After a very late night, we had an early morning at Magic Kingdom planned. I wasn’t sure we would manage it but actually we all slept well and we were up and and out at the bus stop for 7:30am.
We got the bus to Magic Kingdom and entered the park and headed towards Fantasyland. We thought we might get on 7 dwarves mine train during early morning magic hours but as we approached the ride the queue was right around the back of the ride nearly at Gaston’s. And it said 75 minutes wait. We decided against that and jumped on the Little Mermaid ride instead. Not a big ride but we decided we’d rather walk onto a few rides than stand for 75 minutes!
We thought we might try Peter Pan next but that was showing over an hour so we made the obvious choice and went on It’s a Small World.
After Its a Small World we saw that Buzz had a short wait so we walk over there next. The queue was getting a bit longer but it still wasn’t too bad. So we rode Buzz. Katie and I did terribly badly. I couldn’t seem to get any points! I was taking it very seriously!!
It was nearly time for breakfast so we walked over to Crystal Palace. We had some photos taken on the way over and has a really fun photographer who took loads of pictures for us.
We had to wait a little while for our table at Crystal Palace but not too bad. Then we were seated and told we would see 4 characters and to enjoy the buffet. We’d literally just sat down when our Tron boarding group came up. So we had about an hour before the boarding time would end.
The buffet was really good and we managed to get back and forth without missing any characters as we couldn’t see any. At all. We all ate. A wide variety of breakfasty goodness.
When we had finished eating we still hadn’t seen any characters. Which is pretty unusual. I asked our server if they were nearby and he said it could be an hour and a half to see all characters which seemed quite a long time. We had some coffee and waited as we could see Piglet on his way and we did end up seeing him, Eeyore and Tigger. We kept seeing Pooh going back for a break but he never made it over to our side of the restaurant.
We decided we would leave before we saw Pooh as there was no sign of him at all.
We walked over to Tron and arrived just as our time ran out. To be honest I don’t think it mattered. It was at least 20 minutes before anyone checked if we had a Virtual queue and so we had totally missed it by that point. It was extremely hot in the queue and we really weren’t sure if we should wait. We aren’t huge coaster fans but we like to try everything once.
Once we made it under the canopy they had big fans and it was a lot more pleasant to wait. Then once you are inside you have another wait so although we waited about 1 hour 20 minutes. Which is about an hour longer than my queuing preference!
I decided I would ride in the ‘old lady’ seats at the back and Katie agreed to sit with me as she’s not keen on any new rides until she is familiar with them.
We made it to the ride eventually and actually it was really really good. I don’t know if I would have liked the bikes but Phil and Molly said they were really good. In the seats at the back it was fast but not scary.
It did seem to be over very very quickly. Considering how long the queue is. The ride itself was over in a flash.
We were all quite tired from the long queue. I’d been feeling great before we queued but after that wait I was ready to sit down.
So the obvious answer to this was Carousel of Progress.
It was packed (relatively speaking). It was a completely full theatre which I have never seen before.
We sat down and they have the usual spiel. It’s a 20 minute show. Once the show starts you can’t leave. Etc etc.
So the show starts and we get to the 40s scene and someone gets up and walks out of the exit. Bearing in mind the theatre rotates I wasn’t even sure where the exit would be at this point. Of course we get an announcement that everyone must remain seated but when the scene ended the theatre didn’t rotate and we saw the 40s again. So then more people decide to get up and walk out. Which means the theatre can’t rotate again. As it’s dangerous for them to rotate the theatre when there are people on the emergency exit walkway.
When the scene started for the third time we just started to laugh. There were loads of announcements to stay put but it was anarchy which everyone just leaving. So then the announcement came that the ride had been shut down for safety reasons and we had to be evacuated.
We saw this scene at least 4 times before we were evacuated outside onto a narrow pathway at the back of the theatre. When we made it to the real exit it was raining to we put on our rain gear and headed over to Mickeys Philharmagic for a nice seat down in the aircon.
Unfortunately everyone seemed to have the same idea so we had a bit of a queue. When we got in the theatre we enjoyed the show and I was particularly surprised when a whole new scene appeared. I hadn’t realised there was a new scene so it was cool to see the Coco scene.
After Philharmagic we were done. We’d had an early start and a long day yesterday so we decided to head out of the park. It was about 2:30, so 6 hours was a pretty respectable day.
We had a fun bus driver. He told us to google him. https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2023/04/disney-cast-member-and-retired-school-bus-driver-reunites-with-former-student/
So I did!
We had a very lazy afternoon. The tv was on. I wrote up some trip reports. Phil had a nap. Just a whole lot of nothing. We are starting to hit the wall…
Eventually we had a lengthy discussion about what to eat. Is out Steak & Shake on our plan but we weren’t fancying burgers. We thought about Disney Springs but nothing was jumping out at us. That wasn’t too heavy. I think we would have all chosen Sweet Tomatoes if it was still around.
Eventually we decided to make one of the meals we’d bought from Target and then go to Disney Springs afterwards.
We had some pasta and salad and sat out on our balcony to eat. Then we walked over to get the boat to Disney Springs. The boats weren’t operating so we got the bus.
The whole process was rather slow and we eventually got to Disney Springs about 9pm. This is very out of character for us!
We had a look around Uniqlo (loads of Disney shirts) and the Lego Store and then into the big Disney store.
We didn’t buy anything much. We just wandered. We then went on the hunt for dessert. We walked past Gideons which still had a queue at 10pm and went into Sprinkles. As it was the end of the evening lots of items were sold out so we left Sprinkles and decided on Amorettes
Katie opted for Poutine, (from just outside ). I had key lime pie. Phil and Molly had a brownie and we had some coffee. It was delicious.
Molly wanted something she’d seen in Once upon a Toy so we walked back over there. This is about 1/3 of the size it was when my kids were little. I was quite surprised when I walked in.
It was pretty late now so back to the bus stop and our bus was in the station so we had no wait which was definitely appreciated!
Skating on Thin Ice 
Another fab day loving your blog and great photos