Thursday - Fourth day in the parks - MK then HS

 

We had reservations for Cinderella's Royal Table inside the castle at 10:00 am.   That meant our morning park was Magic Kingdom.   We loved Seven Dwarf Mine Train, so I wanted to early entry that and the line got long quickly so we needed to be at the front of the pack.   We got there by taking the boat over from Fort Wilderness, which meant taking the internal bus to the boat ramp, then boating over.   We were about 20' back from where you tapped in, and they weren't open.    I hate and despise the Disney phone app.   Not that we used it, but everyone that did seemed to take forever!!!    There needs to be lines just for phone app people.   And they always seemed to be the large families where everyone stands in front of both tap machines.    Once we got in, then there was the rope-drop crowd.   We moved forward in the crowd.    I would have felt bad but based on when we arrived we should have started out in the crowd where we ended up.    Enough people went to other rides that we were really quite near the front.   When we'd been in the crowd we ended up next to a guy that was reading a large thermo. book, and we chatted with him a bit there.    Then he was next to us in line too.  We all agreed that based on our place in line We Won Magic Kingdom for the day.   We all love Seven Dwarves.   Then we explored the area.    Tatiana really liked Pinocchio's restaurant, just looking inside it.   

We were all looking forward to the Haunted Mansion and the standby line was 30 minutes so we went to that.   We even enjoyed the queue, reading all the grave markers.    The musical thing where you touched your hands to images of the instruments and then they played, we all loved that.   

Then it was time to go to breakfast.   They were running late, so we saw Philharmagic while we waited.   That was cute.   

Breakfast was disappointing.  I'd read that they rushed you but I thought if we didn't cooperate we wouldn't be rushed.   Even though they ran late for seating, they closed the kitchen on time.  Both Tatiana and Scotland preferred the steak here, though over our first breakfast.    Everyone got a wishing star and Tatiana wants to convert those into earrings for her Baby Yoda ears.   Saturday we will run to Walmart and get the hardware to do that.  We also got two swords and a wand.   They had frequent sword fights.

After that Scotland and Tatiana wanted to go to Tom Sawyer island.   I am glad we read those books so Tatiana will appreciate that.   We shopped on our way there but we got close, I asked that we go home.  I was just too tired.  It seemed to take forever to get back.   We all agreed that our favorite way to get to MK was the parking lot-monorail route.   

Tatiana played on her tablet.   Scotland watched some TV and then napped.   I tried to nap, but I just ended up reading.   I was horizontal, though.   We were all refreshed when we went back to the parks.   

We went to Hollywood Studios and we got there late enough that they'd closed the parking tollbooths.   But some cars in front of us went around, and we followed them.   I had been worried that they'd make us park far away for our afternoon park.  They did for Magic Kingdom, and that is OK since there are Trams there.   But, at the other parks we've parked very near the entrance since they let people fill in the vacant spots.  

Our first Genie+ was for Toy Story Mania.   We all loved that.  The CM's were lined up in front of the entrance because it was down.   So, we wandered to the Star Wars area, looking at stuff on our way.   We were about to head to the Millennium Falcon to use our Anytime there, but I checked and Toy Story was back up.  So, we went back to there.   We waited 9 whole minutes in line.   Tatiana rode by herself so that she could have all the targets on her side.  She ended up beating both Scotland and I.   I'll have to ask the family which shooting ride they prefer.    I prefer Justice League at Six Flags.   I suspect Scotland likes Universal's best.  

It looked like we had a Star Tours G+ that Scotland got while I rested, so we went there.  Turns out it had expired 3 hours before.   Which makes sense because its times are next far out.    But we rode it.    That was our third? time and we enjoy that it is different every time.   

Then we had a Slinky Dog Dash G+, so we went there.   Even the genuine expected standby wait time is obnoxious for that ride, so I was happy to have gotten a G+.   We all enjoyed that.   It went fast without a lot of drops, so Tatiana loved it.  At the end, where they had the row of moguls was so charming.

Then we went to our Millennium Falcon G+.   Even the standby line wouldn't have been bad then.  I got to be Left-Right Pilot, Scotland was Up-Down and Tatiana was our only gunner.  We ended up with Pirate rank which was our best yet.    And that was me crashing into some rocks because I thought that flying was over.   

We had thought to do that again, but I wanted to ride Mickie and Minnie at close and we wouldn't have had time to do both.    I think we still waited a half-hour for Mickie and Minnie, but it was at close and so much shorter than it had been earlier in the day.  Both Scotland and Tatiana enjoy knowing nothing about the rides and being surprised.