merida and a faux christmas parade

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope that your day is filled with delicious eats and family or the friends that are like family, or both! I know I’m personally looking forward to some of my uncle’s famous cold cut bread and my sister’s apple crumb pie. In the immortal words of David John: deeeeeelicious!

I still have a few more Disney recaps left in me! Today was our final day at Magic Kingdom. This is the day we finally met Merida! She was so so special. She asked Letty to gallop around the area with her and they spun around and it was so fun. After the photo opportunity I asked Merida if she would mind very much wishing Letty’s very best friend Avery a happy birthday, as she turned seven this day. And she did. And it was magic. Who wouldn’t want a personal birthday wish from one of your favorite princesses? I actually teared up during her message. But I digress. While we waited in line for that Matt and the others went on It’s a Small World and the carousel again. After lunch my sister took Letty on the Mad Tea Party because sorry, mom isn’t a fun mom and spinny rides make me a bit green around the gills. We got on the Barnstormer and the Peoplemover again. While my siblings did Space Mountain we headed over to do the Haunted Mansion. Matt and my dad took the big kids on the Speedway once more and then finally we used our Fastpasses for the Seven Dwarves Mine Train. Which David rocked.

Oh! And you know what else was going on at Magic Kingdom this day? The Christmas Day Parade. That’s right! It’s all fake! We saw behind the curtain and we all felt slightly disappointed with the whole thing. Like we just found out that the Santa at the mall isn’t the real Santa. Here on Christmas Day when we watch the parade and think oh… how fun it would be to be at Magic Kingdom today! Look at all those festive people in their red and their Santa hats cheering and wishing us a Merry Christmas and looking all warm! NOPE. Hard pass. They aren’t actually there. They were there on a Friday in November. And how staged it was! They were directing crowds to gather in one area so they would be on screen and the float came out and just sat there silently waiting and they counted down and then yelled action and the music started and the float moved and people started clapping. It was all a tad rehearsed. Which I mean rationally makes sense. But we were let down for sure. So if you watch the parade on Christmas day look to the right of the castle, behind the crowds you may see a Letty in a purple shirt and a David in a red one standing there eating their snacks when the Inside Out float comes around…When in reality they will be in chilly Pennsylvania.

Moving on.

Our dinner was at the Crystal Palace, which as it turns out, not only is a buffet and a character dining experience, but it has seafood! This made some of the people in our party quite happy. After dinner we got to see the castle all dolled up in her winter finery and I deemed it good.



And as we left the park that night I turned around and looked over my shoulder and said my mental goodbye to the castle, as I always do. I’m such a sucker.





|TWITTER || INSTAGRAM || BLOGLOVIN || PINTEREST ||