Catch up on our Disney Recaps here: Disney Travel with a Newborn | Disney Part One | Disney Part Two
When we decided to reschedule our trip for Thanksgiving week, my sister and I were both thrilled about the way the dates fell. My birthday is almost always the week before the holiday, but this year’s calendar was a little different and since my niece, Vera, and I share a birthday — we got to celebrate 39 and ONE in the most magical place of all.
I try to plan Magic Kingdom as our first and last day, because it’s the best, but we just couldn’t work that out for this trip. My parents and Molly left the morning of Thanksgiving and since they wanted to see all four parks + Universal in their five days, we couldn’t repeat until after they left. We were aiming to be there by rope drop, but we ended up arriving about 30 minutes after the park opened and it definitely affected what we were able to see in one day.
The Ferry Boat is my favorite way to arrive — at least on the first visit of a trip — because I love seeing the castle appear around the corner.
This was Hudson’s first visit and he was so excited to finally be there. It’s super hard to explain to the littlest ones that every park is Disney, when the castle doesn’t greet you at every door.
Let me go ahead and tell you that the weather was SO WARM while we were there. It had been forecast as a cool week and we packed mostly leggings and sweatshirts and we ended up with mid to upper eighties most days. The girls each had a single pair of shorts and I had NOTHING. Even Walmart didn’t have a pair of shorts without Minnie’s face on them, so I just suffered in silence all week long. I’m sure the postpartum hot flashes didn’t help.
Hudson’s request was to ride the teacups first, so we headed straight for Fantasyland. We had out-of-the-park brunch reservation, so we needed to pack as much into two hours as we could.
After that, we headed over to Dumbo’s Flight and hopped on with Polly. What a perfect first ride experience, right?
Next, we took the Monorail to the Grand Floridian Resort and had a birthday brunch with Mary Poppins & friends. How excited do you think I was about that juice and an epic brunch for my birthday?!
Why, yes, I did have turkey & dressing, caesar salad, macaroni & cheese, and Mickey waffles for breakfast. It was my favorite meal of the week.
Sophie and I had watched Mary Poppins a few days before our trip, mostly because we were excited about the sequel coming out for the holidays. We honestly had no idea that Mary would be at our brunch — the characters vary at this location — and she was so excited to see her come through the door. Can you even deal with the look on her face?
Our waitress brought us cupcakes with buttercream icing for Vera and I to share, but we were so full by the time they arrived. We ended up carrying them with us and they made an excellent afternoon snack.
Let me tell you that if you’re ever in the parks on or around your birthday, you must get a birthday button. We got special treatment all day and so many of the cast members wish you a happy birthday during your stay. Even random guests were giving us birthday wishes!
Since we were in a hurry when we arrived the first time, we stopped on Main Street U.S.A. for a family photo op, when we entered the second time. I hate that Polly isn’t looking up at the camera, but this is my favorite family photo of our trip.
The big kids decided that the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was first on their list, so my mom, sister & I sat with the babies. We had snacks and shopped and talked and it was kind of amazing. The 90 minute wait turned out to be more than three hours, thanks to some train malfunctions, and they all voted that it wasn’t worth the wait. This meant we didn’t get quite as much done on our first day in MK, but who can complain about seeing the Mouse?
My dad is a Disney lover and has been regularly taking his girls since we were little. He loves the Swiss Family Robinson tree house, so we made it a priority to visit while we were there. Fortunately, there isn’t ever a line, so we were able to walk right through.
After a few more rides in Adventureland, we got in line for the Jungle Cruise, where we experienced more than a few cringe-worthy moments. The line was hot and such close quarters and there was no breeze. We had limited water and snacks at this point and the troops were getting restless. Polly had a blowout and I ended up changing her diaper on the ground with a million strangers watching over my shoulders. We had the worst cruise ship captain, who yelled at my sister (multiple times) for letting Vera stand up in her lap. We could not have gotten off quick enough.
The girls insisted we wait for the fireworks show, so Josh took the big girls to ride Space Mountain while we got hot dogs for the little ones and staked out a spot. Sophie made herself at home underneath our strollers and refused to wake up when the show began. Any guesses who cried about that later in the evening?
