{outfit & mini guide} Early Morning at Magic Kingdom + Character Photo Fun

Before going on this trip I researched some Disney outlets and Kristen and I stopped by the 2 near Disney on the first couple days of our trip. They are located on International Drive and Vineland Avenue for those of you that are interested. The outlets carry merchandise exclusive to the Disney parks, even items from Shanghai Disney! I actually had a gift card for the outlet chain so I was able to buy myself some souvenirs for free! SCORE! I picked up this tank top for $7.99 and it's regularly $32.99 in the parks. INSANE!

I wore it on our second day at Magic Kingdom. We got to go into the park an hour and 15 minutes early because we had 8am breakfast reservations. Pro-tip: get early reservations if you can because you'll get to a enjoy pretty empty park for a few minutes before you head back to the restaurant of your choice! I almost had some photos with no one in the background but there was one family dilly-dallying near the photopass spot. GRR!

On this day there were also extra magic hours for families staying at Disney hotels so we could have stayed until midnight. We left around 11:30 since we had been up for way too long already and couldn't make it the extra half hour.

Mickey Tank Top: Disney Character Warehouse, Shorts: Madewell, Sandals: Ancient Greek Sandals 'Alethea' (bought in Greece), Bag: Disney x Coach 'Patricia' with Mickey ears, Sunglasses: Ray Ban 'Erika', Eyeglasses chain: Tinksky (Amazon)

Food

Be Our Guest

For our early morning breakfast, we went to our favorite - Be Our Guest for some French Toast (off the kid's menu!) I also had my favorite dessert, The Grey Stuff. Unfortunately it wasn't very good this trip so I wasted my $6 on it since they wouldn't refund me. Blegh. I guess having so many good ones I was bound to get a dud (or two since they brought me a second one that had the same issue as the first...stale and no flavor.) Luckily you also get a plate of pastries with your breakfast so I still had plenty of tasty food to eat.

Casey's Corner

On this trip we tried to visit new-to-us locations for food. For a late lunch we decided to try out Casey's for hot dogs. Kristen loved her chili dog but I wasn't as happy with my regular hot dog. If I didn't added relish I wouldn't have enjoyed it at all. For the price - $10.50 - I wouldn't go again.

Meeting Characters

Since we've ridden all the rides so many times, we decided to wait in character photo lines that we normally wouldn't wait in because we go to the parks with people who aren't into character pictures or long lines. It was a nice, different way, to spend the day in the park. We also made sure to enjoy our favorite rides as well thanks to fast passes and short lines.

Gaston

Who doesn't love to hate Gaston? He's such a smug, guy and makes it known that you're lucky to be taking photos with him. It's quite amusing.

Mickey Mouse

We were actually very lucky with the timing of this trip. This particular Mickey Mouse talked to visitors taking photos with him up until Saturday May 12th. We saw him on May 7th so we juuuust squeezed in getting to chat with him. He showed us one of his magic tricks before posing for photos. I got the whole thing on video and it's adorable.

Pooh and Tigger

Winnie the Pooh has always been one of my favorites so we waited in line to meet him and Tigger. So soft and cuddly!

Chip & Dale

Chip & Dale were one of my favorite photo ops. They were just so funny, they loved the gold chain I hold my sunglasses on and then fought over hugging Kristen and I at the end.

Rapunzel & Tiana

Rapunzel and Tiana are in the same line so it's not as bad as waiting for single characters. You get to wait in line in a beautiful castle full of portraits of princesses.

Disney Character Warehouse

Below are my buys from the Disney outlet! (The Merlin and Sorcerer Mickey pins are not from the outlet) All of this was under $50 and I paid $0 thanks to a gift card! The purple tee was $0.99! It's a kid's small but I love Sorcerer Mickey so I figured I'd turn it into a pillow or tote bag!