We started the day with breakfast with Stitch at ‘Ohana. My son had been waiting all week to meet Stitch and he was rather impatient about it. In hindsight, I should have done it sooner because he was so excited. But, given the focus on park time, I struggled with how to fit it in and maximize our time in the parks. To get there, we took the bus to MK and then the monorail to the Poly. It was easy enough, but a little annoying that we had to go through MK security to get on the monorail. Oh well.
At the breakfast, there was the new arrangement with Stitch in the lobby for photos before you head in. I know many people have complained about this, but I think it worked fine. In fact, it was nice to have the Photo Pass photos with Stitch instead of just the ones from our phones. The quality is so much better and the lighting in the dining room was pretty terrible. Because I knew the arrangement, I sent DH to get in line for Stitch while I checked in. Check-in was quick though and it only saved us a couple of minutes.
Finally meeting Stitch!
Breakfast was good (waffles, eggs, bacon, biscuits, I think), but not as good as the one at Tusker House the day before. I had tried to avoid buffet meals, but I think the one at TH worked really well and it was nice to pick what we wanted instead of having a bunch of wasted food on the table. My favorite part of this breakfast at ‘Ohana though was not rushing to get anywhere. Our ADR was at 9:30am and we had a FP for Town Square Mickey at 11:30am, so we had plenty of time.
We lingered a bit and finally headed out of the restaurant. For ease, we took the monorail back to MK, going through security again at the Poly. We immediately headed over to see Mickey where my husband was happy with our FP given the posted wait time of 60 minutes. Here we were given one of those badges to track the wait time. With the FP though, it was quite quick, no more than 10 minutes. The interaction with Mickey was great. He talked to DS one on one and they made race car noises together, then we all joined in for a few photos. I walked out giddy and smiling. It was a lot of fun.
Hanging out with Mickey in Town Square
Next, I had made an appointment for DD to have her first haircut at Harmony Barber Shop at 12:30pm. I sent DH and DS off to do a little shopping along Main Street and pick up SotMK cards (which I’ll come back to later) and I took DD to check in. After a short wait, we were seated and DD did great. The haircut was quite unnecessary, but I wanted to do something a little special for DD since so much of the trip was focused on DS. Clearly, she won’t remember anything, but we’ll have the photos and the “my First Haircut” Mickey ears, certificate and little bag with the cut hair that they give you. I thought it was reasonable for $25. One reminder here, you can only tip with cash, so don’t forget to bring some.
While we were waiting, at least two families came in to inquire about appointments for their princess-dressed girls. They wanted princess hair too and were disappointed to learn that the barbershop only does haircuts. I felt bad for them. Oh, and while we were inside, they starting setting up to film the Bucket List family right outside between the barbershop and the fire station.
From Main Street, we headed over to Tomorrowland, which we had not seen in our two previous days at MK. DH and DS rode Buzz Lightyear with a FP. DS liked it, but wasn’t interested in riding it again with me. Because we had some time to kill before our Space Mountain FP, we got in line for the People Mover. DH had gone off to the bathroom and when he came to meet us, he said that had found Stitch. Since DS loves him, we jumped out of line and met Stitch next to Space Mountain. The line was short and only took about 5 minutes.
It was now time for our Space Mountain FP, so I rode with DS and picked up a RS pass for DH. I’m not sure if this is correct, but I think the FP line may appear longer than the standby one. The posted wait time was at least 40 minutes, but it seems like people were walking right past us. I suspect, the line inside loops around though. The FP kept moving and we were on within 10 minutes, despite DS’s complaints that our line was slower. SM was fun, but maybe a little rougher than I realized it would be. I definitely don’t recall riding it when I was kid as my parents just weren’t coaster people. DH and DS rode SM again and while I waited, I grabbed FPs for Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor, which we all enjoyed.
We headed over to Frontierland next, but because the FoF parade was going on, we had to walk behind the castle. On the way, we stopped at Sleepy Hollow for a funnel cake. It was so good that DH decided we needed another one, but he came back to the table with a funnel cake AND a chicken waffle sandwich! He said that the CM just handed the waffle sandwich to him and said it was complimentary. Nice! The chicken waffle sandwich was surprisingly good, but I was scared to eat much because we had an early dinner ADR.
While we were sitting, there was a grandmother and her granddaughter at the table next to us. We could overhear the grandmother says she would ride Big Thunder Mountain if only they had a Fast Pass. At this, DS turned to me and said, “Mom, I think we should give them one of our Fast Passes.” So, we turned around and DS offered to them one of our RS passes for BTMRR. The grandmother was thankful and laughed that now she actually had to ride it. I was proud of DS for sprinkling a little pixie dust of his own.
We finally moved on and planned to ride BTMRR with our last RS pass and then hit Jungle Cruise, for which I had booked an anytime FP. We needed to head out of the park though because we had a 5:30pm ADR at Whispering Canyon Café. We ended up skipping JC and taking the train from Frontierland to the Main Street station.
Here I need to add that we stopped to do a few Sorcerer’s of the Magic Kingdom portals. After picking up the cards earlier in the day, DS was really excited to do this, which I had not counted on. So, we found a few portals on Main Streets and DS enjoyed. I hurried him up, but promised we would try to do a few more when we returned for the fireworks. Skipping ahead, we did manage to finish the first mission as we were leaving the park. I certainly underestimated DS’s interest in this and will allow a lot more time for SotMK on our next trip!
We took the boat over to WL and it was a lovely boat ride. We liked the look and feel of WL and want to consider staying there in the future. I like that it’s cut off from the rest of the MK resort area. I imagine it’s like a vacation within a vacation. The lobby was beautiful and we enjoyed sitting there while waiting for our table at WCC.
Beautiful views!
Dinner at WCC was fine, but it was once again, way too much food. A lot of wasted. I really enjoyed the pulled pork (one of my favorite foods!) and the sausage. The vegetables were also quite good, but you had to find them buried under all of the meats. DH had a caramel milkshake with dinner and liked that something other than soda or water was included. DS spent half of the meal at the table at the entrance with Lincoln logs. He also participated in the horse race and other activities, but they weren’t as engaging as I had imagined. And the whole ketchup things just wasn’t as amusing to see as I had expected. All in all, the experience was just meh. In hindsight, we should have gone to Geyser Point for a lighter and faster meal, which was actually one of the suggestions I’d received here.
Lots of food!
Tasty caramel milkshake
After dinner, we headed back down to the boat launch to take the boat back to MK. We must have just missed one, because we had to wait at least 15 minutes. And it started raining. There was another stop at FW before arriving at MK. (I think this was the time of day when the WL and FW routes are combined). We sped through security and the tapstyles and raced our way to the Tomorrowland Terrace restaurant for the HEA Dessert Party. The dessert party ADR lists 7:45pm as the start time, but I’ve heard that many people have been able to enter at 7:30pm. Unfortunately, we arrived WAY after that, around 8:15pm. We were seated at a table and quickly picked up some desserts. Because we’d just finished a large dinner, we weren’t very interested in the desserts, but had a few anyway. They were unremarkable.
But the view of the fireworks! It made up for the lackluster desserts, for sure. Since there was a light rain, a CM also passed out Disney ponchos to everyone. How nice! It was so nice to have space to move around – always good when you have a very active DS.
Unbeatable view!
After the fireworks, we split up and I raced over to BOG with DS. He really wanted to meet the Beast and I had managed to get an ADR for 9:25pm when the park hours were extended from 9pm to 10pm. Entry was easy so late in the evening and we were seated in the room with the rose. Yes, it was dark, but I liked the setting. We only ordered the grey stuff and glass of wine (yay!), and I doubled the tip because I felt bad about the server missing out on a full tip. We shoveled the dessert down and then went to meet Beast, which DS enjoyed.
Cute rose napkin and the Grey Stuff!
Meeting the Beast
And then, we raced out and managed to get one last ride on 7DMT with a RS pass! We started our first day in MK with BOG and first ride on 7DMT, and then ended it the same way! We then headed back to Main Street and finished off the SotMK mission that we had started earlier in the day. DS was very pleased.
While we were gone, DH headed over to Main Street and bought a bunch of treats to take home using our seemingly infinite supply of snack credits. We met up and took our final PP photos of the trip before catching the bus back to YC. We met a nice family just starting their vacation, who graciously gave up their seats to me holding DD1 and a sleepy DS6. We had two remaining RS passes for Test Track and Space Mountain, so we gave the passes to the family and wished them a good trip.
It was definitely a long day, but we covered a lot of ground and avoided major melt downs without a break, so I’ll call it a success.