It's Supposed to be the Budget Trip April 2015: Day 13 - Magic Kingdom

[moosha]

Day 13 - Wednesday 22nd April 2015

I'm not surprised that today was day 13 as it turned out to be slightly unlucky for us, but not until later in the day. Notes for today, as every day, start with 'alarm went off at 6, really couldn't get up'. I got out of bed and in the shower at 6.25, Mat went to get coffee as usual, and we dragged the girls out of bed at 7.15 am. They really couldn't get up either and kept saying 'five more minutes'. We always say how funny it is that on an Orlando holiday, we have to drag the girls out of bed. You'd think 'We're going to Magic Kingdom' would be enough to make them (and us) leap out of bed but that's easy to say when we're sat at home and aren't 13 days into these early starts and long, tiring days.

Anyway, we all had cereal in the room today (I think we needed the energy boost) and left just after 8 am which was pretty good going, we thought. We drove to Magic Kingdom and had to park in Simba 12 even though there was loads of space in Aladdin. Not sure what they were saving those spaces for, maybe it was to do with the new 'preferred parking' scam they are now running :angry:.

We got the resort monorail from the TTC and it was all very quick and efficient, just the way I like it. We got to the tapstiles at 8.50 am so had missed the welcome show, but the whole area was nice and quiet as everyone had already gone in. We popped to the City Hall restrooms and they were really stinky .

Today's FastPass+es:



First ride today was to be Big Thunder Mountain which had a posted wait of five minutes. We had to carry the card-on-strap queue timer thing for the CM which the girls always like doing. The CM loading the ride wanted us to sit at the front but I asked her nicely if we could go to the back instead which she was fine with. We all know it's a better ride at the back .







Next the girls went on Splash Mountain by themselves twice while the line was short. We sat and watched and I caught up on some notes.

They are in the front of this boat, honest :









There they are in the front:









“Can we go on again Mummy?”



When they came off the second time, Freya got upset because we wouldn't let them go on a third time. But you know, Mummy and Daddy want to go on some rides too .



















We headed for Fantasyland and decided to do Small World as the wait was posted as 15 minutes. The actual wait was about 10 minutes.



Loving it:





I know this ride gets a lot of stick but we all love it. It was quite possibly the first Disney ride the girls ever went on (at Disneyland Paris) so it's a special one for us.

When we came off IaSW, we stopped to regroup just by the New Fantasyland new castle walls. We wanted to eat an early lunch at Pinocchio's Village Haus which didn't open until 11 am so we sat in the shade of those walls for a few minutes until it did.



Freya was really upset. I'm not sure what started it off, but she was in a bit of a state and so I sat and cuddled her while we waited. We put it down to tiredness and her cold, and decided to take it fairly easy for the rest of the day. We decided we would definitely leave the park for an afternoon break today and try and get her to have a nap to sort her out.







We headed into Pinocchio's when it opened at just before 11. It was nice to be among the first ones in there as it was quiet and very clean. Mat and I both had the caprese flatbreads which were really good. Seren had the mac and cheese which she loved, and Freya also insisted on having mac and cheese even though she doesn't like mac and cheese and never eats it. It was the same again today. She should have just had pizza . We also ordered two portions of the garlic knots (you get three rolls per portion with a pot of marinara sauce) which were also good.









The girls' meals came with two sides and once I had paid, I looked at the receipt and it said the sides were yogurts and grapes. When I got to the collection point, I asked if there were any different sides as the Disney yogurts (I think they're Danone) have gelatine in so the girls can't eat them. She offered me apple slices or cookies as the second side and said the cashier should have asked which two sides I wanted, whereas she obviously just keyed in the yogurts and grapes. I guess I should have noticed the options before I ordered. I'll know for next time anyway, and was happy with the apple slices and grapes as the two sides for the girls.

Because it was quiet, we had the pick of all the tables. We chose one of the tables by the window into Small World so we could watch the boats being loaded and the riders setting off.





As per the previous four or five days, Freya didn't really eat anything. Seren ate all her food and then proceeded to wave at the Small World riders for ages, bless her .





Lots of people waved back and she was loving it. Before we left, a nice lady CM came round with Pinocchio stickers for the girls. Freya very kindly gave hers to me.





We had FP+ for Enchanted Tales with Belle which ran out at 12.10 pm so that was our next destination. It was around 11.45 am when we got there and we were first into the next show. We all really like this attraction as the effects are so clever, and it's a really cute little show, but I think it's a once-per-trip thing.

The CM in the first room (mirror room) seemed very nervous and didn't really know what to say. She repeated herself a couple of times. We assumed she was new to the attraction so gave her lots of encouraging smiles and nods. In the wardrobe room, Seren was given the part of Chip and Freya was a plate. For anyone who hasn't done it, once they've given out the actual parts, they ask if any other children want to be involved and those children get to be random plates and the like. Freya has done that twice and Seren has been given 'proper' parts twice (last time she was Maurice). Maybe going to a theatre arts school every Saturday since she was 4 is actually paying off (Freya doesn't go).

Love the Lumiere anamatronic:



continued below...

[moosha]

...continued

I did get a bit emosh in the story part of the attraction with Belle as the children were all loving it so much . The little boy playing the beast was so cute when he roared. Seren got to say hello to Belle during the story which she was very happy about as Belle is her favourite princess.









The only negative was that Belle spoke too quietly throughout. I like that they let all the children have Memory Maker photos with Belle at the end of the show (you can have these added on to your Memory Maker at the photo counter in Town Square but you have to have the entire set added, so those with everyone else's children too).

After Seren's favourite princess, we went for a ride with Mat's favourite princess, Ariel. The posted wait was 20 minutes but we were on in five. The girls rode together and two different CMs checked that Freya was seven (children have to be seven or over to ride with another, older child). I do like this ride but I've read on the internet that it was a victim of budget cuts during development and isn't as long or quite to the show standard as was originally intended, and I can't help but think about that when I ride it. The animatronics are really good though, especially the Ursula, and they'd improved the lighting in the 'Under the Sea' section between our 2014 and 2015 trips. That whole scene was noticeably better for it.

From there, we walked to Storybook Circus and sat in the random covered seating area to apply some more sunscreen and have a little water break. Tired Seren?:









The girls played fortune tellers with the crystal ball...





and Mat gave me my biggest laugh of the day when he put sunscreen on his face without taking his glasses off first .

The Main Street Band were performing just by Dumbo so we watched them for a minute...







...and then got in the 20 minute posted standby line for Dumbo. The girls wanted to play inside the queue which we weren't going to argue with (a sit down in the air conditioning for us), so they played for 10 minutes before we rejoined the queue. When the line is short, the CMs tell you that you can just leave the play area whenever you're ready, rather than waiting for a buzzer to go off. I'm pretty sure we just left the play area when we fancied today.

While we were waiting, there was a bit of a faff about who was sitting with who as both girls wanted to control the up and down lever. In the end they rode together, and Mat, who likes a gentle Dumbo ride, got to experience my more exciting, bouncy way of riding for the first time. I think he was scared .





We took a walk to our favourite Magic Kingdom restrooms, the 'Belle restrooms' (to the right of Gaston's Tavern) and caught a brief glimpse of Gaston, who we've never bothered to line up and meet.



We were now into our Mine Train FP+ window so headed there.

I do love a bit of Mine Train, definitely my favourite ride at Magic Kingdom now (apart from Thunder Mountain in the dark which I don't think we managed at all this trip). We were given the front two rows which Seren moaned about as it's a slower ride than the front, but it's still fun.

It was time for an ice-cream break so we walked over to Aloha Isle in its new location (the old Sunshine Tree Terrace).

There was a CM giving out menus as people entered the queue which I thought was a good thing as it would help speed up the line. I couldn't see pineapple / vanilla swirl on the menu so asked at the counter and the CM said they weren't doing the vanilla / pineapple swirl anymore. When I asked why, she said it's been removed at Disneyland so they had to remove it here too. None of us like the pineapple soft serve without the vanilla to take the edge off the synthetic taste of the pineapple, so we decided to go elsewhere for an ice-cream. I've done a bit of googling and it looks as though they still aren't serving the pineapple / vanilla swirl at Magic Kingdom, although there does appear to have been a change.org petition submitted to the Walt Disney Co. Apparently you can have pineapple / orange swirl (which sounds even worse to me) at Aloha Isle, and I believe they still offer pineapple / vanilla swirl at the Polynesian, but I haven't been able to find any very recent information.

We walked over to The Plaza instead and got in line. There always seems to be a wait here in the afternoons and today we waited about ten minutes before our ice creams were in our hands. The CMs are very efficient though. Seren had a kids' cone with raspberry sorbet, Freya had a kid's vanilla ice-cream cone and I had a Coke float with vanilla ice cream. Mat's not a big ice-cream fan so he didn't have anything, but he did help himself to a few slurps of my float. The kids' ice-creams are really cute; they're served in a bowl with chocolate button Mickey ears and a cone on top. Also less messy when they start to melt than a scoop of ice-cream on top of a cone.







We took them over to the seating area across the way, and although the tables have umbrellas, it was really hot sat there.

It was time to leave for the afternoon, so we took a walk through the shop for a blast of air conditioning. The girls did a quick pin trade at the popcorn cart and we were on the monorail back to the TTC at about 2.30 pm.

We got on the Heroes tram and before we set off, we got a lesson in how CMs need the patience of a saint. A woman whose first language was not English approached the CM in charge of loading and unloading the tram. This was the interaction:

Woman: 'Where does this go?'
CM: 'The Heroes lot'
Woman: *blank expression*
CM: 'Simba, Peter Pan...Where are you parked?'
Woman: 'I don't know'
CM: 'Are you parked in Villains? Zurg? Captain Hook?'
Woman: 'Don't know'
CM: 'When did you arrive?'
Woman: Just now'
CM: 'Just now? You're parked in Villains then. You want to go back to the lot?'
Woman: 'No, we want to go to the park'
CM: 'You need to take the monorail'
Woman: 'What's the monorail?'

It was really hot in the car, 91 degrees. There were roadworks on the way home again, and we arrived back at Bonnet Creek around 3 pm. Our room key cards had not been working at the car park entrance barrier for a few days so we stopped at reception to get new ones. When we got back to the room, the housekeeper had bizarrely not left us any towels at all so we called down and got that sorted.

I told Freya she had to have a sleep before we could go back out. She protested for a few minutes but then fell asleep. Seren did some colouring, Mat started writing restaurant reviews for Trip Advisor and I caught up on my notes. I treated myself to the remainder of the fudge I had bought at Hollywood Studios. It was nice to just chill out in the room for a bit, which we don't often do on holiday. I had a shower at about 4 pm and got ready to go out. We were planning to go to Bahama Breeze and then back to Magic Kingdom for our Wishes FP+.

I woke Freya up at 4.45 pm. She was really hot and thought it was morning. Straight away I could tell she wasn't well and had a feeling she was going to be sick, so I took her to the bathroom, where she was sick. She wasn't herself at all and she definitely had a temperature. She didn't want me to touch her as she was sore to the touch. I don't know whether it was a bug or heat stroke, but none of the rest of us got ill at all. She's quite little and I think her cold as well as the heat and not enough sleep, water (especially the previous day when it had been cooler) and food just meant she went down hard.

I told Mat to take Seren to Magic Kingdom so they didn't have to miss out. Seren's a Daddy's Girl and although they would have preferred for Freya to be ok and us all go out together, I think they were secretly excited about having their own little adventure tonight. Mat ordered me some food before they went while Freya was being sick a second time. I think he felt a bit sorry for me as I was missing out, bless him.

Mat and Seren skipped off for their night together, and Freya watched a bit of Nanny McPhee in bed while I ate my dinner. I had citrus crusted salmon which came with sweet potato bisque and vegetable hash, plus two sides: bistro fries and sautéed vegetables. It all came with rolls and some tap water. I had quite the feast! As per the night before, it was all completely delicious. I wasn't a huge fan of the Hilton Bonnet Creek overall, but I absolutely couldn't fault their room service food. Yum.

A photo of my dinner from what appears to be a great height:



Freya went back to sleep and I took the opportunity to pack our dirty washing, things we wouldn't need again, and our purchases. I thought I may as well get started on the packing while I had nothing else to do. I watched Must Do Disney, some Central Florida News and a bit of the Daily Show while I worked. When I had packed as much as I could, I chilled out with my notes and my iPad. It was the first time I had made it onto the Dibb since before we'd left home. Freya woke briefly again at 9 pm and was much cooler by then so I hoped she would be better the following day.

Meanwhile at Magic Kingdom, Mat and Seren went on Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean...



….Country Bear's Jamboree (which they both love)...



….and had dinner at Columbia Harbor House. Seren had the kid's tuna sandwich and Mat had the vegetarian chilli and a side of couscous.







Seren got Mat a full-to-the-brim pot of mayonnaise for his couscous, bless her:



Then they went to the Tangled restrooms and onto Winnie the Pooh. They didn't stay for the Wishes FP+ and were leaving Magic Kingdom as the fireworks were on. Amazingly I was still awake when they got in, but all three of us joined Freya and were fast asleep soon after.

Day 14 is here.

[waiting4disney]

A lovely start to the day. Laughing at the confused lady.

Shame Freya wasn't feeling well.

[dixonsontour]

Good morning, shame Freya was ill

[snowdrop100]

ah such a shame Freya was poorly but lovely day other than that.

you made me chuckle with your detailed research into vanilla pineapple swirl dole whips. its just the kind of thing i spend my evenings doing but its really only on the dibb that you can share that kind of level of disney love and people understand

[Floridaagogo]

Sorry Freya was ill.your room service meal does look lovely though !

[EllieP]

Aw a lovely day at MK, shame Freya became ill later on though. Hope she was feeling much better the next morning. We have been back 2 weeks and the blues have set in so reading trio reports is heloig at the moment.

[Redrach1903]

Ooooh those garlic knots look amazing and I love the photos of the girls waving at the IASW riders

LOLing at the conversation between that lady and the CM at the tram. How do people seriously go to WDW and not research it one bit?

Shame Freya was poorly, but glad Seren and Mat had fun!

xxx

[moosha]

Originally Posted by waiting4disney

A lovely start to the day. Laughing at the confused lady.

Shame Freya wasn't feeling well.

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Thank you for reading and commenting .

Originally Posted by dixonsontour

Good morning, shame Freya was ill

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Thank you Stephanie . Yes it was a shame, poor little thing .

Originally Posted by snowdrop100

ah such a shame Freya was poorly but lovely day other than that.

you made me chuckle with your detailed research into vanilla pineapple swirl dole whips. its just the kind of thing i spend my evenings doing but its really only on the dibb that you can share that kind of level of disney love and people understand

See more...

Thank you so much for reading and commenting. You've got to love the Dibb...I knew there would be people very interested in the dole whip situation .

Originally Posted by Floridaagogo

Sorry Freya was ill.your room service meal does look lovely though !

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Aaw, thank you. The food was really good .

Originally Posted by EllieP

Aw a lovely day at MK, shame Freya became ill later on though. Hope she was feeling much better the next morning. We have been back 2 weeks and the blues have set in so reading trio reports is heloig at the moment.

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Thanks very much Elaine, very sweet of you, and yes - luckily she was feeling better the next morning.

You poor thing, we can all relate to the post trip blues. Glad trip reports are helping, you've got to love the Dibb .

Originally Posted by Redrach1903

Ooooh those garlic knots look amazing and I love the photos of the girls waving at the IASW riders

LOLing at the conversation between that lady and the CM at the tram. How do people seriously go to WDW and not research it one bit?

Shame Freya was poorly, but glad Seren and Mat had fun!

xxx

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Thank you Rachael. I could go some of those garlic knots now . I'm amazed that people can go to Florida without doing any research too...have they not heard of the Dibb . That poor CM though! xxx