Day 6 – Magic Kingdom (Fantasyland) Morning & Hollywood Studios (Afternoon/Evening)
After what feels like no sleep at all, the alarm goes off at 6 am for our 6:45 departure from the house. I can feel myself dragging through this one, but I know there is some great stuff planned for today, so we (adults who didn’t get any sleep) push through.
We arrive at the TTC around 7:30 again, but this time the monorail is up and running. We hop on for this ride and make it to the park entrance by 7:40 am. We find the line for the reservations and tours, but today, it also includes those who bought the Extra Morning Magic tickets. We knew about this ahead of time, but decided this was our only shot to get on the Seven Dwarves without a massive wait. Reading up on it ahead of time, most people say you can still get at least one ride before rope drop with a BOG reservation. But wait, I wanted to pre-order and forgot! As I am shifting through the order screen on my phone and walking at the same time, my family makes sure that I don’t run into a pole. I get the orders in before we arrive, and walk into the pre-order line.
Since we are some of the first people there, and we’ve pre-ordered, we get our pick of the seats. We choose to sit in the West Wing and get some photos before the food arrives. I don’t want to sit right next to the rose, as I imagine hoards of people walking through there to take their photos right next to that table. We sit a couple tables away instead. P.S. It’s dark in that room.
Since we had to make our reservations under three different MDE accounts (I couldn’t find a reservation for 6 people), we have three different pre-orders. I thought with us all sitting together, that we would only get one or two trays of pastries, but they must have been giving that day and we got a tray with every order. We weren’t looking for that to happen, as it was just the only way to get all 6 of us in, but it was a good perk for us, as my kids ate almost two trays of pastries to themselves. Maybe they skipped dinner last night?
Once we finished by 8:30, we were on our way out to find the line for 7DMT. From what I had heard, on an EMM day, they would hold the breakfast people at a line near a trashcan. We found the line right outside of BOG and joined in. By 8:50, they were moving the line over to the ride’s area, but still holding us outside the queue. I was surprised to see another line of people waiting at the queue’s entrance, and apparently Disney had no interest in forcing them to the back of our line. I hate it when people don’t follow the rules and still get what they want. It’s frustrating, but I’m not going to let it ruin our day, even though my sleep lacking self really wanted to say something. It was only about 10 people anyway. The EMM people were still rushing through the FP queue when they finally let us in. After that ride, the 1-4 hour line doesn’t make ANY sense to me. This ride is fun, but not worth that kind of wait for us, so we’re glad to get on with a minimal wait.
Since our TP is officially underway, we move on to Winnie the Pooh across the street. The wait is actually longer than predicted in both the TP and the Disney wait time posted, but I’m not veering from my plan now. We just got started. So we take some photos while in line to pass the time.
Next up is Little Mermaid, so we make our way to the back of Fantasyland. Surprisingly, this queue is practically empty and we walk right on. This turns out to be one of my favorite animatronic rides in all of Disney. Maybe it’s the music, or maybe it’s the real life feel of Ursula, but this one sticks with me even today. I personally loved it!
Now it’s time to head over to Storybook Circus. This land seems a little young for our group, but we were determined to ride everything. We get to the line for Barnstormer and it’s a little longer than we expected. The Disney estimate was around 25 min, and we were only expecting about 10 min. But remembering what I learned about the Disney estimates being long, we hop in line anyway. We end up only waiting about 15 min, and the kids are sorely disappointed that the ride is only a couple minutes long. But now that they are getting used to coasters, they still like it.
We head over to Dumbo after Barnstormer. The wait on this one is a little deceiving, as they usher you in to the building, only to usher you back out to the ride. We were hopeful for a shorter wait as we approached only to have a bit longer inside. But we can’t complain…at least it’s inside! With no frills, we are in and out of Dumbo in about 15-20 min tops. So we make our way over to Mad Tea Party.
My sister is super excited about Mad Tea Party. When we were here as kids over 30 years ago, she remembers the tea cups. But she also remembers that our parents didn’t let us ride. She says that was a big disappointment that stuck with her all these years. She was determined to get on the tea cups this time. And that we did! She and I rode together (to reminisce on our childhood memories) while the kids and the 18 yr old rode in another cup. My DH sat out, because, well…spinning. We had to pick out a purple cup. I know the rumors may not be true about them spinning faster, but why not try anyway!
At last, we were at our last ride for this TP. We walked back over to the castle area and found the entrance to Mickey’s Philharmagic. We must have timed this one just right, as we were ushered in to the waiting area inside with only a few minutes to wait. Another great show that’s not to be missed.
We had officially completed our TP, and we decided to double check our “food list” for Fantasyland. There were several items to check off here, and it was close to lunchtime, so hunger was not an issue. Mapping out a good route in my head, we first headed over to the Friar’s Nook for some Fried Twinkies. My kids each ordered one and were willing to share with the rest of us. My DS got strawberry and DD got the chocolate. I personally liked the strawberry one.
Next up, we made our way back to the Beast’s castle area and found Gaston’s Tavern. We ordered several Lefou’s Brews to share. All I can say is this is AWESOME! So tasty, and definitely refreshing as the sun was heating up. We managed to catch a glimpse of Gaston as he was just coming outside for his meet and greets. The guy playing Gaston could really play it up. He knew the character well (and handsome, too).
Finally, we headed back over near the Tea Party for some Cheshire Cat Tails at the Cheshire Café. Although still very tasty, it was exactly like the chocolate pastries from our breakfast at BOG, only a different shape and covered in icing. Still good though. By the time we finish, it’s now past noon and we plan to be in Hollywood Studios by 3 pm, so we head back to the house to relax and eat lunch.
Because this was our one shot to go to Hollywood Studios, we didn’t want to miss anything. We pre-planned to use our FP+ here instead of Magic Kingdom in the morning. But while planning our TP for HS, I could never find the right combination of FP that allowed us to take full advantage. We were skipping Tower of Terror (no one was interested in that one), I heard that FP to shows aren’t really worth it, and all we really wanted were the Tier 1 rides. I decided early on that we would try to cheat the system a bit by scheduling our Tier 2 FP before we even got to the park and let them expire. We would show up in time for our Tier 1, then hopefully be able to obtain another Tier 1 for later while we were there. The plan worked out great!
When we arrived, it was already time for our first (and third) FP for Toys Story Midway Mania. It felt good not having to RD this ride, and we got to take in the sights of the park on our way to the back. Once we were on the ride, we were thrilled! We all loved the arcade style play, but by the time we finished, our arms were tired of pulling that cord. I sure wish Disney would find a better way to shoot those targets. Whew!
As we exited the ride, I immediately hopped on the MDE app to see what other FP were available. Low and behold, the one ride I was looking for was there…Rockin Roller Coaster! Since only the three adults wanted to ride, I only booked three FP at 8:40 pm. A long wait, but worth it. Next up was Star Tours, and we headed over.
On our way over, they were just wrapping up the Star Wars stage show in front of the Chinese theater. As geeked out as my nephew was, I promised him we would come back for the whole thing. We made it to Star Tours and the Disney wait estimate was high at 30 min. We went in anyway, and glad we did, as we practically walked right up to the point where the FP and normal lines meet. Took us no time at all and we were on board. I heard that if you can catch the show with the pod race in it, you were getting the best one. And imagine that…it was the first one we caught. It was exciting! The kids loved it so much that we decided to go get in line again. Another short 10 min wait and we were back on for a different journey.
By this time, our planned start for the Indiana Jones show was nearing, so we headed over. We made just in time and still got decent seats on the left side of the theater. Surprisingly, as corny as I thought these stunts were, my kids loved the show. I would glance at them occasionally to see them laughing and really enthralled in the act. And they’ve never even seen Indiana Jones. Luckily, being on the left side of the theater was good, as that was the exit side. We were able to get out of a packed theater rather quickly and make it to the Stars Wars Stage show that I promised from earlier.
When we arrived in front of the Chinese Theater, there was still about 10 min left before the show started. Most of us found a nice shady spot near Hollywood and Sunset to park for the show. My nephew and DS had to stand right up front at the ropes. It was in direct sunlight, but they didn’t care. They geeked out anyway, and most of the pics we have are theirs.
Our TP said it was time for Muppets 3D, so we walked back over. Unfortunately, I didn’t check the Lines App first or I would have known that it was shut down. We needed to waste some time until Muppets opened back up, so we decided to go have a look at Walt Disney Presents and Star Wars Launch Bay. We had no interest in meeting characters, but some of the items there were going to satisfy the boys.
First up, we went through Walt Disney Presents. I wasn’t sure what to expect here, but it was an interesting look into the past of Disney as a company and a man. My DD particularly liked all the models of the parks. So much so that she asked for her picture with the Epcot ball.
We ended our tour of this place with a short preview of Incredibles 2. We were happy to see it at the time, as the movie had yet to come out. Made us even more excited to see when released. Incredibles are a favorite.
As we exits the preview, I check the Lines App and Muppets is still down. We move on to Star Wars Launch Bay. Interesting stuff in there, but it was difficult to navigate past all the meet and greets so we could just see the props. At one point, my sister was looking in a case and did a 180 to catch up with us only to find herself face to face with a Stormtrooper. She didn’t know they were right behind her, and she didn’t run into them, but it scared her a bit. And the handler didn’t “handle” it very well either. She gave my sister what seemed like a nice scolding for not waiting in line to meet the Stormtrooper. My sister was not happy about that, but we just decided to move on.
One more check on the Lines App and it looks like Muppets is open again…Yeah! We make the trek back across the park (again!) and step into probably the best show I saw for the whole trip. Personally, I’m a bit of a fan of Muppets (they were on my Magic Band), and was looking forward to this show. It did not disappoint a huge Muppets fan either.
We are glad to finally get this last show in, as our dinner reservation at 50s Prime Time is nearing. We get back to Echo Lake and we’re about 10 min ahead of our scheduled reservation. I knew that there was potential that we would need to wait, so we went ahead and checked in early. We parked ourselves in a nearby living room complete with old fashioned TV. I was fun to watch some of the old clips and reminisce on shows we hadn’t seen in quite a while. We ended up waiting well over 15 min beyond our scheduled reservation, but had no complaints as we noticed it had started to rain outside.
Once we got seated in a corner booth of one of the smaller rooms, we watched a very hilarious waiter at the table next to us. I do remember his name was Eric, and he was an odd duck. He reminds me of the voice of Will Arnett on the body of “Jamie” from the Progressive commercials. But he kept us chuckling continuously throughout dinner. He was sharing the room with our waitress, and I can’t recall her name. She was a little more bland, and didn’t seem to enjoy her job as much as Eric. But he kept us entertained for the both of them.
This meal was probably the best Table Service that we had the entire trip. And I say that knowing we were at Cinderella’s castle the night before. My sister had the Fried Chicken and said it tasted just like our deceased grandma’s recipe (which none of us know). My DS gladly ordered the meatloaf, since I refuse to make it at home. And my nephew and I both ordered the pot roast. Seriously, this was to die for! And of course, it was covered in brown gravy 
Once we finished eating, we had about 15 min until our FP for RnRC, and it had stopped raining. We came outside to the muggy FL humidity. We found a good bench to sit on and just relaxed for a moment. As we sat, we made our plan on how to tackle a FP when the kids didn’t want to go. They made an easy decision that they wanted to go back to Star Tours and would continue to ride as many times as they could. After all, you practically never get the same ride twice. We made plans to text them just as soon as we finished our ride on RnRC, and they would meet us back at the dinosaur at Echo Lake. The kids, along with the 18 yr old, took off left and we went right.
We were more than happy to have a FP for this ride, as the wait was now up to 90 min (according to Disney estimates). As we approached the fence inside where you can see the cars taking off, the nerves were building inside. Should we have eaten such a big meal right before this ride? Probably not, but it’s too late now. We loaded into the seats and rounded the curve. My pulse is racing and the curse words are flying through my head (Not out loud, of course). What have I just gotten myself into? I’m sitting next to my sister with my DH behind us. And before you know it, we’re gone in a flash! All I remember doing is screaming…a lot. My sister, on the other hand, laughed hysterically the entire time. Even with all that screaming, this is one of the better coasters I have ridden.
We get to the end of the ride, into the tunnel prior to unloading, and we stop. Literally, STOP! We don’t move for what seems like 10 min. I just need to get off this ride and get a drink of water! Get me off this ride! My sister uses this 10 min wait to text her son that we are done (we think), and to start heading back. Once he finally responds, he tells us he is standing in line for the next Star Tours and they will be there afterwards.
As we are sitting all alone at the Dinosaur, we can see the projections on the Chinese Theater from the show. We stand at the edge of the lake and take it in. What a sight! Finally, the kids arrive from their last Star Wars ride, only to find out that they managed to get in three rides in the time it took us for one ride on RnRC. It’s finally time to head back to the house for some long needed rest.
Lesson learned from today: Don’t ride the crazy rides right after a big meal. Wait, didn’t I already say that once? Guess I didn’t learn my lesson…
Next up on Day 7 – Magic Kingdom Morning (again!) & Animal Kingdom
