Day 3 - January 22nd - Monday
Got up at 7 again to book some individual lightning lanes. Tron for my husband and the Mine Train for me. Decided to go back to sleep for a bit after that. We will never be rope drop people. We decided to order breakfast to-go and bring it back to our room. We liked this much better and did it every morning after.
We were finally on the boat to the Magic Kingdom at 10:00. I really, REALLY liked being able to take the boat to the park. First stop was my favorite - the Peoplemover. Line was actually a bit longer than I expected but our son did okay and he seemed to enjoy the ride!
After that we went to Tomorrowland Speedway to use the
DAS return we picked up. At Disneyland, one of our son's favorites is Autopia and we literally end each night on it. He really liked Speedway but not as much as Autopia. I think Autopia is way cuter with more things to look at. Speedway was dumb.
Next up - my LL return for Mine Train. A new ride for me! The LL line was stretched to the walkway and had a switchback. Definitely took longer than I would have liked but I'm glad I made it on. Here's a pic of when I finally made it close to going inside.
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So I ended up next to a lady who seemed upset. I asked if she's been on this before. She said yes and that she's scared to death. She literally started crying on the ride. While I felt sad for her, I have to admit, it made the ride a little less enjoyable for me because I felt like I needed to stay quiet and not happy. Maybe by the time we go back it won't have ILL anymore and will just have G+ or better yet...single rider!
After this, we went on Pooh using DAS. Our son is a fan of the Disneyland version. But I think he liked this one more since it had a Tigger bouncing part.
Next was a low part of the trip. We were in line for our advanced Peter Pan DAS return and out of nowhere, our son got really sad. He's minimally verbal so we have no idea what triggered his sadness. But he seemed upset that we had a few more days of trip and weren't going home. You see, he thrives on routine. So things outside that routine, even fun things like vacation, can be upsetting for him. Thankfully, once the ride got going, he was happy again!
Unfortunately...it didn't last. We went over to Tron so my husband go ride with his LL return. My son and I stood watching, hoping to see him. But after a while, he got very sad again and was crying. I found a place for us to sit but he was just very down at this point. Once my husband finished Tron (which he enjoyed) we went to lunch at Columbia Harbor House. Our son was happy again! And he ate one of his best meals of the entire trip - salmon, rice, and green beans....and some Cheez-its.
We went over to ride Magic Carpets with DAS and our son loved it. He enjoys all the spinner rides. My husband basically hates them but since there were two rows per carpet, I made him ride. After that we decided to walk through the Treehouse while waiting for our Pirates return time. I love this movie and have fond memories of walking through the treehouse. Sadly...it wasn't a great experience. There were a lot of people so we just had to keep pace with the line. And some kid kept stepping on my heels and almost made me fall on the steps. Frustrating!
Finally time for Pirates. Our son didn't like the drop but wasn't too bothered. He's done this ride at Disneyland a few times as well. But as everyone knows, the WDW isn't great compared to DLR. Still a fun ride though. And I'm glad we don't have to ride the boat back up the hill at the end!
It was about 3:15 now and we decided to go back to the hotel for break.
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Looking at photo timestamps, it only took about 20 minutes to get back to our room. Nice!
What wasn't nice...was finding our hotel room door propped open with the latch. No staff in sight. I panicked while we checked to see if any of our stuff was missing. Thankfully all seemed okay. But I called the front desk to make them aware. They had the head of housekeeping call me so I told him as well. He said he'd be speaking with the staff to make sure it doesn't happen again, etc. etc. No harm, no foul. But it was still upsetting! Thankfully, didn't happen again during our stay.
After resting, we decided to go to Epcot. We arrived at 6:15. So pretty! The lights are so much nicer than our trip 12 years ago!
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Spaceship Earth had a short wait so we did that first. Then we went to Connections for dinner. I had a salad that was actually really good and I'd definitely order it again. Our son only ate some cheese off of his pizza and some Cuties oranges.
We went over to Living with the Land and rode with zero wait. Such a relaxing little ride. I'd love to see it at Christmastime some day!
At 8:20 it was time for our Ratatouille DAS return. Our son was cracking up so it was clear this was probably his favorite ride here.
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We wandered through the World Showcase a little but didn't actually go into any of the shops. We did take some pictures in Morocco, which is my favorite pavilion. I love all the tile work. It's depressing how abandoned it is. And I really miss Restaurant Marrakesh!
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One of my favorite things on previous trips was getting mint tea and baklava and people watching. We did find baklava and other delicious pastries to have but they didn't have any hot mint tea. It was nice to just sit and relax and take everything in for a bit. With our son, it's hard to really take moments to sit like we used to.
Then we went over to ride Frozen. It was just after 9 so it was during the extra hours. I still have no idea if we were supposed to have wrist bands or some way to show we were deluxe. They just asked us when we got to the LL queue and asked if we were DAS. We ended up getting really wet on the ride this time but it was fun. I was glad it wasn't super cold outside. We headed toward the exit after this.
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We were at the bus stop around 9:45 and the wait for the bus wasn't too bad. This was a fairly late night for us. Often at Disneyland, we'd be back in our room by 7:30. I don't think we fell asleep until close to midnight.
All in all, a good day and I felt like we managed to get on a decent amount of rides!
(And I swear, the camera on my phone is better than it seems. They just get blurry when I add them to posts. I didn't take pictures on a camera phone from 2008. Ha!)