It's all about the mouse - 9th August 2018 day 9 MK with 4 boat rides

[Goldia]

Welcome to the It’s all about the mouse trip report. We are a family of four and this is our 4th trip to Orlando. I'm Abby, my DH is Dave and our children are Max (13) and Kate (11). This trip is all WDW and we stay inside the Disney bubble for the entirety of our holiday.

If you haven't read the previous day it can be found here

Right today was the day when we stood a chance of catching the new opening show in MK, we avoided a near disaster on the exit of Peoplemover and we ended up having 4 boat rides.

I say new opening show…obviously the welcome show has been at the castle for ages, but we’d had a 2 year break from Disney and on day 1 of this trip the buses had conspired against us and we walked up Main Street just as the park opened. Then the next day we were at MK was an EMH and so we didn’t see the show as we were off into the park…do they do it on EMH days? I don’t even know.

Today we felt like we had a better chance as the park was opening at 9am so a much more reasonable opening time for us to be able to get there in good time. This was also our last chance of seeing the show as our plans for the rest of the trip did not include an early morning MK visit.

This is where we deviated a lot from my original plans, we didn't end up doing Enchanted Tales with Belle, we scrapped our lunch ADR at BOG, we swapped the Splash FP for a Haunted Mansion FP, we didn't see HEA (but we had seen it already) and we didn't manage to stay in the park until it closed. Still, that's half the fun isn't it? Making the plans and then scrapping them for a better plan.

We were walking to the bus stop at the resort at 7.47am. This should be fine…shouldn’t it? Fingers crossed.

We’d had a bit of a touch and go start to the morning, well a touch and go night too really. Kate threw up at 12.31am. I think with hindsight that gorging ourselves on ice creams a couple of hours before heading to Garden Grill for dinner was perhaps not the right move. Fortunately I was not disturbed in the night… of course I mean fortunately she was feeling better in the morning… although the former statement is true as well. She got to the bathroom and Dave went with her so I decided three people in there would be a bit too crowded. I don't think she was feeling ill as such, more that the rich foods got to her a little bit, so she was back to bed within 5 minutes and slept through until the morning.

In the morning we checked with her a few times if we should just hang out in the room or go to the pool but she said she was fine and so we decided to carry on with our plans. She was looking forward to meeting Tiana (her favourite princess).

The buses were running smoothly and we arrived at MK around 8.30am. I wasn’t impressed when Max said he needed to go to the toilet though…Dave agreed to wait with him by the bag check toilets and me and Kate went on through.

So what breakfast do you give a girl who’s been sick over night? A giant Mickey head cookie with chocolate chips!

Yes we are bad parents (actually I can hardly blame Dave as he was back waiting for Max, this is all me!). You can't beat one of these for breakfast, well technically I guess it was half of 1 as I only got 2 of them for us to share…I was thinking a bit about the fact it might not be the best idea for Kate to have a whole cookie to herself.

We ate them while waiting for the opening show.

We took some photos by the Walt and Mickey statue.

We walked around towards Fantasyland, Dave suggested we wait in line for Merida. I was not best pleased with this plan as I wanted to do some rides while it was still quiet. However, I gave in. Even though we were second in line Merida didn’t come out straight away and we ended up waiting about 20 minutes to meet her.

We then had a ride on the tea cups.

Then we headed on to Winnie the Pooh.

I was keen to do Enchanted Tales with Belle as we hadn’t done this yet, but the wait time was 25 minutes and we just couldn’t be bothered to wait around.

We walked through towards Storybook Circus and of course Under the Sea was showing a 5 minute wait so we went on this. In reality there was no wait at all and it was a walk on. I absolutely love this ride and I think it is my favourite of these clam shell rides.

It’s fab with the songs and I love to sing along.

Kate and me sat together.

The boys were just behind us.

The ride had some technical difficulties while we were on it. The clamshell stopped twice, once when we were next to Ursula, we heard this little section of the ride repeat about 10 times.

Then again just before we were about to get off, we could see the exit, it wasn’t too long to wait though.

Then we went next door to meet Ariel in her grotto. Kate was trying to decide what to say to her.

She was the first character we had ever met in MK on our first trip back in 2014. I can remember thinking this was really weird at the time and such a bizarre thing to stumble across as we didn't know what we were walking into then. She told us a joke and pretty much the same as this year the boys did NOT want to be in the photo. Here are me and Kate 4 years ago.

In Big Top Souvenirs Max and Kate tried on some of the silly hats.

Then we decided to meet some more characters in Pete’s Silly Sideshow.

For some reason we have never been in here to meet Daisy, Minnie, Goofy and Donald in their circus or carnival costumes but this was a fab meet and greet. There were hardly any people waiting in there so it was barely 5 minutes between meets.

We started on the left with Madame Daisy Fortuna.

Next up was Minnie Magnifique.

Then we went to the right side and met the Great Goofini.

Finally it was time to meet Astounding Donaldo.

The characters always seem keen to try to make Max smile, I guess they are used to teenage boys and it's fun for them to get a smile out of even the hardest of guests.

We went back next door to Big Top Treats to get some more snacks. We really are trying today, it wasn't even 11am.

The pretty apples with ears are NOT a snack credit.

The chocolate covered strawberry and pineapples are a snack credit.

We opted for 2 caramel cookies, 1 plain and 1 with peanuts.

We were asked if we wanted them cut up and as we were eating them straight away we said yes.

We sat on the wall near Dumbo and ate our apples. These were really tasty. It was a soft caramel and not the break your teeth type of crunch I thought it would be. We all agreed we should return at some point for some of the other treats, but we never did make it back.

So another 2 snack credits, that's 4 so far today.

It was now time for our first FP with Rapunzel and Tiana, lots of characters today.

Our second FP was about to open at 11.15 for Space Mountain so we wandered over there and they let us in without any fuss, the time on the entrance said 11.13. We were super excited as we were directed to go left on this ride. We have never been in the Alpha lounge as we have always had to turn right on this ride! I didn’t notice any difference in the ride though.

After Space we went to the Peoplemover. There was nearly a disaster here on the down ramp slope. Kate was leaning on the side while we were going down the ramp and her shorts got caught on one of the little metal rivet buttons. This meant that as we were going forwards she was stuck in place and I was frantically yanking at her to try to pull her free. She was probably only stuck for a second or two, but it was a heart stopping second as I thought the people behind us would crash into us. Dave was in front and completely oblivious to the happenings behind him. After that we thought we would have some lunch as we needed a bit of a rest and a sit down to catch our breath.

We decided to splurge and use up a whole 4 credits for lunch at Cosmic Ray's as 3 of us all wanted a burger and it's much harder to split a burger in half. Really extravagant spending today.

Dave and myself both opted for the Mrs Incredible Super-Stretchy burger. It had deep fried mozzarella sticks in, which were stretchy. I ate mine separately and then ate the burger. The burger comes with a side of fries. Dave had ice tea and I had diet coke.

Max had a bacon cheeseburger with fries and a fanta.

Kate wanted to order the Greek Salad, but they didn’t have these, so she had the Superfood Chicken salad with avocado and blueberries, this also came with a side of fries and she opted for coke. I think she wanted something light after being ill in the night.

4 QS credits used, no we didn't manage to eat it all. There were a lot of fries leftover and Kate didn't eat all her salad either. Nevermind, the burgers were worth it.

We then used our third FP on Haunted Mansion. I was with Max. We got some fun photos after as we were coming off the ride.

The photographer was really working hard and at one point he was lying on the floor! I guess he wanted to get in the top of the building.

The hitchhiking ghost magic shot!

Before heading back to the resort we stopped at Sleepy Hollow for a lunch pudding. But, we went back to our usual of sharing 2 snacks.

Max wanted the mickey waffle with strawberries and cream. He sort of shared with Dave, I think he had the lions share though.

Kate wanted the ice cream churro sandwich. We both had a rolled churro each and shared the ice cream.

We could see the bus waiting for us and so we did a sort of run for it…the others ran and I just fast walked. The bus was quite busy, Max and Kate had a seat together and I sat next to an American lady who was a bit cross she’d had to wait so long for the bus. She was explaining to me that she had bought into DVC when it was $50 per point and today was her last day and because the resort bus was so late she knew she’d missed the magical express bus.

Back at the resort I ended up having a bit of a doze while the others chilled out watching TV and on their tablets. When I woke up I took the kids to the small pool. It was really quiet…until we arrive and the kids started arguing. Apparently Max trapped Kate in the corner of the pool and this caused a bit of an argument.

We went to Whispering Canyon Cafe at Wilderness Lodge for dinner.

We ended up catching a bus to Disney Springs as this was the first bus that came along and then a bus from DS to Wilderness Lodge.

We haven’t been to this resort before and oh my it is beautiful. I loved the front entrance, the lobby area is fab and after our meal we wandered out past the pool to the boat dock and caught the boat to MK. One day we will have to stay here.

We were given a buzzer when we checked in and were told we could go anywhere in the lobby to look around, but I hadn't even made it 10 feet from the podium before the buzzer went off. We did really well with that this trip. There were hardly any waits of more than a couple of minutes and this was probably not even 10 seconds.

Another food planning fail here though. I had booked this as I wanted to try the skillet, which everyone recommends. But, we had just had the Garden Grill dinner the night before and neither me nor Dave fancied the skillet as it felt a bit samey, nor did Kate. But, Max to the rescue!

Anyway, lets sort out the drinks before we worry too much about the food. Kate had a coke. Max had a sprite.

I had a Moonshine Margarita and Dave had a Mountain Trail Cocktail (which he didn't enjoy too much).

Max ordered the skillet which means he got a salad that he didn't want and wouldn't eat, Dave and myself really enjoyed it as a starter.

He also got cornbread and we each had a half a loaf before the mains came out. I do know that it is wrong to order a skillet for 1 and then share it amongst 4. But, we had all ordered main courses and we didn’t ask for extras from the skillet.

I don't think Max could believe it when the skillet arrived - it was huge. There were ribs, beef brisket, a piece of chicken, pulled pork, a sausage, mash, beans, sweetcorn and green beans.

He actually did really well and ate all the meat and mash. I helped him by eating most of the green beans. He was asked if he wanted any seconds but of course he had already eaten his fill.

Max wanted ketchup, and we got all the ketchup.

Kate ordered the grilled salmon with BLT salad. She enjoyed the salmon, it looked overcooked to me, the huge salad was barely touched. I think she was still feeling like she wanted something light to eat, nothing in WDW is light though, everything is huge.

Dave and myself both ordered the NY strip steak. It came with asparagus which I love and the steak was cooked really well.

We also both had another cocktail - 2 more Moonshine margaritas.

For pudding both the kids had chocolate cake ala mode. This was a chocolate lava cake and was warm and gooey. They loved it, but neither of them could finish it.

Dave and me both had the strawberry cheesecake.

He liked it alot, me less so and I only ate about half, but I suspect I was just a bit full by then.

After the meal we had to just sit and chill in the lobby as we were all a bit stuffed.

I loved these huge chairs.

The grounds outside were amazing.

Kate took lots of photos for us as it was so lovely out there.

We wandered down to the boat dock.

And now it’s time for

Boat ride number 1! – to MK

In MK we went straight to our 4th FP which we’d booked after Haunted Mansion earlier. This was our first time on this iconic attraction this trip and now it’s time for

Boat ride number 2! – Jungle Cruise

We really enjoyed this ride. I think it’s better in the dark at night, although a lot depends on the quality of your skipper, but we were laughing a lot.

We then booked a 5th FP for POTC and went straight there after Jungle Cruise.

Boat ride number 3! – POTC

We wandered over towards fantasyland and booked a 6th FP for Barnstormer. On the way we stopped off for

Boat ride number 4! – It’s a Small World.

We had the whole boat to ourselves.

I cannot explain how much I loved that it was a private boat ride on IASW!

Then we went on Barnstormer, which of course was only a 5 minute wait and didn’t need a FP. Kate and me were in the back row.

We went on Dumbo straight after which was also a walk on.

I was with Max and he was in charge of the controls.

Finally we decided to go on the Carousel, before heading round to the front of the castle where we caught ‘Once upon a time’ the show that is on after HEA.

This was a lovely little show. There were hardly any people left in MK as most people clear out after HEA so we had great views of the projections and lots of space and we didn’t have to wait around to get a good spot for the show we just turned up. I think I even enjoyed it more than HEA, perhaps because of having a bit more space with it being less crowded.

After that we went to catch the bus home, it was 10.27pm so quite late for us, but we didn’t need to be up early the next day. We still didn't make it until the park close and Mickey wishes you goodnight, we've never seen this before and we didn't manage it this trip either.

Writing it up it feels like this was a hectic day, but actually it was really laid back. I think it's the slower rides and meeting characters makes it feel like you have had some down time. We didn't feel like we were rushing anywhere and we really enjoyed all our boat rides.

Statistics for the day:

Credits Used 6 snack, 4 QS and 4 TS. A strong start with the snacks, but we're still not staying afloat.
Credits Remaining 67 snack 26 QS and 24 TS
Parks: 1
Rides: 9
FP: 6
Characters: 8
Steps: 20,611

Tomorrow a breakfast ADR at Akershus, our one and only breakfast ADR, not a pre park opening one though…10.45am! So, we were going to have a bit of a lie in.

[caitlinsmummy]

Sometimes you just need to scrap the plans though don't you. There were a couple of days our plans went out the window too.

Poor Kate, I think it was exactly the same as Thomas but at least she was ok in the morning.

love the breakfast choice! The sugar will have helped I'm sure

Caitlin got the Rapunzel hat in her gift basket for her birthday she loved it! I love silly hat photos, the boys done a few on our trip too, they're lovely to look back on.

I love how the characters are trying to make Max laugh, did any of them succeed?

The snack options are so vast aren't they, it's so hard to choose. I must admit those apples look lovely, definitely one to add to our list!

The photos at The Haunted Mansion are fab, I love the hitchhiking ghost one

Kate and Max sound like Caitlin and Thomas in the pool, every time we went to the small pool it was nice and quiet ... then our kid's turned up

Wow that skillet is huge, especially for 1, well done Max he did a fab job! I remember the ketchup photo from your food report still makes me laugh now.

Wow check you out with all the FP's you did fab today with them!

I think because you managed so many rides and FP's it felt hectic but I can see how it was a lovely more chilled day. Fab day xx

[walt4it]

What an amazing amount of photos from just one day - they retell a day so much more than words

Your Peoplemover experience was something that just highlights that within a few seconds something can happen, no matter where you are in the whole world


Within your whole day that Ketchup picture really has made me laugh

Amidst all the food , the number of bottles really do add to the experience

Your boat photo on IASW sums up everything about a WDW holiday - just when you least expect it - the 'Magic' comes to meet you, usually on a day like today when you feel as if you were just soaking up everything and not going at a huge pace.


Your Once Upon a Time experience simply sums it all up. What a lovely day with so many special moments

[Eccle]

It sounds like a brilliant day, both Wilderness Lodge and the food look amazing. And I love the personal boat on IASW! It’s incredible that it was so quiet that evening in MK

[MrsSilverStar]

What a lovely day! I’m planning on doing the new Snow White meal at WL so was nice to see how chilled it is getting there and back.
And so many fun characters and rides still packed in!

Love the hitchhiking ghost shot, so nice that the photographer went the extra mile for you!

Glad Kate was ok, can imagine all that food plays havoc with small stomachs.

[Palm trees]

What a fab day, I had no idea that there was a character meet at the big top. That's definitely going to be added to my list!

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

Sometimes you just need to scrap the plans though don't you. There were a couple of days our plans went out the window too.

Poor Kate, I think it was exactly the same as Thomas but at least she was ok in the morning.

love the breakfast choice! The sugar will have helped I'm sure

Caitlin got the Rapunzel hat in her gift basket for her birthday she loved it! I love silly hat photos, the boys done a few on our trip too, they're lovely to look back on.

I love how the characters are trying to make Max laugh, did any of them succeed?

The snack options are so vast aren't they, it's so hard to choose. I must admit those apples look lovely, definitely one to add to our list!

The photos at The Haunted Mansion are fab, I love the hitchhiking ghost one

Kate and Max sound like Caitlin and Thomas in the pool, every time we went to the small pool it was nice and quiet ... then our kid's turned up

Wow that skillet is huge, especially for 1, well done Max he did a fab job! I remember the ketchup photo from your food report still makes me laugh now.

Wow check you out with all the FP's you did fab today with them!

I think because you managed so many rides and FP's it felt hectic but I can see how it was a lovely more chilled day. Fab day xx

See more...

This was just a lovely day, I think that because we'd done the big rides we could just take time to do some things we'd never done before.

The kids were so funny with the hats! I bet hundreds of kids try them on each day.

The only character I remember getting a smile out of Max was Chewie at HS! But there must have been others, I'll need to check.

We've never had the hitchhiking ghost one so I was really pleased to get that photo.

I don't understand why my kids have to shout at each other in the pool, honestly they could have whispered and they would have heard each other as there was no other noise at all! I bet the people who booked up pool view rooms were regretting it, it certainly wasn't peaceful when we were there.

I think just skipping out on HEA and stopping off where there were no lines made it feel laid back as we didn't really mind what we did and so didn't feel like we had to rush to get somewhere. It was a lovely day.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by walt4it

What an amazing amount of photos from just one day - they retell a day so much more than words

Your Peoplemover experience was something that just highlights that within a few seconds something can happen, no matter where you are in the whole world


Within your whole day that Ketchup picture really has made me laugh

Amidst all the food , the number of bottles really do add to the experience

Your boat photo on IASW sums up everything about a WDW holiday - just when you least expect it - the 'Magic' comes to meet you, usually on a day like today when you feel as if you were just soaking up everything and not going at a huge pace.


Your Once Upon a Time experience simply sums it all up. What a lovely day with so many special moments

See more...

Poor Kate on the peoplemover, at first I thought she was just messing about and leaning while her feet carried on, but then I realised she was stuck and the other people were all coming towards us. I thought I'd ripped her shorts trying to pull her free but it it turned out they were fine!

We had to take the ketchup to the next table pretty soon which was a family with a toddler in a high chair. We didn't think it was all going to fit on the table but we managed it.

The IASW was a magical moment! I asked the cast member if we could sit wherever we liked and she smiled and said sure the whole boat is yours! It is the small things like this that you remember and cherish. It was a lovely moment.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Eccle

It sounds like a brilliant day, both Wilderness Lodge and the food look amazing. And I love the personal boat on IASW! It’s incredible that it was so quiet that evening in MK

See more...

I think we got really lucky with the timing of the small world boat ride as most people were waiting to watch HEA so the rest of the park was pretty quiet and we just stayed that side of the castle.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar

What a lovely day! I’m planning on doing the new Snow White meal at WL so was nice to see how chilled it is getting there and back.
And so many fun characters and rides still packed in!

Love the hitchhiking ghost shot, so nice that the photographer went the extra mile for you!

Glad Kate was ok, can imagine all that food plays havoc with small stomachs.

See more...

I would absolutely recommend the boat from MK, it was lovely going past the contemporary and it felt much more relaxed and laid back than the buses.

That photographer was amazing, honestly I couldn't believe it when he lay down flat on his belly, it was really hot too as it was right in the middle of the day. I'm so glad the photos are all part of the tickets package as they are fab, we've had some really great ones this year.