18.5.13

Disney Day 4: Magic Kingdom

When I planned our trip to Disney, I "saved the best for last."  I knew the other parks would pale somewhat in comparison to the Magic Kingdom so not only did we visit that park last but we also spent two days there.

Hannah Kate was THRILLED.  I'd been telling her all week that we were going to visit Cinderella's castle at the Magic Kingdom.  So she woke up this morning and said, "Mama, I know where we're going today.  We're going to THE KINGDOM!"  She was so cute!  She also insisted on wearing the sequined Minnie ears she'd purchased the night before at the Disney Store.  She'd had her eye on them for a few days, but we made her wait until she saw everything else before making the final decision on what to buy.  And, of course, she never changed her mind about these Minnie ears.  And, just for good measure, they have a tulle veil in the back.  So here she is on the tram just a little bit excited about going to the kingdom!

I have to admit.  Mason was skeptical about the kingdom.  This picture says it all.  You're greeted by Cinderella's castle and all manner of princesses and Disney characters.  Those are not necessarily the things an almost 8-year-old boy is going to be interested in.

But as we made our way around the park, Mason quickly changed his mind.  He discovered Splash Mountain, and it was all over with.  That's all he wanted to do.  He also really enjoyed the Thunder Mountain Railroad.  I rode Space Mountain with him since it was an enclosed roller coaster in the dark, meaning Seth couldn't stomach it.  Mason decided that roller coasters in the dark just aren't for him so we only rode it once.  We also rode The Magic Carpets of Aladdin, the Jungle Cruise, It's a Small World and Under the Sea - The Journey of the Little Mermaid.  Seth, Mason and Hannah Kate also rode Pirates of the Caribbean and the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin.  We saw the parade, the street party and Mickey's PhilharMagic 3-D show.

As the afternoon wore on, it was apparant that the littles were getting really tired.  And they were getting a little bit grumpy.  And I was also having a nearly catastrophic situation with my camera.  I'd been having problems with my charger so I made sure the battery was fully charged at the beginning of our trip.  I thought it would last me the whole time.  But I took so many pictures during the first three days that my battery was now dead.  So I have very few pictures from this day at Disney.  We decided to leave the park "early," which really wasn't early at all because we got back to the hotel at the same late hour as the other nights, to run to Best Buy and get a new charger for my camera battery and let the children go to bed.  We planned to arrive at the park when it opened the next day and then stay until it closed.  The good news is I found a charger for my camera battery so we have lots of pictures from the next day.  The not-so-good news is that by the time the night parade and fireworks rolled around that next night, we had to make a trip to First Aid with Mason because he began running a fever and was pretty much done.  So my plan to leave "early" today so we could stay "late" tomorrow for the night parade and fireworks didn't quite work out as I'd planned.