January 2018 Disney Trip Report Day Two
My mom and I just returned from our annual trip to Disney World to celebrate my birthday. This was the last of my birthday celebrations for the year, so it was a great one to end on! I already wrote all about the planning that was involved, so now I want to fill you in on how the trip actually went! Below is day two - Saturday, January 27th!
We set our alarm for 5:45 am. We had an early breakfast reservation we needed to make sure we made it to! We got up and started to get ready around 6 am. Unsure of how long it would take for a bus to arrive, we headed downstairs to the bus stop around 6:45. A bus arrived around 7. Just like Epcot the day before, it only took 10 minutes to get to Magic Kingdom.
The security line was exceptionally small, and we were through very quickly.
We headed towards the dining reservation/tours' line. We weren't sure if they would let us in because our reservation wasn't until 8:15 am, and technically the park opened at 8. Thankfully they did let us through though. We were waiting at the ropes by 7:15 am, so we had a lot of time to spare unfortunately. But you really never know how the buses will run.
They gave us a piece of paper with a map. This map showed us the path to take to get to our dining location. By carrying this piece of paper, we were able to get through the checkpoints quicker too.
Also, below is a view of my new MagicBand. So cute!
They let us in around 7:40. The park opened at 8, but we were still let in before everyone else. We were able to snap a few empty park pictures, then headed straight to Be Our Guest.
They wouldn't let us in until 8 am, however. We were second in line, but third to be served.
We ordered our food the night before, so we were in a separate line than those that would order there. It took us approximately two minutes from the time they let us in until the time we sat down. I took a few pictures while my mom got us drinks.
Our food arrived with 5 minutes. We enjoyed everything as usual. We both had the open-faced bacon and egg sandwich. I could eat this for breakfast every single day!
We didn't rush through our meal, but we were done fairly quickly. We hit up the restrooms inside of the restaurant, then we went straight for Space Mountain.
We made it to Space Mountain by 8:37 am. The wait time was 10 minutes, but we walked right on.
Next up was a short wait at Buzz Lightyear.
Since we missed rope drop for park opening due to the open times changing after we already booked our BOG breakfast, we decided to try and do the "big" rides first before the waits became too long. We didn't have any Fastpasses for Magic Kingdom, so we had to maximize our time there. So we headed straight to Jungle Cruise next. I snapped a quick picture of the castle first!
We were on within 5 minutes. And what is sad, I have had this skipper before!
We then headed to Pirates of the Caribbean for another 5 minute wait.
After we finished, we decided to try Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. On the My Disney Experience app, it had a 20 minute wait posted. I was willing to wait that long, so we went that way. After arriving, we saw a 45 minute wait posted. I really didn't want to risk it taking that long, so we opted to skip it. We headed to the Haunted Mansion instead. Since December, they had reorganized the line. It is more compact which actually causes the line to look longer, in my opinion.
The wait was only 20 minutes, and we made it in the stretching room within 15. And we were on the ride itself within 5 minutes of that.
The next thing we did was PhilharMagic. We didn't get to do that in December in fear of the girls' reaction, so it was a must do for me. We made it just in time for the 10:30 am showing. It is one of my favorites! Hopefully the next visit to Disney with Melody she can do it!
After the show, we decided to head to lunch. We had a reservation at The Plaza Restaurant at 11 am. We passed by Winnie the Pooh and Tigger as we were walking. And I also snapped another nice picture of the castle.
We checked in about 5 minutes early, and we were seated about 10 minutes later. The food was just as delicious as last time. I had the fried green tomato sandwich again. It was way too good the first time to not have it again!
When the waitress brought us our check, I looked, and everything appeared correct. I asked her to add the AP Discount, and that I would be paying using my MagicBand. Well when she returned with my copy to sign, and the bill was over $140! That was over $100 off! Thankfully she fixed it without any issue however.
After lunch, we headed to Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid. This ride is one of those that is a must do and makes me feel like I have officially made it to Disney in addition to Living with the Land at Epcot! We had about a 10 minute wait before getting to ride.
We then headed to Tomorrowland to finish up our visit at Magic Kingdom. We first went to the PeopleMover. It had the longest wait I have ever seen! They even had someone holding a sign to let you know where the end of the line was!
We had to wait a little over 10 minutes before we made it to the ride.
Next up was Carousel of Progress. We walked up literally as they opened the doors, so we walked right on. Unfortunately there were a few issues throughout the ride. First, there was a screaming child on the ride. I am not 100% certain what was going on, but for the first two scenes he screamed non-stop. Mid way through the second scene, a parent took the child outside. Apparently that caused an issue and we had to sit through the second scene again. They counted down how long until we would move again too. So it was very disruptive. Then there was a delay between the third and fourth scene. So when we moved we saw the beginning of both scenes because we were midways due to the delay. It was really crazy.
As we were leaving Tomorrowland, we noticed this sign. Only half of the people followed it, which made following it difficult. It truly just made it worse because we had to fight people to get to the correct side.
We did some shopping on our way out. I finally found the Rose Gold Spirit Tee that I wanted. That was another item I was to buy with the birthday Disney gift card Brad gave me.
The crowds were crazy as we left. The line at Casey's Corner was insane...and this was at 2 pm!
We left the park around 2 and headed to the bus stop for Animal Kingdom. The line was REALLY long. We had to wait 45 minutes and for two buses before we finally got on the bus to Animal Kingdom. It was truly insane.
We made it to Animal Kingdom around 3:20 pm. We went in via the Annual Passholder line.
We went and refilled our popcorn bucket and got a coke. We sat and snacked for a few minutes. We went and did It's Tough to be a Bug first. This was another ride we were unable to do in December in fear of the girls' reactions. It is such a cute show too!
It was only 4:15 at this point. We didn't have a Fastpass until 5, and we would also have to eat. I wanted to try Yak and Yeti Local Food Cafe, so it made sense to eat before the ride. But it was still too early for dinner. So we headed to the Maharajah Jungle Trek. I have never done this, but my mom has. We saw some neat things, and I was able to take a few pictures of some fun animals.
We finished up after around 20 minutes, so we decided to just go ahead and get dinner. Dinner was really great. I was actually surprised at how good it was for theme park Asian food. I will do a full write up about it later!
We went to the restroom next to the Yak and Yeti. I was throughly disappointed in how dirty it was. I have never seen a Disney bathroom look this awful!
After dinner, we headed over to the Safari around 5:30 to use our Fastpass. The driver was kind of scary at moments, and we took a different path than usual, but it was fun nonetheless. Oh and there were SO many people at the parks!!
We then decided to head towards Pandora. Our Fastpass for Flight of Passage wasn't active until 6:30 pm, so we had about 30 minutes to kill. We decided to walk to Pandora through the path beside the Festival of the Lion King. When we went in December, I never took this path, so I thought it would be a neat way to go. It actually did allow me to see parts we didn't get to see that were really pretty. We saw a lot of glowing plants, and some neat "fish" in a pretty pond. I was also able to get some really neat pictures since it was dusk.
We headed to Flight of Passage right at 6:30. First, let it be known, that even if you use a Fastpass, the entire process takes you about 30-40 minutes. Between the small line you have to wait in, plus you have a "pre-show", then the actual ride. In December, I didn't plan for it to take that long, but I expected it this go-around.
Second, we had an interesting encounter with people trying to skip the 3 hour stand-by line via the Fastpass line. As we were approaching the Fastpass line, we noticed a guy was told he didn't have a Fastpass by a Castmember, then he walked by us leaving. I didn't think much of it, and scanned our bands, then we went on through the line. As we were waiting in line, I noticed a guy in front of us leave the line. He was away for a few minutes. His two friends held his place. The guy eventually walked back with the guy that the Castmember turned away. Of course, when it was time to scan our MagicBands again, all 4 of them didn't have a Fastpass. Three of them started to walk away, but the one who went back to get his friend was determined to argue. He claimed that another friend had his MagicBand across the park, and he didn't realize he would need it again. He argued about how unfair it was and that by the time he got it back from his friend, the time would expire. She continued to tell him he couldn't ride and that it wouldn't be fair to all those waiting in the stand-by line. He eventually did give up, but he put up a pretty good fight. I told her about the guy who skipped the line. Apparently she had already been warned that none of them had a Fastpass, so she was prepared to argue, ha! I just found it all very interesting.
So after the ride, we both were slightly nauseated. I fully expected this after my experience before though. We both decided to just call it a night and head back to the room. We had a Fastpass still available for Dinosaur, but the park closed in 30 minutes. Neither of us were heartbroken to miss this ride, so we decided to beat the crowds and skip it.
We got to the bus stop around 7:30, and a bus arrived within 5 minutes. This was our longest bus ride. It took around 15-20 minutes to get back to the hotel. There was also bit more traffic than during the day too, so that contributed to it. I have always found that buses take longer at night for this reason.
We decided to go get some beignets since we had an early dinner. The food court served them, and they were delicious. We did have to wait on them to cook, so it took about 10 minutes from the time we ordered until we sat down. Mom ordered the three beignets. I ordered the beignet sundae with vanilla ice cream and caramel. Unfortunately a lot of my ice cream was melted by the time we sat down. It took us a few minutes in line because the cashier was waiting on a boy to go get his PIN number for his mom. The other lines had people in them, so we had to just wait. Plus the beignets were so hot, that didn't help the cold ice cream.
Beyond the melted ice cream, both the sundae and beignets were delicious. They were not as good as the ones you find in New Orleans, however. They were thicker and not as air-y, if that make sense.
I FaceTimed Brad and Melody for a little while, and we relaxed in the room. We prepped our things for our early Epcot morning, and we showered. Then we were both in bed by 11:20!
