Disney Day 2: Magic Kingdom

Day 2 of our trip happened to be Bennett's 5th birthday! This trip was not for her birthday. However, we like to go to the parks in February because the temps are perfect and this just happened to be a great week for us to go. Happy Birthday, Bennett!

Our day started with a wake up call from Mickey  Mouse! Just analyze this picture for a minute. Look who is in his pajamas and still sleepy and look who is already up and dressed for the day. Do you think someone was excited because it was her birthday?

On the bus on our way to the Magic Kingdom!! As you pull into the park the Mickey Mouse clubhouse theme song starts playing over the speakers in the bus. This was Bennett's reaction when she heard the music!

 Looking for a glimpse of the castle

 Okay, so the opening to each park is ridiculous. They can't just open the gates and let you in. Even the opening is a production number. The main street singers come out and do a number and then the train pulls up and it is filled with a lot of the classic Disney characters. Then Mickey counts everyone down and the crowd chimes in. When Mickey gets to 0, fireworks go off, the gates open, and everyone runs in. Zippity Doo Dah is playing throughout the park and all the shop owners on main street are out waving to you. Amazing! Truly.

Here are a few clips from the opening.





 First glimpse of Cinderella's castle

Will's already chatting away with anyone in sight.

 Posing with my princesses and my Prince Charming.

The family in front of Cinderella's castle. Classic.

I love this shot of Bennett. She ran up the steps and yelled, "Welcome to the kingdom!"

We then went to eat breakfast in the castle at Cinderella's Royal Table. I could write a whole blog post just on this experience. But I'll try to restrain myself. When you first walk in Cinderella is there to greet you. This was Lainey's reaction. I am SO glad that Rob captured this.

Cinderella greeting her royal guest.

Bennett walking up the stairs to the dining hall.

I love the shot above because this is the one we got of her walking up the same stairs when she was 2.

When each guest arrives they receive a wishing star, a poster signed by all of the princesses, and each little girl receives a wand and each little boy gets a sword. Then they do a wishing ceremony. It is too long to describe, but here is Bennett making a wish on her star.

Then the princesses come in one by one. They introduce each of them by telling their story and then their individual theme music plays. I had to video Bennett when Ariel was introduced. I didn't get

 a shot of Ariel, but Bennett's reaction was priceless.

First to our table was Jasmine.

Then Sleeping Beauty. Will had the funniest exchange with her. She knelt down to him and told him he was such a handsome pirate. Will replied, "UGH! Why does everyone think I am a pirate? I am Prince CHARMING!" Sleeping Beauty thought that was hysterical and she stayed and talked to him for a long time.

The moment where Bennett met her favorite princess.

Will then told Ariel to move because Snow White was coming. Everyone got a big kick out of that. I don't think the princesses are used to be told to leave the table.

 But Will had an agenda. We told him that on his last visit, Snow White was the only princess to kiss him. He remembered this particular fact.

 After breakfast Will decided he was through being a prince. He wanted to change and I asked Bennett if she wanted to change into the clothes I had brought for her, but she didn't. She wanted to keep her princess dress on all day. Sounds good to me. We spent the next few hours ridding a ton of rides- The Carousel, It's a Small World, Peter Pan's Flight, the new Ariel ride, and we went to see Mickey's Philharmagic.

In between all the rides we would stop a lot to see characters. I saw Mary Poppins alone. The kids were on a ride and I was pushing Lainey around in the stroller so she could nap. Too bad because she is one of my favorites. I would have taken a picture with her by myself but even I have limits. Believe it or not.

 They did get to see the Fairy Godmother though. Otherwise known as my future job.

It started raining pretty hard so we went inside a store so the kids could use their souvenir money. My parents gave them both "Disney bucks" to spend and Bennett got some extra cash for her birthday from friends and relatives. Will picked out a Mickey Mouse train and a Donald Duck plush toy. All Bennett talked about for weeks leading up to our trip was buying a charm bracelet. She bought one on our last trip and she remembered it. She asked all day if it was time to pick out her charms.

Here are the ones she selected.

Her prized possession. She also bought a lamb from the Disney cartoon, "Doc Mcstuffins."

Obligatory mouse ears shot

Sleeping Beauty

Time for a snack! Mouse shaped rice krispie treats naturally.

We then took some time and just hung out for a bit on Main Street. Even strolling down a street at Disney is an adventure. The kids loved all the window displays.

I absolutely adore this shot.

We then headed to the new section of the park- New Fantasyland. I would describe it to you all but I am afraid I have run out of adjectives. It is simply unbelievable. I don't know what else to say. There are two new castles, Belle's and Ariel's. I mean 2 castles! Come on! Storybook Circus looks like something out of a movie and it lived up to every expectation. That's all I can say. Look who we ran into while heading to Belle's castle.

We then had lunch at the new "Be Our Guest" restaurant in Belle's castle. I told Bennett she was pretty special for having her birthday breakfast in one castle and her lunch in another. I really could go on and on about this experience. But I will link to an article where someone described it in far better detail. Read this link if you get a chance. It's worth it. I will say thought that I had made 2 reservations for dinner here but cancelled them due to cost. The woman ringing us up looked at me like I was crazy and told me I could have sold them online for a profit. Who knew? Here is my family in the castle. It was so dimly lit that we couldn't get a good one, but we tried.

We ate in the main ballroom, but you can also eat in the west wing where petals fall off the rose slowly throughout your meal.

Snow was falling outside of our window where we ate so we had to have hot chocolate to warm up. Of course. Here are me and Rob dancing with our prince and princess in the main ballroom.

Just go back and read that link I posted on here. You really need to so you can get a feel of this. Eating here was a huge dining experience in of itself. We had a great time and here I am posing with my beast. Or is it the other way around?

Afterwards we ran into a few more characters. This next picture is one of my favorites from the whole trip.

We love Pooh Bear!

Oh, Merida. You are running a very close second to Ariel in my daughter's eyes. It must be the red hair connection. Look at both of my kids literally running into Merida's arms. Again, next time we bring the kids Bennett probably won't do this. It is such a sweet and wonderful age to bring kids. I love love love this!

Will talked a mile a minute to Merida. It was awesome. She laughed and laughed at him. He told her all about his baby sister, his pre-school, his dog, and anything else he could think of. But mainly he talked to her about bowling and invited her to go bowling with him for his birthday.

Rob caught just the very end of it where Will was finishing his chat with Merida. This was seriously 3 minutes into their conversation.I wish we had turned on the camera before this point but we had no idea how much he would talk to her.



I had to go feed Lainey but the rest got a group shot with Merida.

Then they teach the kids how to shoot a bow and arrow. How fun that they do an archery lesson after the meet and greet. I love Disney! Bennett actually hit the target.

And then Will did too! Both of my kids are sharp shooters, I tell ya. Look at that concentration.

Me with my girls in front of the castle. My boy was too busy running around making friends.

The kids danced around for a long time in front of the castle while we waited for a show to start. How fantastic is this?



And the show as pretty incredible too!

Even Lainey bug liked it from her view point.

We then headed over to Storybook Circus to ride our favorite ride, Dumbo!

And the kids favorite ride of the whole trip. Goofy's Barnstormer. Will liked it better than Bennett but she came around and admitted that she wasn't too scared. And this was actually the one ride of the whole trip that Lainey couldn't ride. Of course we skipped most of the thrill rides, but this was the only time the whole week that either Rob or I had to wait at the bottom with Lainey.

It was getting dark by this point so we went over to get good seats for The Main Street Electrical parade.

I've seen this parade more times than I can count and it never gets old.

Afterwards we ate dinner at Casey's on Main Street and waited for the fireworks. Just don't look at the amount of junk my kids ate this week. We were on vacation, right? But I love this shot of Bennett winding down her birthday by eating cotton candy and waiting for the show. What an amazing birthday!

And the big show was amazing, as always. Watch the clip below and at the very end you can hear what Bennett thought about the fireworks.

From start to finish, Tuesday was probably my favorite day. Bennett had probably the best birthday imaginable. The kids were in great moods, we loved being together as a family, and we truly had a magical day. I didn't take one second of it for granted. We are so grateful that we had the chance to spend the day together in the Magic Kingdom. Good Night!