Magic Kingdom - October 2017

It feels like we were just here... maybe because we were. 

Perhaps my goal should be to hit up at least one of the Disney theme parks each month for the duration of our passes. What do you think?

Anyway, the kids had Monday off. Teacher workday. I scheduled some FastPasses and we headed up to the Magic Kingdom. Our first FP+ was for the Haunted Mansion. I was super bummed we didn't ride it in September, so I made sure it was on our list this time. This is one of my absolute favorite rides. 

After the swinging wake, we went in search of pirates. And found some. 

I did not get FastPasses for Pirates of the Caribbean... It seems that there is never a line for it. Until this trip. The wait time said 50 minutes. Ugh. Reagan was insistent.  It turned out the wait was closer to 30 minutes. 

The hangries were setting in by this point. My thought was to grab hot dogs at Casey's on Main Street (yum) and head over to Buzz Lightyear. While in line, one of my monsters was losing it... so we scratched the wait and grabbed ice cream from across the street. They were both more than happy to eat giant ice cream cones for lunch. 

The Magic Kingdom was really quite busy on this particular day. And it was hellishly hot out. Not a cloud in the sky. Not a breeze to be found. 

We defeated Zurg. Just barely. And we went off toward the People Mover. (As I am sure you remember from my last MK trip, this is my FAVE) We skidded to a stop when we saw a windy, long line for it. Nope. No way. I am not waiting for the People Mover. 

We thought about trying to get on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, but the wait time there was 110 minutes - thank goodness both kids vetoed that. I would not have been keen on waiting nearly two hours for it. 

So we decided to head back toward Thunder Mountain. We had a few hours before our FastPasses for it, but we started walking that way regardless. Reagan asked if we could check out the Pin Trader store. They spent a long time like this:

I think they looked at and touched every single pin on this wall. I appreciated the momentary quiet and the AC (ish... it's not totally cold in there, but it's better than the blazing FL sun). 

The kids decided we could wait in the standby line for Big Thunder Mountain. It was less than an hour according to the sign, but really we waited less than 30. Win. 

Riley had forgotten what Thunder Mountain was like. He was not relaxed at all on the ride. 

He was MUCH more comfortable the second time around... but we will get to that. 

There was still so much time left before our 3:30 Big Thunder FP+. We bought some popcorn (in an expensive Mickey bucket), a strawberry popsicle and drinks. Since Splash Mountain is currently closed, there was plenty of room to chill out in the shade there and eat. 

We decided to ride Disney's train around once. 

Then we waited a few minutes more... 

Finally it was time to ride the wildest ride in the wilderness. Again. This time Riley was chatty, giggly and super happy to ride it. 

We hopped on the train again and rode it up to Main Street. Then we hopped onto a Monorail, followed by a tram. When we got off the tram and were walking to the car, I asked if they had fun. They shouted YES! BEST DAY EVER! 

Then I said "Who's the best parent?"

They decided they couldn't outright give me that one because it wouldn't be fair to Dad. Ok. Fine. 

I said, "Fair enough. But who is the most fun?" 

Riley immediately yelled "GRAMMIE!" Cool, thanks Bud. 

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For some fun pictures - and an excellently hilarious video of the monsters on Thunder Mountain - be sure to follow us on Instagram.