"haha, see what a little wishing can do?" -jimminy cricket

Again, didn't get to recap day one because we were tired. It sort of comes with the Disney package."Magic-Your-Way Park Hopper Ticket Plus Dining Plan and Exhaustion!" Um, anyway, here we go.

I always start my WDW trips out with the Magic Kingdom. It's a sentimental thing. Walt essentially built that park himself, so it was the first to open. The first thing most people think of when they hear "Walt Disney World" is Cinderella Castle, so there's something to my logic. We overslept by a couple of hours, so we woke up at 9...right as the Rope Drop was happening. Oh, well. It happens.

By the time we got there, walked down Main Street, oohed and ahhed over everything, and had a quick ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, it was nearly time for our ADRs at Liberty Tree Tavern. I'd made them for 10:40, which is early for lunch, but that was the time the computer gave me. Well...they start serving lunch at 11:30, so they told us to come back. We hung out at Liberty Square for a bit, then headed back. LTT is a crazy popular restaurant, so we waited a while before we sat. It was totally worth it, though. Of course it's designed to look like the colonial era, and the characters that came by our table were dressed for the period. We saw Minnie, Dale, Chip, and Pluto! Caroline was super excited, and I was pretty happy myself. The food is basically Thanksgiving dinner: different meats, mashed potatoes, macaroni, dressing, green beans, and apple cobbler. I gave LTT 5 stars.

We meandered over to the Hall of Presidents to escape the blustery cold and to let our food go down. This was the first time I'd seen it since it was refurbished last year to add in President Obama. I definitely appreciated that attraction more now that I'm older...totally got all teary and patriotic. Walt himself was fiercely proud to be American, and it showed.

We moved on to Fantasyland next, to it's a small world. (I didn't capitalize that on purpose - that's how it's supposed to be!) I think everyone has a love/hate relationship with that particular attraction...it's a classic and totally adorable, but on the other hand...that SONG. I especially enjoy it, knowing that it was renowned artist and Imagineer Mary Blair's greatest achievement. She died in '72, I believe.

Next we tackled Toontown. This was bittersweet, because starting in 2011 the Imagineers are giving Fantasyland a makeover, which includes taking out Toontown. Although it's mainly a kiddie place, it's still wonderful to see Minnie and Mickey's houses and imagine them actually living there. After touring their houses, we stood in line forever to get pictures with Silvermist, Tinker Belle, and Rosetta from Pixie Hollow. This was a new experience for me because Pixie Hollow is a fairly recent addition to the realm of Disney. The fairies were beautiful, perky, and charming, and we got very cute pictures with them. Then we stood in line for another eternity to meet Mickey and Minnie, the King and Queen of Disney. They are so lovely. Minnie was very sweet, as always, and Mickey kissed our hands! I definitely have a crush on him. Our pictures came out great.

Giddy from our character encounters, we skipped on over to Tomorrowland...to discover that both the Carousel of Progress and the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor were both experiencing technical difficulties! Boo. I know nothing about the technical side of WDW, but I assume that the Tomorrowland attractions run off the same server, which would explain the problem. We swallowed our disappointment and boarded the TTA, or Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Classic Disney fans will empathize with me when I saw how disappointed I am that the old-school audio, complete with "Tom Morrow, paging Mr. Tom Morrow, your party from Saturn has arrived," has been replaced. I agree with progress...but don't fix it if it isn't broken, Disney.

We strolled down Main Street, peeking in at the shops. We watched a glass blower in the crystal shop and freaked out over the adorable, insanely expensive Disney figurines and art. Then I found the Dooney & Bourke for Disney bags and nearly had a heart attack. We stopped to watch the "Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party Parade." I hadn't seen it; it was cute and fun, but rather short and definitely not Disney's best.

It was getting darker and 7 pm was approaching, so we hung out around Main Street to wait for SpectroMagic. Caro staked out our spot while I hunted for turkey legs. I encountered a Cast Member who seemed a bit confused...I would be more than happy to take her place if she hasn't bothered to learn basic info about the park where she is employed. After ignoring her unhelpful directions, I snagged some turkey legs and sodas from The Lunching Pad in Tomorrowland and managed to maneuver back to Main Street. Those smoked turkey legs are good...but massive, and incredibly messy.

SpectroMagic was great, as always. There aren't many places in the world where you can find giant floats with millions of LED lights on them, but you can at the Disney parks. After the parade, we literally ran across Main Street, around Tomorrowland, and through Fantasyland to use our FastPasses for Peter Pan's Flight. Peter Pan is my second favorite Disney movie, if you couldn't tell by this blog layout...;] Then we ran back to the bridge connecting the hub and Tomorrowland to snag a prime viewing location for Wishes.

I've always seen Wishes from directly in front of the castle, along with a thousand of my closest friends. The Tomorrowland walkway is much less crowded, and the view is still superb. The fireworks aren't centered to be symmetrical with the castle, but Tinker Belle flies right overhead, which is super cool. I listen to Wishes pretty much every day, and I tear up every single time I hear it. Experiencing the show at my favorite place always blows me away, and I just stood there in the cold as tears rolled down my cheeks. It was a "pinch me" moment. I realized how lucky and blessed I am to have experienced Walt Disney World at all, let alone ten times.

I really wish my parents and Christian could be here with me...that's the only thing that could make this better. My mom is exactly like me (or rather I should say I'm exactly like her) and we just cry together during the fireworks...I missed my crying buddy! And I miss my dad eating Mickey bars all over the place. Christian's never been, can you believe it?

Anyway, we were super hyped up from the Magic Kingdom awesomeness, so we zipped on over to Downtown Disney. I am in love with that place, because it combines two of my main obsessions: Disney and shopping. Umm...hi. I don't usually buy things the first night, though. If I'm still obsessed with it days later, I buy it then. We browsed and tried hard not to freeze to death. We made it back to Pop around midnight, so we were exhausted.

A day at the Magic Kingdom is hard to beat...but there were more adventures in store for us on day 2! Stay tuned for my Epcot recap!

(And seriously, give yourself a gold star if you actually read this novel.)

Prayers & pixie dust be with you! xoxo