Day 2, Part 1: Baby’s First Characters
We woke up around 8 and started getting ready for our 10:25 breakfast reservation.
Good morning sleepyhead!
My goal was to leave the room by 10. Two hours seems like it should be enough, but when you’re talking about getting four people ready, one of whom is a baby and another of whom typically takes that long to get ready on a good day, in one room that had two showers but only one toilet, it’s an optimistic goal.
Those of you who read my September report might remember that even on days when we had breakfast plans, my dad still insisted on eating something in the room. I made sure he didn’t do that today, as I knew it would only delay us further. I did make sure he knew that we were going to a buffet, so that his belly would definitely be full.
I got April ready in her outfit of the day, then my dad watched her while I got ready. He did a little photoshoot.
I believe we did manage to leave on time, at least my notes don’t say differently. So we either left on time, or not late enough that I was too worried.
We went to the monorail station at the Grand Ceremonial House. I think this was the day that Dad realized he’d forgotten something in the room (his phone, I believe), leaving my sister and I to navigate the GCH elevators ourselves. That was not fun. Turns out he’d also forgotten the monorail station was on the second floor, so he didn’t realize he’d be leaving us to our own devices in that regard.
We went through security and rode the monorail the two stops to Magic Kingdom, then went to the restaurant to check in.
From April’s outfit, you probably guessed that we were dining at the Crystal Palace this morning!
I checked us in and we waited on the porch for our family to be called. And waited. And waited.
A little after 11 am, almost an hour after our reservation time, I finally asked what was up. The number of people waiting on the porch had dwindled to almost nothing, and many parties who’d arrived after us had been called in. I knew that didn’t necessarily mean they’d forgotten about us or that we missed our name being called, but I was getting suspicious. Finally, after I spoke to three different cast members, I was told we’d been called 10 minutes ago. I had definitely been standing right by the front door the whole time and we had not been called. That was annoying and I was pretty hangry. Luckily, little April slept the whole time so that was one less thing to deal with.
They hadn’t given away our table or anything; it had just been waiting empty for us. So at least we still got to eat!
Our waitress came by and took our drink order. I got orange juice and Dad and sis got coffee. We were advised to start getting food, as it would be a bit before the characters came around. April was still sleeping nice in her sling, so we were all able to get food at the same time!
I got at least three plates, but only took a picture of the first one. Buffet plates aren’t the most photogenic anyway. No one’s going to pass my plate in a buffet restaurant and assume it was prepared by a gourmet chef.
During our time, we got to see each character, and I think most if not all of them came by twice since we were there for awhile. We got some great pictures and because we were seated late, the silver lining was we got to take advantage of both breakfast and lunch.
I really like the food here. It’s pretty standard, nothing mind-blowing or incredibly unique, but it’s a solid choice for both types of meals with enough to satisfy anyone.
April slept pretty much the whole meal which was great. It made pictures a bit challenging but as you can see they came out well. Better than having her cry the whole time!
By the way, that dress was adorable but quite big on her. Supposedly it was a 0-3 month size which is what she was wearing in onesies during this trip, but it was practically falling off her. Hopefully she hasn’t grown past it by the time the parks open again.
After our filling brunch, I decided to take advantage of the nearby Baby Care Center to change April and feed her. I have to say, I loved the Baby Care Center at the Magic Kingdom. I’d been to the one at Hollywood Studios and that one was nice, but the nursing room was basically a closet with just one chair. The nursing room here had about five very comfortable rocking plush chairs, each of which swivel so that you can pump or nurse without facing anyone else if you don’t want to (during one of my visits there were two girls who were friends and had their chairs face each other).
I nursed April for about half an hour and texted my dad to let him know they should entertain themselves until I was done. When I left at around 12:45, I expected to have to search awhile for them, but it turns out they’d stayed on the bridge across from the center so DS could practice using the scooter (we usually rent a wheelchair for her, so this was one of her first times using a scooter).
Up next it was time for our first Fastpass! This was actually originally our third Fastpass. I’d had one scheduled for right before breakfast and one for what I believed would be right after, but the day unfolded differently than I’d anticipated 60 days earlier, so I rescheduled those.
We made our way back to the front of the park. This was a very important Fastpass!
April’s first time meeting Mickey!
I have to admit, I haven’t been a big character person since reaching adulthood. I don’t have a huge urge to meet them and I don’t usually find that characters put the same amount of effort into meets with adults as they do with kids. But I knew with April, that would change and I’d want to introduce her to the characters pretty early on, so that she’s less likely to be scared of them when she gets older. I knew I wanted one of her first characters to be Mickey, so I’d snagged this FP.
Mickey was so sweet! He seemed thrilled to be meeting her. He managed to ask how old she was using just his hands, and he played peekaboo with her. All in all it was a great meet and we got some amazing pictures.
After the meet, we spent a few minutes in the dump shop, and then decided to move on to the rest of Main Street. Rebekah had some shopping she wanted to do, and I needed some refreshment.
Up next…More Magic Kingdom!