Magic Kingdom and Epcot - October 2021
Tuesdays always seem to be a great day to visit Magic Kingdom, so we opted to do that. We ended the night at Epcot for the food! Epcot is our go to for great food, and we always have to fit in our must-dos. We snagged a decent timed reservation for Chefs de France on this evening, so we opted to do that.
We originally did schedule a bus for this morning. And while it might have been ideal for that morning, I was really skeptical to use it that evening. Between our dinner plans and potential desire to want to stay late, the times offered for returning were not ideal. And if we did want to take a midday break, the busses were not available. So we ended up cancelling and driving.
Driving to Magic Kingdom at this point is NOT ideal. It IS the only park I recommend preferred parking. Of course I did not know the true benefit of preferred parking here until we were on our trek to the Ticket and Transportation Center.
We were parked at 8:20 or so. Then we began the endless walk to the T&TC. Here is my biggest beef/concern with this parking situation. There are NO sidewalks to get you to the parks. At every other park you find sidewalks on some of the busier areas. We were literally walking where people were exiting the parks and in the middle of the true driving parts of the parking lot. I just felt that was not safe at all. And during our trip, the parking trams were not running. I would definitely do preferred parking if we drive to MK in the future. Rumor is the trams are returning soon though.
We made it through security at T&TC, grabbed coffee, and were on the ferry by 8:45. It could have been worse for sure. And we opted for the ferry because it carries more people. I know Melody would have loved the monorail, but the ferry was literally a walk on.
I have the worst luck when picking a line when entering the parks. On this day we were behind a group that was having a lot of ticket troubles. Instead of pulling them aside and letting there rest of us go (or at least confining them to one of the scanners and letting the rest of us use the other scanner), we had to wait forever it seemed like. But we were in the park around 9:05.
We went straight to Melody’s favorite, the Teacups! Both Emily’s group and Rebekah’s group (my sister in law) were at Magic Kingdom that day, so I wanted to be sure and get in Melody’s favorite while we were by ourselves.
Then we had to do Dumbo.
Around 9:30, we headed to meet up with Emily’s group. We did Little Mermaid, Dumbo again, and Barnstormer twice.
We also stopped and had some pictures made.
We ended up at Pinocchio Village Haus. It is one of our favorites at Magic Kingdom. It is air conditioned and has food we all eat for the most part. Magic Kingdom seems to always be the day that tests us the most. We tried going in the usual front door, and we were sent to the side door. Then we were told we had to go park our strollers over by the carousel. While I parked the stroller, Brad went inside to get our food (it had been ready a few minutes already). Then when I tried to go back in, they questioned me since Brad had my phone. Very reluctantly they let me in - remember, they just saw me a mere 3 minutes before. Either way, we managed to find a good seat by the window and ate our lunch. I didn’t grab pictures of our food due to our hunger, but I did grab a picture of the girls eating dessert. We managed to eat around 11 without issue.
After lunch, the guys took the girls on the carousel. It was only about a 5-10 minute wait at most.
After that, I took the girls on the teacups one last time.
Then we left Fantasyland for the trip and headed to try and ride Big Thunder Mountain. After about a 15 minute wait, we found out the ride went down. We truly think Lydia somehow willed this because she did NOT want to ride, ha. We found a cast member who did end up reluctantly giving us a FastPass to use later in the day if we wanted.
We then decided to walk over and ride Pirates. We were stopped by a quick cavalcade on the way. The posted wait was 35 minutes, but we only waited around 20 at most.
After Pirates, we split up from Emily’s group. They took a break for the day, and we headed to ride Splash Mountain. Melody originally said she wouldn’t, but eventually she agreed. It’s one of my favorites. And I am so thankful she LOVED it! We were able to all three squish together and ride. Unfortunately Disney never got us our photo, so I don’t have it, but I can only imagine honestly.
After Splash, we went and met up with Jeff (Brad’s brother), Rebekah (his wife), and our nieces Caroline and Annie Michel. They were eating Dole Whips and resting. I got all of us some and we talked for a bit. Then the kids, Rebekah, and Brad went to ride Magic Carpets of Aladdin. All three girls got to ride together and they had a blast! We hung out with them a little bit longer before heading out for the day.
We did that a quick picture in front of the castle before leaving for Epcot.
We made it to Epcot about 30 minutes later. Parking was super quick and fairly close. We visited the Creations Shop since we had a little bit of time. It turned out to be semi chaotic because Melody wanted to buy something with her money but couldn’t decide what. So what turned out to be plenty of time caused arguing and rushing.
We rushed through the World Showcase to get to our dinner reservation at Chefs de France at 5:30. In the end we had plenty of time, but I hate being late. And you never know how long it will try take to get somewhere with the crowds and such. We arrived in plenty of time and were seated around 5:20. Dinner was great, as was our waiter. Our steaks were cooked perfectly and were equally delicious. Now to go back on my rant about Disney and how they are handling COVID…As we were finishing our meal, we were literally shoulder to shoulder with another table. All of us maskless eating our food. How is that ok, but I have to wear a mask while on an empty Living with the Land?? Rant over, for now.
On our walk after dinner heading back to The Land, we snapped this picture of the new Harmonious setup. It looks hideous.
We met back up with Emily’s group so that the girls could ride Soarin’ together. It was maybe a 5 minute wait, and we rode it twice so that both Emily and Justin could ride with Lydia. Melody LOVES this ride, and I was able to capture her excitement in a video.
We started heading out around 7:40 or so. As we were walking the lights came on Spaceship Earth, so we watched the show. It really is so beautiful and a great addition that Disney has made. We also grabbed some Joffrey’s on the way out. I got one of their 50th anniversary specials which was amazing. Then we headed out. We did snap a quick picture on our way.
