soaking up all the magic

for our last day at disney world, we headed to the magic kingdom - the easiest of the parks for us to get to from our hotel since there was a monorail station in the main building.

in no time, we got to "leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy."

and despite the moaning and groaning, i got to recreate two more old photos.  heh.

we were greeted by tinkerbell as we made our way down main street.

the old lady and i made a beeline for one of our favorite attractions in all of disney world - the classic "carousel of progress."  we love this cheesy, corny rotating stage show so much, although the others...did not.  oops.  sorry not sorry, guys.

it was drizzly again that day, and as it started to come down a little harder we made our way into fantasyland, where we decided to see if luck was on our side for an open table at the beauty and the beast-themed "be our guest" full service restaurant.  i'd tried and tried to get a reservation, but they always book up as soon as the openings become available.  and i wasn't really feeling particularly lucky, but i should've known that the hub would somehow work his magic and get us in.  

it was just as cool inside as we'd always imagined, and we had a little time to look around before walking through the main "ballroom" and being seated at a table in the almost-too-dark "beast's library."

lunch was a prix-fixe meal, with delicious options like lobster bisque and a charcuterie board for appetizers:

there was pork tenderloin and filet mignon for the main course:

and a fun little trio of sweets for dessert.  the "grey stuff" was served in an edible white chocolate cup shaped like chip from the movie.

after lunch, we chose a bit of torture and got in line for "it's a small world."

after that, it was haunted mansion and pirates, with a stop at the country bear jamboree.

by then, the hub had had his fill of disney for the day.  he bid us farewell and happily made his way back to disney springs for the cigar lounge, while the rest of us got in line for big thunder.

the quoted wait time for the seven dwarfs mine train was 45 minutes, but because the fiancé had never been on it the old lady was actually willing to wait.  and i crack up every time i look at our ride photo because how cute are they, sitting behind us with eyes only for each other?

space mountain was our last ride of the day.

and even though they made fun of me and i had crazy frizzy hair that wasn't cute at all, i got my picture in front of the infamous purple wall.

we took one last look around, and even got one of the park photographers to take a quick group shot for us.

we opted to take one of the water taxis back to the hotel instead of the monorail, because why not?

the hub was already back in the room, standing at the balcony and watching the electrical parade thingy gliding past our room.  he may or may not have been a few (or seven) drinks in.

everyone was tired and not really feeling up to going back out anywhere to find dinner, so we ordered room service.  and while we waited, we gathered up a load of clothes to use the laundromat down the hall.  too bad we couldn't get the soap machine to work.  boo.

by the time we gave up and went back to the room, dinner had arrived.

and it was surprisingly really delicious - there was fried chicken, wings, miso salmon and a key lime pie for dessert.

we spent the rest of the evening getting our stuff all packed up and ready to depart the resort the next morning.  not a bad way to spend our last day at disney world, not at all.