Magic Kingdom Take 2

We only just managed our early start this morning with a meet up at 7:15 at the bus stop. We were eagerly awaiting our breakfast at Crystal Palace. It was Elyssa's real birthday today. She turned 6 today. How time flies! We chuckled as we were seated at the same table 3 years ago when we celebrated Elyssa's 3rd birthday! As always, the characters at the Crystal Palace were a delight and the children loved the interaction. The wait staff though seemed a little grumpy. Nothing could dampen my spirits though, I had spotted biscuit and sausage gravy. Unhealthy I know but I love it and I can only eat it while I am in America! The breakfast lasagne was a great way to finish off breakfast before we explored more of the Magic Kingdom.

An empty Main Street! Jonah is off! Sam following closely behind

Shirley also ready to go

Elyssa the birthday girl

Ahhh...the castle

Ready for breakfast

Eeyore

Yes that sickly grey thing at the back is my favourite! Biscuit and sausage gravy...yum! And the blurred thing at the front aint too bad either. Breakfast pizza!

Breakfast lasagne - layers of waffles, pound cake, pancakes, strawberries and bananas, topped with pastry cream and caramelised sugar. All the good stuff!

Yes! Jonah consented to a photo with a character!

Happy Birthday! Cupcake with a card signed by all the characters

To Malcolm's relief, Splash Mountain was open today and so it received the honour of being our first ride of the day. The morning rushed by quickly, we stopped at Pecos Bill for lunch. The huge breakfast seemed to have been burnt off quickly! We stopped quickly at the shops to buy Elyssa a birthday present  before heading back to the resort for a rest and a swim.

The new interactive features within the queue at the haunted mansion

All smiles at the beginning of the ride

The drop

Still cheering at the end, so all must be good!

Nothing like the Dapper Dans to put you in the festive mood.

The children declared the pool "awesome". The nap eventuated for some but not all. We headed back to the Magic Kingdom in time to watch the flag lowering ceremony. Having had the best surprise last year when we had a most wonderful wild rice and mushroom soup, we returned to Sleepy Hollow Inn for a light dinner. On the menu this time though was tomato soup. We were disappointed to miss out on the wild rice and mushroom soup but the tasty tomato soup made a good substitute. Dessert was none other than funnel cake!

The flag lowering ceremony

Guess who didn't sleep in the afternoon?!?!

The soup place

Funnel cake!

The castle with its fairy lights on!

We strolled over to watch the castle being lit up before going on the Monsters Inc laugh floor. It was a particularly funny show and my abdominals which were in poor form ached from laughter. It was then time to head towards the Fastpass + reserved viewing area for the Main Street Electrical Parade. It was amazing the number of people that try to squeeze their way into the reserved area. We had to inform at least 10 parties that they had to have a fastpass+ reservation to enter, and not just go through under the ropes signed with "Reserved"...

I simply love Disney parades and the Main Street electrical Parade was no exception. The last time I saw this parade was when I was a little girl at Disneyland. The brilliantly lit up floats and dancers were so beautiful! We had a great position to watch the parade being right up by the ropes with an unobstructed view. It was definitely worth using up a Fastpass + reservation. We were at the hub right in front of the castle. At the end of the parade, we stayed put and we were already in position for the Celebrate the Magic castle projection. This nearly brought me to tears. The music and the images were just spectacular. It was much better than the much loved Dreams in Paris Disneyland in my opinion. Our evening ended with the spectacular Wishes Fireworks. One could not wish for a better day!

Waiting for the parade to start

The castle exploded in colour!