Travelling Adventures with Duncan and Danica : Truly Magical

We headed back to the Magic Kingdom yesterday to see some of the things we missed our first time through. Our plan was to go slightly later so that we would last until 8 pm to catch the fireworks, only to discover that the earlier parade and fireworks were not scheduled last night; we were sure there was no way the kids would last until 9 o'clock for the parade and 10 o'clock for the fireworks (keep in mind that our kids are usually in bed by 7 pm or so), but we were wrong. We spent over twelve hours at the Magic Kingdom yesterday.

Upon our arrival, we attempted to secure fastpasses (aka best invention ever) for our top 3 choices for the day but were not successful; even worse was that my mom had to wait in the fast pass line to not get our choices as long as we did to meet Mickey Mouse himself! That also meant that we had to be prepared for long waits to meet the princesses we hadn't met last week. And little did we know that much of the state of Louisiana closes down and thus visits Florida during Mardi Gras, making the crowds much larger than they had been last week. My parents brought their ereaders with them for their wait-time entertainment but my dad's needed charging so he had to resort to people watching (and likely some talking too, knowing my Dad). It was truly amazing to all of us how the kids could wait in line for hours to meet the characters when a walk in the mall is accompanied by whining about sore feet, boredom, fatigue and the like. We managed to meet Mickey, Rapunzel, Snow White, mermaid Ariel, Tinkerbell and Rosetta, Merida, Belle, Aladdin and Jasmine. We snapped photos of Gaston and Cinderella's evil stepmother and stepsisters but didn't wait to meet them.

Take note of Duncan's shirt in the photos. At the entrance to one of the rides or character greetings, the cast member asked if we were really from Canada. When we told her we were, she was completely flummoxed to realize that we could speak English. Like my penpal from Maine in grade 5, she assumed we only spoke French and likely figured we live in igloos and drive dogsleds to school.

Family photo with Mickey Mouse

Grandpa made a friend on Main Street after missing most of the Dapper Dans' show.

Duncan and Danica with Rosetta

All of us with Tinkerbell in Pixie Hollow

Duncan and Danica with Aladdin and Jasmine

Drusilla, Anastasia and Cinderella's evil stepmother

The kids with Rapunzel

The kids with Snow White

Which one is the real Gaston?

Voila - there he is!

We also met Ariel in her grotto.

Merida was just as feisty in person as she is in Brave.

A highlight for me was Enchanted Tales with Belle, where Robert and my dad were recruited to be Knights in Armour, Danica to be Chip the Teacup and Duncan to be Philippe the horse. It was fun to see them act out the story of Beauty and the Beast. Danica has decided that It's a Small World is her favourite ride whereas Duncan was pretty partial to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

I was excited to try the Dole Whip that I had read so much about and was definitely not disappointed - pineapple soft serve - mmmmm.

Luckily, our timing meant that we were in the perfect spot to see the Main Street Dance Party parade and my parents secured rocking chairs on the theatre porch for the Electrical Parade later on. The kids were ecstatic to see that Frozen has been included in the Celebrate the Magic show on Cinderella's castle. The fireworks were amazing - a truly magical way to end our Disney World visit.