Disney Day 3 - Tuesday
Tuesday was scheduled to be our busiest day yet. We planned to visit three parks - Epcot, Magic Kingdom, and Animal Kingdom. We had breakfast reservations at Garden Grill at 8:05, an hour before park opening. Then we had Fastpasses to the Na'Vi River Journey between 7 and 8 pm. The park closes at 8. So it was going to be a very, very long day! Long, hot, busy days tend to lead to breakdowns. Check out ours below!
Our goal was to be at the International Gateway around 7:30-7:45 am. I got up around 6:15 am, and I started to get ready. Again, Melody ended up in our bed, so I got ready first so that Brad could stay in the bed with Melody. After I was ready, Brad started to get ready while I finished packing our park bag. I woke Melody up around 6:45 and got her changed. We left our room around 7:15 to head over to Epcot.
We let Melody walk as much as possible. We made it to the Gateway just as they were opening the gates. We waited in line for a bit before they let us through security. There was a group of people who were media-related who went through before us. So we had to wait in another line before they let us in the park. We were inside of the park, and we had our stroller parked at The Land by 8 am.
We immediately went inside and checked in at the Garden Grill. We were truly hoping for better results from meeting the characters this time. We sat at the same table as we did the day before for lunch. We decided to sit Melody on the inside of the table instead of at the end. Our hopes lasted about 2 minutes. The moment the first character came around the corner, she was done and screaming!
Like the day before, we took turns holding her and eating. We also stepped outside with her a few times too. Unfortunately Melody's fear and tears wore off on Lydia and caused her to be upset. I really felt like Lydia was only crying because of Melody, not because she was truly scared of the characters. I hated this for Emily and Justin because the characters couldn't really stop at our table much.
The food was delicious as usual. I thought ahead and brought some ziploc bags. We planned to go downstairs and ride Soarin', so we packed up some of the tater tots to give the girls while we Rider Swapped. They didn't eat much of their breakfast since they were crying, so this was the next best option!
Lydia was still upset, and Brad had already calmed Melody down. So Brad and I road Soarin' first while Emily and Justin watched both girls. This was the first time we road the updated Soarin' together. In the past, we had to ride separately via Rider Swap. We literally walked right on since we had breakfast in the same building. We finished up, and Justin and Emily rode it. They had Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the iPad, and both girls had their water and snacks so they were good to go!
We headed to the front of the park to take a few pictures around 10:15. We all wore matching family shirts, so we wanted to take advantage of picture moments as much as possible. As soon as we finished we headed for the monorail to the Ticket and Transportation Center (TTC), then we took a monorail to Magic Kingdom.
There were so many numerous encounters with rude guests. I must say this trip was probably the worst when it came to this. Well one encounter happened when we rode the monorail from the TTC to Magic Kingdom. A couple was separated from their friends, so they waited on the next monorail for them. Well we ended up right behind them. They already warned us they had two more friends joining them. Well they appeared, and then our monorail arrived. We didn't fight or argue with them about their friends "getting in front of us". We understood and went on with life. There was plenty of room for all 8 of us and our two strollers. Well instead of doing the polite thing and the four of them take one seat on the monorail knowing we were behind them, they sat on opposite sides and took up quite a bit of space doing so. That left only enough room for one person on each side. That left both Emily and me standing with the stroller. They were exceptionally rude when there was plenty of room for everyone to sit. Sorry...end rant, ha!
We made it to Magic Kingdom and to Dumbo by 11:30 am. With the new security set up, we did not have to go through security since we came in via the monorail. That made things much quicker. We thought we would do Dumbo first to let the girls play, but the wait was so short, we literally just walked right on. Melody enjoyed making us go up and down!
Next up was Journey of the Little Mermaid. This is one of my favorite rides at Magic Kingdom. We let Melody walk some through the queue. Of course this went awful when people started to come up behind us and Melody wanted to stop and play. She screamed when we picked her up, of course. This was also one of my regrettable moments. Like I said, this ride is one of my favorites, but I barely enjoyed it out of anger. I was mad at Brad because he didn't help with Melody while waiting in line for the ride. He was on his phone while Melody was running around and I was chasing her. Instead of just getting mad and bottling it (which ruined the ride for me), I should have said something to him so that he would help. Of course, hindsight is 20/20.
We went and had lunch at Pinocchio Village Haus. Luckily there was plenty of indoor seating available. Brad went and found a table while I ordered our lunch. This took forever! I ordered the chicken nuggets in hopes Melody would eat some, and Brad ordered the pepperoni flatbread. Melody didn't eat much, and I only really ate the fries. I am not a fan of chicken nuggets at Disney. Instead I ate some of Brad's flatbread. Brad and I actually had a small breakdown over this, but we were over it fairly quick.
After lunch we decided to go back to the room to rest. On our way back I stopped and got a Cheshire Tail. It was really delicious but super rich. It's a great use of a snack credit.
We were back in the room by 2. We rested a bit, but Melody had already napped. We freshened up some, and we decided to head over to the Beach Club and look at the Christmas decor and the marketplace. Emily and Justin met us at the bus stop there around 4. I discovered that the Beach Club gets the raw end of the deal when it comes to the busses. They get picked up second and so they don't have as many seats available. The bus stop itself is farther from the resort as well.
We waited 30 minutes before a bus finally arrived to take us to the Animal Kingdom.
As soon as we got there, we headed straight back for Kilimanjaro Safari to use our Fastpass. I love that you get to keep the stroller until almost the very last moment. That is really nice with a baby. Both Melody and Lydia dozed in and out on the ride. Apparently the bouncy car made them sleepy, ha!
After the Safari, we headed to Expedition Everest to use our Fastpasses there. Emily and Justin rode first and got Rider Swap tickets while we watched the girls. Lydia was asleep, and we let Melody walk around. Now with Rivers of Light, that entire area is chaos. They really need better crowd control back there! We found a small open area near the gift shop that Melody could run at. When Lydia woke, we turned on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse which seemed to keep both girls entertained.
Brad and I did the same thing on our turns - we used our Fastpasses and got Rider Swap tickets. They don't expire until the end of the month, so we thought we would either use them after dinner or when we returned on Friday.
No one was starving, but we decided to go ahead and do dinner around 6:30 to keep from a freakout happening when the hunger did set in. We ate at Flame Tree BBQ. Brad and I both got the sampler with pork, ribs, and chicken. He also ordered a side of fries. Apparently that cannot be substituted for the slaw or beans. Melody ate a few fries too. The chicken was ok, but the pork and ribs were not good at all. The slaw and beans were decent though. I definitely would not pay out of pocket to eat there. While we finished up dinner, there was some live music nearby, so Melody enjoyed that.
We headed over to Pandora around 7:30. We wanted to experience Pandora at night because everyone talks about how amazing it is. Honestly, it really did not live up to the expectations I had. Everyone talked about how amazing it looked, but I really didn't see anything remotely close to amazing. It was exceptionally dark making navigating with a stroller very hard. It was also much smaller than we expected. We hoped going back during the day would help our perception though.
Since the park closed at 8, we went and used our Fastpass for Na'Vi River Journey first. With our Fastpass we were able to walk right on. While it had some cool effects and we were happy it was something for Melody to ride too, it was overall very disappointing. There is absolutely no way I would wait more than 15-20 minutes to ride again. We felt the screens were over-used and the ride was far too short for the wait times listed throughout the day. Again, it was neat, but not worth a wait at all.
After the ride, we walked around some more and took a few Photopass pictures. We also went in the gift shop. Brad was considering building his own Avatar action figure and wanted to see them in person before making the investment on Friday. He wasn't impressed with them. Comparing the different figures against the actual people, you really couldn't tell a difference. They all just looked alike. It did not appear to be worth the $80 price tag.
We headed back to the room around 8:20 pm. Melody was exhausted!
We all got back, showered, and we were in bed by 9:15. Our plan was to semi-sleep in, but we knew we wanted to try and be at Epcot the next morning as close to park opening as possible. Our plan was to just do Epcot in the morning and spend the afternoon and evening at our resort. So we wanted to get a few things in while we could with lower crowds. So we needed the sleep!
I think for as much as we tried to do, the day went great. It did not go perfectly by any means. The kids cried, couples argued, and a few tears were shed, but 3 parks in 1 day with 2 toddlers...I call that success!
