February 8th, 2017

Disney Vacation: Day 2 (Magic Kingdom 🏰)

I wasn't going to write much of anything on the rest of the posts for our trip (since I figured the many photos would speak louder than my words), but since today is the first day Mike will ever have gone to Disney World...I felt like it needed to be documented in more detail. :) Today we woke up bright and early. We were both super excited, to say the least. We had a quick breakfast before hurrying to the car and making the drive to the park. We got through bagcheck rather quickly, which I was surprised at. We then headed excitedly over to board the ferry that would take us across the lake. The monorail was closed, which Mike was disappointed about, but we still had a great time on the ferry. The slow ride in was beautiful, especially when the castle came into view!

We rushed off the boat as soon as it docked and practically sprinted into the park. We walked up Main Street USA and just found ourselves staring around us in awe. We were finally here!! Mike was absolutely mesmerized by everything. I just absolutely loved seeing the wonder and amazement on his face. We were grinning from ear-to-ear as we walked hand-in-hand together towards Cinderella's Castle. Michael pointed at this and that and just looked at me with pure happiness. He was finally seeing the castle he had seen in pictures and movies so many times...but this time in person! He was hardly able to contain his excitement; I was so happy.

A worker approached us as we stood there taking it all in and gave us some pins to wear during our visit at Disney! We both got pins that said "Happy Ever After" and Michael got a "First Visit" pin. They were so cute! We then took some time to take all the photos of the castle we wanted. After also taking some absolutely adorable photos in our matching shirts (the backs read "Happily Ever After 2015" when we stood side by side and the front had cute little Mickey & Minnie heads!), we decided we should finally move on to a new section.

We headed through the castle straight into Fantasyland. I told Mike to choose a ride and he picked Prince Charming's Regal Carousel as our first ride of the day! I was so proud. :) After that, I noticed that the line to see Rapunzel was only five minutes, so of course I had to go and grab a photo with her! She gave me a huge hug and was super excited to see that I had found my one true love just like she'd found hers in Flynn. She also told me that she'd love to make me a giant cupcake! We got a photo together and one last hug before saying goodbye.

Next came the Mickey's Phillar Magic 4-D show! I absolutely love that show and I think it is so underrated. It's super cute and definitely one to sing along to! Mike loved it, so I was glad. :) After the show, we continued through Fantasyland. Mike protested, but we went on It's A Small World next. Although it's song is repetitive and the animatronics are actually kinda creepy at times, it's just one of those classics you can't not ride! We were silly and had fun singing along together throughout the ride.

Soon it was time for me to stand around staring in awe, for we had wandered over to the Tangled section of the park! Rapunzel's tower stood beautifully in the distance, and there was a little Corona village below. It had lanterns and flags everywhere! The women's bathrooms were decorated in Rapunzel murals and Flynn's wanted poster was hanging in the men's. I took a ton of photos. I was in heaven. <3

Our first fast pass was ready soon after, so we headed to Adventureland to ride the Pirates Of The Caribbean ride. This one is such a classic, and definitely a favorite! Mike was amazed at how life-like the Jack Sparrow animatronic was! We decided to grab lunch after that, so we headed back through Fantasyland to look for a place to eat. We stopped to admire Belle's Castle and get some pictures of Gaston's Tavern. The amount of work they put into making these buildings realistic is just incredible! We decided to eat at the Pinocchio Village Haus, where we got a lovely table up on the balcony to eat. Our food was delicious, there was a lovely breeze, and we had a perfect view of the castle.

After we were full and rested, we decided to head to Frontierland to ride Big Thunder Railroad, since the line was only ten minutes long! We seriously were getting so lucky with our wait times...they were practically nonexistent! The ride was fun, as always. Mike took a video of us riding and it was so funny! Our fast pass was ready for the Haunted Mansion after that, so we went there next. Mike really appreciated all the decorations and animatronics and just everything that went into making the ride what it was. It was definitely one of his favorites! Next we headed back into Adventureland where we checked out the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse! I had never seen the film, but Mike had and he really was amazed by all the details.

I had never been on the Jungle Cruise before (and neither had Mike obviously, haha), so we decided to give it a try! It was old, but so cute. The "guide" on our boat was full of all these lame puns...it was fantastic. The elephant animatronics were so adorable! The whole ride had such a classic Disney feel that I just loved. Definitely another great one!

It was getting close to 3PM after we got off, so we decided to go grab a spot along the road to wait for the Festival Of Fantasy Parade to begin! Mike got us some ice cream and popcorn, which we snacked on while we waited. I was super excited to see the parade for I hadn't actually gotten to watch it since I was little. My family (aka my brothers) never usually wanted to sit to watch it.

The floats were just so gorgeous. I just love all the time and effort they put into the costumes and dancing and displays. Rapunzel's float was my favorite, of course. :) I also totally loved the giant Maleficent dragon! It breathed actual fire!!

Once the parade ended, we decided to finally head into Tomorrowland. We watched the Monster's Inc Laughfloor first, which is always a great time. Mike is a huge Monsters Inc fan and he just loved it! Mike and I ended up on screen, at the blunt end of a "buy one get one free!" joke (seeing as we both had on matching shirts). We then hopped aboard the Peoplemover, which is one of my absolute favorites in Tomorrowland. It was nice to just kick back and take a load off as we got a little overhead tour of that section of the park.

Next we went right across the way to ride Buzz Lightyear. Mike totally creamed me, ending up with 61,000 points to my pathetic 35,000. In the gift shop on the way out, I spotted an adorable little Buzz Lightyear hoodie which of course we had to get for our little Toy Story lover (aka Peter!). Buzz Lightyear himself was outside, so naturally we grabbed a photo with him too.

When we got off we saw that Space Mountain only had a five minute wait. Even though we already had fast passes scheduled for later, we decided we had to take advantage of such an awesome wait. (Again, the waits were nearly nonexistent! We were so fortunate!!) Space Mountain is probably my favorite ride at Magic Kingdom, so I was really excited. Mike didn't know what to expect, so he was a little nervous when I forced him to take front row! But, man... it was much fun! We laughed and screamed and had such a blast. Boy do I love that ride! :)

We were getting a little hungry again, so we decided to go try one of those delicious-looking giant turkey legs we had seen so many people carrying around. As we searched for the stand, I bumped into an old friend from my high school: Danielle! She and I went to LHS together, and then later she was my hairstylist at the salon I go to in Lemont! She had moved out here to become a Disney Cast Member about a year ago and I hadn't seen her since. She was at Magic Kingdom celebrating a year working with Disney today and it was so great to see her! She was so glad we had bumped into one another too. :D

After we said goodbye, we found Eric's Fish Shack where Mike finally got his turkey leg. And lemme just say...yum. :) After we were full, we headed over to Pete's Silly Sideshow to go get pictures with Donald Duck and Goofy! I love taking pictures with all the characters and I was so glad Mike was on board with the idea too!! We got some tasty pastries on the way out as well. :)

Our fast passes were ready for Space Mountain, so we started to head back towards Tomorrowland to ride it again. As we passed through Fantasyland, we stopped at the Tangled section again because all the lanterns were lit up! It was so beautiful! I felt like I was in the movie. <3 The ride, of course, was a blast once again. Mike had me sit in the front this time! It was starting to get dark and nearing time for the Wishes show at Cinderella's Castle, so we decided to start heading up toward Main Street to find a good spot to sit and watch.

We found arguably the most perfect spot and sat down to wait. The Wishes show started at 730PM and it was just so beautiful! They projected scenes from different movies onto the castle and it was just so amazing how it made the castle come to life! Shortly after Wishes came the moment we'd been long since waiting for: the fireworks show! The fireworks in Magic Kingdom are my absolute favorite. The show is just so completely magical and it blows me away every time! Michael adored the show just as much as I did. :)

After the fireworks, we headed up and down Main Street USA just checking out all the shops. Some of my favorite stores were the art shops that had original sketches by actual Disney artists! We took a bunch of more cute photos with the now lit up castle and also grabbed some yummy ice cream and donuts from the always popular Plaza Ice Cream Parlor. After we were sure we had seen all there was to see we headed out. As we rode the tram back towards our car we were nothing but smiles and happy chatter about the day. Everything was just so completely perfect and magical...and that was only day one! I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us. :)