Day 3
Disney Park: Magic Kingdom (open till 12AM- Magic Hours)
We started off this day with some fantastic hot weather, so we changed our FP plans to hit the pool! One of my favorite pastimes is hanging out in the sun. Our kids remember seeing the pool in old photos, and couldn’t wait to make their way to the featured slide. Which was a lot of fun. Oh and we had to ’emergency’ grab Mickey shaped pretzels and smoothies as soon as the bar opened or my kids “would just dieeeee”, my goodness, they couldn’t wait to eat junk! But oh hey, margaritas. 🙂
Funny part about this morning was that we ended up seeing another crew from my husband’s hometown hanging out by the pool..like seven of them! haha I didn’t know any of them, and since they all played football with my husband back in HS I was happy to not talk to them and drink my margarita in the hot tub! The hot tub was super hot, which made me happy, and it overlooked the Bay Lake, surrounded by trees, it really is a great spot to relax and forget your troubles..and soak achy muscles. Speaking of which, because all of the bruises were so highly visible, everything I brought to wear was strappy tanks or mini shorts/skirts. I was kinda depressed over it till this Wednesday morning. I got in my new bathing suit and said screw it if people are staring, I WANT A TAN! And that was that, I definitely felt more confident about my appearance after that epiphany, and you can see it in my face. Just happier.
We got ourselves showered and out the door in time to get to the Magic Kingdom right for our first fast pass at 1:20PM for Splash Mountain. And as soon as we could, we made our way over to Fantasyland for some snacks. First we got a fried twinkie, which I didn’t eat, and then we made it to visit Gaston’s. While there we took full advantage of the AC for a while, it was super hot out and the girls needed a rest. We snagged a fun table by the fireplace and tried LeFou’s Brew (frozen apple juice with passion fruit foam and a hint of charred marshmallow) and a giant cinnamon roll. Well, I actually grabbed hummus because I just can’t eat sugary junk like my family can all day.
From Gaston’s we got onto Dumbo, the Barnstormer, and then raced up the hill to get on Under the Sea to cool off a bit, which worked great. As we walked towards Tomorrowland, we checked out some sights of the parade on Main Street USA, then went on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin for some competition with the kids. They opted to sit on their own, so it was Parents vs Kids. They won, of course.
From Buzz, we grabbed some iced coffee..and frappuccinos (blerg), walked through The Confectionary to cool off, and we got a caramel apple sample that was insanely good. We then headed back to the hotel to freshen up for our dinner reservations at The Wave.
We had eaten at The Wave our very first family trip to Disney, and we enjoyed it a whole lot. This night didn’t disappoint either, and we, again, found that the food and drinks were better this year than our last visit. My husband got pan seared salmon, and I got the tenderloin. Both dishes were cooked perfect. The kids had a blast being silly and eating their food, our oldest got crab cakes and our youngest a burger (which was amazing). Once we paid the check, we changed back into our other clothes, which we weren’t planning but someone forgot something in the room, so why not change out of dresses?
We made a super fast bee line to the MK, and started on our fun night ahead. The walk between the park and hotel is literally five minutes, and the best part of the walk is that it has its own security line that NEVER had a wait and always had the funniest security officers. So walking right into the park a breeze.
The park was open till midnight, so we had a little over three hours left which meant we had time to get on a lot of the rides we wanted..where first? BIG THUNDER MOUNTAIN! haha We rode it three times in a row, and had a blast because we all swear it is faster at night. From there we saw the fireworks show was about to start, but since we saw it the night before we opted to take a chance to ride Peter Pan. The FP system wasn’t letting us make reservations, so we just winged it where we wanted. The wait for Peter Pan was listed at 30 Minutes, but sometimes when the fireworks are about to start people flock to it and the wait times can be less. SOMETIMES!! So we got into line, something I had never done before because we always grab a FP for this ride. I LOVED THE WAITING QUEUE SO MUCH! The whole set up is magical, and we had so much fun playing with the shadow interactive and Tinker Bell’s light. It was real darling. Plus I got to ride it with our youngest daughter like we had our last time on the ride, which was a lot of fun. Pointing out everything to her again and enjoying Captain Hook’s demise at the end.
The weather this night was glorious. Of course I am always wearing a sweater, because I am chilly when it’s 70F. haha I wish I was joking. Ok, so after Peter Pan we decided to make our way to the front of the castle to see the next show, but then nixed those plans to head over to Winnie the Pooh then Futureland for Mickey bars and a ride on the ppl mover! I missed the people mover! Then after this we went over to Adventureland to climb the Swiss Family Robinson tree and ride Aladdin. After the girls decided to target me to get wet by the camel On the second ride together, I called it quits, then they rode it about four more times before we had to pack it in for the night.
Walking out of the park at night is a great feeling. All the lights, the details, it’s so remarkable. Sometimes I do wish that our real life downtown was like that, but that is why there is the Magic Kingdom. 🙂
Valeria Out Loud 