A week ago today: Magic Kingdom part II

We did not do the "Parkhopper" option so we had to pick just one park to revisit on our last day.

After missing an entire section of Animal Kingdom on Thursday, I thought we'd be heading back there. But Daddy also thought we could find a lot that we hadn't already seen at Magic Kingdom. We asked Big Sis what she wanted to do, and all she could talk about was the Peter Pan ride. (Seriously? That black light gem that seems to be the same since forever? Okay, sweetie...)

We were afraid Fridays might be busy at Magic Kingdom, but according to a few websites that ought to know, it isn't so bad. And it really wasn't. In fact, we got there a little later than last time and still parked in the exact same row. And it was so "unbusy" that they weren't running the monorail in. We all boarded the ferry like a herd of cattle, but it was kind of fun to take a different approach.

We missed the opening show, but still had a little magic in our entrance. Daddy chuckled and noted that other children were walking in, excited about everything they'd see inside the gates, while ours were excited to pick Mickey shaped confetti up off of the ground.

I don't know though, Little Sister was pretty excited to return to Fantasyland.

We rode the carousel again, since both girls enjoyed that a lot last time.

Dumbo's line was already a little too long, so we thought we'd come back. I also asked a Cast Member about which fairies might be in Pixie Hollow that morning. They were very non-committal. We decided it was better not to try than to go through the lines and not see SilverMist again.

Peter Pan was closed for a bit, so we grabbed a fastpass for later and rode It's A Small World again to distract Big Sis from her disappointment. Then we headed to the part of the park we had barely seen on Wednesday: Adventureland. We also thought Little Sister might enjoy the carpets and forget about Dumbo.

Guess who was there this time? Jasmine! We were second in line to see her when Big Sister had to pee. I don't know if it was nervous excitement or just bad timing, but I knew she really had to go if she was going to miss out on Jasmine. Daddy rushed her to the nearest (not so near at all since the actual nearest was closed for renovations) restroom and Little Sis, Papa and I let person after person pass us in line. Finally, they got back and we snapped some cute pics with her favorite princess.

Then we hopped on the carpet rides.

Little Sis was impatient- she kept using her growly-mean voice to say "LETS GO" until it started. While we were up in the air, we saw that Jasmine had been joined by someone else. When we got off of the ride, we went back over so Big Sister could meet Aladdin.

Then we convinced her that Pirates of the Carribean was not too scary, and she reluctantly agreed to go on it. We were wrong. The old Pirates of the Carribean was not scary. The new one involves holograms of the creepy Davey Jones character and pitch black waterfall drops and was nothing like I remembered. She wasn't too upset, though. She picked out a hook in the gift shop to add to her pirate costume at home.

Then we boarded the Jungle Cruise. Our guide was great, and even though they got about 5% of her jokes, both girls seemed to really enjoy the ride too.

After that, it was time to take our fastpasses back to Peter Pan. I got to ride with Big Sis this time, and I saw how much she really did enjoy it. Go figure.

We ate lunch in Gipetto's restaurant that overlooks the boats entering It's a Small World. Big Sis was glued to the window, PB&J in hand, for the entire meal. She waved at every boat. Every boat. And I had packed yogurt for Little Sis, so we were there for a long time.

I didn't just pack for Little Sis, or even just for the girls. I was the mom who made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and doritos for the whole family- we had lots of groceries left and had eaten in the park more than I had originally planned, so it made sense. Daddy was one part proud of me for saving money and one part embarrassed. Oh- and one part trying to convince me to order some fries to go with it all.

After lunch, Daddy and Big Sister visited the TomorrowLand Speedway. While we waited for them, Little Sis loved watching the cars come around the corner. If I forgot, she'd remind me to ask, "What colorw?" and immediately answer. When there was a lull with no traffic, she'd get super excited to see the new group of cars come around the turn. "There it is!" or "I see it!" I could have stood there all day and not grown tired of the game.

Big Sis liked driving a lot, even though I'm not sure how she saw above the steering wheel.

We stayed a little while in Tomorrowland, which we had totally missed on Wednesday. We saw what used to be my favorite attraction, The Carousel of Progress. This time, I felt overwhelmed and a little saddened by it. I'll try to write about that someday after I run out of pictures. It also might have been due to the fact that Little Sis fell asleep in my lap and woke up as soon as we got back out into the sun, mean as a snake.

We rode the Tomorrorowland Transit Authority to calm her down, since she loves any trainlike ride. It worked, for the most part, except when we rode through parts of Space Mountain in the dark.

We had fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear, which was cute but in which it was impossible for me to score any points with Little Sis as my partner. Not that I was keeping score, like Daddy & Papa were in their cars.

Soon we headed back to ToonTown, but the afternoon weather was warm and lovely and things were getting crowded (for the first time all week, really)! No more Barnstormer for us. We did stop for a visit to Minnie's house, something Big Sis missed last time.

I also checked the wait time for visiting the fairies in Pixie Hollow- 60 minutes! And they still wouldn't tell me if Silvermist was in there!!! So, we left for ice cream and story time with Belle. I will be sharing some more photos from that adventure with you in an upcoming post. It was very entertaining.

We had skipped the teacups the other day, because they make Daddy sick. But I started thinking about how iconic they are to the whole Disney experience, and decided Big Sis and I needed to ride them.

I'm so glad that we did, and that I forgot to hand off the camera to Daddy before we got on. Otherwise we might have missed this moment- Big Sis & I sitting across from each other, spinning and laughing.

Daddy had hauled heiney from Tomorrowland to Frontierland earlier to get Fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and it was time for us to start going that way. We decided to ride the train, which should have made Little Sister happy. But waiting for the train led to a giant fit. On the upside, it also led to the Cast Member at the train station cheering her up with cute cards with train pictures, which just happened to be guest conductor cards. Big Sis got one too, and she got to sit in the back and say "All Aboard" just like she & Papa had been practicing on every train ride since we arrived.

On the ride, the girls entertained each other... er... nicely?

...until Little Sister finally started to calm down.

Then we hurried to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Daddy and Big Sister got in line while I kept Little Sister occupied. It wasn't hard. On this trip, she became obsessed with buckles.

My job was to watch for the brave riders and snap a picture. These are really zoomed in, but it's still hard to spot them. They're in the second row from the front. Big Sis is barely visible in the second photo, you can just see the top of her head.

I thought she was too little for this ride, but she seemed to have a good time. Her only complaints were about the noise.

At the end, Daddy asked "Did you like that ride?" She answered with a weak "yes."
"Did you have fun?" Another sad little "yes."
"Would you like to do it again sometime?" "no."
He said the older girls in front of them were quite tickled at this exchange.

If you ask her now, she'll say it was amazing and that we have to ride it when we go back.

After this last ride, we met my parents in Liberty Square, where I bought a Christmas ornament to commemorate our first family trip to Disney. Then we made our way out of the park. We weren't staying for dinner or the fireworks- we had to pack and leave early the next morning.

The monorails were still running strangely, so we ended up separated and crammed in like sardines. A nice man offered me a place to sit down with Little Sis, and she charmed him and the ladies next to us for the rest of the ride. Then we made one final tram ride, got into the car, and left Disney.

Little Sis fell asleep before we even got to Uno's to eat dinner. She spent 3/4 of the meal sleeping on the booth seat, and the last 1/4 awake, upset and disoriented. We were all feeling the wear of the week, but with very little nappage for five straight days, she probably felt it most of all.

We went back to our hotel, gave the girls a bath and watched the Epcot fireworks from our balcony.

The next morning we loaded up and left Orlando. Just like that, our Disney Vacation was over.

It was exhausting.

But totally worth it.