Christmas Vacation: Magic Kingdom

We saved Magic Kingdom for last, and it was a very fun, very full day.  We rode on lots of rides, had a great lunch at Be Our Guest (a restaurant that looks like Beast's Castle on the inside and outside), watched fireworks, and stumbled out of the park at about 10:45 pm (15 hours after Ben had the kids ready to meet the bus to the park, and 19 hours after I'd gotten up to run a half marathon that morning).  I don't know if we could have possibly been any more worn out.  But we had a blast at the park, playing with all of our family.

Because of the race that morning and the monorails being out of service,
the park was pretty empty when we started our day.  We took advantage
of the short lines on Space Mountain, and some of us (read: teenagers)
rode it 2-3 times in a row.

These were taken before going on Haunted Mansion.
Unfortunately, it actually was kind of spooky and it probably
would have been better if our younger kids hadn't been on it.

Pirates of the Caribbean was really fun, and definitely worth the 15-20 minute wait.

The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was really fun.  Eliza left her backpack on Pirates of the
Caribbean so once we recovered it, she and I rushed to make our Fast Pass time
for this one before hurrying to our lunch reservation.  But it all worked out!

Be Our Guest was such a cool restaurant, with its straight-from-the-movie rooms
and delicious magically appearing food (turns out, Magic Bands are actually
colorful little tracking devices - well played, Mickey).

The Tomorrowland Speedway was our longest wait at about 30 minutes, but the kids absolutely loved it.
Eliza drove a car with me, Luke drove a car with Ben, and Jack drove himself.  I'm pretty sure all three
rides were quite bumpy and exciting.  Ben said Luke was very serious the whole time, focused on
driving the car.  Jack was the first one in the line to have to stop the car and get out but he didn't know
where to stop and accidentally drove too far and ended up doing another round on the track.
I don't think he was too sorry about that.

The Walt Disney World Railroad was a cool ride around the park,
especially since it was pulled by an authentic steam engine.

We were all a little nervous about getting on Splash Mountain with it being as cold
as it was outside, but we decided it was worth the short wait and we'd take the risk.
Thankfully, the splash was minimal and we were able to laugh about the little bit of
spray we got on our cheeks as we hid in our hooded ski coats (or was that just me?).

The Jungle Cruise was one of our last rides that night, which means Luke slept through it.
It was also a favorite of mine.  What can I say?  I'm a sucker for a good corny punny joke.

Tea Cups!  Always fun for kids.  Not always so fun for adults who've eaten in the last month.

Other rides included Dumbo, Prince Charming's Regal Carrousel
(I didn't ride either of those but want to next time), Peter Pan, and Monster Inc's Laugh Floor.
We also saw the parade on Main Street and I just like that little picture of Cat and Courteney.

Can't resist taking pictures of the castle, especially at night with those cool Christmas
(Frozen) lights on it.  It looked awesome!  And during the late night show, images
were projected onto the castle too.  Very cool.

We took this just before we walked back to the bus stop.
It's amazing everybody was awake, let alone smiling.

The whole reunion!

Grammy with all the grandbabies.

My mom, siblings, and me.

I sure love all these people and loved spending time adventuring with them!

Note to self: next time we need to be sure to explore the Swiss Family Treehouse, and go on the Small World and Toy Story rides.  It will be a while before we're back, but that's okay.  Disney World is going anywhere.