We left our room at 4:30 to catch a bus back to Magic Kingdom. This would be our first try at the buses going to Magic Kingdom and I wasn't impressed. While we were waiting, they kept pushing back the arrival time. We saw two buses for all the other parks come and go, and still no bus for Magic Kingdom. We are also in line during down pours so that wasn't helping our (okay just my) mood.
I had finally had enough, and we went inside. The kids went with Paul into the food court and I went to concierge to ask about the buses. Of course, as soon as I went inside a bus came about 5 minutes later. However, the kids needed a snack and it was pouring anyway so we didn't mind waiting a bit longer. When I was at the desk, it was when I was told that buses aren't every 20 minutes (as the signs all over the bus stop say) but every 20-30 minutes. I think that just annoyed me enough to send the email to guest services about the issues with our room and the bus. I let the front desk know, that if it is every 20-30 minutes, the signs should say buses run every 30 minutes, not every 20, and they would have a lot less unhappy guests. I was nice while I was at the desk, but did want to let them know my frustrations. My email to guest services was also sent in a friendly tone, but expressed my disappointment about the room issues (included in the first post) and the current bus issue.
We let the kids have their snacks and ended up catching a bus instead at 5:45 over to Magic Kingdom. It worked out fine, as we missed all the rain this way, and the kids wouldn't be starving since dinner wasn't until almost 7. While eating our snack, I moved our fast pass for the speedway from 4:30-5:30 to 5-6 since I knew we would end up missing it if we didn't.
We actually would have missed the 5 to 6 window as well, but because of weather, the Tomorrowland speedway was down, so it turned into an anytime fast pass and we were able to go back whenever we wanted that night.
So with the fast pass situation working out, and not needing to be anywhere until our 6:50 reservation, we went ahead and walked back towards the Beasts castle so we would be in the area and rode Ariel's Under the Sea ride and then went to meet Ariel in her grotto. Ally really wanted to meet her while she was wearing her mermaid in training shirt and it helped give them conversation pieces when they met with her.
After Ariel, we were right next to Be Our Guest. We only had about 20 minutes before our ADR so we walked over to check in. I figured we'd have to wait because there is always a wait for this meal. However, as you can see from the picture below, the weather really cleared out the park and we were seated immediately. Our night from here on out, went to walk on or fast passes for anything we wanted.
Her napkin in the shape of a rose.
Paul and I both ordered steak. The kids had Sam getting steak, and Ally, Mac and cheese. I wasn't all that hungry since we had a full day of table service meals, so Ally shared my steak with me. This is one of the hard to get meals at Disney, so I felt pretty fortunate we were able to grab it. Eating in the castle is really nice, and we were right up next to the windows that make it look like it is snowing outside. They are changing this meal this summer, so might be our only time we eat here and meet the Beast, because the changes are a much fancier menu that require two table service credits instead of one. And while I think it's worth it for Cinderella's Royal Table, not sure the food choices on the new would make it worth it.
After dinner we walked over to the library to meet the Beast. Ally was really nervous but was fine once we were in the room.
We left the castle and went to do two photo pass opportunities. The first was in front of Prince Eric's castle near the little mermaid area.
And the second was over at Rapunzel's bathrooms for the lantern photos. I had heard of that one before we arrived and definitely wanted to make sure we got these photos. It would probably be one of the longest lines we waited in, but I am so happy with them. And the kids did fine, we waited about 30 minutes, but they had books and could sit down if they wanted.
After our photo pass, the park was really cleared out. We were able to use our anytime fast pass even though it wasn't needed and grab fast passes for all the rides we wanted for the rest of the night. In fact, we would arrive with our fast pass and there was no difference for the wait with a fast pass and those who just walked on, so they stopped having us scan the fast passes and just walk right on. We ended up riding Winnie the Pooh, watching some of the fireworks, and then heading over to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz Light Year, and the speedway.
We left Tomorrowland and walked back to fantasyland. We ended up grabbing fast passes/walking on the following: Meeting Cinderella and Elena, Dumbo, and Barnstormer (Sam and I only, Ally and Paul sat that one out).
I then had the bright idea since everything is walk on, let's go ride Pirates of the Caribbean. I had heard it had a drop, so thought they'd enjoy it since they liked Frozen. I failed to take into account it's Pirates... There was a lot of skeletons to start the ride, and the drop was 100% in the dark. The drop wasn't bad at all, but the kids absolutely hated everything about the ride. We will not be doing that one again for a very, very, long time. Sorry kids!! If you look at our photo below, you can see Ally is hiding and Paul is looking at me saying what did you do!!
To not end the night on such a bad note, we went over and walked onto the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. This ride only had 3 carpets occupied and in fact, once our ride was over, they said anyone wanting to ride again could just stay on. So we rode another time.
At this point, we've ridden twice, and could have gone anywhere in the park and had low wait (or found fast passes) but we were exhausted. It was 10:55 and my day that I thought we would have very little time for rides and exploring, turned out to be an amazing day. I doubt we will ever get to experience that low of crowds again.
STEP COUNT - 23,587 steps ACTIVE MINUTES - 112 minutes
What we accomplished:
8:05 ADR Polynesian Ohana - met Lilo, Stitch, Mickey, Pluto
9:30 Monorail to Magic Kingdom
9:45 People Mover
10:10 Monsters Inc Laugh Floor
10:30 Friendship Faire Stage Show with fireworks at end
11:00 Met Rapunzel and Tiana (fast pass)
11:20 Rode Peter Pan (fast pass)
11:45 It's a Small World
12:00 monorail to Contemporary
12:40 ADR Contemporary Chef Mickey - met Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto
1:45 monorail back to Polynesian for car
2:30-4:30 rest time at resort
5:00 snack
5:45 bus to Magic Kingdom
6:05 Under the Sea Ride
6:20 Met Ariel in the grotto
6:30 seated for 6:50 ADR Be Our Guest
8:00 met the Beast in the library
8:15 photopass in front of Prince Eric's castle
8:45 photo pass of lanterns at Rapunzel's bathroom
9:00 Winnie the Pooh
9:05 watched a few fireworks
9:15 Buzz Lightyear (fast pass)
9:45 met Cinderella and Elena
10:00 Dumbo
10:10 Barnstormer (Sam and I only)
10:25 Pirates of the Caribbean (fast pass)
10:40 Aladdin's Magic Carpets (twice let us just stay on ride)
10:55 left park for bus back to resort
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