Tuesday – Magic Kingdom
Big day, big day! Of course, this is THE park for my kids and all of us. Jeff had to work again today, so it was just me and the kids. My only opportunity to run today was first thing in the morning, before everyone woke up. So that is what I did. Got 4 miles in at 6:30! Actually, if felt great and it was pain free! BONUS.
Bonus!!!!
Kids really wanted to be at MK for rope drop
Lord have mercy. I guess I'll have to do it ONE DAY just to experience such nonsense. 
, so this was NOT a strolling, meandering morning. We had bad bus karma, so we made it just for the last 5 minutes of the opening rope drop show. It was ok—the kids were glad just to get there that early.
Such a great picture! Great picture. Question: I'm sure they do - they look like the three amigos - but do they ever fight? Remind me of the age spread again.
Before I go into specifics, I just have to say that this was without question the best MK day we have ever had. EVER.
That's so lovely Erika. Big smile on that. Sighing. 
First, the weather. Perfect. Mid-70s and no humidity. OMG, so comfortable all day. Secondly—empty park! We had the elusive crowd level 3 day! WOO HOO! There are only about 5
I was going to ask you why you think that is but I think I have the answer. It was a MNSSHP day. Is that what you think as well? That whoever was coming for that certainly wasn't going to pay a park day too. And those not coming to the party - without APs - were not going to use their park day and have it end early. or 6 days each year when the MK is a crowd level three and we happened to hit one. Let me put it this way—ALL of the FP kiosks were closed. You didn’t need a FP for any ride all day. Everything was a walk-on, and I mean everything. We did every ride that we wanted to and did most many times over.
Fantastic. What a joy! I didn't think those kind of days existed anymore. Good to know.
In fact, here is a ride list for the day:
Peter Pan (2x)
Pooh (2x)
Snow White
Tea Cups (3x—kids only! I watched!)
Why? You get dizzy?
Cinderella’s Carousel
Small World
Goofy’s Barnstormer (4x)
Big Thunder Mountain (5x—yes, you read that right)
Splash Mountain (3x)
Haunted Mansion
Oh boy. I'm getting my picture!!
Pirates
Jungle Cruise
Magic Carpets of Aladdin
TTA (2x)
Buzz Lightyear
Phew! Yeah, it was pretty incredible. Now for the specifics:
We booked it straight back to Fantasyland, as always. I know that one day we will not even enter this part of the park, so I love spending time there now. If you don’t believe me about the crowd levels, just look at the Tea Cup ride. You will note that my kids have the ride to themselves! Which is why they did it 3x in a row.
What fun!!!
Somehow we missed Philharmagic. I just plain ol forgot! Which bums me out because I love that attraction. (Kat—What does this ride DO?? I don’t know, but I have a Fastpass for it…)
We made it to ToonTown the first second it opened (it opens an hour later than the rest of the park for those that don’t hang out there). Our normal plan is to go right to Barnstormer and be the firsts ones on it of the day. But knowing that the crowds were light and knowing that we were among the first in TT, we went to see what the line for Pixie Hollow was like. The kids have been DYING to meet Tink since she became a full-sized character.
The things I don't know about WDW. 
Nobody interrupts my rum and coke on the BW to tell me such things. 
Big score—15 minute wait! Seriously, this line gets to 90-120 minutes within an hour of it opening. So we waited! OMG, it is SO cute. There are 3-4 faries back in Pixie Hollow and they all play games with you and talk and just have a great time. It is definitely more of an attraction as opposed to just having your pics taken. (Note: these are just the pics off my iPhone. I took lots with Cam’s camera but I can’t download those yet. I used my iPhone just for this TR!) Here are the kids with Iridessa (yellow), Tink, and Terrence (the boy fairy).
Once we had met the faries, we were finally off to Barnstormer. We rode it so many times that they gave us each a Frequent Flyer Card, which the kids thought was hilarious. Some scenes from the Barnstormer:
I LOVE this picture. They both look so cute!
At this point it was about 10:30 and we had already done 14 rides (this includes all of the multiple trips)!
Laughing. What a day!That is a record, even by our standards. So it was time to leave this part of the park and head to Frontierland. Both of the mountains were walk-ons, so we decided to start with Big Thunder since it was early and not that hot yet. So we did it three times in a row. My kids will forever be spoiled by this MK day. Example—each time we got to through the cue, there was an empty train there just waiting for people. When I say it was a walk-on, I mean just that. We didn’t even have to wait to board the ride. The third time, however, there was no train waiting, so we had to wait for one to return. Like maybe 2 minutes. And Kelly started to complain! “This is taking forever!!” OMG, it was shocking and hilarious at the same time!
After three times on this, we went next door to Splash. Great time and didn’t get soaked! Kids wanted to do it again right then, but I persuaded them to come back later since it was close to lunch time and I didn’t want to risk sitting in the restaurant soaking wet.
Oh how I adore SM. Jean sings through the entire ride and yells for Brer Rabbit to watch out. That - her singing and yelling - is a ride in itself. 
On our way to lunch, we hit the HM. The kids LOVE to pose like they are scared—
Yeah!!!
Lunch was at the Plaza, always just the right thing! Sandwiches and ice cream (for the kids) for dessert. Right at the castle, inexpensive, and good. While dining, we were greeted by the Mayor, and the kids thought he was hilarious. Got a photo with him, but it is on the camera.
After lunch, we made our way over to TomorrowLand. Walked on to Buzz and then had a quick pic with him since there was no real line. We debated doing the Laugh Floor, but there was a 15 minute wait—and on a day like today, that seemed like an eternity! Lol So we rode the TTA instead.
Back to Adventureland to ride Pirates. On the way, we passed an empty Magic Carpets of Aladdin, so we rode it even though it is lame.
Lame. Same with Jungle Cruise—it was right there waiting, so we hopped on. Eventually we made it to Pirates and walked on.
At this point, we had about an hour until parade time. So I gave them the option to do some new things (I was pushing for Hall of Presidents and Carousel of Progress…they all looked at me and broke out laughing as though I had told the funniest joke ever).
Because it IS the funniest joke ever. What's wrong with you? Did your brain turn to mush on your run????
Needless to say, we went back to do Big Thunder 2 more times and Splash 2 more times.
Nice choice. 
We got to our spot in Frontierland (in the shade) with about 2 minutes to spare. Yes, the park was that empty—didn’t need to get there ahead of time to get a shady spot.
OMG. Really? Once again, what a day! The new parade was ok. It was nice to see a new parade, but I liked the last one better. The parade warm-up CMs dragged Kelly out there to do some hula-hooping.
Are you positive that DRAGGED is a good choice of verb for this sentence. My God - the child loves people. Once again - were you like that?
After the Parade, we went back to Tomorrowland to pick up Laugh Floor. At this point, it was almost 4 and the park was starting to fill up with Party-goers.
Must they interrupt your day? So our day of an empty park was coming to a close. Laugh Floor now had a 25 minute wait, so we did TTA again (we all love it).
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and then went to see the Castle Show. This is a really sweet show and should not be missed. Again, we got there a minute before it started and looked where the girls are sitting. No crowd at all.
We left the park at 4:15, happy but tired. The cooler weather was a God-send as it kept their energy levels up all day, but the girls were tired at this point. Had bad bus karma AGAIN, but made it home eventually.
But the day wasn’t over. Jeff got back to SSR right after we did and we had dinner reservations at Puck’s in DTD. I thought we would drive over, but since Jeff had been cooped up in meetings all day, he wanted to walk over. Normally we would do this without hesitation. It is only about a mile and there is a great path to DTD. But of course, I had already run 4 miles and walked at least 4 miles in the park. But, what’s 2 more miles?
I love that walk. I've done the SSR to OKW in the dark by myself as well. I figure who the hell sits there waiting for an idiotic woman to be walking that. Very peaceful. 
So we walked over, had a GREAT meal. This is one of the few times we disagree with Kevin. He has panned this restaurant twice, but it is always our best meal of the trip and this was no exception. LOVED it.
I have to do it considering I live at WPE. LIVE at it. Sit downs are like an extravagance on our vacations - FOR NOW!!! But I so must since I adore WPExpress.
Finally, we DID enjoy a leisurely stroll back through DTD, making a quick stop at Ghiradelli’s for the free chocolate.
My favourite part of a Disney vacation!
Today was our last day of getting up early—the next three days are all sleep in days!
Sorry for the poor quality of the photos!
Hope you're having a fabulous day. Thank you so much for doing the TR. It's been wonderful.
