For this trip we only had one day at Magic Kingdom. Typically on first visits I like to start at MK and then end the trip at MK. We just did one day this trip though because we did buy tickets for the big kids (and Z and I) to attend Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party so that counted as our second “day” at MK. We decided to save Tess’s second MK day for March when we go for Kye’s birthday. I’m SO glad we made that call! Tess didn’t feel good the majority of our time at Disney and just wasn’t fully herself. We also had to learn how to best give Tess the best Disney experience for her personality. By the end of the trip we had that figured out (she’s a typical third kid…she wants to walk with her siblings and not be confined in a stroller) so we better know how to make her Disney experience even BETTER next visit!
When we finished up with Cinderella’s Royal Table we went straight for Enchanted Tales with Belle. Most people run to the big kid rides (7 Dwarfs Mine Train being the main attraction). I believe most people with younger kids probably run to Peter Pan since it has the worst wait times. We typically run to Belle because it’s the slowest walk through experience and lines can quickly get LONG.
We always have an awesome experience at Belle…it’s very interactive and our crew isn’t typically too shy 😉 This time though it was almost embarrassing because EVERYONE in our party got chosen to be in the play except for me haha!
Britt let out an awesome roar (no surprise there) and was chosen to be Beast!
G-Mama and Daddy were the guards…but Tess helped 😉
Kye was Maurice and did a fabulous job being frightened 😉
But our Britt stole the show 🙂
Even the cast member was a little scared of her beastly roar 😉 (I love how shocked others were in the video too!)
The best part was that, since Britt was The Beast, she got to dance with Belle at the end of the show!
I love how serious Britt is about it!
My favs! The twirl!
Kye is such a proud big brother!
Def a highlight of the trip! Kye has also been chosen before to be Beast…he did NOT like it and purposefully is careful about his roaring when they choose parts. He prefers to be Maurice or the horse haha!
Everyone got to meet Belle!
Those guards sure did a great job 😉
I was so surprised Tess ran right up to her!
We rode Little Mermaid next…the big kids wanted to ride with G-Mama so it gave Mommy and Daddy some special Tess time 🙂
Dumbo is hilarious to me. It’s like totally not that super awesome of a ride yet EVERY child LOVES it. Kye and Britt both still love it. It was one of the very first things we rode at Disney for Tess’s trip…but guess which ride she talks about the most? Yup. Dumbo!
Sidenote but we completely skipped Barn Stormer on this trip. It’s now too small of a coaster to impress Kye and Britt doesn’t like fast rides at all and no way were we going to push Tess onto something at this age! I was glad to free up the time in our day without riding it 😉
Tess had her protectors beside her for It’s a Small World
Zach said he now loves It’s A Small World as long as Tess will hold his hand the whole ride like she did this time 🙂 She LOVED riding in the boats and kept asking to ride in boats again and again. From then on she loved all rides where we were in a boat like seat!
Kye ran to find another horse on the carousel to ride because he saw one that looked like a Seminole Indian 😉 I prefer us all to be together but at least he had G-Mama who could go with him! The girls stuck together and I knew Tess would love the carousel b/c she LOVES it at Wild Adventures!
One of my must-do Disney moments is trying to take the sword out of the stone!
Post back issues Daddy ain’t gonna strain for nothin’ 😉
PhilharMagic will forever be one of Britt’s favorite experiences and because of her PRECIOUS reaction to it on her first visit, it will also always be a favorite for the rest of us (so thankful Mrs Charlotte was with us for that adorable moment of Britt being so worried about Donald!)
For this trip we did FP for Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise, and then Splash/Thunder (more on that later). Peter Pan is ALWAYS a top FP choice bc the line is sooo slow. It’s really not even all that impressive of a ride so we sometimes just skip it but for a first trip I wanted Tess to experience it! She loved seeing the crocodile!
We also made the big kids suffer through Country Bears this trip. We love it and wanted Tess to see it and Mrs. Charlotte loves it too! It’s HILARIOUS and a Disney classic and totally a must-do! Even if our 7 year old and 5 year old don’t like it 😉
Kye has been talking Splash Mountain up a TON with Britt. Zach and I both realize we pushed Britt onto “big kid rides” way too soon. And it’s advice I try to give to others: just because your child IS tall enough to ride the height restriction rides, doesn’t mean they SHOULD. I think if we’d waited to introduce them to Britt that she probably would have enjoyed them more. At the same time though I selfishly love that she hangs back with me haha
So for this trip Britt wanted to try out Splash again. I got fast passes for Zach, Kye, Britt and Mrs Charlotte to ride it and while they rode Tess and I hung out at the playground under the ride. I met a mom with 5 kids and super pregnant with her 6th (while still nursing the 5th). Sometimes I feel like I have a lot on my plate with three! She was def Super Mom…and when one of her kids ran straight into a wall I knew she wouldn’t mind the fact that I could help but laugh hahaha. A first time mom probably wouldn’t have appreciated it but I knew a mom of multiple kids knew funny when she saw it haha.
This time with Tess was one of my favorite times of the day. We just sat together and she ate snacks and played a little. She was perkier than she’d been a lot of the day and it was just some good together time!
Daddy got some pics in line!
I guess someone getting off the ride gave Zach and Mrs Charlotte some ponchos. I know Disney people make fun of people who wear ponchos on Splash but hey if they are free why not?
Kye LOVES getting SOAKED!
Britt, however, said she enjoyed it but doesn’t want to ride it next time 😉
I mentioned in an earlier post that this was our first trip using my Annual Pass. One of the perks of having an Annual Pass is getting Memory Maker which means you get to have ALL the pics taken at the parks or anytime a photo pass person takes a photo. All character meetings and rides, etc. I honestly didn’t think this was much of a “perk” when I got my pass. I take TONS of pics myself, why do I care that I get the photo pass ones? Y’all. I LOVED IT. I loved that during character meetings I could take more videos rather than having to take pics and I love the quality of all their images. Plus Zach was WAY more about taking pics b/c we had the Memory Maker. But most of all? It meant we got to have this pic. Instant favorite Disney pic ever.
We all know Mrs Charlotte is THE nicest person in the ENTIRE world. So of course she took her poncho and put it lovingly over her grandchild’s head when they were about to get wet on the ride. And of course she held her tight to comfort her.
But that is not AT ALL what this pic looks like is actually happening hahahaha Zach and I literally cracked up over and over again the entire trip every time we pulled up this pic!
Since everyone had a fp for Splash and I didn’t it meant I had one extra chance to book a FP just for myself. I booked it for Thunder Mountain and planned to try to do Rider Swap. I’ve never done it before but thought it meant I could go up to the ride and have them scan my pass then be given the swap card so Zach and Kye could ride it. But it didn’t actually work that way and I would have had to physically RIDE the ride first in order to get it. I told the CM that no way was I riding and he said to give my husband my magic band, have him ride it using my FP, then have him get the rider swap card to take my son. It worked flawlessly and is something Zach continued to take advantage of at others parks for other rides! It’s a great thing to do if you have kids who want to ride fast rides but one parent doesn’t! It saves from having to wait in line multiple times!
I’m so thankful Zach took this video of Kye, I LOVE the joy on his face!!!
While boys did Thunder we headed to Tiki Room!
Tiki is a fav of mine b/c it is so classic (and bc it’s a fond memory I have with my brother). I knew prior to the trip that Tess would LOVE it because she LOVES animals and particularly birds. I was right! She was fascinated by it!
I felt SO BAD though because we weren’t even into Tiki Room yet when the guys were done with Thunder. Usually we are done and waiting on THEM and I just don’t like people to be waiting on me (in many ways Zach married someone like his Mama haha we both stressed over Zach being annoyed at how long we were taking!). He and Kye went ahead and got in line for Aladdin and we were able to hop right in with them when we got out!
This is OUR RIDE. It’s my ride with Kye and I soak up every second of it 🙂 I hope he’ll still ride it with me when he’s 20!
Pirates was next!
Britt was very fearful of darker rides (Peter Pan, Pirates etc) but I wasn’t too worried about Tess. She’s pretty fearless. Heck she asked me to buy her a skeleton from Target b/c she loves spoooooky stuff. As expected, she did awesome and had no issues with the ride at all. She’s SUCH a mellow personality. Britt is the polar opposite and has a very dramatic personality. There are many advantages and disadvantages to each! It was hard feeling like Tess wasn’t having an amazing time because she is just so straight faced all the time and doesn’t show a lot of emotion. Britt has such awesome reactions that it makes it so fun! But at the same time Britt will freak out over things b/c she is that dramatic personality and that’s where Tess’s mellow side is a plus…she was just happy to be along for the ride no matter what the ride included!
After pirates we went to find a spot to sit and eat lunch. We knew we’d have the huge breakfast so we packed lunch for us all. Recently they redesigned the hub area in front of the castle and there are lots of grassy spots. It was seriously SO perfect. Zach and I agreed that it was a favorite memory from the trip because it was totally unplanned and was just one of those times where everything worked so perfectly. We were all by ourselves in this grassy spot which gave the kids all space to spread out and play and run and we weren’t in ANY hurry for anything so we just took our time and soaked it in!
The magical moment of it though? We lucked out and the newest castle stage show just so happened to be started as we were eating. The kids could see the show from our spot! It has Rapunzel, Tiana (including the crocodile) and of course Elsa and Anna! We never watch shows so it was a super special treat!
Of course we had to have some dancing!
I love this because the girls are all over the place and plotting their next big dance number while Kye just keeps eating 😉
I gotta give a shout out for a second to aNn Monograms! If you need ANY decals done then she’s your girl. Seriously. She’s PHENOMENAL! Since the girls both wanted pink magic bands and Zach and I both wanted red I wanted something to help tell them apart and I LOVE what she came up with for us!!!
Of course getting the perfect castle pic is important to me, but especially on each kids’ first visit! I just like for them to each have a great shot of the first time they ever saw the magical castle! Since no photo pass people were out that morning, we hit up one after lunch. But the sun was in our eyes like CRAZY bright….
So my husband was sweet enough to wait in line AGAIN for another pic further down Main Street so the buildings were blocking the sun. I LOVE when Cast Members take their time and interact. But yall. This dude took AGES with the people in front of us. We only had ONE group before us and they took, no joke, a solid 25 min. And it wasn’t the fault of the group, it was the photo guy. He kept doing more and more things with them! So then it was FINALLY our turn and at that exact moment a cast member came by and said we HAD to get out of the way for the parade. Are you kidding me?!?! The photo pass guy felt bad and the Cast Member said “the band won’t wait for you to move.” We went to the side and took a couple super rushed pics and called it a day!
Best one of the day!
No, we didn’t leave MK 😉 This was the only day of our trip that we DID skip naps! The park closed at 7 for a party (MVMCP) so we wanted to get the full day out of it the best we could. We actually instead were heading down Main Street for another reason…Tess’s first hair cut!!!
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