Day Three and It's a Small World

Whew! I feel so much better! Thank you so much for letting me take a headache break! :-)

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Monday was supposed to be our long day. This time we were headed to Magic Kingdom, and I really wanted to do rope drop, plus we wanted to take advantage of the Extra Magic Hours at the park. Even though the park technically closed at 10:00 pm, Disney Resort Guests (those staying on property at a Disney hotel) were able to stay in the park until 1:00 am. I'm not brave enough to try to keep these kids up until 1:00 am - especially considering how Will had been acting. But we thought that we'd ride a couple rides after the fireworks, which would give time for the crowds to thin out a little bit before we attempted to board a bus back to the hotel. However, given the fact that we had stayed up later than originally planned to watch the Fantasmic show the night before, Brian and I both thought it'd be wise to skip rope drop and instead get a little more sleep.

So after a leisurely breakfast, we started to get our stuff together for our daylong trip to the Magic Kingdom. But just before leaving, I spotted the stroller laying on the floor next to the door and started thinking. One of the main triggers for Will's meltdowns the previous two days had involved the stroller. Really, he wanted to be PUSHING the stroller - not riding in it. However, his pushing tends to give Brian and I both heart attacks as we do everything we can to help him steer AWAY from people - rather than letting him plow into the backs of their legs. It made me start to wonder what it would be like without the stroller. I quietly asked Brian what he thought and, after talking it through, we decided to take a chance and try the day without the stroller. Honestly, that was absolutely the best decision we had made. Other than the struggle to get a sleeping Will to the bus when we were ready to leave for the night, that stroller was never missed. Will never complained about walking all day and, honestly, I think it helped him to get rid of his excessive energy after waiting in lines for rides.

Right away, once we reached the park, we headed straight for the "mandatory" rides, according to my kids - Dumbo and the Mad Tea Party teacups. Luckily, even though the park was crowded, we never saw lines longer than 20 minutes for any ride we wanted to ride on (of course, none of those were the megarides, which still held 90 minute waits). The one benefit to taking a Disney trip in October!

After our two favorite rides, we spotted the Speedway. Now, we hadn't tried this ride in the past because we knew Will was too short. But this year, we knew he would be fine so we decided to give it a try. Both kids became first-time drivers! And let me tell you, those rides were the scariest car rides of our lives. After several corners turned where we were convinced our children would figure out how to actually jump the track, we decided we'd wait until the kids were the legal age limit before attempting to put them behind the wheel again!

From there we did the obligatory "It's a Small World" ride before deciding to head for lunch. Now, Brian and I have our favorite lunch spot in Magic Kingdom: Pecos Bill. They make an awesome hamburger and have a toppings bar filled with some wonderful stuff (can you say sauteed mushrooms? My favorite!). But both kids declared they wanted hot dogs and not hamburgers. Since this was Will's favorite time of day for a meltdown and I could almost see that look in his eye, we decided it wasn't worth the argument. So instead we headed to the best hot dog place in all of Disney - Casey's Corner.

I used to think that Casey's Corner only had outside tables to eat at. Brian was the only one who had ever been in there since he'd always brought our food outside to us where we'd grab a table. But this time, Brian said he'd found a table inside that would help us escape the sun. What we discovered is that Casey's Corner also has a topping bar for their hot dogs (with sauerkraut - my hot dog favorite!!) and also had a TV where you could watch old cartoons. What a perfect way for Will to just sit, eat, and veg for a little while.

From there, we headed to ride on Aladdin's Carpet (a 15-minute wait - YIPPEE!!), stopping only to take a picture with Lilo and Stitch. Of course, Stitch was being a little ornery and wouldn't give the marker back to Brian after signing the autograph books. Lilo eventually had to trick him before she could steal it from him. It was pretty funny watching my grown husband get embarrassed because he couldn't figure out how to get a pen away from a character!

At this point in time, I could tell that Will needed to head to a place where he could just run around and blow off some energy. So we headed for a nearby area of the park we'd never visited before but I thought I'd read had included a play area for kids: Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. I'm not sure if any of you have ever been here but...ummm...it's not a playground. It's a replica of the treehouse that the Swiss Family Robinsons lived in for the movie. Basically it's a huge amount of steps and twists and turns where you basically stay along this path and climb a tree to the top. Which was a lot of fun for me since I loved that movie as a kid. And Will enjoyed climbing all the steps. Ann Catherine enjoyed it as well for one reason: her daddy's reaction. Unfortunately, I forgot to consider that Brian has a fear of heights. A really BAD fear of heights. By the top of the tree, my poor hubby was trying hard not to hyperventilate. There was really no way to get off the tree without continuing on the path to the top and then back down. All of us had a good case of the giggles before we got to the bottom of that tree because of my poor hubby's reaction.

Since this attempt at a playground had successfully failed, Will was now DETERMINED to get to a playground. Ann Catherine, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with a playground - especially when she heard it was time for the parade. So, despite my love of Disney parades, I volunteered to take Will to an area I KNEW had a playground for younger children while Brian and Ann Catherine watched the parade. Will and I headed to Pooh's Playful Spot where he had the opportunity to run, play in a toddler version of a treehouse, slide on a slide, climb into hollowed out trees, and play with the water fountains shooting from the ground.

After the parade was finished, it was time to head out for our dinner reservations at the Grand Floridian Hotel. We wanted to take Ann Catherine to eat with Cinderella at the Castle but those reservations tend to go quickly. So Angela, my Travel Agent, suggested that we try 1900 Park Fare where you dine with Cinderella, Prince Charming, Cindy's stepmother, and her two stepsisters - Anastasia and Drusella. We had heard really good things about the interaction with the stepsisters so we thought we'd give it a try.

If you've never been there, the Grand Floridian Hotel is the EXCLUSIVE hotel on Disney property. There are restaurants there where children aren't even allowed to eat. Their restaurants have dress codes! There are crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, a small band that plays on the second floor for guests' entertainment, and exclusive elevators just for Hotel Guests (which we found out the hard way). Yeah, we TOTALLY felt out of our element. We also made it there about 45 minutes too early so we knew we had to kill some time somehow. Luckily, we found a small little table and chairs with a small little TV with cartoons playing for children to enjoy while their parents are checking in at the hotel. The kids had fun watching the TV while Brian and I explored to find the Hidden Mickey's in the floor. Actually, they had Hidden Mickey, hidden Tinkerbell, hidden Goofy, Donald, Minnie, and my absolute favorite. Can you tell who it is?

Once we made it inside to the restaurant, we found a wonderful dinner buffet where they even had a stir-fry beef I decided to try and promptly realized it tasted like bulgogi. I could have eaten my entire dinner off that beef!

We discovered that there is an enormous difference between character dining with the costumed characters and dining with the maskless characters. Even though Cinderella and friends had to remain in character, the really cool thing about being there is that they can actually TALK and interact with your children. They don't just sign your book, take a picture and move on to the next table. The coolest thing about it? I had a talkative son on my hands that night and I think both Cinderella and Prince Charming would have stayed there all night listening to him if we had allowed him to continue talking before helping them get a chance to go on to the next table. Will even stopped Prince Charming on our way out to show him that he was on the placemat Will had received. And Prince Charming knelt down and ooh'd and aah'd over that placemat like he had never seen it before.

The weirdest thing for me was my reaction to Cinderella. Now, I've been to Disney four times now and I've seen Cinderella numerous times. But I had never talked to her. And I'd never been in a place where she could stand and talk to my kids and take pictures with us. And what you need to realize is that, as a child, Cinderella was always my favorite princess. I loved the movie and always fantasized that I could someday wear her beautiful blue dress and would find my own Prince Charming and Castle someday. She was always my favorite Disney character. So when Brian suggested that I get my picture made with her (payback for the numerous times I've teased him and made him take his picture with Mickey), I suddenly was startled at my reaction to standing next to her and smiling for the camera. I actually started to tear up! I actually felt a little emotional at that moment. And I'm not an emotional person! It was the weirdest thing in the world! Made me rethink all of my teasing Brian for his tears over Mickey.

After dinner, we headed back to the park and had just enough time to find our place on the sidewalk in front of Casey's Corner - the best place in all of Magic Kingdom to watch the parade and fireworks. Even though Will was fidgety and we had to take two potty breaks while waiting, it was so worth it. The kids LOVED the parade. And Ann Catherine loved the fireworks. I think Will would have enjoyed it too if he had managed to stay awake for them! He fell asleep on Brian's shoulder after the parade was done and while we were waiting for the fireworks to start.

Given the mass exodus out the door, we knew we still needed to stick to our plan to ride a few rides while people left the park. So Brian held a sleeping Will while I rode the Tea Cups and Dumbo with Ann Catherine one more time. We barely had a wait at either place and it was wonderful riding those rides at night with everything lit up so beautifully.

Coming up tomorrow: Animal Kingdom. A shortened day, a shivering Will with blue lips and WAY too much money spent!