THE PASSHOLDER LIFE IS THE GOOD LIFE
We woke up early on this Sunday morning and were ready to head to the Magic Kingdom for our early breakfast reservation at Be Our Guest. This was an especially important day because we would be celebrating Sarah’s birthday (ok, sure, her birthday wasn’t for another week but we needed to celebrate fully)! She donned her Little Mermaid Mickey ears and we wandered out the door.
Sarah grabbed coffee and I filled our excellent Osprey reservoir with water because it was going to be a scorcher. We walked to the bus and then headed out to the Magic Kingdom. When we arrived around 7:30am, there was a Photopass photographer just waiting to get a picture of us! I don’t love the way that Disney does these pictures (yes, I am a massive photography snob), but it had Peter Pan in it so it’s fine.
Our dining reservation was not until 8:30am so we had some time to kill. Sarah’s only demand for her birthday was that she wanted to take pictures. I happily obliged! We started on the grass in the Hub and I briefly forgot how to frame a picture to make sure the (second) most important part of the picture (Cinderella’s Castle) was actually visible.
However, we did manage to get another few shots in front of the castle that were excellent.
After we were done, we wandered towards Be Our Guest and grabbed some shots of Sarah in front of her favorite Disney princess with her AWESOME retro Mermaid shirt.
After Sarah was satisfied with her photo shoot, we headed to Be Our Guest and walked in a couple of minutes before our reservation time. We grabbed a table in the Library (
hot tip: great lighting in this room for food photos, but a terrible amount of noise) and sat down for our breakfast.
Sarah had the usual Croque Madame and I had the Open-Faced Bacon and Egg Sandwich. We split the pastries and Sarah got a Peach Bellini and I got the Schöfferhofer Pink Grapefruit Hefeweizen for the last time (turns out that 8:30am is not a great time for beer).
I won’t go into a full review (
go check out our full review here!), but it is still a good use of dining plan credit because of the early access. After our breakfast, we headed to Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid for more joy for Sarah Coleman.
We tackled a few more attractions (Dumbo and Haunted Mansion, to be more specific) before we headed for Sarah’s not-so-laughin’ place. As you can tell, Sarah did not want to go on Splash Mountain.
I really love this attraction at Magic Kingdom. I rarely get to actually go on it because Sarah (probably realistically) does not want to destroy her hair and outfit regularly. However, it is an excellent attraction.
Fortunately, we had our handy ponchos so she escaped perfectly dry!
The humidity was surprisingly low so it literally felt like being in an oven (or Palm Springs). That made watching Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire miserable but dried our clothes very quickly. We decided against watching the entire show. Instead, we enjoyed an incredibly pleasant journey around Tomorrowland on the PeopleMover.
After our journey was done, it was time for a nap so Sarah and I headed to Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress. This is an attraction that has significantly grown on Sarah and I (the history alone makes it worth a visit). However, we were not in a place to enjoy it because we were so exhausted.
We headed back to our resort for some much-needed pool and nap time.
After we were done, we wanted to kill some time Annual Passholder style. One thing we have learned from our over-600 visits to the Disneyland Resort is that there is PLENTY to do at Disney Parks without stepping foot in a theme park.
Unfortunately, I uncharacteristically left my DSLR camera back in our room! This was disappointing as a travel blogger but allowed me some space to see this experience differently. I used my phone camera as we resort-hopped around Seven Seas Lagoon. We wanted to take the Monorail, but it was closed. Sarah and I decided to take the massive ferry boat across the lagoon.
We walked over to Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort and planted ourselves inside at Capt. Cook’s.
Sarah and I had eaten here in the past and loved it. Sarah was not feeling very well (because she gets horrible heat stroke) so she only ate about half of her delicious Pork Fried Rice.
I was actually hungry and the Pan Asian Noodles and Vegetables with Shrimp sounded yummy. Unfortunately, they were underwhelming. The flavor was fine, but it was really heavy on the veggies and was WAY oversaturated with sauce.
I recovered from eating so many vegetables by wandering around Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. We ended up over on the Disney Vacation Club side and Sarah committed her life to owning at this resort simply because of these penguins. Let’s be real, it is the right choice. Her excitement about the resort died down quickly when she realized there is not a great resort view on the DVC side. Bay Lake Tower it is, then!
After we rested a bit, we took the smaller boat back to MK. We jumped on Peter Pan and then watched Mickey’s PhilharMagic with the worst person ever. They were one of those people who stop in the middle of the row (
hot tip: don’t be that person!). They also tweeted, texted, Snapchatted with the flash, and talked on the phone during the short show. Deplorable behavior!
After the show, I headed over to Storybook Treats for the delicious Peter Pan Float. I enjoyed my cold and refreshing treat while I watched the Seven Dwarfs cars go by.
Sarah and I were having a lovely afternoon so we decided to go back to resort-hopping. We jumped on another boat back to the Poly. Sarah and I settled into a chair at Trader Sam’s and sipped on some delicious beverages. This was a delightful evening. The sun was setting which was beautiful and Sarah and I were so happy to be Passholders again.
The beauty of being an Annual Passholder is that you never feel like you need to rush! We just sipped the evening away and talked about how happy we were. It is a beautiful thing!
After we were ready to head back to MK, it was time for Happily Ever After. We wandered through Main Street, USA and ended up in almost a perfect spot. There is a slight rise where Main Street meets the Hub and we were just to the right of center. We sang along with the show and were once again reminded how much we love Walt Disney World.
After we were done, I decided we would knock out a few more attractions. We used our Fastpass+ return time for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and then headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
Sarah really wanted to see the projection show Once Upon a Time, but it was not on the schedule on the My Disney Experience app. She was sad that we could see the show happening over our shoulders as we got in the queue for Big Thunder. C’mon, Disney!
We made up for it by going on Mermaid for the third time that day and then getting ice cream from Plaza Inn.
After we were done, it was time for Astro Orbiter because we had never experienced this attraction at WDW. After we were done, we headed back to our resort to prepare for leaving the next day. So sad!