Disney Day 8: Bring on the magic!

We got up bright and early this morning to open the park at the Magic Kingdom. We beelined it straight to Dumbo in order to avoid the outrageously long lines later on in the morning. Unlike last year, Sean really enjoyed the ride and cried and cried and cried until he realized we were in line for the Winnie the Pooh ride… and then he cried and cried and cried again when that ride was over.

This time Daddy jumped back in line with Sean while I went to see the Wicked Stepmother and the ugly stepsisters who were out and about “greeting” guests. I figured it was an opportune time to meet these famous characters. Anastasia asked if I knew of any eligible bachelors, and then the Wicked Stepmother asked who the lucky gentleman who bestowed such lovely jewels on my hand. Ha! Too funny.

Next up was the carrousel, and again Sean cried and cried and cried when he got off. I guess he is like every other toddler/preschooler and loves Fantasyland. We had taken too much time to ride Pooh a second time as well as meet the step sisters, and the line for Peter Pan grew to be a 30 minute wait. So we grabbed fast passes instead to ride it later, and then enjoyed the happiest boat ride EVER on It’s a Small World. It’s fun to ride that with Sean since it’s such a long ride and slow moving, he can take it all in… there was a lot of pointing, laughing and talking coming from little shorty.

We made our way over to Liberty Square and found Haunted Mansion had only a 5 minute wait so we took advantage of it, and jumped in line. Sean didn’t bat an eye at the kinda scary ride. We attempted to get in line to see the new princess Tiana from Princess & the Frog, but the line was closed.

So instead we got in line to meet Lilo & Stitch – a much shorter line than the new princess AND characters that Sean can relate to (Jeff was hesitant to have Sean meet a princess!). We grabbed a few fast passes for the Jungle Cruise and then popped in to see the Tiki Room birds.

Before lunch we decided to walk over near Splash Mountain to see Woody & Jessie. Sean has seen Woody so many times now that I think he might be getting a tad bored of the fellow. He did enjoy seeing Jessie up close and personal, and gave Woody a hearty fist pump. We had lunch at Columbia Harbor House, and then ventured back to Adventureland to ride Jungle Cruise… where Sean promptly fell asleep. This is the second year in a row where he has missed one of the class Disney rides! Last year he was out cold too. We grabbed a Dole Whip ice cream on the way out, and then stopped by Cinderella’s castle to see the Dream Along with Mickey show. It was cute, but nothing to write home about. Speaking of home, it was time to hit the road back to the resort.

We made dinner in the room, and then explored our resort including the savannah campfire and searching for animals in the dark. One of these days we really need to look for animals during the day. Sean has mastered saying, “see animals” but has yet to really see one in day light!