 Up and at 'em at 6am
to catch that
7am bus to the Magic Kingdom! We had the girls in bed early
enough to make this fairly painless, and grabbed a quick Poptart
breakfast before heading out to find the bus stop.  Its off to the
left of Valet Parking, and we were the first to arrive. More
people showed up quickly, and the bus arrive to take us to Magic
Kingdom around 7:15. We were the first stop, and it also stopped
at the Swan and the Dolphin after picking us up. The Swan had no
one, but he bus stop at the Dolphin was PACKED! It was standing
room only the rest of the way to the MK.
 When we arrived they were already letting people into the
area in front
of the train station, and having them wait there. We found a good
waiting place, and the park opened JUST before 8am. People were
running for Tomorrowland as well as Fantasyland, but we chose a fairly
quick pace. grabbed a quick picture at the Walt and Mickey Statue
and then on to Dumbo!  Got some good views of the VERY torn up
lagoon from up there on Dumbo, and then we did Peter Pan (no wait),
Snow White, (short wait), Pooh, (5 minute wait) and Tea Cups (no
wait). Found Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum for a photo, and then
off to spin on Buzz. I ended up with about 225,000 points, so I
found at least a couple of those elusive high point targets. Have
to try harder next time. It was now 9am, and we HAD to hit Splash
Mountain for Fast Passes, and then rode on Big Thunder Railroad a
couple times with about a 5 - 10 minute wait.  Off to Pirates of
the Caribbean, Aladdins Carpets, and then it was time to take Maddy
back to Splash Mountain. She loved it all until the final drop,
and then insisted that the drop was bigger this year! :-) I
think she has been listening to her sister too much, (Brinn wouldn't go
at all!) and she also bumped her head on the back of the log when we
splashed down.  So, she passed on using our second set of Fast
Passes (that Kristen and Brinn didn't use, and passed them on to
another couple of happy riders).
Found Kristen and Brinn in the Pirates store, where Brinn was spending
some of her Disney dollars. We started off for the front of the
park going through Adventureland and found Aladdin and Jasmine just as
it started raining, and headed undercover for a couple pictures.
Jafar and Genie were there as well, but the girls had just seen Genie
on the cruise, and didn't want to wait in his line. Jafar had no
line, so Brinn stood with him. Maddy doesn't like the villains,
so she passed on that picture! :-)
 Threw on our yellow
ponchos (bought a couple years back) and decided it
was time for lunch. Arrived at Tony's Restaurant at 11:30 to try
it out for the first time, but it did not open until noon. So we
waited in the exposition hall and had some quality time with Radcliffe
and Aladdin. (Aladdin must have sprinted over here from
Adventureland!) ;-)  Aladdin even gave
us all Cinderella Stickers
he scoffed off of one of he CM's. We sat and watched
Steamboat Willie, and then it was time for Tony's to open. Its a
very nice restaurant, and we were immediately seated. We enjoyed
some breadsticks to get started, and then Brinn had pizza, Maddy had
spagetti, Kristen had a meatball sub and I had Ziti.  Everything
was very good, and we even got the DVC 10% discount. Good
Deal. Paid using my Disney Rewards, so it was like a 'free'
lunch. I'm going to use all the Disney reward points I have on
meals this trip. I used them last night at Chef Mickey's as
well!
Still raining, so on with the ponchos and off to catch the bus
back to
the resort. Found it waiting for us, and were quickly on our
way. This return bus was shared with the YC and BC, so it was
pretty full, and took a while to get back. We were all
tired, and decided it was best if we took a nice nap before heading to
MGM. Snoozed until around 3pm, and then arrived at MGM
about 3:45. Missed the parade, but the drizzle was a not to be
missed. Getting our money's worth out of these ponchos this
year. Figured out why they went to clear ponchos - so Security
can see if you are carrying a backpack/fanny pack/etc. They
don't say anything to people wearing the old yellow ones, but it only
makes sense that they want to see what people are carrying into the
parks.
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At
MGM, we decided to save
the popular rides for the next morning, and headed toward the back of
the park. Grabbed Star Tour fastpasses, and went to see the
Muppets.
That was fun as always, and then we JUST missed Kermit and Miss Piggy
for pictures. Off to ride Star Tours, and then Voyage of the
Little
Mermaid before our Fantasmic Dinner package at Mama Melrose.
Dinner
was wonderful and VERY filling. I wish you didn't need the full
package. We don't need salad, a flat bread pizza, dinner AND
dessert!
Whew! We were stuffed and it cost almost $90. Again, I used
the
Disney Rewards card. I'm really enjoying using the points for
meals.
And still some left for a few more...
We
moved through the park and just enjoyed the theming as a change of
pace. It was nice to find where Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy
had
signed their names in front of the Chinese Theater. And the girls
always enjoy shopping in the Villains shop. We headed into
Fantasmic
around 8:30, and our section was already pretty full. Still got
great
seats, and waited for the show to start. Dug the girls light-up
spinners out of the back pack (well worth the $12+ each these cost to
bring them back each year!) and they stared playing with
those. Had
fun doing the wave with the rest of the audience, and then thoroughly
enjoyed a great Fantasmic presentation! 
Another nice thing
about the
Fantasmic dinner package is that you are herded out of the theater very
quickly and we headed down to catch the boat back to the
Boardwalk. We
usually walk, but we had walked to MGM today, and everyone was
tired.
Brinn and I got off at Swan/Dolphin to see how much quicker it was to
hoof it from there. We were back in the room at least 15 minutes
before Maddy and Kristen showed up. Definitely worth it to walk
from
Swan if you can.