It'll Be Alright: March 2021

Day 2 - Magic Kingdom

Easy entry - We got up and got ready. We walked through the lobby and right out the hotel to the Magic Kingdom. This is a really easy walk. We had our temperature checked and then went through security. They have new scanners that are a bag check and a metal detector. It was great.
Grady - ‘Oh my goodness, that’s a big castle’ - While walking into the park, Grady saw the castle and said "Oh my goodness, that's a big castle". It was really cute. The castle had been refurbished with a new paint job. I thought it looked too much like Disneyland. Not sure I liked the new look.
Walk on Peter Pan - We tried to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train because both kids were big enough, but everyone in the park was going there first. We decided to try Peter Pan instead. Normally Peter Pan is a very long wait, but we walked on. We didn't wait at all. We also got to see the new area in the queue line. Peter Pan is great. We all enjoyed it. It seemed to be slightly longer than the Disneyland version, but I think the Disneyland version is better.
Small World - After we got off Peter Pan, we walked across the walkway to Small World, and we walked on it too. We all loved this one. It is different from Disneyland as it does not have characters and the layout is different. The entrance is also different. The beautiful exterior from Disneyland is contained indoors at Disney World and it does not have the same wow-factor as Disneyland. Grady was dancing while we were on the ride which was cute.
Haunted mansion - After Small World, we walked over to Haunted Mansion, and it was also a walk on. Crazy that we were able to do 3 rides within about 30 minutes. Haunted Mansion is my favorite Disney ride. I went with Grady this time, and he did pretty good considering he is 2. After we rode it, we all decided it was a little scarier than the Disneyland version. We also didn't get to do the stretching room due to COVID concerns.
Cinnamon roll - After Haunted Mansion, we walked back to try Mine Train again and it was a very long line. We decided to stop in Gaston's Tavern for breakfast. They have huge cinnamon rolls so we shared a couple of them. They were pretty good.
Little Mermaid - After breakfast, we rode Little Mermaid. This one was also a walk on. This is the same as Disneyland, but the exterior is much better themed as it looks like Eric's castle. We enjoyed this one too.
Dumbo - Next we walked over to Dumbo. There was a short line for Dumbo, but not very long. This is a good one. We all enjoyed it. I rode with Ellie and she liked raising and lowering the flying Dumbo.
Barnstormer x2 - Grady’s first roller coaster - I wanted to take it easy on Grady instead of just jumping in to a high octane thrill ride. This worked really well for us as Grady's first roller coast was Goofy's Barnstormer. This is a smaller roller coaster and both kids loved it. It kind of threw Grady around because he was so small. I rode with him first and he did great. He giggled and screamed and had a great time. After we rode, the kids wanted to do it again. It was only a 10-15 minute wait so we did it again. I rode with Ellie this time and she loved it too. It was a lot of fun to get to ride a roller coaster with both kids back-to-back.
Crazy crowds - tinker bell - We walked back over toward Frontierland to eat lunch at Pecos Bill's and found the park was starting to get busy. It seemed busier than we expected. On the way, we got to see our first character cavalcade. Tinker Bell was coming down the street on a parade float. It was cool to see.
Pecos bill’s lunch - We went to Pecos Bill's for lunch and this was our fist venture into mobile order. It went pretty well. We ordered mac and cheese for Grady, a rice and chicken bowl for Ellie, I got nachos and Lisa got a Chipotle-type bowl. They were all ok. Ellie didn't really like hers.
Parents walk; kids nap; Starbucks - The kids were getting cranky and sleepy so we decided to walk for a while to get them to sleep in the strollers. We found a path just off the hub that goes between Liberty Square down to Crystal Palace. We went back and forth until they were both asleep. We decided to go to Main Street and look in the shops. We started with a stop at Starbucks though. It was pretty warm so a Starbucks cold brews sounded pretty good. We each got a cold brew and Ellie woke up as we were ordering and she got a cake pop.
Main Street shops; cavalcades - When we were done at Starbucks, another cavalcade came by. We stopped and watched it too. These were really cool to see and we loved the randomness of them. We walked through the shops on Main Street. We found pretty quickly the majority of stores in Disney World had the same merchandise. We were hoping to find more unique items in some stores, but didn't.
Tea cups - kids had fun, Grady almost got sick - It was time for another ride. We walked to the Tea Cups from the hub and rode it. The line wasn't too bad. We all fit in one cup and started off. Ellie told me not to spin at first because she wanted to do it. So the kids did it on their own, at first. Then I started to spin faster and they giggled even harder. I may have gone too fast because when the ride stopped Grady was so dizzy he couldn't get up and looked like he might get sick. He recovered quickly. They loved the Tea Cups.
Race cars - We then saw the line for the Tomorrowland Speedway was short. Both kids could ride this one, which we were happy about. We only waited about 10 minutes and got on. I rode with Ellie. She did really good and had a great time. She giggled the entire ride.
Carousel of progress - At home, I sing the kids bedtime songs and one of them is "Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow". Ellie loves this song. I told her we would get to ride the attraction with the song and she was very excited. There was not much wait and we got on. Two things I noticed immediately: a lot of seats were blocked off for COVID purposes and the other was the air conditioning was not working very well. It was hot in there. We enjoyed the ride/show, but it is getting pretty old and tired.
Winnie the Pooh and bubble wand - uncomfortable line and store - We walked back to Fantasyland and found Winnie the Pooh had a shortish line. We hoped in and it took longer than expected. This was also the first time I felt uncomfortable. The lines had stickers on the ground to show where 6 feet separation was. The people in front of us did not stay on their line, and the people behind us were right behind us. This was almost too much. The ride was cute, nothing too exciting. After the ride, you walk into a gift shop and it was very cramped. We ended up finding a bubble wand on sale and got it for Grady. This was a great purchase. He loved it and it kept him occupied in the stroller.
Churro and play time - We found a Churro stand by the hub and stopped for a snack and a drink. We walked over to the turf area in the hub and took a rest/play break. This is a great area to stop and rest and let the kids run around on their own. We had a good time eating our churro and taking a break. We also saw a group of people outside a roped off area in front of the Plaza restaurant. They were all wearing Tampa Bay Buccaneers gear. We found out they were waiting for a player to show up after they won the Super Bowl the night before (beating our hometown Chiefs). We did see a person with his family following a VIP guide at one point in the day. We found later it was Rob Gronkowski.
Magic carpet - got wet - We walked to Adventureland to ride Jungle Cruise. Ellie wanted to ride the Magic Carpets so we did it since the line was short. It was fun. We all fit in one carpet. We ended up getting wet at the end. It was fun.
Jungle cruise - best skipper ever - Skipper Hunter - Grady has a book of the Jungle Cruise and we read it quite a bit. It has a lot of the jokes from the ride in it. He was very excited to ride the Jungle Cruise. He loved it in Disneyland and has come to love the book as well. We got in line and it was only 10-15 minutes. We got on and got Skipper Hunter. The boat was interesting because the skipper was behind plexiglass and everyone else was spread apart. Skipper Hunter was great. He was the best skipper we've ever had. He took all of the standard jokes and jokes from the book and made them better. It was great.
Pirates - pirate Mickey and Ariel ears - The park was getting ready to close and we decided to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. The line looked pretty long, but we gave it a shot. We ended up waiting over half an hour. I love this ride. I can't decide between World or Land. I like them both. They are very different. Grady loved it too. He watches Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so pirates are a good thing for him. At the end of the ride, there is a gift shop and Grady wanted everything in the gift shop, especially the Mickey and Pluto pirate plushes. We ended up getting him the Mickey pirate plush. It's really cute.
Monorail to TTC - I wanted to eat at the Polynesian for something different and we decided to take the monorail to the ticket and transportation center then walk to the Polynesian. We could only mobile order at Capt Cook's. The kids enjoyed the monorail ride. It was a nice relaxing ride. The monorail is looking a little tired and could use an upgrade or at least a facelift.
Dinner at Captain cook’s and dole whip - We mobile ordered our food so that we could get it when we got to the restaurant. We got off the monorail at the ticket and transportation center and found the walking path to the Polynesian resort. It was not a very long walk to the resort, but when we got there, it was dark and there were no lights on the paths. We had a lot of trouble finding the right way to get to the main building. We did finally get there, but most of it was closed as well. This resort was under construction and only the DVC rooms were being used. This was very inconvenient and I was unaware of how little of the resort was open. We got to Capt Cook's and our food was not ready. We didn't have to wait long, but the only seating was outside. We ate our food (in the dark) and it was quite good. After dinner, we walked around the corner and had Dole Whips. They were delicious.
Walk back to contemporary - bad info; 2 miles - While we were waiting for our food, I walked up to the front desk and asked the guy working there what the best way was to get back to the Contemporary. He said the monorail stopped 1 hour after park closing. So we couldn't get back the way we got there. He said there were 3 options: either get an Uber or cab, take they Disney bus transportation to Disney Springs and then get a bus from there to the Contemporary or the other option was to walk all the way around Seven Sea Lagoon back to the Contemporary. I went back and told Lisa and she was not pleased. We were not going to get an Uber because we had 2 small kids and 2 strollers. The bus sounded like a giant pain so we decided to walk. Thankfully Disney had connected the walkway from the Grand Floridian to the Magic Kingdom in the last 6 months or else we couldn't have walked. We started off and walked from the Polynesian to the Grand Floridian, we got to see the wedding chapel which was cool. The Grand Floridian is a very large resort. It was a little tricky finding the correct path through. We made it to the walkway and then walked from the Grand Floridian to the Magic Kingdom. The new bridge was very nice by the way. When we reached the Magic Kingdom, the security people were very confused. We explained what happened and had a good chuckle. We then walked from the Magic Kingdom back to the Contemporary. It was a nice walk and our Garmin watches calculated over 2 miles from beginning to end, what a way to end the day. During our walk we kept telling the kids to look for our hotel and see how big or small it was. It was finally full size. We went back to our room and while we were unloading the strollers and getting ready for bed my parents stopped by and we visited for a little while. It was a full fun day. The walk at the end was a lot, but it made a great story.