Day 3
Once again, Mark’s early rising got me up and out of bed earlier than what is strictly normal for me. I didn’t complain, though- Just got up and got ready to go. We woke up so early, that we had plenty of time before leaving for the Magic Kingdom. And remembering what a failure getting breakfast at DHS the day before had been, we decided to use this time wisely… and headed to Olivia’s for breakfast.
I truly, truly, truly adore this restaurant. It is a place I have been longing for since coming home from this trip, and wish that I could pop in for breakfast in real life. Sigh…
We got to the restaurant just as it opened, and were the second group seated. Since it was so early, and still a comfortable temperature, we opted to sit outside. Our server was awesome and came right over to take our drink order. Brace yourselves: we both got bloody Mary’s. When they were brought to us, I asked the server what mix they use and he told me- but I forget. He also mentioned all the things they add to make them super delicious. Then he told us that he is self-conscious and didn’t want to watch us try them (since the servers make the drinks in the morning), so he stepped back inside. Well, he needn’t have worried because they were AWESOME. We told him so when he came back and quickly placed our order: Mark had Eggs Benedict again (Olivia’s is known for this dish, and it is wonderful) and I had the Banana Bread French Toast. If you don’t like sweet- don’t order this. But if you do, hang on to your hats cause it is yumm-tastic. The Bahamian rum sauce on top adds to the sweetness, but it also adds to the flavor. When I first tasted it, I didn’t think there was any way I could finish because of how sweet the dish was, but it was addictive, and I did eat most of it, before passing it over to Mark for him to finish. I think my ideal breakfast would be a ½ order of Benedict and ½ of this. Droooooooool.
With our bellies full and our taste buds happy, we took the super quick walk to the bus stop, and a MK bus was just pulling up. We hopped aboard and after a pretty short jaunt, found ourselves heading through the turnstiles in time for the opening show!
This was one of the few (maybe only?) times Ben made it with us into a park.
Since I don’t carry a bag around to the parks, and Mark only brought his this day, poor Ben just didn’t quite get to see as much of WDW as we thought he would…
While we were being wished a ‘Good Morning, Good Moooor-ning’ I teared up, as usual. I just love that show. ‘Magic wrapped up in
PIXIE dust’ gets me every single time.
We enjoyed our stroll up Main Street, and headed enjoyed short waits since the park just opened. We ended up riding most everything in Fantasyland, which was especially fun since I don’t always ride these because of how long the waits get.
Mark had not experienced the interactive queue at Haunted Mansion before, so we decided to check it out. And we brought Ben along.
When we headed into the stretching room, we watched a woman in a giant
ECV with an awning drive in with her headlight on. She kept the light on the whole time, and I thought it was really funny. Mark joked about whether she was going to ride it right onto the ride, and we both got the hilarious visual of seeing her in a doom buggy, still sitting in the ECV with the light on. It had me cracking up!
After visiting with our ghostly friends, we decided to grab lunch at Columbia Harbor House. I love this place, so it was my call- Mark would have much rather done another TS meal, I am sure. But I ordered my usual Anchors Aweigh, and I think he got the fried fish/chicken basket. We had a tough time finding a table, until I led us upstairs. Mark was very impressed because he didn’t know there was seating up there. We ate our lunch, but I could tell Mark wasn’t thrilled with his meal. Oh wellsies!
After lunch, Mark wanted to check out Tom Sawyers Island- a place he insists that he had never been, but I still maintain we journeyed over there on a previous trip. We hopped on a raft (which I have officially decided is
the single hottest spot in all of WDW) and made the trip over to the island. We explored every nook and cranny that we could.
We barely made it to the dock to wait for a raft before melting.
But we put our best game faces on and made it back to Frontierland.
I believe it was around here that we found Mark’s stunt double. And we loved his hat.
We realized that there was a favorite we hadn’t done yet, and it would be a good chance to get out of the heat. So off to Carousel of Progress we went!
We both love this, and it was a nice break. Though I will admit I got a
TEENY bit annoyed by Mark singing along rather loudly. I was hot and cranky and it was just rubbing me the wrong way. But I very politely did not say anything and enjoyed the show despite the added soundtrack. Once COP was over, we decided to leave the park.
Our plan for dinner had been to head to DtD and visit Raglan Road… but we realized that by the time we went and ate, we wouldn’t be able to go to another park that evening. Instead, we opted to head to Epcot and have dinner at the World Showcase, in a place new to the both of us!
Day 3, Part 2: "And that's when my feet exploded..."