Disney New Year: Magic Kingdom and a Long Travel Day

On our last day in Orlando, we had another day at Magic Kingdom planned.   But I really wasn't ready to leave our beautiful resort.  And so, yet again, I did not follow my own advice about being to the parks before they opened.   We pulled up around 10:30 and found terrible crowds.   It was definitely worse than the 30th, or it just felt like it because departure day is not a very festive day.   After a line in the parking lot and a line to load the ferry and a line for Big Thunder Mountain railroad, we finally boarded our first ride at noon.  Our priorities for the day were BTMRR,  the Walt Disney World Railroad around the park, Tomorrowland Speedway and Buzz Lightyear.  And we didn't get to ride Buzz because we ran out of time.  When deciding whether to leave my savannah that morning, I definitely didn't consider the ferry wait.  Or that Buzz would be a 70 minute wait versus 40.  Those two made it a pass for us.   Oh well...another time.  (Side note:  that was our very first ride at Disney World ever!  Everyone else was racing for Space Mountain, but we had a 3 1/2 year old so we rope dropped Buzz Lightyear :-) )   

We got some good views of Tron from the railroad and the speedway.   Unfortunately the People Mover was closed while we were in a good spot to ride it, or that would have offered additional views.  We hope it's open by our next trip.   I had to take a picture after I parked my car since it lined up with the victory circle.   Each of us drove our own, and I got to be in the lead car.  William said I went too slow!

The Photopass line was longer than I liked on the way out, but William humored me for one more with the toy soldiers than I love so much!

We got to the airport in time for our flight to be delayed three hours.  We got home to cold Chicago around 1 a.m.    John and I went back to work (from home) but William has a reprieve from school until next Monday!   And then it's just a 4 day school week (in service Friday) followed by a 4 day school week (MLK holiday).   But I honestly don't care.  With an older kid it's nice to not have to make a lunch or get him up for school.  I can sleep in an extra 30 minutes before my work day, and he doesn't need anything the rest of the day.  If I'm lucky, he'll make some eggs around lunch time and deliver them to me!  

Disney New Year: A Catch-up Day

We hadn't had many real "park days" as far as cranking through rides with the holiday special events and big crowds.   Finally on the 3rd we wanted to get some things done, so we bought Guardians of the Galaxy for the guys at Epcot (I opted out and met up with them later) and then park hopped via the Skyliner to Hollywood Studios where I had been stacking Lighting Lane return times all day for the afternoon/evening.  It had not made sense to get LL on our earlier day with the early dining reservation since the daytime slots are mostly "sold out" after your first two picks.  But since we planned to stay until close to watch Fantasmic, this was a good day to take advantage of it.  

Epcot was so pretty and calm on January 3 versus December 31!   I have to admit that I loved the weather on this trip.  We got sprinkled on once and wore our jackets a few times.  Otherwise it was perfect walking around weather.   We were very lucky compared to the Christmas week crowds that had freezing weather.    It wasn't really warm enough for a full swim day, but it was ok if you were in the sun and moving the afternoon we tried. 

After a ride on Tower of Terror, we did Toy Story Midway Mania where I got what might have been my highest score ever.   Also known as John and William's usual score.   We also rode Rock 'n Rollercoaster but I have enough pride to not post that photo.

We didn't have a good plan for food this day but always enjoy the Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge so stopped by to see if we could get a table.   They had a walk up list that you could add your name to and it said the return time was 50 minutes.   We sat down at a nearby bench to mobile order a snack to ward off the hangry and strategize a few things, and in the meantime got a call back in 5 minutes.   My best guess is that the group in front of us got called and cancelled.    Luckily I hadn't pushed send on that mobile order yet, so I went straight to a Cobb salad and cocktail!

And we finished in enough time that we could just get to the early Fantasmic show.   We ended up with terrible seat though.   Well...terrible to see the show.  They were excellent for a quick exit.   And we didn't really enjoy the show (helped, I'm sure, by the poor view, but also it was never a favorite), so the quick exit out to the parking lot at closing time ended up being a real advantage.   We made it back to the hotel in record time for one last evening with our animals and to finish packing for our morning departure.

 

Disney New Year: Hollywood Studios Rope Drop

We finally did a proper rope drop day:  up and out of bed and parked in the front row ready to dash to Slinky Dog.  And much like the fog looming over Tower of Terror, our day was off to an inauspicious start!  We were a little slow back to the line thanks to our official first rope drop (the bathroom) and then there was an announcement that Slinky and Rise of the Resistance were not going to be opening right at park open.   We've had that foot fault with Rise before but not Slinky.   I wasn't sure how long it would be down and chose not to pivot so we gambled and lost.   We waited around 45 minutes and it didn't come back up, and then we lost first comers advantage at any other ride.   However....we did have a cool start coming up.

We went to Galaxy's Edge as there was a short line for Smuggler's Run.   And just as we got there, the Rise of the Resistance ride must have reopened and everyone abandoned Smuggler's for it?   That's all I can figure out as to why an hour after park opening, we ended up walking onto the Millennium Falcon ride.   And even cooler than that, we ran into a family of three who wanted to ride "Chewie Mode" and were looking for a party of three to fill the cockpit.   Most people don't know about this hack nor would they be interested in it (and easily talked into it in line by strangers), but we were on board!   I volunteered for a backseat engineer spot and video taped it.   It was too big to upload or send so I'll have to figure out how to YouTube it. 

After that adrenaline boost, we checked ride times again and everything, everywhere was a mess.   We stood in a longer than it should be line for Star Tours and then a few others things.   I'm not even sure anymore!  We left shortly after noon and had lunch back at the room, since we had groceries and our dinner reservation for California Grill was early that evening.

California Grill is our favorite restaurant on property and we try to go on most trips.   Their brunch buffet was the best meal, but that never came back after COVID.   We had the early seating at 7:15, so that gave us plenty of time to get home and cleaned up with our early park departure.   We had our orders in and our drinks in hand when the fireworks started, so the timing was perfect!  It's so hard to get a good picture from inside, but our table had a lovely view.   We went outside to the terrace to watch the fireworks show.

Tron show building view looks great

Back inside we enjoyed our prix fixe meal (they switched to that to celebrate the 50th anniversary).   I had sushi appetizer, filet entree and creme brulee dessert - all favorites I've had before.   John tried the new venison entree and a peanut butter dessert and both were fantastic!

 After dinner we had to check out the gingerbread display at the Contemporary and go through all the gift shops for anything new/unique before calling it a night!   That made our total count for the trip to be four of the gingerbread masterpieces:  Grand Floridian, Beach Club, Animal Kingdom Lodge and Contemporary.   That is the order of amazingness that I rank them in.

Disney New Year: New Year's Day at Animal Kingdom

After our late night at Epcot, we started the new year a little slower, although I did have to set my alarm for 7 a.m. to book our Flight of Passage ride.   We decided to do an individual lightning lane for that instead of rope dropping.  I'm guessing I went back to bed once that was done and got up later to enjoy breakfast with my savannah buddies again.  

The past few visits to Animal Kingdom we have done this arrive later /buy Flight of Passage strategy, so we start our day with the safari wait.   Before a safari, it is important to secure the proper provisions.  The Dawa Bar is the stop for Old Elephant Foot IPA and a margarita while the ice cream cart is the spot for the Mickey premium ice cream bar!   Once all members of our traveling party have their treat, we are ready for the queue!

I don't like to take photos on the safari since it detracts from my watching the animals and their hijinks.   Plus, I also get the middle seat and they aren't very impressive!   I'll keep telling myself it's because I'm just focused on enjoying the ride and the fact that every trip is unique!   After the safari, we went to the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail to see our friends there.   It's a running joke in my family how much I hate the enclosed bird houses, so I also move quickly through that exhibit to the hippos spot and then wait for the guys there before we go to the meerkats and gorillas areas.   The hippo was having lunch so that was really fun to watch!

The entire gorilla family was right by the window when we arrived, and the kids were all being silly.   It was very entertaining to watch.   Conveniently, as we were ready to move on to the outside trail, they also moved to the outside part of the exhibit, so we could watch them from the other side.   The funniest part was watching Grace, who is 3 or 4, chase a native rabbit that she flushed out of the bushes.  

We had lunch at Yak & Yeti, which was a repeat for John and me after our summer trip but a first for William.  He enjoyed one of his favorite home meals, chicken tikka masala.   I loved my bowl and would definitely order it again.   Lots of fresh ingredients.   And our teenager with the unlimited stomachs ordered and devoured dessert before we even knew it had arrived!

After our late lunch we finally started with the thrill rides, since the animal exhibits had mostly closed by this time.   We had our Flight of Passage over in Pandora and then met up with the yeti at Mt. Everest.   We rode that as it got dark (and cool).   Only one of our ride photos turned up.  Too bad, because we waited for front row both times and take great pride in our on board photos for that one!

Our last "must do" before heading home that night was the New Year's Day-only special cupcake.  It was chocolate with cherry filling, amaretto frosting and chocolate pearls.  Delicious!   We had scoped out a lot of holiday treats in advance of our trip, but didn't get to try many of them because we had late arrivals and big meals on the 30th and 31st so didn't snack in the park as much as a normal day.   Unfortunately I learned after the fact that those were "Christmas" treats and most ended with the New Year!

 

The photopass photographer behind us closed their line and wouldn't let us in.  So we took a photo of the tree that included them instead.    When we got home, it was still relatively early by Disney standards (~8:15) and John caught fireworks out of the corner of his eye through a hallway window.   We ran to our room and out to the balcony and realized we had a Magic Kingdom fireworks view!  I had no idea that was a thing!  It didn't photograph very well, but it was nice to watch.    I was very please with our room.  I had made a request for this savannah (Sunset) knowing it was the giraffe savannah.   But if I had to do it again, I'd also request this hall/elevator (Zazu), because I thought our parking was great, as was our view of the other savannahs.   For people who rely on the bus or want to be in the lobby often, it would be a terrible room because we were the second to last room from the end of the long building.   But we did online check in and didn't need anything else in the lobby.  And since we have been renting cars since COVID versus using Disney busses, it's more convenient to stay out of the way of everyone else.   10/10 recommend!