Honeymoon Day 7

Today we were finally going to my favorite park! And we were going to my favorite reservation! (By the way, I forgot our first reservation on Day 5, so I went back and edited that in. Check out our first breakfast reservation on that day.)

When I had to cancel a few reservations in order to save money on our honeymoon, there was one reservation I was absolutely not giving up. I had managed to get a reservation for The Crystal Palace at a time before the Magic Kingdom opened for the day. These are highly sought after reservations as you are admitted to the park before all the other guests.

Which means you get pictures like this...

See how there are only a few people in front of us? In June pictures with so few people are rare. I was hoping to get a picture of us in front of the castle without anybody else, but we were running close to our reservation time and I didn't want to be late. Plus there was also a troop of Girl Scouts having their picture taken in front of the castle.

It also didn't help that I didn't know exactly how to get to the Magic Kingdom that early in the morning. We drove to the Transportation and Ticket Center. Normally you can either take the Monorail or the boat directly to the Magic Kingdom. But since the park wasn't open yet, those options weren't available. Instead, we had to take the resort Monorail which stops all of the Monorail resorts on the way to the Magic Kingdom. So naturally, it took us longer to get to the park than I had planned. Next time, I'll plan for that.



Once we arrived at The Crystal Palace, we checked in and had some time to wait. As you can see, they have a nice shaded porch to wait on. We passed the time by taking some pictures.

No crowds to be seen! Yet

Soon we were called to our table by one of the hostesses. I had noted on all our reservations that we were on our honeymoon and our table had confetti on it to mark the occasion. We soon met our waiter who brought us drinks and explained to use the buffet and the characters. Oh yes, this is a character breakfast!

I didn't take any pictures of the food, but it was good. Lots of familiar breakfast foods and some new ones. I checked out what was labeled as the children's section of the buffet and I discovered puffed french toast. It tasted a lot like an elephant ear. You better believe I went back for seconds of that!

Meals at The Crystal Palace are hosted by Winnie the Pooh and his friends.



I've been a Tigger fan for years so I was happy to meet this guy.



I sometimes call M Eeyore when he's being a downer with his attitude, so I had to get a picture of these two together.

When we were done with our meal, we were presented with a card congratulating us and it was signed by Pooh and all his friends.

Would we eat here again? Absolutely! In fact, afterward, I informed M that it was our new Disney tradition that we would have breakfast at the Crystal Palace on Magic Kingdom days. The food was good and it was a special treat to get into the park early.

When we left, the park had just opened for the day.



Here comes the crowd!

It's been awhile, so I can't remember exactly what we did that day, but we did have a lot of fun riding rides and exploring the park. We would be here all day and it's my favorite park, so we packed a lot into our day.



Our first destination was Tomorrowland where we enjoyed Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.



We headed to Fantasyland where we enjoyed the Mad Tea Party and I'm sure some other rides. Basically, we just walked and rode things as we came across them. The lines weren't too bad yet. My rule is that wait time of 20 minutes or less is doable and anything else gets a Fastpass if available.

Instead of trying to remember everything we did, I'll share some photos of our day with you.

The Haunted Mansion

The Hall of Presidents now with President Obama

Outside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, I spotted this guy. We were just in time to see Captain Jack's show!



It was a really good show and I had a hard time believing that wasn't Johnny Depp in front of me.

If you bow just right, Cinderella gets her crown.

I love this castle!

 

Sometime in the afternoon, we rode the People Mover in Tomorrowland. I like to ride it to take a break, put my feet up, and relax. It's also good for taking pictures. Here's Space Mountain.

See, much more crowded now than it was this morning!

Eventually, we decided to have dinner at Cosmic Ray's



I had a cheeseburger and M had his usual...



Chicken Caesar Salad

This is one of the mosaics inside the castle.

There was no question that we were staying to see the fireworks since the Magic Kingdom's fireworks are my favorite. We found a spot along Main Street and waited for the evening parade. It was a boring wait, but it was nice to sit down and relax.



The Electrical Parade was nice, but hard to take pictures of.

I love the way the castle changes color at night.

We stayed very late, but eventually, we had to get to bed if we were going to get a good start for the next day.