Easter at Disney - Magic Kingdom on Easter Day

After brunch we had one last sunshine filled afternoon at the Magic Kingdom.   It was just a perfect day!  Everything we had left to do we "extras" so we rode a few rides, happily stumbled onto the start of the daytime parade (after seeing the end of the special Easter parade disappear around the corner), and took a few more photos to remember it all!

First up:  working our way down Main Street stopping for the same picture over and over! ;-)

 

After riding Big Thunder we spotted the end of the Easter parade, so realized the daily parade was soon to start.  We found a great shady planter box ledge outside Pecos Bill's to sit and watch the parade kick off.   It was the closest we have ever been to the action, and our besties stopped by for waves and fist bumps.   Truly magical!

First this guy had to vacuum up the confetti from the Easter parade before the next round of confetti came through!  I can only imagine how much glitter is inside that bag....

 

 

 

Always so much fun to see "new" things.  The more we go the more we see "new" things we've missed before.   I really hope William doesn't get tired of Disney anytime soon.  It's just so much fun for me and John!    One more ride (with new in ride photo that surprised us when it shopped up on the My Disney Experience app!), one more castle photo with Mom on the way out, a ride on the monorail back to the Contemporary, and then waiting for an Uber to take us to the airport for our flight home.   A great, relaxing getaway with my favorite people!

 

 He's really learned how to make himself at "home" at our DVC home!1

Easter at Disney - Brunch

California Grill has become our favorite restaurant over the years, and the Sunday brunch may be my favorite meal of all time!   We ate there on my birthday trip, and I couldn't wait to return for Easter brunch.  It was also the reason we got the dining plan for the second part of the trip.  You definitely do better than break even when a dinner and brunch at California Grill are involved!

In the lobby of the Contemporary there was a chocolate Easter egg display which was beautiful and had so much creativity!  Upstairs they had a few Easter touches in the restaurant but most of it was the same as our last trip.   They is a lot of sushi on the buffet, so I got William a plate to try a few things.  He didn't bite.  He did enjoy his pancakes and other delicious items.   Unfortunately since he will have turned 10 and be a "Disney adult" for all future trips, this buffet is going to get a lot pricier.

Easter at Disney - Magic Kingdom

We started our day with the beautiful walk over to Magic Kingdom.   They did a different rope drop process than we had seen most recently, so we were surprised to find people still out in front of the train station when we arrived versus already on Main Street.   Because of that, I didn't know (once we got inside) if they were still going to hold us at the ropes to the lands (they did) so was a little concerned on timing because John had not arrived yet.  William and I watched the castle show and then beelined to Space Mountain for our first ride.   We couldn't get ahold of John so we rode by ourselves once then met up with him for a second ride before working our way through Tomorrowland.  William loves all the rides there because he can ride them himself and no strangers are added to his car.   John and I like riding in the car/spaceship behind him and laughing at how seriously he takes it.  

Next up Frontierland!   We had some time to kill before our Splash Mountain FastPass nad enjoyed exploring a store we never noticed before.   Eeyore and Pooh were for pictures only; I didn't have to buy another plane seat to get them home!  William beat John in a game of checkers, and then we were on our way to Splash!  Afterwards we had our very first stop EVER at the Country Bear Jamboree.  It was actually pretty cute.  Reminded me of ShowBiz but more country.

We enjoyed strolling around the park a few more hours having snacks and checking stuff out before we returned to the hotel to hang out and get cleaned up for an early dinner at Be Our Guest (i.e. Beast's Castle).   We had been for lunch before but not dinner.  The lighting was not great for photos but the food was pretty good.  Not worth the prix fixe cost to us (and especially not worth the two credits on the dining plan), and the least luxurious of any signature restaurant we've been to.  But now we know!  My favorite picture here is William eating his food totally oblivious to the fact the Beast is walking right behind him!

 After dinner we stumbled upon what was probably William's favorite part of the trip:  the Frontierland Shooting Gallery.  For $1 and what was apparently a broken system, he spent 30+ minutes shooting at digital targets.  Then came one of my favorites:  we got primo seating at a table inside the courtyard of the Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe to watch the fireworks.  It was heavenly to see and hear the show with basically no one around us!