Walt Disney World April 2015, Day 3 – 1900 Park Fare & Magic Kingdom

Firstly, May the 4th be with you! I’ve celebrated today by watching episodes 4,5,6 with my Star Wars loving dad. Little Miss was also initiated as she joined us to watch The Empire Strikes Back, and I’m happy to report she seemed to join it. I remember being not much older than her and sitting down with my dad to watch Star Wars, my sister and I have always been fans. I hope Little Miss will be the same and enjoy just as much some day especially with the new movies coming out, she’ll be part of a Star Wars generation just as my dad was and I was. ANYWAY, lets get back to the topic at hand, day three of our recent trip to Walt Disney World in which we swapped to a Disney hotel, ate dinner at 1900 Park Fare and spent our first evening in Magic Kingdom.

Our third morning was our last day in Kissimmee. We slept in late as our check out wasn’t until midday, late as in 9am. I was done packing and getting ready by 10:30 so we took a walk to the Ponderosa for breakfast. The Ponderosa always has a special place in my heart due to it being my dad’s favourite eatery! It was exactly the same as I remember and just as cheap. After breakfast we walked slowly back to the hotel calling in a few shops and making a few gift purchases. We checked out and i’d booked a transfer to the Disney hotel that arrived promptly. Before we knew it we were at our Disney resort and what a difference! I don’t think I’ll ever not be able to stay on Disney property again. Even when we go back in September I’m planning a couple of nights in a Disney hotel (due to jetlag and not wanting to be wandering around someone’s house with a hyper child at 4:00am!) because I just cannot fault them! Our room was ready so we dropped our bags, picked up our magicbands and took the courtesy bus to Magic Kingdom which took about 20 minutes.

We spent the afternoon in Magic Kingdom. LM napped when we first arrived so I simply walked around taking photos and taking the atmosphere. I lapped the whole park before she awoke and was ready for our first fast pass which was Winnie the Pooh. We took a ride on that, then used another one for Peter Pan’s Flight but aside from that we couldn’t go on anything else due the the queues being over 45 minutes even for things like the carousel and teacups. Instead we headed to Pete’s Silly Sideshow and waited in the air conditioned unit to meet Donald and Goofy. It was so easy to queue for a long period in there because it was so cool and LM sat on the floor with my iPad making the time go a lot quicker. LM had met both Goofy & Donald on our trip to DLP so she approached them with no fear and gave them big hugs. After we got out from meeting both of them there was still over an hour and half until our dinner reservation so we spent some time looking at Minnie Mouse toys in Big Top. Then we took a ride on The Liberty Belle. I didn’t manage to take photos as planned due to LM sitting in my lap but it was relaxing and shaded. After that we made our way to the front of the park to catch the ferry over to the Grand Floridian.

Eating at 1900 Park Fare was a dream come true for me. Like with Cinderella’s Royal Table it was something I never got to do as a child due to travelling with a boy so our character dinners were always good for both genders. 1900 Park Fare was always far too girly. I had never been to The Grand Floridian and it didn’t let me down. It was so beautiful. We had a quick change before heading to the restaurant. The dinner was with Cinderella, Prince Charming and the Tremaine family and it ended up being hands down my favourite character meal. The food was delicious, and the character interaction I cannot fault. Cinderella came to our table first, which of course pleased LM no end.. but not only that before she left she informed us that in a moment she would go dance with Prince Charming and then she would come and take LM to dance. I didn’t really think too much for it, thinking she said it to all the children, but soon there was an announcement that Cinderella and her prince would take centre stage to dance. As soon as the song ended Cinderella returned to our table and lead Little Miss away for her special dance. There were tears from me, so much so all my photos ended up all blurred! But it was our first experience of a Magic Moment and we loved it. As if that wasn’t amazing enough, although LM’s first had reservations, we all thoroughly enjoyed meeting the Tremaines. Drizella was hilarious, Anastasia kissed LM on the cheek and asked if she would be her sister rather than Drizella and Cinderella and Lady Tremaine taught her how to look down on peasants. But despite everything else being wonderful, LM loved meeting Prince Charming the most. She even stood up on her chair after he left to watch him. It was really cute and I know he loved meeting her too (I know because he told me so after we returned home).

After dinner we caught the monorail back to Magic Kingdom where the park was quietening off. We managed to meet Tinker Bell after a 5 minute wait, then we proceeded back to Fantasyland where we rode the teacups, carousel, Dumbo, It’s a Small World and snag fast passes to meet Cinderella and Rapunzel in Fairytale Hall for the first of many times. We were hoping to see Minnie and Daisy but unfortunately they’d left early, but thankfully LM’s tears soon dried up when presented with a Mickey shaped cake pop by one of the cast members in the Big Top (they told her Mickey himself had sent it over to apologise for stealing Minnie away early!) To end the evening we caught Wishes in Fantasyland before catching the bus back to the hotel.