5-week Split Stay in Florida, Feb/March 2020 - Day 30: Magic Kingdom & Old Key West

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Day 30: Magic Kingdom & Old Key West
March 10, 2020
[-- Trip Index --]

Today's quick movie:


Oh my - this was absolutely the worst morning EVER, where it seemed like literally everything went wrong! The day got better as it went on, but I had a really bad morning where I was getting so upset at all our bad luck!

It all started when we woke up, just after 7AM from Michael coming back from the gym with fresh coffees in our refillable mugs. He was in a good mood - the gym at OKW had been pretty great, close to our room just past the boat dock, not busy, and with nice views. As Myla and I were both waking up, she sat up straight in bed and started crying out of the blue. When we went over to her bed to see what was wrong, we discovered she'd had an accident and peed in her bed. Now, I should add that Myla has been toilet trained at night for over 6 months, from the day she decided she was a big girl and didn't need a diaper at night (seriously, I did no training whatsoever, she just decided herself one day), and she's NEVER had a night time accident, this was her first one ever. She was absolutely horrified to find her bed and her PJs wet - any time she has a little accident during the day, she gets very upset too, like she takes it personally that she has 'failed'. She can't put it into words like that, she's only 3, but that's basically the gist, she just gets really upset and mad with herself and will tell us sorry 1000 times.

So my first port of call was calming down a very upset little girl, who immediately asked, "Where will I sleep tonight? " I assured her we would get clean sheets for the bed, and got her cleaned and changed in the bathroom. It took a while to calm her down, but some iPad and breakfast got her settled into our bed while Michael and I stripped hers and I planned on calling housekeeping before we left to ask for clean sheets. I felt really bad though - at home we have a waterproof sheet over her mattress, but because we've never needed it, we didn't bring anything like that on holiday so I felt really bad towards the poor housekeeping people that this had happened and was silly-worried that they'd think badly of us for letting our toddler wet their bed! I tried not to let Myla see this though, and Michael and I totally brushed it off as "it's just a little accident, no big deal, happens to everyone' in front of her because she already has such a tendency to be upset with herself.

I rang housekeeping just before we left the room for the day to explain the situation, apologize, and ask for clean sheets, and thankfully the CM I spoke to on the phone, was VERY VERY nice about, made me feel like it wasn't a big deal at all and certainly didn't act like they were annoyed or inconvenienced or anything - her kind reaction and assurance that they'd take care of it and not to worry about it, instantly made me feel a ton better.

We were going to Magic Kingdom today, and had wanted to be out the door early to be there for opening. But all this had us running a bit late. We left our room at 8:30AM and JUST missed the Magic Kingdom bus - it pulled away as we walked up to the Hospitality House bus stop. I figured another one would come along shortly, since it was busy at the bus stop and everyone was heading there for park opening at 9AM. It was a lovely morning, the weather already warm and sunny and it was finally due to be HOT again after so many colder/chilly days.


But we ended up waiting 25 minutes for the next one, and it was FULL by the time it came to our bus stop, no room for anyone else! The driver briefly stopped, only to open his door and shout at everyone waiting that they weren't picking anyone else up and the next bus would be along in 20 minutes.

I was kicking myself for having gone to this bus stop in the first place - because it was busy, I should have realized this could happen, and we should have walked to the Peninsular Road bus stop just across the bridge, which is the FIRST pickup. However, that said, a full bus had never happened to us before! This was actually really the one and only time on this entire trip we had such bad luck with the busses, and it just hadn't occurred to me that the bus could be full!

I was standing there getting a bit upset as now we obviously wouldn't make it to MK before 9:30. An Epcot bus pulled up next, and Michael suggested to just get on that and we'd take the monorail over to MK - at least we'd be on the move instead of standing around waiting, and Myla would love a little monorail ride. I agreed so we got on.

We got to Epcot, queued for the bag check, and walked up to the monorail... only to find it was closed due to technical problems this morning! Argh!


When we walked from our OKW bus towards the Epcot entrance, I'd noticed there was a TTC bus sitting there. But there had been no sign or anything to explain that the bus was there because the monorail was down! So we queued and did bag check for absolutely no reason, and had to walk BACK to the busses. I didn't really fancy the TTC bus though, as then we'd still have to take the ferry across, and we spotted a Contemporary bus pulling up. We got on that, as did many many other people - it was absolutely jam packed. Everyone was going to MK, and the bus driver said that he was going to the Ticket & Transportation Center, but that he advised anyone heading to MK, to just get off at the Contemporary and walk, as it was very busy at TTC.

So that's what we did, we and everyone else got off at the Contemporary and headed up the path to MK. The bag check there was dead until our busload of people arrived, but we only waited a few minutes or so.


The walk itself took about 8 or 10 minutes, and it was great to skip the chaos at the big bag check for everyone coming off the busses! We finally scanned into the park for 10AM, a whole 90 minutes after we left our room! I was so annoyed - MK is my absolutely favorite park, but it always seems to be on MK days that things go wrong and/or we are in bad moods!

Once inside, I convinced myself that our bad luck was over, and we rushed towards Adventureland for our first FP for Jungle Cruise.

This was our first time seeing the cranes on the castle, too - they hadn't been up on our last MK the previous week.

I'd booked our Jungle Cruise FP for 9-10AM, and we scanned in at 10:09AM, just on time. Michael can't really be bothered with this ride, I love it mostly for nostalgic reasons, so it's a one-and-done for us per trip - but Myla really loved it, and actually laughed at loud at some of the jokes and visual gags, so I was glad we made it on time!

The backside of the water, folks!


Our next FP for Aladdin's Magic Carpets was now open too as I'd booked it for 10-11AM, so we went straight on that too - Myla loved it as she always does these types of rides. She was starting to look a bit tired though, I think the heat was getting to her even though it wasn't that hot yet! It felt like she needed to acclimatize again or something!


Now, my original plan for this morning had been Jungle Cruise at 9, meet Aladdin and Jasmine at 9:30 when their meet opened, and then do Magic Carpets at 10. Because of all the faffing with getting to the park so late, we'd missed the Aladdin and Jasmine meet opening, and there was a bit of a queue now once we got off the Carpets. Not a huge one - but, I hadn't had breakfast yet and Michael only had a quick nut bar when he came back to the gym. Most mornings, we would have had our Starbucks & snacks by now (it was 10:30). So we decided to leave the meet till later, and get food first. I took another quick couple of photos by the Carpets ride because it provided such a great colorful background to our Aladdin themed outfits!


Now, keeping in mind my husband eats totally plant based, and I eat at least vegetarian, we found there was very little choice for breakfast in Adventureland. We didn't want to go all the way back to Main Street for Starbucks (though in retrospect, we should have!), so I decided to head to Sleepy Hollow and get waffles. We walked back there, and when we turned the corner from Frontierland into Liberty Square, I saw the huge queue spilling out of Sleepy Hollow and going all the way across the path. The CM informed us it'd be around 45 minutes. For breakfast! Um no - that was a no-go.

I did a quick check of MDE and found that there's a little cart called Westward Ho across from Country Bears Jamboree that does coffee and pastries, so we turned around and walked right back where we came from to find this.

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There was really 2 carts side by side - Michael queued at one to get himself a bag of glazed almonds and a popcorn bucket refill for Myla, and I queued at the other for pastries and coffee. Only to be told once it was my turn, that they were out of ALL pastries - they didn't have a single edible thing left.



I got Michael the coffee that he wanted, and was feeling super deflated at this point. I was about to lose it, just couldn't believe our run of bad luck. By now I had totally lost my appetite and didn't even want anything to eat anymore, and it's safe to see I was very hangry.

I told Michael to just forget about breakfast, and try to get some more autographs for Myla's book like I'd planned for today. We walked around to Pirates of the Carribean and sat in the shade to wait for Jack Sparrow, who was due out at 11AM according to MDE. I ate a few bites of one of Michael's nut bars while we sat here, even though I really don't like them. Michael made me, since he felt strongly I needed to eat something (he was right).

When Jack Sparrow still wasn't anywhere to be seen by 11:10, I found a CM to ask, and she said he wouldn't be out till 12! I showed her the times listed in MDE, but she just shrugged and said it was 12 today.

While we had been sitting there waiting for Jack Sparrow, the next meet for Aladdin and Jasmine had started at 11. So by the time we gave up and walked there at 11:15, there was a massive queue for them.

We just joined it anyway, as I knew we needed to get more autographs today to have any hope of finishing Myla's book, and I wasn't in the mood for thinking of other plans. Michael was a real star - he was trying to keep my spirits up and kept reminding me it was silly to be so upset (I was pretty much crying behind my sunglasses, I just couldn't help it! ) because we were still in Magic Kingdom and we should make the best of it, bless him! He encouraged me to go for a little walk and calm down - I went to the restrooms and felt a bit better after a little wander around the shops. Myla was being an absolute angel during all this, the whole morning - even in the queue she waited patiently to see Aladdin and Jasmine for over 45 minutes.

Finally it was our turn, and from here on the day got better and there's less of my moaning. Aladdin and Jasmine were both so lovely and sweet, we forgot all about the long wait. Myla was a little scared of Aladdin at first, but he was a total sweetheart too, sensed that, and was SO good with her. She ended up giving him a big big hug too! Props to him, he seemed to have a real knack for interacting with kids!


It was nearly 12 now, so we walked back around to Pirates to catch Jack Sparrow. We sat down at the little stage where he meets, and Myla entertained us by doing some singing and dancing lol.


Again we waited for about 10 minutes, and again there was NO sign of him. And I didn't see a CM to ask either, this time. After another 10 minutes, we just gave up. I decided we'd come back and try for Jack another day - I didn't want to waste any more time, nor did I want to spend another minute being annoyed. This was our second-last MK day!

We yet again walked back to Frontierland. The plan was to see the Country Bear Jamboree show, and then find some of the roaming bears for an autograph afterwards (as they weren't due out for another 25 minutes, according to MDE).


Again MDE turned out to be wrong today, as we saw 2 bears walking around right away! Myla went straight for them and forgot all about the show. They were hilarious and cute, giving her big hugs, signing her book, and taking their time with her even though they were supposed to be roaming and not doing a proper meet.


The second bear (Lida Lips?) actually took Myla's hand after he signed her book, and took her on a little walk through Frontierland, to the rocking chairs on the porch in front of the shop. He gestured for Myla to sit down, which she did, and then pretended he was going to sit on her lap! She thought this was absolutely hilarious, and felt SO special that he took her for a little walk. The look on her face was priceless!


Then the first bear came back to ask for another hug, which of course she happily obliged with.


We'd just missed the start of another Country Bear Jamboree show, and it was now 12:30 and my hunger had returned with a vengeance. We decided to leave the show for another time, and try again to get food. Pecos Bill was open by now, but in an attempt to cheer me up further, Michael convinced me we should go back to Sleepy Hollow and see if the queue was any better.


Luckily the queue was about half of what it had been earlier, so I joined it and got myself a delicious Nutella & Fruit waffle after a 20 minute wait, which I shared with Myla who loved it too. My receipt shows I got another coffee for Michael, and I imagine he must have eaten some more of his nuts or sandwiches he brought with (Sleepy Hollow doesn't have anything plant based on their menu).


It was 1PM by the time we finished, and we decided to make our way to the exit. We wanted to do the Meet Mickey one more time to get his autograph (when we did it previously, we'd forgotten to bring Myla's book that day), and we wanted to relax by the pool for some downtime, now that it was finally warm enough.

The castle renovations had started properly now, with repainting happening everywhere and the moat completely drained.


We stopped for a Photopass picture in front of the castle, the CM was really good and got Myla to join in really well for a change!

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We made our way down Main Street and reached Mickey around 1:30.


We didn't wait long with the FP I'd picked up a few days ago, and he was awesome as always!


In the exit shop, she tried once more to convince daddy we could bring the big Mickey on the plane, but the answer was still no LOL. I'm keeping an eye out for this on ShopDisney.co.uk for her birthday though!


A bus for OKW pulled up after only a minute of waiting, and we were getting off at Peninsular Road at 14:10.


We had a half hour break in our room - Myla ate a sandwich while I did some work, and then we all got changed for the pool. We actually love the OKW pool - there's a little kiddie pool behind the sand castle, and then a big waterslide inside the sandcastle that Myla LOVED and was able to go up and down completely by herself!


Michael and Myla did most of the swimming - I joined in for a little bit, but also did a load of laundry (unlike the Poly, where the laundry machines are out of the way, here they're right beside the pool, so much handier!) to wash Myla's PJs from her accident last night, as well as all of her stuffed animals - she likes to sleep with them stuffed under the duvet and they usually end up around her feet/legs, so they all needed cleaned too. I also did some reading on my phone and got caught up on my notes.

After 90 minutes Myla had enough of swimming and the slide, and went off to play in the kids' playground. This is close to the pool with rows of sun loungers between them, and is situated on a big sandy area. She LOVED this - it was actually our favorite playground of all the places we stayed at. Michael did some chilling and sunbathing, while I kept an eye on Myla as she played.


I was helping her bury her legs in the sand so she could pull them out, for some reason she thought this was hilarious lol.


Later Michael came to join me, and we sat on loungers together in the setting sun, enjoying watching Myla play.


Around 5PM we all decided we were hungry, and made the decision to just stay at the resort tonight and not go anywhere else. We went to Goods To Go for dinner - Myla got the Uncrustables meal, Michael the Power Salad, and I got the plant based burger. It was all delicious, $29 in total for the 3 of us so really reasonable! My burger was probably one of the nicest I'd had, and Michael said his salad was HANDS DOWN the best one he'd had in WDW.


We sat at one of the picnic benches overlooking the water to eat, and it was just SO relaxing and lovely.


After we finished eating, we let Myla go back to the playground for another bit while we relaxed some more.


I eventually went back to our room just after 6 to shower.


Michael and Myla followed me 20 minutes later when I was done in the shower. Myla had a bath while I finished my work and we were all in bed for 8. Myla was tired, and we'd planned to watch a movie on Netflix with our headphone splitter as soon as she fell asleep. Unfortunately she picked tonight to mess around for ages, and it took threatening of NO MICKEY tomorrow before she finally grew quiet and went to sleep around 9. By then I was too tired to start a movie, so we went to sleep not long after her.

After such a bad morning, we actually had a delightful afternoon, so relaxing with delicious food and lots of playing for Myla - we were falling in love with OKW only more!

[Rabel]

Thanks for posting - despite the start to the day the end seems rather perfect!

[Jannyjan]

Liver Lips McGraw is the name of the bear! Looks like Myla was enjoying her waffle 😜

[4fromsuffolk]

Glad the day ended better than it started! Really enjoying reading about your trip!

[mrsdjh]

Some days it seems like everything is out to frustrate you and this morning was one of those. Glad you finally got your waffle. A nice relaxing afternoon and evening for you all - the burger looks nice.

[mick]

Glad to read your day got better as it went on


Joan

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Originally Posted by Rabel

Thanks for posting - despite the start to the day the end seems rather perfect!

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It was actually - we had a really nice and relaxed afternoon and evening, with really nice weather.

Originally Posted by Jannyjan

Liver Lips McGraw is the name of the bear! Looks like Myla was enjoying her waffle 😜

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Ah thanks! That's not what he wrote in her book but I guess he ran out of room lol. Yeah - you can slather Nutella on anything and she'd love it!

Originally Posted by 4fromsuffolk

Glad the day ended better than it started! Really enjoying reading about your trip!

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Thank you - it's nice to hear people are actually enjoying my rambling and picture overloads haha!

Originally Posted by mrsdjh

Some days it seems like everything is out to frustrate you and this morning was one of those. Glad you finally got your waffle. A nice relaxing afternoon and evening for you all - the burger looks nice.

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Oh yes, it most definitely was! Couldn't believe our luck. The burger was absolutely yummy - I hadn't heard many good things about Goods To Go but we loved every meal we had from there!

Originally Posted by mick

Glad to read your day got better as it went on

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Me too, thank you for still sticking with this epic report haha!

[flo-tinka]

Chillin by the pool👍👍 after a stressful morning!