Disney Trip 2015: Part 6 Magic Kingdom & Epcot

The last day we went to the parks, my parents decided they would rather do Epcot again rather than Magic Kingdom again.  We were panicked but decided we could still take on the Magic Kingdom just the four of us since Tommy wanted to ride the Seven Dwarves Mine Train.  So my parents took the monorail over to Epcot and left us to fend for ourselves.  Yikes! 

We walk into the park and realize by the immense crowds that they were filming the Christmas parade on Main Street right when we got there.  It was nearly impossible but we squeezed our way through the crowd and escaped the parade before we got cut off from crossing into the area with all the rides.  Sheesh! We thought we had made a mistake...

But the kids quickly let us know that we made the right decision.  Charlotte got to ride her fave ride again, Prince Charming's Carousel.  HORSIES!  YAY! You can't see them but she also has horsies on her shirt.

Ladies carousel selfie!

While Tommy and Dada were waiting in line for the Seven Dwarves Mine Train, Charlotte and I got in line to meet Cinderella and Rapunzel.  The sign said 40 minutes and I thought, "Oh it will go fast."  This is Charlotte saying, "Ohhhhh, you were WRONG."
We ended up waiting in line for an HOUR! WHAT? Charlotte did so great.  But OMG, it was horrible.  They kept letting all the FastPass people in in front of our line.  Awful.  But Charlotte was in great spirits the whole time until....

Right until she had to go actually meet Cinderella.  She lost her mind.  Maybe the anticipation got the best of her.  Maybe she just really wanted to meet Rapunzel instead.  But she threw her body on the floor and screamed for like 10 seconds right before meeting her.  But she got her act together and met Cinderella with her hand in her mouth the whole time.  Stinker. 

She reminded me of the waitress on Always Sunny.  Maybe that's why Charlotte wasn't impressed.
 

Look at that face.  Not amused. :)

But then it was time to meet Rapunzel.  Oh my, was she excited! I had no idea she was such a fan. 

She even looked at the camera!

Then she hugged her for no less than five straight minutes.  Rapunzel was so great about it.  She kept saying "Oh you are just too sweet.  Ok mom, I guess you're going to have to leave.  I'll just take her back to my tower with me."  Ha!

While all this was going on, Tommy and Dada only ended up waiting a half hour or less for the Mine Train.  WHAT??? The line is NEVER that short.  So it really messed up our schedules for meeting up. 

Oh well, Tommy was SOOOOO happy about riding his favorite ride. 

When we finally met back up, Tommy and I rode Splash Mountain... in the front row! I thought this would be a good thing.  It was not.  We rarely get wet on this ride.  This time we definitely did.  Directly... IN THE FACE.  My hair was ruined for the day.  Tommy was cool with it though.

It's a really great ride though (when not in the front row).  A tad racist but a good ride nonetheless. "Don't throw me in the Briiiaaar Paaatttcchh!!" :-) 

This was before Splash Facing.  I have no idea why I only have one hand up.  I guess I was saying,
"Pick ME to be splashed in the face!"

I can't remember all the rides we went on during the day but I know we went on the Haunted Mansion.  Charlotte was terrified but she made it through. While Tommy and I were on the Barnstormer, Dada felt bad for the all the waiting and being scared Charlotte had to do so he got her the messiest most sugary treat ever.  It's a giant marshmallow dipped in chocolate and coated with M&Ms.  She loved it! So did her shirt.  What a mess it was! But totally worth it!!

We did the Parent Swap for several rides.  The Mine Train was one of them.  I got to ride it with Tommy this time.  (Again, I have no idea why I have one hand up. Strange.)

Hey, there we both have both our hands up! Yay!! I still don't know how they do the pictures for this one.  They sneakily scan our magic bands at some point during the ride.  The magic of Disney, I tell ya. 

I finally got a picture of the characters at the end of the ride.  Snow White is dancing with the dwarves.  It's super cute. 

Then you ride by the witch/evil queen knocking at their door.  Creepy! 

We rode Buzz Lightyear's Space Adventure.  We stood in line with a LOT of Pi Phi's.  They were having a sisterhood retreat.  They were from the University of Florida.  I talked to them a little bit as an alum.  I wanted to say, "See me sweating and wrassling my kids? This is you in 10 years."  But I refrained. 

We got our annual Buzz Lightyear pictures.  You can see last year's here.

I made a comparison shot with this year's picture and last year's picture.  My how they've grown!

All day long while I was, to quote myself, sweating and wrassling my kids, my mom kept sending me texts about how their day was going.  Doesn't it look peaceful and relaxing??? ;-) A nice picture by the water!

Another nice picture in front of Mickey!

Oh look they're drinking beer and having Belgium waffles with blueberry compote for the International Food and Wine Festival!  Looks very nice!

They also had a FastPass for Test Track.  They said that was really cool. They got to design their own car!

 Awww, look at their last photo of the night.  It's a sweet photo with a toe pop. 

 And in comparison, look at our last photo of the night.  We look like it's been a long day.  It was.  There was a Christmas party that night so they kicked us out at 7.  We tried to get on It's a Small World right at 7pm.  But to do that, I had to run from Big Thunder Mountain Railroad with Tommy in a double stroller all the way to that in 3 minutes.  It took us 4 minutes and we missed it. (Although in our defense, they definitely closed the right 2 minutes early according to Andrew's iPhone.  BOOOOOO!) So we missed it and Charlotte LOST HER SH*T when we walked away.  It was horrible.  :( Really messed that one up.  So on our way to getting kicked out of the park, we stopped in the gift store.  Charlotte got nightgown number two (Cinderella) so that we could feel better about her missing It's a Small World.  I think she had long forgotten about it by that point.  Ha!

 The kids took their last bath in the big tub that night with their pool toys.  

 The next morning Charlotte took awhile to wake up again. But we packed up the car and headed to the airport. 

Tommy made a friend on the plane.  A kid in the seat in front of him had an Ewok and used it like a puppet for Tommy (see it by the window?).  Too cute.  Also, this was the beginning of his new Star Wars obsession, I believe. 

We made it home safely and still had Sunday to recover from the trip. Thank goodness! The kids got magic towels from the bins while I was checking out with Charlotte's nightgown.  Pretty cool little washcloths. 

The trip was another amazing success.  The kids, with the help of all the wonderful pictures, will remember this trip for a long time.  You can't not enjoy a trip the happiest place on earth. :)

Disney Vacation 2014: Part 5

 On Friday, we went to the Magic Kingdom again.  We knew going into it that it would be a lot busier according to the crowd calendar on Undercover Tourist. 
It definitely was!

 Our first ride of the day was Aladdin's Magic Carpets.  Even Charlotte could ride that one! (Where's a selfie stick when you need one?)

 We knew going into Frontierland that Tommy wasn't quite tall enough to ride the 40 inch rides.  So instead of skipping them, we just stuffed his shoes with feminine products and walked on the rides! This is a selfie from Splash Mountain.  We were worried we would get wet and be cold (since it was in the 60s) but it wasn't bad at all!
(Quick side story: When we went to the Magic Kingdom on Tuesday, we tried to get him to stand and be measured for Thunder Mountain Railroad.  With us telling him to stand up straight and the cast member trying to direct him to touch his head to the board, he got really confused and freaked out especially late at night after a very long day so he dropped to ground and cried.  Another cast member saw this and thought he was upset because he wasn't tall enough for the ride.  She came over and offered Tommy one of her pins to make him feel better! Disney Magic! :) He immediately felt better and he picked out a Statler pin.  Yep, that's one of the old men in the balcony from the Muppets.  No idea why he picked him but that's what he wanted.  Ha!)

 The one on the left is Waldorf and the one on the right is Statler. Good choice, Tommy!

 Here's our professional picture from Splash Mountain.  You can barely see Tommy behind my mom.  Too funny.  Maybe he wasn't quite tall enough for the ride.  Haha!

 The next ride was the Thunder Mountain Railroad.  We decided to do a rider switch for this one so Charlotte and I waited for Andrew, Tommy, Mom, and Dad to go by.

We found a photog while we were hanging out and got a cute picture. 

There they go!!

 I tried to zoom in and this was the best I could do. Heading to the right!

Now to the left! Zoom! Tommy loved it!

 Then it was time to hand off Charlotte and it was Tommy, Mama, and Dada's turn! Hands up!! :)

 After that, we went on the Barnstormer. Tommy can't get enough of those roller coasters!

 Speaking of roller coasters, we just HAD to go on the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train again. Since it was busy, there was quite a wait.  PLUS the ride kept shutting down!! So frustrating.  But Tommy was bound and determined to ride it again.  We did a rider switch this time so both my parents took Charlotte on the best rides for grandparents and grandchildren. They did the People Mover, the Carousel of Progress and the Hall of Presidents.  Yeah.  We were in line FOREVER.  Luckily there's lots to do in line so that was another reason Tommy didn't mind the wait.  

So we finally got on the ride after what seemed like an eternity.  Here's the infamous shot! Tommy LOVES putting his hands up on roller coasters.  He may be afraid of a lot of things but roller coasters is not one of them. I have no idea how he knew how to look directly at the camera.  Such an amazing picture.  (Andrew is in front of us to the left but his face was covered up in all the photos. :( Boo.)

 Then he got to ride with Grandma and Grandpa.  Their wait was no more than 5 minutes with the rider switch.  We got the shaft on that one.  Ha! But hey, we didn't have to go to the Carousel of Progress so we'll call that a win, I guess. :-)

They certainly look like they're having as much fun as Tommy!

While Grandma, Grandpa, and Tommy were on the Mine Train, I went and got my picture taken with Rapunzel... by myself.  Charlotte fell asleep.  I had no excuses.  Rapunzel played it off well.  She just kept talking about my satchel.  Oh Disney Princesses. 

 My mom got one more picture of Elsa's Ice Castle. 

 Here are more Christmas decorations that we captured on the way out.

My mom took this quick picture in front of the tree at the front of the park.  We were getting the heck out of there. The kids were READY!

 The next morning we flew home.  The kids did GREAT on the plane once again.  I am not even sure what Charlotte is playing with here.  It didn't matter.  She was a champ.  But she and Tommy were still really tired from a crazy exciting and exhausting week. 

This picture is very telling. We were waiting to pick up our luggage.  They were dunzo.  Charlotte was asleep (she never fell asleep on the plane though!) and Tommy wanted to fall asleep.  The end to an excellent vacation! If you don't come home exhausted from Disney, you probably didn't do it right.

What a wonderful week we had.  Thanks to my parents for all their help with the kids.  We couldn't have done it without them. 

It's still definitely the most magical place on earth.  We can't wait to go back!! :-)