"There's so many people it's a giraffeic jam" March TR **TRIP COMPLETE**

[maggiemoos]

Hello and to the newest episode of “Margaret and a family member go to Disney”
This episode will star me, I’m Margaret.

(I’m obviously the person not Humphrey the Bear)

And the special guest star this trip is my Dad, his name is Pat. However, in this trip report and pretty much every other time, I call him Dad.


(yes I made him taste the Beverly before I did, he didn’t know what to expect)

I wrote a trip report for my last 2 trips (in my signature if you really want to read them) and decided I would of course do one for this trip and hopefully take better notes …

Now the who (again), where, when, and why:

Who:
I’m Margaret, hello again, I’m 26 years old and I teach Pre-K. I love my job so much but a week break from the kids was nice.

My Dad is as he says it “older then dirt”. It’s because of my Dad that I’m obsessed with Disney and have an unnatural love of hockey. Usually our everyday conversations consist of quoting The Big Bang Theory or talking hockey and this trip was no different.

Where:
Coronado Springs.
First time we’ve stayed at a moderate resort since the Caribbean Beach in the 90’s, only because with the Winter Rate, prices were $4 more a night then the Art of Animation, where we were planning on staying.

When:
Spring Break aka March 22nd – March 29th or "everyone and their mother comes to Disney at the same exact time" week

Why:
Well do we ever really need a reason why? Besides the basic we wanted to go, my Dad had decided after my Mom got to go on the last 2 trips now it was his turn. He hadn’t been to Disney in 13 years.

Next.. How the trip was almost cancelled... twice

If you want to read it great if not then keep scrolling down..​

 

[maggiemoos]

Pre-Trip
354 Days Out (April)
202 Days Out (September)
143 Days Out (October)
133 Days Out (November)
111 Days Out (December)
80 Days Out (January)
49 Days Out (February)
21 Days Out (March)

Actual Trip
Day -1 March 21

Day 1 March 22 (pt 1)
Day 1 March 22 (pt 2)

Day 2 March 23 (pt 1)
Day 2 March 23 (pt 2)
Day 2 March 23 (pt 3)
Day 2 March 23 (pt 4)
Day 2 March 23 (pt 5)
Day 2 March 23 (pt 6)

Day 3 March 24 (pt 1)
Day 3 March 24 (pt 2)
Day 3 March 24 (pt 3)
Day 3 March 24 (pt 4)

Day 4 March 25 (pt 1)
Day 4 March 25 (pt 2)
Day 4 March 25 (pt 3)
Day 4 March 25 (pt 4)
Day 4 March 25 (pt 5)
Day 4 March 25 (pt 6)

Day 5 March 26 (pt 1)
Day 5 March 26 (pt 2)
Day 5 March 26 (pt 3)
Day 5 March 26 (pt 4)

Day 6 March 27 (pt 1)
Day 6 March 27 (pt 2)
Day 6 March 27 (pt 3)

Day 7 March 28 (pt 1)
Day 7 March 28 (pt 2)
Day 7 March 28 (pt 3)

Day 8 March 29 (pt 1)
Day 8 March 29 (pt 2)
​

 

[maggiemoos]

April 2013
Once our school had approved our calendar for the next school year, it was decided when we would be going, We just didn’t know who yet. Well apparently my Dad had decided because I had posted a picture on instagram and he decided he was going.


Once he had decided the countdown officially begun.


My Dad has been to Disney many of times. He was the one that got me addicted to it to begin with. Many years ago, see.

This wasn’t our last trip together but still one of my favorite pictures.

We went many of times over the next several years. Our last “family” trip was in 2000, when my cousins and Nana went with us.




So once it was official!!

We just had to wait for time to go faster... ​

 

[maggiemoos]

September 2013
So September rolled around and we were still rolling with the idea of staying the Art of Animation, my Dad said he didn’t mind the Little Mermaid room.

The only exciting thing about September was it was officially 180 days out. Which meant, RESERVATION time!


Originally my Dad wanted to be the leader of the vacation. Well that’s the small problem, we both like to be in charge and be the planner. After some negotiating and arm pulling, I was officially the leader! But that meant that I was the one that was going to have to make reservations. My dad only had 1 request, he wanted to eat at Sci-Fi. Whoo hoo the rest were up to me! So with my Dad’s approval because he is really picky about things, we decided on Sci-Fi, Le Cellier, and 'Ohana.
So the night before (181 days out) I set my alarm for 4:30 my time, which is an hour behind Florida and went to sleep.
The next morning, it was time to call!
Over the next few days, I set my alarm for early and made all 3 of our reservations! Yay!

Non Disney stuff:
Got these in the mail!!

Since my Dad and I are such big hockey fans, we usually go to a game a year, except last season because of the lockout. So when the schedule was announced it was decided we would see the Chicago Blackhawks, since it was the only team we agree on. I’m a huge Pittsburgh Penguins fan and he’s a big New York Rangers fan, but the Blackhawks are both our #2 team. ​

 

[maggiemoos]

October 2013
Not much Disney stuff happened again in October, just more sports stuff.

I’m also a Boston Red Sox fan (but not a Boston Bruins fan ha ha) so when they were playing in the World Series, I started drinking my morning coffee out of a special cup.
I posted this picture on instagram the morning of game 6.

So my Dad made a bet and in case you didn’t know, the Red Sox won the World Series that night! Looks like I’m getting some churros and pretzels!! ​

 

[maggiemoos]

November 2013
My Mom, Dad, and I went to Dallas for the Blackhawks game (only my Dad and I went to the game, Mom stayed in the hotel).

Yes that’s my Dad being a creeper.





We had a great time, hockey fans are like Disney fans, you meet someone with the same interest and you're instantly friends! Even a better night because the Hawks won!!

​

 

[maggiemoos]

December 2013

SNOWPOCALYPSE (part 1)

So living in Northwest Arkansas, we see every season. We get 120 degrees and 99% humidity in the summer, 29 inches of rain in the spring, tornado warnings during the spring too. However one season that has changed every year for the past 3 years I’ve lived here is winter. The first winter (2010) we had 25 inches of snow in 5 days that accumulated to 9 snow days. So the next school year (2011) they said if there was that many snow days by December they would take some of our Spring Break away, however we had no snow and no snow days. Then in 2012 we had no snow days either, but an inch of snow in May??
Then we came to this year, our summer was mild only several over 100 degree days, which typically means a brutal winter.
<Insert dramatic music here>

So early December comes around and yup snow…


Then the snow melted and made ice…


By the end of this storm we had 5 snow days, not too bad.
We went to school for a couple of days then we broke for Christmas Vacation.

Spent some time with the family and ate some yummy food, but the most exciting thing about December was we booked the trip! Only 82 more days from there.

​

 

[maggiemoos]

January 2014
January was spent getting back into the swing of things, my co-worker left to go to do student teaching so I got a new person to work with, her name is Amanda and she’s great, we talk Disney and hockey all day!
It was really nice and sunny one day, then the next day….


Well surprise surprise we got some more snow/ice

Just enough ice to make 3 snow days…
Then the rumor starting flowing again that Spring Break would be taken away…

The rest of January was spent finalizing some details.

And deciding our fastpass+ times, being someone who loves to plan, I wasn’t a fan of this. I think I just put too much thinking into it. In the end I was happy with my decisions, even though I changed them at least once a week.

January was cold and dreary; I think we only saw the sun twice in a month.
I spent pretty much every day saying this…

(minus the tail part...lol)

We survived January, but only went to school 17 days total for the month.​

 

[maggiemoos]

February 2014
Super Bowl Sunday we were forecasted some snow… yes.. more snow… we ended up with about 5 inches of snow and ice and 3 snow days. Then the rumor for taking Spring Break days was running full force.



One thing that happened during those Snow Days was what started as a small wrist pain turned into every joint in my body hurts. For 2 days I couldn’t walk or move, everything from my toes to my jaw hurt, it was a horrible feeling. I broke down and finally went to the doctor a few days later. The doctor too was stumped and ordered for blood work. A few days after giving blood I get the results saying that my ANA test was positive. What ANA stands for is Antinuclear Antibody Test. According to about.com
“Antibodies are proteins, produced by white blood cells, which normally circulate in the blood to defend against foreign invaders such as bacteria, viruses, and toxins.
Autoantibodies, instead of acting against foreign invaders, attack the body's own cells. This is an abnormality.
Antinuclear antibodies are a unique group of autoantibodies that have the ability to attack structures in the nucleus of cells. The nucleus of a cell contains genetic material referred to as DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid).

An ANA test (antinuclear antibody test) can be performed on a patient's blood sample as part of the diagnostic process for certain autoimmune diseases.”

Long story short, something ain’t right.

The doctor prescribed me 800mg ibuprofen for inflammation and now I have to wait until April to meet a specialist.

The same week as all this it was parent/teacher conference week and I got an email saying we had an ‘informal’ vote to see whether we want to tack the now 11 snow days to the end of the year or take 2 days of Spring Break, it’s obvious what I voted for right?

One of the only good(?) things about the month was my Dad had sorted through the old Disney trip pictures and sent me a few.








By the end of February, we got the email from the assistant superintendent saying we had to do an ‘official’ vote about what to do for Spring Break. NO!!!! It ended up being about even but it leaning towards taking Spring Break away. Sad panda

In the end we learned we voted wrong, oops. Something about a poll not being an official vote….
So in the end, luckily


I won’t have to worry about losing Spring Break.

Also in February we watched hockey in the classroom… I made it educational I promise.. but mainly I just wanted to watch it.


We even got the kids cheering “Go USA” by the end, too bad we lost….
​

 

[maggiemoos]

March 2014
Figuring we only had 21 days to get through in March it should have been an easy 3 weeks of school and smooth sailing… wrong. We had surprise surprise, more snow days.


Then the thing that scared me to death. My Mom and Dad said they didn’t feel good and probably had the flu. Well in my family growing up you never really went to the doctor, unless you lost an arm or a finger. So when my Mom texted me a few days later saying that my Dad was at the doctor, I knew it wasn’t good. After hundreds of tests and blood work, the doctor didn’t know what was wrong so they admitted him to the hospital. After being in the hospital for2 days they diagnosed my Dad with viral pneumonia. Since it’s a virus they can’t really fight it off, just tough it out. So with 10 days until Disney and my Dad being sick but knowing what he has at least he has time to fight it off. The same day I had some sort of allergic reaction/rash/breakout of something on my arms that slowly spread over the course of the week. By Saturday I had to drag myself to the clinic since I couldn’t be seen by my doctor on short notice without taking a sick day.
I ended up taking my friend to the clinic for her own health issue, since I was driving her I figured I would go as well. After a 2 hour wait the doctor said “contact dermatitis” he said it’s possible I came into contact with a small miniscule particle of poison ivy and my overactive autoimmune system decided that it was a foreign thing that needed to go away, so instead of a little kung fu chop of it, it went into killing mode and overacted a little therefore causing a rash. I was given a cortisone shot with strict rules not to touch the rash, put anything on it, or even look at it for 7 – 10 days….
Needless to say, looking forward to Disney was the farthest thing from my mind with both my Dad and I having health issues. Here’s just hoping the next 7 days go by uneventful and quickly.

The last 5 school days before Spring Break we the longest days ever.
It snowed again… but we didn’t have a snow day, it was just freezing cold all week. I walked around my house quoting the Gilmore Girls.


I just had to make it to Friday!​

 

[maggiemoos]

Day -1 March 21

Disney Eve Day! Also known as the longest day ever. Don’t know for sure how many pictures will end up here, but I’ve always been a fan of reading/seeing what people do the day BEFORE travel day when life is somewhat normal and boring.

The alarm went off at 4:35am (ugh sometimes the life of a teacher isn’t as great as some people think). I got dressed for work, grabbed my coffee and walked out my front door, well really the door to the garage but you know what I mean, by 6:05am. Why so early? When in reality it’s only 15 minutes earlier then when I normally leave my house every day, I had a Disney tradition to uphold.
You see, the last 2 years I’ve eaten Chick-fil-A the day of Disney. Last year I had a later flight so I was able to stop and get breakfast before heading to the airport. The year before I had Chick-fil-A for breakfast as well. This time however, I was leaving Bentonville at 7:20am, which means being at the airport by 5:45am and Chick-fil-A doesn’t open until 6:00am. Whatever shall I do?? Stop on the Friday before I leave on my way to work of course.


And I sent this little reminder to my Dad.


The day went by pretty quickly and uneventfully.
I made an appointment at the nail salon with some friends to get our nails done for vacation. My classroom neighbor was going to the Bahamas, so she needed pretty nails too.



I went home, ate Fruity Pebbles for dinner and finished packing. I called my Dad to make sure he was ready and I called it a night at 11:00 with my alarm going off at 3:30.

Next up! Disney… but first Travel Day!​

 

[maggiemoos]

Saturday March 22nd
The morning started at the freakishly early hour of 3:45am, when the alarm woke me. I was actually surprised because I got 4 hours sleep, a new personal best on Disney Eve Night. Luckily I had finished packing up the night before and didn’t have much to do so I got my happy self out of bed and was all packed up by 4:30am. My ride texted me at 4:45am saying she just left her house and given that she lived about 30 minutes from me I knew I had some time. I made sure my cat Staalzy had enough food, the same person who was giving me a ride would be checking on my cat (yes she would be receiving an awesome souvenir).

(Staalzy seemed confused by what was happening…)
I dragged awkwardly by the way my suitcase down the stairs and waited. At 5:17am she pulled up and we headed to the airport. Living in a semi small town near a small airport, you never know what kind of crowds you will get. I always plan for an hour to check your bag and get through security but you never can tell, today however, it took a whopping whole 14 minutes to do it both. I was sitting at my gate by 5:42am (my flight didn’t leave until 7:20am) so I played a match the dots game on my phone and waited, then I read some of my book and waited some more.


My Dad’s flight was scheduled to leave El Paso at 5:50am (mountain time) so I texted him at 5:45 my time (central time, an hour ahead) to ask him if he made it to the airport, he had to take a shuttle because my Mom hates driving to El Paso. So 10 minutes later I texted my Mom to see if she heard anything and she said he was still trying to check in. You see El Paso is a military town and apparently every single military person was leaving that day and they get to check in first. My Mom and I text back and forth for a while and apparently my Dad was still in line. Finally my Dad texted me at 6:47am my time saying he is on the plane, he made it with 3 minutes to spare. Seriously for a while there I thought I was going to have to call American airlines and have them switch flights around and get us on different flights.

My flight was starting to board to I stood up to walk closer when I saw someone I knew, Julie, we work out together, her family was going to surf in Mexico somewhere fabulous. The funny thing about that was I knew 2 other families going to Disney the same exact time as me so I was on the lookout for them and ended up seeing someone else completely.
Finally at 6:57am (I looked at the time on my outgoing text lol) I texted my Mom saying I was on the plane and so was my Dad, looks like we will at least make it to Dallas today.




The flight is a whopping 52 minutes long and I slept for about 51 of those minutes. Next thing I knew I was landing in Dallas.
We touched down at 8:27am (according to the American Airlines app) and our flight was set to depart at 9:35am, so I had about 35 minutes to find my Dad and get ourselves to the gate. I found him buying French fries from Wendy’s, he hadn’t eaten all morning and was getting a little shaky. Luckily the Wendy’s was across from our departing gate. I huffed it to the potty (yes I call it potty, when you work with 4 year olds potty is more fun to say the bathroom lol) and back to our gate with 8 minutes to spare before we started boarding.
My Dad and I both had group 2 so we boarded and were seated by 9:06am, according to the text to my Mom. My plan was to nap the whole 2 and a half hours and then wake up and be in Disney. Did that work? Nope, slept for like 5 minutes. So the rest of the flight was spent listening to music and playing match the dots on my phone. We got our free drinks and ate some trail mix. Since I don’t drink sodas anymore I got apple juice, it is my second favorite juice after all.








The flight was quick and we landed 20 minutes early. We made a potty break and then made our way down to the Magical Express, I found it again without getting lost whoo hoo.


The line to get in line to get on the DME should have been a clue to me how the crowds were going to be.


By the time we got to the podium and got on a bus all in all was probably about 10 minutes.




By 12:30pm we were crossing on to Disney property! YAY!
​

 

[maggiemoos]

We were the first drop off and when we went to check in they said the room was ready. I had called 3 days before to tell them about my Dad’s health issues and they said that they would be able to move us to a closer room, well we walked into our room and it had one bed… opps. So I huffed it back to the lobby and talked to Jennifer at the front desk and explained the situation to her. She called someone in the back and after being on hold for 21 minutes she talked to someone and they said that they found us a room. She checked my magic band to see if it connected and thankfully it did. So I texted my Dad and told him that we were moving clear across property. We ended up going from 9B to 5A. We huffed it across property and ended up being in a much better room overall. We were closer to the main lobby and the first bus stop.







We had a dinner reservation at ‘Ohana at 7:05pm, but neither of us had eaten all day and we figured we wouldn’t be eating dinner until at least 8:30 that night so we shared a meal at Pepper Market and grabbed our refillable mugs, then headed back to drop off our mugs and get ready for dinner.













We were out at the bus stop 2 by 5:30 and by 5:45 we were on the way to the MK.



The bus crowds again should have been a tipoff to me how the crowds were going to be but again, I didn’t put much thought into it.
We ended up being at the Poly by 6:00.











We walked around and hung out by the gift shop until 6:30 then figured we could check in early, all they can tell us is no. We checked in and were told to wait. 2 minutes shy of our reservation time, our buzzer went off. We were escorted back and got our table. Within minutes we had drinks and food. I liked the dumplings, noodles, and shrimp. I tried everything but those were my favorite.
Before

After

Then the dessert came… good gracious that was a good as I expected!!

We rolled ourselves out and made it to the bus stop by 8:30 before the fireworks crowd whoo hoo.

We came back to our room and found our luggage, 3 bags total. The thing was we were only supposed to have 2, we ended up with someone else’s bag. I called bell services and they came and picked it up. We unpacked our clothes and called it a night by 10:30pm.

Step count: 14,586

Next up! First park day​

 

[maggiemoos]

Anyone out there following along?

Day 2 March 23
The night before we had decided to set the alarm for 6:00am, giving us enough time to get out the door and to the bus stop. So before you knew it my Dad’s phone was playing the theme music from “The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly”, really? It seemed like just 5 minutes ago I laid down. Since the doctor had told me not to put anything on my arms I cautiously applied baby sunscreen on my arms and legs, then sat there and waited to see what was going to happen. Nothing did, so I assumed I was ok. By 7:20am (according to the time stamp on my picture) we made it to the bus stop.







There was another family there that was starting to worry, apparently they had a dining reservation at 8:05am and they were worried that they weren’t going to make it. Luckily we were on the bus a couple of minutes later and walking by the entrance by 8:00am. We sat around and waited on the planter until the lines started to form.









I was telling my Dad that the last 2 years they do rope drop one then they stop you by the Tree of Life. So 8:45am rolls around and off we go. I was afraid that some freak thing was going to happen with my magic band that would prevent me from getting into the park. Luckily, nothing major happened and we were off and running. However, this time we kept right on trucking no stopping at the Tree or anything.






Our fastpass+ times for the day were:
Kilimanjaro Safaris 10:00-11:00
Dinosaur 11:00-12:00
Everest 12:00-1:00



We made it to Everest by cutting through Dinoland as opposed to Asia, to do it as a walk on, apparently the ride wasn’t up and running because we waiting in line until 9:00 before it started moving.







14 minutes later we were done with the first ride of the trip. I tried to tell my Dad where the camera was… apparently he had his eyes closed. Also, I love the grumpy cat-esque face on the guy in front of us. I had planned to pose to the camera… picture 1 a success I think so.

​

 

[maggiemoos]

After we were done we ventured off to Africa.















We got to the entrance of KJS and noticed a 10 minute wait, well then, why not go on the ride as a walk on.



Our driver was hysterical, he had us try our cameras by taking a picture of another CM.



Now commence with the many animal pictures…










We got to the African Safari section and there were a bunch of giraffes. The driver made a comment about how there were so many giraffes crossing the road and we couldn’t move because there was a ‘giraffeic jam’. From then on, anytime there were a bunch of people (and there were) we made a comment about there being a giraffeic jam.



















​

 

[maggiemoos]

We got off KJS and then turned around and got in the fastpass+ line and got back on the ride by 10:22am (according to the time stamp).
The number one rule on KJS is ‘do not stand while the truck is moving’ well some lady in front of me decided that she was going to stand the entire time and the driver didn’t say anything. I wasn’t wanting her to fall down but I was kind of hoping she would stumble a little and realize that standing up wasn’t the best idea.














It’s not the same rhino picture as the first time I promise, but it is the same rhinos ha ha.





We were done with KJS and made our way back to Asia/Dinoland.



By 11:10am we made it to Dinosaur and again there was a 10 minute wait but we got into the fastpass+ line. The fastpass line was a walk through line, I only stopped to take a picture.





We were done with Dinosaur and made the move back to Asia for some more FP’s.

Hard to see but at 11:30 the wait was at 40 minutes already!
We had 20 minutes until our FP window opens, so we parked ourselves in front of EE and waited. Plus my Dad was getting over pneumonia and having shortness of breath.





While we were standing there we noticed that EE had stopped running. Uh oh... they have 15 minutes to fix it. Luckily, a few minutes later it was back up and running. So a couple of minutes later we get in the FP line, the line however was about 80 people back from the entrance. So much for a FP line. Luckily, 8 minutes later we were on EE.

We were done with EE and my Dad was happy he opened his eyes on the ride.



We stopped to see what the line at Flame Tree BBQ looked like, my Dad had decided months before that was what he wanted for lunch. I guess, everyone and their mom was eating there too, so we decided to head back later and see what the line looked like.

So we decided to hit ‘It’s Tough to be a Bug’ which had a 20 minute wait. Again, the rule is to go to the end and sit down. When it’s not so full I understand not going all the way to the end but when it was as full as it was, please follow the rules. Of course, people decided to stop in the middle and plant themselves then get all huffy when you try to squeeze by them (yes it is a pet peeve of mine). So we slid all the way to the end and sat down. It was as cute as it was the past years and of course everyone freaked out at the end and the girl next to us screamed “Ah, it touched my butt”.

By now we had decided we were hungry and even if we had to fight the crowd, we were going to eat. Fortunately, we were able to get our food and get a seat by 1:30pm.







We were able to have a pretty nice view to eat lunch at. While we were eating, the table next to us had a bunch of little kiddos and one of the little kids were eating and one of them dropped all his carrots on the floor. Then he slowly made the move to pick them up and slowly oh so slowly bring them up to his mouth, the teacher in me was screaming at the top of my lungs hoping he didn’t end up eating them! Thankfully, his Mom noticed and told him not to eat them.

We finished eating and all in all it wasn’t too bad, not like State Line BBQ from home but ok.
We stopped for photopass pictures then decided to head back to the resort and take a break.







We got to the bus stop and thankfully only waited 10 minutes for the bus. When we got back to the room I left my Dad resting while I walked to refill our mugs. I went back to the room, drank my sweet tea and charged my phone.​

 

[maggiemoos]

We headed to the bus by 4:45pm and were walking into the Magic Kingdom by 5:10pm, luckily the bus was nowhere near as full as the first day.
We made the trek up Main Street, with no real plan in mind.





We ended up in Tomorrowland and noticed the line to the Peoplemover seemed mild… so we went for it.













When we were done we noticed the wait times were easily over an hour for everything in Tomorrowland and all of them we had FP’s for later in the trip, so we decided to just walk around and take in everything around and IF wait times got lower later in the evening we would go.

We trecked around Tomorrowland into New Fantasyland, my Dad smelled the popcorn and decided he wanted some. So we bought some and it seemed like a great time for a break so we sat and people watched. It was about 6:00pm and the crowds seemed to be in full force still, but we were lucky to find a small spot to sit.





We finished the popcorn and ventured into the Big Top to look around.


I wanted 1 of everything…

We exited and I wanted to show my Dad all of the other things in New Fantasyland so off we went. I also made a potty stop, when you’re a teacher you know if you’re near one, might as well go lol.


I surprised my Dad when I got out.




Mine Train… I had hoped it was opened or at least doing a soft opening when we were there.

We kept venturing on until we came by Philharmagic and noticed the next show was starting so we decided to go for it.





My Dad enjoyed the show I think, me, I loved it of course!



We had been talking about the 2 rides that I hadn’t used a FP on, The Haunted Mansion and Pirates, and decided that we should at least try for one of them tonight… So of course being next to HM we went.













According to the time stamp on the pictures, we got in line at 7:12pm and got into the stretching room by 7:37pm. Not bad I think. ​

 

[maggiemoos]

We ventured up into Frontierland around into Adventureland.



We noticed the wait time for Pirates was only 30 minutes so we got inline, we might be getting both done in one day! Whoo hoo!



All in all it probably took about 30 minutes then we discussed what our plan was for the evening, were we going to watch the parade or try for later. We came to the decision to get something to eat now then maybe find a spot for the parade later, if we felt like watching it.

We stopped into Pecos Bill’s for dinner and found a seat in the back room with a window facing the back of Splash Mountain.



I was looking at the Disney app and noticed the wait time for Buzz was 15 minutes. So we decided to venture in that area and see what it looked like when we got there. As soon as we walked out we heard the music of the beginning of the 9:00 parade, figuring it was right there and we wouldn’t make it across so we just sat. A few minutes went by and nothing, so we decided to make a mad dash for it.
We made it across with like 30 seconds to spare. So we snaked our way around and made it by with no problems.





When we got there we saw it really was 15 minutes!! So we went for it.



We finished and I lost, I blame it on a faulty gun but of course my Dad took the bragging rights for the night…

We decided we felt like watching the 11:00 parade but we wanted to watch it from Frontierland where there are more planter areas to sit. So we ventured off in that direction, but noticed the wait time for Pooh was only 15 minute so we went for that one, another one without a FP, we might get them all in 1 night. Again, according to the time stamp on the picture, we got in line at 10:26pm and were on the ride 10 minutes later.











I had accidentally zoomed in too much when I was holding my camera and then I guess I took a picture, but I kinda like the way it turned out.



We got off the ride and saw we had loads of time to get to Frontierland and get a spot, so we took a leisurely stroll with little crowds. We found a spot and planted ourselves, we were right across a drink stand so I went to buy some water.


According to the time stamp I took this picture at 11:16pm.

By the time I went to buy water and walked back, all the other spots were taken. We had a couple of minutes before the parade made it our way so we hung out and talked about how successful our first day had been. I struck up a conversation with the family beside me, they were really excited to be seeing the parade from such good spots.
Before you knew it the music started. As much as I loved Spectromagic, The Electrical Parade is the memory that sticks out the most. Sitting with my cousins and waiting for the parade.

I was excited to see how my new camera took night time pictures… so I took lots of them hoping for the best.























​

 

[maggiemoos]

When the parade was over we sat for about 10 minutes to let the crowd disperse, then decided to call it a night, MK was open until 2 but we figured we had a good day. We were on the lookout for a Photopass person before we left.



Found one!





I took one last picture before we called it a night.



It was a little after midnight when we made it to the bus stop. When we were walking up we noticed there was already a bus there so we power walked/old lady ran there and got right one. We had to stand but it was a short bus ride back so it was manageable.

We got back to the room and I tried calling my Mom but my phone dropped the call, so I had to go sit on the steps outside and talk to her. We talked for about 30 minutes then I showered and called it a night by 2:45am, with the alarm set for 6:00am. Guess I would need coffee in a few hours

Step count: 26,587

Next up: “It tastes like butt... nail polish remover and butt”​

 

[mrsmorrow]

I love your report so far!! You and your dad are adorable and seem like great traveling partners I love all of your pics! Looking forward to reading the rest!