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.
If you only spend one day in the Magic Kingdom, do not let yourself miss out on this truly beautiful display of Disney magic!
Don’t ask me why, but I’ve always felt that the best meal for meeting characters is breakfast. Maybe its the start of the day excitement, maybe it gears me up for a day in the parks.. Its probably the fact its usually a buffet..
With no character breakfast on the cards for while we were in WDW, I definitely wanted to book one for our stay in Disneyland, and Plaza Inn seemed like the perfect place – right at the end of Main Street USA, looking out at the castle. Yep, perfect.
Firstly we were given a button each, and we were asked if we didn’t mind sitting outside on the veranda instead of in the main restaurant, but given that it was California weather, that wasn’t a problem for us. It meant we had a quieter meal away from the bustle of kids dying for autographs, and we could watch the world go by a little as we ate. It was also only a few minutes after we sat down that we were greeted by the first character of the day, Max.
As the meal is advertised as ‘Minnie and friends’, we assumed that there would be a handful of classic characters, Pooh and friends for example, as well as Minnie herself, so it was a really nice surprise to not only have a great mixture of characters, but also to see as many as there were; we were only there for 30-40 minutes altogether and we saw 8 characters: Minnie, Max, Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Rafiki, Fairy Godmother and Suzie the mouse, and for all we know, there may have been more hanging around that we missed! They also came around regularly and spread out, so there was time to eat between each meet, but we didn’t feel like we were hanging around waiting for the next.
As for the food, I can never really fault a Disney breakfast buffet. There were the usual hot breakfast items as well as omelette stations, and also breakfast pastries, cereals, yogurt and fruit etc. Oh and mini muffins, gotta have a mini muffin.
It was $33.99 each, which for a buffet and the number of characters we saw seemed totally reasonable. I also really liked the fact the place didn’t seem overcrowded like some character meals can; this could be because it was an off-peak time and we were sat outside, but there weren’t queues for the food either and the staff were really friendly and efficient, always a plus!
Who doesn’t love a breakfast buffet?
Ok Mouseketeers, we’re just coming to the end of our first day in the most magical place on earth, and you all wanna know what we got up to, right?
Thanks to jet lag, we were up well before the alarm was due, which meant we could sneak a little lie in before grabbing a snacky breakfast and jumping on a bus to the Magic Kingdom. We had the great perk of being allowed into the park before other guests, not because of a breakfast reservation, but because we were going on the Keys to the Kingdom tour, which began at 8.30am. Now the park didn’t open til 9am today, so Main Street was looking pristine and beautiful, before we watched the hoards of other guests descend.
The tour was incredible – a solid 5 hours long including lunch, and we got to see and learn so much, but we weren’t allowed to take any photos, waa! I’m also not going to go into any details due to spoilers (although I may write something on it another time).
It was about 1.30pm when we finished up, so we headed into Adventureland to do Pirates of the Caribbean, which is one of my favourite rides. I think it was actually the longest I’ve ever waited to go on PotC in any park before, around 30 minutes. That was followed by the glorious feeling of skipping past a 2 hour long queue for Big Thunder Mountain because we had a Fastpass, then we waited for the Festival of Fantasy parade in Liberty Square. Its my all time favourite parade, and before now I’ve only ever watched it from Main Street, and honestly, Liberty Square didn’t do it the justice it deserves!
After fighting through post-parade masses we moved through into Fantasyland, where I picked up Cogsworth and Chip from Village Gifts (yay!) before going on Dumbo the Flying Elephant. From there we did a Carousel of Progress before going back to Fantasyland for our Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Fastpass, which you might have watched on Periscope!
Starting to flag, and also feeling a little chilly, we walked through the now beautifully lit castle, and headed down through the shops of Main Street, before catching the early viewing of Main Street Electrical Parade from a great spot, thanks to a lovely cast member! A quick, and dare I say disappointing ride on Buzz Lightyear Spaceship Spin and we caught a monorail to Contemporary a Resort for our dinner reservation at California Grill.
While initially booking so we could look out over the Magic Kingdom, we were actually seated at the opposite end of the restaurant, so we ended up seeing the Epcot fireworks, and also a bit of Fantasmic pyrotechnics, and the food was amazing!
Exhausted, full of food and content, we bussed it back to the resort. Catch you tomorrow!
Lottie Does 