Disney Day Six: Magic Kingdom (Again)

After getting a fairly late start on our first MK day, everyone agreed we should do it right on our last day and get to the park bright and early. We parked at the Transportation and Ticket Center this time and took our second to last monorail ride into the Magic Kingdom on another beautiful day.

Once inside the park, we naturally split up, the older boys and their parents going over to Tomorrowland and Grandma, Grandpa, Kenny, Riley, and I going straight back to Fantasyland. We were able to do two different rides before the crowds moved in: Grandma, Kenny, and Riley did the Barnstormer roller coaster first, and Kenny, Riley, and I hopped over to Dumbo the Flying Elephant after. Then we did both rides again before meeting back up with the rest of the crew, stopping to do Pirates of the Caribbean on the way.

We all gathered at the Main Street Station (where we had a great view of the parade) and rode the WDW Railroad train all the way around the perimeter of the park. I was a little disappointed we couldn’t see much of the interior of the park itself (there were lots of trees and bushes in the way), but we all enjoyed the relaxing ride.

When we got off the train, I decided to duck into the Town Square Theater to see if the line to meet Mickey was reasonable. It was, so all twelve of us decided to go in for another special group picture. And, while we were waiting in line, Aunt Jaimi, who had been shopping most of the morning, surprised Riley with a very sweet little gift. And Riley, of course, loved seeing Mickey again, even though it does look like he’s punching him in our little family pic below. Crazy, excited, wonky boy.

We waved one last goodbye to Mickey and walked back over to Adventureland, one group to do the Jungle Cruise and the others to do Pirates. Then it was back over to Tomorrowland to grab lunch at Cosmic Ray’s before going to see the show at the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. Everyone had a great time there; the show was really funny, both Nicholas and James got small parts in it, and Kenny and Steve couldn’t get over the fact that they were doing real-time animation on the fly. Impressive, Disney; very impressive.

After some good laughs with the monsters, all of the guys and Jaimi went back to the house, Grandma and Debbie went to shop on Main Street, and Kenny, Riley, and I went to do just a couple more things before calling it a day. I remembered that Riley loved climbing the treehouse in Adventureland on our first MK day, but Kenny and I hadn’t done it, so we went there first.

 

Then we took Riley for a ride on the Liberty Square Riverboat. We went straight up to the stern area on the top deck so Riley could see the big paddlewheel spinning. Once we got going, Riley basically spent the whole cruise doing laps around the deck. He had his little Mickey clipped onto his jeans and had so much fun tearing around the boat. Kenny kept an eye on the running man while I sat down in a corner to take pictures and soak up some of the Florida sunshine. I enjoyed that little boat ride much more than I thought I would.

We walked back through to Adventureland to pick up the stroller and so I could get a treat, pineapple Dole Whip. Yum. We did a bit of shopping on Main Street (where we found a cute three-car Mickey train, a plate, and a bowl for Riley and a pair of Minnie Mouse socks for Kate) and then reluctantly agreed it was time to leave. We took one last MK picture, rode the monorail one last time, caught the tram back to the vacation car, and drove back to the vacation house. Our Disney vacation was over, and Riley-bean sure was tired from having so much fun all week long. Day six: done.

Paul, Debbie, Nicholas, and James had a super early flight, so they were already gone by the time everyone else got up the next morning. We packed up, cleaned up, checked out, and headed to the airport. Before we knew it, we were on the plane, winging our way back home to Louisiana.

Words cannot express how wonderful a trip this was, and we have Grandma and Grandpa to thank for everything. I am certain we will all treasure our memories of the week forever, so thank you so much for making this trip happen. We love you!