"There's a Man Pointing...And We Missed the Nighttime Parade!" A Feb. '17 TR *Completed 3/8*

[2Monkeys]

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Mom said later that the little girl acted like she was going to grab my hair again, but stopped when Mom glared at her.

Yeah, I gave her the "mom" look and she quickly retracted her hand!!

From there, we walked over to the Friar's Nook to get some water. Bless that CM's heart. I think he was still in training because he was having a hard time filling drink orders quickly.

FOR. THE. LOVE. The person in front of us only got drinks, too. God love him - it was painfully slow!! I was thinking "could I just come back there and get them myself?" Or maybe I said it out loud? Not loud enough for him to hear of course!

We found a perfect spot near the Partners Statue and sat down to wait.

So the perfect spot, in our opinion, is with a fence in front of you in one of the little 'garden' type areas around the hub. This way, no one can stand directly in front of you! For short girls, this is important!!

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Day 3: February 11, 2017
"Once Upon a Time"

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We chilled out in our perfect castle-viewing spot for a bit, waiting for Once Upon a Time to begin. I'll admit, I was a bit worried about how I would like this new show. I LOVED Celebrate the Magic--like, I loved it so much that I cried every time I saw it. But, I am happy to report that I loved Once Upon a Time! Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite Disney classics, so I loved the storyline of Mrs. Potts telling Chip a bedtime story.

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Day 3: February 11, 2017
"There's a Man Pointing...And We Missed the Nighttime Parade!"
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I was honestly a little surprised at the number of people leaving the park after Once Upon a Time but before Wishes. Not that I minded, because it would mean lower wait times later, but I did think it was a little odd. Once the madness died down a little bit, Mom set off to get some food for us. I stayed right where I was to save our spots.



Mom went to Casey's first and brought me back corndog nuggets and fries.



After dropping my food off with me, Mom went over to Sleepy Hollow to get a spicy chicken waffle sandwich for herself. While she was gone, there was a man standing near me on the phone. He was obviously trying to tell the rest of his group where he was so they could all meet back up. He said "I'm right here in the middle...there's a man pointing on some statue."

What.

Why, yes, he was speaking of the iconic Partners Statue, and yes, I cringed (probably very visibly).

Then, when the rest of his family found him, I heard him tell his wife "We missed the nighttime parade!"

Dude.

He went on to say that the parade had been at 7pm and was worth coming back to see.

Bless. You don't know what you don't know.

Mom made it back with her waffle sandwich.


Thanks Google for the pretty picture.

We relaxed and ate our dinners while waiting for Wishes to start. Well, we relaxed until we heard "Look what I got!" from behind us.

Uh oh.

You see, there was a family with two very small boys sitting behind us. The dad had gone off and bought a balloon and and a light-up sword to surprise said small boys. And of course, he gave the light-up sword to the smallest of the two boys, who then proceeded to terrorize everyone around him by swinging it around and even hitting people with it. I scooted as far away as I possibly could and just prayed that I didn't get hit.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

How do you not know who Walt Disney is? I mean I can understand not knowing all of the history and craziness. But just know who he is!! You are in a park names after him... I always wonder what those people's experience is like. Do they leave Disney thinking it was just ok?

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a fun end to your DHS night with Fantasmic, Toy Story, and a Mickey bar! Can't believe that was your first time trying one!

Yay Magic Kingdom! I love the then and now picture of you on Main Street Sounds like such a fun morning doing all those great rides!

Great pictures from Crystal Palace! And with Tinkerbell & Mickey!

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Sounds like a fun end to your DHS night with Fantasmic, Toy Story, and a Mickey bar! Can't believe that was your first time trying one!

Mom couldn't believe it either when I mentioned it. I was just such a creature of habit as a little kid (and in some ways still am) that I just never strayed from that ice cream sandwich!

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

How do you not know who Walt Disney is? I mean I can understand not knowing all of the history and craziness. But just know who he is!! You are in a park names after him... I always wonder what those people's experience is like. Do they leave Disney thinking it was just ok?

Exactly! I feel like people just decide "I'm going to go to Disney World" and just truly have no clue how ignorant they are.

 

[Whit64130]

Following along from your PTR! Looks like y'all got a lot done so far in a short trip! I LOVE your Wishes shirt!

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Following along from your PTR! Looks like y'all got a lot done so far in a short trip! I LOVE your Wishes shirt!

Hi! We definitely tried to cram in as much as we possibly could since we only had 2 park days. Thanks so much for reading!

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Day 3: February 11, 2017
"Make a Wish, and Do as Dreamers Do..."
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Before long, Wishes was starting! I'm so glad I was able to see it one last time before the new show begins.















I'll admit, I definitely got a little (or a lot) emotional. There may have been a few (or many) tears. Mom said that it was kind of poetic that the last time I saw Wishes was on my 18th birthday...this of course made me tear up again.

After the show, we made our way to Storybook Circus. We made a quick bathroom stop and then went over to the Barnstormer to use our FPs. These turned out to be completely unnecessary, because the standby wait was posted at something close to 5 minutes, but oh well. It was kind of fun to ride in the dark, but that is definitely the shortest ride in the history of everything.

From there, we moved onto to Dumbo and hopped in the standby line. This is one ride that I really love to ride at night!





After our flight with the elephants, we got in the standby line for Winnie the Pooh.

Then, it was time for our final FP of the night:



7DMT! We could not believe that we had managed to score this FP, but we were very excited! I just love this ride, and the theming is perfect.

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Day 3: February 11, 2017
"What's a Paper FastPass?"
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After our 7DMT FPs, we booked it over to BTMRR to make that our last ride. MK was only open for another half hour or so, so we were hopeful that we might be able to get 2 rides in. We hopped in the standby line, which was posted at 20 minutes. This time we were pretty close to the back, which is always fun.

When we got off the ride, there was about 10 minutes until park closing, so we hopped back in line for one more ride. We had just gotten in line when a lady in the FP line stopped beside us and asked how many there were of us. When we told her 2, she handed us 2 paper FPs that she and her family had gotten earlier in the day! She told us that she didn't want them to go to waste, so we ducked right under that rope and went through the FP line! This was honestly one of the coolest and nicest things that has ever happened to us. I remember when the Legacy FP System was still a thing and we would give FPs away if we weren't going to be able to use them, and I always thought it was so much fun.

So, after our last ride of the night, we made our way back toward Main Street. Mom and I kept talking about how this was probably the least sad we've ever been at the end of the trip, because we knew we're coming back in just 3 months! We stopped at the store we had looked in earlier that day because I had decided I needed to get this shirt I had seen.





It's a Disney spirit jersey! How could I not get it? I was really excited because we were able to get a discount with Mom's Disney Visa card. And since I was spending over $50, I also went ahead and got the Magic Kingdom blanket (which is still in its package to avoid getting dog hair on it) that I have every intention of taking to college with me.

We made our way out of the park and onto the ferry. We waved goodbye to the castle, said see you soon to Mickey, and were fairly quickly back at our car. When we got back to the hotel, we realized that we had been in the MK for 15 hours today.

Yes, you read that correctly. 15 HOURS! No wonder we were so tired.

This was what my FitBit report looked like:


It didn't take long for both of us to fall fast asleep.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

15 hours! Wow! Sounds like a great day!

Wonder where those folks got the paper fast passes.

 

[missangelalexis]

What an amazing evening at MK! So special to get to see Wishes on your 18th birthday. I am in love with the spirit jerseys Disney released! Need to get me one of those!

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

15 hours! Wow! Sounds like a great day!

Wonder where those folks got the paper fast passes.

It was an absolutely magical day, but also a very long day! The paper FPs looked like something they had gotten when a ride broke down during their FP window or something.

What an amazing evening at MK! So special to get to see Wishes on your 18th birthday. I am in love with the spirit jerseys Disney released! Need to get me one of those!

It was really very special...and emotional! I'm completely OBSESSED with my Disney spirit jersey, and I've already worn it several times!

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Day 4: February 12, 2017
Departure​

No one ever wants to leave the Happiest Place on Earth, but I was apparently extra resistant this morning. It took Mom several times to get me up. We threw all of our stuff in our suitcases and double checked the room (although I still managed to leave stuff in the bathroom). We checked out of our room, and we left the hotel around 9:30am ET. Honestly, though, it felt more like 6:00am.

There was a Panera down the road that had a drive-thru, so we stopped there for breakfast. I think we both got sausage, egg, and cheese sandwiches and an iced mocha, but I don't have any pictures.

We had a pretty uneventful drive. We spent a lot of the time talking about our trip this summer and kind of narrowing down our plan for our FPs. The only really exciting thing that happened was that I almost passed out when we stopped for lunch because it had been like 6 hours since I'd eaten anything...yay me! This is not an unusual thing, but I just didn't realize I was hungry until it was almost too late. But I got some food in me, so it was fine! We stopped at a Zaxby's for lunch around 2:30pm CT. We finished our drive and made it back home by 5:30pm.

I was in bed by 6:30pm.


I know this update wasn't the most interesting, but I wanted to finish out this TR. Thanks so much for joining me as I relived this most magical birthday weekend!! If you want, I'd love for you to join me as we plan our graduation trip (link to PTR in my signature).

Have a magical day, everyone!!

 

[missangelalexis]

Departure days are always the worst! But at least it was a smooth trip home

Thanks for sharing!

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Departure days are always the worst! But at least it was a smooth trip home

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for reading!!

 

[TexasPete]

Sounds like you had a great trip! Happy Birthday (belated)!

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

Sounds like you had a great trip! Happy Birthday (belated)!

We did, and thank you!

 

[MeghanEmily]

I just stumbled upon your TRs when I noticed we were following some of the same people, and I just got the chance to read this one. Sounds like an amazing little getaway! My fiance and I are actually ending up doing the same thing - I've never planned a short notice trip, but we decided with only about 3 weeks to plan that we wanted to go down to do some wedding planning when I have a long weekend (in just over a week!)...so we're flying down a week from tomorrow, doing two Disney days like you did, and then flying back on the Sunday. Like, woah! I enjoyed your TR and am jumping over to your current PTR next.