Day 4, morning (I've cheated here, and posted a few pictures from previous trips as well, where they add to my narrative
)
For the third day in a row, we were at the bus stop just before 7am. But, we werent going to make it to a park before opening it was EMH morning at Magic Kingdom, and it was time to go see the castle!
DH & I were the first to arrive at the bus stop. For the first two days, my parents had gotten out there before us, so I called them to see where they were. As it turns out, they had accidentally turned off the alarm, and had decided to sleep in.
Mom said shed call us if she decided to come to the park later in the day. As I was hanging up the phone, we saw MIL walking towards us
alone. BIL was still not feeling well, and had also decided to sleep in & was to call us later in the day. So, it was just going to be the three of us for MK morning...
We were in the MK by 7:30, and headed straight to Space Mountain. The standby time was posted at 10 minutes, and the FP return was already 11am!
I grabbed FPs for the three of us, and then we jumped in the standby line. The wait time was actually closer to 20 minutes, but thats not too bad for the busiest week of the year.
We enjoyed the ride, but I didnt notice any major differences from the refurb
it had been over a year since Id ridden it last, however, LOL.
After Space Mountain, we headed to Buzz Lightyear, where the wait time was posted at 5 minutes. In reality, it was a walk-on.
I scored 28000 points (I know this because I sent it as a tweet
not sure why, as its not really a score that Im proud of, LOL). After saving the universe, we headed back towards Fantasyland, since I knew it would get crowded quickly. On the way, we passed Chip & Dale, and had to stop for this picture:
In Fantasyland, we rode the teacups and then saw PhilharMagic, both with no wait at all. I think PhilharMagic might be my favorite 3D attraction at WDW. And afterwards, we decided to go visit my favorite haunt
We enjoyed the tour of the mansion, but ultimately decided we werent ready to make it our permanent home.
Next up
Frontierland and the other two mountains!
It was still chilly this morning, so we grabbed FPs for Splash to use later in the day, and headed to the standby line at BTMRR. At Splash, however, I had a strange run-in with a CM. At the FP machines, there was a CM who was telling everyone that the FP would only be honored during its 1-hour window. Now, I know from past trips, and from here, and from TGM, that this is simply not the case. I assumed he was just saying it to try to keep people from doing what we planned to do, which could cause the FP line to get excessively long later in the day. I asked him if it was a new policy, just to see, and he was very rude as he explained that, not only had that always been official policy, but that CMs who didnt check that were idiots and shouldnt be allowed to keep their jobs.
Thank goodness he was the only rude CM we encountered on the whole trip, and I was the only one (of our group, anyway), who heard what he said.
Anyway, back to Big Thunder. The wait time was posted at 10 minutes (it was 9am), but I was concerned that it might be longer due to where the end of the line was. Thankfully, they hadnt opened up much of the inside line at all, and the wait really was only 10 minutes!
(the castle from BTMRR)
I really like BTMRR its one of my favorite mountains!
As we were getting off the ride, my mom called she had just gotten off the bus at MK and was heading to meet us. I told her to meet us at Main Street Bakery, and we headed back in that direction. We had breakfast (after a LONG wait in a LONG line), and then headed to ride Jungle Cruise & Pirates the last two things on our must-do list for the morning.
We went to Jungle Cruise first, where the wait time was posted at 60 minutes.
We couldnt get another FP yet, and we didnt want to wait that long. While we were talking about what to do, DH went to ask a CM where the handicapped-accessible line was
and as it turns out, you enter through the exit and then join the FP line right near where you board the boat!
So, we went ahead and rode total wait time was under 10 minutes! Our skipper wasnt the best, but it was still an enjoyable voyage through 3 of the largest rivers in the world.
Between Jungle Cruise and Pirates, MIL heard from BIL, who told us he was on his way. We got in line for Pirates (posted wait 25 minutes @ 10:30am), where we were somewhat entertained by a group of very stereotypical New York/New Jersey Italians. The actual wait was less than 20 minutes, so soon we were enjoying a visit with everyones favorite pirate.
After exiting Pirates, MIL called BIL again to see where he was
and he was eating lunch at El Pirato y El Perico (or whatever the taco place right across from Pirates is called), so we went over there to find him. He finished eating, and we talked about what to do next. We decided to go use the FPs for Splash, since it had warmed up a bit. There was a bit of debate about who would ride with us since we only had 3 FPs, but ultimately MIL decided to join us. We kept telling her she wouldnt get that wet
and on the big hill, she got drenched! Oops
We waited about 15 minutes in the FP return line.
At Splash, we saw a woman throw a fit, only to be rewarded for her irrational behavior with those instant FPs that work for the rest of the day and a bunch of Splash merch for her family. At first, we thought her complaint was sort of justified, but we realized very quickly that she was the one in the wrong/her complaint was her own fault, and yet a nice manager was giving her all kinds of stuff to shut her up. Makes me wish I hadnt been raised with good morals, I could get all kinds of stuff for free.
At this point, I was approaching my limit of family time, so we decided that wed take the monorail to the Grand Floridian to look at the gingerbread house. On the way out, we decided to use our Space Mountain FPs. Since we only had 3, I gave mine to BIL, and my mom & I headed over to see what the wait time was at Buzz. It was about 12:45pm, and the wait at Buzz was just over an hour
and before we could figure out what to do, DH, MIL, and BIL rejoined us because Space Mountain was down. Oh, also, at this point we overheard some CMs saying that MK was already at capacity for the day! So, we just headed out to the monorail, and within a few minutes we were at the GF!
We didnt stay long, just long enough to take some pictures and buy some gingerbread...
... and then we headed back out to the monorail station. At some point today, wed been telling MIL about some of the shops at EPCOT, so she and BIL decided to take the monorail over there to explore a bit.
I was tempted to go along, but decided it would be bad for my sanity, so mom, DH, and I headed back to SSR at about 2:00. Mom went to take a nap, and DH & I decided we were hungry.
Where did we go for our late lunch? And what would we do with the rest of our day? Its still early, after all
What a relief!!
) We knew wed need to go somewhere to catch an AK bus, so we decided to head over to DTD for some souvenir shopping, and then catch an AK bus from there. Even though it was still chilly, we also opted to take the boat to DTD (which was a much quicker boat ride than I remembered). We headed out around 4:30, without my dad. 
).
Boma, and will definitely go back (although probably not on the next trip). Even BIL, whos also a pretty picky eater, found quite a few things that he enjoyed, and he made several trips to the buffet. 
I went to WDW with my sister and her family. It's hard to do. We survived because of each other. Along for the ride.
!
