The trip of many changes August 2017 - Day 11 Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios

[jothp]

Index here

This morning it was yet another early start for breakfast at Crystal Palace.

We had loved this meal last year and were really looking forward to it. We had a lovely conversation on the bus with a couple of families who were going to early morning magic. We arrived in good time so took the opportunity to get a few more photos.

These are some of my favourites from the trip

Soon we were through the turnstiles and on our way to CP. After checking in, we only waited a few minutes before being shown to our table. We were greeted with the news that the characters were not currently signing and we were given a laminated card honeypot each with the characters signatures on the back. Having spent an age making autograph books with pictures of the characters on the page for them to sign, I wasn't best impressed! Even more irritating is the fact that we had not had Pooh and Tigger sign at 1900 Park Fare! (I did warn you we would live to regret that decision ) In the grand scheme of things this wasn't important so we got on with enjoying our breakfast. Before we had even met any characters, a member of staff was walking round the tables trying to convince everybody how much better the cards were than having your book autographed. I did tell him that we would have much preferred the actual signatures so he gave us some paper FPs for POTC to make up for it.

We all enjoyed our breakfast, especially the girls once they found there was ice cream on the buffet.

We were finished just before 9 and headed straight off to BTM, we were off again by 9.15. Being the biggest wimp of the family, I sat out of Splash Mountain and found some shade to wait for the others to return.

Pirates was next on the plan so we used the extra FPs we had been given earlier. We didn't really need them though as the posted wait was only 15 minutes.

The Magic Carpets were next but Robyn declared herself far too grown up for them.

It was now only 10.15 so once again we were doing really well

The window for our first FP was nearly ending so we did Jungle Cruise, followed by our next FP at HM.

Strangely we were all feeling a bit peckish so we stopped off at the liberty square market to use up some snack credits on fresh fruit and sat in the shade to enjoy our treats and take in the atmosphere.

About 11.45 it was time for our appointment with some princesses so we made our way around into fantasyland.

I got straight back onto MDE and managed to secure us a 12.10 FP for IASW - just 10 minutes to wait - much to Robyn's delight We went straight there and when we came off we tried to get to the 12.30 riverboat but it was just sailing off so we enjoyed some air conditioning inside country bears instead. Once again this was a show I don't remember much of

We had more luck with the 1.00 sailing.

By the time we came off it was 1.25 so we went to grab some lunch from Pecos Bills. I've no idea what we ate but I'm sure it can't have been a lot given how much we'd already eaten today. I do remember the fountain drinks her tasting like swamp water

While we were eating it started raining. There were lots of people coming in looking for shelter from the rain and looking for seats to eat. We had finished and felt a bit guilty taking up space so we donned our ponchos and walked round to the Tiki room. It was still raining when we came out at about 2.30 and it wasn't looking hopeful for seeing the parade. We nearly left the park but decided to wait around a little bit longer just in case. We had done all of this side of the park so we headed over to tomorrowland and took a spin on the peoplemover. We were mid ride when the announcement came that the parade would begin at 3.30. Feeling thankful that we wouldn't miss it after all, we hotfooted it back to the other side of the park and secured a spot outside LTT.

As soon as the parade had finished we made our way out of the park feeling very satisfied with what we had accomplished.

The rest of the day to come...

[jothp]

We arrived to AKL at about 4.30 for a short break. Ollie took the girls to the pool whilst I started a bit of washing. The plan for this evening had been Epcot but we had already seen illuminations and hadn't seen any of the nighttime offerings at HS yet. It was also the last day for the GMR that we hadn't done yet this trip either. I got busy refreshing on MDE and managed to secure us a FP for GMR starting at 7.00

We left the room again at 5.45 and when we arrived at HS I made sure we didn't miss Pixar Live this time - I really enjoyed this - lots of people clearly weren't impressed though as they were just walking out part way through. Pixar finished and we made our way to the FP queue.

The standby queue was massive- over 3 hours! I have to admit to wondering why those people weren't checking MDE. I was refreshing as we waited in the queue to see what else we could get and several times for GMR came up!

After the ride we were hungry so stopped off at ABC commissary and then got a spot to wait for the star wars fireworks. We chose them as we had already seen Fantasmic last trip and these were new for us, but hoped we might get back again for Fantasmic. Sadly we never did.

[Waltdisnae]

You have lucky FP fingers! Another super day. You've given me lots of ideas. Thank you.

[Elsa42]

Wow you managed to get quite a lot done the morning in magic kingdom, didn't seem to wait at all! is that a photo for POTC? is this new i've never seen photos for this ride before! another great day!

[jothp]

Originally Posted by Waltdisnae

You have lucky FP fingers! Another super day. You've given me lots of ideas. Thank you.

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Thanks, the only experience I have of the paper FP system is a DLP but I really like being able to book FP in advance and look on the app for extra ones. I generally was able to get what I wanted for 5 people within 10 minutes. A couple of times I split us into a 3 and a 2 and found two different FP times that overlapped.

Originally Posted by Elsa42

Wow you managed to get quite a lot done the morning in magic kingdom, didn't seem to wait at all! is that a photo for POTC? is this new i've never seen photos for this ride before! another great day!

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We did manage to get loads done each day. It is a picture from pirates -I'm sorry I don't know if its a new thing. This is our second trip and pirates was closed last time.

[Goldia]

I hope CP have abandoned the idea of characters not signing autograph books, I agree with you I'm not keen on a hand out autograph. I'm glad you had some luck with the FP for GMR I'm a bit sad this is now gone, but the new Mickey ride does sound fun.

[jothp]

Originally Posted by Goldia

I hope CP have abandoned the idea of characters not signing autograph books, I agree with you I'm not keen on a hand out autograph. I'm glad you had some luck with the FP for GMR I'm a bit sad this is now gone, but the new Mickey ride does sound fun.

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I'm pretty sure I read that the pre-signed cards didn't last too long but I'm not 100% on that. It wouldn't have seemed so bad if you got a bit more interaction in the time they would have been signing but we didn't. It almost seemed to be a way to get the characters around more quickly.

For us the GMR is something we've done on both our trips but for the girls a lot of the films were not familiar to them so it wasn't interesting. I'm looking forward to all the new things opening at HS.

[yellowrose78]

Lovely day you managed to do loads in the morning, shame about the signature cards

[jothp]

Originally Posted by yellowrose78

Lovely day you managed to do loads in the morning, shame about the signature cards

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It is amazing what you can accomplish with a good plan. We were disappointed with the signature cards but we shouldn't complain really as we were at Disney after all.

[Excitedx4]

Another busy productive day