Today was our earliest morning because we had 9am reservations for the character breakfast at Ohana (Poly Hotel). We left our hotel by 8am and took the resort launch over to the Contemporary where we then caught the monorail to go to the Polynesian Hotel. We had our first magical moment of the day at this point.... I asked and we were able to sit in the very front of the monorail with the driver. We all got honorary co-pilot licenses and I took the boys' picture with the driver. We got to the Poly and went to Ohana. We love this character breakfast because it's served family style. Ohana means family and everyone is a cousin. We love the pineapple bread they give you right away. We got there when a parade around the restaurant was just starting, so the boys were able to do this twice before we left. Our waiter wasn't the best, but we still enjoyed the experience. Matthew & Andrew's favorite part is the Mickey Head Waffles. After b'fast, we found quite a few Hidden Mickeys at the Poly, my favorite being the one in the tiles at the Kona Cafe counter.
We got back on the monorail and went over the Magic Kingdom. We were trying to "slow down" this day and take it "low and slow". We meandered at the beginning of Main Street and came across the Barbershop. Jim needed a hair cut, there was no line, so he went for it. I took pictures of him and he commented that it had been a long time since someone photographed him while getting his hair cut. ha ha! The other hairdresser finished with a customer and so Andrew decided to get gel in his hair. Well, it turned out to be *blue* gel. She made a Mickey head on the back of his head with the blue gel, combed it through the top of his hair to spike it and then sprinkled in Mickey Head confetti. Next came Matthew who chose red and ended up looking like Heat Miser. Very cute! We headed to Adventureland and found Captain Hook & Mr. Smee. They were funny guys and we were glad we waited to get their autographs. Jim went to get us Fast Passes for Big Thunder Mountain RR. The boys were getting tons of attention because of the colored hair.
Next we went back on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Unfortunately, it kept stopping and breaking down while we were on it. I think we were on the actual ride for about 30 minutes. Oh well. We backtracked to the Jungle Cruise since we had fast passes for that ride and wanted to be sure to go on it this year. We had a very funny, charismatic boat driver. Afterwards, while walking towards Frontierland, we saw the "Jack Sparrow show" going on outside of the Pirate Ride. The boys were able to get up close to the rope that's on the ground to hold back the crowd. It was amazing how much the guy looked and sounded just like Johnny Depp. During the show, he choses 4 children to become pirates and Matthew got chosen because of his red hair! It was very exciting! Matt got to sword fight with the other pirate in the show. He would hit swords, then say "Look! There's the Governor's Daughter" and he'd run away. Andrew got to join in, at the end, when he was chosen for the crew. They both got certificates from Jack saying they were now pirates. Wonderful, Magical Moment.
Next, we were able to walk right over to Big Thunder Mtn. RR and use our fast passes. We all love that ride and found the big hidden Mickey near the end of the ride. Woo Hoo. Since we were in the right area, we hopped the Train and went over to ToonTown. Very busy area, so we walked to Tomorrowland and went on the Buzz Lightyear ride two times in a row (low wait). I had the high score once, then Jim had the high score. We then walked back to Frontierland and had lunch in our favorite counter service place, Columbia Harbour House. After lunch, we got back on Splash Mountain (hardly got wet this time - hooray!), then took the RR back to Main Street. We stopped at Guest Services to get the info on our wedding brick and could then walk towards the Grand Floridian and find it. It was fun to see it again and it was great to show it to the boys. We were all tired, so it was time to go back to the Lodge and rest for awhile.
We went to MGM this night - got there around 6:30, which wasn't great because we couldn't get any character signatures/pictures this late. Another lesson learned. We headed towards the Rock N Rollercoaster to get a fast pass and there weren't any left. The stand by wait was 80 minutes. Another lesson learned. We decided to turn the frowns upside down, so we salvaged the evening.... We went into the Animation Studio area where we saw the movie and played around with some of the things in there. The boys humored me and next we saw the Voyage of the Little Mermaid (I love that show). We walked down a bit and saw the "One Man's Dream" exhibit. We went in, for the first time, and walked around. We read and saw a lot of stuff about how Walt Disney brought his vision to life. We all decided to go see the movie and it was amazing for Jim & I to see the boys watching the show very attentively. I think they learned a lot and really enjoyed it.
We walked around the back end of MGM (near the back lot tour) and came out near Star Tours. The boys were thrilled to find out that they could go on it again. Afterwards, we stopped in the Star Wars store (Tatooine Traders) to pick up a pen sized light saber for Matthew (Andrew already got one) and a pin for Andrew. While checking out, the one clerk quizzed the boys on a few Star Wars movies and then gave them "Dream certficates" making them Jedi Padawan. They thought that was so cool. We had to pass by the entrance to Star Tours as we were walking out and the castmembers were using light sabers in the dark. They started to faux fight with the boys and their small light sabers. Then they gave the boys bigger light sabers to use and it was hysterical to watch our boys "fighting" with grown men in the walkway of the park. Another magical moment, especially since Star Wars is *so* popular with both of the boys right now. Unfortunately, we had one bad moment - Matthew fell and skinned his knee as we were leaving the park. He was a serious trooper, though, and smiled for the camera as we got night pictures taken on our way out. The bus ride home was packed and we were so happy when we finally got back to the Lodge. Since we hadn't eaten dinner yet, we got food from Roaring Fork snacks and ate in our room. What an exhausting, yet magical day!
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