Day 5 - Final park day, Magic Kingdom Part 2
It was a Sunday, nonparty day, and the Sunday before Thanksgiving, so we knew we were headed in for bigger crowds for sure. We were really glad we knocked out so many rides and attractions on Thursday so we had a plan and weren't going to stress about lines.
We got to the park about 1 again, and again we said if we had it to do over and we wanted to stay for night time we'd do the midday break. Just because the afternoon crowds are so, so heavy! But we still had an awesome day.
Starting out, we paid for preferred parking. My husband had wanted to splurge on it one day, and this was the perfect day to do it! Getting their deep in the afternoon, on a heavy crowd day (I think Touring Plans rated it an 8?), and we parked super close to the Monorail. It was worth the extra $20 for that day!
We got there around 1 for our ADR at BOG at 1:45. We were slightly early, but not early enough to stand in line for anything so we went up to the window at 1:20 and asked and they seated us, no problem! We had preordered on the website (different than the MDE Mobile Ordering) and were so glad we did! the lines to order were super long and it felt like a win. I had always read they give you a plastic rose and send you to your table, but we didn't get one - turned out they used the RFID in our magic bands to find us, so magical!
After we paid for our food we showed kids all 3 rooms and asked where they wanted to sit, there were tables in all 3. They felt like the West Wing was a little spooky for them so we sat in the pretty Rose Gallery with the music box. They were enamored with the snow out of the window in the ballroom!
We ordered the french dip sandwich (which husband said was good, but smaller than he'd hoped), the braised pork (Which was amazing, we all ate off of it and husband wished he'd ordered it. The mashed potatos on it were so good too!), the french onion soup, the kids split a grilled shrimp meal with peach applesauces, and we got a side of fries to share. And a Masters Cupcake! It was my fave QS of the week, especially the pork!
No one liked the "grey stuff" on the cupcake except me, which was fine with me!
From there we went to our 230 FP with Ariel in the Grotto. This is the story we will be telling at my poor son's wedding rehearsal! While we were waiting out turn and she was with another family, my son tapped me and asked me if the shells were "real or pretend" (which he'd been asking about everything all week! He had to know, real or pretend for every little thing!) I told him they were pretend, just part of the decorations.
Well...it turned out he wasn't talking about the decor shells everywhere. He meant ARIELS purple shells. Like her top. And since I told him they were pretend he HAD to touch them. Too bad we can't share videos here because the snap chat of this is hilarious. Poor Ariel, we are so sorry! My husband pulled him aside afterward to talk and he said "Mommy said they were pretend so I wanted to see!" and it dawned on me that OHHH, he meant those shells. OOPS.
After that we went to meet Gaston. If you want to do this - block out some time! It was a full 30 minutes in line. My husband grabbed a HUGE cinnamon roll from his Tavern for us to eat while we waited, and kids played with their souveniers (baby Simba and baby Flower from Bambi, the little swaddled baby animals are SO cute!!). He was a great meet though, we were glad we did it! He told my son to put his hands over his shirt and walk around like that the rest of the day so no one could see his ugly (Beast) shirt! He also told my daughter in her Belle outfit that she was perfect, and kept calling my husband "tiny dad". It was great!
From there we went to ride Dumbo. I'd left this one for today since the waiting area has the playroom, but it was still a lot of line waiting so we probably should have done it during our low crowd day. Posted wait was 35 minutes but in total it was close to an hour, with maybe 15 minutes of that being in the playroom. Way not worth it, but at least we can say we rode it! (And anything else in the parks at that time of day would have been an hour wait anyway, so oh well!)
After Dumbo we used our 3:55 (at about 4:45) SDMT FPs. Such a cute ride! Perfect balance of roller coaster for my daughter but mild enough for my son. I don't think it'd be worth a 2+ hour wait, but with a FP it was definitely fun! The ride videos are so cute!
Then we used our Enchanted Tales with Belle 5:20 FP. This was so cute, don't miss it! I told my daughter to be talkative and outgoing in the room with the wardrobe and she got picked to be Chip
But then they gave parts to all the kids (my son was a salt shaker) so don't stress about your little one being left out! My husband also got to be a guard, which was pretty cute. They gave him a hard time about his Gaston shirt.
Then we ate dinner at Pinnochio's Village Haus. I had chicken parm sandwich and everyone else had pizza. It was all just okay, we should have gone on to Frontierland and eaten and Sleepy Hollow on the way or Pecos Bills when we got there. But I'd wanted to hang in Fantasy Land and get the Tangled lantern shot. But unfortunately when we walked by the line for that was clearly going to be 30-45 minutes so we decided to pass on it. That was probably the only thing of the trip that I wanted and didn't get (not bad for my extremely high expectations after a year of planning!).
I definitely underestimated the length of lines for various photopass shoots and meet and greets!
By then the crowds were (finally!) thinning. We went over to Frontierland to ride Splash Mountain, which had just opened a day or 2 before from its long refurbishment. The Lines app/prediction was right, and the line was only about 15 minutes! I was relieved since I could never find a FP for it. The kids loved it, we almost should have ridden it again! We did wear our ponchos, but only bc we brought them and hadn't needed to use them all week haha!
While in line there I picked up a Pirates of the Carribean 4th FP. We rode that, and then got a Dole Whip Float, and then picked up a 5th FP for the Magic Carpet ride which my kids had liked the day before.
By then it was around 8:45 and we decided to go get settled for fireworks! We took the DISboard advice and went to the grass in front of Casey's. It was already super packed by 9, but the sidewalks were totally clear, everyone was only on the grass. We parked our stroller in the front left corner (if facing the castle), and sat on the sidewalk and played. I hope that wasn't a major jerk move, since it put us in front of all the grass sitters - but i figured if we didn't sit there someone was certainly going to. Eventually the sidewalks mostly filled in too.
I was surprised to see my kids were the only ones in the whole area not playing on smartphones! No judgment at all that late - I just started to feel like my kids were 'acting up' and then had to shake that off. We are at Disney World, and they weren't stepping on anyone or getting near others, if they wanted to sword fight with the glow wands we brought, why shouldn't they?
We LOVED the HEA show, The vantage point we had against the fence at the front of that grass area was perfect. The kids kind of sat or stood on the fence and leaned against us. The kids lit up over and over as another character they loved showed up. I teared up several times! My husband who had asked me earlier "is it just fireworks?" was blown away by the detail of the projections.
Almost immediately after, both kids fell asleep in the stroller while we decided our next move.
The park was open until midnight, and the hoards were moving toward the exit. So we decided to wander the park with our sleeping kids instead of standing in line for a ferry or monorail. Smart move! We got some more popcorn, window shopped a little, enjoyed the sidewalks in a fairly empty park. Grabbed a great magic castle photopass shot on the way out, and they magic'd tinkerbell into it for us later, which I hadn't expected. Perfect cherry on top of the perfect trip!!
A few final notes from our last day - we swam some more at WBC after checkout, which they were super accommodating about.
We accidentally left the kids souvenier animals in the hotel room, and had to go back after we were almost at the airport. Luckily we left early enough and their lost and found was super sweet and helpful and we got them back!
Rental car through Dollar was great, no problems!
MCO was a nightmare. You may have read they are making everyone remove everything edible from carry on bags now. With little kids we had granola bars and goldfish stashed everywhere! We ended up waiting 20-30 minutes from the time I got through security to the time my husband got through, because they got super backed up checking all of the food piece by piece. Glad they were keeping us safe, but next time we'll just fly snack free and buy some things at the airport on our way out.
Flying Southwest was a pleasure! Family boarding between groups A&B made it super easy for us, free checked bags made it super easy for us, we had a great experience for our kids first flights!
So first timers bullet points!
- USE MDE Online ordering if you aren't on the
DDP!!!
- Touring Plans was so valuable if you are someone who likes to lay out your days like I do! It was pretty accurate, and easy to adjust when it wasn't!
- Memory Maker was SO worth it for us. We split it with 2 other families there at the same time as us, but it would have worth the full price for me.
- Great experiences with Dizzy Dolphin delivery and Kingdom Strollers
- Loved WBC and would likely stay there again, unless we look into DVC rental. I really really loved having the kitchen and separate bedroom.
We can't wait to go back!!