You can see the first part of our MK Day here!
After lunch Tess finally went potty! I had been nervous about her lack of going all morning and made sure she drank a bunch of water and she seemed fine. I felt a lot more relaxed once she WENT! You mama’s know what I mean 😉
This was the part of our day where crowds increased (hello Spring Break) and where a lot of the optional stuff got bumped. Which I had anticipated and expected! I felt confident we’d have no issues getting everything in that we really wanted to do!
My kids have never seen the Festival of the Fantasy Parade (Z loathes parades) and I knew it’d be such a fun thing for all of the kids to see. Especially Colt, Payton, and Carter who haven’t had as many character interactions. Mr. Rusty, Mrs. Charlotte and Courtney all were ready for a break for a bit so they sat and saved seats for the parade. Casey and Carter went off to do their own thing for awhile and Brad, Colt, Payton went with our crew to check out another first for our family: Tom Sawyer Island!
I’ve NEVER been to it before and have heard that it’s a great place to go when you want to let kids play and run around for a bit. It was hot, we had just eaten lunch, and no way did we want to try to have the kids to wait for an hour for the parade. It was also located right by where we had lunch (and where we were going to sit for parade viewing) so we gave it a go!
You ride a little raft boat thing out to the island which in itself was a cool experience!
I feel like this map makes it look massive and that there is no way we explored the entire area but we checked out some caves, a cool “old timey” town area, and a playground!
In the old time town area it was a good bit of room to run and play and these little houses the kids could go inside of. It gave me a bit of anxiety because those are times that the outnumbered situation with three kids is hard! It’s tough to keep an eye on all of them at once. We couldn’t find Kye and I got legit concerned and it turns out he’d been in ONE house the whole time because he found a gun and was shooting it haha. I’m really shocked in our world today that they still have this? But it makes real noises and everything and is in a little look out area! Super cool and he would have stayed there all day.
I love when Tess acts like she’s the adult. She gets all bossy and serious and I love that I caught these expressions of hers telling me if I didn’t do “such and such” that I’d get a spankin haha. All in play, of course, as we all know I’m the parent and she’s the child 😉
We headed back about 15 min before the parade to join the rest of the crew!
Courtney was the perfect person to keep seats for us b/c she wasn’t about to let anyone take ’em haha! She said she had to have some words with one lady which I’d love to have seen b/c Courtney is one of THE nicest people. They really found awesome seats though and we all squeezed in and made it work and had perfect spots to view the whole parade!
I love this. This is what Disney is ALL about y’all. Colt would probably never say “I want to watch some princesses in a parade” but he was ALL about it!!! I loved seeing ALL the kids so into it, but especially the older ones. It just shows that the magic of Disney affects us all 😉
Kye was a little more into the lemonade slushie than the parade haha
We don’t get to watch many parades (I seriously love them and would love to watch more of them) but my BIG tip for parade watching is to GET INTO IT. Call out to all the characters. Tell them you love them! They WILL respond guys! I got so many of these great shots b/c they were looking directly at me and my crazy fan-girl self 😉 We also got a ton of interaction with the characters who walked around because we yelled and waved and were just excited. They love that energy so the more hyped the better!!!
The Lost Boys loved us!
Tess’s smile is everything!
Kye finally let them share some of the lemonade when the parade ended 😉
Right after the parade the big kids had fast passes for Splash Mountain. It was closed down so the cast member at the ride gave them fast passes to use on Thunder and they went and rode that instead.
Our fast passes for the little kids were for Dumbo. Which was super poor planning on my part because HELLO massive crowds of people leaving the parade!!! Whoops. We had to go through the masses to get all the way to Fantasyland. I chalk it up to the fact that we never ever watch parades so we’ve never been part of the post-parade crowd. I’m also not really sure what I could have done differently though as there aren’t really “little kid” experiences near where we were sitting anyway! We just toughed through it!
Dumbo!
The negative of one parent with two kids on a ride like this is the issue of who gets to “drive” or control the ride. It worked out for me though as it took them a LONG time to load the ride. So during load time Tess got to “drive” and then once it actually started it was Britt’s turn to take over 😉
On Tomorrowland Speedway last trip I taught the girls how to “whoo.” This time on Dumbo I taught them how to put your hands in the air haha Life skills. Here’s a video 😉
Reunited with the crew to use our Fastpasses for Haunted Mansion!
Big Papa rode with Britt and Payton and he enjoyed that quality time with them!
We headed across the park and finally got our castle pics for the day! I always have a great experience at the hub near Tomorrowland but man our photo pass person just wasn’t on their A-Game that day at all. It didn’t help that the sun was in all of our eyes either! Any pic in front of the castle is an instant classic though 😉
Fav Castle Pic Ever haha So epic!
All the grands!
Our whole family!
Mr. Rusty went ahead and headed back to the rental house as he’d reached his Disney limit for the day (the day prior he stayed back when we returned to AK after naps too). I totally understand it and am glad he got to experience all the big moments of each day…but I do think he missed out on the more chill times in the parks which I do think he’d prefer 😉
We headed to Monsters Inc and at that point had all hit our tired moment of the day. It was 5:00 and a big day the day prior, a late night, early morning and no naps were starting to affect the kids. It was also that crowded time of the day in the parks and we’ve just never had a no-wait experience from 4-6 on MK days! Monsters Inc is a “good” line though as it’s inside and air conditioned and a lot of it is waiting for the room to empty so you’re not constantly shuffling, you can literally SIT down which is nice!
Or lay down if you’re 2 😉
Seeing the cooling towels around our necks reminds me to mention a bit of an MS side note 🙂 This trip was a BIG TEST for Zach’s MS. We had a VERY busy weekend. In the heat. In the sun. With not so great sleeping conditions. And a good bit of stress in our lives. I was pretty nervous. Doing the parks back to back was a LOT and add in the day with his Dad the day prior and I just felt like everything combined was a relapse waiting to happen. But y’all. He had NO SYMPTOMS. I’ve been worried about this summer and the heat but this trip made me feel SO much better! For him to not have a single symptom in those conditions? It’s like Mrs Charlotte said…it was all the perfect recipe for it to happen but since it didn’t then it has to make us feel GOOD that normal everyday life should go just as smoothly!
The kids wanted to text a joke…they made it up themselves….hahahaha
I love watching Kye during Monsters Inc. He’s hilarious!
Uncle Brad = SULLY! So perfect!!!
I told Courtney that I called Disney in advance and arranged for their family to get picked for things all day so that way they’d want to come back 😉
After Monsters Inc we took a nice long break for dinner. Ideally I would have loved for everyone to get to experience a picnic in the hub b/c it’s AMAZING. But it was WAY too hot to do that (even though I do think Brad went and laid down in the grass for a bit and said it was awesome). I stayed in Tomorrowland to grab my dinner and met them at Casey’s and was SHOCKED that they found tables for all of us!!!
We have a really good system down for dinner for us as Zach LOVES Casey’s and Kye LOVES it too (the corn dog nuggets are a huge portion) and I LOVE my Mickey pretzel so we all get something we love for dinner and it’s cheap and easy!
Do you think Mrs Charlotte got enough food? haha
We reworked some of the plans during dinner. When I booked our fast passes the ONLY time I could get for 7 Dwarfs Mine Train was 945. Really it’s not that awesome of a ride. Not that I’ve ever ridden it but Zach said it wasn’t worth staying that late for only that ride. Kye agreed. So the big kids all talked and agreed they’d rather do Space Mountain again and skip it.
We had planned to meet Talking Mickey but the line was CRAZY long and everyone agreed it also wasn’t worth an hour to meet him (we also skipped the carousel earlier in the day as we all agreed we can ride the one at Wild Adventures!). I knew there was a chance that Talking Mickey couldn’t happen so it’s why I made sure we met Minnie and Mickey the day prior 😉 I didn’t want Colt and Payton going home without meeting the main man of Disney!
The big kids had Fast Passes for 7 Dwarfs and the little ones had fast passes for Little Mermaid at 9:45. Since we were skipping 7 Dwarfs we all headed as a big group to ride Little Mermaid together!
I also want to add that the Baby Center at Disney is AWESOME. While at Tom Sawyer Island Tess pooped. In her pants. Zach threw away her panties and I went to get her replacement ones in my bag and realized I didn’t have any extras. Yikes. While we were at Casey’s I ran into the Baby Care Center and bought a Pull Up to put on her. It was $3 for one Pull Up but no way did I want her to go without any panties or anything for the rest of the day!!! $3 well spent…which is foreshadowing btw 😉
On our way back to Fantasyland I really wanted Colt and Payton to get to walk through Cinderella’s Castle 🙂 It was so sweet because when I said it out loud Zach said “I had already planned on it!” Great minds think alike!
Payton was so pumped!!!
We love King Triton!
G-Mama took her to see Ariel 😉
All the girls wanted to ride with G-Mama and of course the two boys rode together so that meant Courtney and Brad and Zach and I got some couple only time which, duh, totally means making out on the ride 😉
It was about 7:30 at this point and we still had a solid 90 minutes before Wishes. We were at the point where we’d done everything we HAD to do and didn’t feel like anything was worth the wait time to ride again. This is where Incredibles Super Dance Party comes in. Y’all I LOVE this. You can chill and dance and it’s fun and interactive with characters. The kids ALL love it and it’s at such a perfect time of the day and is never crowded. We spent a ton of time there and everyone enjoyed it!
I love that Tess was the first one to bust a move!
I seriously couldn’t get over this child. As I mentioned, we’d had a BIG DAY the day before. And that day was an early morning and no nap and a TON of busy-ness. She was seriously amazing. The big kids I expected to do well because they were with their cousins (no complaints from Britt all day…can Payton just live with us? haha!) but I was more nervous for Tess. Lack of sleep can just affect them a lot more when they are younger, ya know? And really if it was Britt or Kye at this age I doubt I would have pushed as much as we did with her that day. But I’m so glad we did b/c she responded SO WELL to it. She was adorable and fun and silly. We had one discipline issue after lunch but I took care of it and she snapped right out of it and never had another problem all day long! She really is my lesson in flexibility. Being the third kid she’s HAD to be more flexible and because of that, she IS more flexible too. Crossing fingers that Tab is the same way 😉
Carter was straight CASHED. He slept through all of the walk to Little Mermaid, the whole time the rest of us were on the ride, and all through Incredibles Dance Party. Which is Casey’s favorite thing so she at least had to do a little dancing with him 😉
Colt gets PUMPED for some dancing haha
He can’t resist a little dance with his sweet cousin though 😉
I took a few videos of the dancing fun: 1, 2 and 3.
I told Brad that this BETTER not be a glimpse into their future. No clubbing cousins!!!!
Still not very excited about dancing 😉
Tess is so funny when it comes to talking to others. I think most would call her shy as she’s def more reserved with new people than my other two…but not with kids around her age. She is so drawn to other little ones and will race up to them and talk to them like they are best friends. She went on and on to this little girl and kept asking her to dance with her! It was adorable (which, btw, so is this girls outfit…right?!?!)
Colt doesn’t get his lack of dancing enjoyment from his Daddy…Uncle Brad can break it DOWN
(oh don’t worry…here’s a video…you’re welcome)
The Space Mountain Club ready for round 2!
We debated doing something else while they rode but decided just to stay where we were. Carter was getting in some good sleep and my girls were happy as could be just dancing around. They were working up a SWEAT though so we got some water and Tess was alllll about the ice!
Finding a spot for Wishes was a tad tricky and we didn’t have a whole lot of time to go get a snack before it started. I legit got anxiety about it while waiting for my drink at Starbucks and decided to just leave it. I didn’t want to risk missing seeing Tink fly one last time!!! Courtney didn’t wanna ditch her drink so she stayed and got mine too 😉 Big sister for the win haha I def let her! G-Mama wanted to get one last Disney treat for all the kids too and it totally helped wake Carter up for the fireworks!
I took this video of the LAST Wishes (the legit last one is May 11th, the new fireworks show will start the 12th)
I was REALLY bummed when they took away the Electrical Parade and I cried legit TEARS when I saw that they stopped doing the old Opening Show. I hate that I wasn’t able to experience either of those things for the last time, while knowing it was my last time, ya know? I’m not upset over Wishes changing. I know a lot of people are, but I get that changes have to happen and it’s not like my favorite Disney experience ever or anything (like the Opening Show was). I did LOVE that Disney announced it so far in advance to give time for people to experience it that one last time! I wish I’d been given the opportunity to do that with other things they’ve taken away and it was a special moment seeing the show and knowing it was the last time. Super excited to see what’s to come!
As we were watching Wishes we realized that Tess had pooped. Again. Praise the Lord for the Pull Up from the Baby Center!!! We made the call to leave her in it until we got to the car. There is just no way to handle that mess in the dark in the middle of Main Street. And we didn’t have anything to put on her either!!! It made for a fun experience in the trunk when we got to the van haha! When in doubt y’all, BUY THE PULL-UP. Best $3 I’ve spent!
Kye was literally exhausted! It was a lot of walking for him those two days! He’s significantly shorter than Colt and Payton so that’s a lot of extra steps to keep up with them 😉
Monorail Snuggles!
The poop didn’t stop her from being hardcore asleep! Girl went hard ALL day!!!
I am so thankful to Mrs. Charlotte and Mr. Rusty for always valuing time together as a family. Now that the big kids are older it really is SO FUN to watch all of them together with their cousins. This was such a great time to visit Disney with their ages and we all had such a great time making memories. I had a little bit of anxiety about planning the details of the trip for that many people and making sure everyone had an awesome time but it def paid off and made my heart so happy to see everyone else loving it so much! It’s my very favorite place and I love the opportunity to share that love with others 🙂
Disney posts are also my favorite to write. I’d LOVE to someday have the money to go to Disney on a regular basis and have Disney take up a big portion of the blog 😉 I have mentioned before but I’m NOT a Disney travel agent but I DO love to help anyone and everyone with any Disney related questions! Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram and contact me anytime!
SaveSave
My work has been featured on Love What Matters, Today Parenting and Babywise.Life. I'm also honored to be a member of the Babywise Friendly Blog Network.
You can read more about our family on my About Me page. Also be sure to follow along with me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest!
- What I’m Gifting My Family: 2024 - November 21, 2024
- Effective Parenting Tips to Discipline a 5 Year Old Child - September 24, 2024
- Happy 9th Birthday to My Daughter – Letter to Tess from Mom - August 26, 2024
