The Magnificent Seven - April 2018 - Day 9 - Magic Kingdom, Outlets and Manny's Chophouse

[Redrach1903]

Day 8 is here

Sunday 15th April

Chris and I were the first ones up this morning at about 6.40, Abi and Jake both got up around 7.20 and then everyone else didn’t have a choice! Kids are noisy

This morning we were excited (well, me and Emma were ) because we were going to the Magic Kingdom for a character breakfast at Crystal Palace! Happily, Abi was fully back to her happy wee self today! Her eye infection had almost completely cleared up too! Phewf

Chris, Jake and I left first at 8am! The sky was looking a dodgy shade of grey and there were major storms predicted for later in the day, so our plan was to be out of MK before then!

Emma - After another good night's sleep by all Abi woke up about 07.20! Normally I would be trying to get her to go back to sleep but today was our ADR at Crystal Palace and I was glad not to have to wake her. We were under strict instructions from Rach not to be late (I take a far more relaxed approach to time management than little sis!)

We got up and organised and there was some grapes for Abi to keep her going until breakfast at the Magic Kingdom. Dad had already been awake since god knows when (he is a rubbish sleeper) so dad was all ready to go. Rach, Chris and Jake left first as we were organising the big bag of stuff to take with us – you know the one with things for every scenario – rain, food spills, code browns, hunger, thirst, the next world war! Once that had been zipped shut we headed to the car. Dad travelled with us this morning. I did most of the driving even though both men were insured – was just easier as I knew where to go! Lol!

Chris decided to race the monorail to the MK. You can guess who won




Different monorail!



We parked in Simba 112 and walked to the TTC. Bag check was mobbed, but it moved quickly enough!



We jumped on the Monorail. Please stand clear of the door!



I text Emma to tell them we would go and check us in for our breakfast and to meet us outside CP. I can't remember why they were lagging behind, but if I had to guess I'd say cos they left 10 minutes after us! My sister is never in a hurry!

Here’s Emma and Abi on the tram



Emma - It was exciting heading to the Magic Kingdom. Don’t flame me but, as much as I like it, it’s not my favourite park but I was excited to see how Abi liked the characters and to spend some time just wondering around and taking it all in instead of running from ride to ride. The park didn’t seem too busy – we were parked in villains and then we decided on the monorail. Wasn’t too much of a scrum and Abi seemed to enjoy the ride.

Meanwhile, we were already exiting the Monorail! Oh how I miss the walk down this ramp



















I stopped and grabbed Abi a first visit badge. I didn’t write down where, but I think it was a wee cart beside Casey's! Jake wanted a badge too and decided he was celebrating life!





I checked us in for breakfast, telling a tiny white lie that all our party were here! Well, they nearly were!



Emma - Rach had already impatiently texting to see where we were as we were heading into the main entrance so we scooted off quickly to crystal palace to avoid the wrath of Rach! Was good to see Main Street again!

Soon enough we saw them coming!





We were called not long after that, so good timing!









We put Abi's badge on for her, but I think it was off soon after







We were told we had a wee while until the first character (Eeyore – YAY) would be with us, so we had time to grab some breakfast first I love this buffet by the way! The breakfast lasagne is actually one of my favourite things everrrrrrrrr!



Abi enjoyed some fruit loops first of all!









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[Redrach1903]

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Soon enough Eeyore was at our table and he was straight in about messing about with Jake! Haha!





Moment of truth for Abi chops! Me and Emma were convinced she would love it, but Paul was convinced she'd be totally indifferent to the whole thing! Let’s see shall we…..













So yeah, I think it's safe to say that Emma and I were right!

Jake was very good at making sure he got autographs for both his and Abi's books





Before Eeyore left, Jake and I got selfies with him





We had time to get more food before the next character appeared, so we did just that! Jake fell in love with the breakfast pizza and was shovelling it away like nobody's business! In fact, he was shovelling away everything that morning! What an amount of food he ate



Looks like Abi was getting stuck into some Pooh's puffed French toast!





And then she wanted down for a look about!



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Emma took some selfies which I of course had to photo bomb









Tigger was next! And Abi was so excited to see him bounding over! So cute! Big cuddles for him too!



















Tigger selfies...




The wee parade thing the characters do started and Abi was engrossed, was honestly too cute!





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[Redrach1903]

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And then Pooh Bear was back to our table I always think the costume should have more stuffing?! Pooh Bear definitely has a rounder tummy than that! Haha!







Can I just point out something? Chris said to me before we left that he thought Jake was too old to meet the characters now and that he wouldn’t be interested. PAH! Who was right again?

Abi loved Pooh as well. She was kissing him and lying on his arms















And booped his nose! Haha!



Hide and seek with Pooh Bear



Pooh bear selfie!



I think by now we had all had our fill of food! It was all very tasty and fresh with lots to choose from. Chris was like "right, everyone ready to go?" Eh no! We hadn’t met Piglet yet! DUH! We could see him, so we waited until he made his way round to us. Abi and Jake had a wee yap and a cuddle while we waited. Too sweet! Abi just reached out and hugged him. Look at his wee face, so chuffed











Piglet soon appeared! Abi was very excited to see him!















I of course completed my selfie mission



So, yeah it was a very successful first character experience for Abi! She was genuinely excited and giddy when she saw them coming and kissed/hugged every one of them. Just adorable It wasn’t cheap of course at $236.55 and $34.20 of that was an automatically added tip due to our party being over 6 folk. Dad had a right good grumble about that! Something along the lines of "it’s a buffet! Why on earth is a tip automatically added on?! Nae like they do much" Doing his bit to keep the "Aberdonian's are cheap" stereotype alive



Emma - We really enjoyed the character breakfast. As you can see by the pictures Abi thought it was great fun. The food was good. The hash brown casserole was my favourite as well as pooh’s puffy thing – I love cinnamon! Paul thought it was good as well for a buffet as he isn’t a huge buffet fan and Dad enjoyed it as well. The hot chocolate was also really good.

The character interaction was great and it was so much fun seeing Abi embrace it all. Abi also thought it was a great idea to lift up her dress and flash her belly to the other tables – they all thought it was funny which made her do it even more! It is expensive but it was the only character meal we did so it was worth it. It wasn’t too manic and the servers were good at telling you when you sat down if you had time to go get some food.

From here we made our way round to Adventureland.









Chris went off to the loo and came back with a new pair of Ray Bans! As you do! He also bought another pin for his man bag! Photos later! We had a FastPass booked for Jungle Cruise, but Abi was flagging (too much excitement at breakfast I think), so Emma and Paul said they would give it a skip and take her for a walk around the park instead! The rest of us still went on though and agreed to meet them afterwards!



While we were waiting a Keys to the Kingdom Tour group came along and were let on the boat before us. Dad was like "why are they getting on before us? We have a Fast Pass!" I told him off for grumping again



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We all enjoyed this and Jake especially loved the corny jokes. Our guide was a little soft spoken though, so it was sometimes a strain to hear her!













When we got off I noticed Emma had sent this photo! Haha! Totally zonked! Just not a theme park pro like her auntie I'll get her taught for next time though hahaha!



Emma - Abi was now tired so we said to the others to head onto the Jungle Cruise and we would meet them after. We just had a nice stroll towards Splash Mountain and enjoyed watching people come down the big drop. It was fairly busy now and getting quite hot so it didn’t take long for Abi to drop off. It was nice to wander around and just have a look at a few things. We got some water and sat in the shade for a while and did some people watching which is always fun!

Jake, Chris and I had a FP for Pirates and the others were meant to be doing Voyage of the Little Mermaid, but since Abi was out cold they obviously didn't want to bother with it! Dad was still with us and Emma, Paul and Abi were in Fantasyland, so I asked Dad if he wanted to come on Pirates or go and meet the others. He chose the latter (think he was fed up of crowds and queues already haha). I said I would take him to Fantasyland as there would be no way he would find it, but Emma text to say they were heading back over to us. We watched a bit of the Jack Sparrow show and then left Dad there to wait for them as our FP window was running out! He seemed to be really enjoying it actually!





Emma - We had another FP coming up which we thought Abi would like but we didn’t want to wake her up so spoke to Rach and told them to just do what they had planned and we would catch up. We headed back where Rach was and said we would meet Dad and make sure he didn’t get lost! Haha! He was standing on a rock watching a Jack Sparrow show so he was easy to spot.

Jake, Chris and I pretty much walked on to Pirates!





This was our first time seeing the updated auction scene and the first time getting a ride photo. Clearly we had no idea where it was! Haha!



After Pirates we had a walk through Frontierland and into Liberty Square. One of the Country Bears was out

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Because who doesn't want a photo with a giant turkey leg?





I text Emma to see what they were up to and she said Abi had woken up briefly, but fallen asleep again! I offered to take Abi so her and Paul could get on some rides, but she said they were happy just walking about soaking in the atmosphere!

Emma - We decided to head back towards Main Street for an ice cream as it was pretty hot. Abi woke up not long after we met dad and then promptly fell asleep again. Rach had offered to come get Abi so we could do some rides but we were happy to just take it all in. Plenty of time to do rides another day. Nice offer though.

Now, I had become a bit obsessed with Disney Food Blog videos before leaving and since ice cream is one of my favourite things I already knew I wanted an ice cream cookie sandwich. It was huge! We got chocolate chip cookies with cookies and cream ice cream inside and a small cup of peanut butter sauce. I love peanut butter anything! It was really good but so big. Just as well we were sharing. We sat down at the tables and Abi woke up and had some ice cream and watched the ducks. Dad had a mint choc chip cone which he loved. Rach , Chris and Jake soon joined us.









I had a look at the wait times to see if there was anything the three of us could ride, but it was SO very busy. Everything was 40 mins or more! Boo We admitted defeat and headed off to meet the rest of the gang! It was very hot and humid by now, so an ice cream sounded like just the ticket!



I got a tub of Mint Choc Chip, Jake got a cone and Chris got some huge brownie sundae monstrosity! Haha!









The Move It Shake It parade started going by so I walked over to watch! I know I say this every year, but the older version was much better!













Paul soon returned with a still sleeping Abi! Even though she was feeling so much better, she was still way behind on her sleep. She had yet to have her normal 12 hour sleep since arriving, so she was bound to need lots of naps!



It was around 1pm by now and our final FP for Peter Pan wasn’t due to activate until 2.10pm, so we decided to ditch it and head out. It was uncomfortably hot and busy and we really wanted to be out before the predicted storm hit! Before we left though, we had to buy Abi her first Disney balloon

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She was awake again and very excited by the balloon!





Heading out…





We decided to take the ferry over as there was one waiting. We couldn't wait for it to start moving to get the breeze!





Look at this sleepy little sausage!



Mates...



We jumped on a tram back to the cars and sleepy chops rested her eyes again!



As Paul was packing Abi's buggy away he managed to let go of her balloon and floated off into oblivion! LOL! That lasted long! Daddy fail! Chris and I decided we wanted a quick nosey at the outlets and Jake asked if he could go back to the villa with Emma and co, which they were fine with so we said our goodbyes and headed off towards I Drive! Being a Sunday, it was absolutely mobbed. When will we learn?!



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Anyway, we were parked up and in by 2pm! We did our usual of splitting up (just for shopping, not for life) and agreed to meet in an hour and a half!



Emma - Jake decided he wanted to come with us – who can blame him ? So we headed off back to the villa – Abi was needing a proper nap! I think she stayed awake in the car for a while and then drifted off. We gave her a snack when we got in and then put her down for a nap. Abi was feeling so much better today and was back to her normal self but just had some sleep to catch up on. Like her mum, she needs her sleep!

Jake and I headed to the pool and we played all sorts of games including the shark game. His face when you start chasing him was hilarious – he kept on cheating though and getting out the pool or into the Jacuzzi but I did some impressive jumping out to try to grab his ankles or some graceful manoeuvres to half leap into the Jacuzzi to catch him. Lol. We had to get out when the storm started and the rain came on – I would have stayed in but didn’t think electrocution so early on in the holiday was in the itinerary so we got out! Paul had gone to bed for a nap – this became a theme for the holiday – afternoon naps! Dad had fallen asleep on the sofa as well. Rach had txt to say they were stuck in traffic but it was no hassle as we were just chilling out now anyway and I had got Jake to go chill out for a while as well.

Back to the outlets...

My first stop was Oshkosh where I got some cute outfits for our niece, Lily.

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There was a lady in here who was legit shopping in her BRA. I mean, she had a killer figure and all, but REALLY?!



Anyway, bra lady was totally monopolising the cashier's time because she bought FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS worth of kids clothes, so it took ages and I mean AGES to get served. I contemplated walking out, but decided to stick with it. They really should have opened another till!

Next stop was of course Character Warehouse! I got myself 3 tops in here and theeeeeeee cutest toothbrush holder ever! Total for everything was $62.80.



Love this one cos Mickey is wearing tartan! Turns out Emma bought this top the following week without knowing I had it too! Hehe!





So I was really in need of some new jeans and I've always struggled with working out the correct sizing for me in proper jeans stores, but I was determined this year to figure it out

So I went into Levis and started browsing! I also struggle with all the different styles. There are SO many, but I grabbed a bundle to try that I thought may be the right size/style and went to try them on and whaddya know – success! For anyone wondering, I am a size 10 in the UK and roughly 5 foot 6. The jeans that fit me from Levis are 30" by 30". There was a deal on which was 3 pairs for $40 each, so I got a pair of black skinnies, a pair of light ripped skinnies and a dark blue pair of skinnies! Happy! Chris text to ask where I was and it turns out he was in there too, so we met up at the register. He also got himself three pairs of jeans

Forgot to mention that while I was trying on the jeans I could hear the predicted storm raging on, but thankfully by the time we had paid and left we missed the worst of it! Phew! We both decided we were done by now, neither of us were really in the mood for shopping, so we left at 3.30pm and the traffic was stupidly busy again!

We stopped at PGA Superstore for Chris to try out yet another putter! How many putters does one man need in a life time?! Anyway, after trying out many, he left empty handed!





No photos of trolleys this year, soz!

We were back on the road at 4.10pm. I had to nip into the Marketplace shop on our way back. Chris waited in the car…..







We got back to the villa around 4.45pm. Abi, believe it or not, was napping! Jake was in the pool if I remember right. He had to come out earlier when the storm was passing! Emma took this photo of the rain!



We all got showered and ready for evening and had to wake up Abi at 5.45, poor toot! She was hungry, so she got a wee snack to keep her going!





Jake had a quick game of pool before we left! Yes I know, he's doing it wrong! Hahaha!



We left at 6pm. Manny's Chophouse being the destination! Either Jake is hidden in this pic or he blew us off to travel with the others. Probably the latter! Haha!



We got to Manny's at 6.15 and were faced with a 40 minute wait, so we waited in the outside patio which thankfully is covered as the rain was still on!



Abi was in really good fettle tonight











Hmmm what shall I order?



Selfie with Mummy!



Also got a solid selfie of Emma, Abi and I



It took the full 40 minutes to be seated, but we were quite happy sitting outside with a drink and yapping until we were called!



First up was the yummy bread and salad! Not enough UK restaurants give you bread. Fact.





Abi was most intrigued by being able to draw on the table!



For starters I ordered half (HA) a portion of onion rings, Chris had nuclear wings, Emma had cheesy fries, Dad had battered mushrooms and Jake had tortilla chips and salsa! Did Paul not have a starter?! Emma - Paul and I shared the cheesy fries – we now always share starters in the USA as the portions are too big. Abi had some as well! Think he also had a cheeky onion ring from Rach and a mushroom from Dad!











So so good. Those onion rings though – ridiculous! Who could ever finish a whole portion, let alone a half one?! Chris was loving his wings…. haha!



Abi got stuck into some bread, tortilla chips and cheesy fries while we waited for our mains to arrive!



And enjoyed the attention she was getting from the waitress! She was yapping away to her saying "hiya" when she passed etc. So funny! I seem to remember her saying hiya to the folk at the table next to us too!







Abi and Jake went off to play with the amusement machines for a while. Jake really is such a good big cousin. I went to see what they were up to and on the way back to the table we passed the tattie sacks and I taught her to say "tattie"



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Our mains soon arrived! I had a burger, Chris had the chicken and ribs combo, Emma had crab stuffed shrimp, Paul had a 22oz porter steak and Dad had a filet steak! Again, everything was so good! Just far too much food!











Jake had chicken nuggets and Abi had a grilled cheese, neither of which were photo worthy apparently! Dad treated us to tea, so I have no idea what it cost!



Emma - Really enjoyed our meal here! Have always wanted to go but never got round to it. Paul was delighted with his huge steak and my shrimp was yummy. Abi loves it when she gets chips and gets to share with everyone so the grilled cheese was good as she could have her own but still pick away at ours. Really good choice on the menu and the little veranda was a nice place to wait.

Abi was loving the attention from the waiting staff and there was a table behind us with a toddler in a high chair so she was waving and saying hiya. Full of energy after her long nap! I think she had finally caught up on her sleep!

We got home about 8.30 and Abi was full of beans running around the villa! Dad went to bed first and then Abi and Jake both went down at about 9! Chris and Paul weren’t far behind them, but Emma and I stayed up yapping until around 10.30!

Emma - Another great evening and the girls were the last ones standing! Was so nice just chilling out and yapping before going to bed. When I win the lotto, I am so buying a fabulous villa in Orlando.

Lastly, here are the promised photos of Chris's pin purchases!



That one opens up to reveal more….





Steps today – 14,101 (6.15 miles)

Thanks for reading! Join us for the next day which was up there with one of my fave days of the holiday! Celebration in the morning and Hollywood Studios at night It is here

[JenD1]

Just to say before I read this that I’m sitting in garden waiting to go to Cornwall for a fortnight. This will pass a bit of time wonderfully!😊

[Goldia]

Crystal Palace is awesome, I'm so glad you all enjoyed meeting the characters. We've got a lunch booking for our first day on 1st August and I can't wait.

Such a shame the balloon sailed away...oh well.

And the bra lady what on earth was she thinking? It wasn't like it was a crop top type bra. Wow!

[collybird]

Jake and Abi actually melt my heart, he is such a lovely little lad.

Chris’ wings at Manny’s look amazing!

[helenlovesdestr]

Love Crystal Palace breakfast. The puffed French toast is to die for! The selfies you got with the characters are ace! 6 pairs of jeans between you is a successful shopping spree!