On Sunday morning, we took the monorail over to the Grand Floridian Resort for the 1900 Park Fare character breakfast. We had seen some of these characters before, but the new one was the Mad Hatter and he was a hilarious doozy! Also, we remembered some questions we wanted to ask Alice and Mary Poppins, so it was fun to have that second chance.
Afterward, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom, and we ducked in to meet Tinker Bell right at the front door. And of course, the first request was Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride. We also explored the Swiss Family Treehouse, walked around Frontierland and Adventureland, and found Rapunzel’s corner of Fantasyland. We enjoyed a great lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern and then went to check out Ariel’s Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid ride. I convinced her to try the Mad Tea Party, one of my oldies but goodies, and then she asked to meet Merida from Brave. To end our last afternoon at the park, we had a Fast Pass to meet Anna and Elsa from Frozen (praise the Lord), and she got all shy with them- until Anna got her tickled when she promised to come to the Browns’ pool this summer so that HG could teach Olaf how to swim. (What was she thinking?!?!?!) On our way to the exit, we ran across the Festival of Fantasy Parade, which we couldn’t have planned better if we tried. HG had the best seat in the house- on her daddy’s shoulders.
Afterward, we walked back to the hotel, and at HG’s request, we headed to the pool. It is important to note that her daddy took the bullet and swam with her in the 60 degree weather. Now it was a heated pool, but as I sat fully clothed in the sun, I watched them do a lot of running back and forth between the pool and the hot tub! The Contemporary also has a small beach, and HG thoroughly enjoyed making sand angels.
We cleaned up in time for a fancy dinner at the California Grill on the top of the Contemporary. It might not have been our/my best decision to skip a nap on the day of our nicest dinner, but alas, we had a wild child with us that night! Needless to say, HG and I let John handle the bill, and she was almost snoring by the time he made it back downstairs to our room.
On Monday morning (MLK Day), we gobbled down a quick breakfast and headed to the airport. We had a such a fun trip and enjoyed the time together as a family, and we are so glad we took this opportunity at this time in Helen Grace’s childhood to indulge in the magic of Disney World. She ate up every bit of it, and our faces hurt from smiling so much just watching her.
We’ll carry with us the memories of…
*endless kisses and snuggles from the baby girl
*carrying her for miles on shoulder back or on our hip
*flying around on Aladdin’s ride, over and over and over again
*bravely exploring new rides (even after being scared by the dwarfs’ one)
*the acts of kindness by Disney employees (like the man at the parade who helped us score a front row seat)
*freezing at the pool and making sand angels
*enjoying the fireworks each night
*meeting and interacting with all the magical characters
*feeling like kings with Fast Passes while bypassing the mile-long line
*freezing/sweating with our clothing choices throughout the January days
*HG’s first driving experience (watch out, world)
Enjoy these pics from Sunday…
Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare
Over breakfast on Monday morning (before we headed to the airport), HG wanted to run over to Chef Mickey’s to take a picture with the Mickey statue.
