Fourth Family Floriday - Day 3 - Magic Kingdom

FOURTH FAMILY FLORIDAY
CURSE OF THE NO SEE-UMS
3RD OCTOBER 2017
DAY 1 – MAGIC KINGDOM

Apologies for the three month delay in getting this up! Life and Christmas took over! I hope it is worth the wait. Today is over 3300 words, but looking at it uploaded onto the Blog, it looks more photo heavy than actual text!

I was awoken at 4am this morning by the voice of Amelia, asking if it was time to get up. I told her it was far too early yet and to go back to sleep.
4:10am came around and a repeat conversation ensued. This went on every 10 minutes until 5am when I admitted defeat and I got out of bed. She quickly took my place in our bed while I made tea which was an agonizing process using the in-room coffee machine. I quickly concluded that I wouldn’t be drinking much tea while we’re away as, not only did it take forever to make a cup, it tasted bloody awful. I had bought my own tea bags and sweetener, so I could only assume it was the water that made it taste so bad.

We opened the patio doors and could hear the strangest animal sounds coming from the savannah. It was still dark, but we could just about see a few giraffes out there. Amelia thought that’s where the sound was coming from, but it was more like the cross between a peacock and a goose! It sounded too loud to be a flamingo but must have been a big bird of some kind. I know who I’m putting my money on…

We all got showered and dressed and at 6:40am we were almost ready to go! Paul took the kids down to The Mara to get some drinks while I finished putting my make-up on and came back a little while later declaring that Amelia needed to change her shoes as they kept falling off every two seconds! Waste of money they were!

The sun was now up and we could finally see our savannah view which was pretty perfect to say the least. 

With shoes changed, backpacks loaded and magic bands double checked, we were ready to go and we took a slow walk down to the bus stop via the savannah to have a quick look around. The bus stop was easily accessible; you just turn left out of the main entrance and walk down a small sloping walkway and the bus stops are at the bottom. Screens lined the walk way so you can see when the next bus is due.

We got to the bus stop at 7:41am, and the bus was waiting for us! It was completely empty for the whole journey aside from us. It took 20 minutes which went fairly quickly and wasn’t a bad journey at all.  

With Animal Kingdom Lodge being the furthest resort away from the parks, using Disney transport was the one thing I was worried about staying there. I needn’t have worried though. We couldn’t believe how lucky we were with the buses. For the first few days they were either already waiting, or would arrive within 1 minute of us reaching a bus stop.
We went through bag search and I was the chosen one to go through a metal detector, which didn’t bother me in the slightest. If it’s keeping guests safe, then I’m all for a bit of extra security. We took some photos of the pumpkins while Paul ran off to the loo, and then we all went through the magic band scanners without a problem, and entered the happiest place on earth. The park didn’t open for muggles until 9am this morning, but as we had an ADR for 8:30am, they let us in no problem. To be honest I didn’t notice if other people were going in yet. I was too caught up in the magic and was choking back tears. I couldn’t believe we were finally here! 

We picked up a few maps, not to read, as I’m pretty sure I know where everything is now, but for souvenirs, and took obligatory castle photos. There were lots of Main Street vehicles coming through and I managed to take this photo which is one of my favourites from this trip.

We waited a minute or so for our turn with a photo pass photographer, but wished we had chosen one further up Main street as there was an ugly scrim covering Disney Clothiers which kind of ruined the photos. I made it my mission to have more taken later on, but we never did get around to it. 

We took a slow walk up Main Street, stopping to vlog and take photos of all the vehicles. It was really windy today and my ears kept blowing off! When we reached the hub, I had just finished taking some photos of the castle and we turned to make our way towards Crystal Palace when I heard someone calling out “PRINCESS! WAIT UP!” A rather stocky cast member came running over to us and said that he’d been calling us from way back, but we hadn’t seen or heard him! He told Amelia that he wanted her to go to Buckingham Palace and tell the guards to get out of the way and then tell the Princess to leave because a new princess was moving in (her) and then she has to marry the prince. Amelia wasn’t keen on the marriage bit! Apparently, she’s never getting married! The CM was so sweet and I was so pleased I managed to get it all on camera for the vlog. Unfortunately, after spending a small fortune on camera equipment, including a skinny muffler (to block out wind noise), I managed to leave it back at the resort! Boooo! So excuse the wind noise if you watch it after reading this. The CM gave her some stickers and we made our way over to Crystal Palace for our breakfast reservation. She was on cloud 9. 

We checked in and only waited 3 or 4 minutes to be called. As we walked through the restaurant, our greeter walked us towards a table which was covered in celebration confetti. I suddenly had a flashback to the phone call I had with Disney earlier in the year who said he was going to make a note on the system to make sure EVERYONE knows it’s our anniversary (actually 10 years since we met). But luckily, the greeter kept on walking and showed us to a little table by the window which was lovely. Although it would have been nice, the idea of being ‘celebrated’ every time we went for a meal set me on edge. As it happened, throughout the entire trip, the only people to say happy anniversary was the CM on reception who gave us our ’10 ears’ buttons when we checked in at AKL, a CM at the entrance to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and two servers at Akershus and Via Napoli. Luckily no cakes or singing ensued like on our last trip though! 
This was our third time having breakfast at Crystal Palace, and on previous trips we’ve always been a party of 7, so it was nice having a cosy little table to ourselves. 

Our view!

Our server, Samy, came over and was lovely. She must have been in her late 60’s and was very flirty with Paul and kept him constantly topped up with coffee. We all filled our plates with the mickey waffles, pooh puffed French toast, bacon, sausage and scrambled egg which we’d been craving since we returned from our last trip. It was as amazing as I remember.  

Amelia’s plate


Mine!

The characters were great as always. Eeyore and Piglet gave lots of hugs, Tigger was a bit of a love and shove (see video!), although Amelia didn’t notice and he made up for it in kisses. He also held her hand and went on a parade around the restaurant which she loved and he tickled Paul in the ribs! Sadly, Pooh never came round to our table. This was a real shame as, since the second she saw him at the first parade, Amelia has been smitten with Pooh. We were in there almost two hours and couldn’t hang on for him any longer. 

Thank heavens for the dining plan!

There was a bit of a wait for the receipt for our meal and Amelia was getting restless, so Paul and Oliver hung on and waited for Samy to bring it out, while Amelia and I went outside to take (more) photos! 

You only had to walk out and in a straight line to find us, so 20 minutes later, when there was still no sign of them, we were getting pretty fed up. They eventually came waltzing up to us with big grins on their faces, claiming Paul had just met Mary Poppins! You what? We stand here waiting for ages while you’re swanning off meeting Mary P? Apparently, they’d turned left out of Crystal Palace and stumbled across her meet n Greet which had no line. He took us over to where he’d seen her and we saw her through the bushes, and the CM that was with her was waving at us and motioning for us to go over! There was no one in line to see her, and Mary walked down to the bottom of the path and met us, took Amelia’s hand and walked back up to her post. I have to admit, I got a bit choked up. They spoke for ages about what they would put in a carpet bag – or rather Mary did. Amelia was awestruck! 

From there, we made our way over to Adventureland where we made our first pin purchase of the holiday. Paul didn’t have a lanyard, but loves Oswald, so he bought some Oswald and Steamboat Willie pins. I also got a 2017 pin and Amelia got a Tinkerbell pin. 

Our first Fastpass of the holiday was Jungle Cruise so we made our way there next. Our skipper was fantastic. I vlogged the whole thing, so no photos unfortunately. From there we went on The Magic Carpet of Aladdin which was only a 10 minute wait. I was with Amelia in the front who kept jerking the carpet up and down and it was making me feel sick!

Next up was the attraction that everyone loves to hate, the Tiki room. This was the first time we had ever been in here, and after listening to so many Disney podcasts over the past year, I got the sense that it was a classic, and we must go and see what it’s about. And I’m glad we did. I have to say, I loved it! We all loved the catchy song, and the cheesiness, and it is a true Disney classic! 
“In the tiki tiki tiki tiki room, in the tiki tiki tiki tiki room….”

Our next Fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain wasn’t until 12:20, but it was showing a 10 minute wait on the MDE app, so we headed over to Frontierland. On our last trip in 2014, Amelia didn’t like the dark bits, but she LOVED it this time and screamed the whole way round! She was ecstatic when we said we could ride it again later.

After BTMR, we made our way over to Pirates of the Caribbean but the wait time was showing 35 minutes which was over my 20 minute limit! We decided that we’d go and get refreshments while Paul went to find a smoking area. Amelia was starting to flag a bit, and after the many choices of food and drinks I kept firing at her, she just wanted a bottle of water which was very unlike her. We headed over to Aloha Isle where I got her one. Oliver got a dole whip float, and I got a Dole whip cup (soft serve ice cream). I tried to get a decent picture of it, but it started to melt within seconds!

We’d only been sitting down for a couple of minutes when Paul arrived back and got himself the same as me. Amelia refused to try any of ours and I was starting to worry that she was getting ill or something. I think the tiredness was the main cause after her hideously early morning, but she perked up a bit when I checked my the MDE app and saw that POTC was now showing 10 minutes, so we finished our ice creams, wiped ourselves down with wet wipes (they were so sticky) and hurried over there. Paul and Amelia hadn’t been on it before, and Oliver and I hadn’t been on it since 2012, so it took us a bit by surprise! I won’t spoil it for anyone by telling you which bits! We all loved it though. Oliver’s face in this photo cracks me up! He looks terrified!

Back in Frontierland, we rode BTMR for the second time with our fastpass which was loved again by all and Amelia seemed much better afterwards. We picked up some popcorn and as we were walking towards Fantasyland, she caught sight of It’s a Small World and gave me a knowing look, before grabbing Paul’s hand and yanking him towards it! She knows it’s his least favourite ride, and we always play the song in the car to wind him up. She thought getting him to go on it was hilarious! There was a service dog getting in one of the boats when we were in the queue

It was coming up to 1:15pm after our second ride. We had ridden everything we wanted to, and we weren’t particularly hungry, so we skipped the fruit waffle at Sleepy Hollow Refreshments that I had in my plans and decided we would make a slow walk towards to exit via Town Hall for our last fast pass of the day which was Mickey Mouse at 2:20pm. We walked through the castle which ticked off an item on Amelia’s bucket list. We’ve done it several times before, but she couldn’t remember.

It was starting to get cloudy now, and as we reached the hub, it started to bucket it down. Amelia and I ran for cover, with Paul and Oliver close behind. We took shelter in the Emporium and after a good look around, we ended up buying the Pumpkin tea light holder which I had on my list of purchases, and a red polka dot cap with ears for Amelia which kept the post of her bunkbed warm for the entirety of the trip as she wouldn’t wear it until our second from last day! 

The rain eased off a bit, so we headed down Main street to the Town Square theatre. I had hoped to catch the Festival of Fantasy parade which was due at 2pm, but there was still no sign of it starting, which I guess was due to the rain, so we headed inside and waited in line for Mickey. The CM on the door loved Amelia’s skirt and was talking to us for a bit before we went in. 

Then came the golden moment when Mickey gave her a hug and then said to her:

“Say, can you help me with a magic trick?” to which Amelia replied:
“Can you help me with a magic trick?”

I think she took “say” a little too literally!

Mickey did the exact same magic trick that he had done with her on our last trip which was a little disappointing, but she didn’t mind.  
After meeting Mickey, we came outside to find the parade was just starting to come down Main street. We were right inbetween the two staircases and couldn’t see much, then this lovely American couple saw Amelia and motioned for her to stand in between them at the front. I pushed her through and was standing just behind her, but they motioned me to go right to the front too which gave us THE BEST view. I was so grateful to them. I felt a little bad for Paul and Oliver, but they could still see over the top of everyone’s heads, and wasn’t bothered about watching it anyway, so I don’t think they minded much. Sadly, because we were so close, the possibility of getting any decent photos were diminished and I ended up with lots and lots of blurred shots. These were the best of a bad bunch. I have to say, I did fall out with my DSLR a bit on this trip, and after today, it remained in its case in the wardrobe at the resort for the rest of the holiday and I just used the Canon G7X.

We took the bus back to AKL which drops off at Kidani before Jambo House (except for around 5pm when, in our experience, it seemed to go to Jambo first).

There is an outside entrance to Zawadi, the resort’s shop, three quarters of the way up the slope from the buses to the resort entrance, so we popped in there where I bought a pair of binoculars for Amelia to look at the giraffes on the savannah. 

When we got back to the room, Mousekeeping had been in to make the beds and had arranged Amelia’s toys on ours with a little note, thanking us for the dollars and Freddo bar. 

We hung out for a bit. Amelia spilt chocolate milk down her T-shirt at breakfast this morning which we covered up with a sticker from this morning’s cast member to hide it! So we freshened up and got her changed and at around 5pm, we went to The Mara for dinner. Apologies for the lack of photos here. I’ll try and do better! I had oven roasted rotisserie chicken with mash, Paul had the same but with fries, Oliver had a pepperoni flatbread and Amelia had a kid’s turkey sandwich. For desserts I think Paul, Oliver and I all had Oreo cheesecakes and Amelia had a fruit bag with the BIGGEST grapes I’ve ever seen! We took our resort mugs with us and filled them up, and took the drinks that came with our meals back to the room for another day.

Such a poser!

Paul and the kids wanted to go for a swim after dinner. Although I could have quite happily stayed in the room and gone to sleep, I thought I’d better go with them. I put my cozzy on, but wussed out of getting in the water when I saw how cold they were in there. No thank you very much! They soon changed their minds about swimming and we all decided to go for a Jacuzzi instead which was blissfully warm. I could have stayed in there all night. 

When we started to get shriveled, we got dried and picked up some muffins and hot drinks to take back to the room. We watched TV, Amelia went to bed and later on, Paul and I spotted this little guy on the balcony ceiling! He was so cute!

I spent the rest of the evening uploading the photos and footage onto my hard drive. Despite my best efforts, I think I must have fallen asleep at about 9pm (with the laptop still on my lap)! I think I woke up a few hours later and Paul had done the same as the TV was still on. I turned it off and put the laptop and cameras on the floor and fell back to sleep again in an instant.

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TODAYS SPENDS
Crystal Palace
4 table service credits | Tax & Gratuity $ 21.96
Would have cost $151.89 out of pocket (OOP)
B’Wana Bob’s Pin cart
5 pins $53.20 incl. tax
Amelia’s pin $9.58 incl. tax
Aloha Isle
4 Snack credits
Would have cost $18.51 OOP
Popcorn Cart
Regular popcorn
1 snack credit (would have been $4.25 OOP)
The Emporium
Minnie cap $21.99
Mickey pumpkin tea light holder $16.99
Total $41.52 incl tax
Zawadi Market Place
Binoculars $8 incl. tax
The Mara
4 Quick service credits
would have cost £54.95 OOP

TOTAL SPENT TODAY
$134.26

Steps today: 13,960 (4.8 miles)
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TODAY'S VLOG: