Me And My Boy Take 2 - Day 9 Premium Outlets, Art of Animation & Magic Kingdom

[meandmyboy]

Wednesday 19th November 2014 - Day 9 Premium Outlets, Art of Animation & Magic Kingdom

Today was going to be a late night as the plan was to go to Magic Kingdom in the evening for the Electrical Parade and Wishes, so we had a fairly lazy morning with Jacob sleeping in until gone 7am and similar for me. After getting showered I gave Jacob a bath and then we both got dressed. It was cool again today, although not as bad as yesterday, so I dressed us both in jeans and put our jumpers over our t-shirts. We headed to the car and then drove round to Melody Hall and parked in the guest check-in parking area before heading to the temporary food court to pick up some breakfast. I tried to tempt Jacob with a pot of cereal but he couldn’t be dissuaded from his chocolate croissant. I can’t say I blame him as I stuck with my usual cinnamon bun and got myself a coffee in my refillable mug, whilst Jacob had a carton of apple juice from our room. Jacob also wanted a banana so at least I did get something healthy in him!

There were no spare tables in the tiny food court so we headed to the lobby area and sat in the kids TV bit to eat our breakfast. Once finished I rinsed out my mug in the restroom and then we popped into the gift shop to pick up the Christmas ornament I’d had delivered from Hollywood Studios. I was worried to see it came in a massive packaging box and I now started to seriously panic about how I would get everything home!

We headed back out to our car and then drove to the Premium Outlets on Vineyard so I could get myself a second pair of Sketchers Go Walks. I found the Outlets really easy to get to and it didn’t take long, but I struggled to locate the stores I wanted to visit on the map and it took me ages until I worked out it was interactive and I had to press the shop name to be shown directions. Doh! We popped into the Disney Character Outlet but I resisted any more toy purchases and then had a look in Osh Kosh and Carters for clothes for Jacob. I wasn’t tempted by much to be honest so it wasn’t too hard to be restrained and only bought two tops in Carters as they were such good prices. I did see a fab dinosaur top in Osh Kosh that would have been perfect but unfortunately they didn’t have in Jacob’s size.

We then wandered aimlessly around the place trying to locate Sketchers (I hadn’t yet worked out how to use the interactive map) and Jacob kept on whining to go on all the little ride on things we kept on passing. I wouldn’t have minded letting him have a go but I knew that it would just end with a tantrum when it came time to leave them. After passing the third set of ride on things, I finally conceded, and yes, low and behold there was tantrums when it came time to move on. Don’t know why I bothered!

Finally I had worked out how to use the map (sharp as a tack me) and had found the Sketchers store (right on the other side of the Mall of course!), so we headed straight over there. They were doing the usual Buy One Get 50% Off A Second Pair deal but I was good and just stuck with the one pair in navy, as I already have a grey pair.

We weren’t far from the car now so we headed back there and then drove to Walmart on Vineland. I picked up a few foodie treats to take home and picked up some melatonin tablets for a friend. I also bought myself three Christmas tops! By now it was getting quite late for lunch and we were both tired and hungry, so I drove us to the Art of Animation Resort for lunch at Landscape of Flavours. A restroom stop for me first (Jacob couldn’t be persuaded that he needed a wee) and then I had to drag him away from the lure of the games arcade before we finally headed into the restaurant. I had the Surf & Surf Burger with fries, strawberry milk and rice krispy bites. Jacob had macaroni cheese, carrot sticks, a strawberry yogurt and chocolate milk. My burger was lovely - such nice food and great choice of different things on the menus here.

Whilst eating Jacob spotted the theming outside and realised where we were. After our trip last year I had made him a little photo album with about 20 pictures from our holiday in as his own personal album, and he’d recognised this resort from the pictures in there. He couldn’t wait to head outside! I let him choose where he wanted to go first and it was the Cars section, so we had a fun wander around taking pictures of Jacob with the various cars. I think he was trying to get an award for strangest pose as he insisted on doing a different one with each car, and at one point he even disappeared underneath the back of Ramone claiming he was checking his tyres!

Next up was the Lion King section where Jacob was excited to see his pal Simba and play in the elephant graveyard. Finally we stopped off at Squirt’s playground where Jacob befriended another little baby until they had to leave and Jacob became quite sad (I think he was really missing the company of other children by this point).

Soon enough we had to leave too as it was time to head back to our hotel room for Jacob’s nap - to make sure he could last until the late evening tonight. Jacob had a nice long nap of about 2 hours and I started to wake him up at about 5pm. It took a while to get him up and about as he really didn’t want to get out of bed, but finally he was up. I dressed us both as warmly as possible with lots of layers including vests. And I packed our raincoats as Jacob’s is fleece-lined and although mine is thin as anything it’s all I had for an outer layer.

I decided to be a bit sneaky this evening and parked at the Polynesian resort so we could catch the resort monorail back from MK after the fireworks and avoid having to deal with the long journey back via the transportation center which would have required a monorail, tram and walk back to the car. I knew Jacob would be tired later and it would be super busy with everyone leaving after Wishes, so just wanted to make life as easy as possible. It took a while but I managed to find a parking space reasonably close to the main building and we made out way up to the monorail station. We caught the resort monorail to MK and once in headed to Liberty Square for dinner at Columbia Harbor House. I had the shrimp platter and peach cobbler and Jacob had the chicken and fish meal which came with fries and a cookie.

Once fed we walked round to It’s A Small World as Jacob really wanted to ride it and so we queued up. It had been quiet but just as we reached the standby entrance a sudden surge of people appeared from nowhere and headed in, so the queue became much longer. We didn’t actually have to wait too long fortunately though and soon we were riding and singing along. Jacob just loves this ride! Once we got off I was concerned it was getting close to the Electrical Parade start time, so we started to head round to the front of the castle although we had to go the long way round, past the teacups.

Luckily though this brought us out on the side with the entrance to the fastpass viewing area for the parade, so after asking for direction we made our way there. It was a fab spot in the central plaza and we managed to get seated right in the middle facing the castle - the perfect backdrop for the parade! We had about 10 minutes to wait so I pulled out a glow in the dark wand thing I’d brought with me to keep Jacob amused for a while. He enjoyed waving this around whilst we waited and soon enough the parade started. It was fab and Jacob loved all the lights. I have a vague recollection of watching this last year, but I’m not 100% if we did or whether I’m imagining it from seeing pictures from various trip reports I’ve read!

After the parade had finished I debated whether to stay where we were for the fireworks as it was such a great central spot or to head over to the rose garden where the special fastpass Wishes viewing area was. In the end I decided to go to the rose garden as it had to be the better viewing spot if it was the fastpass location. I was wrong. It was a pretty rubbish spot and not a patch on the old reserved Wishes viewing spot where we’d watched from last year. it was too far off centre to see the light display on the castle properly and I felt like we were too close to the fireworks. I would not use fastpass for this location again. Despite putting Jacob’s ear defenders on him he still did not enjoy it because of the noise of the fireworks, and was asking to leave almost from the very start. No chance I was leaving as I wanted to watch the show so I made him stick out it. Once it had finished I was ready to head for the exit but to my surprise Jacob didn’t want to leave! He wanted to go on some rides so I thought what the hell let’s do it!

First up we headed towards Tomorrowland and rode on the Speedway. It was fun riding it in the dark and it’s a big favourite of Jacob’s anyway. It was so quiet and most rides were a walk on except for 7DMT which still had a 60 minute standby time listed. Next we rode on Little Mermaid Under the Sea as we’d not done this so far this trip. We walked for ages through the queuing area to end up literally walking onto the ride - surely they could have made a little bypass/shortcut route? Or maybe it’s just me but when you’re walking at the pace of a 3 year old every extra step seems like an ordeal! Jacob didn’t enjoy Ursula but loved the songs and Sebastian the crab.

After coming off the ride I thought we’d try Enchanted Tales with Belle as it had only a 10 minute wait posted. We were first in the holding area inside Belle’s father’s house and Jacob was amusing three teenage girls who came in behind us by talking loudly about the Beast and Belle’s things. He wanted to know where the Beast slept when he came to visit Belle’s house for a sleepover! Eventually we were let inside and Jacob was a little shy but I could see he really wanted to get a part to play. Fortunately he was given the role of Chip which was perfect for him. He spent most of the time holding the picture of Chip over his face and peering round it! He loved meeting Belle and despite claiming he’s scared of the Beast I think he was secretly disappointed that he wasn’t there too.

After we came out it was 10.15pm and Jacob wanted to do more rides but everything was shutting down, so he was reluctantly persuaded to head for the exit. It really was fun spending the evening at Magic Kingdom, especially when the rides were such walk ons. I thought we might try this again if we could fit it in before we went home, although it turned out we didn’t get the chance this trip. I was really glad we’d parked at the Poly when I saw the sign saying it was a 30 minute wait for the regular monorail, and once we’d got back to our car and were driving out I saw the massive queues for the trams at the transportation centre. I did feel a tiny bit guilty about doing this, but with a little one on my own the feeling was short lived (sorry!). We returned to our hotel room and were in bed by 11.30pm - a really late night for us both!

[Lee-Anne]

Another great day x

[WileyCoyote]

Oh what a great day, I love the pics round AoA and how fab that you had such a great evening in MK with the parade and then getting on some attractions. That's lovely, I'm so pleased you had such a nice time.

[Biscaya]

A great day! Just love all the photos of Jacob at AoA with the Cars

Jo

[beth21]

Glad you had a fun day absolutely loved your photos he certainly played to the camera bless him

[sheluk]

Gorgeous pics and fab day!

[Disneyloverz]

Great day!

What a lovely poser your little boy is, my 2 year old always runs at the camera when I try to take photos

[kansaskitty]

Such great pics from wandering around AoA, Jacob cracks me up posing behind the back wheel! I LOVE doing rides at MK in the dark, what an exciting evening!