Wot, no Disney?! August 2019 Day 12

[tory79]

Wot, no Disney? Yeah maybe just a little bit of Disney... so I mentioned in my index post that I had been made aware of the fact that the first MNSSHP was our last Friday here. DH said no, no Disney that was the deal... I bided my time and was very careful about how it came up in conversation... and lo and behold, last Sunday while we were at Disney Springs soaking up the Disney vibe on our no Disney holiday DH agreed we could get the tickets. So that’s tonight! And boy am I excited.

After their late night the boys didn’t wake up until about 8:30. I’d had in mind that we might finally get round to volcano bay this morning but no. We’d only wanted to do it if we’d made it for early opening so 7:30/8 and that clearly wasn’t happening. It ended up being a very lazy morning as we knew it would be a late night for the boys. Leftover Minions cupcakes and cereal for breakfast for the boys, then we gave them a bath as we knew they wouldn’t have one tonight.

Dh said he would take them to the hotel arcade again as they had some credits left on their card. For the boys benefit of course... I said I would come and meet them for lunch.

I had a nice little bit of peace and quiet in the room to potter and shower. I love my boys so much but my goodness they can be hard work at times. I’m a sahm back in the real world so we spend a lot of time together! I headed down about 12:30 and we decided to eat in the Galaxy Diner in the hotel which is next to the arcade in the bowling alley.

Dh and I both ordered pretzel bites with beer cheese dip. We’ve eaten at Hooters a few times and always get these, and we’re hoping they’d be of similar quality. Dh had been keen to eat at Hooters this holiday, obviously due to the quality of the food, but we hadn’t had the chance. I really enjoyed them but dh did not think they were as good as Hooters. Don’t know if that had anything to do with our normal looking male waiter, I’m sure it didn’t!

The boys both had chicken tenders shock horror! I had a turkey club wrap which was delicious and really fresh, and dh had a steak sandwich.

Then we headed back to our room for an hour to get sorted before getting an Uber over to the Contemporary. I had it in my head that this would be the most efficient way of getting over to MK, in hindsight it was not. I’d got myself confused over the monorail loop and we didn't get in to MK until nearly 5 which was super annoying as I’d really wanted to get there for 4 as that’s the earliest entrance you can get with just MNSSHP tickets. Anyway never mind! At least we’d cleared security at the Contemporary.

We’d agreed that we would hire a double stroller for the boys for this night as we’d be keeping them up late. On all previous holidays we’ve had a double stroller but for this year DS1 who is naturally a lazy soul but is nearly 8 has had to do all the walking, and to be fair he’s done really well, his only complaints have been about the heat! Double stroller acquired we set off in to Magic Kingdom. I commented to DH that the day I get bored of the first castle view I may as well be dead. There is no better part to my holidays.

We arrived just in time to watch a parade. I love the parades. Sometimes I feel embarrassed at what a child I am about these as I wave and smile at the characters while my children and dh look on rather bored... but I figure I just be in good company on these boards!

The queue times were already beginning to die down as people exited the park. Over the course of the evening we went on BTM, 7DMT, under the sea, buzz lightyear, the barnstormer and the people mover (we love this) Not loads of rides but all of our favourites. But really the most important things to me for tonight were the parade and the fireworks. It’s been 7 years since we last did MNSSHP. The boys were mainly interested in collecting sweets of course! We grabbed some snacks before the parade. I got the special party pumpkin spice milkshake, this was really yummy! The boys had hot dogs, dh had a beef sandwich and I also had a cream cheese pretzel which has been on my snack list for a while. I also took the opportunity to go and purchase the Minnie bow ears that I’d had my eye on! See the buzz lightyear photo for details!

We needed to swap our stroller as it was squeaking really loudly so we decided to get a place for the parade at the top of Main Street. Of course being up here meant it took forever for the parade to get round. As per usual I got a rubbish photo of the headless horseman...

The parade was great as per usual. A broken down float meant it finished a little late and after that we whizzed round to do another candy station stop for the boys and a restroom break before the fireworks which were starting at 10:15. We knew the sensible thing to do would be to leave after this as our boys had done so well but they are not great at late nights and we didn’t want to end the night on a sour note. So we positioned ourselves part way down Main Street for an easy escape.

Does anyone do fireworks like Disney? I think not. This is a new Halloween show not just for us but for this year I think. It was excellent although soundtrack wise I just love the show that heavily featured ‘poor Unfortunate souls’ whichever era that was. But I still loved it. Who wouldn’t. I always find it hard to get the balance right between actually watching it and taking photos of it! Anyone else?

As soon as they finished we legged it for the exit. We had planned to get the secret bus or the resort monorail to the TTC but actually the normal monorail queue was tiny so we headed for that. We ordered an Uber and were back to the hotel by 11:30 which I think is excellent!

Last full day tomorrow!

[clubhouse]

Brilliant day... I too am having a no Disney holiday in October, which was meant to be not Florida too! I’ve managed to talk DH and the rest of the family into MNSSHP on the 21st so I’m very excited after reading your report! Sounds like you had a great time and getting all that done and home by 11.30pm is good going!

[Bobbins]

Originally Posted by tory79

Then we headed back to our room for an hour to get sorted before getting an Uber over to the Contemporary.

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Was the Uber allowed into Contemporary without question? One of our party used Uber and went to TTC but it took some time to get into the TTC drop off as it was busy. She said afterwards she wished she'd gone to Contemporary and walked in - we'd done that the previous week after breakfast at Chef Mickey, and you go through security on the walk.

[tory79]

Originally Posted by Bobbins

Was the Uber allowed into Contemporary without question? One of our party used Uber and went to TTC but it took some time to get into the TTC drop off as it was busy. She said afterwards she wished she'd gone to Contemporary and walked in - we'd done that the previous week after breakfast at Chef Mickey, and you go through security on the walk.

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Yes the Uber driver just had to show id to car park security. We went on the resort monorail so went through security before getting on there. That had been my plan as well, to avoid security at the TTC.

[ShezMcQ]

Oh man... I so badly want to do MNSSHP during our non-Disney trip this October. We haven't bought tickets for it but I know our kids would go crazy at the prospect of getting on BTM again this year.

What we would focus on is mainly rides, trick or treat trails and the fireworks as our kids aren't really character daft. How busy does MK get during the party? Is it mental? Like I say, as long as we managed to get on most of the rides we love, that would be successful for us--and I might be able to convince DH to book the tickets

[tory79]

Originally Posted by ShezMcQ

Oh man... I so badly want to do MNSSHP during our non-Disney trip this October. We haven't bought tickets for it but I know our kids would go crazy at the prospect of getting on BTM again this year.

What we would focus on is mainly rides, trick or treat trails and the fireworks as our kids aren't really character daft. How busy does MK get during the party? Is it mental? Like I say, as long as we managed to get on most of the rides we love, that would be successful for us--and I might be able to convince DH to book the tickets

See more...

In my opinion it is noticeably quieter than a normal park evening. The biggest queues often seemed to be for the treat stations! 7dmt had the longest queue at 45m but it was less at times. BTM seemed to be around 20m. If you’re happy to rides while the parades are on then you will get on lots of things. We don’t bother with the characters either as the queues for the party meets are always crazy. Do it!