We woke up at a fairly good time Thursday morning-we had to-it was ISABEL'S BIRTHDAY! Dina went to get breakfast first thing, so the girls woke up to beignets for breakfast-just like Princess Tiana makes! ;)
We all got ready and headed out to the Magic Kingdom (of course). The birthday girl was pretty excited to ride Splash Mountain for the first time.
And Olivia was pretty excited too.
We arrived during Extra Magic Hours, so the crowd wasn't bad. As soon as we walked in, we saw Pluto out meeting folks. I pointed him out to Olivia (her first Character sighting) and she said "I want to hug him." I was relieved she liked the idea of meeting characters, since I had a little bit of concern she might feel overwhelmed by them.
We headed down Main Street USA, enjoying the sights, sounds, and that awesome Confectionery smell. The Main Street singers were out and Isabel got a couple of birthday wishes from them as we made our way towards the castle. There is nothing quite as pleasant as the first walk down Main Street on each trip. We stopped for a picture at my favorite spot and continued towards Fantasyland.
-Note: Normally, if we are at the Magic Kingdom for Rope Drop, we head left into Adventureland. Always a great tactic in the morning as most people head for the castle or take a right into Tomorrowland and you can get several attractions in before people make their way around the park. Due to arriving before Rope Drop, Adventureland was not yet open at this time, though.
We headed through the castle and the girls were on cloud nine. As we walked into Fantasyland, we headed to Snow White's Scary Adventures first per Isabel's request. I was curious how Olivia would react since this is a classic Disney dark ride and does have it's dramatic moments. Isabel and I got the front row and Dina and Liv took the second. As we entered the attraction, I made sure to point out how it matched the movie and Liv took it pretty well. As we came through the "scarier" moments into the more pleasant ending of the story, Liv was really wound up. That gave us a pretty good indication that she was gonna be OK with anything she was tall enough to get on. I headed over to Peter Pan to grab FastPasses and we hit Mickey's Philharmagic which we walked right into with no wait. Next we headed to it's a small world (which I actually don't mind...it's a classic), and the girls were excited to see it.
We had some time before our FastPasses for Peter Pan were up, so we decided to hit Mickey's Toontown Fair before it got too busy. The crowd was growing quickly in Fantasyland and I wanted to see Toontown before it is gone. (It will be removed to make way for the Fantasyland Expansion soon.) We saw Minnie's house, Mickey's House, and then headed into the Judge's Tent to meet Mickey. It was a bit of a wait (maybe 30 minutes or so) but we were glad we waited because Minnie was there too!
We then headed back to Fantasyland for Peter Pan's Flight. Olivia threw a fit (stay tuned for more about this), so Isabel and I rode Peter Pan while Dina watched Liv. Next, we decided we'd better ride the Cinderella's Golden Carousel and we walked right onto it. As you can see, we all enjoyed this classic Disney attraction.
Next we headed to Liberty Square and took advantage of an opportunity to walk onto the Haunted Mansion. Isabel and I shared a Doom Buggy and thoroughly enjoyed yet another Disney classic. We decided none of us wanted to be the 1,000th happy haunt so we left the other 999 behind as we made our way to Frontierland for Splash Mountain FastPasses. There wasn't much of a wait for the FastPass return, so we made a quick detour to Adventureland for The Enchanted Tiki Room. We enjoyed the shade and cool temperatures of the queue area during our short wait.
Liv got a brief nap and after the show, we headed back to Splash Mountain. Isabel wanted me to ride it with her so I was happy to ride this for the first time myself. She absolutely loved it and we promised her she could ride it again, next time with Dina, before we came home.
We made our way towards the castle for Dream Along with Mickey and really enjoyed the show. It had the girls' full attention.
After the show, we were all hot, thirsty, and hungry. I was thrilled when everyone agreed to Casey's Corner for lunch. It is one of my favorite things about the Magic Kingdom. Great hot dogs and fries and it just fits Main Street. We were lucky to get a prime table in the shade and we all just soaked in the festive atmosphere as the ragtime piano player entertained the crowd. After we ate, we headed towards the gate, shopping as we went. We secretly purchased some gifts for Isabel and surprised her after we returned to the resort. She also had a surprise birthday card from Mickey waiting in the room. Gotta love those special little touches that you only get at Disney World. We rested up a little and I received a message that our delivery from Garden Grocer was waiting at the front desk. This was the first I had used this service and I was absolutely thrilled with it. Great way to get some breakfast items, snacks, and bottled water (as well as adult beverages) to save a little money.
That evening, it was time to head to Isabel's surprise birthday dinner at the Polynesian Resort: The Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show. We decided that a princess experience was maybe a little young for Isabel and didn't want it to be all about Olivia on Belle's birthday, so we thought this was a fun alternative for a new experience for Isabel. We were all rested and ready to get into the "spirit". We took the bus to Magic Kingdom and then hopped on the monorail to the Poly.
We all got lai'd (hee hee) and headed into the show.
The show was terrific, as was the food. The waiter seemed a little surprised the girls didn't need something from the kids' menu, but they loved the food. Isabel especially liked the ribs (so did Dad). The girls had a great time getting up and learning to dance the traditional Polynesian dances and Isabel got to go twice since it was her birthday.
She loved the chocolate mousse volcano with raspberry lava, too.
After the luau, we took a little time to admire the beautiful view of the castle changing colors from the beach. Dina decided that we HAVE to stay at the Poly. I agree, it is an amazing resort. Maybe next trip we can swing a stay there.
We headed back to Port Orleans French Quarter via monorail to Magic Kingdom, then the bus to our resort. Due to a wreck, we had to take a slight detour around the back of MK, but I was impressed with how soon the bus driver received notification of the wreck so he could avoid it.
