Magic Kingdom, part 1

Day 2 was Magic Kingdom... it opens at 8am, instead of 9am like the other parks. Plus we had to plan for parking and riding the monorail before the park opening, so it was an early morning! The kids were troopers though... they went hard all day long! It helped that the park closed at 7:00pm that day, so we had an easy excuse to call it early another night!

In the parking lot, ready for a day of Disney FUN!

For as long as we've been talking about going to Disney World, Kate has been talking about seeing the "real Cinderella Castle."  Finally, she got to really see it!  She was SO stinkin' excited!!

All of our little "cheat sheets" said to head to Dumbo first, so we did.  Kate wanted NOTHING and I mean absolutely nothing to do with the Dumbo ride!  Maybe because it went up into the air?!  I have no idea.  Either way, Brett and I rode it together, and he loved it :)

It had a little joystick to control the up/down motion - yeah, Brett had it UP the entire ride :)

While we waited for Dumbo, Kate spotted the Cinderella Carousel, which she got to ride on immediately (there is almost no line for that at any time of day).  She rode it all by herself and had a blast!

Next was "It's a Small World"... I can't begin to tell you how crazy this ride makes me, but Kate loves it, so we went.  And then we went again the same day.  And again another day.  We even got stuck on it once.  I'm still hearing the music in my head!

Kate and Poppy, taking it all in!

Hula girls dancing to "It's a small world"  Hawaiian style!

Hanging out in line, waiting for Donald Duck

Say Cheese!  Or is it Quack?!

We had just seen "Mickey's Philharmagic" where Donald goes flying across the room and ends up stuck in the wall on the opposite side of the theater.  Brett wanted to know why he was so silly and if his head hurt!  Thankfully, Donald played along quite well!

Taking the train around the park (aka, relaxing for awhile!)

Family picture time on Main Street... it was really cool to see it all decorated for Christmas!

The view from our lunch spot, Tomorrowland Terrace

What a cute couple :)

The Potater and Milkshaker (Kate and Brett)

"Look, Poppy!  There is the Cinderella Castle!" - Kate

Our kids have never been into Mickey and Minnie all that much, but you'd never guess it when we told them who we were going to go see after lunch!  Brett was so excited.  Here is is, peering around this little room divider, trying to get a better view!

Mickey and Minnie

The whole gang!

Next were the 3 princesses.  If you have a little girl who loves princesses, you MUST get a fastpass to meet the 3 princesses.  We walked right in, waited maybe 5-10 minutes and got to meet all 3 princesses back to back - Sleeping Beauty, Belle, and Cinderella.  Kate was in heaven.  She was A-MAZED!  The princesses do a great job interacting with the kids and staying in character.  Sleeping Beauty wanted to know if Brett fights off the dragons for Kate!

I love Kate's expression here - she was looking at Belle's dress and gloves the entire time Belle was talking to Brett (asking to see his muscles!)

Here she is, feeling Belle's dress - so sweet!

Cinderella asking where they were from and if it was a long carriage ride to her castle

Cinderella kissed Brett on the cheek and Brett announces, "I don't like princesses!"  One day you will, buddy, one day!

"Dream Along with Mickey" show in front of the castle - get there early enough to get a decent seat on the ground in front of the stage - any spot there is great!

Kate has this new, strange fascination with Millificent (the evil woman in Sleeping Beauty) - she just has to see Millificent!

Anything with dancing princesses is just great according to Kate :)  Brett was equally amused!

Fireworks at the end - kaboom!

The many faces of Kate - on the people mover in Tomorrowland as a time-filler!

30 seconds later - all better!

So, you know how the people mover goes through Space Mountain?  Yeah, Space Mountain broke down while we were going through!  Now you know what it looks like on the inside when those crazy lights and stuff seem to be whizzing past your head. 

Brett and Todd on the people mover

The Jungle Cruise - the kids asked many many many times what was real and what was fake

Say cheese!

A view out from the Swiss Family Treehouse

One of the coolest things - Cinderella's Castle all lit up with Christmas lights! 

A view down Main Street from the train station