Disney World 2013: Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom was a magical experience...it's so cliche to say but so true. As we entered the park, after the welcome show finished, we walked down Main Street towards Cinderella's castle and slowly it came into view - the castle. The one thing that Kate had been asking about since the morning we pulled out of our driveway to head to Florida and she said "Remember Daddy, go to Cinderella's castle." She was finally here - and I will readily admit that when I saw her excitement at seeing the castle in person, a REAL castle, I teared up a bit. I know Nick did as well. This was it, the place "where dreams come true" as they say. She was going to have a fantastic day!

At Magic Kingdom, Kate was able to meet several characters. Will, Heather and Olivia had a character breakfast scheduled for the morning, so while they did that we opted to head over to Frontierland and ride the Jungle Cruise, which Kate didn't like the whole time (a few scary animal encounters and a dark tunnel). Then we stood in a 35 minute line for the ultimate meet and greet for her....we met Tinkerbell and Rosetta. Fairies are a BIG deal at our house, so for Kate to meet them was epic. This was also her first encounter with face characters, so I was hoping that she wouldn't be quite as scared of them since they were real people and spoke to her. She was shy as usual, but she managed ok. At some point during the day she asked me if they could fly too, like Tinkerbell on her TV. I didn't have the heart to say no, so I just said that they'd need a lot of pixie dust.

We also met the White Rabbit, Lady Tremaine, Drizella, and Anastasia, and we met Cinderella, Aurora and Rapunzel. We saw Jessie and Woody again and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, but both had long waits so we didn't wait to get pictures with them. Kate was very excited to meet Cinderella...although she was a bit hesitant. Then she opened up a little more with Aurora and by the time she reached Rapunzel (they were all together) she did very well and wasn't so scared. I was very proud!

Kate rode the Dumbo ride three times! She absolutely loved it, which I was surprised because it goes pretty high in the air and round and around.  But it's not noisy and dark, which are the two main problems she has. We rode the Winnie the Pooh ride and she didn't like it because it has a thunderstorm section, so it gets dark and loud at times.  She also didn't sit through Mickey's PhilharMagic movie because it was extremely loud. If you have a little one who doesn't like loud noises and dark, avoid that one for sure. Kate had to be removed from the theater. There actually weren't any shows other than Disney Jr Live! at Hollywood Studios that she liked because of the dark and noise.  But she really enjoyed It's a Small World - talk about sensory overload! There's colors and movement and music everywhere! She was constantly looking around from one side to the other to try to take it all in. Of course we rode the big carousel right behind Cinderella's castle several times as well. We took the train around the park once too.  Nick and Will rode several of the big boy rides too, and Olivia got plenty of riding time in herself.

Once it got dark, we lined up and watched the Disney Electric Parade. It's awesomely cool! We opted to avoid Main Street for parade viewing - it goes through Frontierland as well before it ends so we crossed the bridge into Frontierland and stopped right in front of the first set of shops to watch which gave us a great view of the floats as they crossed the bridge and still have the castle in the background. It was much less crowded than had we lined up on Main Street.

For the fireworks following the show, we were on the It's a Small World ride. If you don't care about the parades or fireworks, that is definitely the time to ride rides. We walked right up and got on stuff because everyone was watching the parade. But we needed to keep Kate hidden from the fireworks because she does NOT like them, and if you are anywhere near the castle in the park the fireworks are extremely loud because they go off right above the castle and right back in Fantasyland near Belle's castle. In fact if you stand back behind the carousel, there will be fireworks going off on both sides of you and you're kind of in the middle of them. Not so great for photography because of the switching back and forth (and close proximity) but cool for some up close fireworks action. I watched most of the fireworks show while Nick kept Kate shielded from the noise.