Disney Trip Part 3

Our third day began at the Magic Kingdom and was a ton of fun!  We got into the park early and were able to knock out a bunch of rides with hardly any lines to stand in. Our first stop was a character meet with Rafiki from the Lion King.

Our first thing was to walk through Swiss Family Robinson's Treehouse. We all love to watch this movie and I honestly was excited to revisit one of my favorite things from one of my visits to the Magic Kingdom as a little girl over two decades ago!   It certainly did not disappoint, the boys (and Ava Jane) enjoyed exploring Fritz and Ernst's home in the tree!

The boys LOVED Splash Mountain, and they did get SOAKED!

We all enjoyed doing Big Thunder Mountain Railroad; that was a really fun ride that we used our Rider Swap on so that some of us could ride it twice in a row!

While Adam and the boys rode it again Mom, Dad, Peyton and I rode a "raft" over to Tom Sawyers Island.

Next up was the Jungle Cruise or "Jingle Cruise" as it was called during the holiday season.

We signed the boys up to do The Pirate League, which is where they got dressed and had their faces painted up like a pirate; they received a sword and an eye patch.   (Instead of paying for the costumes there, I pre bought pirate costumes (after Halloween) and just had them wear it to the park then only paid for the package to have their faces painted and get the sword, eye patch and earring.)  That was the best decision ever!  They had a great time!  Dad and Adam stayed with them while Mom and I took Ava Jane to Fantasyland to do some girly rides!

This was their before picture.

These are "in the making" pictures…

And here is the finished products!  Aren't they the cutest pirates you ever saw….oh wait, I mean the most scary pirates you ever did see?!

In Fantasyland we did the carousel, the Tea Cups and the Dumbo Ride.

We all met back up at the Speedway and that was unfortunately "the worst ride ever" according to Peyton and Lawson. The steering wheel honestly didn't allow you to drive very well so we kept hitting and bumping our way around the track (each car runs on its own rail so it was quite a bumpy, jolt-filled ride.)  They didn't think it was a great "spectacle" to be apart of.

We rode several more rides then headed to our dinner reservation at Tony Town Square near the front of the park.

We were definitely ready to sit down and enjoy a nice dinner.  I was thoroughly impressed with and truly enjoyed the food at Tony's Town Square.  It's an Italian restaurant themed off the movie Lady and the Tramp, I highly recommend this one!  Ava Jane didn't even make it from the rides to the restaurant (a five to seven minute walk up Main Street), so she enjoyed the meal while laying out quite nicely in the long booth seat.  Because we'd had so many issues our first couple of days, our sweet waitress brought out a little treat for us, an extra FASTPASS!!  It was good for any ride we wanted to go on!  I'd not yet been able to do Space Mountain so we went there after our meal, unfortunately the ride was shut down for some reason.  Next we tried to do Seven Dwarfs Mine train again, but it too was shut down for some kind of maintenance.  So I went up to a Fastpass Kiosk and spoke with a really nice Cast Member who made my night!  I told him we had two kids asleep in a stroller but we didn't want to lose our Fast Pass, so he asked where we were going the next day, I told him Hollywood Studios so guess what?!!  He let us keep the Fastpass for Magic Kingdom and made a Fastpass for Fantasmic at Hollywood studios, so we got two fast passes out of the deal!  Disney Worlds customer service is spectacular!!  So we actually went and rode Big Thunder Moutain Railroad while Mom stayed with the littles who slept soundly in the stroller!

We ended our day at Magic Kingdom with big smiles and lots of memories!

Disney Trip Part 2

Our second day started at the Akershus princess character breakfast in Norway at Epcot.  We'd had trouble with our "Magic Bands" which caused us not to be able to get into Animal Kingdom our first morning because of some changes that we had to make in our plans several months ago, so I was hopeful that we'd not have any more trouble getting into the park our second day.  To my happiness, we got right into Epcot and into the character meet and greet with smooth sailing!  We were able to meet Belle, and all the other princesses while enjoying a delicious and hearty table service meal.  (Ava Jane was scared of the princesses so I got to be in each picture!)

It was all going smoothly when they scanned our dining meal credits from our magic bands, but the waitress came back to our table and said that there was no credit card attached to our "magic bands" that would allow us to pay our gratuity (which isn't include in the dining plan.) To make a long story very short, thanks to my Mom, who was the only one of us who'd actually brought a credit card into the park, we were able to leave the restaurant, fully paid up, but not without many a tears shed on my part. Again, for the second day in a row we had to go and meet with Guest Relations to get our bands all synced up…I was not a happy Momma, and I had four little people who were very disappointed to be standing in a yet another line that wasn't to a ride!  But just as Disney promises, after all the trouble, it finally became the magical experience we were hoping for.

I thoroughly enjoyed walking through the countries, especially Great Britain, where we enjoyed a relaxing meal of fish and chips right by the water, it was beautiful and serene.

Have I mentioned how much I love this kid?   He was so helpful on this trip, pushing the stroller, finding things on the maps, carrying food or drinks….you name it he helped with it!  I love him to the moon and back!

We had a great time on all the rides at Epcot!  Adam and the boys loved Test Track, while Ava Jane and I enjoyed Nemo and Friends but Soarin was by far the most awesome ride there.  Flying over the Golden Gate Bridge, over Napa's wine country and even seeing Yosemite National Park, was definitely my highlight that day!

On our way out of the park we walked through the market in Mexico and the boys found these huge sombreros.

We caught the Monorail over to the Magic Kingdom where we had tickets to the Very Merry Christmas Party. We were able to see a few shows, ride a couple of rides and then see the Christmas parade down Main Street, complete with falling snow.  I will be honest, this was my least favorite thing that we did on our entire trip because the park was FULL (like shoulder to shoulder full) of people.   I probably wouldn't recommend this party, but I must say the parade was spectacular and totally worth the wait.

My little people waiting on the Christmas parade. Lawson even got to participate with the parade caroler.

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Lawson even got to shake Santa's reindeers hand.  Our second day in the park ended in a magical way!