An exciting day today as we were meeting up with my American nephew Mike, his wife, Laura and their two scrumptious children, Asher and Hannah, in the Magic Kingdom.  The park was super quiet today too and the temperatures nicely mid 20sC, feeling very warm.

We arranged to meet a the coffee shop on Main Street at 9 which worked well.  It was so nice to see them.  When we last saw Asher, he was only 10 months old, and he is now a proper little boy of 4 and has a new sister, Hannah, who is 18 months.  They were an absolute delight all day, so well behaved and of course, this is a park that should be shared with small children ideally.

We started out with riding It’s A Small World, which is a journey around the world in the company of a small army of doll children singing and dancing in national costumes.  We then went on a car trip with Winnie the Pooh through the hundred acre wood.  We walked into Tomorrowland and rode with Buzz Lightyear, zapping aliens using guns mounted on spinning cars.  Great fun.

I then tempted Laura to take a rollercoaster trip on the runaway Mining Train with Bob and Daisy, whilst Mike and I took the two small ones into the carnival area of Fantasyland, designed for very small ones.  We had a great ride on Dumbo the flying elephants.  That was a great success.  There is a big marquee in there where Mickey, Minnie, Daisy and Donald and Goofy hang out, ready to meet the kids, take pictures and sign autographs.  There were very few others in there and we could literally walk right up.  It started well – at least for Asher.  He liked Donald and Daisy.  He didn’t mind Minnie too much but when he came face to face with Goofy, it was a step too far and he ran off and hid.  Hannah hated them all at first sight and cried throughout.  We beat a hasty retreat….

Seeking diversion Mike took Asher onto the little kids rollercoaster and I carried a howling Hannah off for a drink and a snack in her stroller, praying no one would challenge me on our relationship and accuse me of kidnap!!!! LOL  She was soon happily snacking on fruit and nuts and watching Dumbos go flying by.  Phew….

We strolled back through the park and met up with the others returning from their ride. We all rode on Peter Pan, a lovely trip through the storybook, flying over London with Peter and viewing pirates, Indians, mermaids and Captain Hook fleeing the crocodile.

By now it was definitely lunch time and Mike and Laura kindly treated us to lunch in the Safari Captain’s Canteen, a fun themed restaurant with interesting ethnic food.  Daisy and I shared falafel, steamed pork dumplings and a noodle salad.  All really good.  After lunch we sadly had to part to head off to visit Harriet in Melbourne.  On the way out, Daisy and I used our fastpass to ride Space Mountain, a whirling rollercoaster through outer space, in the dark.

Had a lovely afternoon with Harriet.  Stacey was there doing her hair ready for the weekend and afterwards we played Rumicube in one of the lounges.  Fran came over and we tried to tempt Harriet out to dinner to no avail.  We ate dinner at the River Rocks with Fran, Dave and their friends Randy and Debbie.  The food there is really good and very good value.  Left Melbourne at about 8 and home and in bed for 10.  A really nice family day and looking forward to another one tomorrow.