Mistakenly set my sleep cycle alarm for an hour early. Whoops.
David tried to book the 8:00 bus, but it was full on the website. So he called the company and was able to get the 8:00 bus anyway (they usually have a buffer of a few seats). But good to know the weekend buses will fill up and need to book them the night before.
So took the bus to the Transportation and Ticket Centre. There was a bit of a queue for the monorail so we took the boat.
Magic Kingdom entrance from the ferry
Even though we had early entry, not all parts of the park open early. At 8:50 Frontierland/Adventureland wasn't open yet so we waited around til 9:00.
First up we went on Pirates of the Caribbean. Because it had to be done. There were actually a few skeletons in this one. When I was in Disneyland in 2000 I was disturbed by how many skeletons were in all the rides. But either they've removed them from Magic Kingdom or maybe it just never had as many, because now they're only in places you'd expect to see them.
We did Big Thunder Mountain Railroad twice before the queue exploded.
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Then Peter Pan's Flight. Said 55 minutes wait hmm. But the queue would move ok for a while then just stop for a while. Probably people on scooters being difficult. It was a nice ride actually, different to all the other continuous train rides because you hang and look at everything from above.
Skipped the Princess Meet. Because I'm not 10.
Then went on the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, simply because there was only a couple of minutes wait. Accidently left my little bag of snacks behind so had to hang around to retrieve them after the next ride.
Mad Hatter's Tea Party
David and me on the teacups
And then Dumbo. It said 25 minutes wait. There's actually two copies of the ride, but one of them was down so we were wondering if the wait would be longer. But they eventually got the other one going again so the wait was probably under 20 minutes. In 2000, Dumbo was the longest wait I had in the entire park, at 10 minutes!
Dumbo
David on Dumbo
Next we watched the Country Bear Jamboree. Pretty dumb.
Country Bear Jamboree
Took the boat over to Tom Sawyer's Island, but we were a bit over things by then and didn't even explore the whole island.
Liberty Belle riverboat
Dragon in the parade
Mickey and Minnie in the parade
Instead we left and took the monorail back through the resort stations. We got off at the Contemporary Hotel, where the monorail actually goes right through the atrium of the hotel which is pretty cool. Took a bunch of photos around there.
Monorail at Magic Kingdom station
Magic Kingdom main building from the monorail
Space Mountain from the monorail
Inside Disney's Contemporary Resort
Monorail at Disney's Contemporary Resort
Disney's Contemporary Resort
Mickey shaped flowers at Disney's Contemporary Resort
We wanted to go to Hollywood Studios next. We could see the Magic Kingdom bus station *right there* outside the Contemporary Hotel, but America doesn't believe in pedestrians so the only way to get there looked to be walking through car parks and roads with no footpaths, so we decided just to take the monorail to the TTC. Previously we'd known which bay to go to for our hotel bus, and so we'd never really paid attention to the fact that Transportation and Ticket Centre is actually CRAP. They literally have no signage anywhere for where to go to catch buses to the various places. So we went and asked a Disney bus driver where to go to catch a bus to Hollywood Studios. And she's like, oh you can't catch one from here, you need to go to the Magic Kingdom bus station (where we just were) or walk to the Polynesian hotel and get a bus from there. WTF??? Disney have this amazing public transporation system with free monorails and buses, and yet you can't get a bus from their HUB to one of their parks??? Absolutely ridiculous. We ended up walking to the Polynesian, but could have taken a monorail there. While waiting for a bus, we saw a family with a disabled kid get off a bus, and then get onto another bus. When we eventually got our bus, we'd only gone to the next hotel before the same family had gotten off the bus in front and gotten onto our bus. Bizarre. Maybe the kid really likes buses.
Anyway.
Eventually made it to Hollywood Studios.
Entrance to Hollywood Studios
The Crossroads of the World
Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway inside Hollywood Chinese Theatre
First up we went to the Frozen Singalong. Because it was just about to start. And it was a lot of fun. I never saw Frozen on the big screen, so seeing a few of the songs and being able to singalong to them was great fun.
Frozen Singalong
Frozen Singalong
Straight after we hopped across the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. This was also really good fun.
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
Then watched Vacation Fun - An Original Animated Short with Mickey & Minnie. Which I can't even remember.
Next we went to Star Tours, which had no wait. It was ok, I think.
We stopped for linner at Pizzerizzo. I wanted beer and pizza. But the beer machine was broken so I just got pizza. Oh well.
Gonzo's Royal Flush toilet block
Then we headed for Star Wars land and did the Millennium Falcon Smuggler's Run. It said it was a 55 minute wait, but we just hit up the singles line and got straight on. I went in with a family of five who were completely hopeless. The "pilots" were meant to somewhat control the ship, but they weren't doing anything, or doing dumb crap, cause at one point you're meant to fly through these gates, but we were scraping along the sides of the scenery and the instructors were like, um you need to go right.. no really, you need to go right. Lame.
AT-AT walker
The Mandalorian and Grogu
Millennium Falcon
Inside Smugglers Run
Inside Smugglers Run
Walking around this area was just like walking around a Star Wars set
Droids
Toy Story Land
I love how everything is themed, including the toilets, fences, seats, shops
Had a bit of a wander through the Walt Disney Presents museum.
Disney Wish model
Then waited ages for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (40 minutes I think). Stoopily slow moving queue. But this was actually a super fun ride. They stick 21 people in a lift and then lift it up and drop it a few times. There's actual moments of weightlessness which was quite fun. But it was stoopidly loud because all the stoopid teenage girls Would. Not. Stop. Screaming. Hate. I actually blocked my ears for a lot of it cause it was so painful.
The Hollywood Tower Hotel (Twilight Zone Tower of Terror)
Inside the Tower of Terror
We watched the first Fantasmic show, which was good but not as good as Epcot. And it was really loud.
Mickey at Fantasmic
Lake on fire at Fantasmic
Steamboat Willie
Boat full of characters at Fantasmic
Finally we did Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, a roomba style ride which was ok.
Beverly Sunset building by night
Dockside Diner by night
The Crossroads of the World by night
Headed out to find the bus. It was due to go at 21:40 but someone was trying to get their scooter on, but tonight we had a single decker coach with no disabled entry, and the driver couldn't manage to fit the scooter into the storage. So scooter person was left behind, and we left twenty minutes late at 22:00. #grunt.
We heated up the tv dinner I got at Publix the other night in the microwave in the hotel lobby and shared that, but it meant we didn't get to bed til 23:00 :(
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