It was a sad day, in more ways than one although we are leaving tomorrow not really having felt like we missed out on anything. Sure, Thunder Mountain Railroad was down for construction, as was Dumbo and all of Fantasyland, but we rode many of our favorite rides more than once.
One thing I will say, I probably wouldn't schedule an early morning breakfast, before park opening on the last big day of our trip AND add daylight savings on top of it. Way to go family for making it there on time, ready to go even if it did take a little prodding. But true to form, once we were there the kids loved it. Yes, Pooh and friends was probably a little young for the kids but Gwen was talking about Piglet since the first time we were at Magic Kingdom. So I was glad we toughed the morning out and made it. Unfortunately, (and maybe a little fortunately for a lower level of crowds than predicted) it rained almost the entire day we were there. I felt vindicated that we got to use my dollar store ponchos for the day, and it never came down hard, but it sure was bothersome.
We were out of Crystal Palace by 9:30am so the park had been open for a half hour. We would spend most of the day on the West side of the park, by Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Carribbean. But our first stop ended up being in the fairy hut where Gwen got to meet Terrance (boy fairy) and Tinkerbell. Score...they were really the only people we didn't get to see and wanted through the rest of our trip. It also filled up her autograph book. We then rode Aladdin's magic carpet ride, sort of in place of Dumbo. It was then time to head over to Tom Sawyer's Island to see if we could find any paintbrushes. Turns out they weren't doing it anymore while Thunder Mountain Railroad was down for construction. We toured the island anyway...it is pretty cool!
We headed off the island right on to Splash Mountain. Gwen was very excited, but then was worried that we were going to crash at the bottom of the drop and go underwater. So the photopass picture we got is of me covering her eyes and everyone else looking kind of worried themselves. So we got those out of the way for the day. I then wanted to also get the Haunted Mansion out of the way as well. Trevor sucked it up and went on it without any real problems. He even asked to go on it again so he could read all the inscriptions on the headstones in the graveyard. Gwen was really upset at the end of the ride because they had to stop the ride before we could get off but RIGHT after Russ and Trevor got off. Most of the ride she didn't want to watch but I knew she wasn't really scared...it was that darn Tower of Terror that did her in. So...to make her feel better, we went over to grab a fastpass for her requested ride: Peter Pan and walked right on to Its a Small World. We tried to get over to Pirates of the Carribbean but they just shut it down for technical difficulties. Decided to get out of the rain for lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern. I was a bit chilled at this time from being wet so I had to have some hot chocolate. We had a good meal where Trevor and Gwen both had a change of pace macaroni and cheese and Trevor totally scarfed down a bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup...complete with carrots, celery and all.
Before heading to Peter Pan I asked to stop off and see the Hall of Presidents. I'm pretty sure the last time I saw that show was before I was a teenager because it wasn't anything like I remembered it. Waiting for that show was our longest wait of the day....20 minutes or so. We then caught our fast passes to Peter Pan and then went back to get on a quick ride of Pirates which was working. We then decided that there wasn't much left for us to do. Trevor was asking to do the speedway and Buzz Lightyear ride one last time, but I think I'm going to take him tomorrow morning before we head out. He is my early riser and we can run in and out and be back in under and hour I think. We'll see how tomorrow morning goes.
All in all though, we were back at the hotel by 4. I think we maybe stood in line a total of 30 minutes not counting the Hall of Presidents. Yes, there were some of the fastpass rides that had long wait times but it was as though the East side of the park was packed and the West side was not interesting enough for people. I LOVED the apps for the phone we could use and see the wait times. Completely invaluable. Today, the Disney run app was down so I used the Undercover Tourist one. One day the Undercover Tourist was down so Russ had to rely on the one I had. The Disney one also added when the fastpasses were going for. That was very nice.
And I will also say I think the pin trading caught on towards the end. We will probably do it again next time and just have them in case they see any pins they want to trade. Gwen got an Aurora pin today and she was as happy as a clam. That was a very fun moment.
Hopefully tomorrow we can have a smooth ride back home and get back into the swing of things in what is going to be a very easy transition back to Minnesota!
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