Last day in the Kingdom – with a dash of Epcot

Friday morning and we have to pack up. :(  It will be our last day visiting the magical lands. I start it off with some Lucky Charms in the hopes it will enchant me and make the day seem as long as possible.

We wave to the animals as we roll our things out to the car.

These grasses are so soft and pretty! I’m sure they’d hate the weather back home, but I’d love to have them in my yard.

Chris stops to grab himself some ‘breakfast’. Nuggets and crack sauce.

Then we roll out to the Magic Kingdom.

Fred was an awesome driver! Very engaging and humorous. I had to stop him and grab a photo. More CM’s could be like him.

A better sign has never been seen. *love*

First – a Mickey Bar for the last day.

Then we pop into Casey’s Corner for some dogs and fries.

Then we parked ourselves up front for the Festival of Fantasy Parade. It was quite warm, but tolerable. We hadn’t seen this parade yet and there was one thing I was super excited to see in person.

Even Elvis has to show up for a good Disney Parade!

I’d love to say the castle reflected in my glasses was on purpose – but instead it was a delightful surprise when I got home.

It’s starting!

The family of the day – in coordinating M&M costumes.

Ulf was adorable!

The dresses on the Floral Maidens (from Tangled) were so vibrant. I love her laugh.

Even better is when I get them to engage right with my camera. I’m sure my almost-glowing-purple hair helps get attention.

Everything about this float makes me smile!

Lion Fish

Seashells

Coral

So much detail!

All this sea life can only mean . . .

Lost Boys!

Tick-Tock is one of my favorites – look at her awesome shadow.

Brave dancers.

The fairy godmothers – Flora, Fauna and Merryweather gracefully float by.

Followed by some ravens. Those shredded wings are great.

Then some creeping thorny vines.

MALEFICENT! Here is the reason I wanted to catch this parade.

Sadly, there were no flames on this day, I suspect because of the high temps. I was still super happy I got to see her dragon form in person.

Snow and her 7 dwarven friends skip and dance up the street.

Well, Grumpy stomps past. No dancing there.

A glimpse of the Mad Hatter.

Alice and the White Rabbit.

Pinnochio sits atop Maestro.

A Fantasia-esque float closes out the parade, carrying the Fab Five.

Some colorful acrobats on swings.

Mickey in a hot air balloon.

Held down by the ballerina hippos.

Finally the ending banner carried by the circus girls. Big Top skirts and taffy pulled hair. So much color in this parade!

We head over to Fantasyland and out to the sea… time to see the Little Mermaid.

I continue to adore Disney’s attention to detail. The entire area has seashells embedded in the ground and bird foot prints running everywhere.

Prince Eric’s seaside castle.

The queue was full of similar detail. Sunken treasure, pieces of ships, whosits and whatsits galore.

Everybody sing along! Under the Sea…

It doesn’t show well in a photo, but her hair in this bit was great. Really a feeling of floating in water.

Carmen Miranda fish.

Creepy old Flotsam.

The Sea Witch Ursula.

Kiss the Girl.

Finding their true love.

This shot really shows off the excellent depth of field effects – that is Beast’s Castle off “in the distance”.

We pop into Gaston’s Tavern for one last brew.

On the way out I stopped this adorable pair in their Up costumes. I’ve seen plenty of people dressed as Russel or a generic Wilderness Explorer – but to find someone dressed as the house and Kevin the bird!!

From underwater to underground: we head to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

We had a FastPass – and the line went pretty quick. There were still a LOT of people waiting.

Sadly, there was nothing Pooh friendly about this one. There is a U shaped bar individually for each seat and there was no way I could pull it past my knees. Chris managed to squeeze in to a car and I told him to go ahead and ride.
I wasn’t able to catch Chris on the ride

But when I got home, the photopass treated me to their new ride video: (Chris is in the very last car)

The video is a crackup, and while I’d still want a standard photo, I hope they offer these little souvenir snippets on more rides.

In the end the ride was far too short for how long the line was. Also, he said his thighs were pressed so tight together from the safety bar, he thought he was never going to find HIS jewels again.

From there we hit Splash Mountain one more time. Soaked again!

I spot this Ghostbustin’ family and ask for a photo. Aren’t they adorable!?

Last Dole Whip Float.

The last Halloween Party is about to start, and they begin cordoning off areas and shuffling non-party people out. I stop for a cool shot of the castle in eerie red.

UV lit Villains show pennants.

Today is actually Halloween, and the crowd levels are showing it.

We take the boat back to the car and I get a parting shot of the park – the train station in purple and the castle with its motley patchwork of villainous characters.

We have one more dining reservation to go, but first, a quick pit stop at EPCOT.

Moon!

I make a mad dash for souvenirs for family while Chris gets the car.

I stopped in Club Cool to use up some credits (Goofy’s character gummies) and a Cast Member comments on my lanyard. I’ve got a Disneyland orange ticket pin and she mentions that’s the one she’s missing from her collection. I offer it to her and she gives me the best shocked/happy face. She starts to protest, but I explain I wear traders to the parks and I’m certain the pin was meant for her. I leave knowing what it is that makes CM’s love their job, because I feel awesome giving her a bit of pixie dust at the end of her shift.

I will never get tired of photographing the Spaceship Earth sphere at night.

Finally we are done running around the parks. I’m sure it’s no surprise where our last meal should be. If you can have an amazing steak, always have an amazing steak.

Up Next: Our last meal at Yachtmsan (for this trip).