It’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow! Our Year of Disney Begins: May 2018 Trip Report-UPDATED 8-19-18

[Daisy1940]

I need to get better about getting this trip report posted because we just booked another trip to WDW for Labor Day weekend!
S has been joking about going to Orlando for a football game Sept 1. He checked his vacation calendar at work and no one had that Thursday and Friday so we took advantage of the late summer promotions. We are staying at Pop for 4 nights. We missed the 60-day FP window so we didn't get anything for Toy Story Land but hopefully we can ride SDD during the 8:00am EMM.


Day 4, Part 1: Hollywood Studios and EPCOT: Monday, May 14 (Washout at DHS)

The forecast for today was heavy rain all day-ugh! But this was the only day we were going to Hollywood Studios in the morning and since TSMM was down to one track and no fastpasses, we knew we had to be there early and ready to fight the rope drop crowds even in all the rain. Luckily we had ponchos! We left our room at 7:45 and were at the gates by 8:00 and the rain was starting. We lined up at a tapstile under the awning and S and I put on our ponchos and covered the stroller. This is where we messed up (and would realize it as soon as we got to TSMM). We should have put J in a poncho now too and put B in the carrier under my poncho. We wouldn’t think to do this until we got to TSMM and we got really far behind in the line because of this—but I’m jumping ahead of myself here.

Around 8:30 the tapstiles opened and we were in the park. They didn’t have Donald open the park like they did last year. I’m not sure if they ended this or if it was just because of rain. We got into the park and lined up to wait at the ropes. Around 8:45 the rain really started coming down and got heavy really quickly. Around 8:55 the ropes were moved and everyone was walked to their destination. Like I said, TSMM was one track and no fastpasses so probably 90+% of people were headed this way. I had read EasyWDW/Josh’s rope drop report and knew to go through the big arch which we did and that was a great call. We were at the front of the crowd and I was feeling good…until I realized our big mistake—stroller parking! Ugh! I didn’t realize we would need to ditch the stroller so early since we have always parked it further in to the Pixar street. The kids were both in the stroller under the cover. Suddenly the rain really picked up. We were just going to get the kids covered from the rain in the line but the rain was way too heavy at this point so we parked the stroller and tried to quickly get J a poncho on and B strapped in the carrier under my poncho (which meant I had to take off the poncho, put on the carrier, put B in the carrier, put poncho back on). By this point, several minutes had passed and we were way behind a lot of the crowd-UGH!!

We got in line (all outside queue in the heavy rains at this point) and waited. It took us a little over 30 minutes to get through the line. The plan was shot since this had taken much longer than anticipated. Our stroller mistake/not having the kids ready really set us back. But, we were going to make the best of the day despite the rain so our spirits were still high. S even got the highest score in the car! After TSMM, we walked back to the stroller but J spotted the Buzz and Woody meet and decided he wanted to meet them. S and I had decided in line to skip this since J really isn’t into these characters anymore and skipping it would get us back on track with our plan. Well J has a great memory and remembered meeting Buzz and Woody there last year and wanted to see them again. We figured this trip is all about him so, why not? We could skip something later on and at least the queue is inside. So, we made a bathroom stop and backtracked to the meet. The wait was posted at 30 minutes but it took a bit longer than this.

After a fun meet it was around 10:30 so we went back to the stroller where I realized I had left the cover open and we didn’t have it on the stroller correctly so our bags were soaked! Yikes! We had made the call in the meet and greet line that we needed to catch an earlier Disney Junior show and leave early and go find actual rain coats as ponchos would not cut it this week. Unfortunately, we walked over and discovered that we had just missed the Disney Junior show so we grabbed a popcorn bucket and ate a snack under the awning of the Launch Bay area and waited for the next show. We caught the 11:20 Disney Junior show which J loved and headed out for the day.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 4, Part 2: Hollywood Studios and EPCOT: Monday, May 14 (Washout at DHS)

After leaving HS, we drove straight to Walmart (around 12:00 at this point). Unfortunately all rain gear was completely sold out. We decided to cook lunch back at the room and headed that way. Once back at the room we ate a quick lunch and got the kids down for naps. S and I decided that he would stay with the kids while they napped and I would run to DS quickly to see if I could find rain gear at Uniqlo.

I got to DS around 2:00 and went straight to Uniqlo. I have never been to DS during the day and this would definitely be the best time to go if you just want to shop because the crowds were low. Unfortunately after about 45 minutes of trying to find rain coats at Uniqlo, I get to the register and the sales person lets me know that the jackets I got were not really rain proof and wouldn’t standup to the rain this week (she said several people had come in that day complaining). I was really appreciative she told me this and gave her a huge thank you and left without buying anything. I called S and told him to order some rain coats on Amazon for next day delivery (he had already picked them out but we needed to order them ASAP if we wanted them the next day). I decided to go check the line at Sprinkles since I was unexpectedly back in DS and see if I could get the correct cupcake. Luckily there was no line so I explained what happened and they gave me the correct cupcake and even threw in a red velvet cupcake as well which was nice.

I left DS and headed back to the room. The kids were starting to wake up so we got everyone together and hit the road to EPCOT where we had fastpasses for the day. We arrived at the gates around 3:30 and S spotted Daisy with no line. I have been looking for her every visit and have not been able to find her meeting spot. I’ve been looking right around Spaceship Earth but her meeting spot is closer to the entrance gates and to the right as you walk into the park so I had never looked this far up for her. I was so excited since Daisy is my absolute favorite character and she wasn’t meeting at HS this morning. We had a great meet with my favorite duck. We spent a few minutes with her and she was sassy as ever. A few other families saw our meeting and walked up so we said goodbye and headed toward our first fastpass for the day-Character Spot.

We got Character Spot around 4:00 which was the tail end of our FP time. The line was to the door. I don’t know what it is but the fast pass line here is always really long and we have never gotten out of here in under 30 minutes. While in line, S was holding B and gave me a look and said he thought we had a situation. Uh oh! When B needs to be changed, it has to be done immediately or we will have a mess on our hands so I just grabbed her and rushed out of the line as quickly as I could and changed her at the stroller which was luckily parked right outside the door. Of course, while I was doing this the line finally started moving and about 30 people had joined the line. I really wanted to do this meet though so I decided to try to catch up with S and J. Luckily everyone in line was really nice and I just apologized to everyone I passed in line and told them I had just stepped out for an emergency. I got a lot of parents with kids say they had been there before! We finally got to the meet and we had a great interaction. Mickey loved B and would not let her go on to Goofy! S and J met Goofy while Mickey was still playing with B. There was a buildup in the line though so we just kept meeting with Goofy while we waited. When it was our turn for Minnie, the kids behind us were so excited they ran ahead of us into Minnie’s arms. It was adorable and we got a great laugh out of it. The parents were so embarrassed and apologized and Minnie was taken a bit off guard but we thought it was so cute and told them to go ahead.

After our meet with headed to our next fastpass-LwtL. We parked the stroller and headed inside the Land building and notice that Soarin’ is only a 20 minute wait. I convinced S to go ahead and ride it and we would do rider swap. We both love this ride and only had it planned once this trip so we couldn’t pass up the chance to ride twice. I took the kids and rode LwtL (another great place to nurse) and then met up with S at the Soarin’ exit. He told me he only had to wait for the theater to clear and walked right on. I used my rider swap and he and the kids did LwtL. He was right-it was a complete walk on and I didn’t even need the rider swap. Somehow I got B1 without even asking! I was so excited when they pointed me in that line.

We left the Land and headed for our last fastpass of the day back in Norway. We were running really late so we were walking fast, but of course the crowd was moving slow and people were moseying along 4 and 5 people wide in groups. Do people not realize how rude this is?!? There is no need to walk in a straight line as a group like that. We got to Frozen Ever After at the end of our fastpass window but J needed a bathroom stop so S took him quickly to the restroom while I covered the stroller with the rain cover. I went ahead and walked over to the ride and the boys met us there. There was a cute family in line in front of us playing a game on their phones where they gave clues and had to guess the Disney character. Everyone was really into the game and it was such a cute was to pass the time in line. S and I both commented on it to each other after the ride. Frozen was great as ever--we really like this ride.

On the way over to FEA while stuck behind slow walkers, S had made note of the margaritas in Mexico so we backtracked that way. He decided he wanted the ones from the QS rather than the stand so we went there so we could also get J nachos as it is one food he will consistently eat. We sat and drank our drinks and helped J eat his nachos. I wanted Tangierine café for dinner so we were going to split the nachos and then split a platter there. After the nachos, we took our drinks and walked around to Morocco just taking in World Showcase. We didn’t end up actually going into any pavilions though as we were hungry and it was getting late. At Morocco we got the lamb shwarma to split and it was delicious as always. I really love this restaurant and the Morocco pavilion. While we ate, we gave B her dinner and J ate a few snacks we had on hand then we decided to head out and go back to the room as it was around 8:00 at this point. We continued our walk around World Showcase and headed out of the park. Once back at the room we all showed/bathed, I put B to bed, and we decided to let J stay up and watch the fireworks from the hotel lobby/elevator area window with us. He LOVED this! After the fireworks, we put him to bed and relaxed a bit while I packed the bag for the next day. We discussed the plans for the next day which was to head back to Magic Kingdom. Since we had missed Splash and BTMRR on Sunday, we decided to start our day in Frontierland rather than Tomorrowland as planned.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 4, Part 3: Hollywood Studios and EPCOT: Monday, May 14 (Washout at DHS)

Recap:
Original Plan (times from Touring Plans):
9:04 Toy Story Midway Mania!
9:33 Meet Buzz and Woody
10:06 Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
10:34 Celebrity Spotlight
11:08 Disney Junior - Live on Stage! (11:20 Show)
11:50 The Hollywood Brown Derby (12:00 reservation)
1:05 Frozen Sing-Along Celebration (1:30 Show)
1:59 The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Walk to EPCOT
3:12 Disney Pals at the Epcot Character Spot (FP 3:10-4:10)
4:10 Living with the Land Edit (FP 4:10-5:10)
5:10 Frozen Ever After (FP 5:10-6:10)
QS Dinner in EPCOT

Actual:
Hollywood Studios
rope drop Toy Story Midway Mania
meet Buzz and Woody
Disney Junior Show
break to find rain coats and naps at room (I went to Disney Springs)
EPCOT evening
meet Daisy
Character Spot (with FP)
Living with the Land (with FP) while S rides Soarin’ standby
Soarin’ (with rider swap) while S rides LwtL
Frozen Ever After (with FP)
drinks in Mexico
dinner in Morocco

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 5, Part 1: Magic Kingdom and EPCOT: Tuesday, May 15 (Let There Be (Sun)Light!)

Today’s forecast had sunny skies for the morning so we were very happy about that and hoped to take advantage of the break in the rain this morning. We were doing a little better on time this morning and made it out of the room by 8:00. We were rushing a bit but we got a really close parking spot today and security was less crowded so we hopped on a monorail and made it to Magic Kingdom by 8:30. Main Street was closed for something (filming I believe) so we were directed through the Emporium. This was the only time we made it into the Emporium this trip. We quickly looked at Cars merchandise as S was on the look out for any diecast cars J doesn’t have but he didn’t see what he was looking for. We decided to go ahead and do a restroom break at the area near the baby center. We had seen the welcome show on Sunday so we weren’t too concerned about seeing it again. We did end up missing it and got to the hub right at the end of the show.


Our original plan was to do Tomorrowland at rope drop (Buzz and Space Mtn.) then do Fantasyland rides. Since we missed Frontierland on Sunday when we cut our day short, we changed the plans and rope dropped Frontierland so we headed that way through the Liberty Square path. I really love this area first thing in the morning. We took a leisurely (well leisurely for us—we are really fast walkers) and just took in Liberty Square and Frontierland with no one around. Since we wanted to do BTMRR and Splash Mtn. we knew we needed to do rider swap and each ride a ride then swap and do the second set (rather than both do one ride then both do the other). BTMRR is smarter to do first because it is really short. Splash is not great to do first because it is a long ride so the queue to BTMRR has time to build up while you are on Splash. Because of this, I rode BTMRR while S, J, and B played on the playground near Splash. Then I met up with them and S rode Splash Mtn. while I took J to the restroom, put on sunscreen, and nursed B while J played on the playground a bit more. When S was done with Splash he hit BTMRR. When S returned we decided to go ahead and head to our first fast pass because J was starting to get bored with the playground.


We walked to Liberty Square to park the stroller then rode Haunted Mansion with our first fast pass. The FP wasn’t really needed at this point but we had it and you just never know how early the queue will build for HM. J was a little nervous but we reminded him he had already ridden it and liked it and that it was silly ghosts not scary ghosts. He was fine after the stretching room.


After the HM, I took a look at the app and saw that PotC had a 10 minute wait so we walked over to Adventureland and rode. Luckily we didn’t get too wet on the ride. My time stamp for the photo at PotC is 10:46. We hadn’t ridden Small World yet and our next fastpass was in Fantasyland so we headed that way. The wait wasn’t too bad, about 10 minutes and we all enjoyed the air conditioning and J loves the boat rides.


Next, we headed to Under the Sea since it had been a long wait two days prior. For some reason we have never, ever waited in line for this ride regardless of the time of day we have tried to ride. We always joke that the posted wait is just the time to walk the queue (which is LONG). Well I guess our luck had run out because once again there was a posted 20 minute wait but the line was almost to the gate so we knew it would be longer. We decided we had time to kill so we went ahead and got in line. This queue is HOT! I ended up nursing B in the line and we finally got to our clamshell and enjoyed our ride.


At this point, we were getting really close to our reservation time at the Plaza and we still needed to get our stroller from Liberty Square where we had left it earlier in the morning so S took B to grab the stroller while I took J to our next FP: Winnie the Pooh. S doesn’t care anything about this ride but I thought J would like it. J and I hoped in the line and he wasn’t too happy about skipping the games in the queue which he could see (these were one of his favorite things on our last trip). We had a fun ride but it was a little after 12:00 when we got off the ride and a few minutes past our lunch reservation. S had text to say he was there and checked in already so I threw J in the carrier on my back and walked really fast/ran to the Plaza (I HATE to be late). We got to the restaurant around 12:15 and S was still waiting so he took J to the restroom while I put the rain cover on the stroller (just in case) and we were buzzed in around 12:30.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 5, Part 2: Magic Kingdom and EPCOT: Tuesday, May 15 (Let There Be (Sun)Light!)

Quick Plaza review: We had about a 25-minute wait after our reservation and there were a lot of people waiting as walk-ups. This restaurant is surprisingly small inside. We had a great waitress who was training a new hire. He suggested the plaza fries and we were all over that as we all love loaded fries. The thought of lettuce on fries was a little off putting but surprisingly worked! I must not be the only one who thought this though because the two tables next to us both had fries with cheese and bacon only on them (but this wasn’t on the menu). S ordered the club which was HUGE! He liked his sandwich and ate the whole thing. S also had a beer but I don’t remember what it was anymore. I ordered the mac and cheese with BBQ. I had seen several reviews of this online which all mentioned that the mac and cheese was a casserole-style mac which is what I prefer (the creamy kind is okay but I like the southern style that is baked and you slice and serve). But what I was served came in a bowl with creamy stouffer’s-style mac and cheese so I was disappointed. I think this was a recent change to test the mac and cheese with BBQ for the new Diamond Horseshoe menu that was starting the next week (and has this exact dish on it). I liked this okay and ate a good amount of this and S liked it as well but it just wasn’t what I was expecting. Overall, we felt like there are other restaurants we prefer and probably won’t be visiting the plaza for awhile. Our bill came to $70 after tax and tip minus our AP discount.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 5, Part 3: Magic Kingdom and EPCOT: Tuesday, May 15 (Let There Be (Sun)Light!)


We left lunch around 1:15 and took a quick ride on the PeopleMover. Next, we walked to Fantasyland to use our last fast pass on Peter Pan. We parked our stroller and walked over but the fast pass line was past Philharmagic so S decided we should just skip it and head out for naps. I asked him a few times if he was sure since this is his favorite ride and I knew we probably wouldn’t get to ride it again but he didn’t want to stay since he had gotten to ride it our first day in the parks. We ended up leaving the park around 1:30 for naps.


During nap time, S and I chilled out on the deck of our room with a few glasses of wine. It was storming this afternoon so it was nice to just relax and watch the rain and rehash our trip so far and things we might like to add in to the plans for the rest of the trip. At some point S got a notification that our raincoats were delivered so he went to pick those up from the front desk—ironically in the pouring rain, haha! We held off making any plans for the evening until we knew if the rain would clear. Around 4:30 the skies started clearing so packed a bag for the night and headed out.


Our original plan for this evening was to go to Disney Springs but since we had gone on Sunday and we didn’t really want to go back, we decided use this opportunity to go explore the Cars section of AoA and then check out the Boardwalk. As soon as J was up I put him in a Cars shirt and we headed out to go meet all his favorite characters!


We got a little lost along the way to AoA and ended up turning into the Pop Century entrance but the guard checked our ID and waved us on along and said to follow the road to AoA. While driving along I spotted the Cars buildings so we turned in and parked and J knew where we were - Radiator Springs! Cars (all 3) are J’s favorite movies and he watches these movies several times a week. They really are cute movies and we all enjoy them so going to AoA was a high priority this trip. J lost his mind here—he was in absolute heaven! The detail of the different cars was spot on (Lightening McQueen even has sticker headlights!) The imagineers really get every detail right. We loved the cozy cone pool area and J had to get his picture with every character. J really thought he was meeting the real characters which was adorable. He kept talking to them and got so shy around Lightening McQueen. I really wish these weren't all suites. We may stay in a Little Mermaid room next May just to spend more time here.


I’m not sure what the etiquette about visiting hotels you aren’t staying at is. The guard checking our ID and asking why we were there made me think this might be frowned upon. On the flip side, anyone can catch a bus and go to any hotel and many of the deluxe hotels encourage non-guests to come so I’m not sure on this whole thing, but oh well! We did see a number of other families doing the same thing we were who clearly weren’t guests in that section so it must be fairly common.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 5, Part 4: Magic Kingdom and EPCOT: Tuesday, May 15 (Let There Be (Sun)Light!)


After our visit to Radiator Springs we headed toward EPCOT so we could check out the Boardwalk. Now that I’m typing this out I don’t know why I don’t feel at all strange going to the Boardwalk but felt a little weird at AoA after our guard interaction—we were doing the exact same thing. Plus, visiting AoA sold us on staying there so Disney will make money off of us in the end.


Anyways, back on track. We arrived at EPCOT around 6:30 and it was raining lightly on and off. We headed toward the International Gateway and walked over to the Boardwalk because S has been wanting to check it out for a few trips and I wanted to try Ample Hills. S grabbed a margarita but said it wasn’t as good as the ones in the Mexico pavilion. I got a scoop of oatmeal and a scoop of butter cake ice cream. The woman doing my order told the cashier it was a kids cup even though I ordered a regular. I’m not sure if what I got was a kid’s cup or the normal one but it was HUGE! Even if this was a normal scoop it is a great deal but this giant ice cream was only $4. I tried to share with J but he wasn’t interested (weird kid).


While at the Boardwalk, we had debated eating at Big River Grill since I had a gift card but we have Big River at home and neither of us were feeling a long sit-down dinner at this point so we went back to EPCOT. At this point it was around 7:30 and J was starting to get hungry so we decided to walk over to Mexico and eat since he loves nachos. We got there around 8:00 and the place was packed. We decided that I would go in and order and take our food out of the restaurant to eat but while I was in line S unloaded the kids and came on in to the restaurant and grabbed a table. Somehow he got a table right on the water at the very center back-edge of the restaurant—this was a PRIME fireworks spot. Unfortunately, both kids needed a diaper change and J needed a complete change in clothes so we quickly ate. We debated if we should take J out and get him changed and keep our table for the fireworks but we hadn’t packed the baby ear protectors (ugh!) so we decided it was probably best to call it a night. There was a family standing next to our table keeping a look out for something to free up so we let them know we were leaving and could have ours and their night was made, they were so grateful and kept thanking us. This was a good way to pay it forward for my giant $4 ice cream from earlier. We quickly went to the car and stripped J down and changed diaper then headed back to the room for showers, putting the kids in bed, then relaxing while S watched basketball and I worked a little bit.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 5, Part 4: Magic Kingdom and EPCOT: Tuesday, May 15 (Let There Be (Sun)Light!)


Recap:

Original Plan (times from Touring Plans):

9:08 Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin

9:20 Space Mountain

10:02 Mad Tea Party

10:10 Dumbo the Flying Elephant

10:19 The Barnstormer

10:34 Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid

11:00 The Haunted Mansion (FP 10:15-11:15)

11:17 it's a small world

11:45 The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

11:59 The Plaza Restaurant (12:05 473231199950)

12:49 Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover

1:05 Mickey's PhilharMagic

1:26 Peter Pan's Flight (FP 1:05-2:05)

1:49 Pirates of the Caribbean

Evening in Disney Springs



Actual:

Castle Opening Show

BTMRR

Splash Mtn.

BTMRR using rider swap

Haunted Mansion (with FP)

Pirates of the Caribbean

Its a Small World

Under the Sea

Winnie the Pooh (with FP)

Plaza lunch (reservation 12:05)

PeopleMover

walk to fantasyland but Peter Pan FP has long line so didn’t ride

1:30 leave for naps

5:00 Art of Animation-Cars Section stay about an hour

6:15 EPCOT then walk to Boardwalk

Ample Hills

Walk World Showcase to Mexico and eat dinner

8:45 leave EPCOT

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Nothing wrong with going to check out a resort. People do it all the time.

 

[Daisy1940]

Nothing wrong with going to check out a resort. People do it all the time.

That makes me feel better! We don't really ever go to the resorts so the guard made me feel weird about it. But, I'm looking forward to checking out the resorts this December and seeing the various holiday decorations.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 6 Part 1: Animal Kingdom and DHS: Wednesday, May 16 (We just can’t do Animal Kingdom)
Before I get into our Animal Kingdom day I want to give a little background. This is both S and my least favorite park. We haven’t spent much time here and have never really been to the Asia or Dinoland sections. It probably isn’t too fair to judge this park since we’ve never even been in half of it despite going to the park three times before this trip, but we just can’t seem to get this park right. There are things here I really, really want to do (never done Everest or Dinosaur, not to mention Flight of Passage) but we just cannot get it together at Animal Kingdom. First, that park is hotter than the face of the sun. Second, while I can navigate this park pretty easily it seems like it is a lot of walking back and forth. So, while we have missed the vast majority of the park, we aren’t that compelled to spend more time here and we usually only go out of some sort of mental obligation. It’s like we keep coming back only because we are at WDW for 5+ days (and often 8 days) so we just feel like we should go to Animal Kingdom. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t change on this trip but we are going to try it again in October-maybe then it will click for us, who knows? We may just give up on Animal Kingdom and stick to the parks we love.

We originally planned to be at AK at 7:15 and rope drop FoP but park hours changed to EMH a couple of weeks before our trips so we decided to play the morning by ear. We would just get to the park whenever. If we had time when we arrived, we would ride the Safari but if not we would go straight to our breakfast at Tusker House (10:15 reservation). This morning we woke up at our usual 7:00 so we went ahead and got ready and were out the door around 8:00.

We arrived at the park, got through security and in the gates and were held right inside the tapstiles. I decided I should run to the restroom and when I got out S decided to do the same. While he was gone, they dropped the ropes so we were a little behind the crowd-woops!

Even though we had fast passes for Safari we wanted to go ahead and ride it because we love this ride. When the ride was finished we had about 25 minutes to kill so we went ahead and walked through the Gorilla Falls Trail which was surprisingly crowded. This is a really cool area that we had never been in before but I think you need more time than we had before our reservation. After our trail, we hit the restrooms and then checked in at Tusker House.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 6 Part 2: Animal Kingdom and DHS: Wednesday, May 16 (We just can’t do Animal Kingdom)
Tusker House review: I really, really was looking forward to this meal. I have read so many wonderful things about TH and we all love the characters here so we went into this one really excited. We have to wait about 25 minutes past our reservation which was annoying. When we were say, we saw that Mickey had just missed our table and I knew this was going to be bad. Goofy and Donald immediately came to our table and we had an okay interaction but they seemed really rushed. We were told to wait to go to the buffet until after our server came so we did. We waited about 10 minutes on him and gave him our drink orders.

We needed to take turns at the buffet so I went ahead and got mine and J’s plates. J cannot eat wheat so I asked the chef at the carving station if I could get two gluten free waffles (one of J’s favorite foods). He said yes and to come back in three minutes so I walked off to fill our plates. A minute later the chef came to the buffet and asked if there were any other allergies. This was awesome and he even said he wanted to make a special plate which was really nice. I filled our plates with bacon, waffles for me, eggs, frittata, potatoes, fruit, black eyed peas, and bread pudding and went and found the chef. He was finishing up the plate and handed me a gorgeous plate with gluten free Mickey waffles, a gluten free chocolate muffin, and fresh fruit. J LOVED the waffles and the muffin. S went and filled his plate and I dug into mine. The food was delicious!! We all loved it and I highly recommend the breakfast food.

After I finished my plate I wanted more bread pudding. This is where things started going downhill. They were clearing the breakfast buffet and pickings were slim. They had some lunch stuff set out but I wanted breakfast food (and more of the yummy bread pudding!). Plus breakfast food is what J will consistently eat so I wanted to get him more eggs and potatoes. If we had gotten sat closer to our reservation and if we hadn’t waited so long on our server, I could have gotten the breakfast food I wanted. This really put a damper on my meal to be honest. I got some of what was left and quickly came back to the table and told S he had better get a second plate now if he wanted more breakfast food. He went and quickly got another plate.

About this point in time Daisy came by and we chatted with her. Donald and Goofy came by again and we said a quick hello again. We finished eating and sat and waited…and waited…and waited. Our server finally came and asked who we were waiting on so we told him Mickey. The server seemed like he wanted to turn his table and we had been sitting a long time (and he should want to turn his table so that is totally understandable). We thought this would be the point he would go find Mickey like they usually do at character meals when it has been awhile and you haven’t seen someone, but nope. We sat and waited some more. I went ahead and ordered the check and see Mickey coming back for his set. And then we watched him make rounds through the entire large room (we were in a back smaller room) while we waited some more. I paid the check and we sat and waited some more. Finally, after waiting a little over 45 minutes (we timed it) between Daisy and when we finished eating, Mickey came by. And then we had a lack-luster meet. Mickey is J’s favorite character and he waited so patiently on him as he watched him make rounds with the other room. I was so proud of how patient he was just waiting on Mickey. Mickey could have cared less about J and it was so sad. Mickey gave B a ton of attention but she is 7 months-she doesn’t care! My 2 almost 3-year-old was right there. I don’t understand why Mickey would ignore him. We had to remind Mickey that J was there and to say hello.

We were both completely put out by this whole thing. The food was good but the character interaction was not good and the character wait was ridiculous. This restaurant is huge and they really should have multiple sets of characters so that when one set is on break, the other set is doing meet and greets. As we were walking out, there was an employee walking between S and I and I asked S to turn around and tell me if he was the manager. He was the manager so I (very politely) told him that we weren’t happy with our experience, that the meal had taken almost two hours from when we checked in, and how we waited on Mickey for 45 minutes after all the other characters and being done with our meal. The manager completely cut me off and said the reservations says it will take 75 minutes. I told him 2 hours is not 75 minutes. I explained to him that I was not looking for anything, I just want him to know what guests were experiencing so someone knows there is a problem. He just seemed completely unwilling to listen and cut me off. I didn’t even go into the annoyance that they were clearing the buffet and we didn’t get the food we wanted because they sat us so late. We will not be returning to Tusker House anytime soon. Luckily, we had Garden Grill in two days and we knew that would be a wonderful breakfast (spoiler alert: it was!).

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 6 Part 3: Animal Kingdom and DHS: Wednesday, May 16 (We just can’t do Animal Kingdom)

After our long brunch, it was time for our fast pass for Kilimanjaro safari so we headed there. Again, we have a really great safari and several animals were right at the road and we got a great up-close view. This ride is a favorite for all of us.

Our next fast pass was for Na’vi River Journey so we head over for our first look at Pandora! After getting to Pandora we decided this was a good time for a restroom break so we parked our stroller and decided to cover it since it looked like rain on the horizon and then we popped in to the restrooms. We took a quick look around but the area was really crowded so we headed for the fast pass entrance. It started raining as we got in line so we were glad we were under cover and that we had covered the stroller. We waited in line about 20 minutes and boarded our boat. I haven’t seen Avatar but I did think the ride scenery was cool. But, this ride is so short! I knew it would be but it seems even shorter than you imagine it to be. I can’t believe people were waiting 80+ minutes for this ride.

We left Pandora and went back to Africa to do something else we had never done before: the Wildlife Express Train to Rafiki Planet Watch. J loved the train ride. We sat in the last train car and the cast member that is in that car took a liking to J and asked him if he wanted to sit in the conductor’s seat—uh, YEAH! He loved getting to see all the buttons and press the button for the horn. This was such a fun thing the cast member did.

We got off the train and S and I were both really pleasantly surprise how nice this part of the park is. There weren’t a lot of people here and I can see how this area would be wonderful for kids around 5-8. J is a bit too young to understand it all but I would devote an hour to this area with an older child. Doc McStuffins was meeting and J hoped in line even though he doesn’t really like this show (I think the show is really cute but I can’t get J into it), but J wanted to meet Doc so we did. After our visit with Doc we went to the petting zoo but didn’t end up petting any of the animals here. It was getting toward nap time so we boarded the train.

We had our last fast pass for Dinosaur which we have never done before. S asked what the ride was like and I tried to explain it but I’ve never done it so I could really explain it. S decided he didn’t want to do the ride and we should head out. On the train I told him I wanted our picture in front of the tree so we decided to do that then head out but on the walk to the tree of life we decided to do It’s Tough to Be a Bug since J had been into bugs lately.

We had fun at It’s Tough to Be a Bug. I haven’t seen Bug’s Life since it first came out and don’t remember anything about it but I still think this is a cute attraction. I’m not sure why it has all the hate it does but that’s okay with me because it makes the wait short! Around 2:30 (right before the end of our Dinosaur FP window) I double checked with S to make sure he didn’t want to do Dinosaur and stay and have the kids to a stroller nap. I really wanted to do it but didn’t want to push him and the kids to stay longer than they wanted and have everyone in bad moods. S said not so we made our picture at the tree of life and headed out of the park for a rest at the room. (spoiler alert: skipping Dinosaur would come back to bite us.)

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 6 Part 4: Animal Kingdom and DHS: Wednesday, May 16 (We just can’t do Animal Kingdom)

Back at the room, S read more about Dinosaur and decided he really wanted to do it-ugh! I guess he thought I was trying to trick him into doing a roller coaster. He will do coasters but is pretty particular about them. He just did BTMRR for the first time this trip but he loves Space Mtn. and Splash Mtn.—go figure. We decided we would try to do this on our last day because we were still unsure what parks we were doing and were going to base it off what attractions we wanted to do.

We had dinner reservations for Sanaa at 5:50 this evening and our original plan was to stay at AK until then and go straight to dinner and have an early evening. Since we left AK early, we showered and the kids took naps and we decided to hit a park after dinner. Since we had cut our DHS day short on Monday, S suggested going there. The rain from earlier started picking up but we decided to pack our rain gear and make the best of the evening.

We left the room for Sanaa around 5:15. On the ride over, S suggested checking if there were any fast passes at DHS for that night. I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me to do this! I opend the app and saw that same day TSMM fast passes had come available so I snagged fp for us-Yay!!

Sanaa Review: We arrived at Animal Kingdom Lodge just in time for our reservation. We thought getting to Sanaa was odd since you have to take the elevator to a floor with guest rooms and walk thought the guest area of the hotel. We asked for savannah seating and got a table across from the windows. Just as we were sat, the rain started back and the animals went running for cover which was pretty cool to see.

I knew I wanted the full bread service so I suggested we split an entree. We split the potjie with butter chicken and paneer tikka. The meal was delicious! We were so glad we decided to split an entrée as the bread service is huge. I can’t remember which of the dips we liked best but there were several we didn’t like and some we loved but it was fun trying them all out.

After dinner we loaded up and headed for DHS. By this point the rain was very heavy and people were pouring out of the park. We were the only crazy people coming in to the park! We took at look in the shops for about 15 minutes to try to wait out rain but it was not letting up so I said let’s just go to the ride. We wanted J to be able to ride twice and B needed to nurse so I went to One Man’s Dream which S and J went to TSMM. I was excited to see the actual One Man’s Dream movie because it has always been a new release preview when we have been here before. Unfortunately this movie is a short version of one we had watched about six months ago on Walt’s life so it wasn’t a good as it would have been had I not seen the other movie. S text and said they were done and waiting at the restrooms close to the ride so I bundled up in my rain gear and went and switched kids with S. While in line with J, I decided to look to see if there was another TSMM FP and there were for an immediate time so I booked it and J and I rode. He was loving this ride! When we got off the ride I grabbed S and said let’s go, I booked another fastpass. We were both excited because we are both really competitive. Somehow I ended up riding with B. S ended up only beating me by 4,000 points-grr! I should have negotiated a handicap since I was holding her.

I offered to make another FP even though it wasn’t really needed as there was no line and they were running two tracks. S decided we should call it a night since it was getting late. We had a really fun time in DHS despite the rain. The park crowd this day was only a 1 so that coupled with the rain meant the park was dead this evening which was pretty cool. In the parking lot on the way to car we noticed the time (about 8:45) and realized we should have just stayed for Fantasmic and the fireworks so we were both slightly bummed. The EPCOT fireworks started as we were loading up the car so we decided to just stay there and watch them from car and had a great view. We had a really fun evening just enjoying each other’s company tonight. While we had a good day at AK, our time there just hadn’t been quite as fun as our previous days (part of this was our bad experience at Tusker House, partly because this park just isn’t a favorite). Dinner at Sanaa and our time at DHS really turned the day around and this was one of the best nights of the trip!

We headed back to the room and got the kids in bed and relaxed a bit before our next park day at Magic Kindgom again.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 6 Part 5: Animal Kingdom and DHS: Wednesday, May 16 (We just can’t do Animal Kingdom)

Recap:
Original Plan (times from Touring Plans):
9:11 Kilimanjaro Safaris
10:05 Tusker House Restaurant (10:15 reservation)
11:08 Wildlife Express Train: Africa Station
11:25 Conservation Station
11:50 Wildlife Express Train: Rafiki's Planet Watch Station
12:05 Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail
12:28 Kilimanjaro Safaris (FP 11:30-12:30)
1:05 Na'vi River Journey (FP 12:35-1:35)
1:40 DINOSAUR (FP 1:40-2:40)
1:56 Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
2:26 Maharajah Jungle Trek
2:54 Festival of the Lion King (3:00 Show)
Sanaa Dinner (5:50 reservation)

Actual:
Rope Drop Kilimanjaro Safari
Gorilla Falls Trail
10:15-12:00 Tusker House
Kilimanjaro Safari with FP
Na’vi River Journal with FP
Wildlife Express Train
Rafiki Planet Watch
It’s Tough to Be a Bug
Break
5:50-7:00 Sanaa Dinner
Toy Story Midway Mania with FP
Toy Story Midway Mania with FP
Toy Story Midway Mania with FP

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 7, Part 1: Magic Kingdom: Thursday, May 17 (A Busy But Relaxing MK Day)
We wanted to have a more leisurely morning on Main Street today and not be rushed to the welcome show so we made it a point to be leaving our room by 7:45. I don’t know what happened this morning but somehow S didn’t turn when he was supposed to and we ended up driving past Port Orleans and into some sort of neighborhood. The detour was only about 7 minutes and we got a good laugh out of it. WDW really throws off his sense of direction! Even with our detour we somehow again made it to the very first parking lot and go through security and in the park around 8:30. We took our time walking up Main Street. Getting our picture in front of the castle was my number one priority for today so we went ahead and did this while the line was short. Afterwards we found a spot and watched the welcome show.

Our original plan for today was to rope drop Peter Pan. But S said he was okay not riding it again so we decided to rope drop…wait for it…Tomorrowland Speedway-haha!! Our rationale was that the queue built up fast here on Tuesday morning and this was J’s favorite ride so it was best to go ahead and go so we didn’t have to wait in all the fumes. We were some of the first people at the ride (no surprise here!) and got a rider swap pass so J could ride twice since B couldn’t ride. The guys had a fun time but I decided it would be better to save the swap and move onto something else while the lines were short.

Next, we headed across the park to Haunted Mansion where we walked right on again (we were having great luck at HM this trip). After our ride on HM we decided to do a few things we hadn’t done before. We weren’t that concerned with taking advantage of the low lines since we had done most everything at this point and J had really been wanting to ride the carousel so we jumped in the line. We only had to wait on the ride to stop to load up and S and J found horse while I stood next to J (those horses are tall! And I was wearing a sleeping B in the carrier). Right before the ride started a cast member told me I couldn’t stand and would need to sit on a bench since I had the baby in the carrier. I didn’t really want to sit so I just got off the ride and took video of J riding. He loved this! It is so funny how the rides kids love compared to the ones adults think they will love. We really could spend the whole time doing low-demand attractions and he would have a blast.

After the carousel ride we decided to go do Dumbo since we hadn’t ridden it yet. B was still napping so said I would grab us popcorn while they rode. We had forgotten our popcorn bucket in the room because we had taken it in to wash it. Luckily I had the receipt in my purse from buying it earlier in the week. I asked the cast member at the popcorn cart if I could get the refill price even without the bucket and showed her my receipt and she sprinkled some pixie dust and gave it to me for free-so nice! By this time B was waking up so I put sunscreen on her and myself and we waited for the guys. Inside Dumbo, J decided he wanted to play so they played on the playground for a bit. S told me afterwards they got in trouble because J took his shoes off after seeing another kids without shoes on-whoops! After their ride we all say on the wall and ate our popcorn and did sunscreen for the guys.

By this point the time for our first fast pass was almost over so we headed to Tomorrowland for a ride on Buzz Lightyear. I don’t remember much about the ride except that my gun was working this time. S had looked up high-value point targets at some point earlier in the week and didn’t tell me so he smoked me. As soon as I saw his score I knew what he had done and we got a good laugh out of that. Next we went to our second fast pass for the day, Space Mountain. I stayed with the kids and fed J snacks while I nursed B and S went ahead and rode. The was a bit of a backup in the fast pass line so it took him a little while. After about 30 minutes he met up with us and I rode. After the ride we both talked about how we don’t really enjoy it that much. I’m not sure why we feel like we need to ride it every trip. It hurts S’s back and I just don’t find it that thrilling.

Next we went on the Carousel of Progress. We had never done CoP until our last trip. My Dad had mentioned it to S and S decided he wanted to ride it. I gave them such a hard time about wanting to do it and I ended up really liking it. I like it even more after this trip. It is fun seeing the different periods in time and the song is just so fun. I can see why this ride has a cult following.

It was getting to be lunch time so we headed toward our next fast pass which was to meet Mickey. We have terrible luck here and had to wait about 45 minutes. The people in line around us were all grumbling about how long it was taking but we are used to it I guess. Originally I thought we may just grab quick service lunch at the Poly and head back to the room but we hadn’t eaten at Casey’s yet this trip (it’s a tradition to eat there at least once every trip) and it is a tradition so S suggested using mobile order for lunch and back tracking a bit to eat there. That worked for me. We decided to split a foot-long chili cheese dog and a chili cheese fries. We met with Mickey then went back down Main Street to Casey’s and grabbed our food and our usual (terrible!) table. Somehow the only open table is always the standing table right by the back door and that is where we have always eaten. I checked the app to pick up a 4th fast pass for when we returned to the park tonight. The plan was to try for jungle cruise since we had reservations at Skipper Canteen but I saw Peter Pan was available so I quickly grabbed it. After lunch we headed out of the park around 1:30.

While the kids napped S and I both took showers and then relaxed on the balcony. Once the kids woke up we headed back to the park and arrived at dinner around 4:50. We were a little early so I checked the wait time on Jungle Cruise. The wait was only 15 minutes so we asked the Skipper Canteen desk if we could check in early and if we couldn’t we were going to quickly ride JC. They said they had a table to us now which we were happy about.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 7, Part 2: Magic Kingdom: Thursday, May 17 (A Busy But Relaxing MK Day)

Skipper Canteen review: S and I were both really looking forward to this dinner because we love the Jungle Cruise and the menu here is right up our alley. While the kids were napping we had looked at the menu and already knew what we wanted to order. I got the falafel and the cachapas while S ordered the “a lot at steak” salad. Our server was great and had a wonderful dry sense of humor—he was perfect for this restaurant. Unfortunately, the server was the highlight of the meal. The falafel had a weird creamy texture, almost like hummus. I like hummus and the hummus fries in EPCOT so this wouldn’t necessarily be bad, but the taste was off on these and they were not like at falafel I have ever had before. The pork on the cachapas was so salty that neither of us could really eat it. S loves salt and puts it on everything and even he could stomach this. The rest of the dish was good so I just ate around the pork. The salad was really good, it just didn’t have very much steak on it so it didn’t really feel like an entrée salad. Overall, we really wanted to love this restaurant but it fell flat for us.

After dinner we planned to ride Jungle Cruise to keep with the theme of dinner but we decided to skip it since it was raining. I checked the app saw that Space Mountain was down so we quickly made our way to ride the PeopleMover and hopefully catch Space with the lights on. Luck wasn’t on our side and it opened right as we got to Tomorrowland but we love PeopleMover so we rode anyway.

We thought this would be a good time to use the Speedway rider swap pass from earlier in the day. J and I rode while S stayed with B. Next we headed over to Peter Pan to use our fourth FP we had gotten earlier in the day. J was a little apprehensive about the ride but he was okay once we were going. After scanning our bands at PP I book 5th FP for Buzz Lightyear. We had a bit of time to kill and J wanted to ride the Barnstormer so J and I got in line. We waited about 20 minutes. This was the first time I have ridden Barnstormer and it is a cute first coaster for kids but it is comically short!

After Barnstormer we made our way over to Tomorrowland for our last ride of the night. When we got to Buzz, the FP line was long and several groups were walking up at the same time so we formed a make shift line to the scanners. A large (maybe 20 people) group of teenagers and a parent came up and started breaking in line right at the scanners. I’m not sure why the cast member didn’t tell them they were breaking but I wasn’t having it. I called past the few groups ahead of us and nicely (but loudly enough that they could hear) let them know where the end of the line was. They begrudgingly got in the back of the line. Ugh! How can people be so rude to just clearly cut in front of a line. We were clearly in line but I guess they just didn’t think they should have to wait. We had a fun ride and S again beat me. We decided to call it a night around 8:00. Overall we had a fun and really successful Magic Kingdom night.

Back at the room we decided to start making more concrete plans for Saturday. We had made reservations for 8:30 at Boma after seeing it in an online video of best breakfasts in WDW. But, Magic Kingdom had extended the Saturday hours to 8:00 so S suggested canceling Boma so we could have more time in the parks. When we canceled Boma, we decided to cancel our fast passes we had made for Magic Kingdom for Saturday and reshuffle our plans. The new plan was to rope drop Magic Kingdom and stay until around 11 then head to Animal Kingdom for lunch and to ride Dinosaur then have an evening at DHS. We rebooked our fast fast passes for DHS Saturday evening.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 7, Part 3: Magic Kingdom: Thursday, May 17 (A Busy But Relaxing MK Day)

Recap:
Original Plan (times from Touring Plans):
9:11 Peter Pan's Flight
9:35 The Haunted Mansion
10:00 Splash Mountain
10:42 Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (FP 9:35-10:35)
10:52 Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover
11:04 Space Mountain (FP 10:35-11:35)
11:24 Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress
11:58 Meet Mickey Mouse Town Square (FP 11:40-12:40)
Lunch at Captain Cooks-Polynesian
Break
4:30 Jungle Cruise
5:15 Skipper Canteen (5:15 reservation)
6:07 Pirates of the Caribbean
Splash Mtn with Rider Swap

Actual:
Castle Welcome Show
Tomorrowland Speedway
Haunted Mansion
Carousel
Dumbo
Buzz Lightyear (Fast pass)
Space Mountain (Fast pass)
Carousel of Progress
Meet Mickey at Town Square (Fast pass)
lunch at Casey’s Corner
Break at hotel
Dinner at Skipper Canteen
People Mover
Tomorrowland Speedway (with RS ticket)
Peter Pan (4th fast pass)
Barnstormer
Buzz Lightyear (5th fast pass)

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 8, Part 1: EPCOT: Friday, May 18 (We Love Garden Grill)

We woke up around 7:00 and got ready and hit the road at 8:00 to head to EPCOT. This was our first EPCOT morning so we were excited (even though we had been here several evenings this trip). We arrived at the park around 8:15 and got a great, close parking spot (remember this for later). We were let in the gates around 8:40 and once the ropes dropped we headed toward the Land pavilion. S went to Soarin’ where we got a rider swap and I took the kids on Living with the Land so I could nurse B. We were the first passengers and boat of the day! I don’t know why that was exciting to me but it was, haha. J had a great time pointing out different fruits and vegetables.

S and I switched and I rode Soarin’ while he took the kids on Living with the Land. We finished up around 9: 45 so we decided to walk over to the Seas and ride Nemo and walk around the aquariums for a bit. We had a fun ride in our clam shell then wondered around looking at fish and sharks. J was really having a great time but we had to cut his fun short to make it to breakfast. We quickly walked back over to the Land pavilion and checked in for brunch at Garden Grill.

Garden Grill review: We ate at GG last May with my Dad and we all really enjoyed the meal. The breakfast is just basic food but it is all really fresh and delicious. We really like that it isn’t a buffet and we don’t have to all take turns and risk missing a character. The other thing that is awesome about GG is the circular set up makes it really easy for characters to make their rounds and the small size of the restaurant means you get to see the characters multiple times.

We checked in at 10:20 and had to wait about 20 minutes. This is mildly annoying but we made the best of it by making restroom stops and washing up. We say and people watched while waiting. We were called to our table and were sat on the upper tier which is good for us since we had two high chairs and they would have been in the aisle if we had gotten a booth. The restaurant was mostly empty by this point and soon our first characters were at our table-Chip then Dale. J watches Mickey Clubhouse and Mickey Roadster Racers on Disney Jr. so he instantly recognized both chipmunks.

Our waiter took our drink orders and brought our coffee and water out really quickly. He only had two tables so he was really attentive and made small talk with us which was nice. Soon we saw Mickey and Pluto and our platter arrived with waffles, bacon, sausage, potatoes, and eggs. Our waiter also brought J several gluten free waffles. When our waiter brought our food, I asked if we could also get fruit and the cinnamon roll and he didn’t realize he never brought them and was really apologetic. I told him no need to apologize, it was no big deal at all. The characters came so quick and then the platter that he just never even realized it. We had met all four characters and gotten drinks and food within 10 minutes.

We devoured the entire platter, the fruit, and about half the cinnamon roll. We were all really hungry at this point and all over ate. Our waiter kept asking if we wanted more of anything but we were stuffed! Everything was hot and fresh despite it being late into breakfast service and the restaurant being mostly cleared out. While we stuffed ourselves the characters just kept coming by. We saw each one at least three times and Mickey came by four times and stayed awhile each time, I think they were bored! We had great interactions and J was loving it. This breakfast sealed GG as one of our top three favorite restaurants. We have it booked for October and December and will book it again for next May too. I highly recommend this character breakfast and we love the later time slot to have time to hit several rides and be able to eat two meals in one since this is breakfast and lunch for us.

 

[Daisy1940]

Day 8, Part 2: EPCOT: Friday, May 18 (We Love Garden Grill)

Next up was our first fast pass of the day at Spaceship Earth. We arrived around 11:30 and were quickly on the ride. We usually still have to wait a bit even with fast pass but there wasn’t much of a crowd today and we were on within five minutes. S and J rode together and I took B so she could nurse. After our ride we decided to go make a photo pass picture in front of Spaceship Earth. We walked toward the park entrance but couldn’t find one so we walked back to the backside of Spaceship Earth and found a Photo Pass. There was a bit of a line but we had our pictures about 10 minutes later. S saw that there was a place to pick up passholder magnets so we went and grabbed two of those and walked over to the Pixar film fest which was a must do for S.

We parked our stroller and there were dark omnium clouds on the horizon so I wanted to cover the stroller. S checked the forecast and said it should be a short rain and I thought we should still l cover the stroller (wet is wet regardless) but he thought it would be find if we just made sure the visor was down. I didn’t want to debate it so we just left it uncovered. We wanted to first ride Figment but the wait was posted at 40 minutes so we passed. We did the Pixar shorts last May and enjoyed it but we forgot how much time this takes. First we waited in the line, then in the holding room, plus the show so this whole thing was a 45 minute commitment. The three movies were cute though and it was a really hot day so the air conditioning was nice. When we left we came out to a soaking stroller-ugh.

We put the kids in the stroller and headed to our next fast pass of the day, Mission Space. At some point during the morning S decided he wanted to ride Mission Space and since we had already done Character Spot earlier in the trip we switched our fast passes. It was past 1:00 by now so I had decided that I would skip it since the kids were starting to get really cranky at this point. S said he would go ahead but he started walking toward the baby center so I quickly stopped him and said let’s walk together. We walked by the Lightening McQueen topiary which we thought was really cool. Then S tried going into Test Track and I had to stop him again and point him in the right direction. He went into the fast pass line and the kids and I went through the exit and waited in the area with the playground and simulators. B needed to nurse so I sat on the floor and did that. Meanwhile J was done and really pitching a fit. He didn’t want to be sitting in the wet stroller (I don’t blame him) and it was nap time so he was just not having it.

Soon S was off the ride and we walked quickly out of the park. S took B since she was cranky and crying in the stroller. Once we got to the parking lot, S was walking way ahead of me so that he could start the car and get it cooling off but he starting walking in the wrong direction. I was calling after him but he couldn’t hear me. I was trying to run after him with J in the stroller but I couldn’t get his attention so we were walking all over the parking lot. He finally turned and walked back toward the park realizing that he was lost and eventually found the car. I was pretty annoyed at this point and told him he needed to stay with me since he never knows where he is going. We got the car loaded and headed back to the room about 2:00.

After naps we got to the park around 5:00 and were running late for our final fast pass at Frozen. We hauled it back to Norway and parked the stroller and got in line around 5:20. This ride gets cuter every time I ride it. The first time I rode it I did not understand the hype at all. It was cute but I didn’t think it was that great. The second time I rode it I liked it even more and now I love this one and it is a must do for sure.

We were running late (see a theme here? Haha) to our reservation at Spice Road Table (5:40 reservation). People were once again walk at snails pace in groups 4 and 5 people wide blocking the entire walkway. I just do not understand how people can be so rude to those around them! I know it was our fault we were late but there is no reason to walk in a group like that. We made it to Spice Road Table at exactly 5:40.