Tuesday - 3/5/13
We woke up this morning and again asked Aaron what he wanted to do. Since we had changed plans last minute the day before and headed to Epcot it was no surprise that he asked to do MK so off we went! We arrived before the Welcome Show and got to catch the entire thing (which was lovely).
Once we were let in I realized everyone was running down mainstreet and very few folks were heading into Town Square to see Mickey so I suggested it and off we went! We got Aaron's new autograph book out and ready and I prepped the photopass. We had a tiny wait and then in we went. I came around the corner to hand my PP to the photographer to find there wasn't one. I wasn't happy... at all... but luckily about 30 seconds after I snapped this photo one walked in! Unfortunately when we got home we found the photos he took weren't in our account but luckily they were there after a detailed submission to the help department!
The first thing we had to do before we did anything else was take Aaron into The Chapeau for a new ear hat. He had been looking at each store before and didn't see anything that caught his eye but we walked in and I knew what he was going to chose... Oswald ears! Man he loved them and the rest of the trip he loved people pointing them out!
First on the agenda? New Fantasyland... of course! We headed back through Cindy's castle and once we came out the other side I teared up at just how beautiful the walls were. I really wasn't sure what to think of them from photos but seeing them in person was pretty incredible. I cannot imagine how amazing this area is going to look/feel when the coaster opens!
We thought for sure we'd be walking into a huge wait for Mermaid but headed back to check. Instead we were pleasantly surprised and literally walked onto the ride... so quickly in fact that despite my best efforts I could not for the life of me find the Nautilus (anyone help me to that end?).
What a great attraction this was! Even Aaron loved it (and that's saying a lot because he's entering the "that's girly" phase). I was completely blow away by the Ursula animatronic... that thing is impressive! Flotsom and Jetsom were both working perfectly and I saw no sign of anything in need of repair. Start to finish I just loved it!
After the ride we realized we hadn't eaten breakfast and we were a bit hungry. We decided Pork was used in sausage so it counts as breakfast so we headed into Gaston's for a shank and a brew (breakfast of champions). My opinions: Shank was so not worth it and a Turkey Leg beats it hands down. The brew on the otherhand was fantastic! Yummmmmmy!
We walked around toward Belle's Tales to take a look but the wait was nuts so we skipped it as well as a chance to check out Be Our Guest. These were two things at the top of my want list this trip but I'm ok with saving them for next time I suppose... it was kind of a common thing that the things on the top of my list had to be skipped due to wait times or just plain not having time and for once, I was actually ok with that!
As we headed out of New Fantasyland and back into Old Fantasyland (lol) we saw no wait at the carousel and jumped on! Can someone tell me if I'm remembering this right... the horse with the gold bow on the tail is Cindy's and this one is her prince's horse isn't it?
As we came around the exit, Aaron insisted on trying to pull the sword from the stone. The poor kiddo was hell bent on doing it (I tried to explain he can't) and got really frustrated by the end of it...
Bill being a Grumpy fan (can you tell?) we had to get a shot of him with this:
We then decided to head around to Storybook Circus and check out the new Dumbo queue and give them a spin (hah get it?). Ironically there was no line so the queue was optional but we decided to stop in and let Aaron play for about 20 minutes or so anyway. He loved it in here and Dumbo became his new favorite ride during this trip. Until now he had only ridden it twice (once when he was only 10 months old and once when he was 3) simply because the lines were normally too long. Now between the new queue and not standing in line, he just loved it.
Going backwards for a second... my good friend Maria and her son Brandon also happened to book a trip for this week so we had been hoping to catch up at some point with them. Aaron and Brandon are getting to know each other and are a handful when they get together so we knew it'd be a short visit. We decided to meet up at Village Haus for lunch together but between her getting stuck in a long queue at Big Thunder and Village Haus being a flippin' mad house, it didn't quite happen like we wanted. We both ate there but arrived about 20 minutes apart so we didn't catch up until after. We decided to hop onto It's a Small World together after we ate!
Next on the agenda was another first for all of us... Tom Sawyer Island! Can you believe in all my trips I've never done this? WOW was I missing out!! What fun this place was! We spent at least an hour out here just exploring. Aaron loved the mine and the barrel bridge especially.
Now... there were a few things Aaron wanted to do this trip that he had never done before but we knew as they were brought up he'd probably get nervous and decide not to do them. One of these was Big Thunder. From TSI he kept watching it and he'd bounce from "yes" to "no" so we weren't sure what to expect. We headed over toward it and noticed a 45 minute standby wait but that the current FPs were for 30 minutes from now. One of those "duh" moments again... so we grabbed 3 FPs, let Bill have a smoke break and watched the geysers for a bit until it was time. Not only did Aaron do great... he kept lifting his hands in the air the entire time. He LOVED it!!
On our way out of Frontierland we stopped by to visit the Country Bears. I am much happier with this version of the show. The shorter songs made it a little easier for Aaron to sit through and behave and overall it felt a little more fluid in my opinion.
Next up Aaron was promised a trip on Aladdin's carpets and decided to ride with daddy!
We jumped on the Jungle Cruise while we were over here as well as Pirates if I remember right (again this is where my not taking pictures makes this not quite as exact as I'd like). Then we headed back over toward Fantasyland to grab a teacup ride.
We rode the TTA twice during this day (but can't place when) as well as jumped onto CoP. Soon it was 7:00 and nearly time for us to check in at Aaron's surprise... The Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party!
We checked in, pigged out, watched MSEP and MM&Y but by the time it had ended Aaron wasn't feeling well (too much sugar not enough real food) so we ended up leaving in advance of Wishes. Disappointing but overall a good call because we beat the insanity to the monorail and back to the T&TC.
