The Polynesian is a South Pacific style resort set amidst lush gardens. It is truly a tropical paradise, with waterfalls and a huge volcano in the main pool! This is a resort we would love to stay at sometime - it is connected via monorail to Magic Kingdom, and a quick transfer can get you to EPCOT via the monorail. There is a white sand beach from which you can watch the Electrical Water Pageant (a water parade of barges with lighted floats that makes its way around Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon every evening) and you can even catch a glimpse of the fireworks high over Cinderella's castle.
We ate brunch at Ohana - a buffet style breakfast with Lilo, Stitch, Pluto and Mickey. It was great fun with the Polynesian themes - we had our picture taken out front with leis on - Casey loved that! I also got to meet Mickey - I had never taken the time to meet a character before, I just always let Casey have the fun. This was a nice treat!After brunch hopped on the monorail over to Magic Kingdom. It was very busy already at 12 noon. We spent some time in Tomorrowland doing a few rides we had never tried before. The Astro Orbiter was a fun ride - well worth it for the views of Magic Kingdom from up so high. We also sat through Stitch's Great Escape. I had heard this could be scary for young kids, so I asked a cast member outside and he said it was fine, "Like a movie." A movie in the pitch dark! It was a lot of fun, and Casey didn't get scared, but we were literally sitting in inky blackness while Stitch "ran" around the room. Can definitely be scary for younger kids if they are not prepared in advance.
We spent some time in Adventureland next - the Silly Jungle Cruise is always a favorite ride, but you definitely need a Fast Pass for this one. It is a relaxing cruise through a jungle, but the line ups are as long as the thrill rides. We also took in the Enchanted Tiki Room (Now Under New Management) show - kind of cute, and fun for kids. Then it was time to get Casey all princessed-up!
We headed up to Cinderella's castle to the Bibbiti Bobbiti Boutique. I had often seen little girls walking around the parks dressed as princesses, but this was the first year Casey was interested in it. Reservations are required for this experience, and they book up well in advance. We checked in and they gave us a dressing room to get Casey into her Princess Tiana dress. Then they called her name and her Fairy Godmother-in-Training came to do her hair. What a great time! The lady was so sweet and chatted with Casey the whole time. They really make it a magical experience for the kids.Casey got to take home her make-up, extra decal stickers for her cheeks, and some stickers in a gift bag. She also had a sash and of course the crown, wand, gloves that we had purchased. We purchased the basic package for about $50. There are other packages available as well. They also offer photo sessions in the Castle Coture shop across from the castle. This is not included in the base package, but they will allow you to store these photos on your Disney Photo Pass. We had already made the decision to purchase a DVD of our Photo Pass, so we were happy to have her portraits taken and stored on our card.
After this we headed into Cinderella's Castle again for our dinner reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table. Dining in the castle in a magical experience any day, but having Casey all dressed up made it lots of fun. The meal was delicious too - one of the best we had all week. They perform a cute wishing ceremony with the kids where lights sparkle on the ceiling at the end. We had done this for breakfast before, but of course it was too bright to see the sparkling ceiling lights. I highly recommend planning yoru reservation for after sunset to take advantage of this special touch.
As wel left the castle, the Main Street Electrical Parade was just beginning. We were able to grab a spot right near the Magic Kingdom exit to watch the parade. This was nice since I had seen this parage back in 1990. Disney had since replaced it with the SpectroMagic parade, which is beautiful, but it was nice to show Casey something I had seen before. We headed back to our resort after this - a long, but enjoyable day :)
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