A Magical Kind of Morning
Friday, November 9
So I had some pretty ambitious plans for Friday morning, which meant waking up EARLY. I hardly ever sleep in in Disney, I mean, if I sleep til 8 while I'm there I feel like it's late...but even this day was a little early for me. I had the alarm set for...5:45 am.
Let's just say, Brandon was not thrilled about that. I tried to let him sleep a little longer while I packed up our Little Mermaid room at AoA, but I eventually had to wake him. We were only staying here for one night, and sadly, we had to check out. He grudgingly woke up, packed his stuff, and we were out the door.
I wasn't sure if I had to physically check out of AoA or not, but since I had my credit card on file, I wanted to just to be safe. I figured, hey, it's like 6:30 in the morning, how long could it take right? I let Brandon stay in the car while I ran into the lobby to check out.
It ended up taking SO long! The poor CM (who was the same CM who checked us in, which was weird) kept apologizing to me, he said the computers were really slow that morning...it was fine, I wasn't mad, but I was starting to get a bit impatient in my head...
we still had to check INTO POR and then get to MK for rope drop!
Finally we were finished, and we flew over to POR. I'd say we got there around 7 am. Isn't it crazy how it takes SO long to do anything in Disney? We go into the lobby...and there is a HUGE line for check in! At 7:00 in the morning! I think we got there just as an ME bus let people off, because the line was insane. We contemplated leaving and just going to MK and checking in later, but we figured it would be just as bad later, and plus, we wanted our dining credits, so we just waited...and waited and waited and waited!
We finally checked in, and our room was ready! However, that didn't really matter, because we just wanted to get our dining credits and attach our park hoppers to our KTTW card (which the CM always tells us they can't do, but when we get to the parks, they are magically on the card somehow!) and get to MK!
We floored it over to the Magic Kingdom...driving over, I was still a tiny bit hopeful we'd make it for rope drop to see the opening show, but once we got to the parking lot, I knew it was a lost cause. We parked in the Woody lot, and there were already 8 million people waiting for a tram, which took forever to pick us up. As we boarded, we heard the opening show song on the tram. Oh well, at least I've seen it a few times, right?
It was an absolutely beautiful morning, nice and sunny, and cool. People were complaining that it was too cold, but I thought it was perfect weather! The tram dropped us off and we ran up the monorail ramp. Brandon wanted to take the ferry, because he's one of those "the ferry takes less time" people, but I told him there was no way I was getting on that ferry before taking the monorail. I'm sorry, but no.
Soon, our lovely monorail was at the platform, and we were on our way to the Magic Kingdom entrance!
Since all of the rope drop crowds were already in the park, there were not too many people going in, so it took no time at all to get through bag check and then into the park!
We slowly walked in, because for some reason, I always have to look around like I've never been there, and we saw Marie meeting people in the middle of Town Square! Her line wasn't too long, and I always have to meet Marie on every trip, so we got in line!
Marie was sweet and adorable, as always, and it was a wonderful meet and greet! (Oh, and just so you guys know, we did get photopass pictures taken, but I didn't buy the CD this time, so all of our pictures are from my camera! And you will see a LOT of pictures of me in that blue hoodie, since it was so cool throughout the trip, which is annoying, because I had so many cute Disney shirts!
)
We said goodbye to Marie, and made our way down Main Street. We had a breakfast ADR at 10:30 at Crystal Palace, but we were kind of hungry from not eating all morning, so we stopped at the Main Street Bakery to get a snack. The line wasn't out the door like it normally is in the morning, so it didn't take long at all. I had a cheese danish, which was good, but it wasn't as good as they usually are, like the ones at Sunshine Seasons, it seemed like it was too cold or something. But still, even a not so good Disney danish is still pretty good! (If that makes sense!)
When we were finished at Main Street Bakery, I had one place in mind I had to check before we did anything else. I HAD to see if New Fantasyland was open. I knew my chances were slim to none, since they were doing the AP previews the whole week I was there, but I had to check anyway!
We walked right through the middle of the hub, and had to stop to look at the adorable statues for a minute:
and of course, I had to take a million pictures of the castle!
I Instagrammed this one, I thought it was so pretty:
We walked through the castle and I quickly made my way over to the gates of New Fantasyland...
but it was closed! Oh well! I knew it would be, but I had to see for myself!
We went over to check the wait for Peter Pan, which was already outrageous, but the Fast Pass return times we less than an hour away, so we grabbed some of those.
We walked over to the Haunted Mansion, which had no wait, so why not, I'm never going to pass up the Haunted Mansion!
It was awesome, as always! I tried to take pictures inside, but my camera didn't really like the darkness, so I just sat back and enjoyed the ride! And I'm pretty sure we even made it through without getting stuck, it seems like we always get stuck on that ride, even if it's only for a few seconds!
We didn't really know what we wanted to do next, so we just walked through Frontierland and ended up at Big Thunder Mountain!
I don't remember what the wait time was posted at, but all we did was walk through the line and get right on, which is probably the first time that has ever happened in my life! We even got the front row, which was awesome! I know people like the back, but I thought the front was fun!
Castle!
BTMRR was so much fun, I was a bit nervous about riding it, since the last time it made me feel a little nauseous, but this time I was fine!
I think I felt that way in May because it was so hot, and this time, it was nice and cool out, so I had no problems with anything!
I wanted to go on Splash, but there was no way I wanted to walk around soaked all day when it wasn't that warm out yet, so we decided to save that for later. We just wandered back through Frontierland, enjoying the sun and non-existant crowds:
(This is the first time I've ever gone to MK on a party day and I HIGHLY recommend it!)
Up next...more MK and Crystal Palace!