12 Days at Disney Feb 2018 Trip Report - Day Three
Magic Kingdom and Disney's Animal Kingdom
After breakfast in our room, we hopped on the monorail to the Magic Kingdom for rope drop, entering the park around 8:30. Although lines for the monorail in the morning at the Polynesian can be long, there is just nothing like zipping to the Magic Kingdom and being there in basically 5 minutes. We positioned ourselves for the Fantasyland rope drop, and saw a little castle show off to the side right at rope drop time, and then were walked partway, and speed-walked the rest of the way to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Even at rope drop, we waited about 20 minutes, but it was enjoyable. I love the queue for this ride. Can't imagine it would be as fun during a pandemic since it seems to involve touching and spinning a lot of things, but still.... it was fun at the time.
Queues like that are why I always carried hand sanitizer anyway and used it after every ride, even pre-pandemic.
Next up was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad because you know we were in a comparing mood. I love Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and for me, it still wins over Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, even though Seven Dwarfs is decidedly smoother. On the way over to BTM, we stopped at the Rapunzel bathroom, which had gained a cult following by this time and for good reason. Not only is the painting inside it lovely, but some really nice music is playing too. And there are hilarious posters outside. The wait for BTM at about this time was 20 minutes.
After this, we were munchy, so we headed back to Gaston's for a Lefou's brew (my first and not last of the trip), and a chocolate croissant.
After our snack break, lines were getting a bit longer. We had planned to hit Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, but I think our tolerance for lines caps out at about 30 minutes, and this ride was too long, so we skipped it. Instead, we rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority - a simple ride that always makes us happy. We also considered Monster's Inc Laugh Floor as we passed it, but again, the wait was too long, so we just headed back to Main Street to shop. On the way toward the hub, we caught the Move It, Shake It parade. It was the day after the Super Bowl, and some of the winners were in the house, so that was kind of exciting. I guess we kind of knew the Super Bowl was happening the night before, even figuring that added to the rain, that might have been why the park was so empty. It didn't bother us one bit to miss it.
We shopped at the Emporium and then decided it was time to "get recruited" into Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. Sorcerers is a fun interactive adventure with gorgeous playing cards and portals throughout the park that you can activate with various cards to play through a story. We never did finish the game, but it was a fun distraction once in a while. Our first stop was back at the Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe, so of course we shopped there a bit too.
We had lunch ADRs at Be Our Guest for 12:45. It was a warm day, and you wait outside until you are called, so I remember it being quite hot in the full sun, but they had a big jug of ice water and cups out so that was nice, and it wasn't too long until we were called. I had a Tuna Nicoise which was just ok, and an eclair a la orange that was very yummy. Mom had a veggie quiche which looked great, and a Master's cupcake, with the gray stuff. I think she chose the better meal this time around.
As we headed out of the park, we took our time and opened a few more portals with our Sorcerers cards. It's a nice activity for when it gets crowded for sure.
We decided to take the resort boat launch back to the Polynesian, via the Grand Floridian. The boats never really seem to get you there faster (except maybe the ferry from the Magic Kingdom to the TTC), but they sure are nice on a sunny afternoon, and I loved this option over a noisy and crowded monorail.
We chilled in our room for a while, drinking some pineapple juice and malibu rum. By late afternoon, we headed back out to Disney's Animal Kingdom for another Fastpass for Flight of Passage. That ride just makes my entire day. The second time riding it, I looked away from the effects a bit and at the other riders and how the whole theater works and... wow... what a feat of engineering that is. If you think Soarin' is something special, rip your eyes away from Pandora for a second on Flight of Passage and just look around. It's unbelievable.
Delighted, we made our way to our next Fastpass - Expedition Everest. I do enjoy Expedition Everest, but it was getting a bit rough for mom. Also, mom was hitting a bit of a wall, so it was time for more shopping over in Africa, where we almost inevitably find cool t-shirts. I found a Rafiki shirt that I just love (Rafiki is my favorite!).
Next began a little bit of a misadventure, followed by why it is important to be flexible. We had Fastpasses for Rivers of Light which we had never seen, and the Fastpass said we had to show up at 6:25. So 6:25, we arrive to this line of people like us waiting to get in. We are let into the theater, and realize that this crowd is the first crowd there. Other people are sort of leisurely showing up to the other non-FastPass sections, but us? We're packed in like sardines, and it is crowded, and the show isn't until 7:15. So now we sat as the sun gave us an extraordinary sunset, and we could see the park around us lighting up. We realized we were sitting here missing the Tree of Life Awakenings and Pandora at night, and suddenly, we didn't want to sit there anymore. So we abandoned our spot, and I put in a mobile order for Satuli Canteen. We arrived in Pandora just in time for our food and had a lovely meal outside amongst the bioluminescence. Mom had blueberry mousse. I had the chocolate tart and curry pods. The curry pods were really good.
After taking in our fill of Pandora at night, we left on a full bus at about 8 PM. This was the first day my feet really began aching, and I was not super pleased with Fastpass Plus either as it seemed we did way less than we usually were able to accomplish.
Next up: Day four - a perfect Disney Day at Animal Kingdom and EPCOT
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