Disney World - Day 4

(written by J)

This was probably the best day we had in Disney World. It was jam-packed with entertainment. First up was the character breakfast at Chef Mickey’s in the Contemporary Resort. The character breakfast is the easiest way to see all of the Disney characters. H was actually originally unsuccessful getting reservations about 2 months ago for Chef Mickey’s. A friend of hers suggested she try again closer to our trip and a couple weeks ago, H did manage to secure reservations for a 7:05 AM seating. It was by far the most expensive breakfast we ever ate (in excess of $100 with tip) but seeing the joy on the kids’ faces when Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Minnie, and Pluto came out of the kitchen one by one to say hi was well worth it. After a hearty breakfast, we then got on the monorail for a quick trip from the Contemporary Resort to the nearby Magic Kingdom … or so we thought. The monorail made an unscheduled maintenance stop at the next station, the ever exciting Transportation and Ticket Center. After what seemed like an eternity (actually 10-15 minutes) we were on the move again. Then at the third station, the Grand Floridian resort, the conductor told us that the monorail would be taken out of commission at the Magic Kingdom. We were ecstatic to finally make it to the Magic Kingdom but J wondered why they didn’t test the monorail before starting it out on its morning run. The monorail looks so sleek and cool when it zooms into the hole in the Contemporary Resort but riding on it was a bit of a disappointment. Once inside the Magic Kingdom, we bought the kids Mickey (for Z) and Minnie (for B) ears hats with their names embroidered on them. While H waited for the embroidering on the hats to finish, J raced with Z and B back to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride. H noticed the other day that there were some 3 person cars on the coaster which made life much easier this time around. J, Z, and B got the front car of the coaster this time and it was fabulous. Other rides and attractions that we all went on this day at Magic Kingdom were Splash Mountain (only a 30 minute wait at 9 AM … woohoo), It’s a Small World (again, it never gets old), Dumbo the Flying Elephant (always the slowest line in the park), Mad Tea Party (Z and B loved sending our tea cup spinning), the Barnstormer in Mickey’s Toontown Fair (B said that the ride was too short), visits to Minnie Mouse’s house and Mickey Mouse’s house in Mickey’s Toontown Fair (for some reason, the line to walk around Minnie’s house was much longer than Mickey’s house), and Peter Pan’s Flight. We got a Fastpass for Peter Pan’s Flight because that line is always long. It doesn’t make much sense why this is the case. You are just in a boat flying through the story of Peter Pan but it is wildly popular. We took our stroller to the Magic Kingdom because B would frequently say that she couldn’t walk and it gets tiring carrying her all over the park. Why is this information important? Let us explain. We had to park the stroller in a large stroller parking area around the carousel and then we got in the Fastpass line for Peter Pan. The line and ride took about 10 minutes yet when we retrieved the stroller, H noticed something was missing from the back pocket of the stroller. Someone had stolen the embroidered Mickey and Minnie ears that we purchased earlier in the day. We went back to the stroller area and a very nice employee named Lena helped us resolve the situation. She helped us get new embroidered ears hats at a nearby store free of charge and she also gave us a cut-to-the-front-of-the-line pass for any ride in the park and a voucher for free ice cream. Lena certainly won the Employee of the Trip award for her actions. H asked the kids what ride they wanted to go in with this pass and of course, they said Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We started the Magic Kingdom day with Big Thunder Mountain and we finished it off in style the same way. The next activity for the day was going to Fort Wilderness to let the kids ride ponies for the first time in their lives. B loves horses so we knew she was excited. Z also was pumped to ride a horse. The pony rides closed at 5PM and we arrived at the entrance to Fort Wilderness at 4:20 PM. Fort Wilderness is huge so we were a bit concerned that we wouldn’t make it in time to the pony farm or that the line to ride ponies would be so long that the kids wouldn’t get a chance to ride. Fortunately, Disney buses run constantly at the fort and we quickly got on a bus and made it to the farm with 20 minutes to spare. B got to ride a white horse named Jester and Z got to ride a brown horse named Levi. J and H were responsible for holding onto the pony’s leash guiding the horse around a marked path. The kids absolutely loved it. And we didn’t step in horse poop around the path which was excellent. Nothing ruins a day like stepping in horse poop. The next stop on this tremendous day was a trip back to Downtown Disney to eat dinner at a dinosaur themed restaurant called T-Rex. It was like eating back in the Mesozoic era. We actually ran into one of B’s preschool classmates at the restaurant… so weird to see someone you know hundreds of miles from home. We wanted to play mini golf after dinner but a huge thunderstorm rolled in so we called it a night.