Disney v2.0 - A day of magic

I didn't sleep very well that first night.  We gave Grammy the bedroom and asked one of the girls to sleep in there with her.  Anna volunteered.  Rich thought that two of the girls could share the sofa bed.  Oh, how I laugh at that thought.  There was much debate over who was going to sleep with Mommy and Emily finally won but I told her that she had to share a bed with either Grammy or Daddy the next night.  Or one of her sisters.  Hahaha.

There were debates each night over who was going to sleep in which bed.  The girls would say, "My pattern is Mommy, Grammy, Mommy, Grammy."  Okay, but that means that someone has to have a pattern of Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.

Anna woke up around 1:00 in the morning freaking out.  She wasn't fully awake and she didn't know where she was.  The only way for her to calm down and fall back asleep was to bring her into the bed (the fold-out sofa bed, that is) with me and Emily and ten of Emily's buddies.  I woke up at 7:15 that morning but didn't want to awaken anyone because the girls had gone to bed much later than normal the night before.  They all started waking up around 8:00.



(I wanted a picture of all the girls under the tree but people kept coming and going and eventually the girls lost interest and I gave up.)

We didn't make it to the food court for breakfast until after 9:00.  We were meal sharing so Rich and Grammy went to pick up a few meals while I waited with the girls.  As Rich was waiting in line to pay for our meals, a woman approached him and asked if he was on the meal plan.  No.  She was about to check out of the resort and had unused meals (they were on the dining plan) so she bought our food for us!



After returning some items to our suite, we drove over to Magic Kingdom.  We prefer to take the monorail versus the ferry when traveling from the Ticket and Transportation Center to the park entrance as it seems to take less time.  The monorail was experiencing some sort of delay and we were directed to the ferry.  Thankfully, there was one waiting so we were able to board without further delay.  We decided to cath Anna in the bathroom outside of the park entrance so we didn't actually make it inside the park until 10:45.

As you can see, we're a slow moving group.  We took a laid back approach with this vacation and didn't stress about fitting in as much as possible.  It was definitely much more enjoyable.

Our first stop once inside Magic Kingdom was Guest Relations to request a sticker that would allow us to use one of the strollers as a wheelchair.  We were also given a Guest Assistance Card (GAC) so that we could use the stroller (as a wheelchair) while waiting in line for rides.  (I'll talk more about our experience with this later.)

Grammy was the only one who remembered to pack her sunglasses.  As we were driving to the airport, I happened to be looking in the glove box for something and spotted my abandoned-for-the-winter sunglasses.  Rich grabbed a pair he had stored in the van.  



The girls wore our sunglasses while watching a morning parade.  We then stopped in the gift shop to buy them their own sunglasses and autograph books.

The girls had decided to wear their Tinker Bell skirts so she and Periwinkle became our first stop.  The wait time was listed at 35 minutes so Grammy and I left Rich and the girls in line while we went off in search of drinks and pretzels.  When we returned, they were near the front of the line.  Eeeek.



Periwinkle asked if the girls were born from the same snowflake.  (She and Tinker Bell were born from the same laugh.)



Our next stop was the Haunted Mansion.  Back in August, Rich, Emily, Anna and I had experienced this ride and now Allie wanted to see it.  Unfortunately, she flipped out for a minute in the first room once the doors were shut and the lights were off.  "I CHANGED MY MIND!"  She calmed down once I reminded her that it was Disney and meant to be "fake scary."  Plus, Anna was fine and if anyone is going to be afraid of a dark ride, it's Anna. 



On our way over to check out the new Fantasyland, we stopped to meet Cinderella's Fairy Godmother.





Sort of poor planning on our part but this was the official opening day of the new Fantasyland expansion so that area was crowded and sections roped off for the press made it even more so.  We walked through, checked it out and then headed to the back section that opened earlier in the year.







After riding Dumbo, we went through the meet and greet for Daisy and Minnie in the big top tent.  I promise that this will be my only complaint regarding the lighting.  It was atrocious.  All of the lighting for every single meet and greet was terrible and I'm at the point now where I wonder if they do it on purpose so that people are forced to buy Photopass photos, which aren't necessarily going to be any good.  I absolutely refuse to use fill-in flash because I personally cannot stand the way it looks and so I'm left with wonky lighting.  So be it! 













We ended up snacking instead of eating a proper lunch.  Oh, well.  Because the girls love parades, we decided to stake out a spot early on Main Street for the afternoon parade.  We were lucky to find one of the last shaded spots with the sun behind us. 



Originally, I had planned to ask First Aid if I could cath Anna there but after Grammy and I stopped in earlier that day, I changed my mind.  Grammy is allergic to Advil and the gift shop/store on Main Street didn't have any Tylenol so we popped into First Aid to see if they had any.  Again, they are really wonderful in there.  I know that there could be contagious sick people in the park touching everything before we do but First Aid seemed like a hot spot so I decided to avoid it.  When I cath Anna, I use her clothes to cover her up and she hasn't expressed any concen so we carried on as usual in the Baby Center.  No one paid any attention to us either.

Emily wanted to ride Big Thunder Mountain.  Allie did not and Anna was measuring just under the bar.  Ack.  Emily, Rich and I rode together and had a blast.  I was a bit surprised that they didn't measure her because she is just over 40 inches.

Our last stop was to meet Tiana.  She was on break and we became second in line to meet her.  The wait wasn't too bad.









These pictures crack me up.  The girls wanted nothing to do with Prince Naveen.  See how Em's giving him the side eye.



 

We returned to the resort for dinner.  I could not believe how empty the food court was at 6:00!!  Especially compared to the crowd we had experienced at 7:30 the night before.





The girls were asleep around 8:30-8:45.  I was asleep not too long after that.