This post has been sitting in my draft for WEEKS so maybe it is time I finally write about it.
Let me just put it out there.
I love Disney. One of my co-teachers, Cheryl, is as equally obsessed with it as I am and one of our friends, Patty, says its a sickness. Ha ha!! I have been itching to go to Disney since the last time I was there in August 2011 when I went with my brother & his family. When I decided to visit my BFF April on my spring break in Florida (she moved there in April 2013 for a new job), she mentioned going to Disney. I was all in!
I flew in on a Thursday and then we decided that we would go Friday & Saturday since I had to fly back on Easter. Thursday night we just hung out at April's apartment before we get off for Disney Friday morning!! We decided to stay on property so we wouldn't have to commute each day from her uncle's which is farther away. I always enjoy staying on Disney Property because of the buses they have to/from the resort to parks and the benefit of Extra Magic Hours! (EMH).
Friday morning, we checked into our hotel, The All Stars Music Resort. We were in the Broadway Section. I always like staying in different hotels on Disney. I want to stay in the Art of Animation next! Our room wasn't quite ready but they sent us a text message (which I thought was cool!) when it was. Apparently they had people who often harassed the housekeeping staff when the room was going to be ready so they changed the process. As we checked in, I got my Magic Band (April already had hers since she bought the Annual Passholder's since she is a Florida resident). The Magic band is cool because it keeps track of your fast passes, you use it to get into your room and pay for stuff at the parks (if you have a credit card linked to your account for charging).
Once we were all done, we headed off to Magic Kingdom! Magic Kingdom is hands down my favorite park. It is SO big I could spend open-close there and not be bored. Upon going into the MK, we spotted Mary Poppins. Each time I am at Disney, it is my mission to see how many characters I can get pictures with. Don't think I have had one with Mary Poppins since I went to Disney my FIRST time.
We went on a couple of rides and went through the Swiss Family Robinson tree house. We were heading towards the new Fantasyland and stopped at the Be Our Guest Restaurant. It was only a 30 minute wait for quick serve so April & I decided to wait and try it! Had it been longer then that, I probably would not have waited.
The inside is GORGEOUS! There are three different dining rooms that you can chose to eat in after you've ordered your meal from the "book" quick serve. April and I were nervous they wouldn't find us but they did!! The picture above was behind me in the dining room we ate in.
On the gates while we waited outside
Beautiful artwork as we were leaving. The details at Be Our Guest were just beyond beautiful. I really want to go back to have dinner and "meet the beast."
Afterwards, we headed over to the Little Mermaid ride. This was new since I was last at MK!
Ursula will always creep me out no matter what!
There was a new parade that started called "Festival of Fantasy." We lined up for a good spot to see it and just enjoyed a break since we were planning on doing EMH at night!
They added Anna & Elsa from Frozen to it so this was about as close as we got to seeing them. The wait was 4+ HOURS when we were in Epcot! (On Easter Sunday they moved them over to MK)
Snow White & the 7 Dwarves
After the parade, we made our way over to It's a Small World!
April posing with Bare Rabbit with her shirt!
They were suppose to have a show in front of the castle but due to a down pouring while we were on Space Mountain, they cancelled it! But all the characters came out. There's something I just love about the characters at Disney.
We spent the rest of the afternoon going on some rides, buying souvenirs and just hanging out until the Wishes show in front of the Castle at night and the fireworks. We got up close so it was a great seat!!
Besties on the spinning teacups!!
We also went to meet the Princesses. I will continue to meet characters every time I go to Disney. It's part of the Disney Magic. Anna and Elsa from Frozen hadn't moved to the Magic Kingdom yet but I highly doubt we would have waited for them because the wait time was (and still is) 300 minutes!!
One of the new features since the last time I went to Disney was Enchanted Tales with Belle. We did this as one of our fast passes and did a late one. But by the time we got there, there was no wait so we didn't have to use it (we wish we could have used it for Splash Mountain because we wanted to go on it!). I got chosen to participate in it!! So cool!
Since we were staying on Disney property, we were taking advantage of the Extra Magic Hours that you get for staying at your resort. It is one of the many reasons I love staying on Disney property! We went on Dumbo!
Then we met Ariel in Ariel's Grotto....this was new since last time I met her somewhere in Frontierland or something.
Then we went off to meet Donald, Minnie, Goofy and Daisy!
Of course, no trip to Magic Kingdom is complete without meeting Mickey!
(PS - love my shirt. I found this last summer at Walmart for $7.50!)
We ended the night by finishing up some souvenir shopping (I always end up spending WAY too much!) and watching the Electrical Parade on Main Street. The day we were there, the park was open until 3am so we stayed until 2-2:30 before driving back to the hotel. It was AWESOME! I hadn't seen April since August so it was great spending some time with her. We are both Disney obsessed so it works out that she is all for taking character pictures and such.
Next up....Day 2 at Epcot! I wanna go back to Disney for a full week and go to all the parks again. :)
