Sadly, we had reached the halfway point of our vacation. I guess you could say we saved the best for last with Magic Kingdom as our remaining park to visit. This was a shorter trip and we decided to skip Animal Kingdom in order to spend extra time at Magic Kingdom, our favorite park.
We grabbed breakfast meals at the quick service restaurant and ate in our rooms. (Again, the location of our building, Sago Cay, was very convenient to many areas around the resort.) I don't have photos but the Mickey waffles and breakfast sandwiches really hit the spot. We went with the kids' meals and there was enough food to satisfy an adult.
After another restless night of sleep, Emily still looked exhausted. She ate breakfast and got ready to go but then she psyched herself out. "What if I don't feel well when we get there?" "Someone can just bring you back here on the boat." "A boat!!!" Rich said he would stay back with her with the hope that she would be able to take a nap and they could met up with us later.
So Grammy and I headed off to Magic Kingdom with the A Team. We were bummed that Emily would be missing out, but she really needed some rest. Having security check our bags before we boarded the monorail was so convenient. There was no line and when we arrived at Magic Kingdom, it didn't very long to make it through the gates.
The park opened at 9:00 and we had arrived around 9:20. The crowds were incredibly light and I kept my fingers crossed that it would stay that way throughout the day. Our first FastPasses of the day were for Big Thunder Mountain. The standby wait time had moved from 5 minutes to 10 after we entered the park. I suggested that we head over there and ride it on standby first and then again with our FastPasses.
What you don't normally see in the parks - empty space. It pays to arrive as early as possible.
As we made our way through Frontierland, we came across two bears from the Country Bear Jamboree wandering around with a handler. On a whim, Allie had decided to bring her special bear, Katie, to Magic Kingdom that day. Wendell spotted Katie, ran over and snatched her from Allie's hands. Ha ha. It was nice to see characters out and about, walking around, messing with guests.
Wendell finally gave Katie back to Allie and we continued to Big Thunder Mountain, which now had a standby line of 15 minutes. Allie isn't a huge coaster fan so Anna and I rode it first in the standby line and then Allie joined us for the second time, when we used our Fastpasses. When we left, Anna said she hoped we didn't see Wendell again because he was just going to hold us up. Who do you think we bumped into?
We had time to kill before our FastPasses for Haunted Mansion so we went over and jumped on It's a Small World, which showed a wait time of 10 minutes, but really, it was more like 5.
We were almost to the very end of the ride when the boat abruptly stopped. So we waited. And waited. And waited. We were so close to the end that we could have reached up, removed the safety ropes and climbed out onto the platform, but we had to wait. And, yes, if you're curious, they do stop the music. After 15 minutes, we were finally "evacuated" and given an extra FastPass each (could not be used on Peter Pan's Flight or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train) for our trouble.
It was now 11:15 and we needed to use our FastPasses for Haunted Mansion before our 11:35 lunch reservations at Crystal Palace. We rushed over to Haunted Mansion to find the FastPass line all the way out to the gate. In addition, the time box for the standby line was blank. Apparently, the ride was down (or temporarily closed) but the cast member at the FastPass entrance stated she had not yet been updated on the ride's status. I explained how we had FastPasses but couldn't stick around and wait because we had lunch reservations. She told me to just come back later and the FPs would be recognized. This is standard practice when a ride is experiencing issues.
Because First Aid is right next to Crystal Palace and we had a little bit of time before checking in, Anna and I took care of her cathing needs before lunch. Just a heads up that if you have dining reservations and your entire party cannot make it, you will not be charged a cancellation fee.
Tigger walked the girls to our table.
Test shot.
The best part of my lunch was the chocolate chip bread pudding. Delicious.
Update on Emily - Rich said it took awhile for her to fall asleep due to noise from Housekeeping but she finally did take a decent nap. After she woke up, they were heading out to grab some lunch.
~Our day at Magic Kingdom, to be continued~
1 comment:
Sorry to read that Emily had to miss the morning in the park, but these are some great photos of Allie and Anna! I really like that you had some impromptu interaction with the Country Bears, though Anna's observation on hoping to avoid them again made me laugh! Last year we were at Christmas party and I was making my way back from the bathroom to where my family was sitting along the parade route. The bears were meandering along the parade area, and I ended up doing a back-and-forth dance with Liver Lips.
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