Last Day - Magic Kingdom

A week sure flies by when you're having fun!  We weren't in a huge rush Friday morning to get to the park because we had done so much already--we stopped and had breakfast at The Roaring Forks in our hotel (a quicker, cook-to-order type place).  Em of course wanted the Mickey waffles--with chocolate chips, whipped cream and bacon!  What are vacations for if not to eat complete junk!?!

We caught the boat over to Magic Kingdom--this was something we really enjoyed about the Wilderness Lodge.  The boats ran every 15 minutes or so, and we almost always got a seat up front, which Em just loved.  Only about a 10 minute ride over to Magic Kingdom!

This little stuffed wolf was one Em fell in love with at Animal Kingdom.  I convinced her to wait since I had seen the same wolf in the store window at our hotel.  One afternoon while she was napping, I went downstairs to buy him and surprise her, and couldn't find him anywhere except in the display window.  Come to find out, they no longer sold them and only had the three in the window--I found a really nice lady who unlocked the display and then had to search for a price because of course he didn't have a tag on him.  Em was thrilled to see him when she woke up, and went downstairs to thank the lady when I told her the story.  She named him Wet Nose :).

Once again, we got to the park early enough on Friday to get into some things with no wait, like Enchanted Tales with Belle.  Last year, Em got the role of Mrs. Potts, and she was determined to get a better part this year.  She was thrilled with Phillipe, the horse!

Of course, another ride on the carousel!

We saved a few rides for the last day, like the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, one of her favorites.

And the Jungle Cruise!

Em practiced her photography skills several times throughout the day--she's getting pretty good!

It took some convincing to get her to agree to the Haunted Mansion, and she was a little unsure for most of the ride, but later said it was her favorite!  A classic, for sure.

We couldn't convince her to go on the Pirates of the Caribbean again--the small drop startled her so much last year that it seems to be all she remembers!  I was a little disappointed because I love that ride, but we passed it up this time.

Em got into the "magic shots" and loved seeing them when we got home.

Peter Pan is still a favorite of hers, and he was in a different location this year, but she did want to meet him.  I got in line early before he was scheduled to appear and held our spot while Mick and Em explored the Swiss Family Treehouse.

We planned to head back to the hotel around 3pm to make sure we had time to get to the airport, but we made a couple of detours on the way to the exit.  Marie, the kitten from the Aristocats, had a fairly short line and Em wanted to meet her.

And then by chance, Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny were sort of hidden nearby with no line at all!

We took the boat back to the hotel just as it started to become really overcast.  Em stood out front and helped navigate our way.

The geyser was erupting as we got back, so we saw it one more time.

Literally as we were walking into the hotel, it started to pour down rain.  Our timing couldn't have been better!  We used the Magical Express Transportation from the airport, so we had dropped our bags off downstairs that morning and Disney checks them for you and takes them to the airline.  It's a free service they offer and makes the trip so easy!  We had about an hour before our bus was to take us to the airport, so Em enjoyed playing in the lobby a bit.

It's really a beautiful resort, and plenty to look at to keep her busy!

The bus ride to the airport took a lot longer than planned because of the pouring rain (and the fact that it was Friday afternoon traffic, I'm sure), but we got there and found out our flight was delayed anyway.  We ate dinner at the airport and boarded the flight to head home.  A terrific week and so much fun, but it was time to get home to our other two babies who surely missed us!

Day 4 - Epcot (and Em's 5th Birthday!)

Thursday was Em's actual birthday, and we had reservations at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall for breakfast at 10:30.  We were out really late the night before, so we took advantage of the late reservation and slept in a little.  Em decided she wanted to dress like Jasmine for her birthday.

This was also in the middle of the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival, which meant all of these super cool, elaborate character topiaries everywhere.

We didn't realize Sven would be joining us in this picture until we got home!

We all decided to meet a few of the characters again this year.

There aren't many things in Epcot you can use a FastPass for, and Em refused to go on Soarin' again (the hang gliding simulation ride), so we used one for the character meet.

So glad we got the autograph book, because she loved it!

We all met Pluto last year but for some reason our pictures weren't on our Memory Maker account, so I was glad to meet him again this year.

Belle was the "featured" princess at the breakfast, so Em met her first. 

It's nice to be able to sit down and have a relaxed meal while you wait for the characters to come over--Princess Aurora came over first.

And then Snow White,

Em was getting her autograph pen ready for Ariel when they brought her a birthday cupcake!  At breakfast!

Ariel was the last princess to come over and visit.

Then they got all of the girls up and marched around the restaurant--Em loves doing this kind of stuff, and it's really cute to see all the little girls proudly showing off their costumes.

Duffy (Mickey Mouse's teddy bear, apparently) was not a character Em knew, but when she saw a big teddy bear doing pictures and autographs, she couldn't resist.  The line was short, so we jumped in.

We headed to Morocco to meet Aladdin and Jasmine--we actually waited longer for them than probably anything else we did.  Em had a good time making friends in line, and she talked Mick into buying her a gold lamp like the one the genie lives in!

It was worth the wait, because they really made a big deal over Em's outfit and got her to pose like Jasmine.  She loved meeting them!

After that, we took the monorail to Magic Kingdom and then the boat back to our hotel for our afternoon break (pool and nap!).  Here's Em making friends with someone else as we waited for the monorail.

We headed back to Epcot that night and did a few rides with no wait at all--Spaceship Earth, the Nemo ride, and then headed over to the World Showcase for Mexican food and the Illuminations fireworks show.

It actually didn't go so well, because Em didn't want to hear the fireworks and we were again too close.  This was probably the one night we kind of regretted going back to the park.  It just felt like we were running to get dinner, see the show (which we really didn't even see) and then to make it back to the bus for the hotel.

The park is beautiful at night though, and Em enjoyed it overall.

Day 3 - Magic Kingdom

We got to Magic Kingdom super early so we could see the Welcome Show, so we had some time to kill before it started.  Of course there was a gift shop we could visit, so we picked out an autograph book for Em--she didn't get autographs last year, but when I mentioned it to her, she was excited about the idea.

The Welcome Show was pretty short, but definitely worth seeing once.  The characters ride in on the train in front of the station, and then there's a song/dance routine and Mickey officially welcomes everyone.

"Rope drop" is really the main reason I think people arrive early--that's when the park officially opens, and it's usually about 15 minutes before the actual scheduled time of 9:00 am.

It seems like a lot of people waiting to get in until you actually get in the park and realize how uncrowded everything is.  In the first two hours, we were able to ride multiple rides and meet some characters with virtually no line, which meant we could save our FastPasses for later when it was more crowded.

Em tried pulling the sword from the stone this time--unsuccessfully.

She of course wanted to ride the carousel as soon as we walked through the castle, and Anastasia and Drizella came walking up to ride it too!  They didn't do pictures or autographs, but they did end up in line right behind us.

I'm telling you, this girl loves the carousel more than probably any other ride--and since there's really never a line there because it moves so fast, she gets instant gratification!

We passed Prince Eric's castle on the way to meet Ariel at her grotto.

As soon as we walked in, Em said "I remember being here!"

The Dumbo ride actually has a pager system with a big kids' play area, but we didn't even get to take advantage of it because there was no wait!

Em and Mick did use their FastPass for the Seven Dwarfs' Mine Train, and I felt really guilty afterwards for not warning Em about the ride.  She had seen some commercials that showed the slow ride through the mine and was really excited about that--she didn't realize it was a roller coaster (described as a "family" coaster, and there were definitely kids smaller than Em riding it).  These were the pictures of them coming down the biggest drops, and you can tell she's not exactly having the time of her life.

The funny thing is that after it was all over, she decided she did like it "a little bit," but definitely did not want to get back on it.

I did get her to at least smile in front of the ride by promising not to make her go back.

She met Gaston (who was the same guy in character from last year), but he was a little more full of himself this year.

We used FastPasses for Anna and Elsa this year, and unlike our 3 hour wait at Epcot last year, we were in and out in 10 minutes.

Mick and I both agreed though, it wasn't quite the same experience.  I liked the location a little better last year, and loved the fact that Em met the two of them together instead of the way they have it set up now.  Granted, it was nice not having that wait, but it still fell a little flat for us.  Not to mention, these really aren't Em's favorite characters, but the lines are still so long for them, it was worth the FP.

We had lunch reservations at Be Our Guest Restaurant inside the Beast's castle.

Em was super excited to see the castle, and it was really very cool!

There were three main rooms you could choose to sit in for the meal,

and of course, Em chose the West Wing (because "it's forbidden!").  This picture was taken with a flash, but the room was really dark with thunderstorm sounds playing, and the enchanted rose in the far corner of the room.

For dessert, we tried "the grey stuff--it's delicious!"

So many of the castle details looked just like the movie.

And here's the outside of the castle.

We found a good spot to watch the Festival of Fantasy parade that afternoon.

I'm not sure if the Ariel on the float was the same one Em met earlier that day, but she saw Em in the crowd, pointed to her, and yelled "Happy Birthday!"  She might have just seen her button, but it still made Em pretty excited.

She loves the Maleficent dragon--it breathed real fire!

Mickey and Minnie were at the end in a hot air balloon float.

My plan for the day went exactly as I'd hoped--after the 3pm parade, we took the boat back to the hotel for a break.

Our housekeeper was awesome--every day, she made towel animals every day and set up all of Em's friends.

These were just a couple she left, and Em wanted to take them all home with us!

We let Em play in the pool for a little while and then she took a good solid nap before we took the boat back to Magic Kingdom for the night.  It was really beautiful as we approached!

Em loved the boat ride, and it was a nice relaxing trip each time.

I love Cinderella's castle at night!

We decided to meet Tinker Bell because the wait was really short--Em enjoyed playing with all of the oversize props in the fairy area!

We saw the Main Street Electrical Parade from a great location, and Em loved it!

And we went back through Fantasyland so she could see Rapunzel's floating lanterns at night--they really did look cool.

We mistakenly got trapped behind the castle after the parade, and didn't make it to the front to see the light show, which was really disappointing (you can't walk through the castle when they're getting ready for the show and fireworks, and we didn't have time to make it around through Tomorrowland). We found a spot behind the castle for the fireworks, and I had bought some headphones for Em, but unfortunately they weren't quite enough for her--we were so close that the noise really was too loud, so she wasn't crazy about them.

After the fireworks, the line for Cinderella and Rapunzel was really short, so we got in to meet them with no wait at all.

And one more time on the carousel!

The park was closing at 11pm, but we were literally walking onto rides with no wait at 10:55!  We rode the PeopleMover (which gives an awesome view of the whole park and is really cool at night) and the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger spin when we thought the park would be closed.  On our way out at 11pm, we caught the parade a second time!

Disney time is just different than any other time, I guess.  We really wanted to stay for The Kiss Goodnight, a nightly tradition when they close the park, but we just couldn't make it.  Em was exhausted and we knew we had another big day tomorrow, so we left around 11:30.