2nd day of Magic...an evening at Magic Kingdom

For the evening...

Magic Kingdom

After going back to Riverside and unpacking our vans, we grabbed a bus to Magic Kingdom for the evening. We got there just in time for our dinner reservation at Tony's for yummy Italian.

Lady and The Tramp all decked out for the holidays.

Watching the Electrical Parade through the window while the adults finish.

Brad and his sweet girl...

In my experience of many trips to Magic Kingdom, the best time to ride is at night. The crowds thin out and the waits are minimal, especially if you wait until after Wishes and the night parade. After that, it is usually a walk on for every ride. We went later because we were counting on that fact to be true. I just knew the crowd would leave but NO, it was packed. They were open until 1AM and at 12:30 AM, the popular rides still had 45+ minutes for stand by riders. I was shocked. I expected it on New Year's Day but not Jan 2nd. We were there the same week in 2012 and the crowds were not bad at all. We did get to ride a few things and even with the crowd, we enjoyed the magic of Magic Kingdom.

I loved seeing all of the new things at Fantasyland. The kids LOVED the playground area in the Dumbo waiting area. Dumbo was so pretty all lit up with the water and the double ride.

The best thing about staying until park closing was our experience with Belle. We went to see Enchanted Tales with Belle about 12:30AM. There were very few kids in our group so when the CM started choosing kids as characters, all of our crew got a part. Claudia was Mrs. Potts, Maddie was Chip, Chad was a Knight, and Cooper was The Beast!

The whole experience was enchanting, just as the name promises. Belle was beautiful and so sweet, as she always is. I could barely take pictures for being so teary eyed watching my babies in such a magical story. I love our Disney experiences and this just added one more precious memory to my stock pile. I'm always a little humored by the people who make exasperated comments over how often we go to Disney. They just have no idea how much the magical experiences mean to my heart. If I could afford for us to go two or three times per year, we absolutely would!

Years ago, Claudia was Mrs. Potts in the story time with Belle held behind the castle.

Our sweet boy got to dance with a REAL princess and while it may not have been a big deal to him, it was so precious to me!

Wait, hold up, is Belle batting her big brown eyes at MY Chad? Ok, so I know she is a real princess but he is MY real Knight In Shining Armour so hands off missy!

When we were getting ready to leave the park, it had gotten rather foggy. The castle looked so majestic and beautiful with the fog surrounding it.

We are all worn out after a long day at AK and MK. We had a great 2nd day!