Tuesday 22nd August

Magic Kingdom day! Our last (and best) day. We noticed early on that is was a Halloween Night – Mickeys Spooky Halloween, the park closes at 6pm!

That’s not great for us, as we have lots of rides to get through, but it turned out to be even better for us as less people turned up at the park due to reduced hours. We also had a Genie+ day credited after the debacle with the door and checkin on the first night. Every ride with a Lighting Lane, we were using!

We found out that the (love) boats from the Polynesian go straight to Magic Kingdom and only stop at the Grand Floridian. Major win for us as the boats were empty and very fast. More love to the Polynesian!

First stop, was Toy Story and Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger shooting game. After playing Toy Story Mania six times at Hollywood Studios, we had high hopes for this game. Let’s just say it was a bit basic and the technology wasn’t that user friendly. Detailed by the ride photos that outline Mummy and Daddy trying to show the boys how to score points with the lasers.

We enjoyed the Monster Inc Laugh Floor which was like a mix of the Finding Nemo Crush talk and a stand up comedy gig. The live cuts to members of the crowd was funny and quite brutal. The boys liked it and it didn’t feel too dated compared to some of the other movie type attractions.

Next we a Mummy favourite! The Little Mermaid ride with the original mermaid not the remake. Mummy was challenging Aunty Kirsten and singing along to all the songs.

Mummy ran off 1999 style and got Tron and Space Mountain checked off her adrenaline list. The latter providing her with a bone shattering ride! Tron was $20 payment only unless you got into a virtual queue that still queued for 75mins. Mummy’s verdict it was good, short and nothing compared to Guardians of the Galaxy.

While that happened, Daddy took the boys on Dumbo ride that also had a hidden soft play. Daddy wondered if other parents come to Disneyland to watch their kids play in soft play. Daddy grabbed the boys and went into the Dumbo shop for some Mickey marshmallows!

Now if you know about Disney then pin trading is a serious thing. Lots of shops have pin trading boards that you can swap with. The boys haven’t been interested until today. Today was all about pin trading.

We traded and looked for shops to do more trading. It got to the point where Elliott wanted to buy $15 limited edition pins just to trade them! We might have created a monster here!

We checked a major box with the Disney parade. It was scorching hot, but the parade only happens once a day and we managed to get the boys to the front. They loved seeing all the characters and huge float designs.

Daddy stood next to a man who came after the parade started, leaned over another man and videoed the entire parade with his arm stretched out. Daddy wanted to ask him, what purposes is this 7min clip serving.

We literally walked straight into Kates friend Keeley as we passed the castle. Daddy is a fan of predictions and “what are the chances” but this one must be so so slim. We walked past at actually the right time after watching the parade and we took extra time leaving due to Nathaniel. They were staying at Art of Animation and we swapped Tron and NASA stories! There is a launch happening on Friday.

Next, we cracked our the Winnie the Pooh ride. We also spotted possibly the best mullet of the trip too.

We headed on “it’s a small world” which was probably the longest and slowest boat ride in the park. The positive was it was a four seater boat and we got to enjoy the ride together. Lots of this…

Somehow the end screen which flicked between saying Goodbye in lots of different languages, got stuck on Nathaniel – very strange, but very exciting for Nate!

Mummy had mentioned Enchanted Tales with Belles a few times and how much people love it. It’s a live action role play (which puts most people off straight away) and each kid (who wants one) gets a role in the play.

Elliott was cast as Maurice (Belles Father) and had to act cold and frozen. Nate was cast as part of the silver wear! Nate said it best “Mummy, I’m a plate”

After a great experience, we happened upon another parade! This time just characters but lots of them in quick succession.

Straight after the parade we saw a man tip a drink over himself while parking a pram. He then grabbed the pram and slammed it into the other prams knocking all their drinks and valuables over. Very un-Disney like and lots of people were pointing and saying how disgusting it was. Very odd!

Nate had another Nate moment with his pin badges on the way home. We found our boat dock, which also had a large Disney worker laying on the floor (abdominal pains he was fine) and we headed back.

We arrived back for our night swim, the hotel had organised and games on the lawn. Elliott loves an organised game!

Final activity of the night, watching Tangled on the giant screen – winning!

Tomorrow we are either taking a chill day or heading for an afternoon at Magic Kingdom. We have breakfast in O’hana booked and dinner in Whispering Canyon which our boat captain said was his favourite restaurant! Living the dream!