Magic Kingdom

We woke up pretty refreshed for our Magic Kingdom day!  Headed over to the dining hall for Glenn's wonderful instant coffee and I ordered an omelet to split which was very good!

While I was waiting for the omelet to cook, I glanced back and saw Glenn talking to a guy - now usually when we go on vacation, it seems Glenn ALWAYS finds someone he knows.............yes, really!!  So I wasn't surprised to see him talking to someone.  When I got back to the table I asked who it was. Glenn said he had no idea - the guy had come up to him and said, "I want to be JUST LIKE YOU when I get older."  And Glenn says, "WHAT???"  And the guy replied - "You have on your "Islands" hat, (Glenn had worn a ball cap that had a palm tree and Island written on it) and your Mexico jacket (Glenn had on his jacket from Cabo which has a large fish on the back on it and CABO written on it) and that's just what I want to do later in life!!"  Glenn got a real kick out of that!

I went out earlier than usual to stand in line for the buses and they were already running that day so we didn't have long to wait before we climbed on and headed to the Magic Kingdom!  (And no, it wasn't so early that it was dark out!!  I took this when we came back that evening!)

 All of the parks have a huge decorated Christmas tree with decorations representing the park it's in - this tree was beautiful at night!!  And of course all the parks are decorated for Christmas so it really makes it special to go this time of year!  Several places had Christmas music playing too!

 And here is the magnificent castle!!

 We started at the back of the park again and basically walked on 2 rides - the park was pretty crowded that day and it felt like we were dodging strollers all day long!!  Which we were!!

Our first fastpass was Splash Mountain - it's a roller coaster but  not a steep one and it does go through some water so I knew we would get a little wet but nothing serious!  After riding it, I decided that would be my last roller coaster ride!  Even though most of the ride was really enjoyable, the steep part we came down was NOT FUN for me - guess I am just getting old!!  So I didn't have to worry about riding any more roller coaster rides that day!!

I was extremely disappointed when we went to The Haunted Mansion (one of my favorite rides) and found it was closed for renovation....................But we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean which is my all time favorite ride in this park!  It's SO NICE to just walk on with that fastpass as the lines were almost an hour long!

We had Mexican for lunch (along with more frozen lemonade) and then enjoyed the Hall of Presidents - we have never seen that production before as I guess it just didn't interest me but it did this year and it was very well done!

And then I found it - the place I had been looking for but didn't quite remember - it was the Dole Pineapple stand and they make the most amazing pineapple/ice cream drinks ever!!!  If you ever go, you must have one!!

We started standing by the rope for the parade about 1/2 hour early so we could be right in front - I hadn't brought the umbrella or the ponchos that day (0% chance of rain) as we just carried one small backpack and those 2 items made it rather bulky - and of course it started raining!!  Luckily it wasn't heavy so we just held our spot for the parade!!

And the parade was well worth waiting for - all the princesses and characters are in it and it's wonderful!

 This dragon even breathed fire as it goes by!!

 After the parade we did "Peter Pan" which is a fun ride as you're in a small sailboat that suspends and it feels like you're flying through the sky!!  A fastpass for this ride is a must as it's always busy and the line was up to a 90 minute wait time when we went!

Since the evening fireworks over the castle is not till 10 at night, we opted to go back to the hotel to rest and eat before coming back that evening - a wise choice!  I stopped and got a frappachino to enjoy on the ride back.

I think our longest wait out of all 4 days was 25 minutes and we did wait it out so we could ride Buzz Lightyear - it's a fun ride where you go through different sections and shoot the gun in front of you at all different kinds of items!!  Of course Glenn beat me!!  We stopped for ice cream again before the fireworks that night  - they were amazing and the castle changes colors during the evening!  There was also a production shown on the front of the castle which was fun to watch!!

Once again, an awesome day - and only one day left!!