Day 2: Be Or Guest, Magic Kingdom, Chef Mickey’s and S’mores!

Well, as is the norm for us we were all awake by 5am this morning (well, when I say ALL I am excluding Steve who, if he’d been left to his natural ways would likely still be asleep, but that was never going to happen with us three clanging about (obviously we were trying to stay quiet and let him sleep!)

We had an 8.20am breakfast for Be Our Guest which I modified to 8am last night. Now I know lots of you love BOG breakfast and lunch, and there’s no denying that it is very good value on the dining plan as it costs a lot if paying out of pocket, but I never found the breakfast food to be anything special. I’m not a big breakfast lover though, and our main reason for the early meal wasn’t actually the food. It was to get a head start on the rope drop for 7 Dwarves Mine Train. Basically, once you’ve eaten (I advise pre-ordering), so long as it’s neither an EMH or special event morning, you can go and get in the queue for the ride before regular guests are even allowed onto that part of the park. Definitely a good plan if you can’t get a FP/ want an extra FP. You can pretty much always snag a pre park dining slot close to the day as people always cancel (I booked two last trip whilst we were on the bus heading there!) and you don’t need to order full meals for everyone, so it can be a really good plan. We were sat down at Be Our Guest by 8.15, had finished eating by 8.45 (I can’t remember what everyone had other than Steve who had a Croque Madame as well as the girls’ eggs they didn’t want before declaring that instead of Disney bounding, he’d be egg bounding! Always the guarantee of a good dad joke when Daddy P is in town!)  and headed straight to the 7DMT queue and were off the ride by 9.10am, and as a bonus Winnie got to ride the front and Polly the back, which is what they wanted. 

Following 7DMT we headed for the carousel (because what other ride would you choose when the park is practically empty with no queues for any of the big rides?!) I hate spinny rides but decided to brave it, and just about coped. Afterwards the girls wanted to try and pull the sword out of the stone. This is just outside the carousel and always fun (especially when they don’t have a clue that it is stuck there unless someone presses a magic button!) While they were trying the stepsisters walked past and started cheering them on, which they loved!

Now up until this point the weather had been good to us and we’d managed to stay dry. However, as we walked away from the sword in the stone the heavens opened and the rain began.

We were well equipped with ponchos and rain macs but lately Winnie has been suffering from anxiety about everyday issues, one of which is the fact that she thinks the world is going to flood if even a drop of rain falls (thanks Noah…your Ark has traumatised my child!) She started quite shakily but after a ride on Small World which clearly numbed her senses (and mine!) she decided she was feeling brave and managed the rest of the day without any wobble although the cynic in me thinks that the promise of a look around the toy shop to spend her (half) birthday money may have contributed to the sudden curing of all fears! 

We watched the Rainy Day Cavalcade (a mini parade with select characters in cars accompanied by dancers in rain gear which replaces some of the regular shows/ parades in bad weather), went on Peter Pan (fast pass), teacups and Carousel of Progress (Polly’s absolute favourite)

We then set off for our Fast Pass to meet Mickey & Minnie who are currently appearing together in their birthday celebration outfits (if you want to meet them I strongly suggest getting a fast pass as the regular line didn’t drop below 50 minutes all day and that was in a quiet park).. They were great with all the people meeting them and spent ages with each family, which I always think makes it extra special. The girls always lose the ability to speak when they meet characters and this was no exception so poor old Mickey really had to work hard, but they loved it. 

Then came the moment I dread…shopping with Winnie! Now if you took Kim Kardashian’s love of shopping and mixed it with the world’s most indecisive person you’d pretty much get Winnie. Shopping with her  is literally torture. I can honestly feel my blood pressure rising with every soft toy we look at (then look at again, and again, and again!) Steve saw sense and decided to go and get a coffee whilst we shopped (thanks for that!) so we hit the Emporium. Both girls had a gift card we’d bought in New York to give them as a birthday present from their Nana & Grandad, so for once I felt I couldn’t say no to whatever they chose.
Big mistake.
Huge! 
Quite literally, as the photographic evidence of Polly’s toy of choice shows.

In fairness she adores Lotso in every shape and size, and the first toy we ever bought her from Disney World when she was only a baby was a Lotso as she picked it up and wouldn’t let go, so from a sentimental viewpoint it was incredibly cute. But come on! Could she have found anything bigger? At least Winnie chose regular sized toys I guess. And all the money was spent meaning no more shopping trips so that’s a small blessing! We did tell them they couldn’t have them today due to the rain, but Steve sneaked and got them without the girls knowing and when they saw them (you couldn’t actually miss them. I think Lotso may actually be visible from the moon!) they were so happy and grateful. Little sweethearts. They even did a bit of singing and dancing in the rain to celebrate!

Before we left MK we nipped up to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique to sew a very special fairy godmother in training who has made Winnie over twice. They also share the same birthday, and last year she actually sent the most beautiful card and present for Winnie. She was hoping to make the girls over on Polly’s birthday but messaged me to say she was on a course that day, so we promised to go and find her and say hello. She is so incredibly lovely and the girls loved seeing her again. Disney really does have some wonderful CMs. 

We then left the park to head to The Contemporary hotel for a Chef Mickey brunch. Now, this really isn’t my favourite and if it was just Steve and I we would never choose it (to me it is just like a huge, noisy school canteen with food of a similar standard to that you were served by the dinner ladies, except no chips and beans) but as it was Winnie’s special day (her 6.5 birthday…it’s a real thing…honestly!) we asked where she wanted to eat and that’s what she chose.

To be fair, the girls ate loads and despite Donald and Pluto seemingly desperate to get through as many guests as possible in the shortest time (even Polly asked if there was something wrong with them as they were acting crazy!) the other characters were good and we had time to chill/ dry out. Minnie spent ages with the girls and marched them around the restaurant, which was cute. Mickey was lovely but  seemingly suffering from memory lapse as he kept getting told off by the handlers for doing things wrong (probably not the best term to use as it makes them sound decidedly dodgy!) and Goofy was really funny (he’s always my favourite!) 

We then caught the monorail back to MK to catch the bus home. If we’d been in a rush we’d have either walked to the bus stop or got a Lyft/ Uber straight back, but the girls were keen to ride the monorail so we decided to go with it. The monorail travels clockwise around the resorts, so from MK to Contemporary is only 1 stop, but the return journey is 4 stops so don’t opt for it if you’re in a rush. Or if it’s hot and crowded and you have a strong sense of smell. Or a child with a strong sense of smell and zero tact!

We finally got back on a crazily crowded bus and the girls were desperate to go in the pool. It was actually almost sunny despite spitting with rain but as Winnie pointed out, what’s a bit of rain if you’re wet anyway? (Although she did also state that if it started chucking it down she was getting out. You can take the girl out if Derbyshire..!) I stayed poolside as Steve said he’d watch the girls (they’re great swimmers but AKL pool gets very deep very quickly and we wouldn’t let them go in without one of us. Also he owed me for the Starbucks/ shopping incident earlier). I’d bought Steve and the girls matching swimwear for the holidays (which I thought would be hilarious until they discovered there was also a matching bikini for me. I’ve hidden it in the hope they’ll forget!!)  Whilst we were at the pool (after the girls had. Even down the slide for the 100th time!) we bumped into a lovely lady called Skylar who  works at AKL and who we’d met on a visit 2 years ago. She then worked at Simba’s Cubhouse which the girls had begged us to take them to. Now our girls don’t like bring away from us, so we said we’d leave them for an hour then collect them. However, they loved Skylar so much they ended up staying for 3 hours and going back another night, which shows just how amazingly wonderful she is. We kept in touch and she knew the girls were going back but it was pure coincidence that she saw us. She told us about the s’mores activity around the campfire so obviously the girls wanted to go there. Quick change out of swimwear and we were roasting marshmallows like pros (well, if the definition of a pro  marshmallow roaster is someone who turns marshmallows to charcoal!) I say ‘we’ but I refrained from this particular activity. Marshmallows are not a good source I choose to consume since playing a game with my friend in my younger years (still old enough to know better!) where we decided to see how many Flumps we could fit into our mouths (as you do!) What I didn’t take into account was the fact that as your mouth fills up, the flumps start to slide down your throat and which isn’t great for your breathing (disclaimer: don’t try this at home!) some rather tricky and gag inducing  forced Flump removal later normal breathing was resumed, but I haven’t been able to look at marshmallows in the same way since! 

Anyway, the girls had fun and also enjoyed spotting the animals (there were so many out tonight…it really is an amazing resort). By now it was past tea time but we  were all still stuffed from Chef Mickey’s because even when at a slightly sub-standard restaurant we still manage to consume enough food to put us into a serious food coma for at least 6 hours, so we just grabbed a flatbread for the girls to share before heading to the room for an early night. 

Epcot tomorrow. Kind of hoping for another rainy day as I’d take ‘rainy and cool’ over ‘hotter than Hades oven’ any day of the week, but suspect that won’t be the case! 

Thanks for reading everyone.