By 9am, the boys were restless and ready to hit up the pool. So, we headed on down and grabbed a great shady spot with a table and umbrella figuring we'd be there for several hours. Tinkerbell had brought the boys sand toys (dinosaur bones, shovel, rake, and sifter - thanks Michaels) the night before, so they were ready to go!
As mentioned in a previous post about our dining experience in Epcot at Coral Reef, we needed to speak with someone at the Hospitality House of our resort to see what we could do. Also, I wanted to finally get rid of the gift cards we bought to use for tips at our Table Service meals by putting the gift cards on our account. The front desk staff was amazing! They apologized profusely for our dining experience (more so than the manager at Coral Reef did) and instead of the $25 credit that we were offered at the restaurant they gave us 2 Table Service credits back AND let us keep the $25 credit. There's another example of that Disney magic hard at work...
As you can see in the back left corner, the boys didn't mind waiting while we took care of our business at the front desk. Kid sized chairs and "old fashioned Mickey cartoons" = happy boys.
The pool wasn't very crowded as I'm sure the majority of the guests were in the parks, so the boys enjoyed having a minimal wait for the water slide.
The boys have gotten so brave jumping in the pool and it was hilarious watching them come up with creative jumps and names for them. Some of Sean's favorites are the cannon ball and the belly flop. What goof balls!
We walked back to the room after getting a Quick Service lunch at Good's To Go by the pool. We carried it back to have on our patio in our room since the boys needed out of the sun. The boys both laid down for a nap knowing that it would be a late night in Magic Kingdom and we were all dressed and ready to go out for our dinner reservation at Chef Mickey's at 5:15pm. We decided to grab a taxi to the restaurant since the transportation would have taken at least an hour with the bus to Magic Kingdom and then walking or the monorail from Magic Kingdom to the Contemporary resort. Best decision!
So, my review on Chef Mickeys. I get why people want this reservation and experience. It's about the atmosphere and experience. It's in a cool resort within walking distance or a monorail ride to Magic Kingdom and you get to see the main characters, but the food was not good. The lines were long for the buffet and the character interaction was minimal. In fact, we were told to keep a "constant watch" for characters because if we miss one of them it will be at least an hour before they're back in our section. Well...we can't control how long the lines are for food, can we? In the future, I'd skip it. We've done it, we got some good pictures with the characters, but not again for us.
After dinner, we took the monorail over to Magic Kingdom. Our evening plans were the following:
Dinner at Chef Mickey's at 5:15pm
Tomorrowland Speedway (FastPass ending at 6:45pm!)
The Haunted Mansion (FastPass from 7-8pm)
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (FastPass at 8:15pm)
Main Street Electrical Parade
Wishes Fireworks
We just barely made it to Tomorrowland Speedway in time for our FastPass. We knew it would be a tight squeeze with dinner and the monorail ride, but we hauled buns over to the attraction. It was fun, but man, those cars are really hard to steer! No way could a kid drive that thing!
Next up was The Haunted Mansion! My kids talked about this ride for months before our trip. Maybe I've raised some weirdo's, but they are obsessed with all things spooky! They were so excited to ride this!
They walked off with smiles on their faces and us promising them that we would ride it again when we came back the following Tuesday.
We walked all the way back to Buzz Lightyear's ride in Tomorrowland. And what a waste of time! We got loaded onto the ride and 2 seconds later it stopped. Lights went off on the "guns" and we waited, listening to that horrible music for a good 20 minutes before they told everyone to get off. The ride had lost power. They issued us FastPasses to ride it again anytime on our trip, but we had some unhappy kids on our hands.
We made a last minute decision to go see Tinkerbell in Town Square before getting our spot for the Electrical Parade. Her line was short (I was checking touringplans' app while we were stuck on Buzz) and it was well worth the trip up front! Look at these shots!!
The character interaction here was at it's best and the entire set-up in the room was beautiful with twinkling lights, being led through a door and all! We loved it!
As we walked back up Main Street we stopped for some pictures with the PhotoPass photographers and headed into Frontierland to grab a spot at the end of the parade (the spots on Main Street were taken as we walked into Magic Kingdom before 7pm for a 9pm show...).
The noise cancelling headphones came in for another win and we got a spot right on the edge of the sidewalk! Popcorn, spinning light toys from Tinkerbell (Target), glow sticks from the dollar store, and we were set! Everyone loved the show, although Sean chose to sit farther back once it really got going.
We all left the park very late, but with smiles on our faces. It was truly a magical evening! The boys weren't the least bit crabby! How could you be? You're at the happiest place on Earth!
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