Disney Day 5 - Thursday
Today was an early morning. We had a breakfast reservation at Be Our Guest at 8:20 am. I wanted to be there fairly early so that we would be able to get in closer to 8 and take a few pictures with a fairly empty park. Our only other reservation for the day was for Emily and Justin at Hollywood and Vine for dinner. We also had Fastpasses scheduled in Magic Kingdom after breakfast.
We got up and ready, and we were at the bus stop by 6:55 am. We made it to Magic Kingdom around 7:30. We accidentally went in the regular lines because I wasn't paying close enough attention. I followed the signs for breakfast/tours, but I went in just a little too early. Brad went over and spoke with the cast member at the breakfast/tour line. We told her we had a pre-park opening breakfast scheduled at 8:20. Well apparently they changed park opening time. Instead of opening at 9, they now opened at 8. So we were no longer able to enter with the breakfast/tour groups. That was a super frustrating way to start the day. It was what it was, but still disappointing.
We were let in the park around 7:45. We decided to take pictures at the castle since we had plenty of time at this point. Unfortunately everyone else was doing the same thing. We walked closer to the front near the castle to get pictures where the lines were shorter.
After pictures we headed towards the Fantasyland entrance and let the girls watch the new welcome stage show. Melody enjoyed watching the characters from afar, ha!
As soon as they allowed, we headed straight back to Be Our Guest and checked in for our reservation. It was a quick trip through the line, and we easily found a table in the main dining room. We ate fairly quickly, and we were park bound by 9 am.
Even though the park opened earlier than we planned, we kept on the same track as we planned when it came to rides. So first up was the Haunted Mansion. We were slightly afraid Melody might get a little scared, but she didn't. Instead, she fell asleep mid-ride. We decided to take a few pictures outside as we exited.
Afterwards we went to Big Thunder Mountain. Melody was asleep, so Brad and I went first. We did rider swap without a Fastpass. The wait was around 10 minutes.
Next up was Emily and Justin. Melody was in her stroller awake, and Lydia walked around some while they rode. Then we took some Photopass pictures.
We went and used our Fastpass at Jingle Cruise next. It is always nice to see the Christmas overlay here. The girls were not amused though. We went back and did Pirates of the Caribbean. Melody had fun riding on her daddy's shoulders while we waited in line. They also now have a on-ride photo. This is new since we went back in February. It was in a very awkward spot. I only looked in the direction of the camera because someone in front of us kept talking about something on the left haha.
We stopped at a popcorn stand near Jingle Cruise and refilled our buckets, then we decided to go to the Baby Care Center and changed the girls' diapers. We let the girls rest for a bit while I rearranged our Fastpasses. We knew it would be impossible at this point to do Space Mountain and/or Mine Train. So we decided to move them to Buzz Lightyear in the afternoon and skip both of those rides. None of us were heartbroken.
It was around 11, and we decided we should probably start considering lunch. None of us were super hungry, but we wanted to get the girls food before they went crazy. Since we were next door to Casey's Corner, we decided to see if they had any empty tables. If they didn't, we already decided we would go to Cosmic Rays. Luckily they had two tables we were able to combine. I love Casey's Corners, but I don't love it enough to sit outside, ha!
After lunch we went and used our Peter Pan's Flight Fastpass at 12:15. I love this ride a lot, but I will never wait in line for it. It isn't worth the long wait in my opinion. Next up we went and rode the PeopleMover. Lydia was asleep, so we wanted to let her sleep as much as possible. We then went to ride Carousel of Progress. As much as I love this ride, it caused us all to doze off!
We didn't want our Buzz Lightyear Fastpass to expire, so we went and did that, but both girls were asleep. You can't even see Melody in our ride picture!
We then went and did PeopleMover one last time. Brad wanted to do a fun time lapse.
Since we were fixing to head back to the room and make the girls continue sitting still on the bus, we decided to let them run a bit. They enjoyed it until we told them we had to go!
On our way out, we decided to stop by The Confectionary. I had considered getting an apple. However, the lines were SUPER long. Apparently it was almost parade time, so it was super busy. We ended up skipping it and just going back to the room. It was already almost 2, and we wanted some break time before going back to the parks tonight. We had another forever wait on the bus.
We rested in the room for a bit. Melody ate some popcorn, and she made a mess with some popcorn too!
After some much needed rest, we headed to Epcot around 5:15. Since we were skipping the Hollywood and Vine dinner, we decided to also skip Hollywood Studios altogether. We had two extra quick service credits because we didn't end up using them at breakfast at our hotel like we thought. So we decided to finally give Katsura Grill a try in Japan. In addition, we were going to walk around the World Showcase and visit the Festival of the Holidays' booths.
We went straight to Katsura Grill. It was actually a great use of our quick service credit. The food was much better than I expected, and we were left SO full. So full in fact, eating around the booths was quite difficult!
We did manage to try a few things though. I hope to write about the Festival as a whole later and elaborate on what we had. I will say, my favorite booth was Mexico by far (my favorite dish is pictured below)! I think Brad's favorite was Germany. We let Melody walk some through the World Showcase as we were finishing up. She needed to burn some energy for sure! However, things were SUPER crowded near American due to the Candlelight Precessional. They lines are SO incredibly long. They go all the way back to Morocco. It is awful!
We made it back to the room around 8:30. We did our nightly routine, then we all went to bed! Tomorrow isn't quite as busy or as early, but we did want to be at Animal Kingdom prior to park opening.
Today had a few frustrating moments, but overall it was a really fun day. It was nice to have a relaxing night at Epcot though. With Epcot being our favorite park, I am really happy we got to take advantage of our easy access. Tomorrow is bittersweet. We have a lot of fun things planned, but it is our last day!
