Just Another Day...: Disney: Day 2

Day 2 at Disney was our first time at Magic Kingdom! It was on Sunday, November 25th (which actually happened to be hubs' and my 7 year anniversary) and the park was open from 9am until 7pm. They had Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party from 7pm until midnight (for an extra almost $300) but we opted out of that, even though it would've been AMAZING. Maybe next time.

So Sunday morning we were up relatively bright and early so we could make it to the park as close to 9am as possible. We decided to drive to the park rather than take the complementary bus transportation from our resort hotel because we liked the flexibility of making stops, taking a different route, etc. It worked out well, but let me tell you. We drove about 10 minutes from the hotel to the MK parking lot. Then we jumped on a tram that would take us to our next stop: the monorail or ferry boat. You had to take one or the other to get the MK and we opted for the monorail. So it literally was about an hour from our hotel to the parking lot to the tram to the monorail to the Magic Kingdom entrance. Whew! Luckily we didn't have to pay for parking (about $13/day I think?) since we were resort guests.

Here's a pic of the kids on the tram. They were kind of excited about what we were up to!

Here's a pic I took from the monorail at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom. The kids were getting really excited now! Especially after they saw Cinderella's Castle a few yards back while on the monorail!

We made it into the park and took a few pics in front of Cinderella's Castle.

Our first stop was DUMBO!

I rode with LO and hubs rode with Chase, so I was only able to get pics of my girl. She loved it!

After Dumbo, we headed over to The Barnstormer roller coaster. Obviously I knew I wouldn't be able to ride too many rides what with being pregnant and all, and honestly Chase isn't able to ride anything that could cause the pressures in his little body to suddenly change (like big coasters with g-forces and what-not), but I figured the Barnstormer would be okay for both of us. I rode with him and LO rode with daddy.

Ready for the ride! I think we held hands the whole time! He liked it okay but I think it was still a bit too jerky and uncomfortable for him. LO had a blast, of course!

Then we wandered into a big top tent that had some of our favorite characters signing autographs! We jumped on it and met some of our faves...

Daisy:

Minnie:

Goofy:

And Donald:

After meeting some friends, we went to the race track to drive some cool cars! Somebody was obviously already a bit worn out from our early morning and several days of traveling away from home with no naps. ;)

But put this kid in a race car and all bets are off! He wanted to drive so I went along to take pics.

Then we met more friends!

Of course we had to ride the ginormous carousel! Too bad LO didn't get the horse she wanted...

But I was able to squeeze a tiny half-genuine smile out of her.

Chase was all smiles!

Until he looked at me all creepy-like, apparently...

No, wait! We're all smiles again! Yay!

We also watched Mickey's Philharmagic in 4D, which was a lot of fun!

Then it was off to the Winnie the Pooh ride, which the kids rode together while mommy & daddy sat behind them to take pics.

Next it was time to fight the evil emperor Zurg on the Buzz Lightyear ride!

We grabbed some lunch and then grabbed a great spot for the big parade at 3pm!

Sadly, this was as close as we'd get to Woody on our entire trip. No autograph from one of our biggest faves. :(

Mickey and Minnie!

Aladdin and the Genie!

Cinderella and her prince!

After the parade, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel, since it would be about an hour to get there and all. We had some quiet down time (i.e. not naps but a break from the crazy madness) before it was time to head over to Disney's Contemporary resort for our dinner date at Chef Mickey's with all of our favorite characters. Here's where I'm gonna get real with y'all. Luckily we had the dining plan so we each used one credit for this meal. That means technically we only paid a tip for the evening. ThankyouJesus. I have never had such a horrible selection of awful buffet food in my entire life! Think of a buffet restaurant that has a little blue and white "C" in the corner of the window instead of the preferable "A" rating. It. Was. Awful. The food was gross, there was NO variety for the kids and even though I tried small portions of several of the available items, they were incredibly disappointing. Whoa. I couldn't believe it! Not very "Disney" in my opinion, especially since without the dining plan we would've easily paid $175 for this one meal. And I would've died. Right there on the table, signing the credit card slip. It was THAT bad.

Of course the highlight of the meal was meeting some characters. We started with Donald! Sorry these are blurry...

Then Pluto, who we had been hoping to see all day!

Followed by Minnie Mouse herself!

Chase likes him some time with Minnie Mouse!

Then it was time to meet The Mouse himself, Mickey!! I thought about pulling him aside to talk about the lack of quality in his buffet, but decided against it. ;)