That picture of you and your mom in front of the water on your first day is gorgeous!!!
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Yesterday we had a much slower start to the day as we were heading back to DHS and only really wanted to do TSL and the shows. And I was not doing TSL in the heat in the middle of the day! We had breakfast at Fresh at the Dolphin which we used to frequent (but haven’t been in years). Breakfast is a buffet and for all the hot items (Mickey waffles/pancakes, eggs, home fries, bacon, sausage, etc) they plated for you and then all the continental items were regular grab and go. I get them plating the stuff as a covid protocol but does covid not affect the muffins? 
The food was good though and they have a 20% discount with AAA!
We then walked around the Swan/Dolphin since we haven’t been since the renovations and took our time before taking the boat to DHS. Once we got there, we headed to the 12:30 Frozen show. We love that show and the holiday version is even better because it has Olaf! I also appreciated that the historians use covid-related jokes now too (use your Hans sanitizer!)
We then watched the Vacation short which was cute and then saw our first calvalcade!
Then my mom was trying to buy a drink at a stand and the gift card wasn’t working. The CM at the register was just staring at it while she kept trying to swipe and didn’t say anything and then luckily another CM just casually mentioned that gift cards weren’t working park wide. That would’ve been helpful to know! And also what a pain. They said charging to magic bands was affected too. It ended up lasting most of the day so we couldn’t pay for lunch or dinner on a gift card like we planned. No idea what you would do if you only had your magic band 
Next up was Muppet Vision 3D where my dad was wearing the most appropriate shirt! We gave that to him for his bday last week 
We got out of Muppets at 2:25 and had a 2:35 reservation at Sci-Fi so it was perfect timing! This was the first time I was able to check in to a reservation on my phone so that was convenient. Our table was ready pretty quickly and we got a whole car to ourselves. I sat in the middle while my parents drove because that seemed fitting My parents both had the BBQ burgers while I had the classic burger. The burgers were good but the fries were 
Next we met Minnie!
We were then going to the 5pm BatB show when my dad realized he no longer had his hat 
We’re pretty sure he left it at Sci-Fi because he had it at Muppets and didn’t have it when we met Minnie. So he went back to the restaurant to check and they said they hadn’t seen it but that they ran lost stuff to Guest Relations multiple times a day, so he went to file a lost item report and then met us at BatB. Still no word on the hat but hopefully it’ll turn up! BatB was good, but it is quite funny to see them perform all 6ft apart and Belle and Beast just looking at each other from across the stage
We had some time to kill and my mom wanted to reride MMRR so we got in line for that and waited around 40 mins so not too bad. We’ve waited in a lot more long lines this trip than usual but thankfully they all are pretty consistently moving so the time passes a lot quicker.
Next up was TSL! We had placed a mobile order while we were at Sci-Fi and pressed the button to make it as we were walking into TSL and it was ready almost immediately, which I was not expecting! But it was fine. We lucked getting a table right as a family was leaving and enjoyed our grilled cheeses!
We then did ASS and TSMM (I was best in vehicle 
)
Then we went back to the front of the park to go through the shops so my dad could get a hat since his hadn’t turned up yet, which turned into a minor issue. He found a hat he liked and went to buy it, but it rang up as $29.99 instead of $27.99 like the tag had. He is probably the only person who bought a hat who noticed but he spent his entire career in retail so he knows the prices of everything before he buys them! And likes to throw out a “Do you know how much it costs to make that?!” every now and then when I go to buy something But anyways, so the CM at the register said “well this is what it’s ringing up as” when my dad questioned the price, which is obviously not a helpful response. She then had to call Linda who must be a manager, but was “in the middle of something” in a different store, because they couldn’t override the price on their own. So speaking of staring, my dad and the CM at the register stood there staring at each other until someone showed up who could change the price Interestingly enough, we checked a hat today and the price at the bottom was ripped off and they put a $29.99 barcode over the old one so apparently someone dropped the ball on that one at DHS!
Eventually we made it out of the store and back to TSL to ride SDD. We waited ~45 mins and watched a grown man sneeze into his hand multiple times 
I avoided the hand rails after that! SDD was a lot of fun as usual!
It was shortly after 9 when we got off and we had a 9:45 Oga’s reservation so we walked over to GE. I was able to check in 20 mins early and we waited maybe 5 mins after that for our table to be ready. We luckily got a booth once inside. I got the Bespin Fizz, my mom got the Outer Rim, and my dad got the Dagobah Slug Slinger. A girl at the other half of our booth asked for a cup of foam and the CM brought it to her but told her not to tell anyone that he did that 
We then made our way out of the park and walked allll the way back to the Swan Reserve. I was pretty sure if I stopped walking, I wasn’t going to be able to start again 
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Agree! Why isn’t he in it normally?!?
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He should be!! Don’t they know Olaf is the best part of Frozen??
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IKR!!
(sentence)
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Of course you did!
Your dad’s shirt is great!
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What was the best drink at Ogas? Also your Christmas alien shirt is awesome!
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Correct
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Thanks!! It’s a mens shirt from Kohl’s, I needed to spend more to get free shipping and I found that 
but I love it!
I really liked my drink at Oga’s! It was sweet though so I wouldn’t get it if that’s not your thing. I didn’t try the one my dad got, but the Outer Rim was also good! But mine had smoke so that wins!
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I was there the same night, just at the 7pm show. He did a great job and what perfect weather.
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It was so nice out!
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That’s my favorite!
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Wednesday was finally MK day! And our first time using G+. My dad bought it earlier that morning and said he was so confused on where to purchase it, but finally got it. The whole thing is the opposite of intuitive. I selected JC as our “top pick” when doing Genie for that day since that’s what we wanted to get first so that helped since it stayed at the top of the screen. I refreshed it at 7 and hit the LL for 9-10 and when it actually went through, we got 9:15-10:15 but that was fine. I was just glad it worked!
We took the bus from the Boardwalk and ended up getting to MK around 8:20 for an 8:30 early entry. The castle was disappearing!
We were directed to the right of the castle to scan our bands for early entry and made our way into Fantasyland. We were wondering why people were going to IASW during early entry and then realized we couldn’t go beyond Fantasyland I completely forgot to check what rides were open because we were trying to go to HM! So then we rode IASW since we were there
It was just about 9 when we got off so then we could actually go to HM! We waited maybe 10 mins. Then we went to use our LL for JC and walked right on.
After we tapped in, I was looking for a LL that was relatively close in time so I grabbed Buzz for 10:40. We were hungry so we went to Sleepy Hollow to get a Nutella waffle (my first!) which I then carried across the park (dodging bubbles ) to Tomorrowland because we were also going to grab some things there. My parents were waiting in line at Joffrey’s but it was soooo slow. I’m assuming they’re short staffed but it was painful. So they bailed on that and just got coffee at the Lunching Pad instead and we also got a cream cheese pretzel (
) and a Mickey pretzel!
We then rode Buzz using LL and barely waited. I grabbed a Splash LL for 1:10. Then we did Peoplemover (~15 min wait) and then CoP. We had time to kill so we went to Main Street to watch the Dapper Dans. On our way out of Tomorrowland we saw Stitch!
We made our way over to Frontierland and saw the Hundred Acre crew on the way!
We then rode Splash with LL. I tried to book another after tapping in, but it wouldn’t let me until we went through the second taps. Idk if that’s normal or because we tapped in a few mins early? But once it worked I booked BTMRR for ~3:45. The difficulty with using G+/LL is the lines are so short so there’s not much time to book another LL before boarding! My mom and I sat front row for Splash and we all got pretty wet but not soaked (thankfully!). We then went to Golden Outpost to grab lunch and then decided to head out for the afternoon, shopping on our way out. We also saw a calvacade!
I cancelled our BTMRR LL since we were leaving for a while and instead booked PP for later that night. It was at 7:25 when I cancelled BTMRR, so I waited 15 mins or so until it got to 7:50 and booked it for then instead. 2 hours later, (~4:30pm) I looked for another LL and there were still BTMRR available but it was too early. So I kept checking and finally close to 5:30, there was a LL for 7:50.
We took the bus back to MK and walked over to the Contemporary for our Steakhouse 71 reservation! Dinner was delicious. My dad and I both had the filet and my mom had the vegetable Wellington
At the end of dinner is when we could book another LL so I grabbed Dumbo to be in the same area as PP. I was able to get 3 rides for the same time!
We took the monorail back to MK which took forever but we weren’t in a rush. We did walk back in during the fireworks which was a bit of a cluster, especially because the people in front of us were on an evening stroll recording the fireworks If you want to watch the fireworks, stand still and watch them!
We were trying to do BTMRR first but that was all but impossible since we had to go through Tomorrowland because of the fireworks. So we skipped that and decided to stick to Fantasyland instead. We did PP with LL, Philarmagic (with the new Coco scene!), and then Dumbo with LL. Dumbo was a walk-on at that point but we still used LL since we had it.
When we got off, it had just turned 9 so it was time for the extended evening hours. We did UTS (walk on), 7DMT (less than 10 min wait), then WtP (walk on). We then walked through the castle on our way to Adventureland.
We did Pirates and then BTMRR as our final rides of the night. There was still time left but we were toast! In the BTMRR queue, we were just following the people in front of us and somehow a whole bunch of us ended up going out the exit instead of onto the ride But we made our way back!
We took some more pictures on Main Street and then called it a night!
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Love the nighttime photos!
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Great reporting!
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Same thing happened to me during an after hours event! Haha!
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I got a group of us stuck in a dead end in the Indiana Jones queue at DL last month
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You guys rocked your MK day! Thanks for all the details on your G+ experience. Sounds like it worked out great for you!
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Thursday started with an easy morning of breakfast (well basically lunch since our reservation was at 11:50) at Topolino’s! We took the boat to Epcot then our first time on the skyliner. It was nice since there was basically no one else there at that time.
It was also our first time at Topolino’s and it was delicious! We may have gone a little crazy with the ordering but everything was so good. I got the quiche and a sour cream waffle, my dad got the steak and a sour cream waffle, and my mom got eggs and the fruit plate. Our table was completely full with food but we had to make sure we got our money’s worth
We rolled ourselves out of there and took the bus to MK to get to the GF to see the gingerbread house. We attempted to take the boat to the GF but were melting from the heat and how long it was taking. A boat pulled up but it was one they were just using for training apparently. The CM said it was one of the Discovery River Boats from AK that closed in 1999 and they were training on it to prepare for the Pirates and Pals fireworks cruise and for transporting guests during Christmas but that it’s the slowest boat they had. Then the actual boat was finally on its way, but we just decided to walk instead of standing there any longer. When we finally got to the GF, the gingerbread house was nice but it probably would’ve been more enjoyable if we weren’t so hot 
Did you used to be able to walk through it or am I making that up? The last time we saw it was 2004!
We then took the monorail then the bus back to Reserve to rest up for VMAH!
We bussed back to MK and took the monorail to the Poly. We checked the waitlist at Trader Sam’s figuring it would be long and it was- 2 hours! So that wasn’t happening. We went to the tiki terrace instead which was enjoyable. I had the HippopotoMai-Tai, my mom had the Mosquito Mojito, and my dad was boring and had beer. We also split the chicken lettuce cups, pork tacos, and dumplings. The food was delicious! And enough to share but also save room for the snacks we had to get during the party.
We finished a little after 7 and took the boat over to MK. This was a much better experience than trying to boat to the GF earlier in the day as it was so much cooler and the boat came right away. We had an enjoyable ride over to MK and then got in line with the masses to enter the park. It was a giant mess getting in because the taps were going faster than the wristbands and then there were issues scanning people’s magic bands in front of us which held up the whole line because they wouldn’t let anyone else through until they dealt with them. Luckily we were in no rush and eventually made it in.
We were directed to the right when we got into the park and made our way to Fantasyland to watch Enchantment from behind the castle, after getting some ice cream at Storybook Treats first. This was our first time watching fireworks back there and it was nice since it was not crowded at all. We did have to keep turning our heads though since some fireworks were above the castle while the rest were further back.
After the fireworks, we did the Carousel since we were right there and they checked our wristbands since the park was now closed. We then made our way to Tomorrowland to do Buzz, then Peoplemover, then watch a bit of the dance party with Santa Stitch, then Tomorrowland Speedway. TS had a 0 minute posted wait and while the line was pretty short, they only had one lane open which means 4 cars loading at a time so it took way longer than it should have. 
It was then almost time for the 1st parade and all the viewing locations were crowded so we just watched from the side while we enjoyed our free popcorn and Mickey bars! We were sitting near the emergency exit for the parade, which I never knew existed but it makes sense.
After the parade, we headed to Pirates, stopped to see Captain Hook and Smee, got our free cookies, then did HM. We got off of HM around 11:08 and booked it to the hub to watch the fireworks at 11:15. We actually got a pretty decent spot considering we showed up minutes before. I loved this show!
We then went to get a spot for the second parade thinking it was at 11:45 but I mixed that up with the castle show and the parade was actually at 12:05 Oh well. We watched in Frontierland, directly under the Country Bears who apparently stayed out during the parade because many of the characters waved to them I love a good parade and this one was so much better watching up close!
We made our way out after that, following the parade out, and thankfully got on a bus quickly to get back.
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