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.
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