Cowardy Custard Day 8 - Magic King

[nixieh]

Cowardy Custard Tour - Day 9

What you have already missed...

DAY 1 - The airport and the Copthorne Hotel

DAY 2 - FLIGHT AND ARRIVING AT THE NICK HOTEL

DAY 3 - ANIMAL KINGDOM

DAY 4 - MGM AND FANTASMIC

DAY 5 - EPCOT AND THE SCENIC ROUTE TO WALMART

DAY 6 - NICK CHARACTER B/F, DOWNTOWN DISNEY, CHEF MICKY & SPECTROM

DAY 7 - TYPHOON LAGOON AND WHY NOT TO GET A REFILLABLE MUG!

DAY 8 - SEAWORLD


7/4/05

CAST

Nicola - age 37(Chief planner, DIBBER and general control freak)
Nigel - age 42 (Chief trip funder, loves Chelsea FC and music)
Rachel - age 8 going on 18 (Loves going on rides)
Abigail- age 5 going on 4 (Hates anything scarey, loves Princesses
Emily - age 2 going on 2 (typical 2 year old, me! me! me!)

So, rewind the clock exactly 90 days and a few hours to the 7th January on a cold miserable Winter morning.

I bound out of bed, todays the day I am going to book Cinderellas Royal Breakfast, I am both nervous and excited about whether or not I am going to get it. At this point the children don't even know we are going to Orlando so they know nothing about any of it.

I get the girls to school and Emily to nursery, it gets to 11.55 am and I sit on the phone (not literally), dialling Disney Dining, putting the phone down when I get the recorded message about it being closed, redialling, redialling, redialling etc until finally I get the chirpy voice answering "You are through to Disney Dining" - Hoorah, it is now only 12.01 (7.01 US time),

"5 seats for Cinderellas Breakfast please" I say quickly,
"certainly what time would you like?" she replies
"As late as possible" I say, following my Tour Guide Mike advice.
"I have 5 seats for 11.10"

Hoorah, I have managed to secure the hardest PS to get, breakfast with the Princesses at Cinderellas Castle in the Magic Kingdom. Apparently the reservations are usually filled 5 minutes after Disney Dining opens!

After giving my details and paying the deposit, I bounce around the house in excitement. My DH thinks I am mad and simply doesn't understand what all the fuss is about!

So fast forward to April 7th and a sunny Florida morning...

I dragged everyone out of bed at 7 o'clock. I was determined that today of all days we WERE going to be at MK half an hour before opening.

We left at 7.45 but still managed to get lost on the way to MK - AAAAH... never mind it was only a short detour we should still be ok.

Now after parking at the Contemporary and monorailing to MK earlier in the week we thought we might try it again.

We drove to the Contemporary and met our one and only English Disney Gatekeeper. We told him we didn't have a PS but were hoping for breakfast at Chef Mickeys.

He kindly wished us good luck and we turned the music up very high to drown the sound of Abby in the back shouting "but we've already had breakfast, I thought we were going to the Magic Kingdom Mummy".

We valet parked so that we would have unlimited time and headed for the monorail. What I didn't count on was how busy the monorail was and that it goes all the way round before getting to MK, time was ticking by and I was getting stressed. By the time we got there it was just 9.00 and as we arrived at the gates (behind all those other more organised families! ) we saw the end of the opening ceremony.

There were what seemed like millions of people ahead of us swarming into the park, we (like many others) were headed towards... Space Mountain/Splash Mountain? no Dumbo.

The crowd was so heavy we decided to cut through the shops on Main St which were empty, much to the bemusement of the staff who probably wondered who the mad woman pushing a pushchair at 50 mph dragging 2 bemused children and an even more bemused husband behind her, was.

So we get to Fantasyland only to find that the queue at Dumbo was already humungous (well about 20 mins at least) so we decided to give it a miss, in fact we didn't get to do it all this holiday. All that running for nothing!

We managed to get Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan and Its A Small World (I know what you all think but we love it!) done by 9.45 with virtually no lines.

Next we headed to Ariels Grotto as it opens at 10 and I remembered how long it takes to line up to meet Ariel. Even though we were lining up 15 mins before it opened there were already lots of people waiting and we did end up waiting 25 mins to see her.

She was very nice though and made time to talk to each of the girls individually which was nice. She told Abby (who was wearing her Belle dress) that she would tell Belle that Abby was looking for her!



Next we decided to head for Toontown as Rachel wanted to do the Barnstormer and Abby and Emily wanted to see Minnies House.

On the way to Toontown we met Alice in Wonderland who was really funny - as in entertaining not weird!





Rachel found the Barnstormer a bit tame but she did manage to persuade Nigel on to it. He hated it but all credit to him for giving it a go!

We didn't bother to queue for any of the characters in Toontown as we had PSs for lots of character meals and so were hoping to meet them all without any queuing.

Next we decided to head to the front of the Castle to watch Cinderellabration. This is a lovely show for any Princess fans although Nigel and I both had aching arms from lifting Abby and Emily up enough to see properly.

By now it was time for our breakfast in the castle so we headed back to the entrance in Fantasyland


Rachels birthday had been just before our holiday so we had decided to designate today as her "unofficial" birthday and she was wearing a Birthday Badge that I had picked up from County Hall a few days earlier.


We were very excited about going into the castle for the first time, after checking in we were told to wait in the foyer and meet with the Fairy Godmother. Rachel and Emily lined up to meet her, for some strange reason only known to her Abby decided not to!

The Fairy Godmother was wonderful, really kind and friendly and she chatted with the girls for ages, she even took me to one side to tell me to mention to my server about Rachels birthday.

After waiting about 10 minutes it was time for "My Lord and Lady Hart and the honourable Lady Harts" to be shown to their table. on the second floor. Rachel was given a "Magical Moments" certificate and was told that each of the Princesses would sign it when they came to the table.

We were brought a plate of fresh fruit including pineapple and melon and a plate of baked goods, muffins, Danish Pastries etc Then the hot breakfast came, it was preplated scrambled eggs, bacon and french toast. Emily just got French Toast as she was under 3, I was a bit suprised by this as everywhere else we went she had been given the same as the other girls.

The Princesses came around one by one, we met Cinderella, Belle, Snow White, Mary Poppins and Sleeping Beauty.




The Princesses were all lovely, Belle immediately noticed Abbys dress and she said "I 've got a dress just like that" which Abby thought was wonderful. She even noticed Abbys hair (which we had tried to do in the same style as Belle).

Sleeping Beauty was Abbys favourite (as normal) and when Abby told her she was having tea with her the following week (at the My Disney Princess Tea) Sleeping Beauty immediately said "oh thats right yes you are, I'm looking forward to it", which of course made Abbys day.

All the Princesses made a lot of fuss over Rachel as it was her "birthday" and they all signed her certificate and chatted to her about her presents etc.

Emily was definitely less cautious than with the larger characters and she was quite happy to have photos and cuddles with all the Princesses.

From an adult point of view, after all the hype about this breakfast I was a bit disappointed with the food . The seats also seemed a bit squashed. However the Princesses were lovely and the girls loved it so it was definitely worth it!

After breakfast we headed to Libertyland for the Haunted Mansion, we all lined up only for Emily and Abby to freak out the minute we entered the dark lobby, so yet again I had to take them out and wait outside.

Some time later Nigel and Rachel appear, Rachel was in tears, apparently she found the whole thing too scarey. Now bear in mind that this is the girl that did Tower of Terror, Journey to Atlantis and countless other "thrill" rides on her own and loved them - yet she was terrified in the Haunted Mansion, I guess there is no accounting for what people find scarey is there.

After this we decided to head out of MK, we knew we would be coming back on other days and we were feeling a bit hot and tired by now.

We headed back to our car at the Contemporary by monorail. I am sure that it is great to stay there for convenience to MK but I must admit to finding the place rather boring compared to other Disney resorts.

After yet another different route back we headed to the hotel. Nigel dropped the girls and I at the hotel mall as I wanted to buy some milk and drinks.

I succumbed to Emilys plea for a Spongebob drinking cup and rather foolishly to Rachels pleas to have her hair plaited by the lady who has a permanent stall just inside the entrance. It seemed to take forever but we both really liked it although my smile was a bit fixed when told it was going to cost $50!



Abby wasn't interested in buying anything, the only thing she really likes to spend money on is Barbies/Bratz and other similar type dolls.

After this we spent a bit of time at the pool and nobody really felt like going out to eat so we ate some hot dogs and snacks in our room. Later we headed to the Nick Studio at the front of the hotel for the nightly Nick show.

The show is full of Nickelodeon style silly games and Rachel was desperate to get picked as a volunteer which fortunately she was. The Nickelodeon show presenters even noticed her birthday badge and asked all the audience to sing her happy birthday which she loved. All in all it was a great end to her "unofficial" birthday.

Tomorrow - Chilling and Walmart

TODAYS BUDGET $150

We Spent:



Valet Parking at the Contemporary $7
Tip for the parking attendant $2
Cinderellas Breakfast $72
Drinks during the day $10
Spongebob cup $5
Apple Juice and Milk from the hotel shop $8
Hair plaiting $50

TOTAL SPENT: $154 so just over budget by $4 - pretty impressive although think how good it would be if Rachel hadn't had her hair done

[highlander447]

another great report thanks for sharing

[AlisonB]

Very close to buget!

Rachel's hair looked good!

[Guest]

Great report again. Your little princesses look lovely. I am impressed by the way you are sticking to your budget.

[disney owl]

The hair looked great but $50!

What a great 2nd bithday

[Guest]

Really enjoying these, keep them coming!

Your girls all look like they had a fantastic time - and the hair looks great

[Guest]

great day

[mkingdon]

$50!

We got stung at the All Stars in 2001, for a similar amount (x 2) for my DDs to have one of those braids woven in.

Best part was, Rebecca's lasted five minutes as she said it was hurting her, and it had to come out.

Happy? I was delighted.

Good reports, and sounds like you had a great day

Craig