Spring Break Day 5: Walt Disney World (Part 1 of 2)

Anabella must have been half asleep when she accidentally put on Mommy's shirt the morning we set out for Disney! She was quite amused with herself. 

Knowing we had a lot to fit in in one day, we got an early start on the day we set out for Disney, arriving at the park just as they opened, around 8:30am.

Woohoo, Mickey & Minnie, here we come!!! 

Here's some cute selfies Chip took of us waiting for the tram:

By the time we took the tram and then the monorail and then got tickets....it was after 9 am before we actually got into the park. 

The first thing we did was hop in line to see Minnie. Only a 45 minute wait, which was way short compared to the 120 minute one we waited in later for Elsa & Anna.

Anabella is a hugger!!
Her teacher (and assistant) have both told me that they love how she greets them with a big hug every morning. She does the same thing with her ballet instructor. And, apparently with Minnie, too! You better believe she got hugs in with Anna and Elsa later that day, too. 

Besides Cinderella, who we'd met at our breakfast at 1900 Park Fare, Anabella was interested in three others (two actually): Minnie and Elsa. I'm so glad we waited in the line to see Minnie first thing that morning because we didn't see her anywhere else during the day. Besides the parades, of course. Plus, while we were in line for Minnie, we caught part of the welcoming parade.

So sweet.
One of my favorite pictures from the day. 

Our first ride was the teacups. Not too bad a wait, maybe a half hour or so. 

Next, we hit the Tomorrowland Speedway. 

No need to guess who was driving my car! 

Riding shotgun with this cute race car driver was one of the highlights of my day! 

 Chip rode with Belle, but she wasn't interested in driving, so he did. Following this, we tried to do the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (slower type roller coaster ride we were all planning to enjoy), but this is when the real lines started. Estimated wait time 110 minutes. Ugh.

Instead, we opted for some smaller lesser known rides with shorter wait times. Dan wanted to do the Astro Orbiter and Anabella wanted to see Elsa & Anna.  Seeing from our Disney app that the wait times weren't going to be getting any better, we decided that it might be best for us to divide and conquer if we were going to get anything accomplished.

Dan and I tried out the Astro Orbiter in Tomorrowland.

Not wanting to wait 2+hours for Elsa, Daddy and Belle went to the carousel. 

Such a ham.
And she's never found a carousel she didn't like. :) 

There's a "fast pass" option on the MyDisneyExperience app where you could schedule yourself for rides with longer wait times. Only there were so many people using it, because we didn't do it ahead of time, we didn't get many of our fast pass picks. But, the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was the one ride that actually worked for us. Only had to wait 15 minutes for this one in the fast pass lane, when the line without fast pass was 90 minutes. 

This was one of my favorite Disney rides. Dan's too.
I love that my boy likes roller coasters!! 

 Believe it or not, by the time we got off the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, it was already lunchtime! But before we could eat, we had to watch the "Festival of Fantasy" parade.

We ate lunch at Pecos Bill's Tall Tale Inn & Cafe.

Dan ate a burger, Belle had a BBQ sandwich and Chip and I had yummy chicken sandwiches. We all ate every bite, having worked up an appetite since our early breakfast that morning in our room.

Fueled up, we were ready to go full speed ahead! Only we didn't have far to go, since our next stop was one of my all time favorite Disney attractions (second to It's a Small World): the Old Country Bear Jamboree.

Just like I remember it!
Oh, the glory of Disney!! 

Next stop: Tom Sawyer Island

After checking the wait times for some of our other "must see" attractions, we decided our best bet was the train!

Choo choo....

When we saw this, Daniel got excited, "Hey, look, Mommy, we rode that!"

Disney was the only place we rented a stroller, and we did need it that day. It was warmer than it had been all week and very sunny.  When we dropped off our stroller at the train station, we were assured there were be plenty at the next station to choose from. And, there were. Just no doubles. A few minutes later, one was returned and we were on our way again.....

We were close to where Elsa and Anna were doing their greetings at this point, so we decided to wait that out since it's the one thing Anabella kept requesting. 

But two hours, really?!

How about some ice cream first?! 

Finally, after some consideration of the wait times and the fact that we knew that the fireworks and electrical parade were "must sees" for us, we decided to head out of the park for a few hours and to return to see Anabella's favorite princess later. Plus, after seeing that most of the girls in line were wearing their Frozen costumes, I decided a change of outfit might be in order. On the way out of the park, we caught another parade! I love the way Anabella would wave at the characters! 

Minutes. A few minutes and they were both out. At that point, we knew we'd made the right decision. And, since they were sleeping and I was kicking myself for not bringing Anabella's Elsa costume, I ran in the Walmart close to the resort to get her another one. Meanwhile, they slept the entire time, so they got a good half hour nap in, which is just what they needed to make it through the rest of the night. 

I knew that the Elsa costume I bought would be too itchy for my sensitive girl. And, sure enough, I ended up taking it back a few days later. Knowing this ahead of time, I also bought a little blue/pink tutu as a back-up, which I figured would be cute paired with one of her Frozen shirts. Sure enough, that's what she picked. More comfortable. And more her style anyway. Since then, she's wanted to wear it daily, so turns out it was  a good purchase after all.

Stay tuned- our evening at the Magic Kingdom is coming soon!