Dinner tonight will
be the Liberty Tree Tavern, but that is not until 6:30. The girls
are starving NOW. So we decide to head to the Magic Kingdom and
grab a quick snack to tide us over. We jump on the boat from the
Wilderness Lodge (WL) to the Magic Kingdom (MK) and the first thing we
do is go to guest services to get the girls Annual Passes. This
is made MUCH less painful by the nice $100 per adult and $85 per child
discount we get as DVC members.
I
also upgrade my
AP (bought in December just before the discount) to a Premium AP and
got money BACK (5 bucks and change!) Now THAT doesn't happen at
Disney very often!!!!! :-D Oh MAN - I just remembered I was
going to pick up our MVMCP tickets for later this year too. And I
FORGOT! D'oh! Shhh... I'll have to stop at
Guest Services again...
On into the parks. No lines
at the turnstiles
around 3:30 so in we went. The girls were wearing their golden
Mickey ears from Disneyland (thanks MargaretJ!) and the CM loved
them. She noticed that they did not have names, and directed us
to the Chappo shop to have them put on for free. That is a GREAT
idea, but will have to wait until AFTER a snack! :-) Girls
seemed to love the decorated castle and it does look very nice. I
love the gold, but the mirror is just huge... I can't decide if I like
it or not, but its not as bad as I thought it would be. It was
cool seeing it change from castle pic to castle pic.
We decided on
Casey's for our snack. I always hear its good, so we thought we
would try it out. Kristen and I split a Hot Dog, and the girls
some Corn Dog Nuggets. Just enough to take off the edge, but not
ruin dinner! It was very good, and we even snagged a table to sit
at inside. Its pretty limited seating in there, but SOOOO hot out
today we needed the cooldown already! We expected the heat, so
that wasn't a real problem, but being in direct sunlight is
BRUTAL.
We finished up our snack and then headed back up Main
Street. Having the girls names on their hats sounded great so we
went back to the Hat Shop. There was NO line, and the CM's
behind the counter LOVED the hats. Neither had seen the
DisneyLAND versions, so they went on and on! ;-) (Thanks again
Margaret! :-D ) Our CM was just a bit nervous that
she might make a mistake since they could not REPLACE the hats, but she
did great! AND she gave each of the girls a VMK (Virtual Magic
Kingdom) card for golden ears in the only game! Brinn was SO
excited!
Speaking of VMK, we headed up to the Main Street Cinema
where they have VMK Central set up. You can play VMK in there,
and they also have 'quests' for you to go on. These quests are
hunts for park details, and then you can bring back the filled out
quests for codes for online prices, etc. We grabbed quest sheets,
and headed off for Tomorrowland.
The park was not to busy really - lots of people, but NOT packed or
anything. We've seen MUCH worse! We had printed off a
Tomorrowland VMK quest before leaving home, so we worked on that as we
went. I think we found all answers except one so far. Its
been fun, and the girls enjoy it as we tour. Grabbed a Buzz
fast pass that was good in an hour, and then headed on Tomorrowland
Transit Authority (TTA). We all love this ride, and Brinn was
particularly interested in the Space Mountain (SM) portion. She
is striving to conquer Space this year! ;-) It has ALWAYS
freaked her out a bit, but she is ready to try again.. Or so she
thinks! She waffles a bit as we talk about getting Fast Passes
for SM next... TTA was fun as always, and as we got off I saw
that the Carousel of Progress was open! Yea! We all enjoy
this one, and its so NICE and COOL! :-) Very nice.
When we exited, it was already our
Buzz Lightyear time! I zipped over for Space Mountain Fast passes
(Brinn was NOT happy with me... "I don't think I'm ready yet...")
Hmmmmm.... :-) Then we were off and onto Buzz. I LOVE
fast pass. We walked by so MANY people waiting in line and it was
just about a walkon. I got just over 250,000. I need
to practice more since I have a challenge in December! We'll
definitely have to do this again tomorrow! Maybe twice! :-D

OK - it's approaching dinner time. So its off to
Frontierland and the Liberty Tree Tavern! (LTT) This is the first
time the girls have eaten here, and they don't know what to
expect. They LOVE Chef Mickey's and since we usually do THAT our
first day they are a bit off guard. But they are willing o give
it a shot, and are excited to see Goofy and Chip while we are waiting
in the lobby. Soon we are seated, and our very efficient and
friendly waiter (whose name I already forgot!) had us drinks in NO
time. Water! Bring WATER! :-) During the salad course with GREAT warm rolls we saw
Dale, Pluto and Goofy! And during the main course, (ham, turkey,
flank steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, Mac & cheese and
stuffing) we saw Minnie and Chip. Several characters made it back
before dessert (Cherry Cobbler and vanilla ice cream) to wave and say
hello again. Everything was wonderful - even the Cherry
cobbler. Our family doesn't care for cherry ANYTHING, and at
least the adults LOVED the cobbler anyway!
Rory! Kristen said the waiter's name was Rory! Well, he did
great, and quickly brought our bill and deducted the 20% for the Disney
Dining Experience (DDE) card we had purchased. I think I'm going
to love this card. I already saved $15! We were seated
right NEXT to a door, and Kristen asked if we could exit that
way. At first Rory said sorry, that isn't an exit, but then let
us out there anyway. I think he appreciated that we tipped for
the full bill amount, not the discount! ;-) OK - that and
he was very friendly and nice!
We were full, but VERY happy with our new choice.
Loved LTT! And now it was time for our return to Space
Mountain! How is THAT for timing. Not the fast pass really,
but going on a coaster RIGHT after a huge meal!
Uh-oh! Back across the park, and people were already
filling up the parade route. It was just before 8 and the parade
was to be at 9. There was a 60 minute wait for SM, (at least, they were
lined up way past the entrance), but with Fast Pass we pretty much
walked on. I just can't imagine waiting in those
lines! Anyway, Brinn was a bit worried but being rather
brave. She had worked out that she had to have me behind her and
Kristen in front of her. Maddy rode in the car just in front of
us. She LOVES Space mountain and vounteered to ride
'alone'. :-D Brinn got in and was REALLY nervous, but
she didn't complain at all after it started. I kept my hands on
her shoulders, and she did GREAT! She even liked it and thinks
she'll do it again. I hope so. Maddy just LOVES this
ride. Brinn was so proud of herself, we picked out a space
mountain pin for both of them as a 'treat'.
OK, we are all super tired (having started the day around
4:30 or 5am!) so we head back to the WL. The parade and Wishes
will have to wait for another night. I sent the girls ahead while
I took a few castle pics but caught up to them just as the boat for the
WL arrived. There was a terrific heat lightening storm
going on as we road back. Really lighting up the sky!
Grabbed a few things in the store for breakfast (haven't made it to the
store yet!) and crashed! It was a long but GREAT first day!
Tomorrow - back to the Magic Kingdom! :-)
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