Florida 2020: Diary – Day 13

We got up early in order to time it right to get to the nearby Panera Bread when it opened and then to the Magic Kingdom toll plaza when it opened. We got it nearly perfect except for choosing the slowest line at the toll plaza. I seem to have a knack for that!

A Magical Start to the Day

We managed to get a decent parking spot, though not as good as we had gotten the first day. Since we knew the routine we more efficiently got through the health check and security lines. We were headed to the monorail, but were directed to the ferry that was about to leave. Apparently the monorail was going to need to stop for a maintanence check which would slow things down on that route.

The ferry is a fun alternative. It does take longer, but we still got there before the monorail train would have taken. We were through ticketing and into the parks in no time. We headed straight to Space Mountain again for two rides before doing the Space Ranger Spin. We went directly to Thunder Mountain and were happy to find the line was manageable unlike on the first day of the trip. We made our rounds to Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean before circling back to the Tomorrowland Speedway so they could get their fix driving a car.

By this time Cosmic Ray’s was about to open and the boys were hungry. We ordered on the app and got our food right away. We were impressed we had managed so many rides in so little time, but noticed that the park was filling up very quickly. We decided to watch Mickey’s Philharmagic movie/show. It usually doesn’t have a long line and the line said 20 minutes.

This was the only time during our entire stay where I saw someone blatantly ignoring the mask mandate. There was a lady talking (loudly, of course) to her group and using her mask as a chin diaper. She talked nonstop the entire time in line, never bringing her mask up and unfortunately never being asked to comply. Her group was also “tailgating”, which is basically ignoring the physical distancing lines on the floor. Luckily they were far enough in front of us that we didn’t have to worry too much about them.

As for the ride, we were the last group that didn’t make it into the next showing so we had to wait an extra cycle to get in. It was a bummer but not a big deal. The show was still great!

Afterwards we decided to head home for the afternoon with plans to come back in the evening.

Back at the Hotel

The boys found my wife working by the pool back at the hotel. They somehow had enough energy to go swimming for a couple hours. The weather was warm again after the cold stretch. I retired to the room for a nap like the old man I am.

We also used some of the breakfast vouchers we hadn’t used the last few days for some snacks in the market. While they were “only” $15 compared to the $25 ones we had in Fort Myers, the prices in the market were more reasonable so they went further. the selection wasn’t nearly as good though. It was mostly candy and snacks, though they did have prepared drinks. Tomatico really liked the smoothies he tried.

For dinner we decided the boys and I would get something on the way to the park. My wife decided to get something from DoorDash. We ended up going to Disney Springs since we had the coupon for the free pizza at Blaze due to the mishap with my youngest’s pizza on Christmas Day. The coupon was only valid at Disney Springs so we would have to use it or lose it and pizza sounded good!

There was gridlocked traffic around Disney Springs. One of the garages was closed and that created chaos with the traffic. We ended up going around the traffic to park in a surface lot. It was a longer walk but we saved a ton of time.

After passing through the health check to get into Disney Springs, we found it was really crowded. We managed to get to Blaze and there was a line. It moved quickly but we had trouble finding a seat while our pizzas cooked. The best we could end up with was a table for two, but one of the staff came to our rescue and found us another chair to sit on.

There were no mishaps with our pizzas this time and we quickly ate them as we wanted to get back to the park to do as many rides as we could before closing time.

Driving into the parking area for the Magic Kingdom I was surprised that we didn’t have to show our receipt. The booths were all empty and there was a message to “have a nice day” so we just went in to find a parking spot that would allow us to have a quick getaway on our way home.

Evening Adventures

We were ecstatic to see people streaming out of the park as we were entering. The fewer people in the park the shorter the lines would be!

We went directly to Thunder Mountain as Tomatico had never ridden it at night. It’s a lot different (and better) at night, just like Splash Mountain. The line for Thunder Mountain wasn’t long at all and we got through quickly, almost walking on the entire way. It was a no-brainer to do it again while the line was still shorter.

Afterwards, we went to Splash Mountain to try that at night. Tomatico didn’t believe me about it being different at night, but he changed his mind after experiencing it! We did Pirates of the Caribbean again (it’s the same at night, obviously) and then found the line for the Jungle Cruise to be manageable. It’s not a ride high on our list, but it’s worth it if the line isn’t long. I knew the Christmas theme was out and I hadn’t seen that version of it before. The boys loved the classic bad/dad jokes from the guide!

Next we made our way over to Space Mountain and found that there wasn’t a line… but they were turning people away. Apparently it was experiencing technical difficulties. We decided to do the Speedway again and Space Ranger Spin to pass the time, hoping it would be fixed. No luck. It was getting towards closing time so we decided to head back to the hotel. Watching the apps I saw Space Mountain didn’t go back online before closing so I’m glad we didn’t wait.

We had great luck doing the rides we wanted with minimal wait times. We were able to maximize our efficiency by leaving the park during the middle of the day.

The next morning we would have to get up especially early as we were going to the Animal Kingdom for our only day there. The park opens at 7:00 and we wanted to be there as early as we could. I had to find a Panera Bread that opened earlier than the one near our hotel (6:30) and was hopefully closer to the Animal Kingdom park. I found one that opened at 6:00 and wasn’t too far from the park so we set our alarms to hopefully be there when it opened. It would be an early morning!