Another Beautiful Day at the Parks!
Magic Kingdom – Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
We decided that since we were staying at Polynesian that we would get up early and take advantage of the morning hours at the Magic Kingdom. We dragged ourselves out of bed, showered and took a stroll to the Ticket and Transportation Center to board the express monorail to the Magic Kingdom. Our timing couldn’t have been better as the monorail arrived just as we did and took us smoothly to the main entrance.
Rising early has it’s benefits as we got to experience the opening show at the train station just before 9 am. We all enjoyed the show and joined the cattle heard into the park and made our war to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.
We managed to make it to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at a minute before 9 (which is awesome that they let you in before park open)! Amazingly enough the wait was 30 minutes when we arrived. The line moved quickly and we got to enjoy the new attraction. Sawyer loved it!
Because we hadn’t eaten breakfast yet we decided to head over to the Sleepy Hollow Refreshments location Liberty Square for some delicious waffles. The boys and waffles does powdered sugar and Emily and I had waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. If you have not had these yet I strongly recommend them. Although the food was delicious, clean up after a meal like this requires a yard blower to clear all the powdered sugar off the table.
Now that we had some sustenance it was time to knock out some of our favorite attractions. Because it was too early and we got to experience some of our favorite attractions like Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, and the People Mover. It was neat to see some of the new additions to the Buzz ride.
Of course no day would be complete without an overpriced cup of ice coffee so we headed to Starbucks on Main Street. I appreciated the air conditioning and Emily appreciated her caffeine fix.
Earlier in the day we agreed that we hadn’t been on the Liberty Square Riverboat in a long time so we were going to do that today. Although the weather was a bit on the warm side we enjoyed exploring the steam boat and taking in the park views from the water.
We continued with our exploration of Liberty Square and headed to our favorite Magic Kingdom eatery, Columbia Harbor House. They have great choices and really delicious food. Emily and I shared the fried shrimp and lobster roll and the kids got their normal chicken nuggets and Mac and cheese. The unique thing about the restaurant is they have an upstairs dining are which is neatly themed.
During lunch we agreed we were getting tired and hot so we decided our final two activities would be a train ride to Fantasyland an an the air conditioned attractionUnder the sea – Journey of The Little Mermaid. Perfect end to a fun morning at Magic Kingdom.
The evening plans involved heading to Disney’s Hollywood Studios so heading back to the hotel to chill was a definite must do. Because I wanted to take advantage of the boat transportation and the rest wanted air conditioning, Em and boys took monorail, and I hit the open water. Lucky I did because I ran into Lindsey who we had just met a few weeks back when Emily and I went out to dinner. We caught up on the ride to the Grand Floridian where she departed.
We took the afternoon to relax in the room with some air conditioning and Mai Tai’s for Emily and I, which I have to say hit the spot! We freshened up a bit and decided that i would ride the bus with the boys to the Studios and Emily would drive so we had the car to take back to the hotel at the end of the evening. The boys like the bus rides so who am I to keep them from the fun. Turns out Sawyer decided to delay his nap that he could have taken at any point in the afternoon, to the bus ride to the Studios. Hunter was about two turns away from falling asleep himself.
The night at the Studios was perfect as we met Colonel and Kee and rode Toy Story Midway Mania, had an amazing dinner at Mama Melrose’s, and finished the evening with the amazing Frozen Fireworks which all of us were seeing for the first time. Not much more you can ask for riding Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Toy Story Midway Mania and seeing fireworks all in one day!