June 2018 TR - It took me 40 yr, but I'm finally back home to WDW!

[VandVsmama]

Our first FP of the day was....Peter Pan!


This was shortly after 9:00 am. Fantasyland is nice and empty!




Almost time to get in our ship!


Our thoughts on Peter Pan @ WDW & a comparison to the DL version:

• 
  
  • LOVED that FP is even a possibility
  • LOVED that 3 people can fit on the ride vehicle instead of just 2
  • WDW version is definitely longer!
  • I wish that the WDW Peter Pan had audio-animatronic figures.
  • I like how the queue is indoors in air-conditioning. The queue at DL is narrow, cramped, and most of it is in the sun. Like at WDW, the DL Peter Pan is really popular and within 10 min of park opening, the wait gets to 30-45 min and lasts that long all day.
• That being said, I prefer the DL version over WDW's Peter Pan. And I don't really have a good reason why!

 

[VandVsmama]

After Peter Pan, we went on It's A Small World. I think we waited about 10-15 minutes. Our Peter Pan FP were at something like 9:25 am. So I think we ended up on Small World at closer to 10 am.


I'll be honest with y'all...having the Small World queue indoors was a trip! The front of Small World at DL seemed a lot taller than this one seemed. Or maybe it's just because when you first enter the queue, you're basically on the 2nd floor and you go 'downstairs' to the 1st floor. We got to see the glockenspiel while we waited in line! Looks like I was wrong...it wasn't 10 am. It was 10:15! This touches upon something that DH & I found to be quite different between WDW & DL...

We went on fewer rides per day. For example, at DL, if we're there at rope drop and we head straight to Fantasyland, we can often go on 5-6 rides in that first hour that the park is open. And here we were at WDW's MK, there about an hour, and we'd only managed to go on Peter Pan & Small World. Ok, well, probably 3 if you include the train ride to Fantasyland station!


I didn't realize that the WDW Small World doesn't have the Disney characters in each of their respective "lands." For example, Pinocchio shows up in the Italy section. Lilo & Stitch are in the Polynesian section. The WDW Small World is the Small World of my childhood! It was pretty neat. And the distance between the boat and the "sides" of the attraction is much smaller than at DL's Small World.











The kids and I LOVE Small World. DH? Not so much. We can usually convince him to go on it once during a DL trip. The kids and I are happy with going on it twice. We loved this version of Small World. And we love the DL version, too. But for slightly different reasons. The theme song gets on a lot of people's nerves, but I just love it. And it reminds me of my dearly departed friend, who I miss terribly whenever we're at a Disney park (she was a DL AP holder, she took my kids on Haunted Mansion for their 1st time ever when they were just 4 and 6 years old; it was really special). Small World was 1 of her favorite rides. So every time I ride this attraction, I think of the wonderful times I had as a kid riding on it with my sister and my parents. And I think about my friend. It's kind of bittersweet because I just love going on this with my children, so I'm always happy when I'm on this ride. Yet at the same time, sad and a bit mournful, too, if that makes any sense.

 

[VandVsmama]

Once we were off of It's A Small World, it was ~ 10:40 am. YDD was SO hot & grumpy. And hungry. She wanted a snack. A Mickey ice cream bar to be exact. I was at that point in the trip where I no longer cared what my kids ate. Throw the healthy eating out the window. You want an ice cream before lunch? Ok! She was pretty surprised. Oh, and since YDD (who hated the taste of the free water and only tolerated the ice cold Disney Dasani water for $3/pop) was thirsty, too, I bought her some water also. We were right next to Pinocchio's Village Haus, so at first, we were going to sit outside in the shade. But then I realized that the indoors area of the restaurant was open (even though they weren't serving lunch yet).

So we went inside. And sat for a good 20 min in glorious air-conditioning at 1 of the tables that looks out over the loading zone in Small World. Did we have other stuff "to do" on our Touring Plan itinerary? Oh most definitely. Did I care at that point? No. We'd figure it out later.


The paintings on the wall in this restaurant are very well done, I think.


Shortly after 11:00 am, even though YDD had just devoured an ice cream bar, both kids now declared that they were ravenously hungry, so how about we just eat here instead of going all the way to Tomorrowland for lunch? Ok, we'll give it a go. We ordered:
1 OJ
1 Coke
1 lemonade
1 tomato basil soup - ODD liked it. I thought it was just fair.
1 kid's meal with chicken nuggets
1 kid's meal with mac & cheese (I think, according to the receipt)
1 flatbread caprese pizza

Total came to $43.28.

Here's what the caprese flatbread pizza looked like:


Looks great, right? It tasted TERRIBLE! The pizza crust was like a stale cracker left out overnight. The cheese was completely flavorless. Tasted like rubber. OMG, this was just awful. I took a few bites and threw the rest out and mostly just loaded up with water. During that lunch, I was really missing DL's quick service options!

But oh well, you win some and you lose some. There was a big multigenerational family sitting near us. They had a baby with them and that baby was having such a great time! He was so adorable. And loud. But that little kid was making some of the most wonderful happy baby noises ever. The laughter out of that kid was great. It made up for the awful rubber pizza on brick crust. I went over to the family and told them what a joy it was listening to their little one make all of that noise. It was great!

 

[VandVsmama]

We took a really long time in Pinocchio's restaurant. We were there a bit over an hour and to be honest, we really needed it. This was the 3rd day in a row at a theme park and we were starting to run out of gas. YDD's feet were getting more sore every day (I think she needs new sneakers now!). Every morning before we ventured out to a park, I did the same routine with the kids...

1. put Body Glide all over your feet. Tops and bottoms and especially between each of your toes.
2. put Body Glide on any other parts that are prone to chafing.
3. go sit on the toilet and humor your mother and squirt out a few drops even if you don't have to go just so your Mama doesn't have to listen to your whining right after we get on the ferry boat about "MAMA I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM...RIGHT NOW!" No, of course things like that don't happen in our family, do they?
4. stand up so your mama can spray you with sunscreen front & back.
5. sit there and tolerate Mama putting sunscreen on your ears. Yes kiddo, your ears. Because you're not wearing a hat, are you? So quit your complaining and just deal with it because it's good for you.

I am happy to report that none of us had any blisters on your feet on that trip. I packed my sneakers, but I never put them on. I wore my ugly Teva sandals the whole time and they were great.

During lunch, I asked the kids if they wanted to go on Peter Pan again (because they didn't know this, but I had a 2nd FP for it for Thursday morning). The kids said, "It was fun, but I don't want to do it again. Let's go on Splash Mountain or Fast Choo Choo again." (Fast Choo Choo is BTMRR, by the way).

Ok, so once lunch was done and we were rested & refreshed, our FP window for 7DMT had opened up, so we were ready! First time ever on this ride!


ODD & YDD rode together and I rode behind them.


These flowers were blooming along the FP queue...we have these back home in Arizona!


Here we are on our way!


So thoughts about 7DMT:

1. LOVED IT! Huge hit for all 3 of us.
2. LOVED how the mine train stops/slows down as it passes the 7 Dwarfs' house, so you can see Snow White dancing inside with all of the dwarfs.
3. LOVED the audio-animatronics inside the mine.
4. LOVED the music.
5. LOVED the ride photos & the ride video! HILARIOUS AND AWESOME ALL AT THE SAME TIME!
6. Not the fastest or scariest roller coaster ever, but it totally fits in Fantasyland. It's just perfect.
7. NOW I UNDERSTAND WHY EVERYBODY GOES APE OVER THIS ATTRACTION!

What I did on this trip since each of these parks were new to the kids and aside from MK, they were new to me, too, is after we'd do an attraction, I'd ask the kids what they thought. And when we'd stop for lunch or dinner or for a midday break, we would chat about the morning/afternoon/evening and I'd ask them something like, "So...what do you think so far? Is there anything you didn't really like that much? Is there anything you want to go on again?" And then I'd rearrange our Touring Plan on their Lines app accordingly.

Well, of course, the kids wanted to ride it again. I was honest with them and told them all of the hassle I'd had to go through in order to get just the 1 FP for it, so it was slim to none chance that we'd go on it again unless we got up REALLY early on Thursday for 8am rope drop (9 am regular park opening). By the time we were off of 7DMT, Fantasyland was getting crowded....

I mean, it wasn't crowded to the point of you're bumping into somebody every step sort of crowded, but it was getting crowded enough that we were starting to get irritated by it, which meant that we needed to wrap things up.

You know what else? I found Fantasyland at WDW to be pretty spread out and a little confusing to get around. But look at how pretty those hot & sweaty clouds were on that lovely June sweltering afternoon?

 

[VandVsmama]

I don't remember what our 3rd FP was for that day. But I looked at the wait times on the app and we hadn't yet done any character meet & greets. We had a FP for one the day before at Epcot, but I cancelled it because the kids were so hot and miserable that they no longer cared about meeting Joy, Sadness, & Baymax.

So we went to this corner of Fantasyland...


I love Lambert the Sheepish Lion. Used to watch that on the Sunday evening Disney show on TV when I was a kid.


We met Donald & Goofy. That was a nice treat since we hadn't ever met Donald at Disneyland. I'm too lazy at the moment to post photos of those meet & greets, but suffice it to say that we had great 'conversations' with both of them. It was a lot of fun and it brought big smiles to my kids' faces. ODD just turned 12, so of course she doesn't think the characters are real anymore. But YDD still believes in them, so ODD enjoys keeping up the Disney magic for her sister. The line to meet Donald & Goofy was much shorter than the one to meet Daisy and Minnie.

After that, we got on the train and got a ride (instead of walking) to Main Street Station!


You know what's really great? The SOUND of the train horn on the WDW train! And the area you see behind BTMRR when you're on the train. LOVE IT!


The only thing that the WDW train needs is a station in Tomorrowland and a section that goes through Primeval World like at DL. The rest of it is just perfect as it is.

 

[VandVsmama]

Thoughts about WDW Fantasyland:

1. SO much bigger than DL
2. This, in turn, can make it a little overwhelming.
3. I got lost a couple of times in WDW Fantasyland. Good thing we had a map! YDD loved looking at the MK map every day we were there.
4. LOVE all of the medieval-looking buildings.
5. LOVE the Rapunzel area. She needs her own attraction.

We were on our way out of MK and I wanted to leave a thank you at City Hall for 2 CMs but before we were able to do that, we caught the tail end of that "Vamos!" small parade thingy...


The kids got a kick out of seeing the Zootopia characters...


Then I heard the Dapper Dans and I just LOVE the Dapper Dans at Disneyland. But alas, YDD had put on her grumpy pants again and decided she'd had ENOUGH of the heat (Let's GO, MAMA!"), so all I had time to do is snap this quick pic of them from afar....


Before I hit up City Hall, we stopped by the candy shop...DL has this, too, where you can watch them making wonderful things to eat that will ruin your diet.


I must admit that I really don't like candy apples, but they are SO PRETTY!


My grandmother was a big confectionary sort of person. She loved going to the little Italian bakery near her house and getting gorgeous and yummy tasting treats to take home. So whenever I see a wonderful bakery counter like this one, it always reminds me of her. We got a couple of things to take back to the room with us...mostly chocolate, from what I remember. No fancy chocolate stuff. Chocolate coins sort of stuff.


I mean...LOOK AT THOSE...AREN'T THEY CUTE?!


And now for 1 of my favorite parts of our whole vacation....

If you've read this far, you know about our not-so-stellar check-in experience at ASMusic. And our encounters with other CMs who were just sort of "meh" in the attitude department. Well, thankfully, we had encounters with a couple of really GREAT CMs. And I know how little CMs get paid at WDW & DL. I also know that formal thank you's from park guests make a big difference in them getting raises and promotions. So I dragged the tired, hot, & grumpy children to City Hall so I could put in a formal thank you for 2 amazing CMs. OH my Lord, you would have thought that it was the end of the world that YDD couldn't leave MK yet. HAHAHA!

Amazing CM #1:
Her name was AJ and this was from Sunday when we were on Jungle Cruise and there was a line up of boats waiting to get back to the dock so we could all unload. For whatever reason, it was slow unloading passengers and loading new people on (probably because of a disabled park guest or something, so this sort of thing never bothers me in the slightest). We had to wait there a good 3-5 minutes before we could get to the dock to unload. AJ was SO AWESOME! She just kept up the string of corny, lame jokes. One after another. She totally stayed in character in her role. Seriously, she was awesome. She was just as sweaty as we were, but she acted like none of it bothered her in the slightest. I've never had more fun just waiting. So I put in a thank you for her.

Amazing CM #2:
This was the awesome security guard from Monday morning at Epcot. Seriously, he was great. Funny, good attitude, made me forget about the heat for a couple of minutes. He just was so great.

This very nice CM from Japan helped me submit the thank you info. She noticed our First Visit buttons and asked us how our visit was so far. She scanned my Magic Band and then asked if my DH was with us (sadly, no! He was at the convention that day). I told her what a wonderful time we were having, how this was my first visit since I was 5.

Then that wonderful City Hall CM from Japan (she was really REALLY nice!) told me that she gave us 1 any time any experience FP that we could use that day in MK (except for the Mickey meet & greet in Town Square). The kids were SHOCKED! There went all of the grumping about being hot! ODD asked the CM, "Can we use it on 7DMT?" Why yes! Yes, you can! I might have done a "Woo hoo!" and we did some high 5's all around.

Before this, the kids said that they weren't sure if they wanted to go back to MK that evening. Well, now the evening at MK was BACK ON THE SCHEDULE, PEOPLE! Because WE WERE GOING TO RIDE 7DMT TWICE IN ONE DAY, BABY!

Our steps were a lot lighter after that and we walked over to the monorail to take it back to the TTC....Or should I call it "Stale BO monorail?"


I really don't remember what time we ended up getting back to the hotel room. But again, it took about 20 min to drive from MK to ASMusic. We'd never been so grateful for the A/C being set at 69 degrees! Hahaha! Back home in AZ, when it's 69 degrees, we wear heavy sweatshirts and act like we're on the frozen tundra or something.

 

[Monykalyn]

We've had simply awesome CMs at GS whenever we've had to visit them. They really must pick best of the best for this! Glad you got some magic while making some magic for the CMs!

 

[Tasscrapper]

I am loving your trip report which I found through a link on your just back thread. Hubby and I are going for our 25th anniversary in August. We live in Utah and Disneyland is our home park . . . I actually recognized your name from the Disneyland forum even though I haven't been on it much for a while. This whole WDW thing is intimidating and the heat is the thing I am worried about most but August was our only chance to go. I really appreciate all the comparisons you've done because I have a reference to half of them. I know you said you wouldn't go in summer again but I'm wondering . . . are you glad you tagged along with the girls this time? Was it worth it even through the muggy heat??

A couple things I've learned from you already: 1. Animal Kingdom is hotter than the other parks so beware. 2. Frog Togs don't help much ( Have you (or anyone else) ever used the Disney equivalant? They are pink or blue with Mickey heads on them.) I am bringing my disney cool towel and hope it helps. It's made from a different material than the frog tog towels. I love it in Disneyland and pray it helps in WDW too. 3. I can expect to be sweating almost constantly. 4. Water there doesn't taste great? I guess I will be bringing some flavour packets because I sure as heck am not paying $3.00 a bottle for water. 5. We won't get as much done in WDW.

So, thank you so much for writing your trip report and the just back report which was incredibly informing!

You said you used an umbrella to help with shade while you were waiting in a FP line. Did it help? I was planning on bringing an umbrella for shade and for the rain.

I was also wondering if there were things you wish you had skipped . . . there are some things we plan on completely skipping like the Autotopia clone in Magic Kingdom.

 

[VandVsmama]

I am loving your trip report which I found through a link on your just back thread. Hubby and I are going for our 25th anniversary in August. We live in Utah and Disneyland is our home park . . . I actually recognized your name from the Disneyland forum even though I haven't been on it much for a while. This whole WDW thing is intimidating and the heat is the thing I am worried about most but August was our only chance to go. I really appreciate all the comparisons you've done because I have a reference to half of them. I know you said you wouldn't go in summer again but I'm wondering . . . are you glad you tagged along with the girls this time? Was it worth it even through the muggy heat??

A couple things I've learned from you already: 1. Animal Kingdom is hotter than the other parks so beware. 2. Frog Togs don't help much ( Have you (or anyone else) ever used the Disney equivalant? They are pink or blue with Mickey heads on them.) I am bringing my disney cool towel and hope it helps. It's made from a different material than the frog tog towels. I love it in Disneyland and pray it helps in WDW too. 3. I can expect to be sweating almost constantly. 4. Water there doesn't taste great? I guess I will be bringing some flavour packets because I sure as heck am not paying $3.00 a bottle for water. 5. We won't get as much done in WDW.

So, thank you so much for writing your trip report and the just back report which was incredibly informing!

You said you used an umbrella to help with shade while you were waiting in a FP line. Did it help? I was planning on bringing an umbrella for shade and for the rain.

I was also wondering if there were things you wish you had skipped . . . there are some things we plan on completely skipping like the Autotopia clone in Magic Kingdom.

I didn't even know that Disney sold cooling towels! At least for us, the Frog Togs didn't do much. I will have to get a Disney one next time we go to Disneyland. I found it to be really important for us to keep drinking even though we might not yet be thirsty. I basically did what DH & I do when we're outside in the summer at 1 of the kids' swim meets - drink, drink and then drink some more.

I didn't use the umbrella all the time. Most of the time, in fact, we didn't bother with it. We just broke it out when it felt more hot than 'usual.'

I wish that we had skipped Figment, but now we have bragging rights for going on one of the worst attractions ever invented. LOL! We also skipped Tomorrowland Speedway, but not on purpose. We didn't want to wait 30-45 min nor could I get FP for it. I'm glad that we skipped Buzz Lightyear. I brought the umbrella in my park bag every day just in case it rained, but we didn't actually need it for the rain except for Thursday evening.

 

[cinderaimee]

I’m loving your report but I wish you had enjoyed things a bit more. I cannot deal with the heat and humidity either (and I live near DC so we get our fair share here) so that’s why our next trip is planned for January. :-D Out in the heat, I can’t even think!

 

[VandVsmama]

I didn't show you guys the cute keychain that I bought at the trading post at Fort Wilderness! Check it out!


And this is the flip side of it....


It goes really well with this pic from DCA...

 

[VandVsmama]

I’m loving your report but I wish you had enjoyed things a bit more. I cannot deal with the heat and humidity either (and I live near DC so we get our fair share here) so that’s why our next trip is planned for January. :-D Out in the heat, I can’t even think!

Oh, we had a WONDERFUL time! Despite the muggy weather. I'm REALLY glad that we went!

 

[VandVsmama]

Just for fun, here's a trip down memory lane from past years at Disneyland....

 

[Tasscrapper]

I'm sooo glad to hear you guys had a wonderful time even with the weather. It sounds like it is key to take a break when you need to and to your limits.

 

[VandVsmama]

We got back safe and sound back to our home base at ASMusic. This was our view once you stepped outside the door on the 2nd floor of Bldg 7 (in the Broadway section)…


YDD thought it was really pretty. In this spot, it felt like we were a million miles away from everything and that was nice!


Some cool stuff that I really enjoyed about ASMusic:

1. the beds were SO comfortable!
2. the pillows were really comfortable, too!
3. we had plenty of room to store our luggage out of the way
4. I liked the TV/dresser cabinet. We used the top of the cabinet to store various odds & ends.
5. didn't need 1 of those over-the-door shoe organizer things that a lot of people on the DIS talk about.
6. liked how there were pool towels
7. liked how you could use the curtain to block off the bathroom from the bed area. This helped DH & I to not wake the kids up late at night if 1 of us had to go to the bathroom.
8. liked the pools, but we only tried out the piano pool
9. really liked the Mickey tie-dye t-shirts ($18 each)

You know what else? MK City Hall is SO much more grand and bigger than DL City Hall!



Ok, back to the rest of the trip report! I do NOT remember where we ate for dinner on Tuesday. We might have eaten an early dinner at the ASMusic food court and then headed back to MK on the bus (instead of using the car), but now that I think about it, maybe we ended up at MK at around 7 pm? I don't remember. It looks like we got on the train again when we got there because I apparently took this panoramic shot. Those storm clouds off in the distance were a daily occurrence. In fact, the daily weather pattern was a lot like monsoon season in Arizona, except it was just way more humid. Calm sunny skies earlier in the day with clouds building all day, then rain at some point between 4 - 8 pm.



We ended up walking past Gaston's Tavern at some point that evening, but we never went inside. The theming of this on the outside is just SO well done! And the statue is a hoot!


On our way to a Fantasyland attraction, I took this picture of the castle. It was so pretty at this time of day with the way the setting sun hit it.


We first went on 7DMT again! And it was just as great as the first time around! We just loved this ride. Wish that DH could have ridden it with us, but he was stuck at the vendor event that evening...that turned out to be worth his while. He ended up getting free Maui Jim sunglasses out of it.


None of us had even seen Mickey's Philharmagic. We really enjoyed this and didn't have to wait AT ALL! Walked right in. It was great! I would totally do this again. I think that the curtain in this theater is really pretty.


Then it was time for the moment that I'd been waiting literally years for...to go on the Peoplemover! We waited about 5 min to get on this. All I have of it for Tuesday is a data-intensive video, which I can't post here. But going on this at dusk with all of the neon lights in Tomorrowland lit up was really fun and magical. The Tomorrowland music in the background was a lot of fun. I wish that DL's Tomorrowland was themed like this.

We WERE going to go on the Carousel of Progress, but I postponed that to Thursday. The kids also REALLY wanted DH to go with us on Haunted Mansion at least once before we left WDW, so I moved a FP and this ended up being the FP line up for Thursday...at least that's what it was as of Tuesday evening...


Then we walked from Tomorrowland to the Mad Tea Party. And holy cow, the WDW tea cups spin MUCH faster than at DL! The kids don't like going on this with me because I don't spin the tea cup as fast as DH does. And we really liked how the mouse pops his head up out of the top of the tea cup. We always enjoy going on Mad Tea Party at DL and we enjoyed the WDW version as well. I think that for me, personally, if I had to pick one, I prefer the DL at night better because the hanging lanterns with the greenery around Mad Tea Party is really pretty at night. But just the ride experience itself? They're both just as fun. Back in March when we were getting excited to go to Disneyland with my sister, I showed the kids a Fresh Baked video on YouTube where Alice and the Mad Hatter RODE the Mad Tea Party with park guests! You guys should have seen the look on YDD's face when she watched that video. It was so fun.

 

[VandVsmama]

When fireworks started (the times are sort of a blur here), we walked with purpose to Enchanted Tales with Belle. Literally walked into this with zero wait. YDD was star struck and didn't have the courage to participate in the enchanted story telling, but ODD got to be Mrs. Potts.


Then we walked next door to meet Ariel in mermaid form. At DL, we've only been able to meet her in princess form, so this was a nice treat. We waited about 5 min for this. We were still sweating, but the evenings at WDW after the sun goes down were MUCH nicer than first thing in the morning. Now I understand why my friend (the one with the 4 kids) always drags her family to night time EMH when they go to WDW!


Ariel was so great with our kids. ODD & YDD talked a lot about swimming and YDD told her about how I have red hair just like Ariel does. Ariel was very animated. YDD was star struck with this character, too. I love seeing my kids' reactions to characters ...the PP photographers do a great job capturing their facial expressions in wonderful little moments like these. After saying our goodbyes to Ariel, we walked right next door to go on her ride and LITERALLY walked right on it. NO WAIT, people! That was pretty nice. Judging from the length of the standby queue area, this line must get pretty long and most of it is outside.


Blurry photo, but I enjoy this ride a lot. It's basically identical to the one at DCA.


I really like how Ariel's hair flows & moves in this attraction.


We've gone on enough DL trips for my kids to know just to ask, "What's next, Mama?" We looked at the wait times on my phone and I asked the kids what THEY wanted to do (which is what I'd been doing for 3 days in a row! haha! I was just thrilled to be there with my family). So the kids studied the MK map on the phone and decided on Dumbo since:
- the wait was 5 min
- it was close

And we only had to wait 1 iteration of the ride before we got on it! I didn't know that MK had 2 sides for Dumbo! At this point in the evening (~ 10-10:30 pm, I think), only 1 side of Dumbo was operating. We always love Dumbo at DL and we enjoyed this one, too! The lights and the fountains on this Dumbo are pretty at night.


After getting off Dumbo, I could tell that YDD was running out of steam. She said she was tired. I gave the kids the option of us leaving then or sticking around for another 30 min since the park would close at 11:00 pm. They were hemming and hawing a bit, wanting to leave because they were tuckered out but also wanting to stay. So I suggested that we head over to Frontierland and go on BTMRR and then go next door to ride Splash Mtn 1 more time before the park closed.

The kids said, "YAY! Let's go!" But they were tired and didn't want to walk. Ok, let's take the train! Nope, the train doesn't run after fireworks. What? Darn it. Ok, so we did the long march from the far reaches of Fantasyland ALL the way over to BTMRR! But first we passed Gaston's statue, looking fabulous at night...


We finally got to BTMRR. Wait time was posted at ~ 25 min, I think. And I think it was about 10:30 pm when we got in the line. We didn't wait 25 min, though. There definitely was a line and the queue was pretty warm in terms of the temperature, but the BTMRR queue is SO much better themed than the one at DL! There's a lot of cool interactive stuff to play with in the queue. We really liked that and it made the wait a lot more fun. I think that Disney overall does a good job with this at all of its parks. The queue is usually a part of the experience.


When we got off of BTMRR, there were 7 minutes to park closing. So we RACED next door (didn't run, "walk with purpose!") to Splash Mtn and got in line just in time with 6 minutes to spare. We were sweaty again and hot and this was going to be THE last ride of the night, but for some crazy reason, ODD decided that she HAD to put on a poncho. Even YDD told her that she was crazy! Here is ODD's "Don't tell me I'm crazy" look, with YDD's thumbs up for "I'm excited to go on this again!" in the foreground.


Hoo boy, if looks could kill, right? HAHAHA!!!!! That's my favorite moody preteen for you! We got on the ride and soon any gripes from ODD washed away. We were in 1 of the last set of logs to go through that night. When we got back to the loading/unloading zone at the end of the ride, the CMs were inspecting each ride vehicle/log for any trash or items left behind, so the logs in front of us were continuing on without any riders in them!

 

[VandVsmama]

So what did the kids think of being in MK AFTER the park closed? "Awesome!" "Neat!" "There's NOBODY here, Mama!" When we got in line, it was 6 min to closing. When we got off the ride, it was 15 min AFTER closing! Everyone else getting off of Splash Mtn was walking through Frontierland to the hub, but we opted to go through Adventureland since no one was headed that way. And as you can see from this blurry photo of ODD, we literally were the ONLY people in Adventureland! We walked past a CM or 2 and bid them a good night and a thank you for such a fun & wonderful day. But it was just us until we got to the hub! IT WAS SO TOTALLY NEAT, YOU GUYS!



I never found time to go in the Tiki Room during our trip, but I really like how the outside of this attraction looks at WDW.




And here are my 2 wonderful but very tired children...


We even got to see the "Kiss Goodnight!" And it made me cry. I convinced the kids to take a pic with a PP photographer....what luck! Normally YDD can't stand all of the pictures all the time, but I told her that this trip was a pretty big deal, so we WERE going to get some pictures in front of the castle a couple of times...and she could choose to do it at night when it was cooler or in the middle of the day when it was sunny and hot out. Logic prevailed.




Man oh man, isn't that castle just GORGEOUS?! It was like we were on this big emotional high from all the great stuff we got to do that evening. Stuff like...

• 
  
  
  • 2nd FP of the day for 7DMT
  • walk on to Philharmagic
  • <5 min wait on Dumbo
  • walk on for Enchanted Tales with Belle
  • <5 min to meet Ariel
  • walk on to Ariel's ride
  • 5 min wait on the Peoplemover
  • super short wait for Mad Tea Party
  • got on BTMRR (Fast Choo Choo!)
  • walked on to Splash Mtn
  • got to see Adventureland after the park closed
  • got to see the Kiss Goodnight!

I love Main Street at night just as much as I love DL's Main Street at night. It's just beautiful, magical, and wonderful. I was just so happy to be there with the girls, wishing that DH didn't have to do the work thing that evening, but also just so grateful that we'd even had the opportunity to go on this trip in the first place. It was like part of the world was complete...seeing this same castle as a kid with my parents and then being there with my family as an adult.


We took the bus back to ASMusic. So now we'd used 4 different forms of transportation...car, ferry, monorail, and bus. When it comes to getting to MK, bus is much more convenient since it drops you off really close to Security. But if you have to wait forever for the bus at your resort, that's a pain. Tuesday was just a pretty darn wonderful day. We had a GREAT time. Got back to the hotel about midnight. YDD fell asleep on the bus. When we got back to the room, DH was fast asleep!

Wednesday would be another convention day for DH and a rest day for the rest of us. Literally NOTHING on the WDW schedule for us girls, which would be a welcome respite from 3 days in a row of theme park touring!

 

[cinderaimee]

What a wonderful evening! Sounds like everyone had a great time once that pesky sun went away. On our last trip we had two MK days and on one of them the park closed early for a christmas party and the second was on our departure day so we had to leave to catch our flight. I hope we get a chance to close the park down one night on our next trip!

 

[Monykalyn]

We even got to see the "Kiss Goodnight!" And it made me cry

So many visitors don't get to see this or even know what it is. So glad you got to see it.
LOVE the pics! So cool for a second ride on Mine Train. and wandering through a closed, empty park is cool.
I think all the parks are just magical at night. We are going again in August and will prob repeat last August trip-sleep in, pool time and hit parks at night.

I really love the comparison to DL. Hoping for a DL trip sometime in next few years (maaayyyybe next year but we are planning France for 2020 so pretty doubtful).

 

[VandVsmama]

I know that this is a WDW trip report, but I just saw this DIS Unplugged video on YouTube and just had to share it with all of you! If you've never been to DL, you totally need to go experience it for yourself. Here are several reasons why...