We decided to spend our last day in the parks at Magic Kingdom. When we walked in, we were a little surprised that overnight, everything had been decorated for Christmas; the Disney elves had been hard at work the night before! Marie was just inside Main Street to greet us.
We headed towards Adventureland and had the opportunity to meet Tinkerbell.
We also met Tinkerbell's sister, Periwinkle. They are the stars of a new movie that the girls had just seen; they love the movie, so they were excited to meet these fairies.
We made it to our first ride of the day, Aladdin's Magic Carpet. Both girls really enjoyed this ride as they flew us up and down and tilted the carpet forwards and backwards.
After the magic carpets, we rode Pirates of the Caribbean which neither girl really cared for. Though they like pirates, they like more of the cartoon, nice, Jake kind than the scary, dirty, Jack Sparrow kind. After that, Liz and Mia headed to Country Bear Jamboree which Mia absolutely loved. While they were there, Ryan, Lily and I went to ride Big Thunder Railroad which Lily always calls "the fast train." She loved it when we visited a couple of years ago, and she had been very excited to ride it again. She still loved it.
After meeting back up, we started wandering over towards the new Fantasyland that isn't opened yet. However, Ryan happened to talk to the right employee at the right time, and they let us in to preview everything! It was awesome!
We took our time meandering around, and we happened back to the Ariel's Under the Sea ride. As we walked up, they unchained it and let us and few others in to try it. Pretty cool ride as you hear and see the story of Ariel while riding along in a clam shell.
As we left the ride, a gentleman approached me and asked if we had met Ariel. I responded that it was just a ride and you couldn't meet her here. He said "you meet her down there" and pointed just past the ride. There was one employee standing by herself that we assumed was there to direct people back the other direction (they are still doing construction just past her). We walked over, and sure enough, she told us to follow the lines to Ariel's Grotto. We did and walked right up to Ariel! Lily had just dressed up like Ariel for Halloween last week, so I think she was super excited about this meet and greet. They talked for several minutes as there was no one else in line behind us. I like this one on one with characters!
After meeting Ariel, we decided to take a break for a little snack at Gaston's Tavern.
Who should we meet but Gaston himself?
Mia and I showing off our Gaston muscles in his big chair.
The girls had frozen apple juice in this souvenir cup; it was really delicious. We all enjoyed it, actually. We also snacked on pretzel chips and hummus which gave us the little break and energy boost we needed.
As we walked back, we stopped into an awesome new attraction called "Belle's Enchanted Tales." You walk through Belle's home into Maurice's workshop. It opens up into a special room where Madame Wardrobe (with the assistance of an employee) hands out roles for all the kids, a few adults and anyone who wants to participate in the show. We had three people from our party called up to act: Lily as the talking portrait, Mia as a pepper shaker and Liz as Madame Wardrobe due to her awesome opera soprano singing skills!
When everyone is ready, you are taken into Beast's library where Belle comes out and acts out her story with all the "actors." She even dances with the little boy who plays Beast! At the end, each individual gets called up for a picture and to receive a special bookmark from Belle.
I think it's safe to say that all three of our actors loved it! We finally decided to leave this area because Ryan was able to snag dinner reservations for us in the new Belle's castle in this area. Seriously, how lucky were we today?!
The four girls couldn't resist another spin on the carousel.
After the carousel, we headed back to Pinocchio's Village Haus for lunch because we had enjoyed it so much the other day. It was yummy again. After lunch, we decided we didn't have time to go back for a nap, so we rented a stroller (really wish we had done this other days) and just took it easy strolling around to let the girls rest a little bit. We headed over and took a ride on the easy going People Mover.
After exiting that, we had the chance to meet Buzz Lightyear before riding his Space Rangers ride.
Afterwards, we headed over to the race cars ride. Lily drove me around.
Mia drove Ryan. I think we both felt a little queasy after all the back and forth and bumping that went on!
We chilled out to the "Celebrate a Dream Come True" parade. The girls liked that all the main characters made an appearance during this parade.
We waited just a couple of minutes and rode It's A Small World again. Both girls really love this ride. Lily kept talking about the "botanical gardens" part a the end where it says "good-bye" in many languages; we had to snap this picture.
We had just a little more time available, so we went to meet Goofy and Donald. Lily didn't want anything to do with this, so she stayed in the stroller with Liz while Mia went in with Ryan and me. Little bit with a big Goofy.
A little side hug for Donald.
Finally it was time to head back into the new Fantasyland area for dinner in Belle's Castle. What a neat experience. We were a little disappointed that we didn't get to sit in the humongous, beautiful ballroom; instead we ate in Beast's West Wing where the enchanted rose is kept. While it looked like it was snowing outside of the ballroom, we had dinner in a thunderstorm which scared the kids for a bit. The food was pretty good, and I would be happy to eat there again though I would love to be in the ballroom next time. Hey, we consider ourselves fortunate that we even got to try it out though.
We were all worn out after the day, so we headed on back after this to get a good night's sleep. The parks have been a blast!
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