No vacation to Orlando would be complete without taking a visit to Disney’s Magic Kingdom.  We weren’t originally going to visit this park as we hmmmed and hawed over the options, but catching a glimpse in the sky of the nightly fireworks display on our way home from Downtown Disney the other night was enough for us to decide to check it out.  I for one was really excited that hubby wanted to go because he was the one who was the skeptic!

 

Given that we spent the previous day at Animal Kingdom, we decided we would make the Magic Kingdom more of a late afternoon to evening visit to give me some more time to rest and so we weren’t spending the ENTIRE day there and wait for the 9 p.m. fireworks.  That and we were expecting the cable guy to come by in the morning to install the cable internet.  We spent the day at the condo making our own food and some R&R time at the pool.

Breakfast was a delicious breakfast sandwich!  It consisted of toasted multigrain bread with mayo on one side, cream cheese on the other, stuffed with a fried egg + white with sliced cherry tomatoes, goat cheese, S&P, dehydrated onion spices and lots of greens!  Along side was some Fage, honey, raspberries and some OJ.  It truly was delicious, nutritious, perfectly balanced and all around perfection:

 

 

We lounged around by pool and I snacked on two of these Kashi trail mix granola bars:

 

After a bit of R&R and hanging out by the pool, we made our way back to our condo to get showered and whip up some supper before heading out for the evening.  We had picked up some frozen pizzas at SuperTarget while we were there and since we don’t have these yet in Canada, I decided to give a Kashi pizza a try.  I picked the Caribbean Carnival combo which was topped with plantains and since it’s not hubby’s kind of choice, he picked a Digiorno  garlic bread pepperoni pizza.

I was disappointed with the Kashi pizza mostly because in the entire pizza, there were only TWO slices of plantain and that was the tastiest part about it!  Hubby’s looked amazing, so I had a slice of his too (I always scam a nibble or a bite or some of hubby’s badness foods it seems :-P).  

 

All I can say is that DiGiorno Garlic Bread Pepperoni Pizza (plus we added leftover BBQ chicken from his leftovers from a restaurant) was PHENOMENAL and I was soooo glad a scammed a slice! *smacks lips*  It was definitely an indulgence, but OMG totally worth it!  I felt better by having some cucumber slices and cherry tomatoes with edamame hummus and some baked Tostitos scoops :-D:

And a cold glass of lemonade cut with sparkling mineral water and some fresh lemon was just was the hot afternoon ordered:  

 

Then it was off to the happiest place on earth 🙂

Parking was again $14 and the same Tram system to take you from the parking lot to the theme park which is really efficient and there’s no waiting hardly at all.  You just need to remember where you’re parked!  We were parked at Goofy 44 😀

 

At the Magical Kingdom, you then have to take the Ferry Boat or the Monorail from where the Tram drops you off to the park.  We decided to take the Ferry over:

Then we were officially there where you go through the security bag check and stick your finger print on the turnstile to let you through after you insert your ticket.  There was no wait at all and this was all around 5:30:

   

The first thing I noticed once inside was the big packs of balloons out and about:

 

And of course the “symbol” of the Magical Kingdom right there standing tall and amazing!  I couldn’t resist and had to take a pic right then and there:

 

 

We made our way down the street and then realized that we got there JUST at the right time!  They were just about ready to clear the streets for a parade!

The next thing ya know there’s catchy enthusiastic music and on comes the celeb Mickey himself at the head of the parade:

The parade was incredible and all of the characters and cast members were so fun and enthusiastic and they didn’t miss a beat and danced and sang for was was at least 15 or 20 minutes in the hot HOT sun the entire time.  It was the perfect way to start our visit to the Kingdom because it got you in the right frame of mind.

We decided to check out Mickey’s PhilharMagic since it seemed pretty harmless and was another 3D presentation.  It was great to sit down and enjoy the show.  Grabbed a fast pass ticket to Peter Pan’s Flight which was for 2 and a half hours later!  The fast pass is basically a scheduled time frame ticket that you get for later on so you don’t have to wait in line.  If we wanted to wait, we would have waited an hour standing there for the ride, so we decided to take a ticket for after the fireworks.  After we did the ride, we were glad we didn’t stand in line and wait because it definitely wasn’t something worth waiting around for an hour for!  It was great for me and was really light and great for anyone, but nothing worth waiting an hour in line for.

After the parade, we explored the park, tried to map out what things I felt I “could” do (keeping in mind the traumatic “Dinosaur” incident at The Animal Kingdom of course 😀).  Sadly at this early stage in the game, my foot was starting to hurt again and it was sending pains all the way up my left leg and into my bad hip.  I knew that was a bad sign!  We explored Frontierland where I was totally willing to go on Splash Mountain, but hubby was too chicken!  He had been teasing me the entire time about how I was too wimpy and then I call his bluff and he’s all talk! lol  It of course was an “Expectant mothers should not ride” attraction, but it didn’t seem as bad as you might thing from what you could see other than the 5 story drop into the water which didn’t seem to hit hard, but who knows.

We wondered around and I needed to rest so we hopped onto the Walt Disney World Railroad for a little rest and took a stroll past Mickey’s Country House and the pain really was getting BAD.  At this point it was just a matter of trying to manage it and get through to the fireworks. 

Hubby and saw some people walking around with soft serve ice cream and hubby is a major fan, so we went on the hunt! I ended up with a strawberry sundae made with swirl soft serve, but didn’t take a pic.  It was another perfect excuse to sit and rest 🙂

Next up was another mild and perfect thing for me, “Ms. Old Lady McPreggerPants” and we took a trip around the Tomorrowland Transit Authority.  At that point, I could have just stayed on that for and hour going round and round!  The pain was getting really bad and the hip pain was as bad if not worse than the months following the car accident nearly four years ago where I got the injury and when I was off crutches and putting weight on it again.  It definitely took the wind out of my sails and much of the enjoyment out of the park I have to say 🙁

Soon enough though, it was time to head to Cinderella’s Castle to get a spot for the Fireworks!  It was such a beautiful night and I knew this would make it all worth it! The castle was this beautiful glowing purple and I killed some take taking some more pics:

 

It was nothing short of spectacular and most definitely the best fireworks display we’ve ever seen and like will EVER see! Hard to believe they do that every night!  Some highlight shots:

It was absolutely spectacular and worth all the pain.  I didn’t mind sitting on the ground while waiting for it to start either.  There were thousands of people everywhere and everything just seemed so perfectly done.  After we were allowed to cross through Cinderella’s Castle after they cleared from the fireworks, we had plans to make one short pit stop to find a cute Disney onesie for the peanut and then high tail it to the Monorail, then the Tram, then our car to get this Mamma HOME! We finally found the store that sold most of the “tots” stuff, but we got there and something must of happened because they weren’t letting anyone in and said they didn’t know if they would be reopening for the night.  It was really sketchy, but nothing we could do.  At that point I was seriously near tears because I was in so much pain and sucked it up to find that damn onesie and the store wasn’t letting us in! By the time we got back to the main street, it was time for the closing parade and we had to wait on the side of the street before we could cross.  I literally couldn’t stand anymore, and sat on the curb and watched the beautiful parade through the gaps in the crowd.  Hubby grabbed my camera (like the standup hubby he is) and said, “Here, you sit here, I’ll take the picture and you can watch it later.” I heart him 🙂

All of the floats were so beautiful and perfect:

Plus he saw that I was near tears when the Pooh store was closed, in so much pain and I couldn’t get my onesie, so he made it a mission to try to find another store on the main street that sold them.  Sure enough we happened upon one where I managed to get my hands on a lime green Disney onesie in a 12 mth size.  It wasn’t ideal, but better than nothing.  I heart him to bits 🙂

We finally made it to the car, and our condo is really close to the parks, so we were soon home and it was ICE ICE ICE ICE on my foot and my hip.  I knew that I had overdone it and it was concerning to me. We had originally planned to go to Seaworld the next day (we’re expecting rain here on Sunday and Monday), but that plan went out the window and became another R&R day to include a road trip to Tampa to hit up Clearwater Beach!  All is not lost! I can rest in the car and on the beach I says!

All in all, despite my severe pain issue, I think I enjoyed The Magic Kingdom even more than The Animal Kingdom.  I think it was because they provide SOOO much by way of entertainment and stimulation all around you that if you were a “Ms. Old Lady McPreggerPants” like me, you could enjoy yourself just being there.  I enjoyed seeing all of the kids all dressed up in their princess dresses and costumes and it touched my heart so much.  I remember being a little girl and even just the “idea” of having a “real” princess dress to wear would have had me daydreaming all day long.  I can’t wait to bring our kids back here when they are between 7 and 10!

Little Peanut’s not old enough yet to remember any of this 😉