We woke up, got ready to take on the day, and headed to the International Gateway. After a quick visit with our favorite CM Cynthia, we headed through the park to the exit.
When we reached the Fountainview Cafe (or whatever it is now... bakery?), I was finally able to get a fork and enjoy my chocolate Mickey Cake from the Boardwalk Bakery (breakfast keeps getting less healthy by the day.... 
). It was spectacular, even half-melted! We exited the park as most people were just heading in, and the girls napped almost the whole way. This is why we take "the long way" 
After a quick dart into the Emporium where I finally found a shirt I had been trying to track down in the right size, we hit Fantasyland. We picked up a FP for Peter Pan and rode Dumbo.
Somehow, it was already nearing lunch time! We ate in Pinocchio's Village Haus, despite it not being our favorite (by any stretch of the imagination), because it was right there and it was time to eat :-P. It actually was better than we had remembered!
When we got our receipt from Pinocchio's, we saw we still had 5 Counter Service credits left. Huh? After some conversation, we realized that we had "made up for" being one CS credit short (since it goes on nights, not days, of vacation) by paying OOP at the Spoodle's Pizza Window, but had also "made up for" it by not eating a CS meal on race day. And by splitting a meal during the 3:00 Parade. Whoops! We also had 11 snack credits left, which we NEVER have a problem getting rid of. We decided that it was no wonder we had commented on feeling notably less "stuffed" than we had on previous trips... we had been eating normally, and not DDP-style!
After lunch, we rode and enjoyed Peter Pan's Flight, though I can't for the life of me understand why the lines are always as long as they are. I like it, but it's certainly not my favorite dark ride, and yet EVERY time the lines are significantly longer than the rest. But I digress...
We skipped to Adventureland (not literally) to see about the Tiki Room and Jungle Cruise, but the lines had already gotten pretty long. There was no wait for the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, so we rode those instead. Let me just say forget DVC! This might be Disney's best kept secret!
I'm not about to replace anything on my list of my favorite rides, but they are WAY cooler than Dumbo, for all the hype that elephant gets!The girls were getting quite sleepy at this point, so we put them back in the stroller and did a few Treasure Hunt questions before starting toward the exit. We stopped for our last Dole Whip, and sat in the shade while the girls slept. Have you ever noticed the "porches" above Aloha Isle and the adjacent buildings? They are very sweet, and I most definitely want to sit up there sometime and enjoy the view. Not that you can, but you know, on one of those hypothetical "If you could sit anywhere in the Magic Kingdom for an afternoon ... ?" type questions.
We caught part of the "Move It, Shake It... Party" as we were leaving, which looks very cute. Perhaps we'll have to schedule it in our October trip, when the girls are a bit bigger!
We said a sad goodbye to the Magic Kingdom as the girls slept (too sad to admit we were leaving, I'm sure! 
) and boarded the monorail to start our long journey back home. {Can I add, by the way, that EVERY time we rode the monorail this trip it smelled like urine? Odd. And a bit disturbing. But mostly frustrating, because EVERY time I panicked that we must have forgotten to change the girls any time recently, which was never the case. Really weird.}
) and boarded the monorail to start our long journey back home. {Can I add, by the way, that EVERY time we rode the monorail this trip it smelled like urine? Odd. And a bit disturbing. But mostly frustrating, because EVERY time I panicked that we must have forgotten to change the girls any time recently, which was never the case. Really weird.}Back in Epcot, Zach walked quickly ahead to grab a Crepe from France. We weren't the least bit hungry, but kept forgetting that we wanted to try one - and had the credits to spare! We caught up with him and boy, am I glad we got the thing. It was heavenly!
When we reached the hotel room, the girls went down almost immediately for a nap, while Zach and I started the never-pleasant task of packing
It had been our plan to take the girls to the beach (in front of the Beach Club/Yacht Club) sometime during this trip, but it hadn't happened yet. We thought that we figured out the PERFECT opportunity! Before dinner tonight, we would put on the absolutely adorable outfits and do a little photoshoot! 
So the girls picked this afternoon to sleep for over 2 hours.
Well, I thought, the white balcony might do? 
An improvisation sure, but still a very sweet result!
We finished our photo session and changed quickly to make our dinner reservations at the Studios. We had purchased a Fantasmic Dining Package when we heard the show was going down to (then) two times/week, and just decided to keep the reservation even though we knew we wouldn't be able to enjoy the show. (
) We enjoyed our meal at Mama Melrose just fine, and even got to try an appetizer (each) because of the dining package. Boy, as great as that was when the dining plan first started, talk about a lot of food! I had forgotten! 
) We enjoyed our meal at Mama Melrose just fine, and even got to try an appetizer (each) because of the dining package. Boy, as great as that was when the dining plan first started, talk about a lot of food! I had forgotten! During dinner we "planned" (very loosely) our next several trips (you have to, you know, with DVC and APs! Or at least, we justify it as such....
). We also talked with a very sweet family from Toronto, with whom we shared our Reserved Seating pass. It was their first trip and the boys were very excited to see it, so hopefully they were able to enjoy it as much as we usually do! Since it was still early, we ALL headed to DTD. Via car. Together. We picked up "Create Your Own" treats at Goofy's to enjoy later (YUM!), looked for some good books that we didn't already own (I'm a little obsessed, to say the least, with Children's books), and picked out our last 2 pins (the girls' first!).
The girls went down like angels in the evening, and Zach and I set back to packing (what we could do quietly, and in the somewhat dark room). Despite the first day feeling long enough for ANY vacation, our last day had come and we were absolutely not ready to return home!
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