Day 8 (07 Aug 12) Double Dip at MK
Trip Intro/Index here.
Again, we were up fairly early (7:45-ish), and were planning to use the bus to visit MK. We arrived at the Turtle Pond bus stop around 8:25 and a bus for Mk soon appeared. After a tour of OKW for pick-ups, we arrived at MK a shade before 9:00. Bag check and queuing for admission took a further five minutes, then we were in.
Never having been in this early before, we were struck by how empty Main Street appeared to be, and took advantage to have a few official Disney photos taken. It was then hot-footing around to Splash and Thunder Mountains I snagged Fastpasses for Thunder Mountain for 9:45, then we had two rides on Splash Mountain with minimal queuing. This brought us to our FP time and Big Thunder Mountain was ridden.
We made our way across the park to get a Fastpass for Space Mountain (11:10), and to fill the time, we took the standby queue for Buzz Lightyear (showing 20 mins but we were on the ride in 10), followed by a visit to Monsters Inc. Comedy Floor Show, which as ever was really funny.
This brought us to 11:40, and we used our Space Mountain FP. As we had an ADR for Crystal Palace at 12:50, we still had time for a rider on the Tomorrowland People Mover (a first for us!!), then a browse around the shops on Main Street before arriving at Crystal Palace and checking in just before 12:50.
We were only sat down for 5 minutes when our buzzer went off, and we were just seated in time for a visit by Piglet. There was then a window to help ourselves to salad before Pooh arrived, followed closely by Tigger. Mains were had (the flank steak with the cabernet sauce being my particular favourite), then our main man Eeyore arrived to join his UK relative!!
We enjoyed a relaxed dessert, then we were offered tea/coffee by Paul our server. We didnt feel at all rushed over this meal, and in fact spent 90 minutes over the meal. We felt that the service was much better than our last visit, and the food seemed to be slightly better as well. With the DDP, that was a further $96 saved.
Anyhow, after filling ourselves, we nipped over to Space Mountain for a Fastpass (return time 5:25), then made our way back to the bus station to catch the bus back to OKW. One arrived within 10 minutes, but a crew change (where the replacement driver gave the bus an extremely thorough check) and loading an ECV meant it was another 10 minutes before we were off. However, we were back at our room for 3:15pm for a couple of hours chilling out before returning to MK later that evening.
Whilst here, we took the opportunity to rearrange an ADR for Wednesday week we were planning on eating at the Rose & Crown, but Alex had said she liked the look of the menu at Bongos at DTD, so we changed our reservation over the phone.
Fast forward to 5:30 when we once again set off for the bus. We just reached the bus stop when the heavens opened. Fortunately, a MK bus turned up within 5 minutes, and with some driving worthy of an F1 driver, we arrived at MK just after 6:00. Fortunately, the rain stopped, and we made our way over to Space Mountain where the standby queue was showing 90 minutes it looked as if a lot of people had chosen this ride when the rain appeared. After this, we snagged a 7:10 Fastpass for Buzz Lightyear (standby times were 45 mins), and filled the intervening time with another visit to Monsters Inc. After we had ridden Buzz Lightyear, we made our way over to Fantasyland to watch Mickeys Philharmagic, which we only waited 10 mins for and was around 50% full.
On exiting, we spotted Pinniochios Village Haus, and as Alex was hungry, made a stop here. Alex had a cheese flatbread, and I had the meatball sub. As we didnt want dessert, our server let us add a Tomato and Basil Soup (which Joanne had) and a bottle of water to take out, so we only used up 2 CS credits.
To allow our food to digest, we then had the joys of Its a Small World that song, you just cant get it out of your mind!!!! We then made our way round to Frontierland as it was getting to 8:30, and the Electrical Parade was due to start at 9. We managed to squeeze ourselves into a small area opposite the Liberty Tree Tavern, and I then nipped over to Big Thunder Mountain to see if fastpasses were still available - they were, and we got three for 9:35.
At around 9:15, the parade reached our location, and a great spectacle it was Joannes favourite parade. Once the parade had passed us around 9:35, we had preferred fireworks viewing booked, so fought our way through the crowds to the area. We had just arrived when the The Magic, The Memories and You show started having not seen this before, we were blown away by the spectacle. Shortly afterwards, Wishes started, and we found the view much better than the previous occasion we had used the preferred viewing since the trees had been removed.
During the interval between the two shows, we realised that it wouldnt be a wise move to try and get back to BTM, so we tried to offload our Fastpasses on various groups, but everyone seemed to be planning on leaving, so we kept them as a momento. Back to the bus station where the OKW queue seemed to be the smallest, 10 mins for a bus then the luck of another driver change, before the journey back to OKW where we arrived for 11:00 definitely a lot quicker than fighting for the ferry then the tram if we had used the car. At least tomorrow we could have a lie-in!!
Trip Intro/Index here.
Again, we were up fairly early (7:45-ish), and were planning to use the bus to visit MK. We arrived at the Turtle Pond bus stop around 8:25 and a bus for Mk soon appeared. After a tour of OKW for pick-ups, we arrived at MK a shade before 9:00. Bag check and queuing for admission took a further five minutes, then we were in.
Never having been in this early before, we were struck by how empty Main Street appeared to be, and took advantage to have a few official Disney photos taken. It was then hot-footing around to Splash and Thunder Mountains I snagged Fastpasses for Thunder Mountain for 9:45, then we had two rides on Splash Mountain with minimal queuing. This brought us to our FP time and Big Thunder Mountain was ridden.
We made our way across the park to get a Fastpass for Space Mountain (11:10), and to fill the time, we took the standby queue for Buzz Lightyear (showing 20 mins but we were on the ride in 10), followed by a visit to Monsters Inc. Comedy Floor Show, which as ever was really funny.
This brought us to 11:40, and we used our Space Mountain FP. As we had an ADR for Crystal Palace at 12:50, we still had time for a rider on the Tomorrowland People Mover (a first for us!!), then a browse around the shops on Main Street before arriving at Crystal Palace and checking in just before 12:50.
We were only sat down for 5 minutes when our buzzer went off, and we were just seated in time for a visit by Piglet. There was then a window to help ourselves to salad before Pooh arrived, followed closely by Tigger. Mains were had (the flank steak with the cabernet sauce being my particular favourite), then our main man Eeyore arrived to join his UK relative!!
We enjoyed a relaxed dessert, then we were offered tea/coffee by Paul our server. We didnt feel at all rushed over this meal, and in fact spent 90 minutes over the meal. We felt that the service was much better than our last visit, and the food seemed to be slightly better as well. With the DDP, that was a further $96 saved.
Anyhow, after filling ourselves, we nipped over to Space Mountain for a Fastpass (return time 5:25), then made our way back to the bus station to catch the bus back to OKW. One arrived within 10 minutes, but a crew change (where the replacement driver gave the bus an extremely thorough check) and loading an ECV meant it was another 10 minutes before we were off. However, we were back at our room for 3:15pm for a couple of hours chilling out before returning to MK later that evening.
Whilst here, we took the opportunity to rearrange an ADR for Wednesday week we were planning on eating at the Rose & Crown, but Alex had said she liked the look of the menu at Bongos at DTD, so we changed our reservation over the phone.
Fast forward to 5:30 when we once again set off for the bus. We just reached the bus stop when the heavens opened. Fortunately, a MK bus turned up within 5 minutes, and with some driving worthy of an F1 driver, we arrived at MK just after 6:00. Fortunately, the rain stopped, and we made our way over to Space Mountain where the standby queue was showing 90 minutes it looked as if a lot of people had chosen this ride when the rain appeared. After this, we snagged a 7:10 Fastpass for Buzz Lightyear (standby times were 45 mins), and filled the intervening time with another visit to Monsters Inc. After we had ridden Buzz Lightyear, we made our way over to Fantasyland to watch Mickeys Philharmagic, which we only waited 10 mins for and was around 50% full.
On exiting, we spotted Pinniochios Village Haus, and as Alex was hungry, made a stop here. Alex had a cheese flatbread, and I had the meatball sub. As we didnt want dessert, our server let us add a Tomato and Basil Soup (which Joanne had) and a bottle of water to take out, so we only used up 2 CS credits.
To allow our food to digest, we then had the joys of Its a Small World that song, you just cant get it out of your mind!!!! We then made our way round to Frontierland as it was getting to 8:30, and the Electrical Parade was due to start at 9. We managed to squeeze ourselves into a small area opposite the Liberty Tree Tavern, and I then nipped over to Big Thunder Mountain to see if fastpasses were still available - they were, and we got three for 9:35.
At around 9:15, the parade reached our location, and a great spectacle it was Joannes favourite parade. Once the parade had passed us around 9:35, we had preferred fireworks viewing booked, so fought our way through the crowds to the area. We had just arrived when the The Magic, The Memories and You show started having not seen this before, we were blown away by the spectacle. Shortly afterwards, Wishes started, and we found the view much better than the previous occasion we had used the preferred viewing since the trees had been removed.
During the interval between the two shows, we realised that it wouldnt be a wise move to try and get back to BTM, so we tried to offload our Fastpasses on various groups, but everyone seemed to be planning on leaving, so we kept them as a momento. Back to the bus station where the OKW queue seemed to be the smallest, 10 mins for a bus then the luck of another driver change, before the journey back to OKW where we arrived for 11:00 definitely a lot quicker than fighting for the ferry then the tram if we had used the car. At least tomorrow we could have a lie-in!!
