Tag Archives: Magic Kingdom

Walt Disney World Day 3

So I’m now running a day behind, but hey ho!

Thursday morning we headed into Magic Kingdom around about opening time, and as we walked into the park Chip and Dale were just heading out to meet, so as they had no queue yet, we were basically the first people to meet them, then we walked towards Frontierland and rode Big Thunder Mountain, then picked up some breakfast and hit up Its A Small World.

From there, we went back to Main Street so Chelsea could get a Starbucks and Sarah could get a balloon, and then visited the purple wall for some quick pics for the ‘gram. Chelsea and Sammy had fastpasses for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, so they went off to do that and Sarah and I just hung out at the castle which is where they met us and we went over to Space Mountain for another fastpass.

A quick snack and some shops later, Sarah left to nip back to the hotel for a jacket and the rest of us had a quick wander through Fantasyland and then rode Big Thunder one more time, this time with a fastpass, and then left the park, meeting Sarah on the way out, and got the bus to Art of Animation.

The bus to AoA broke down, so we ended up having to be transferred onto a new bus, but it didn’t take too long for that to be sorted! We had some food at the resort and an explore, and then we got an Uber to ESPN Wide World of Sports for the RunDisney expo where we picked up our race bibs and shopped the merch for the race weekend, then grabbed another Uber to Hollywood Studios, which is where we finished up the night watching Fantasmic before going back to get a good nights sleep in before the 10k!

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Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party

One of the things I was most excited to do on our recent WDW trip was attend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. The party is a special ticketed event at Magic Kingdom that runs on select days from the end of August through to the start of November, and we actually attended the very last party of this year’s season on November 1st.

Being a special ticketed event, one of the biggest selling points of the party is that it offers exclusive access to Magic Kingdom for the evening, while all other guests are booted out early, and runs up until midnight each night, so you’ve got a good amount of time to play in the park with a restricted number of guests. Other big factors for most guests are the rare character opportunities, and the fact that guests, including adults, are allowed to dress in costume for the party. Oh, and did I mention trick or treating?!

The party runs from 7pm until midnight, but guests can enter the park from 4pm, and rather than heading down Main Street USA, you’re directed down a backstage route into the park, and along this path you’ve got a bunch of photo opportunities, but this is also where you’ll be given your trick or treating bag and your first handful of candy. Trick or treat spots are located throughout the parks, and each visit will gain you a huge helping of sweets and chocolate! The standard issue bags are fairly small and aren’t anything special in terms of decoration (ours was a plastic bag with adverts for upcoming films, nothing Halloweeny at all!), so if you want something a little more fancy, you can bring in your own bag or bucket to use. I would also definitely recommend that you don’t put anything valuable in your candy bag as its really easy to get them mixed up with someone else’s, or leave on a ride as Matthew did.. But don’t worry if you do lose your bag, just head to a trick or treat station and they’ll give you a new one!

If candy isn’t your main priority, there’s a tonne of other entertainment for you, from the Tomorrowland Dance Party where I met Sully and Boo, to the Hocus Pocus Castle Show, Hallowishes fireworks and Boo to You Parade. As I’m not a fan of Hocus Pocus, we didn’t bother to see the castle show, but we did make sure we saw the fireworks and the parade. The night we did the party, the fireworks were only on once during the evening, which meant that it was very busy in front of the castle, but we still managed to get a decent spot on Main Street near the hub grass and despite not always being that impressed by firework shows, I really enjoyed them!

Boo to You Parade is generally on twice each night, so we did the later one, which was a proven good idea as after the fireworks a lot of people started heading out of the park, and we decided to get in a spot straight away to ensure a good view and about 5-1o mins before the actual parade began, the Headless Horseman graced us with his presence as he rode down the parade route! I’m a sucker for a parade, so of course I loved it, with my favourite floats being the Haunted Mansion and villain floats.

And what characters can you expect to meet? Well there’s all your favourites dressed up in their very own Halloween costumes, and then some rarer appearances such as the Seven Dwarfs, Lotso and Jack and Sally, but be warned, these lines can be killer! We waited about 30 mins for Lotso, and just under an hour for the Seven Dwarfs, although I know people who have queued for a lot longer than that!

Ticket prices vary from night to night, with October 31st being the most expensive at over $100 per person, but if you hit an early September weeknight, you can pay as little as $40-50 per person (prices based on 2017 tickets) so its definitely worth being flexible with dates if you can! Dates get released late April/early May and tickets go on sale mid-May normally.

As someone who really isn’t a Halloween person, I had so much fun being not-so-spooky with Mickey!

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Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Days 14 and 15

As it was our last full day here, we were up bright and early for a breakfast reservation at Crystal Palace and as the park seemed to be pretty quiet, we went straight from there to Big Thunder Mountain – which was practically a walk-on – before going to our first fastpass of the day, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

On somewhat of a rollercoaster trail, after that we decided to go standby for Space Mountain, which claimed to be a 55 minute wait, but I definitely don’t think we waited that long, although I may have been too distracted by playing the video games that they have in the queue to notice the time go by! For some unknown reason, some of the lights were on, which meant we could see some of the crazy track, but not all of it – I’d love to ride it with all the lights on just one time, but I’ll settle for that for now! To kill a bit of time before our next fastpass, we hopped on the TTA Peoplemover for a quick spin around Tomorrowland, and then made our way back across to Liberty Square for Haunted Mansion.

Once we’d said farewell to the grim grinning ghosts, we walked round to Frontierland station and rode the train back round to Main Street USA. Lunch was on the cards now so we went to Pinocchio’s Village Haus, and then also grabbed ice cream from Plaza Ice Cream Parlour where I got a cookie sandwich the size of my face, but as it was so hot it was all melting too quickly for me to take a photo!

Due to the heat, and whatever my stupid cold/flu thing is, I was starting to feel pretty rotten again, so we headed back to the hotel so I could have a nap, and then went for a final swim in the resort. We also made an impromptu dinner reservation at Grand Floridian Cafe, which meant we decided to get a bus to Animal Kingdom so that we could then get a bus straight to the resort, but due to some confusion and a hideously long bus line, once at Animal Kingdom we decided to just get an Uber!

Dinner was great; I’ve had breakfasts as GFC before and loved it and dinner was no different. As it was our last night, we decided to splash out and get cocktails too – I had a Florida Sunshine which was so yum! From the restaurant, we could even see the fireworks from Happily Ever After while having our dessert!

After dinner we had more transportation nightmares as the monorail was temporarily closed, so we piled on a bus to Magic Kingdom, which then actually dropped us at Contemporary, and there was some sort of accident at the bus stops at MK and an ambulance present so all sorts of delays meant we didn’t get back to our hotel til really late..

Our final morning was a lot more laid back. We got up, packed up the last of our things and checked out of the room, then grabbed some breakfast at Pepper Market before catching the bus to Disney Springs, as our park tickets were no longer valid. Instead, we went bowling at Splitsville, which was a lot of fun – instead of charging by the game as I’m used to, we were given an hour to play as many games as we could fit into that time, which was just over 3 for us!

After bowling, we had lunch at Planet Hollywood, and then had a last browse of the shops before undertaking the slightly embarrassing task of using up all of our remaining food credits in buying snacks and candy. We split our remaining credits between Goofy’s Candy Co and Ghirardelli’s, walking away with over $200 of goods for absolutely nothing – we had a lot of snack and QS credits left..

With that, we were on our way back to the hotel, and on the sad Magical Express to the airport. As with our flight out, we have a stopover in Dublin so it’s going to be a long journey! See ya real soon, Walt Disney World!

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Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 2

Jambo friends! Our early night actually led to us being up stupidly early today, but oh well! 

We grabbed breakfast at the hotel, then hopped on a bus to Animal Kingdom, arriving just before opening time. Now Pandora is here, everyone is headed straight there in the morning, but as we had Fastpasses booked for later and on other days, so we weren’t among that mad rush. Instead, we went to Expedition Everest, and rode that twice with absolutely no wait, then went over to Africa for Kilimanjaro Safaris. We were really lucky to see all the safari animals, including all three of the resident lions moving around, which is a rare occurrence from my experience!

After the safari, we finally headed across into Pandora. First of all, just wow. The place is STUNNING, and the detail is incredible – I was blown away. Today we only had a fastpass for Navi River Journey, which got us onto the ride in under 5 mins, unlike the crowds that were queueing for 75. Again, the ride was visually amazing, but I would have been a little disappointed had a queued for over an hour as the actual ride itself left a little to be desired, if you ask me.

After a short wander around the area, we headed back into Africa and went to see the Festival of the Lion King, and followed that up with Kali River Rapids. You know there’s always that one person who seems to get more soaked than anyone else? Well today that was me.

Having soaked myself through, we got lunch at Rainforest Cafe, and then headed back to the resort for a quick nap – our early morning was catching up – and then got ready to head into the Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.

First up, we grabbed our candy bags and headed into Tomorrowland, where we met Lotso, then Sully and Boo at the monster dance party, and after that had a ride on Space Mountain. Then we headed to Storybook Circus where we queued to meet the Seven Dwarfs (an hour wait, for anyone wondering), which put me just over my goal of meeting 100 characters this year, yay!

After some more trick or treating, we got ourselves a spot for the Happy Hallowishes fireworks, and after that grabbed ourselves a parade spot. We watched the headless horseman make his way down Main Street USA, and then the final Boo To You Parade of the year, before making our way back to the hotel for a good nights sleep!

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Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 1

Well here we are folks, another Disney trip has begun!

Courtesy of the time difference, we were awake well before our alarm, and on the bus to the Magic Kingdom just before 7am. We got to MK at about 7:25, and waited in the area reserved for those with breakfast reservations, getting let in at about 7:50. Our breakfast was at Be Our Guest, and wasn’t actually until 8:50, so we took our time getting castle photos, and even had a ride on the carousel before going to the restaurant. Despite being about 30 mins early, they let us straight in, and we were actually finished with our food before our actual reservation time.

After breakfast – which was so good by the way – we had planned on Pirates of the Caribbean, but it was closed, so instead we headed to Big Thunder Mountain and got on the first train out, plus I asked the cast member if we could be in the last row and she let us! From there we did Jungle Cruise, then Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, and our first fastpass of the day, Space Mountain.

The park has been so nice and quiet this morning, and after Space Mountain we managed to do Dumbo, The Barnstormer and The Little Mermaid ride in quick succession, and then made our way round to do Haunted Mansion. Next on the agenda was sorting out a few bits and pieces; Matthew needed to reset his MagicBand pin and my memory maker wasn’t working properly, so we went to Guest Services, via shopping on Main Street USA. We went to City Hall but as there was a queue, the cast member directed us to Liberty Square Ticket Office, a lesser known guest services spot, and thanks to the wonderful Javier, we got everything fixed and he even gave us 3 free Fastpasses by way of apology for the issues I had with my memory maker.

To use them up, we did Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, then Tomorrowland Speedway and Space Mountain, and then we did a lap of TTA Peoplemover and had a sit down in Carousel of Progress, which took us nicely up to our early dinner reservation at The Plaza Restaurant. The food was nice, but I wouldn’t rush to eat there again, and had we not been on the dining plan I don’t think I would have liked to actually pay what we should have done.

After dinner the lack of sleep from the night before was really kicking in, so we finished up with our last fastpass of the day, Pirates of the Caribbean, and headed out from Magic Kingdom for the night – we would have been kicked out later due to the Halloween party anyway! 
Back to the resort, and we picked up our refillable resort mugs, and as we started to walk back to the room I noticed a furry friend was just outside the reception area, and in the cutest outfit too so I just had to have a cuddle! So we just spent the evening at the resort and ended up falling asleep nice and early, which was definitely needed!

Tomorrow is going to be a long day!

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MK and Chill

Considering that this outfit is quite different to what I normally tend to wear in the parks, I’m so excited to wear this look!

Rather than a traditional Disneybound, I’m opting for a comfy t-shirt and shorts look for my first day in the Magic Kingdom, sporting this INCREDIBLE t-shirt from Great Adventure Supply Co. I knew from the moment I saw this t-shirt on Instagram that I had to have it, and I was not disappointed when it arrived – in fact, I wear it all the time!

Keeping on the relaxed look, I’m pairing it with my pastel candy stripe shorts, which I’ve Disneyfied with my iron-on teacup patch (which you can buy here!), and rather than my usual Mickey ears, I’ll instead be sporting this adorable embroidered baseball cap from Just Peachy.

Hub grass, here I come!

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Breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table

If you’re looking for somewhere totally magical to eat in the Magic Kingdom, does it really get any better than eating in Cinderella Castle itself? No. The answer is no.

Cinderella’s Royal Table is one of the few restaurants in MK that offers reservations prior to park opening, meaning early access to Main Street USA before the crowds descend, and for me that’s always worth the stress of those 180 day advanced dining reservations! Its a bit of a first-day tradition for me, and both Sarah and I were dying to eat breakfast with the princesses.

With the new welcome show, you’re not able to walk through the castle from Main Street, so its a little detour past Sleepy Hollow and round to the back of the castle from there. Once you’ve checked in for your meal, you enter the castle to be greeted by Cinderella herself in a grand entrance hall – psst, look out for Gus Gus and Jaq! Once you’ve had your photo and your party has been announced, you climb a spiral staircase up into the dining room and are escorted to your table.

I really loved the size of the dining room. I expected it to be much bigger, but its a perfect size to not feel enormous, but also not crowded, and it means that you’re never too far from the gorgeous stained glass window that looks out over Fantasyland. We were brought out a plate of beautiful pastries while we decided on what to choose from the menu, and the juice was constantly flowing so our glasses were never empty.

Over the course of the first 10-15 minutes of our meal, each princess was announced as they entered the restaurant, and we seemed to have a prime seat as we were the first table visited by almost every princess. We met Aurora, Snow White, Ariel and Jasmine, all of whom were so lovely and friendly, and didn’t rush our interactions at all. At points throughout the meal, there was also a wishing ceremony, for which we were each given a plastic wand to wave – I don’t know if they normally give wands to adults but our server David brought us one each anyway!

As well as the pastries, we each ordered the traditional breakfast, which was delicious but after a Mickey shaped blueberry muffin, I struggled to finish the whole plate. Being on the Disney Dining Plan, the meal was 2 table service credits, which was totally worth it for the food, the characters and the experience of dining in the castle – plus our wands of course! The cast members were also so sweet, which for me always makes any meal feel even better, and it was the perfect start to our trip.

We also just had to stop to use the restrooms on the way out just so we could say we’ve been to the loo in the castle, ha!

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February Disney Trip Day 10

I can’t get over the fact that today is our last full day here in the magic, waaaa!

After checking out of Riverside, we headed into the Magic Kingdom, slightly delayed by crazy traffic, and after a gentle stroll down Main Street went straight to Splash Mountain, where I got a red card, woo! From there, we walked back towards the castle, bumping into the lovely Jane along the way, and as we arrived back at the hub, Royal Friendship Faire was just about to begin. Spoiler alert, I took 130 photos..

Afterwards, we went to go see Pooh and Tigger, but the line was moving so slowly that we had to give up in order to get to our lunch reservation at Be Our Guest. Unlike on previous quick service trips here, we weren’t given anything to take to the table with us, instead they tracked us using our magic bands! Then, with a bit of time to kill before our next fastpass, we headed down to Town Square Theater to meet Tinkerbell. It was a bit of a wait, but it was in the air conditioning and we could sit down on the floor, so it was ok!

Post Pixie Hollow trip, we staked out a spot for Festival of Fantasy on Main Street USA, then once the parade was done, we tried for Tigger and Pooh again, but with a 45 minute wait, we gave up and made our way towards Pirates of the Caribbean. As we got behind the castle, we noticed the ugly stepsisters meeting, so dived into that queue, only to find that they were leaving before we’d get a chance to see them, boo! So Pirates it was, followed by a purple wall photo shoot – Disney basic life – to fill the time until our Big Thunder fastpass, but while we were on our way back to BTM, we came across the Frontierland Hoedown Happening, a 10 minute dance party featuring some of the Brer animals, but also Horace and some of the bears from Country Bear Jamboree. While we didn’t really participate, we did get to walk arm in arm with Horace as they left to go backstage, and snagged a quick photo too!

After Big Thunder, we headed back for a third attempt at Pooh and Tigger and… SUCCESS! These two tipped our character count to over 50 – yes, 50 unique characters on this trip alone! Once we’d finally got to see them, we walked back to Adventureland for our final fastpass of the evening, Jungle Cruise, then headed back to the castle and grabbed some popcorn to camp out for our final Wishes viewing EVER. Waaaaaaa!

It was perfect – we sat for the whole performance and had a great view. They did cancel Tinkerbell due to strong winds, but that made it no less magical, and we sat in front of the castle for ages afterwards in denial about leaving. When we did finally stand up, we headed to Main Street Confectionery to use up the last of our food credits before jumping on the monorail to our hotel for the night. Oh that’s right it’s the Polynesian!

You guys this hotel is beautiful, and the only sad part about this stay is that we’re only here for the night and won’t get a chance to explore the other facilities, but we can see the castle and the lake from our balcony and it’s so beautiful!

Just gonna cry myself to sleep with happiness about this hotel and sadness about tomorrow..

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February Disney Trip Day 6 and Princess Half Marathon

Hey gang! Well I dunno about you but I’ve had quite a day..

Up again at 3.30am and on a bus in under 20 minutes, but thanks to a crazy amount of traffic, it took us over an hour to get to Epcot for this mornings race! I finally got into my corral at 5:30am, which is when the race was due to start, but luckily thanks to the bad traffic, the start was delayed 10 minutes so I didn’t miss out on anything.
The race itself was a classic combination of hard work and a lot of fun; I probably spent about 30-40 minutes waiting for various character stops along the way, but also being my first half without my dad, I struggled a little bit to work with a proper pace and ended up winging it just a bit! I did come in quicker than the time I had set as a sort of goal, so no complaints here, and I was back to the hotel in no time for a bath and, today, a nice long nap, while Sarah went on a solo excursion.

Once I was back on my feet (just barely) I headed into the Magic Kingdom ready for a day of twirling around the place in my beautiful Chip skirt. First stop of the day was meeting Stitch in Town Square, and he loved my outfit and knew exactly who I was, pointing to the picture of Chip on Sarah’s tshirt! Then we had fastpasses for Space Mountain, but not until after I re-carbed with a Mickey pretzel, and we got put on the Alpha track – BOO. With some time to kill before Merida was back meeting (due to her being on parade) we went over to Be Our Guest and luckily there was a photopass photographer outside to take some photos of us in front of Beast’s castle.

Meeting Merida was big for us, as she was the last of all the princesses for us to meet. That’s right, it’s day 6 and we’ve done all of the princesses, eek! And speaking of princesses, next we had fastpasses for Enchanted Tales with Belle, where I was chosen to play Mrs Potts (because an adorable kid was cast as Chip) and Sarah played the operatic wardrobe! It was my first time being part of the show, and Sarah’s first time altogether, so it was amazing that we both got to be in it and meet Belle for photos too as well as get an Enchanted Tales bookmark!

We then wandered through Fantasyland to the Tangled toilets for some photos *cough* new range coming to The Happiest Fitness Co *cough* and met Peter Pan by the Neverland map. Afterwards, we ticked something off our Disney bucket lists by going to Starbucks and giving cute Disney names – Chip and Belle to be precise! A quick hub grass chill and a little bit of Move It Shake It, and we headed back to Be Our Guest for dinner!

It was my first time doing table service there, having only eaten once before during quick service lunch, and it did not dissapoint! We had steak which was delicious, and super filling, so fitting in the lemon meringue cupcake for dessert was a little bit of a struggle. After we ate, we had a photo with Beast, then headed back into the now cold and dark park, and to Ariel’s grotto for a quick mermaid meet.

As we headed to Main Street USA, the new projection show Once Upon A Time was starting, so we stopped midway down the street to watch it. Now I loved the old show, Celebrate the Magic, so I was a little unsure how to take this change, and as much as I hate being negative, I was so disappointed. Compared to Celebrate it just didn’t match up, and I didn’t even have to fight back a single tear – and I cry at everything. I’m glad I’ve seen it, but I probably wouldn’t bother again.

Finally, we finished up with a late fastpass to Big Thunder, because the wildest ride in the wilderness is ten times wilder at night!

And with that, it’s time for me to go to bed..

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February Disney Trip Day 3

So after our crazy early night last night, we ended up awake super early this morning. Typical.Our plans for the morning were to hit the RunDisney expo so I could get my bib and tshirts, so we had a fairly chilled morning at the hotel, grabbed some breakfast there and jumped on a transportation bus to the ESPN centre. Because Sarah had never been to an expo before, I was pretty excited for her to see what they were really like.


We got my bib and race shirts, and collected the pre-ordered pin I got for Sarah and my event jacket, then got stuck into the official merchandise, before getting into the 40 minute queue to pay. Yes, 40 minutes.. We also had a quick look around the main expo hall, but with fastpass commitments looming, jumped on a bus back to the hotel so I could dump my stuff, then hopped on another to Epcot.

Our only fastpass of the day was for Soarin’, a ride I haven’t done here since 2014 as it was being refurbished last year, and the new update is incredible! Honestly if you do no other ride in Epcot, do this.

 

Having seen that she meets in the French Pavilion on the World Showcase, I decided to bring my Aurora themed outfit forward, so we dashed from Soarin’ to the 2:30 meet, and while we were in the queue we overheard rumours that Belle would also be out in her blue dress, so after Aurora we got in the mystery line to meet Belle. She was super lovely, and it was my first time meeting her in her blue village dress, and another princess off the list!

Onwards, we grabbed a Starbucks and jumped onto a monorail across to the Magic Kingdom, then a bus across to Fort Wilderness for Mickey’s Backyard BBQ..


You guys, I cannot put into words how much fun Backyard BBQ was. There will be a full review in the coming weeks, but OH MY GOSH. There was amazing food, incredible entertainment and we just had the best time dancing with Mickey and the gang! 100/10 would recommend, and yes, that is 100 and not a typo.

From Fort Wilderness, we got the bus back to the Magic Kingdom, rejoiced at the park being much quieter than Tuesday, and took a good spot to watch Once Upon a Time and Wishes. The whole area between the partners statue and castle was sat down which was amazing. That was, until about 5 minutes before it was due to start, when the whole front of the audience decided to stand up. Ugh. We actually ended up leaving midway through in order to make our fastpass for Buzz, but having already watched it this trip and knowing we’ll see it again, it wasn’t really a problem.

After Buzz, we had our last fastpass of the day at Haunted Mansion, then as we still had 10 minutes til park close, we decided to run over and get on Big Thunder Mountain because the queue was pretty short, plus I love riding Big Thunder in the dark – it just seems to make it more fun!


Now past park close, we walked through a fairly empty Liberty Square back to the castle, and decided to hang out until Main Street emptied out a bit to get some photos in front of a clear castle, and we managed to sneak a photo shoot with one of the remaining Photopass photographers on Main Street. We eventually left the park about 11pm – an hour after park close – and got back to the hotel about 11.40, now pretty wiped and ready for a good nights sleep!

Today:

– Characters met: 7

– Total steps: 20,226

– Total distance: 8.46 miles

Tomorrow we’ll be in Animal Kingdom!

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February Disney Trip Day 1

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I AM BACCCKKKKK

Today has been magical. Because we forced ourselves to stay up so late on Monday night, we slept right through til 6am with no troubles, and hopped on the resort bus into the Magic Kingdom for pre-opening entry, courtesy of our breakfast reservation at Cinderella’s Royal Table. We did empty(ish) Main Street and castle photos, before heading round to the back of the castle to the restaurant. Oh my gosh, it was the most magical breakfast! Full review to come, but 5 princesses, amazing food, and well, WE WERE INSIDE THE CASTLE. Our server was also really lovely too!

We left the restaurant just after 9, yet the park was still pretty empty to we wandered to the Tangled toilets and then through to Liberty Square, where we stumbled across a pair of mischievous cowboy chipmunks, and we had such a fun play with them, before we headed over to my traditional first ride of Pirates of the Caribbean! On our way back through to Fantasyland, we spotted Mary Poppins at the gazebo, and had a chat and a few photos with her!

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From there, we had our Fastpass at Princess Fairytale Hall with Rapunzel and Tiana, then bumped into the Fairy Godmother just outside – 11 characters before 10.30! Next was a ride on Dumbo, and then Starbucks on Main Street #disneybasic.

We sat on the hub grass being classic WDW girls with our Starbucks and listened to the music from Move it, Shake it, and watched as the floats headed back up Main Street, and then Royal Friendship Faire began on the castle stage. I was super excited to watch it having last been here when it was Dream Along with Mickey, and safe to say I fell in love with it – Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Donald.. It brought a tear or two (I mean, I know everything at Disney does, but still) and I’m definitely looking forward to watching it again and hopefully getting some better photos with my telescopic lens! After the show, we had our Fastpasses for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, then walked through the now super busy park, and ended up in the Enchanted Tiki Room.

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Now in Adventureland, we came across Aladdin and Jasmine meeting in the bazaar, so we waited to meet them, and then headed to Tomorrowland and hit Carousel of Progress before our Space Mountain fastpass. It was then about 2.30 so we rushed back to Main Street for Festival of Fantasy, only to find it was packed and only got a mediocre view, but hey ho.. The park was HEAVING and queue times were ridiculous for everything, so we decided to beat the odds and get some food – also cos we hadn’t eaten since breakfast – at Cosmic Ray’s, since the busy park meant eating at a normal meal time would probably be absolute chaos.

One chicken club and fries later, we decided to do Philharmagic and then head to Tom Sawyers Island, only to find it was shut.. To console ourselves, we headed down Main Street and I dutifully watched Sarah buy her annual pass cos I’m a good friend like that. A quick walk through some shops, and 3 Vinylmations later (oops sorry not sorry) and we made our way back to Its a Small World for our final fastpass of the day.

Feet aching and tiredness setting in, we headed to the Tangled toilets to sit down for a little bit in the hope of a magical moment.. AND IT HAPPENED.


The legendary (or not quite) lantern that’s been the hit of Disney Instagram for the last week, that we were praying might still be a thing this week was!! All of a sudden the end of the day became even more magical than it already had been – and then we topped it off with Wishes!
I’m gonna round the day off with some stats cos y’all know I love numbers:

Total characters met: 12

Total steps: 22078

Total distance: 9.21 miles, and no, I’ve not even done any running yet..

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Favourite Photo’s from.. Festival of Fantasy Parade

This is really just a glowing tribute to my absolute favourite and, in my opinion, the best parade Disney World have ever created. I could honestly sit and watch it all day, every day, burning heat or pouring rain. I’m actually writing this while listening to the soundtrack on Youtube, just to keep the magic going.

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If you only spend one day in the Magic Kingdom, do not let yourself miss out on this truly beautiful display of Disney magic!

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WDW Day 9 – and onto Disneyland!

Today we said goodbye to the Magic Kingdom *sobs*

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After a quick run, and fighting with our suitcases before checking out of French Quarter, we headed into the Magic Kingdom; overnight all the Christmas decorations had disappeared, so Main Street USA was looking a little bare. First up was Pirates of the Caribbean, followed by breakfast at Liberty Square Market, then Peter Pan’s Flight, Space Mountain and the TTA People Mover before our Haunted Mansion Fastpass time.

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With some time before our next Fastpass, we wandered back into Fantasyland and caught the railroad, doing a full loop of the kingdom, before getting on an entirely different train: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. High speed rides out of the way, we stopped off at Pinocchio Village Haus for lunch.

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A final ride on the carousel, and it was back to French Quarter to catch the Magical Express to the airport, and a 5 hour plane journey and a drive to Anaheim, and we’ve just checked into our hotel! We’re now 3 hours behind Florida time, so 8 hours behind UK, and off to bed for us!

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WDW Day 8!

Today was our last full day in the parks, can someone tell me where that time has gone?!

The plan was to have a little bit of a lie-in, then get to the Magic Kingdom for the rope drop. Well, we missed the rope drop, but we did get to do Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder and Space Mountain all within the first hour of park time, so that was pretty impressive in any case! Fast rides out of the way, we stopped at Sleepy Hollow for breakfast: fresh fruit waffle sandwiches in the sunshine, right next to the castle as the first Dream Along with Mickey show was on – kinda perfect, am I right?

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After our late breakfast, we caught the monorail to Polynesian Village; the lobby was under construction on our last visit, so we were curious to see the changes for ourselves, and it made the perfect stop to hop across to Hollywood Studios for the afternoon. First on the agenda was Star Wars Launch Bay to hang out with Chewie and Darth, and we even got to see a rogue Jawa hanging around! After another Great Movie Ride (gangster this time, in case you were wondering), we finally caved and bought ourselves a BB-8 sipper cup each as well as some popcorn to see Beauty and the Beast live on stage.

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After the show, we headed across to Star Tours, but as we were a little early for our Fastpass slot, we decided to watch the Jedi Training Academy show, which was pretty adorable. You might have caught my tweet about how it’s been updated to include some TFA stuff, but we asked a CM today and it turns out there are 50 different variations of the simulation, crazy!

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Next up some Muppet Vision 3D, followed by late lunch at Studio Catering Co, then One Mans Dream (all the feels!) before out Tower of Terror Fastpass. You may have heard me talk about my love/hate relationship with this ride before, and it’s pretty simple: I hate waiting for the first drop, after that I’m totally cool, and it works fine because I know that it doesn’t drop until you reach the top and look out over the park. Nope, not this time! The first drop was done totally in the dark; I felt betrayed, but at least it was over. After that we made our way to Fantasmic nice and early because of our Fastpasses, and to avoid the mad rush that happens so often. It was magical as per, when Mickey comes out on the boat as Steamboat Willie..

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After the show, we made our way to our favourite spot to watch Symphony of the Stars for our last time this trip. It was no less magical the second time; you can physically feel the bangs pass through you!

Tomorrow is our last day here (waa!), but I’m getting so excited to return to Disneyland!

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WDW Day 7!

Well that’s Four Park Challenge off my bucket list!

We started this morning with Extra Magic Hours in Animal Kingdom, and first stop was obviously Expedition Everest – did you catch it on Periscope? Rollercoaster out of the way, we stopped off at Creature Comforts (the AK Starbucks) for hot drinks – yes it was that cold – and breakfast pastries, then onward to Kilimanjaro Safaris where we got to see two baby white rhinos playing, eek! We decided that for our challenge, we would get photos with Mickey at each of the parks, so we stopped off at Adventurers Outpost to see him and Minnie before catching a bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge to park-hop.

From AKL we transferred onto a bus to Hollywood Studios, where we first stopped off to see Mickey, this time in his classic Sorcerers Apprentice costume. On a character meet roll, we also got a selfie with a green army man, and went to see Mike and Sully, but as we’re headed back to Studios tomorrow, we decided not to queue for any rides.

Now midday, we caught another bus onto Wilderness Lodge, for a quick look around but also so we could transfer to the Magic Kingdom by the boat that runs direct from the resort, handy right? Again, first things first, we went to see Mickey in Town Hall Theater, then grabbed lunch at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe. Would you believe we’ve never done Astro Orbiter before? Well we have now! With that experience under our belts, we got a spot near the castle for Festival of Fantasy, which was just as magical as it always is, and finished up out MK time with an obligatory Its a Small World.

 To throw another form of transportation into the works, we obviously had to take the monorail across to our final park, Epcot, and actually it wasn’t Mickey we went to first, it was Baymax. Yes again, no we don’t care. Mickey was next, at the Epcot Character Spot, then we went across to Journey into the Imagination. We had a Fastpass, but there wasn’t much of a line to bypass! Not quite hungry yet, we stopped off to watch Circle of Life in The Land, before dinner at Sunshine Seasons, probably my favourite quick service in the whole of Walt Disney World. From there we went to Spaceship Earth for our Fastpass, but again there was no line so we didn’t even bother scanning them. With time before the fireworks, we figured a 40 minute wait at Test Track (which we discovered a love for the other day) would keep us warm and indoors, but we actually waited less than 10 before we got to the design stage, then another 10 before the ride itself. In fact, we ended up doing it twice! That took us right up to our last Fastpass for the day, for Illuminations: Reflections of Earth, which was beautiful as always. It was pretty chilly, so as soon as the display was over, we joined the brisk hoard of people leaving the parks and jumped on our last bus: back to the resort!

How’s that for a busy day?

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WDW Day 5 and RunDisney Half Marathon!

Has anyone ever run a half marathon with a chest infection? No? Just me..?

Yep, today was the big day, and the cold I’ve been battling since arriving in Florida was rearing its big ugly head, manifesting in my chest making every single breath hurt. Throw in the stress of all this setting off the weird little heart palpitations I get from time to time after about 9 miles, and I was not exactly fighting fit..

But we did it. It was not a record time, and I couldn’t even muster a sprint finish, but it was still epic. Looking back on it, now 12+ hours later, it was even more epic, mainly because I can breath properly now but still! There was a tonne of great entertainment, the cheering crowds were incredible and some of the sights were phenomenal.

We started once again in the Epcot parking lot, and from there ran up to the Magic Kingdom, down Main Street USA and right into Tomorrowland, then into Fantasyland and through the gloriously lit castle, before heading through Frontierland and out backstage. We then took a fairly straight route back down towards Epcot, finishing up with a loop down to the World Showcase and back, and finally that magical finish line was in sight!

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To celebrate, lunch was at Beaches and Cream, and included an sundae the size of my face – not that I could finish it! From there we walked into Epcot via the International Gateway so we could catch a monorail to the Magic Kingdom ticket centre, then decided to get the ferry boat to the park from there.

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Despite exhaustion, we still packed a fair amount into our afternoon: Philharmagic, character meets, a ride on the train, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain etc, but the rain began to pour down so we didn’t fancy sticking around to get soggy on a Jungle Cruise, and having been up since 3am, we settled on an early return to the resort so we could get some washing done.

Hello bed..

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Friday Favourite Five – WDW Quick Service Restaurants

I’m getting super excited about my upcoming Disney World trip, and when I’m excited my planning goes into overdrive! Because we’re on the Quick Service Dining Plan, I’m pretty excited to try out a lot more of the QS restaurants on this trip, but for now, here are my favourite five from the last trip:

1. Pizza Planet Arcade

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My absolutely favourite restaurant in Hollywood Studios, Pizza Planet is like walking into Andy’s favourite place to eat: pizza, arcade games, and plenty of Little Green Men!

2. Be Our Guest (lunch)

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Be Our Guest is quick service for lunchtime only, and even then getting in can be pretty competitive, but we managed it! If the perfect setting isn’t enough, the food was amazing!

3. Sunshine Seasons

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Sunshine Seasons is inside The Land at Epcot, and boasts a pretty amazing range of international cuisine. My Mongolian Beef, fried rice and whoopie pie might have been the best QS meal I had last year!

4. Pinocchio Village Haus

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We loved Pinocchio’s so much we ate there twice! As well as great food, there’s loads of seating both indoors and out, and if you sit by the big window you can watch the boats on It’s a Small World!

5. Boardwalk Bakery

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The Boardwalk is possibly the most beautiful and underrated place in Disney World, and the Bakery is full of yummy goodies, from incredible cupcakes to handmade deli sandwiches, and if you ever need to order a celebration cake, this is the place to go!

Where are your favourite places to eat in WDW?

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Being the first people in The Magic Kingdom

So I always knew that I wanted our trip last year to be as magical as possible, given that it was a) my first time back in 15 years, b) the girls first ever visit to Disney World, and c) probably the only time both families would be able to do this holiday together, and with that said, I wanted to make it as magical as possible for everyone.

My first priority was making sure that the first time everyone stepped into the Magic Kingdom, it was totally perfect, and in my opinion, the only way to do that was to be the first people into the park, and to see it all without the hassle of weaving through hundreds of other guests.

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Now you could do this by waking up super early, rushing down to the park to be the first in line at the entrance, and waiting for AGES for the ropes to drop and make a dash before the surge of people behind you also converge onto Main Street.

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Or, you could do it the easy way!

Yes, ok, you do still have to get up early, and there’s a tiny bit of queuing, but its worth it, and its as simple as breakfast, quite literally.

Be Our Guest, Crystal Palace and Cinderella’s Royal Table all offer breakfast reservations from 8am, when the park doesn’t usually open until 9am, and if you have a reservation for any time before the park opens, the gate for you opens just before 8am!

With this in mind, we managed to get reservations for Crystal Palace at 8.15, giving us the opportunity to stroll down Main Street, get some uninterrupted photos and absorb all the early morning magic before we made our way to our fabulous breakfast booking, which you can read more about here!

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Photo Parade – Festival of Fantasy

If you’re following me on Instagram (@lottiedoesdisney) or Twitter (@lottieanddisney), you’ll see that recently I’ve been suffering major Disney blues in the last week or so. I realised the other day its been over 6 months since I was last at Disney World, and that seems like too long to me, especially as, at the moment, I won’t be going back until January.

So to cheer myself up I’ve been reading my Disney Trip Diaries and going through my endless photos, which inspired this post, the first of a mini series where I’ll be re-living my favourite shows and parades in my photo memories, starting with my absolute favourite: The Festival of Fantasy.

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Ok, so I know its a long post, but considering each time I watched this parade I took around 200 photos, I don’t think I’ve done a bad job of cutting it down! To call it amazing would be a total understatement, it honestly brought me to tears, but then again so did quite a few of the parades and displays..

I just love Disney World..

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Be Our Guest

It is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight..

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Be Our Guest is the restaurant inside the elusive Beast’s castle, in the Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland. It is open for lunch, which is quick service, and dinner which is table service, and absolutely must be booked in advance (180 days for the best chance of getting a table).

After a failed attempt at trying to get in for dinner, on our last day in the Magic Kingdom we were lucky enough to get there just in time to queue for the lunch opening..

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Wow. One step inside and you can understand why it is such a sought after place to eat; its just stunning. For a quick service lunch, you stop off at a counter to order on your way in, and then take a seat in either the ballroom, the gallery, or the out of bounds West Wing, which contains the enchanted rose. We sat in the ballroom, near the large glass window so we could watch the ‘snow’ fall outside the window. The settings in all the rooms are so accurate to the films, its like you’re actually in the film.

As if by magic, your food is delivered to your table, wherever you choose to sit, without you having to tell a cast member where you are (they track your Magic Band, or give you a tracker if you don’t have one). The lunch menu ranges from soups to sandwiches to salads, all with a French theme, and desserts are mainly cupcakes, including The Master’s Cupcake that is topped with ‘the grey stuff’ – delicious!

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I can’t fault the food, it was perfect. The whole place totally did it for me, and the family loved it too! On my next trip I’d love to try dinner here.

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If you get a chance, do not miss this fabulous opportunity, you’ll never forget it!

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Pinocchio Village Haus

Tucked behind the castle in Fantasyland is a little cottage serving fabulous Italian food..

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Ok so its not little at all, but the food is so good we ate there twice! With inside and outside seating on both ground floor and a tiny first floor, you’ll bound to find a table to sit at once you’ve ordered your flatbreads or subs, and if you can, sit by the large windows on the left of the restaurant: you can watch riders on Its a Small World – wave!

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One of our quick service eateries of the Magic Kingdom; plenty of space for our large group, good food and a nice setting.

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Columbia Harbour House

This fishy eatery is located in Liberty Square in the Magic Kingdom, and serves up a selection of sandwiches, platters and salads.

Its a standard quick service place, order at a counter, collect your food and grab a table in the spacious seating area – don’t forget there’s more seating upstairs!

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This was our first quick service experience, and honestly was one of the worst. Although the food was decent, there was a lot of mix up when our order was placed, resulting in a few of us getting the wrong sides or desserts, and the servers didn’t seem that motivated to help us resolve it.

A spacious place for a good bite to eat, but nothing to write home about.

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Crystal Palace

Tucked into a corner of Main Street USA, Crystal Palace is the fave place to eat of Winnie the Pooh and some of his very best friends. As the name suggests, the building is a stunning structure of glass and framework, and is decorated with displays of hanging baskets and impressive topiary centerpieces.

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We booked for breakfast on the first day of our trip. While the park isn’t open to the public until 9am, breakfast bookings start from 8am, giving a unique opportunity to see the Magic Kingdom first thing; an empty Main Street leading up to the castle: totally beautiful.

The food is all you can eat buffet-style, with a range of options from classic Mickey waffles to an omelette station, cereals and fruit to full cooked breakfast options. Mixed in with classic choices like bacon and eggs are unique specialties such as ‘breakfast pizza’, pizza base with an omelette style topping with vegetables, meat etc, and ‘breakfast lasagne’, layers of fruit, custard, and sponge, topped with granola.

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Once you’ve got a plateful of food, you can head back to your table and wait for your favourite childhood classics to come and say hi, and make sure you have your autograph books at the ready as Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore will all make an appearance!

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The characters make the rounds of the restaurant, one at a time, but they only visit once so you need to keep an eye out for them, not that you can easily miss them! They space out their visits nicely, so you’ve got time to go up and get food between each character. Make sure to have your autograph books ready, and to make it easier for the characters, stack them up ready for signing as they’ll do that first before posing for any photos.

We absolutely loved Crystal Palace; it was the perfect start to our Disney trip. The food was incredible, the setting was classic Disney beautiful, and who doesn’t love Pooh and friends?! An absolute must place to eat for all.

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MK Tips and Secrets

Main Street USA

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°o° On your way in, grab your park map and schedule; sometimes parades and shows happen at different times due to the day/season/occasion.

°o° All the shops are conjoined – when Main Street is packed, like park closing, make a dash to the nearest shop and cut through there, you’ll save a load of time!

°o° The shops don’t shut until an hour after park closing, so if you’re not in a rush to get to bed, you can take your time browsing souvenirs.

°o° If you need any help, pop into City hall, or if you have any Photopass problems, Town Square Theater is the place to go.

°o° With any luck you won’t need to, but should you have any medical problems, First Aid is just next to Crystal Palace.

°o° If you can, watch the Main Street Electrical Parade on a Friday – they make it longer with additional floats.

°o° Sneaky devices emit the scents of cookies and vanilla onto Main Street.

°o° There’s a secret apartment above the fire house to reflect Walt’s apartment.

Adventureland

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°o° Most people head to Fantasyland first, so Adventureland is really quiet in the morning – hello queue times under 5 minutes!

°o° Most attractions and shops are indoor or undercover, great for avoiding middle of the day sun.

°o° Watch out for spitting camels!

°o° On Pirates of the Caribbean, look out for Ab Lincoln disguised as a pirate – when Hall of Presidents was updated, the retired animatronic was moved here to live out the rest of his career!

°o° The skeletons playing chess in the queue for Pirates of the Caribbean are at a stalemate – how ironic!

°o° The front half of the plane on Jungle Cruise is the one used in the Casablanca scene of  The Great Movie Ride

Frontierland

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°o° Most people don’t like doing Splash Mountain first thing, so its pretty quiet, but if its hot, its a great way to keep you cool.

°o° While a lot of the queue for Big Thunder Mountain is under cover, its still very warm during hot seasons, so don’t get stuck in a long queue around the middle of the day.

°o° From Frontierland, you can catch a ride to Tom Sawyer’s Island to explore, and look for hidden paintbrushes.

°o° Sometimes parades run reverse routes and begin near Splash Mountain.

°o° From here you can hop on the Walt Disney World Railroad to get across to Fantasyland, Tomorrowland or Main Street USA

°o° You can meet Woody and Jessie near the queue for Splash Mountain.

°o° If you’re a Vinylmation collector, Frontier Trading post trade and sell figures.

Liberty Square

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°o° During the heat of the middle of the day, Liberty Square is an ideal place to be; all the main attractions are indoors, and hold a lot of people.

°o° Many of the displays in the waiting area for Hall of Presidents are authentic items that belonged to former presidents and their families. Disney also needed special permission from the US State Government to have the Presidential Seal on the carpet.

°o° Tucked into a small corner of Liberty Square is a year-round Christmas store: Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe.

°o° In the queue for The Haunted Mansion, you pass a pet cemetery where you’ll see a tombstone for J. Thaddeus Toad, a nod to the former attraction, Mr Toad’s Wild Ride.

°o° Each building in Liberty Square has a 2 digit house number – put an 18 in front of each number, and it gives you the year from which that style of building came.

°o° There are no restrooms to reflect a lack of plumbing during that period in history.

°o° The Liberty Tree holds 13 lanterns, to represent each of the original colonies.

°o° Ask to pilot the Liberty Belle!

Fantasyland

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°o° As you start your trip on It’s a Small World, look up and wave at diners in Pinocchio’s Village Haus!

°o° You can ride Cinderella’s horse on Prince Charming’s Regal Carousel – its the one decorated with purple flowers.

°o° You’ll find another nod to Mr Toad on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride; Mr Toad appears in several pictures to mark the fact that this ride replaced his own.

°o° Ride the lilac teacup on the Mad Tea Party – it goes fastest!

°o° Try and pull the sword from the stone; you just might succeed.

°o° Through Storybook Circus is another stop of the railroad, continuing road to Main Street.

°o° Dumbo the Flying Elephant Ride has a new interactive queue – inside the Big Top is a play centre where you can wait, and a pager will let you know when its your turn to ride.

°o° In Pete’s Silly Slideshow, you can meet your favourite characters in wacky circus outfits – great unique photo opportunities!

Tomorrowland

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°o° Tomorrowland is an ideal place to go at all extremes of weather: hot, cold, wet etc, as almost all the attractions are indoors, as are the queues. Even the TTA Peoplemover is fairly safe in rain – we took cover on it during a horrendous rainstorm, and stayed pretty dry!

°o° You can skip fighting through the busy castle area to get to Tomorrowland by taking the shortcut past Plaza Ice Cream Parlour and walking through the Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant

°o° Get a Fastpass for Space Mountain, whether its busy or not. The Fastpass queue leads to the track on the righthand side, which is longer and faster, with more bumps and turns.

°o° There’s a quiet path round the side of Space Mountain, which leads to Fantasyland through the Storybook Circus – also a good way to get to the railroad.

°o° The TTA Peoplemover runs through the top of a few rides, look out into Buzz’s Space Ranger Spin and Space Mountain, and also spy on shoppers in Mickey’s Star Traders.

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Last Disney Day :(

With a 2.25pm Magical Express waiting to take us to the airport, we didn’t have a whole lot of time left for park action (although I think everyone else was feeling a bit Disney’d out), so we spent our morning enjoying one final character breakfast at Ohana, in Disney’s Polynesian Resort. The breakfast was served family-style, where a selection of food was brought to the table and we all helped ourselves, while we got visited from Mickey and Pluto, as well as Lilo and Stitch, and drank way too much ‘Stitch juice’ (yum!).

We then headed down to the dock and took the boat across to the Magic Kingdom for a final trip down Main Street USA, last minute souvenir shopping, and a last viewing of the Move it, Shake it Street Party, before making our way to the buses for the last time 😦

See ya real soon Disney World!

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Day 13: Last Park Day :(

So this will be my last post from the happiest place on Earth 😦

Looking at the positive side, from here this blog will blossom into a beautiful site of Disney World planning, tips and more!

It did mean that today was my last day in the Magic Kingdom, my home away from home. So today we had a chilled day of meeting characters, getting autographs, snapping pics etc, as well as having our last few trips on our favourite rides.

It also meant last Festival of Fantasy for me, a parade I would watch every day if could. We stood on the other side of the road this time, purely for Flynn Rider (he winked at me omg), and while I said I wouldn’t take as many photos, I took more..

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We had dinner at Chef Mickey’s before heading back into the park for a last Celebrate the Magic and Wishes *sobs* and now as a family we have the phenomenal task of attempting to pack all our suitcases to include all our fabulous Disney purchases!

Tomorrow we’re having a final character breakfast at Ohana with Lilo and Stitch before catching the Magical Express to the airport for an exciting (not) 8 hour overnight flight back home..

Catch you on the other side dreamers!

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Days 11 and 12: Well, all over the place really..

Yesterday was another Universal day, mainly for the minions, so kept short and sweet and wrapped up with dinner at Planet Hollywood in Downtown Disney. I personally didn’t eat but that’s a whole other story..

After a much needed lie-in, we started the day with a trip into Epcot. While we’d covered all the rides we wanted to do, I was seriously lacking in the photo department and wanted to have a proper look round the World Showcase during the daylight hours, so had some quality photo-snapping time with my dad, while Mum browsed Innoventions; that place is a magnet to science teachers!

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Also dropped into the Art of Disney store there and treated myself to a total beauty of a canvas: a print of a stunning painting of a Tangled, gah!

We then monorailled from Epcot into the Magic Kingdom (via the transportation center as there’s no direct line) to meet up with the rest of the group for lunch at Be Our Guest, but unfortunately we’d left it too late to chance a walk-in and they were at full capacity 😦

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After another lunch at Pinocchio’s Village Haus, we headed across to Tomorrowland for a Space Mountain. The previous few times we’d done it we were lucky enough to have short wait times without a Fastpass, but the standby queue time had hit 85 minutes when we arrived, so we were very grateful that this time we did! Shooting past a queue of slightly disgruntled people, we boarded the ride on the opposite track to the regular riders, and to our surprise had a totally different ride experience.. The right side track was much faster, but felt longer, and had more wild twists and turns, it was great!

We also rode the Liberty Belle around Frontierland and caught a bit of Dreams Come True and the Move it, Shake it Dance Party Parade before heading out of the Magic Kingdom.

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Oh, and fall/autumn has begun in Main Street!

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So beautiful °o°

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Days 9 and 10: Typhoon Lagoon and Festival of Fantasy

Another two in one blog.

Yesterday started with cake, wahey! On my adventures the other night, I’d made a trip to the Boardwalk Bakery and placed an order for a cake for a certain special occasion..

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So following cake for breakfast, we headed over to Typhoon Lagoon, where we spent the day swimming with sharks, catching some waves and generally splashing around! We had dinner at T-Rex in Downtown Disney; an absolutely fab meal in an awesome location where the Jurassic era is brought to life!

We also headed across to the Magic Kingdom for the Main Street Electrical Parade, Celebrate the Magic and Wishes.

Today we had a lazy morning before heading over to the Magic Kingdom in time to camp out for the Festival of Fantasy Parade, which we’d missed due to rain before.

Wow, wow, wow! Well worth sitting out in scorching heat for 30 mins!

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Day 8: One Day, Two Parks

Today we had a mission: get on the Seven Dwarves Mine Train.

The Magic Kingdom had an early magic hour, so we got into the park at about 8.30am and marched straight over, expecting to find a relatively short queue.. We found a queue working all the way round the outside of the ride, as far as Ariel’s Grotto. Luckily (sort of), however, the queue was this length due to the fact the ride wasn’t open yet, and therefore no one was in the main queue area, so once the ride opened we flowed fairly quickly. Once inside, the queue was fairly entertaining, with plenty of interactive activities and fabulous surroundings. The ride itself was a nice combination of rollercoaster (think Big Thunder Mountain), and classic ride along (Winnie the Pooh style) inside the mines, and the whole time we spent at the ride was about an hour; queuing and the ride itself.

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Mission completed, we had a wander around Main Street USA, stopping for a treat in the confectionery shop and grabbing a drink from the Main Street Bakery, and even managed to squeeze in seeing the Move It, Shake It Street Party before hopping on a bus to the next park..

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Hollywood Studios afternoon!

We had all our Fastpasses for the day booked for the studios, as well as dinner, and got into the park just in time for the first: Indiana Jones stunt show. Personally I enjoyed this a lot more than Lights, Camera, Motion! as it was more personal; volunteers were picked out of the audience, the cast of the show explained how stunts are shot for real movies etc. We headed straight from there to Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage, our second Fastpass. Another great production, it summarised the film (one of my favourites!) into a short and sweet 30 minute show while keeping all the key aspects of the story, and most importantly: the songs!

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Onto dinner: 50’s Prime Time Cafe!

The restaurant was a great atmosphere, and we had a fabulously funny waitress, Mary Ann, who made sure we enjoyed our meals as well as maintaining our manners – no elbows on the table, pleases and thank yous etc. At this point in our trip, a major flaw in the dining in Disney World is really emerging: absolutely no variety in kids meal choices. Our poor youngest two of the group are being subjected daily to three options in almost every restaurant – mac and cheese, chicken nuggets and burger/hotdog/pizza with either fruit salad, apple slices or ice cream for dessert.

With everything at the park completed, we’re drawing a line under Hollywood Studios for the rest of our trip; its not quite as kid friendly and there’s nothing else we’d go back for now.

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Day 2: Magic Kingdom

Today was the day I’d planned to be totally magical; for a first day in Disney World you’d want nothing less, and I was going to make sure of it.

Although it may seem crazy over-organised, we booked our first day breakfast almost 6 months in advance to ensure we got it: Crystal Palace, 8.15am. The beauty of this is that the park doesn’t actually open until 9am, and therefore our reservation granted us early access to the Magic Kingdom, so we could make the first turn onto Main Street and see this..

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Main Street leading up to the castle, almost entirely uninterrupted.

Well worth and early morning (left our resort on the 7am bus to get to the park in plenty of time).

Breakfast was fab, and we were joined by Winnie the Pooh and his friends who visited and signed our autograph books before posing for numerous photos in varying poses.

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Tummies (and bags) full of food (buffets are great), we headed into the park.

I won’t list all the rides we went on, cos quite honestly we didn’t get a chance to do them all in the one day, especially not with Snow White’s Mine Train and Peter Pan’s Magic Flight wait times never dropping below and hour (we’ll Fastpass them on our next day in MK), but we were incredibly lucky with queue lengths, not waiting more than 30 minutes for any ride.

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In between rides we caught a few shows, and set up camp on Main Street for the Festival of Fantasy Parade, only for it to be cancelled last minute due to the threat of rain, which was a bit of a disappointment 😦 but we made up for it with snacks!

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If I’m honest, I was a little let down by the Main Street Bakery, expecting it to be what it says on the label, but really it was just a glorified Starbucks, which I’m really not a fan of, but I managed to pick an Olaf Cake Pop up from a few shops down.

More rides, more time passing, girls are getting more and more tired..

By 9pm, the Main Street Electrical Parade, Liv was unconscious and Soph not far behind, so despite my hopes of them staying for the whole parade and the following fireworks, they headed back to the hotel for the night.

(I’ve spent all day alternating between my camera and my phone for photos, and as my phone takes better night time photos, I’ll sort those out another time to fully glorify the beauty of the evening)

After the parade ended, we simply turned to face the castle and plonked ourselves on the floor, and I think I’m going to struggle to describe the beauty and true magic of what followed..

Celebrate the Magic was everything and more. Don’t believe me? See it for yourself.

The show consisted of a series of projections, set right onto the castle itself, and wow. Just wow. It had me tearing up, mouth gaping open, eyes fixed on the beauty before me, and totally speechless afterwards.

It was followed by the Wishes fireworks show, but unfortunately we were sat a little too close to the castle to fully appreciate it as the fireworks are mainly fired behind it, but it was still beautiful, and a man sat a few rows in front even proposed right as the show was going; totally beautiful.

Drained, we called it a night after that spectacular end to a magical first day of our trip.

Final stats:

Steps: 18159

Distance: 7.58 miles

Calories burnt: 2365

Stats provided by my Fitbit Zip

°o°

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