Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Disney v2.0 - But she's just an old lady in a costume

Day #5 - Magic Kingdom

We had breakfast reservations for Kona Cafe at the Polynesian resort, which is located on the monorail loop at Magic Kingdom.  This is just a regular, sit down meal.  No characters.  Our plan was to park our minivan at the Ticket and Transportation Center outside of MK and then take the monorail over to the Polynesian. Well, the monorail had other plans.  It was experiencing issues again.  We waited and waited and waited before asking if we could walk there.  We could, so we did.  It only took about 10 minutes or so.

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Keep trying not to smile.

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Kona Cafe is known for its Tonga Toast.

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Two pieces of french toast stuffed with bananas.  I'm an eggs and potatoes type of gal but I decided to go with something different and ordered the Tonga Toast.  It was good but I most likely wouldn't order it again.

So Marie the cat was/is now meeting and greeting right inside the park entrance in the mornings.  A welcome surprise.  Unless you get to her right when she comes out though, the lines are incredibly long.  Guests walk in and say, "Hey, there's Marie and Pluto.  Let's meet them!"  On this morning, we did wait in line because that's what the girls wanted to do.  Which leads to my funny story.  As we were waiting in line, I heard someone call out Rich's name and then I turned to see some woman wearing sunglasses, running over to Rich with her arms open.  My first thought was who is this crazy lady at Disney who knows Rich?  Turns out it was my good friend, Leslie. (Took me another 2 seconds to process.)  How random is that?

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[I can't believe I even have to explain this.  Anna's Christmas Feliz dress is Hello Kitty (I made them in 2011) so I created this skirt for her to wear specifically for this trip.  It was a test pattern and I'm happy with the results.  She currently doesn't like dresses that tie in the back (or that match her sisters) so it all worked out.]

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We rode Small World, which is always a favorite but took forever and a day, and Peter Pan.  I can't remember what else, if anything, we did before lunch.  Be Our Guest is the new Fantasyland restaurant and yes, you are made to feel like you are eating in the Beast's castle.  It's a full service restaurant for dinner but a quick service restaurant for lunch.  As a new restaurant, reservations filled up fast and because we'd planned this trip at the last minute, I was unsuccessful in finding an open reservation.  But I did try.  I want to throw this out there as a planning tip - people do cancel their dining reservations so keep looking.  When I first starting searching, there were several days with hardly any open reservations.  A few weeks later, it was a different story.  So don't give up.

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I wanted the girls to see the inside of the restaurant so we decided to eat a light lunch (which means share meals).  We ordered a chicken sandwich, a steak sandwich and one kiddie macaroni with marina. The food was quite tasty and I would have loved to have experienced dinner there.

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After lunch, we rode the little race cars on the speedway and then it started raining.  After waiting for the rain shower to pass, we decided to check out Tomorrowland, which was unchartered territory for us.  Anna isn't a fan of dark rides and of course, the TTA People Mover stopped while we were on the darkest part of the ride.  Here comes another tunnel, Anna!

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We also did the Carousel of Progress, which the girls (surprisingly) liked.

We made our way over to Adventureland for an ice cream break.  It started lightly raining again.  So far, we had been extremely lucky with the weather.  I kept my fingers crossed that it wouldn't downpour as we had plans to watch the Main Street Electrical Parade that night.  That parade was only scheduled for Saturday and Monday nights.  The park was extremely crowded, which is to be expected when those events are scheduled.  After snacking, we rode Pirates of the Caribbean (we actually were stuck on it) and then the flying carpets, which was also experiencing technical difficulties.

We arrived on Main Street to secure our parade spot at 5:40 and there were no front row spots available.  The parade was at 7:00.  Shortly after we arrived, the regular parade went through and some people cleared out so we were able to find a front row spot.  I'm glad we had two strollers because we were able to block off our spot and not worry about people pushing us out of the way or stepping on the girls.  I could not believe some of the rudeness we witnessed.

There was some entertainment before the parade and also between the parade and the fireworks show at 8:00.  We also ate dinner while we waited.  The girls LOVED everything and list this as their favorite experience.  The best part was when the Fairy Godmother came out to light up the castle.  Allie kept asking me how she did it because she's just an old lady in a costume.

I wasn't planning to take pictures but I did pull the camera out and take a few of the parade.

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Up next - our last day and The Tigger Incident.

9 comments:

Rebecca said...

I just love reading your blog! I was curious, do you scrapbook or create photobooks online using shutterfly or similar sites? You have such amazing pictures that need showcased :)

-Becca

http://overmanlife.blogspot.com/

Michelle - New Zealand said...

Thanks for all the info on your trip Sarah! We are thinking about taking my niece and nephew next year and I feel like I have so much information on where to stay and what to do! Really appreciate it :)

Ashlee said...

Be Our Guest looks great! And the old lady in a costume is too funny!

When I read you explanation of Anna's outfit I knew there must have been drama in the last post's comments so I went back to read. You really can't win I don't think but I wanted to add that your kids are so cute and dressed age appropriate (!) and I love that you let Anna wear a skirt when the other two wear a dress, just because they're triplets doesn't mean it needs to be shoved down their throats every day!

Anonymous said...

Add me to the list of those who love the Disney outfits - all of them. And as someone who grew up going to Disney regularly, I find the issue of matching, hair, etc, ridiculous. It's Disney, home of windswept rides, sticky humidity, and the chocolate ice cream Mickey that inevitably gets on someone and requires an outfit change. You're way ahead if a picture doesn't feature a wet bottom from Splash Mountain, an out-and-out drenching from the regular summer 3pm storm, or a sweaty, red face!

-Jilly

Emily said...

We're planning on taking our girls to Disney for their third birthday. These posts have just been making me more excited!! I don't know if I can hold out 2 more years! And I love the outfits you make for your girls and that you let them express their individuality by dressing themselves.

carrie s said...

I have loved reading your Disney updates. It is one of my favorite places on earth! Your girls are so cute and the outfits you make for them are absolutely adorable.

Cha said...

everytime i see your daughters wearing the dresses you made for them, i get inspired and want to sew dresses too. i just hope i have the same talent as yours. ;)

Christi said...

I love your blog posts too - and I don't have kids. Your night photos of the parade are great!!

I had to go check the comments from the last post based on your quip above. All I have to say is really, Anon? You have time to criticize people you don't even know because they aren't all matchy matchy?? How come you aren't sharing your photos of your kids?

I love how your girls don't match each other in outfits or hair. They are 3 individuals who happen to look like each other.

I'm sorry that you keep having to deal with drama in your comments.

Staceey L. said...

I also hate the rudeness you run into while waiting for a parade. I went once with my kids and my twins were in the stroller. A woman actually pushed her way between me and the stroller and when I asked her if we could switch spots so I could stand next to mind kids she sighed and gave me a dirty look.