Day 2: Magic Kingdom (aka this is the happiest place on earth, why are you grouchy!?)
After dinning at CRT on night 1, we made our way back to Pop and got settled into our room. We had a renovated room and it was very nice! The beds, especially the pillows, are ridiculously comfortable at Pop.
I woke up around 6:00am with the plan to be at the bus stop to head to Magic Kingdom by 7:15. We had breakfast reservations for Crystal Palace at 8:25am. We made it to the park pretty quickly and joined a small crowd as we waited to be let in for breakfast. We were checked in and seated at The Crystal Palace well before our 8:25 reservation. The restaurant was mostly empty during our time there. The kids enjoyed Mickey waffles, bacon, fruit, and pastries. I enjoyed a mimosa along with fajita eggs, cheesy hashbrowns, sausage, and bacon. We all thought the food was good, especially the cheesy hashbrowns, I went back for more.
Not too long after we started eating, the characters made their way around the restaurant and we got some really great character interaction. I was, of course, super emotional as Pooh & friends were making their way around the tables. The whole experience was wildly magical.
I had intentions of still making rope drop and since we were seated before our actual reservation time, we were able to eat and run to Adventureland.
This worked out VERY well because we were able to walk right onto Jungle Cruise! Our Skipper on Jungle Cruise was hilarious. I wish I could remember her name. We really loved the ride and it was a great way to kick off the day. I had every intention of hopping off Jungle Cruise and running to POTC, but it was CLOSED! They said it had to do with a fire alarm issue and they didn't know when it would be back up. I was pretty disappointed, but figured we could maybe stay in the area and try again. DD6 wanted to ride the Magic Carpets and after a 3-5 minute wait, we were already on our next ride. We checked again on POTC and it was still down, but since Adventureland was still pretty empty, I wanted to stay in the area and try to wait it out since we had a while for our first FP+. DS9 wanted to check out the Enchanted Tiki Room, so we walked over there and were immediately seated for the show. It was actually pretty cute, I think that I may have enjoyed it more than the kids.
We tried a third and final time to hop onto POTC, but it was still closed. Splash Mountain didn't have a very long wait, so we hustled over to Frontierland and waited for maybe 10-15 minutes for our first ride on Splash Mountain.
We had some time to kill before our FP+ window opened to ride Splash Mountain again, so we walked over and grabbed some cotton candy and two Mickey Pretzels.
Before long, we were back on Splash Mountain!
We got significantly wetter the second time around.
Our next FP+ was for BTMRR, but we had a good stretch of time to kill, so we sat around for a bit, made our way to Tom Sawyer's Island to explore for a little while. The kids absolutely loved the island.
We had lunch reservations at BOG, so I wanted to try to hit BTMRR a little before our FP+ window opened. Fortunately, we were able to make that happen and get on BTMRR a bit earlier than planned. What can I say about BTMRR? I LOVED this ride, the kids did too. They both declared that this was their favorite ride of the trip so far. After it was over, we stopped for a quick picture with a Photopass CM.
Annnnnnd this is about when DD6 hit a wall for the day. She was so grouchy! We fought through it, she's a tiny human with human emotions, so you know..it happens.
We said goodbye to Frontierland and made our way to Fantasyland for lunch at Be Our Guest. Where we had a terrible experience.
I already knew the food was a hit or miss at BOG based on all of the reading that I had previously done, so we really were in it for the experience. Thank goodness we had pre-ordered before our trip started because the line was massive! DS9 had the children's turkey sandwich, DD6 had pasta with red sauce, and I ordered the Croque Monsieur with fries with a glass of wine. After checking in at the front, we selected our own table in the ballroom. The restaurant is MASSIVE, almost cafeteria like. Shortly after we were seated, our food was rolled out to us, so the actual service is truly quick here. The food was awful, none of us finished it. I believe DS9 was disappointed in getting a sandwich and not mac and cheese, which is entirely on me. DD6 finished her pasta, but it wasn't really all that great. My food? I'm a sucker for a good sandwich, but oh man, it was just BAD. It wasn't served piping hot, so the bechamel sauce had gotten this weird mealy texture and my fries were stale!
The saving grace here was the glass of wine - served at the perfect chilled temperature.
While eating, we were pondering what to do next. We did have another FP+ 7DMT coming up, but we were HOT and exhausted. I gave the option to the kids to stick around for the third FP+ of the day or to go back to the resort to relax and cool down. They chose to leave MK! We made our way out of the park back to Pop where we all took a much needed nap.
After a great break in the middle of the day, we freshened up and headed back out to MK. I was able to pick up a FP+ for Haunted Mansion and we had dinner reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern. As soon as we got back to MK, we made our way to Haunted Mansion, goodness..I was SO excited about this ride, and it was everything that I thought it would be. DD6 started by being scared of the ride, but she quickly warmed up to it. After getting off Haunted Mansion, we still had about an hour before dinner, so we were able to squeeze in Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid and It's a Small World, which DS9 quickly declared was more terrifying than Haunted Mansion
Since it was dark out, the lantern Photopass opp had opened up and the line was insanely long. I was disappointed because I wanted to get in on that, but I didn't plan well enough for it.
We made it to LTT for our dinner reservations, which were late in the evening, and ate dinner. I thought that the food was very good, so did the kids. I'm all about some comfort food. I also enjoyed a glass of sangria with dinner.
Our evening was coming to a close and we were heading back to the bus station - DD6 was still grouchy (and exhausted), I was exhausted...it had been a long and hot day. Y'all..the bus line to leave MK to head to Pop? It was INSANE. DD6 wasn't having any of it. Out of desperation to just get back to the resort, we hopped on the first bus we saw and would just Uber to our resort. That plan actually worked well, we rode to POR and then took like a $10 Uber to Pop.
Both of the kids expressed the desire to sleep in tomorrow, which was our Epcot day, so I canceled our breakfast reservations at Akershus. By the grace of all good things, I was able to pick up a lunch reservation because I really wanted to eat there!
Stay tuned for our Epcot report!