First Disney: Magic Kingdom

This was the day of days.  The big one.  The park of my heart.  The MAGIC KINGDOM!

This day featured a surprise guest appearance from my little brother.  First ride of the park?  The carousel.  The carousel frightened my daughter.  I think much of it was being fairly alone (I was riding directly behind her) in such a large and busy place.  After this we witnessed someone pulling the sword from the stone so we all tried again once they were finished.  SUCH MAGIC!
And onward to It's A Small World and Peter Pan before the lines get outrageous.  On that note, I understand why It's A Small World has continuous popularity but what about Peter Pan's ride has people willing to wait an hour and a half or more just to get on?  It's a cool ride and all but I wouldn't wait that long.
Then we went on to visit the new portion of Fantasyland.  We passed Belle's Cottage, Gaston's Tavern, and the fantastic castle dining of Be Our Guest moving on to Ariel's Grotto beneath Prince Eric's castle.
You move through the castle as it begins to shift from castle to beach to underwater AWESOME.  The last time that I had seen Ariel's Grotto it was a seashell the size of a bus stop and it was a character meet.  Surprise to us, it was a ride!  A really cool ride actually.

We then traveled on to Dumbo's ride, the Barnstormer which my daughter found funny for how silly Goofy was but not thrilled with the actual ride itself.
After this we moved on to the twirling teacups!

From the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, we moved on to The Crystal Palace for a character lunch with characters from Winnie the Pooh!  This character lunch was better organized than the Hollywood & Vine meal.  These characters followed a clear pattern of movement around the dining establishment with a more engaging interaction with all patrons.  The table that was before us in the pattern had an elderly couple sitting there.  While these patrons did not get autographs or pictures, the characters still involved them in pantomime gestures to acknowledge them.  This was definitely in my favorites of character dining experiences.
My mother arranged all of these excellent experiences and we made a slight alteration to the reservations earlier that morning to include my daughter's upcoming birthday.

This alteration provided my daughter a cupcake with a single candle and a birthday card signed by all characters present at the diner.  I recommend that if your child or anyone in your party has an upcoming birthday coming up to take advantage of this experience.  It's a real treat and an experience that cannot be duplicated anywhere else.
After this we went on to ride Pirates of the Caribbean with our Fast Passes but.. OH NO!  Pirates of the Caribbean was closed for some reason.  We were reassured that once PotC was reopened that they would honor our Fast Passes so we moved on to Aladdin's Carpet Ride before maneuvering to my favorite experience of all of the Disney Parks; THE HAUNTED MANSION!

This was the first time that I've been on the ride since the additions to the outdoor waiting area.  I'm absolutely thrilled with every single one of them!  The interactive instruments, the poet, the captain's tomb (is this another tie connecting Haunted Mansion to PotC?), and Madame Leota's headstone!  There was a slight malfunction in the ride; the Hitchhiking Ghosts were missing!  We could see our reflections but they did not join us on our way out of the ride.
After much of this excitement we wandered towards the front of the park and grandma bought my daughter her first Disney hat!

Of course we had her named printed on it and everything!  Another one of those things that you just simply cannot get anywhere else.  I even picked out my own, my husband still has yet to get one.  He's patiently waiting to have his first be a return of the Donald sailor hats without Mickey's ears.

I continued to wander the Magic Kingdom with my husband while my mom, brother, and daughter went back to rest and prepare for the excitement that Epcot would have the following day.