Day 7 (Tuesday): Magic Kingdom
*This is another day where I might not get everything straight, because I did a lot of back and forth and deciding at the last minute what to do*
Our intention was to make it to the park for the welcome show since we enjoyed it so much last time, but we were all a little slower getting around. E & L were way behind in the getting around part, so the rest of us hopped on the bus and made it to the park right after 9. We went in the right side by the theatre and waited there for E & L to arrive. Matt went to grab a coffee at Starbucks and I figured he would be gone for a long time, but the line moved really quickly and he was back in no time. We got to see the Main Street citizens arrive back at the train station and do another little song and dance which was cute! E & L arrived and we all took the stairs up to the train. I don't remember ever riding the train before, but it was rather nice, and I feel like it got us to the Fantasyland station faster than walking
Desmond loves trains, too, so that was a definite plus!

We tested Desmond out at the front of Barnstormer, and he was about a 1/4" too short
Oh well, next time! We headed over to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, where there was already a 20 minute wait. The line here is very interactive, though, and Desmond had fun with it all
I hadn't seen the movie in a long time, and I totally couldn't remember anything about the ride from when we rode it on our honeymoon, but anyway, I totally forgot how much the heffalumps and woozles song creeps me out lol!
I'll take HM at night by myself any day over that
We went back up to Gaston's tavern to use up some snack credits on more cinnamon rolls and Lefou's brews! We saw that Gaston was meeting again, but it was a different one this time who did not have the cleft chin and was thusly deemed by Ellen and I to be inferior
Now it was time for our FP on Haunted Mansion, so we made our way over there with a stop at the Tangled Restrooms (I still had no luck finding Pascal!) Desmond didn't have any issues on HM, but I wouldn't say he was super excited to be riding it lol, he just kind of looked and everything like, "what the heck?!" We got the hitchhiking ghost that sat on top of the car and switched Matt and my heads around 
Mom, Des, and I decided to head over to the Magic Carpets because this was another one of which Desmond had been watching YouTube videos, while everyone else went to watch Hall of Presidents. He enjoyed this ride as well, and thought the water spitting camel was just too fun
We met up with everyone else in time for our Jungle Cruise FP. This is another one, like Peter Pan, that I can't justify waiting in a long standby line. Our tour guide was a young lady with really good, dry comedic timing, so we were laughing the whole time! Next up was Enchanted Tiki Room, which we hadn't seen since the 'new management' had been fired. I enjoyed the nostalgic feeling of it all
We had to hot foot to get to our next thing on time: Be Our Guest with fastpass
For me, I was much more excited about the atmosphere than the food choices. When we got up to the order station, I forgot what it was I was planning on getting, and ended up just ordering the first thing on the menu
I read that they give you a little red rose tracker so they know where you are sitting in the restaurant, but every CM we asked in line told us that we didn't need one...? So we were all a little bit confused on how they would find us, until one of the server CMs told us that since we were staying in the park and had Magic Bands, they did the tracking for us
I did not realize that was one of their features, and we all started talking about how The Man had been tracking us our whole trip
The food arrived soon. The thing I ended up getting was the Tuna Nicoise Salad. The description of it is "warm seared tuna steak..." but it was stone cold. That's bound to happen with tuna steak I guess, so I didn't complain and at it anyway, and it still tasted pretty good. I had to ask for some more dressing for my salad, but they delivered that quickly as well. For dessert, Matt got the Master's Cupcake which has the grey stuff on top (it IS delicious, Lumiere wasn't lying
), and I got the strawberry cream cheese cupcake which was very yummy and fresh tasting. I took Desmond on a wander around the different rooms before it was time to move on. I think the concept of the food carts and everything is neat, but I think they still have some bugs to work out in order to keep the food fresh and warm.






Everyone made their way to Tomorrowland while I quickly stopped off for my FP to meet Ariel! I was hoping for a good interaction because I had my "keep calm and kiss the girl" shirt, and also Little Mermaid necklaces and bracelets! She noticed the Ariel on my necklace, then I shower her the dinglehoppers on my necklace and bracelet, which she got excited about and pulled out a big fork from behind her chair

I went to the FP kiosk to try and get a FP for Buzz, since everyone else had one that was already in the hour. I lucked out and got one that overlapped with the others
We all rode the Peoplemover (those curves feel pretty fast when you're sitting backwards lol), and then we only had to wait a few minutes until my FP time started and we all rode Buzz!


We then stopped at the FP kiosk and got times for Space Mtn. We took the bridge to the Hub and that is when we got the family picture that is in the original post. E & L parted ways and the rest of us headed to It's a Small World since Matt had yet to ride it. He enjoyed it but said it was a lot different than he remembered it being. We got stuck in the final big room again, and Desmond (who had been looking glassy-eyed the whole boat ride), fell asleep against Matt

Matt wanted to get most of the things packed up so we didn't have to worry about it in the morning, so the 4 of them headed back to the hotel. There was still time before our Space Mtn FP window, so I decided to get in line to meet Merida whose time was just opening. She's not on my shirt, but I realized that (besides for the Frozen girls that I was NOT going to wait 2 1/2 hours for), the only princesses I needed were Merida and Tiana to complete the set of bonafide Disney princesses!!
The wait for Merida was incredibly boring unfortunately, because there is nothing to see or look at from that little path, and they open up the gates to where she is for a group of people to go in and all be done before letting another group in, so I felt like I was standing in the same place forever! However, once I got in the arena, it was quick. I apologized that her picture wasn't on the shirt, and she said that her mom probably said her picture couldn't be on the shirt since she didn't brush her hair lol. The little arena was cute and kids could try their hand at archery or color a picture after meeting with Merida.

I headed to Tomorrowland and met Ellen and Luke who were just getting off the Astro Orbiter, and we boarded Space Mountain for another hair raising trip! (I told Luke to sit in front this time since my heart was pounding for about 10 minutes after the last time!)

We went to the FP kiosk and tried to get times for Splash Mtn, but it was broken down at the time so it wasn't available to choose from, so we got BTMRR instead. We headed across the Hub and I was going to get in line for Tiana, but they were done letting people in the line for that hour, so we decided to do the Liberty River Boat, but had missed it by 3 minutes! We decided to do Country Bear Jamboree, and we were cracking up the whole time! The 'adult-ness' of the show was lost on us as kids but it was really fun to see it now
We headed over to use our BTMRR FP and had ourselves a wild wilderness adventure! Then Ellen and Luke hopped on a ferry to Tom Sawyer Island while I went back over to Tiana's garden glen. I noticed the Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom booth right as I was getting in line, and is been seeing people play the game which looked like a lot of fun, so I went over and got my cards and tutorial and got back in Tiana's line. She and Naveen were so much fun! When I told her she wasn't on the shirt, she said 'well, as long as they didn't skip me and put those frozen girls on there!' Lol... She forgot to draw a heart under her name while we were chatting, so Naveen tried to draw it for her and she was like, 'what are you doing?? My poor husband doesn't know how to draw hearts' and he said 'I think it is wonderful! Put it on display!' (He didn't look the part but his accent was spot on) we had fun and it was the longest character interaction I had; it was nice to not feel rushed thru
My shirt was complete!!! It was so exciting; I really didn't think I'd get all the autographs of the pictured characters, let alone 7 others!!


I made my way to Adventureland and met E & L at Aloha Isle for another Dole Whip!! We walked back through to Liberty Square and I found my first SotMK spot (my villain was Dr. Facillier, which I thought was pretty funny since I'd just visited Tiana). We stopped off at the Frontierland Shootin' Arcade, and I personally love that it hasn't changed a bit! We got done with that and turned around to see the characters for the Hoedown coming down the path! E & L went to get on the riverboat while I watched the hoedown for a little bit; it was cute and fun to see the impromptu like performance! I went to the FP kiosk to get us times for Splash Mtn since it was back open, then I finished my round of SofMK since all my locations to find were conveniently in Liberty Square or Frontierland
I saw 2 guys with large books filled with SotMK cards, and they were playing like pros and trading cards with each other 
At this point, Mom texted that the 4 of them were back in the park so I met them at Aloha Isle so Mom and Dad could get their Dole Whip fix
All of us (sans E & L, who weren't hungry yet) headed over to Cosmic Ray's to get some big ol' burgers! I really appreciate the toppings bar here, and my bacon angus burger was delish! We went just across the path to Cheshire Cafe, but they were out of cake cups
I don't know if they just make so many per day, or if they stopped serving them there all together... Dad and Desmond rode the Tea Cups one more time, and Des loved it just as much as the first time
The MSEP had started already, so we went through Fantasyland, past HM, and around to behind the gallows, along the fence in front of the river boat dock. Some people were in front of us so it was a bit difficult to see, but overall not a bad spot. It was just coming down straight at us when we got there, so we had good timing! Des wasn't as enthralled with the parade as I thought he'd be, but I think he was getting pretty tired by this point.
Ellen texted to say they were going to use the FP for Splash Mtn, but the rest of us decided the air was cooled off enough that we didn't feel the need to ride it. The other 4 made their way to the front of the park to find a spot for Wishes, since they hadn't seen it on Thursday. E & L decided to head back to the hotel after Splash to swim and pack.
I went back through Fantasyland and decided to visit Maurice's cottage! Enchanted Tales with Belle was very cute and I loved the theming and design behind everything, but I don't think I'll be doing it again without Desmond
I came out of the show during the tail end of Wishes, and I was super cool to see from that angle! I had close up views of the fireworks from behind the castle and the ones that come from behind the park. It was so secluded and the fireworks lit up the sky so brightly, it felt like a private firework experience! I recommend watching them from Fantasyland for a change of pace if you've seen it from the front plenty of times before
There was no wait for anything at this point, so I walked on Under the Sea, and I felt a few rain drops as I entered the queue, the only ones I felt for the whole trip! I went over to Big Top Souvenirs to do some last ditch Alice pin searching, and just looked around there for awhile. I walked onto Buzz Lightyear for one more attempt at greatness, but I did average like all the other times
It was 10:56, so I had time to end the trip on a stellar last adventure on Space Mtn!! I told the guys behind me to make fun faces, but they didn't listen lol. We were the 2nd car so I could at least see the outline of the previous car to get some idea as to where we were going

The rides were all closed at this point, so I was sadly making my way to the front of the park when I got a text from Mom, who had stayed and shopped in the Emporium while everyone else went back to the hotel
I found her across Main Street, luckily right before my phone died, and we watched the parade one more time from opposite sides of the street. We went into the Emporium for awhile and we both bought a couple of picture frames, then went over to the Main Street Confectionary to use up the last of our snack credits. I only had one credit left, so it was a hard choice, but I decided on a Mickey Krispie Treat
It was time to make our way back to the hotel
We were very sad to be leaving, but I was glad for a great day! I enjoyed the time spent with Ellen and Luke and also my time alone. I think that was a nice time to kind of relax and reflect on the wonderful week.
Tomorrow: departure day
and final thoughts