when they saw these statues guarding the door.

The inside of the restaurant is huge with 3 giant dining areas.

One themed to the West Wing area of the castle, one the ballroom and one a gallery room.

We ended up in the large, mostly empty and very quiet gallery room.

But, we took some time to walk through the ballroom and explore the West Wing section.

Dinner was delicious.

Katie and I had steak.  Huzbend had braised pork and Mikey had "Beast Casserole" (just a fancy name for mac n' cheese).

The best part of the meal, though, was dessert.

The kids opted for sorbet and GF chocolate chip cookies over the cream puff option.

Huzbend and I decided to go for it and ordered four desserts to share between the two of us:

The "Grey Stuff"

Strawberry Cream Cheese Cupcake

Lemon Meringue Cupcake

and the Chocolate Cream Puff.

There really was no good way to eat this cupcake without ending up with meringue up my nose.

OMG. YUH-UH-UMY.

Katie was able to convince Mikey to share his huge helping of raspberry sorbet with her.

She ate it with a "pokey stick".

Guess she wanted to savor it....not sure why she used a stick to eat it.

After dinner, we were able to visit with the master of the castle.

Mikey LOVED him.

He was SO happy.

I think he would've taken home Beasts paw as a stuffy if they would've let him.

We did convince him to let go.

Eventually.

The dark side of the force could not be contained as we left the building.

Mikey decided he was going to take over the castle.

After dinner, we headed over to "Ariel's Undersea Adventure".

Cute.  It was like Disneyland's version.

Next, we decided to finally use our Space Mountain FP.

Sigh.  WDW and your Space Mountain single-rider seats.

We got the last car, but each car only fit three people.

Mikey got to ride with another family.

I was nervous since I couldn't see him or hear him.

But he said it was fun and wanted to do it again.

Sorry, WDW, Disneyland's Space Mountain kicks Magic Kingdom's Space Mountain butt any day of the week.

We said hi to Mecha-Ralph on our way out.

It was parade and fireworks time!!!

We headed over to Main Street where my mom and sis were nice enough to scout out and hold a superb curb spot.

Glow stick preparations were made for the soon-to-be-passing-by Main Street Electrical Parade.

Here it comes!!!

More smiles.

I love these smiles.

The "donkey boys" from Pleasure Island were sufficiently rude.

They blew raspberry's and stuck their tongues out at Joey and Mikey.

I guess the Fairy Godmother gave a special wave at Mikey.

The smolder at work again?  Who knows.

He had embarrassed little smile on his face.

Hi, Pete and your dragon.

Sigh.  The end came too soon.

Next up, Wishes.

But first, a rousing game of Rock Paper Scissors.

Disney Divas.

Love.

Yes.  Kelly held TWO kids up to watch the fireworks.

Joey was way too heavy though and she understandably only lasted about 2 minutes that way.

But, still.  Impressive.

I like watching my kids while we're watching these fireworks shows.

They have serene, contented looks on their faces every time.

It makes me happy.

I like to replay it in my head.

The perfect moment.

On vacation, both kids healthy and their bellies full of food that was not only good for them but safe for them, warm weather, family fun together, no stress, no worries, just us and music and fireworks.

Wish I could bottle that feeling.

Fireworks ended and it was an "Extra Magic Hours" night at the good ole M.K.

We headed over to ride the Haunted Mansion in the dark.

Much spookier that way.

We said goodnight to the 999 happy haunts and decided to call it a night.  It was already approaching 11pm.

Before we skedoodled outta there, we stopped for some family photos in front of the castle.

Day 3 was in the books!!

Katie's Favorite Parts of the Day:
 - the ladybug in 7DMT
 - riding the PeopleMover and seeing the lights on in Space Mountain
 - eating at Be Our Guest
 - seeing the crane bird while eating Dole Whips
 - riding the Haunted Mansion in the dark with the cousins

Mikey's Favorite Parts of the Day:
 - riding Splash Mountain
 - in Stitches Great Escape when Stitch burped chili dog smell in his face