Well, if there’s any truth to that, then what better place to welcome the new year than the Magic Kingdom?
I have often heard that the Magic Kingdom is “dead” on New Year’s Day because most people stay up late the night before. While we did not find it to be empty, we did find the crowds much smaller and the lines much shorter than on Christmas Day!
We had to ride the ferry again, as opposed to the monorail, because the monorail was shut down. This seemed fairly odd, but we went with it. Upon entering the park, the first thing we did was to meet Mickey Mouse. I continue to be amazed at how much Miah loves the characters.
Then, we made a beeline straight for Fantasy land where we jumped on Dumbo (the last time we’ll ever experience Dumbo in quite the same fashion, as the ride will be moving next week to New Fantasyland), had almost no wait for Peter Pan, and walked on to Small World. Later in the day, we also rode Prince Charming’s Carousel, The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh, and Snow White’s Scary Adventure (one last time, as this ride will be disappearing altogether soon). That completed Fantasyland for this trip. As a sidenote, Fantasyland is really the heart of Disney World for me. When I think of Disney as a kid, that’s what I think of. I am super excited about New Fantasyland, but by the same token, I am exceptionally pleased that I had the opportunity to experience “old” Fantasyland one more time…
Ian had a huge accident after this, soaking all of his clothes including his socks and shoes. I really do not understand how he manages to never, ever have an accident until we are in a crowd or at the very least away from home, where I am totally unprepared for this, because he never has accidents! In this case, I think it was because he has called wolf too many times on this trip. As we near the area to board almost every ride, he says, “I need to go to the bathroom!” I think this is because he is trying to get out of riding, but as it turned out, he really did need to go as we sat down for Small World, and I guess all that water just did him in. I actually happened to have a pull-up and some shorts in the diaper bag, and we deemed the shirt wearable. The socks and shoes… not so much.
So we made a quick decision and Phil and Grace headed off to the Haunted Mansion (which none of our kids have ever ridden as I feel relatively negatively about the theming), and the rest of us went toward Splash Mountain in hopes that there might be a gift shop that sold water shoes. The best we could come up with was a pair of crocs for $35.00… uh… no. This mean Mommy set the shoes out to dry and shoved them back on as soon as it was reasonable. We did, however, come out of the store with Miah’s first pair of Mickey ears, a Goofy hat, and two “puffles”. And I got an education about Club Penguin…
We reconnected with Phil and Grace at this point. Grace hated the Haunted Mansion, as expected. Phil said she kept her eyes open for about three seconds… We grabbed fastpasses for Thunder Mountain and jumped on a raft for Tom Sawyer Island. I hate Tom Sawyer Island. I don’t really know why. But Phil loves it, and the kids do, too. I was crabby and grumpy and Miah matched my mood. I’m thinking we’re going to scratch that part for the rest of 2012 if that’s OK with everyone else. We explored for what felt like forever, and I finally got on a return raft with a wiggly, screaming baby and told the rest of my family that I’d meet them back on the mainland. As it turned out, the raft driver waited so long to launch that not only did our whole family make it on, but so did dozens of other people. I really need to work on my attitude about Tom Sawyer…
We made it to Thunder Mountain before our fastpasses expired and then went in search of lunch, which ended up landing us back in Fantasyland at Pinocchio’s Village Haus, where the kids had pizza for the zillionth time, and Phil and I had chicken…
I grabbed my only raspberry lemonade slush of the trip, and we decided to wait in line to see Rapunzel. I don’t think the casting has been all that great for the characters this time around, but Rapunzel was quite excited when it was our turn and she exclaimed that, “the whole kingdom had come out to see her”! She also reminded us to carry our frying pans at all times and instructed the boys not to overuse their smolders…
Later in the day, we made it over to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor where Phil got in line with the kids and I went off to change Miah’s diaper. Except I couldn’t find a restroom, so I just changed her on a bench and hoped no one would notice… which I guess they didn’t… Miah and I joined the line and kept the other guests entertained, as Miah seems to think that every show is actually about her! When the doors opened, we were able to run down a few choice people and made it to the section where our family was seated. It’s been an interesting trip in that regard… The monsters were funny, as always, and I did not meet Miah’s loud requests to nurse during the show, because there is audience interaction, I thought that with my luck I would be feeding her and suddenly we would appear on the big screen… ha…
We used our fastpasses on Space Mountain, and I bought the picture of me, Seth, and Caleb, because Caleb looks awesome, Seth looks intense, and I look… well… to be honest Seth said I look weird, so maybe I’ll just crop myself out…
Phil took Seth and Caleb back to Splash Mountain while Grace, Ian, Miah, and I waited in line for the fairies. Ian was pretty ticked off when he saw them, because his whole objective was to prove that fairies aren’t real… I savored every moment, because as Grace conversed with Tink about pixie dust and actually convinced Tink to rub some off on her arms, I realized that this is undoubtedly the last time Grace will believe in that kind of magic…
We actually left the park as “Wishes” was beginning, which is an absolute travesty for us, but Ian and Miah were both asleep at this point, and it is our plan to come back on the last night of our trip, so it’s all good…
Happy New Year!
Lisa
Day 11 Photo Count: 322
Photo Highlights:
Caleb learned about King Arthur a few weeks ago in school. He loved The Sword in the Stone!
Just look at that "Goofy" kid...
Tink & My Girls...
Seth's favorite part of the trip was eating... He is downing the last few bites of ice cream here... Ian is in the background on a sugar high...
The only way we could get a picture of Miah wearing her Mouse Ears...
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