Day 2 - Magic Kingdom

Our first day at Magic Kingdom began with breakfast at Chef Mickey's, a great place to eat.  It's hard to get reservations for this venue, but Mary managed to get a reservation for all 8 of us.  You are visited here by Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Minnie, and Pluto, while dining at a buffet that has just about everything you could want to eat for breakfast.

We left there and took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom, where we headed up Main Street for a photo in front of the castle.  After the photo op, we headed toward Phiharmagic and I noticed that the Fairy Godmother was behind the castle for a meet and greet.  She is one of my fairy tale heroines, and I have a shirt that says that I am a "fairy grandmother".  So, of course I had to stop and meet her and have a photo taken.  We continued making our way through the Kingdom doing our thing, and Rod and I had lunch at the Liberty Tree Tavern.  We eat here every trip, but prefer lunch to dinner.  Near the end of our meal, a little guy at the table next to ours became ill and his lunch came back up.  The staff did everything to make the family more comfortable and were very apologetic to those nearby, but unfortunately did nothing to clean it up.  We asked for our check and left abruptly because the smell was very unpleasant.  (another bad experience).

We met the kids at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and they all rode while I people watched.  We moved onto the new Fantasyland, where I did some shopping.  We all did Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid.  Here I had to transfer to a wheelchair from my scooter, but it was very enjoyable.  But unfortunately, the tires on the wheelchair were flat and it didn't move very well.  Had I not put my feet down, the cast members would have dumped me right out of the chair.  Poor Krissy was in tears, convinced that they were going to hurt me.  It took a few minutes to calm her down, but soon we were on our way to meet Gaston, from The Beauty and the Beast.

 Gaston was an absolute hoot, and was so in character!  He bragged about his muscles, told Mary how excellent he was at expectorating, took our autograph books because "girls shouldn't read, and asked to see Jimmy's muscles.  Jimmy's were real - not stuffed like Gaston's, and Gaston commented on that.  He seemed to get a kick from how short I was, and had to rest his elbow on my head while having our photo taken.

During the course of the day, we saw a medieval show at the sword in the stone.  They had all kinds of big guys try to remove the sword, but none were successful.  Bubby was declared the "Hero of Fantasyland" when he was able to lift the sword out.

The kids did Enchanted Tales with Belle, where Jimmy was chosen to play a Knight.  When they returned, we proceeded to our Be Our Guest reservation.  This is another venue where it is almost possible to get a reservation.  Mary checked every day, two or three times, and was able to score a reservation for all 8 of us.  The decor inside the Beast's castle is absolutely stunning.  We were seated in the West Wing., the rose was there under glass, and the photo of the prince changed each time the thunder clapped.  It was dark.  I wasn't impressed with the food, however.  I ordered the mussels for my appetizer, and felt like I was munching on cloves of garlic.  I ate two of them and didn't eat any more.  I ordered Chicken Breast Provencal as my entree, it was pan-seared and simmered in a blend of heirloom tomatoes, olives, white wine and fresh herbs. After I scraped off the top, the chicken was delicious.  It was served with fingerling potatoes.  For dessert, I chose the sugar-free lemon-strawberry cream puff which was filled with lemon custard.  I have to tell you that Disney makes the best sugar-free desserts.  Our server was amazing, and Rod left him quite a hefty tip.  He tracked us down while we were waiting for a photo with the Beast and questioned Rod as to whether or not the amount of the tip was a mistake.  When Rod assured him that it was not, the wonderful gentleman had tears in his eyes, thanked us profusely, and wished us a Merry Christmas.

Since the Christmas party that evening had already started, we were escorted out of the park, and Rod and I returned to our room.  My notes for today - Magic Kingdom is probably my least favorite park.  There are more screaming, crying kids and frustrated parents dragging their kids around by their arms in this park than you see in any other park.  Today's dining was disappointing at best.  The cast members were friendly, helpful, and cheerful.  I would rate today 97 out of 100.

Tomorrow - Epcot and a cruise.