Another 9:30 morning and another trip to the Mara for yogurt parfait and…a Mickey waffle! O sweet Mickey waffle, how I love you!

I think the heat and walking of our trip, coupled with CP’s cold, left her (and me!) feeling pretty tired by this point. Instead of heading right out to a park, we decided to lay low and watch some tv, and left for the Magic Kingdom around noon. After another long, chaotic bus ride, we headed down Main Street to Fantasyland, where we grabbed Fast Passes for Peter Pan, and then headed to Tomorrowland to ride…the Speedway.

Can't you just feel the wind whipping through your hair. No? Anyone?

Lame, I know, but the line was short, the grandmas and kids driving cars entertaining, and the nostalgia factor was high – I probably haven’t ridden the speedway since I was a child myself.  Afterward, we decided to head to the Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor, another attraction which neither one of us had ever seen. En route we saw the almighty PUSH! Finally! After the Laugh Floor, we used our Peter Pan FPs, and then decided it was time for ice cream. Ha.

I thought heading to the Polynesian Resort would be a good idea; after all, it has the only Dole Whips outside of the Magic Kingdom, and I figured they would also have other good ice cream options for CP, who isn’t a fan of fruit-based desserts.

Ice cream ahoy?

Plus, we’re always suckers for resort exploration, so I figured it would be a win-win.  Taking a boat to the Poly via the Grand Floridian, we explored Captain Cooks and found  the ice cream offerings to be lacking. We then took the monorail one quick stop to the Grand Floridian, where we explored the shops and grounds – what a smell. It just smells…clean. Expensive. Restful!  It was also interesting to compare the demographic differences in resort crowds, as the Grand Floridian seemed, at least from our perspective, to host a far larger number of international families.

Finding no good ice cream options here, either, we realized we were actually hungry for a meal, so we stopped at Gasparilla Grill for a very tasty tabbouleh sandwich with a cucumber salad and homemade chips on the side.  Afterward, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom and straight to the Main Street bakery, where we hoped to find a delicious baked good to satisfy our sweet teeth.  Sadly, by mid afternoon the bakery was just about devoid of sweets, so we instead partook in a square of toffee and rocky road fudge from the Confectionary.  We people watched on a shady bench by the Tiki Room, eating our treats, and then headed to Big Thunder Mountain for a ride before taking the train around the park and back to Main Street to catch a bus back to AKL.

Hey big thunder!

Unlike several earlier bus outings that week, this ride was quiet, full of sleeping kids and peaceful parents. That is, until we reached Kidani Village, the first bus stop at Animal Kingdom Lodge before you can disembark at Jambo House. At Kidani boarded dozens of families headed to the Magic Kingdom for that night’s Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, and the din of the children was so loud that one grandfather who exited at Jambo with us said he was headed to the bar for a beer and a shot to recover.

Happy to be free of the screaming masses, we headed into AKL and down to the Mara to refill our mugs, and then we headed to the flamingo overlook to see what animals were out on the savannah. We then discovered the savannah overlook behind the Uzima pool, which was deserted and offered a quiet respite to drink soda and watch the giraffes amble across the grass.  Around 7pm, we headed back out to the bus stop intending to visit the Studios, but thanks to my trusty Lines app, we learned that the waits at HS were higher than we felt like tolerating, so we caught a bus to Epcot instead.

As we walk in through the turnstiles at Epcot, a lovely gentleman stops us and offers us two Fast Passes for Soarin’, which we gladly accepted.  With an hour or so before our Fast Passes come due, we  take a ride into history (?!) on Spaceship Earth,

I'm feeling sleepy just looking at this picture...

and then walk to Test Track to see what the single rider line looks like. Happily we discover the standby line is only 5 minutes, so we enjoy riding together in a car with a gaggle of happily screaming teenage girls.  Afterward, we took a bathroom break in the sadly deserted Odyssey building, and then hoofed it to Soarin’.

Another first-world-problems gripe of mine: why, oh why does the Fast Pass line for Soarin’ have to take at least 20 minutes Every. Single. Time? Grumbling about the wait, we slowly moved through the queue and to the loading area, where our pains were eased slightly by our Row 1 seats. We departed Soarin’ in the midst of post-IllumiNations madness, but were able to quickly catch a bus back to AKL.

Feeling a bit peckish but not wanting a full meal, we poked our heads into Jiko to see if they could seat us at the bar for a drink and dessert. While I enjoyed my glass of South African wine and CP enjoyed her ‘adult’ coffee, neither one of us found the desserts all that compelling, and we certainly weren’t thrilled with the $60 price tag for two drinks and dessert. As excited as I had been to try Jiko (a reservation we ultimately didn’t keep), this wasn’t perhaps the best introduction.