Our original plan of Hollywood Studios changed yesterday when I switched our park pass reservation to Magic Kingdom, and as we only really wanted to see the parade as we knew it would be crazy busy being New Years Eve-Eve, I booked an early Topolino’s breakfast to fill us up for the day. We did have Topolino’s booked for the day we switch to Yacht Club, but as we also have to visit the Expo that day did our race bibs we decided that today would be less of a rush (I know I’ve said it before, but honestly, even with parks at capacity, almost every reservation does pop up during your trip).
I had to wake the girls up, but we were quickly dressed and ready to go. We have always had great experiences at Topolino’s. Whilst you may get more food at buffets, we’ve never left hungry (and we have huge appetites!) and the food and service has always been perfect. Today was no different. We had the cheeriest server ever, whose smile was completely infectious. He was really clear with what we could order (2 dishes each, one of which would be a slightly smaller version served as a side) and always around to check everything was ok. The characters were great with Donald being on especially good form and doing his best to wind the other characters up! Winnie thought he was hilarious.
When Daisy got to us, the character handler came over to say she was getting Donald to come and have a group photo as a treat. The girls were very excited, and spent ages with Daisy as Donald was messing around and taking ages to come over!! When he did come it was amazing, and they gave the girls lots of hugs (including a group hug where they nearly squashed them!!) It was perfect.
We were going to head straight to Magic Kingdom, but it was earlier than we expected and we’d forgotten the ponchos so decided to go back to the hotel first. We got in to freshly made beds including brilliant towel art/ toy positioning which the girls loved, especially as we didn’t expect it being only on day 3 and staying in a DVC room.
We saw a bus was due in 3 minutes so ran to the bus stop and caught it just in time. When we got into the park a lovely family recognised us so we had a photo with them, then headed to watch the 50th cavalcade as Winnie hadn’t said a proper goodbye to Donald at Topolino’s apparently, so needed to do that!
We then met Mickey who shook his tail feathers with the girls before grabbing some make your own popcorn and heading off to watch the 12pm parade. We really like the area outside the Olde Christmas Shoppe as it’s in the shade in winter months, so on a hot day like today it’s lovely. It also gets less crowded than Main Street, so feels a lot more relaxed.
Although we hadn’t seen any rain ourselves, the ground was slightly damp (and I mean very slightly) which meant that a lot of the parade characters couldn’t dance. Although it’s nice to see the dancing, without it the walking characters are free to roam meaning you get a lot more interaction which makes it so much fun. This time it was Gepetto who saw the girls and ran to tell Donald. Donald saw them and started jumping up and down, frantically trying to get Daisy’s attention. They then both ran to the girls and spent forever hugging them. Polly said Daisy just didn’t want to let her go, and it made her so happy. They only did let go because Mickey’s float was about to run them over!! It was honestly the perfect moment, and so magical.
Once the parade had finished we realised that after a full few days we could all do with a rest, so we decided to head back to the hotel for the afternoon. One of the only good things about 2pm park hopping is that there isn’t a mad rush to leave after the first parade, so we had no problem getting on the bus which arrived almost immediately, and Steve obviously had his mandatory 40 winks!
We then spent a few hours at the pool resting, before heading in to get ready for our meal at Jiko. Jiko is the girls’ absolute favourite and it was really nice to sit down and have a relaxed meal, although I was still pretty full from Topolino’s! The food was absolutely amazing and we couldn’t have asked for a nicer way to end the day. We did debate heading to Epcot, but instead bought a gingeraffe from the lobby and headed up to bed to watch Frozen!
Tomorrow is NYE and we’re back at the Magic Kingdom. I’m sure it will be absolutely crazy as the crowds are so much bigger than on any previous new years trip, but I’m sure we are going to have the best time ringing in 2023.
Doodle & Peg Do Disney 