DisneyWorld (girl's trip part 2)

So in the last post I mentioned that because of time restraints we had very good intentions of just limiting ourselves to Harry Potter and being perfectly happy and content with that.  And truthfully, I was.  I love Harry Potter,  It's a fact.  But there was absolutely no arm twisting involved when Corrine and I decided to spend a day in the Magic Kingdom.   I believe her husband laughed and said he knew that she wouldn't be able to stay away.  I'm a self-proclaimed Disney geek, but Corrine is probably one of the few people I would lose to in a "Who Loves Disney More?" contest.

That being said, it was a fantastic day.  One of those days full of awesome luck (Disney Magic? Girl's Trip Luck?) , where things just worked out in our favor.  Mostly little things, but still awesome none the less.

We of course arrived bright and early, before the gates opened, and stayed til they closed.  Which was even an hour later than was published. (Part of that Disney Magic I mentioned)

I made Corrine take lots of selfies with me.

I 100% prefer my pictures to have people I know and love in them,  but I still can't help myself sometimes.

One of those really unbelievable lucky moments was when we tried to reserve a seat for the new Be Our Guest restaurant.  Which is ridiculously popular and hard to get into.  DisneyWorld has totally gone electronic, and you even get your fastpasses online.  Weeks before you go even.  We didn't know we were going until the day before, and we figured out how to make it happen on the monorail to the park.  (you scan your tickets, and reserve you passes on your phone) ANYWAYS, you can also make restaurant reservations on your phone, and for whatever reason it didn't work out too well for us.   Anyways, we showed up at the reservations desk, and they were about to turn us away, but one of the managers was right there, and he said, "can you eat right now?" and bam! we were in! Just like that!

It was pretty cool.  The food was fantastic, and you are eating in the Ballroom from the movie.  I can't tell you how many times I watched that scene in the movie and was totally blown away that it was animated.  And then there I was, in the real life version of that room.  The only downside was that it was pretty full of people. But what can you do?

They even had 'The Grey Stuff' on the menu.  And seriously, when I asked the waitress, what "the grey stuff" was,  she said "It's delicious.  Don't believe me? Ask the dishes."  (spoiler- it's an oreo mousse)

Truthfully, I think the lemon cupcake was better, but I'd totally get The Grey Stuff again.  (It's delicious.  Don't believe me? Ask the dishes.)

And then  of course you could wander around the castle and into various rooms,

and when you are ready to go, you can go meet your host, the Beast.

Since we went as a family back in 2010, they opened up other new rides and areas.  Ariel has a new ride,

as does Snow White (another Girl's Trip lucky moment)  The Snow White ride line was so long (over two hours every time we checked) and then it closed down for some reason, and the line dwindled down to nothing, and so we decided to give it a shot, and hung out at the front of the line for like 20 or so minutes, chatted with the cast members, and then it started back up, and we got right in.  It was really fun.  A bit like Big Thunder Mountain.  (My personal favorite)

Later that evening we popped into Gaston's Tavern for a drink.

"Lafou's Brew" is pretty much DisneyWorld's answer to Butterbeer.  It's a completely different drink, and although I preferred Butterbeer (in any of it's forms- hot, cold, frozen, or ice-cream) Disney gives you a choice of souvenir cups, AND they were smarter and have a disposable cup inside the souvenir cup, so you aren't walking around with a sticky cup all day.  (Very much appreciated by this mama)

And since it was later in the day, we had the place pretty much to ourselves.  I appreciated the antlers in all of the decorating.  And this is my sad attempt to sit like a dude in Gaston's chair.  Nobody has ever accused me of being particularly lady-like, but I think my guy impersonation needs some work.

And that was pretty much it. We stumbled upon a pretty great view of the fireworks, not perfect, but zero crowds, so that was a bonus, we did everything we wanted to, and had a few fun little surprises thrown in for good measure.  

Then the next day, we got up bright and early, did all the Harry Potter stuff again before lunch, and even had time to hit an outlet mall.  One thing about traveling with Corrine, the girl does not dawdle. She's all business when it comes to Disney, a fact that I appreciated, (although my feet and calves did not.)  

And that was our trip.  Short. Sweet. Fun. Very much needed and appreciated.  And I don't think we could have packed more awesomeness into two and a half days if we tried.