August 2021: Magic Kingdom

Happy Monday! Here I was, ready to begin a recap of day 2, when I realized day 1 wasn't finished yet! I know these things keep dragging out and I'm sorry - it's been a wild few weeks here since we returned home from our trip!

Hands down, one of our favorite parts of staying at BLT was the easy walkable access to the Magic Kingdom. In fact, we did it twice in one day - once in the morning, then again in the afternoon after our swim!

It's a fairly quick walk - and they have security there, so you don't have to worry about passing through them with a huge crowd at the MK itself.

Seeing the castle all decked out for the 50th Anniversary was a pretty neat thing, too!

Not long after we arrived, this little dude was worn out. Jason and I decided to eat lunch at Sleepy Hollow, and I ordered an extra set of chips for Brayden that we saved for later.

So good!

To give him an extra bit of sleeping time, we decided to visit Carousel of Progress. 

Poor dad was losing an eyelash! 

We were excited to see the TTA open, so after Carousel, we jumped in line for a ride!

Of course, Brayden requested two of his favorites - the Speedway and the Teacups. I think it's hilarious I avoided the Teacups all these years and it's really not that bad of a ride - you can make it what you want!

The next request was Dumbo, so that's where we went!

Quick story about those glasses on my face - I lost them.......in Dumbo.....in the play room. They slipped out of my book sack when I was reaching for something else. They are the Disney Ray Bans - Mickey's 90th birthday edition. When I realized they were missing, I panicked. We had just walked outside to queue up for the ride itself. Thankfully, the cast members let me walk back inside. I searched the room and wasn't able to find the glasses, so I asked the CM's at the table if anyone had turned in a pair of sunglasses. MUCH to my surprise, a wonderful soul had turned them in!! I was so so so grateful!! Those glasses are also now on a leash. And will never come off! HAH!

By mid-afternoon, we knew we wanted a cold snack, so we walked over to Adventureland. Jason's choice was the "backside of water float", and I ordered the kakamora float. Each float came from a different location in Adventureland and mine seriously took forever. Jason was mostly finished with his by the time mine was ready! Crazy!

They were both VERY good, though!

We also ordered Bray a little cup of ice cream. 

After our snack, we went back to Bay Lake Tower to swim, then returned to the Magic Kingdom for the evening.

This trail of ducks were the CUTEST! They were walking in a line into the entryway tunnel! 

Our dinner reservations that evening were at the Plaza Restaurant. 

I'd read mixed reviews about this place online, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect...

The inside of the restaurant was cute and quaint. I was honestly surprised at how small it was inside!

Brayden had chicken tenders and fries. Not gonna lie, the batter on these tenders was good!

I ordered the meatloaf which is one of the dishes they are known for...

...and Jason had the plaza burger. 

To be honest, I don't think we will be back. This was likely a one and done for us. 

After dinner, we walked outside and saw the crowds lining up for Happily Ever After. We still had about an hour and 15 minutes before the show, but I knew this would be one of our only chances to see it this trip and likely our last time to ever see the show.

So, we staked out a spot and Brayden fell asleep...again! Hah!

The fireworks were gorgeous and magical and everything I love about Disney nighttime shows. I'll be honest - I hated to see Wishes go and it took a while for Happily Ever After to stick with me. Now, I'm going to be sad to see this one go. There might have even been tears. Ok, there were lots of tears...

After the fireworks, we had 45 minutes to play, so we made our way to Tomorrowland for Brayden's new favorite ride - the Astro Orbiter!

We also stayed at the MK WAY past his bedtime but who cares...YOLO!

They were gearing up for their first Boo Bash of the season, so some pumpkin decor was already out. So much fun to see!

...and that's a wrap on day one of our August trip! Day 2 coming at you this week...promise! :)

Disney 2021: Our Final Day!

Our final morning at Walt Disney World came before we knew it! Our friends had a later flight, so we planned to spend our morning at the Magic Kingdom with them!

Thankfully, we had Jason's truck available, so we packed the truck with our luggage before heading over to the boats to take us to the MK.

Our first stop at the Magic Kingdom was for Mine Train. We rope dropped, were allowed in the park extra early, then realized the ride was not actually working! Whomp whomp! 

While walking through Fantasyland, we discovered that the Tea Cups were undergoing refurbishment. We were so happy we were able to ride them earlier in the week!

While our friends and Jason rode Space Mountain, Brayden and I took our time walking around Tomorrowland.

We rode Buzz Lightyear, then played with bubbles with this friendly cast member!

I also ran into Shannon from BRB Going to Disney! It was so nice to meet her in person and she's so sweet!

Brayden's next request was for Astro Orbiter. Apparently this is his new favorite ride! Hah!

We also snagged breakfast at Sleepy Hollow one last time! So good!

After breakfast, we saw that Dumbo had an incredibly short wait time and Mine Train was back up and running again! So, we walked that way to ride both! :)

When we got to the front of the line to ride Mine Train, Brayden decided he didn't want to ride. Instead, we rider swapped right there and it worked out perfectly!

The Tangled bathrooms are seriously my fave! :)

Our friends wanted to ride another thrill ride, and I was perfectly ok taking Brayden on Small World by myself, so that's what we did!

I just love his little hand on my leg! These days are passing so fast and this is so precious to me!

We rode Haunted Mansion one last time, then finally the Carousel!

This has been one of Brayden's favorite rides since his very first trip at 10 months old!

We said goodbye to our friends, then made our way over to the Wilderness Lodge to retrieve our truck.

It was bittersweet saying goodbye. While gone, we somehow managed to bypass Winter Storm Uri, spent 8 nights at the most magical place on earth, and had a blast with our friends! Despite the wearing of masks and lack of an official runDisney race, we still had an incredible time. It's truly one for the memory books!

Our 12 hour drive home was incredibly smooth. We were initially going to break the trip in half like we did on our way to Florida, but instead we split the driving time and made it all the way home in one!

Of course we had to make a stop at Brayden's favorite Buc-ees! The Alabama Buc-ees is now affectionately known as the "Disney World Buc-ees"! 

If you've made it this far, thank you for following along in our trip chronicles! We will be returning to the World in less than a week and I can't wait to share more fun times with you. This trip will include a first for us - Blizzard Beach!! Stay tuned to my instagram for lots of footage from our trip! :) 

Have a magical day!

Disney 2021: Magic Kingdom Part 2

After a late night in the parks the night before, an attempt at an early morning to rope drop the Magic Kingdom just wasn't happening for my four year old. Jason and I attempted to wake Brayden and instead decided to sit out on our patio and enjoy a morning cup of coffee instead.

We decided it just wasn't worth it! Having a rested and happy child all day and being "late" to the MK was much better in our book over a tired and cranky child. We text our friends to go on with the plans without us and so they did!

He had the chance to sleep an extra hour and was much happier when he awoke this time around!

After getting dressed, we walked over to the boat dock at the Wilderness Lodge. We love being able to take a quick boat ride to the MK!

Even though we were later than we anticipated, the park was not crowded at ALL!

One thing my mom and Brayden share is their love for flowers. On this trip, Brayden stopped at practically every flower bed he saw, and sent a photo of the flowers to my mom. It was really really sweet! 

After finding our friends, we walked over to Fantasyland for a ride on Small World!

I think I mentioned this before, but Small World was Brayden's very first ever Disney ride (at 10 months old) and it's a "must do" every trip for us now! He loves it!

Know what else he loves? Throwing coins into the water down below! 

Although it's blurry, this photo of him with his little hands in the air makes me smile! :)

Somehow, my name appeared on the screen as we were departing the ride! Farewell, Small World!

Over to Pirates, we planned out our photo and I think we pretty much nailed it. The socially-distanced random guy on the back row made us laugh, too!

For lunch, we stopped by Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. I hadn't had a "Disney burger" all trip, so this was my fix! I also ordered a Cheshire Cat Tail for dessert and it was really good!

For some reason, we waited until after lunch to ride the teacups, and my husband and our friend Melissa decided to spin their cup as fast as humanly possible. 

Brayden, our friend Everett, and I rode in the "calm" teacup and we could hardly see our people as they spun on by!

We also took a turn on the Tomorrowland Speedway! Brayden and I rode together and it was quite the experience. I'm glad he's not getting his driver's license anytime soon! :)

Earlier in the day, Brayden announced to us that the only characters he would wave to are Mickey and Minnie. No one else. (His exact words.)

So, we spotted their cavalcade passing by and we lined up to wave. True to his word, Brayden waved his little heart out! Kids are so funny!

A mid-afternoon Joffrey's break was much needed and hit the spot!

We'd been watching the line for the Jungle Cruise all day and finally saw a break in the wait time, so we moved over to Adventureland. 

This actually ended up being our final park ride before taking a break to ride the Monorail around the loop a couple of times.

Brayden had been asking to ride the Monorail the entire trip, so we found our moment and took it! We ended up looping twice!

Remember that "I only wave to Mickey and Minnie" statement?

Yeah, well the princess cavalcade rolled through just as we were walking back into the Magic Kingdom, What did this kid do? Cover his eyes!

True story: Several of the princesses thought he was playing peek-a-boo and they started covering their eyes, too! It was hysterical!!

Dinner that evening was at Be Our Guest. We hadn't visited in a while and had never experienced the prix-fixe menu, so we decided to try it out!

The pre-dinner bread offering was delicious!

For an appetizer, I had the meat and cheese plate and it was really good!

I'm pretty sure each of us had the filet and we all really liked it.

My favorite part of this entire meal though, was the dessert....especially that macaron to the left! It is truly one of the best desserts I've ever had!

Look at this Chip themed cup, too! It was made of white chocolate and even included a little chip on the rim! SO cute!

Our final ride of the evening was on the carousel! It's so beautiful at night!

I have to admit, I was incredibly sad while waiting in line. Someone had ripped out most of the flowers along the inner rim of the flower bed, all the way around the entire ride. They must have pulled up at least 30 or 40 of these beautiful flowers. I just don't understand people. At. All. I used this example as a teaching moment for Brayden - to encourage him to always respect other people's property, especially something as nice and beautiful as this. (I'm happy to say, we returned to the Magic Kingdom two days later and all of the beautiful flowers had been replanted! I so appreciate Disney's attention to detail and it made me wonder how often something like that happens? So sad!)

Another one of Brayden's favorites, the carousel!

Back at the resort, we took a little time to play in the splash area, even if it was 68 degrees outside! Apparently the cold didn't bother Brayden anyway!

I know this was long, so if you made it this far I thank you!! Up next, our final "full" day at Disney - Animal Kingdom!