Monday, August 12

Another relatively leisurely morning – we didn’t enter the gates of the Magic Kingdom until almost 10am. And while some people are eager to rope drop Dumbo or one of the mountains or Enchanted Tales with Whats-Her-Face, we…have other goals. Namely Starbucks. We had eaten some bird food in the room, so now it was time for coffee and lots of it.

Properly caffeinated, we made our way to Frontierland to use our first FP+ of the day at Big Thunder. First, though, we encountered this guy:

I really hope that wet spot isn’t pee – it’s never a good idea to eat while laying in a puddle of your own urine.

Anyway! Moving on. Big Thunder was next, and it was…Big Thundery.

After a quick walk through the Frontierland “Trading Post,” we made an impulsive decision to sit in on the Country Bears. I think it was really a calculated move to have some dedicated time in the air conditioning. But I’m not one to complain; even after they shortened the bears’ set, I still love the Country Bears.

Next up was our (I’m still embarrassed to admit we used it) FP+ for Haunted Mansion. We stopped like twelve times on this ride, but that just means more time for photos.

After stopping briefly to say hello to Mr. Toad, we realized it had been like two whole hours since we had last eaten. (What vacation does to a person…oy.) A Nutella waffle sandwich seemed in order, but so did an arugula/chicken waffle sandwich. So we split both.

The Nutella waffle – which we’ve had before – was excellent. I enjoyed the chicken waffle to an extent, but didn’t really care for the less-than-crisp slaw buried under the chicken. Further, neither of these is really a “sandwich,” and the chicken one is particularly difficult to eat with plastic cutlery.  Not that we were held back – we demolished them both.

We had a little time to kill before our next FP+ reservation, so we walked off our lunch (second breakfast?) in new Fantasyland, stopping in Big Top Souvenirs for some browsing and air conditioning. Time sufficiently killed, we doubled back to Peter Pan. (Hey, at least we’re getting our exercise.)  Want to see some great pictures of our ride? I’m sure you do. But instead, you get this:

After less than three hours of park touring – including time to get Starbucks and eat – we were on our way out of the MK. I know, we are terrible at this. But August heat and crowds are best managed in small doses, so it was back to the Poly for some R&R. Following that, we drove back over to Downtown Disney in hopes that we might catch our new best friend Jay at Guest Relations. We owed him a huge thank-you for all the help with our (Un)MagicBands.

Jay wasn’t there, so we were forced (!) to drown our sorrows in some Ghirardelli. It’s a rough life we lead.

Downtown Disney is one of those places where the more I visit it, the less I like it. I think we’re overexposed. The merchandise is stale, the stores are pretty boring, and many of the Cast Members are some of the unhappiest you’ll find on property. Tons of fun, right? We ate our ice cream, browsed a bit, and then got the heck out of there.

Since we had exerted ourselves for oh, another hour or so, it was clearly time for more resting. (Also: this must be how 80 year olds tour Disney, right?) Back to the Polynesian. Nap a little, sit on the balcony and watch the resort launches and ferry. Around dinner time, we debated where to spend our evening; even though we had now been there eleventy billion times on this trip, we went back to the Magic Kingdom.

Not having any particular destination in mind, we opted to start out with a ride on the TTA. The TTA is one of the most relaxing experiences in the Magic Kingdom…until you ALMOST DIE GETTING ON IT.

Okay, not really. BUT. Proving true a disturbing trend whose reports first surfaced some months ago, just as we were boarding our TTA car, the train behind us rammed into our train at a pretty good clip, throwing me off balance and pulling something in my arm quite good as I attempted to right myself. Obviously it wasn’t fatal, but it was a pretty good adrenaline rush, and it raised for me some larger questions about maintenance and safety at the parks. Is this the new normal?

We recovered quickly, taking in the beautiful evening light as we rode around Tomorrowland:

All things considered the Magic Kingdom was pretty busy, so we disembarked the TTA and took the “secret” walkway over to New Fantasyland. We did our requisite walk around Big Top Souvenirs, and then meandered through the park and toward Adventureland. We had no real destination in mind; sometimes, we just enjoy wandering aimlessly and people watching.

Big Thunder’s line was far too long to abide waiting standby, so we spent a few minutes in Frontierland trying to figure out our next move. We elected to check out the line for Pirates, especially to see how the new standby queue compared to the FP+ queue. Answer: almost identically claustrophobic, hot, and smelly.

Proving yet again that blind three-legged cats could park tour more intelligently than us, we exited Pirates only to backtrack all the way over to Fantasyland. CP enjoys little more than a spin on the teacups at night, something we hadn’t yet fit in in spite of our thousands of visits to the MK this week. It was now or never. We chose now.

And with that, we were happy to call it a night. We wandered out of the park slowly, enjoying the (somewhat) cooler evening temperatures now that the sun was down.

CP even indulged me in a boat ride back to the Poly – she’s more the monorail fan, while I always love a boat ride. Luckily there was a boat at the dock, so we had no wait. Once back at the Poly, we indulged in our now nightly ritual: Electrical Water Pageant, Wishes, and showers. Oh…and packing. But before we think on that depressing fact, let’s enjoy a few more pictures of Wishes:

Up next: Our August trip comes to an end…but will we make it home?