The Ultimate Star Wars Experience - Day 3 - It's a Kind of Magic

[RachaelC]

Tuesday 18th February

Another early start thanks to Ethan this morning at 4:12am (yes, when it's that early minutes matter). Luckily Holly stayed asleep until 5ish and my lucky husband slept until even later than that!

The good thing about getting up early is that making it out to the parks when it's quieter is easier and we were on a bus to Magic Kingdom by 8:20am, entering the park just before 9.

Rob then had the great idea that we should head straight to see Mickey Mouse and I was really pleased that we did. The queue went quickly and before we knew it Holly had her first encounter with the main man himself. It probably won't surprise anyone who's read about the first 2 days of our holiday, but she hid when she first saw him! He was really good though and she came round, even giving him a high 5 before we left the room.

From there we hot-footed it over to Pirates of the Caribbean, a firm family favourite ride. The queue said 30 mins, but actually took 20 so we were pleased with that one. Holly loved it! It was the first ride that she actually sat and looked around while we were on it.

After that we walked up through Frontierland and over to Fantasyland so we could focus on rides that we could all do together. We were planning on It's a Small World, but the queue was an hour by then and none of us had the stomach for that!

So a quick detour had us in Mickey's Philarmagic in no time - it's never busy and yet I love that show. Even though it was early it was still good to get out of the sun too.

Then it was time for our first Fastpass - Voyage of the Little Mermaid. And wouldn't you know, Holly loved that ride too! Clearly she was finding her theme park stride!

Once we were done on that it was about 11:30 so we decided to beat the crowds to an early lunch at the Pinnochio Village Haus. It was really busy in there, so didn't quite beat them, but the rest of the family went to grab a table while I ordered and picked up the food. I think this is one of the best restaurants in all the theme parks - great variety of food and Holly and I shared the pasta marinara while Ethan went for a flatbread. Holly gobbled down most of the pasta, leaving me to finish eating off Ethan and Rob's plates to get a full meal in!

Once we'd finished there is was time for our Fastpass for Peter Pan. Why DOES the standby line always end up so long for that? I mean, I quite like the ride, but REALLY, 2 hours?!

Once we were done there it was time to consult the app to see what the wait times were like. Answer: very long for almost everything - I think it was busier than when we usually go at the end of August!

So, with a weary boy in tow we headed for the Carousel of Progress so give some respite from the heat. On the way down there Holly fell asleep in the pushchair so I missed out on the ride, but enjoyed a peaceful 20 minutes of so waiting for them to finish. Once they were out Ethan and I headed over to the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, leaving Rob on "staring at toddler sleeping" duty.

Once we were done there, Holly still sleeping, we went back to Fantasyland for our Fastpasses for the Seven Dwarves Mine Train. Once again Ethan was super lucky and got to ride twice which was great because he loved it. It was the first time we'd all got to ride this as last time we were there, 5 years ago, the Fastpasses were incredibly difficult to get hold of and we weren't successful.

Holly had woken up while Ethan and I were riding, so once the boys took their go I headed over to Mickey's Philarmagic again, but the queue was 30 mins, so we swerved that and headed back to Pinnochio's to share a chocolate ice cream. I say share, I think I was allowed about 2 spoons of it!

After that we made what I initially thought was a big error, we started to head down to Main Street at 3pm... totally forgetting it was parade time. As it turned out though, we found a great spot and ended up staying there to watch the parade (we don't usually do the parades, Ethan isn't fussed and neither is Rob!). Holly loved it, sat on Daddy's shoulders and bopped away to the music, so I think we'll do that again in the summer.

Finally, it was time for our final "task" of the day - Holly's first hair cut at the barber shop! She looked entirely grumpy through the whole thing and, TBH, they didn't do a great job, but she did get a nice certificate and a hat to commemorate the occasion!

We were all wilting after that and it was 4:30pm, so our longest day out yet. We headed back to the bus stop and hopped on our bus to the hotel.

Due to my love affair with the Skyliner I thought it would be nice to head down to Pop Century for some dinner for a bit of variety, so we promptly headed out again after getting back. It wasn't the greatest of successes as no one's food was that great and it seemed to take forever to pay there, but it was nice to have a change of scenery!

The back to the hotel for another early night for us all - we knew we had a big day coming up, so needed to get as much rest in as possible!

[Tinkermom]

Bless her she did not look impressed with that haircut 😳

[RachaelC]

Originally Posted by Tinkermom

Bless her she did not look impressed with that haircut 😳

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She obviously knew it was a gimmick! 😂

[Floridadreams]

Such a fabulous trip so far! The parks were ridiculously busy weren’t they?! I thought it was just me as a first timer! Can’t wait to hear about your big day! We were in HS Wednesday too - what a day!

[Th1nkT1nk]

Wow. 2 hours for Peter Pan! That’s busy! Sounds like a really special day

[Jules32]

Peter pan is always so busy I think its because the ride takes a while and there snot that many cars, very frustrating though

[smithlane]

I love the photo of Ethan and a Holly holding hands, so cute!
You did well with the rides today, I’m glad Holly has got her ride head on now 😂
She really doesn’t look impressed with having her hair done, give her 10 years she’ll be loving it 😬

[scottishnellie]

Aw shame about the haircut, but brilliant to see Holly loving the parade and enjoying the rides. Looking forward to the next instalment!

[Joshie1]

Great to see that Holly is starting to figure out what the rides are about.

[rafjen]

I love when you catch the parade without trying