We began our last morning at Walt Disney World with an early start. We left our condo at about 7:00 a.m. (had planned to leave a bit earlier) to get to the Magic Kingdom before it opened for our Be Our Guest breakfast reservation at 8 a.m.
The monorails were thankfully up and running smoothly on this morning. We got to ride in the special zootopia monorail- and if you can't tell by his weird face, Michael is clearly impersonating a hamster from the movie.
It was early, plus it was the time change day. See the sun rising over the Contemporary?
Here is our plan for the day:
We stayed right on track and did most everything we wanted- however we made a few changes for lunch and decided not to return for the parade and fireworks after our break because of the hassle it was the night before.
We got to the park right about 7:50 a.m. There was a short line for early morning reservations and before we knew it, we were in the park!
Since our breakfast reservation was at Be Our Guest, we got to go through the castle and all the way back to Fantasyland- with barely anyone in the park! Before park opening reservations were something I never knew about before planning our trip in 2013 and I think they are pretty special.
I had all these grand ideas of great photos I would take with an empty park but alas...all I got was my kid shaking his butt for my camera. :o) We were also in a bit of a hurry to make our reservation- again, 15 minutes of extra time padding would have helped.
It was still pretty special to feel like we had the park to ourselves for a little bit of time!
We had done a preorder so we got a yellow rose at our check in. This allowed us to just pay at the kiosk when we got inside and then our food magically appeared to our table! Preordering was very easy and I did it just the day before on the Disney website.
Michael wanted to eat in the West Wing again but decided at the last minute to dine in the main ballroom instead. It was fun to watch the snow fall as we ate!
Two little angels on the ceiling reminded me of Anna and Brynn- can you spot them?
We had an awesome breakfast and loved getting in to the restaurant right away. It was starting to get busier right around 8:40 which is when we headed out so we could try and ride Mine Train before the rope drop crowds arrived. It was a bit of a rush (we left Dave and Margie behind to finish their coffee in a relaxed fashion) but we were successful in our endeavors!
Seven Dwarfs! No Line! They let us sneak through the fastpass line and we did it TWICE! We were going to try and do it a third time but then the rope drop crowds had started at arrive. We felt pretty triumphant!
All smiles! Michael was committed to keeping his hands up the entire ride!
Oh yeah! Seven Dwarfs Mine Train dance! Two times with no wait!
We then headed over to an empty Frontierland to ride the mountains over there. It was a nice walk with no crowds!
Michael was so excited he was skipping through the queue and looking all around. He was so busy not paying attention that he smacked his face right into a pole! He made sure to pay attention the second round and we were glad he wasn't hurt.
We loved Big Thunder Mountain and did it twice in a row. Michael kept his hands in the air the whole time- he was a brave boy! This is a fun coaster that is fast without big drops. The theming is awesome!
Splash Mountain was up next and was also a walk on. This is only the second time I've done it and I loved it. The theming is so fun and I love how it is both a dark ride and a thrill ride.
We were totally soaked after this ride! It was like someone literally sprayed a hose right in my face- shorts, shirt, hair, everything was wet!
Michael and Scott clearly thought it was hilarious (thanks for being so generous in letting me ride in the front!).
While there was no wait, we decided to forgo a second round as we weren't sure if we could handle being any wetter plus it took a bit of time to get reunited with Scott's parents.
Haunted Mansion was up next and as you can see from the itty bitty clock by the fastpass entrance, we were cruising right along with 5 rides on major attractions under our belts before 10!
Haunted Mansion had a short wait but we had fun in the interactive queue while we waited. Michael even had fun talking to a new friend!
Haunted Mansion is one of my favorite attractions (how do they do all those crazy effects?). I was surprised to see a Photo Pass person outside so we got our photo taken, in all our post Splash Mountain glory. We then headed back up to Fantasyland for It's a Small World.
Up next was our Peter Pan fastpass, but I noticed something funny when I double checked it in the Disney app. It wasn't showing up as one of my fastpasses which I thought was strange. Well it wasn't there because it was down. :o( I checked my email after a recommendation from a cast member and this is what I got:
Total bummer! None of the alternative fastpasses looked appealing to us so we decided to wait it out and return later to see if Peter Pan was up and running again so we could use our fastpass.
On to our next attraction and continuing with the "never been done before" tour- Liberty Square Riverboat!
While this is definitely not a must do, there was no wait as we loaded right when it arrived and it was a nice break from walking. I was pleasantly surprised at the relaxing cruise around Frontierland and Liberty Square. There are seats in the shade on the upper deck and you can't beat the photo opportunities!
It was fun to pick out all the details on Big Thunder- especially after our wild rides earlier that morning. You can only get this view from the riverboat!
While enjoying our cruise, I took a bit of time to rethink our lunch strategy. It was already getting busy in the park and I did not want to spend 30 minutes waiting in line at a quick service restaurant like we did the previous night. I took a quick glance at the My Disney Experience app and found a 1:40 lunch reservation for Kona Cafe at the Polynesian and snatched it right up- it was on the monorail route and could walk right to the parking lot afterwards. I also moved my Pirates fastpass up an hour while I was in the app so we could go right from Jungle Cruise to Pirates. Easy peasy.
Once we were back on land, it was time for a Mickey Bar break. Michael had chocolate all over his face- must have been good (he sure made some passerby's smile!).
Mickey Bar needed a selfie. Check out the shadow of me dorkily taking the photo of it in the corner.
It was good!
We headed over to Adventureland for our next fastpass which was from 11-12 and you can see by the tiny clock we were there at 11:35. Jungle Cruise is a good ride to fastpass because the queue is outside and hot and I think the stand by time in the photo is already up to 40 minutes- ugh! We were on in no time at all.
I'm glad we also rode it last night because our skipper wasn't as funny this time around- or maybe people on the boat didn't know to laugh at her jokes?
Magic Carpets was next with our longest wait of the day at about 15 minutes. Michael thought it was fun to drive our carpet right by the camel when he was spitting water! I got hit right in the face!
Our final fastpass for the day was at Pirates. The wait was way up on this one also so our fastpass was a big time saver. I love this ride!
Wasn't it nice of Scott to take a photo of me enjoying the attraction? While playing my flute? In a pirate's costume? :o)
We had just a bit of time before I wanted to use our fastpasses on Peter Pan (it was back up!) so we took the raft over to Tom Sawyer's Island and poked around a bit. Scott and I had visited this my accident on our trip 10 years ago but I knew Michael would love to see it. It was awesome! We could have spent all day here- it did not feel like you were in Walt Disney World but in some other place in a different time. We explored some caves, a lookout tower/playground, windmill, and the barrel bridge.
It looked like some people had brought their picnic lunch with them and were enjoying the shade and rest on top of the hill (smart!). There was so much more to explore on the island but we made our way back to the raft launch to use the restrooms (also smart!) and head back to the mainland.
We figured we had just enough time to head back to fantasyland again to take a quick trip on Peter Pan before lunch but when we got there the queue for fastpass return was insane!! It had its own standby line! Apparently all the people who couldn't use their fastpass earlier when it was down were trying to use it now, and the fastpass line would have taken forever. We didn't have time to wait and get to our lunch on time so we put it on the list for next time and headed out of the park. This is not the first time we haven't gotten on the elusive Peter Pan- it seems like it is always down when we want to ride it. It is a special ride that lots of people love!
With a few mandatory photos out front by the train station, we hopped back on the zootopia monorail to the Polynesian for our lunch.
We were hot and tired and thinking a nice, cool, sit down lunch was just the ticket. Kona Cafe is a fun place to eat and they had some nice lunch specials that were pretty comparable in price to a quick service lunch at the parks. Scott also got sushi to share and I enjoyed my own pressed pot of Kona coffee.
And I drank it all. I swear if I ever visit Hawaii, I will be so busy drinking coffee the entire time I am there. So good!
Michael had been asking us why we were eating at this place when we zoomed by on the monorail since we ate at Ohana our last two trips so I think he was happy to make a stop here.
It was neat to see the new lobby in person and Michael even found a new Stitch to bring home from the gift shop!
Did I mention we were hot and tired?
We enjoyed the rest of the day swimming at our beautiful resort and had a dinner of popcorn while watching the NCAA selection show (priorities, right?).
It was a great day! I was sad to leave the Magic Kingdom but at peace with our decision not to return for evening festivities. I think it would have been too much, especially since we still had two more days of park touring (Seaworld and Legoland) to go! On our way back we realized we didn't make it over for Stitch's Great Escape, but we just ran out of time. Meeting Tinkerbell or Mickey was also on list but we had met Mickey already and Michael was not interested in seeing Tinkerbell. We also had gotten the train crossed off list on our previous day. All in all, it was a great day. Touring plans later upped the crowd level from a 7/10 to a 9/10 on this day too so I feel like we got a lot done without feeling too crowded or waiting in line too long.
Stay tuned for our Seaworld day!
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