Don't Wear Bright Colors!: A July 2015 Disney Trip Report, Day 2, part 2

Saturday July 18, 2015, continued.

Once back at the hotel, I changed and relaxed for a few hours. The afternoon rain arrived early, so I chilled (literally) in the room for awhile. Once the rain ended, it was time to hit an actual theme park.

Tonight was the whole reason I had kept the dates of my trip as being over a weekend. Tonight was the night I had managed to score a dinner ADR at Be Our Guest for. Tonight it was off to the Magic Kingdom!

Does anyone else absolutely love the music they play on the bus to the Magic Kingdom? Seriously, nothing says Disney like that bus ride. Once I was off the bus and through security, I entered the park where I found...parade crowds? Huh? It was about 4pm.

Turns out the afternoon parade had been delayed to try to give the ground time to dry before the performers started dancing on it. While I was wandering through the stores on Main Street, the announcement was made that because the ground still hadn’t dried enough, some rainy day entertainment would come through in lieu of the parade. I beat feet out of the Main Street area, because there were a LOT of unhappy campers camped out on that sidewalk.

My first stop? Tomorrowland Transit Authority! There’s just something so nice about gliding above Tomorrowland, in a ginormous personal space bubble, watching the crowds below. Yes, we’ve been doing a personal space unit in the elementary school social skills groups this week!

Once I’d returned to Tomorrowland, I slowly made my way toward Liberty Square, checking out a bunch of stores along the way and stopping for a picture or 2 along the way. I still had some time to kill before my first fastpass of the day. 

I’ll say it now; I love the Magic Bands. I love being able to manage my dining plans and fast passes in an app. But I do NOT love fastpass+. I hate how it has driven up the wait at rides that used to be a short wait even on a crowded day. That being said, I do love being able to get fastpasses in advance of getting to a park. It makes evenings more productive. It would be really awesome if you could only plan FP+ the day before (or day of) your park time, and it was only available on the same attractions that had the old fastpass.

Anywho…eventually I quit wandering through stores, and spent the last 5 minutes until my FP+ opened up waiting just outside Haunted Mansion. In those 5 minutes I watched 2 tour groups enter the FP line. Hmm...am I going to be waiting longer in the FP line than in the (40 minute) standby line?

Somehow, those tour groups got absorbed, and my wait was only about 10 minutes. Now I understand how this attraction used to have such short standby waits! The biggest bottleneck I encountered was, where else...in the dark room where the load area is, where everyone tries to funnel into the same queue after entering as a mass of humanity.

The ride was uneventful, and pretty soon I’d escaped the hitchhiker and had re-emerged outside. I still had some time to kill before my next fastpass, so I decided to wander around a bit. Since it was still overcast, the air temperature was actually less than surface of the sun temperature, so I decided to wander through the Swiss Family Treehouse, and make up for some of the staircases I’d lost out on in my Fitbit count this morning, while it was staying dry in the locker. 

After returning to sea level without killing myself on the stairs, it was time to make my way toward my next fastpass: Buzz Lightyear! I was not pleased to see the fastpass line extending outside and around the corner of the building, but, at least it was shorter than standby? It actually moved relatively quickly, and pretty soon I was refraining from marching to the beat of the music in the inside queue.

After shooting way less Zs than I usually do, I re-emerged into Tomorrowland, where the humidity had skyrocketed, about the same time as my phone started ringing. Nick was calling. We chatted as I walked through Magic Kingdom, for a good half hour or so, until it was time for me to check in for dinner. 

Check in was a bit confusing, as was waiting to be seated. Seriously, restaurant pagers should not play periodic music for “entertainment”. You end up mistakenly thinking it’s your turn to go eat, when it’s really not. Not that I learned anything about this…

Eventually the pager started buzzing, and I was walked to my table in the ballroom. I know a lot of people like the West Wing, but personally, I like to see what I’m eating. I also don’t enjoy thunder. But really, my goal was to just eat at Be Our Guest! So I had no issue with the ballroom, even if there were tables 6” from either side of my table.

My waiter, some fairly handsome guy with a thick accent, appeared eventually. He offered suggestions, but I’d already decided what I wanted, so I ordered, and then spent some time taking in the surroundings. I’ve eaten at BOG a couple of times for lunch, but there are just so many details to take in. I also downed too many dinner rolls, because they were fantastic, and that sea salted butter wasn’t half bad either.

My food arrived fairly quickly. I got the pan seared chicken. It was excellent! The veggies that came with it were a little weird, but the chicken (and the green smear) were excellent. I’d order it again in a heartbeat.

Once I’d demolished my chicken, the waiter came back with the dessert cart. I got the strawberry cream cheese cupcake. He handed me that and a spoon. The spoon was a good idea. The cupcake innards were very pudding like. It was also delicious!

Once I’d finished eating and paid, I headed for the study to meet the Beast. I was relieved to see other solos in (the very short) line. I always feel a little silly waiting in a character line solo. But this is one of those rare ones, so I wasn’t passing up the opportunity. The character interaction here was surprisingly good and the photopass photographer and character attendant were great too.

After hugs and kisses from the Beast, I exited the castle. I still had some time before my last fastpass of the evening, so I made a stop at Philharmagic. This show just never gets old. The doors to the theater were open when I walked in and I was the last one sent into the theater for that showing, so I had absolutely no wait. SWEET!

After singing along with all of the music from my childhood, I started moving toward Frontierland, stopping for pictures along the way.

Once I made it to Frontierland, I headed for Big Thunder Mountain to use my last Fastpass of the evening. I really prefer this ride at night rather than during the day. The wait was fairly quick, thankfully. For some reason, that queue won the “hottest queue award”. I’m pretty sure it was hotter in that queue than it had been outside in the middle of the afternoon. It was brutal.

The Wildest Ride in the Wilderness, in the dark, was a huge relief from that hot, stinky queue. Once the train arrive back at the loading platform, I found a spot on the hill to watch the Main Street Electrical Parade through some tree branches. 

I debated staying for the 2nd parade, but I knew I was toast, and I also felt like I’d seen it plenty of times, so I started walking to the exit. I guess I’m just not as young as I used to be.

My route to the exit took me through Adventureland, alongside where the parade floats enter the backstage area. For several minutes, I was toe-tapping and head-bopping to the music as I continued my walk to the exit. I decided to make my way back to MK on another evening to see the parade.

I exited the park, stopping for a couple more pictures along the way. 

The walk to the bus stop seemed to take forever, but I was greeted by a waiting bus, and just like they promised I was “home soon”. I stayed awake just long enough to shower and set the alarm clock, and then I collapsed into bed.

Don't Wear Bright Colors!: A July 2015 Disney Trip Report, Day 2, part 1

Day 2: Saturday July 18, 2015

Because I fell asleep so early, I was awake fairly early. I watched a bit of TV and took my time getting ready for the day.

Eventually I headed down to the food court for a super healthy breakfast of Powerade and an apple turnover. From there, I headed back to my room and got my bag for the first part of the day, then headed to the bus stop.

Since it was, well, summer, and I had one day more than I usually have on my summer trips, I had decided to spend some time at Typhoon Lagoon. So that was my destination this morning.

Since it says everywhere that buses start running an hour before park opening, I had no reason to believe Typhoon Lagoon buses are any different. I got to the bus stop about 8 am. Not long after I got there a bus pulled up labeled simply Downtown Disney. So I asked the driver if he was going to both places. He actually radioed into dispatch to see if he could. Turns out that buses supposedly start running to the water parks half an hour before they open. He was told he could if I wanted him to. But I'd heard the whole exchange and felt weird getting there crazy early so I thanked him and told him I'd wait in air conditioning until the buses really start running, explaining that I had simply used the theme park guideline.

Now, to add to my confusion, Downtown Disney didn't open until 9:30 that day. Why would anyone want to go there an hour and a half before it opens?!

So I wandered a bit and then went back out to the bus stop about 8:20, just in time to step on a waiting bus for Typhoon Lagoon. Now my math is not the strongest, unless it involves figuring out which is a better discount: 20% or $10 (Thanks Macy's!) but last I checked, 8:20 is more than 30 minutes before park opening, and the bus had clearly already stopped at All Star Sports. Consider me confused.

Anyway, the trip to Typhoon Lagoon was easy. When the bus arrived, I saw other buses arriving, and many people already at the entrance gate. So I’m still a little confused about the water park bus situation. Oh well.

I headed for the entrance, hoping the ticket would work right. I had purchased it the day before at the hotel, so it was attached to my Magic Band. Thankfully there were no problems, and I was walking into the park minutes after stepping off the bus.

Once in the park, I hopped into the very short line for locker rentals, and before it was even 9, my stuff was stashed in a locker, and I was ready when they dropped the rope and let us into the rest of the park. I headed straight to the Crush n’ Gusher.

Last time I was at Typhoon Lagoon it was unseasonably chilly by Florida standards. It was April, so I was pretty ok with the low 70s, but apparently most of the world wasn’t, and it was a super uncrowded day at the water park. It was also pretty breezy. Because of the combination of low crowds and wind (I guess?) Crush n’ Gusher was only open to people riding in pairs. I was solo on that trip (shocker I know), so I didn’t get the chance to ride, because I was not cool with the idea of pairing up with some solo stranger to sit in a raft in swimsuits. That’s a bit beyond my comfort level. I was hoping that on a day approaching 100* in July I would not have the same issue.

It was a quick walk over to Crush n’ Gusher where I found an even shorter ride. I was more than a little confused when, despite stating that I was riding solo, I was directed to grab a double tube. That’s what I get for being a newbie on this ride. So I grabbed the tube, that was roughly the same height as I am, and headed for the stairs, trying to figure out how to haul that sucker up the stairs. That thing was heavier than it looked!

There were a lot more stairs than it looked too. By the time I reached the top of the stairs, I was really wishing I had a park buddy. That tube is heavy, I’m embarrassingly out of shape, and I’m one of those conundrums where the doctors can never decide if I have asthma or not, because my numbers are always JUST on the border. I was sucking some serious wind by the time I reached the top of the stairs...like hiking at elevation in Colorado style sucking wind. This ride better be worth it!

It was. But despite the non-existent line when I exited the landing pool, I did not keep my tube and rejoin the line like so many others. I knew a set of lungs that needed a bit of recovery time…

I wandered a bit, checking out the Shark Reef for a bit. I thought about trying the snorkeling, but hearing people’s screeches as they entered the cold water was enough turn off for me. It’s July. I’ll be encountering cold again in about 2 months (and, I was right, almost 2 months to the day, we saw upper 30s overnight!). After watching for a bit, I headed for the other corner of the park.

Next on the agenda was Mayday Falls. By now, crowds had started to arrive in the park so there was actually a small line. While the person behind me was not impressed, my lungs were grateful. I spent my time in line wishing I could ride Gangplank Falls. Mayday is fun, but one of these days I should really go to Typhoon Lagoon with more people than just me. Group raft rides are more fun.

After splashing down Mayday Falls twice, I was ready for some being lazy, so it was off to the wave pool. I stayed there for not long, before deciding to attempt Crush n’ Gusher one more time. I figured by now there might be a bit of a line. With pauses for the line, perhaps the trek up those stairs wouldn’t be quite as bad.

Wishing Fitbits were waterproof, I walked back over to Crush n’ Gusher. There was a brief wait for a tube, and then it was time to hike up the stairs again. This time went better. It really does help to have a line/have to pause occasionally. And yes, I’m still baffling the doctors…

After my second trip on Crush n’ Gusher, it was lazy river time. I had to wait a bit for a single tube, but eventually one came along. I did several laps in the river before I decided I’d had enough of kids trying to swim through the river. I really missed HersheyPark’s VERY strict policy that everyone must be in a tube in the river.

When I was done in the river, it was time for lunch. This is where the Magic Band shined. I found a spot I wanted for lunch, and hopped in line. I’ve never been one to charge to the room, because historically, I had to dig out the key card and if I was digging for the card, I might as well dig for the credit card. With the band on my wrist, I didn’t have to dig (or in this case, return to the locker) for a card. The Magic Band has changed the way I pay for things at Disney.

I had a chicken dish for lunch that involved beans, rice, and plantains. It was VERY good. After lunch, I decided I’d done everything I wanted, and it might be time for a break. So I packed up and headed out of the park, stopping for a couple pictures along the way, and considering finding a way over to Blizzard Beach, since those 1 day tickets are hoppers now. But, it was starting to cloud over and the crowds were pretty thick (people were now being parked on the lawn), so, since the crowds were probably just as thick at BB, I decided to just go back to the hotel. I stopped for a couple of pictures along the way.

It was a fairly short wait for the All Star bus to appear...and drive right by the All Star stop, to stop at the next one. Huh? The few of us that were waiting for it raced over to the next stop, where the driver apologized for going to the wrong stop. Haven’t seen that one before.

I kind of started wishing I had chosen the water park closer to my hotel and gone to Blizzard Beach instead of Typhoon Lagoon, as I shivered my way back to the hotel. The bus ride isn’t really that long, and I thought my swimsuit had had plenty of time to dry, but with the air conditioning blasting, it was a chilly ride back to the hotel. Once I thawed out and started thinking straight again, I went back to being glad I had chosen TL over BB. Granted, I’ve never been to Blizzard Beach, but, I see enough snow at home!