from the corner of my couch: DIsney Day 2

As you'll remember we ended Day 1 very late and Day 2 started VERY early. We had 8am breakfast reservations at Cinderella's Castle which is before the park opens so the bus schedule is a little sketchy. I had talked to two different people at the resort and neither one could tell me confidently what time the bus would start with the early pickup. The information I got was that the bus might make a big loop of the resorts (instead of the normal direct route) thus adding a fair amount of time to our journey and the bus might start the early route at 6:45...or maybe 6:30. I was super paranoid about not getting to the park in time so we got up at 5:45, dressed the girls in their princess dresses, and were at the bus stop by 6:20. I was glad we didn't err on the 6:45 side as the bus arrived at 6:35 (and went directly to the park I might add). So we were at the park before 7 but at least we weren't late!

Ellie was Belle.

Emmie was Cinderella.

The girls played outside the gate until they let us in and a little before 8 we were let into the park and took a few quick pictures outside the castle and then headed in!

(they were filming a commercial in front of the castle which is why there is a white screen in front)

We were second or third to check in for the breakfast, got our picture taken with Cinderella and ended up being seated at the first table the princesses stopped at which was quite exciting! The food really wasn't that great but the princesses were wonderful and really we were there for the princesses. The girls got to see Cinderella, Ariel, Jasmine, Snow White, and Aurora. One of the neat things about the Cinderella breakfast is that when you first come in you take a picture with Cinderella and then get an 8x10 and 4 4x5 pictures included in the breakfast package!

(poor Emmie has little narrow shoulders and her dress kept slipping off one shoulder)

We finished breakfast right at 9 and headed to ride the rides! We zipped through pretty much all of the kid rides that we didn't have a fast pass for and as the day progressed hit our three fast pass rides. Our fast passes for the first day were Enchanted Tales with Belle, the Little Mermaid ride, and Dumbo. I think Belle and Little Mermaid were the only ones that had any kind of wait at all during the day. The Peter Pan ride did too but we hit it first thing when there was no line. My favorite by far was the Enchanted Tales with Belle. They gave a "part" to everyone who wanted one and acted out part of the story and then everyone got to have their picture taken with Belle at the end. The girls weren't willing to play a part but they did go get their picture taken. I think the girl's favorite rides were the carousel and It's a Small World.

fun toys to play with in line for the Winnie the Pooh ride

Carousel

Enchanted Tales with Belle - waiting to go in for the story

entranced with the story

Dumbo ride

After riding most of the rides that were on our "to do" list we headed to meet some friends who were at Disney the same week we were! They used to live near us but moved to Greenville about a year ago and we miss them so much so this was a special treat! They go to Disney a lot so Carissa was a huge help when I was planning our trip.

Ice cream with Will

Griffin looking so cute in his glasses.

We later had lunch at the Pinochio quick service restaurant. It was super crowded and they didn't have many options for the girls but I had an Italian flat bread sandwich that was amazing!

Our longest line of the day was to meet Rapunzel but Emmie kept asking to so we waited about 45minutes (luckily in the air conditioning!) and Emmie was thrilled to meet her...mission accomplished!

Cinderella's glass slipper

Thrilled to meet Rapunzel!

We spent most of our time in the new Fantasyland which was great and full of princess things but we did wonder over to Frontierland to see the Country Bear Jamboree and when we got over there it was closed. Paul needed to make a bathroom stop and Ellie was half asleep so we decided to park for a few minutes and rest. We ended up parking on the front row of the parade route for the Celebrations parade that was starting in about an hour. Emmie found a friend to play with, Ellie took a great nap, and Paul and I got to sit down for awhile.

It was so nice when the parade started...we had the BEST seats. Snow White even waved right at Ellie and told her that they had the same bows (Ellie had her red bow in her hair)! The girls loved the parade and Emmie has been dancing like the dancers ever since!

We had dinner reservations at Chef Mickey's Table at 6 so we left the park about an hour before that and walked over to the Contemporary. We had heard that it was a lot faster to walk than to take the monorail which might be true but it's definitely not easier when you're 6 1/2 months pregnant! The girls LOVED getting to meet Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald...I think this was probably their favorite character meal. The food was a repeat from the buffet the day before but once again it was really more about the experience than the food!

Pluto tried to lick Ellie!

I got a kick out of watching Pluto sign autographs.

We got back to our room around 8 so it was a much earlier night which was good because it was going to prove to be a long night with a crazy day #2 at Magic Kingdom the next day!