Our Happily Ever After: Florida Family Vacation, Day 8

Initially, we planned to spend Wednesday morning at EPCOT, but we decided to go back to Magic Kingdom Wednesday morning. We needed to change things around and not be at Magic Kingdom Wednesday evening, and we just weren't ready to say goodbye to that park just yet. So we spent Wednesday doing all the things at Magic Kingdom we HAD to do during our trip.

We got to Magic Kingdom at park opening and caught some of the opening show again.

Our first stop at the park was the Tomorrowland Speedway. The kids wanted to ride it on Tuesday, but the line was long, so we told them we would ride them another time. There was no line Wednesday morning thankfully, so we let the kids drive us around. I'm SO glad we didn't wait in line for that. The kids had fun, but Matt and I were very unimpressed. Maybe it's just because my kids aren't very good drivers :)

After the race cars we finished up at Fantasyland. We rode Winnie the Pooh and Dumbo one more time.

We also rode the Barnstormer roller coaster. They wouldn't let the kids ride without an adult for each child, so we had to ride it three times to be able to let all the kids ride. They liked it, but once again Matt and I weren't impressed. I'm pretty sure we skipped that ride the last time we were there :).

Then we hopped on the train for what we thought would be a quick ride across the park to Frontier Land, so Samuel could ride Splash Mountain again. It was still early in the day, and the line was pretty short, but we had an unexpected delay on the train that left us sitting on a stopped train for close to half an hour. womp. womp. I was pretty frustrated because the wait times for Splash Mountain kept increasing while we were stuck doing nothing. We had already told Samuel he could ride it again, so there was no way we could just skip it. Finally, we made it to the station, and I had a chance to politely complain to an employee and we ended up getting two fast passes out of the deal, so that delay on the train ended up working in our favor.

Since we had a fast pass to use for Splash Mountain, we decided to save it and do a couple of other things before the lines got worse as the day went on. The boys wanted to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. We had to wait close to 30 minutes to ride, but they really liked it. Then we grabbed lunch and got in line for the Magic Carpet Ride. This line was longer than I thought it would be too. I kind of kept putting it off because I thought it was a ride that never had a line, but it was a twenty minute wait. The kids had seen Aladdin before our trip, and I told them there were flying carpets they could ride, so they weren't about to miss it. Nathan liked steering our carpet and Elisabeth kept calling it the Shimmer and Shine ride. I think that's a Nickelodeon show maybe with genies? Anyway, it was fun. The kids got a kick out of the spitting camel.

After the Magic Carpets we finally made it over to Splash Mountain. We used rider swap and rode it twice in a row.

Samuel wasn't content and wanted to keep riding it, but we moved on after I insisted we document his favorite ride with a picture.

We headed back to Adventureland to explore the Swiss Family Robinson tree house. It had been closed for refurbishment for several months and I just assumed they were tearing it down to build something else (It's one of the least popular attractions). I told Nathan it wouldn't be open (He had watched about 15 minutes of the movie before he lost attention), but then surprisingly it was open! The kids had fun walking through it. Elisabeth was bummed she couldn't actually go in any of the rooms though.

We stopped for a few pictures before heading back across the park to Tomorrowland.

I had never planned on riding Space Mountain during this trip to Disney World. Initially I didn't think Nathan would be tall enough (but a tiny growth spurt and those Cowboy boots proved me wrong), and I just remember being a little let down by all the hype when we rode it last time. BUT after all the fun Nathan had on Mission Space and Expedition Everest, Matt and I talked about it and knew he would love it. Since we had an extra fast pass from the train debacle, we decided to ride it. Matt rode with Nathan first while Samuel and I explored a gift shop and Elisabeth napped in the stroller. Then we used rider swap so Nathan could ride it again.

Nathan and I got in line and the rest of our family rode the Transit Authority again. The fastpass line was long for Space Mountain (still way shorter than standby) but we had to wait like 20 minutes even in the fastpass line. So riding it took longer than we planned, but Nathan's expression was worth it. When the ride was over, I said, "How was it, Nathan?" His response was, "Whew, I'm alright, but I need to take a breath!" And I will say the ride was better than I remembered. I forgot how dark it was, like you are really in space and have no clue what's coming next. It was fun, and I'm glad we rode it.

After our first night at Downtown Disney where Nathan saw the "Build your own lightsaber" stations, he insisted that that was what he wanted for his big souvenir. By Wednesday he had never wavered on what he wanted so after Space Mountain we stopped at the gift shop and let him build one.

He ended up building a Kylo Ren lightsaber (which he already has), but he insisted this one was better and cooler. He had fun making it, and even now talks about what a good job he did making his lightsaber and how he could make any kind he wanted.

Before we said goodbye to Magic Kingdom, we stopped at a couple of shops (the kids were not cooperative) and stopped for a treat at the Main Street Confectionery. We sat and enjoyed the surroundings while we ate our treats. We also ran to the Christmas store to find an ornament before we left for the day.

Samuel fell asleep after his treat.

I was starting to feel a little bummed because this was our last time to be at Magic Kingdom during this visit to Disney World. I had looked forward to it for so long and I know it will be several years before we make it back. Magic Kingdom was SO good to us, but it was sad to say goodbye. I stared at the castle our whole way out.

I'm pretty sure it was almost 4:00 before we left the park. It was a busy, full day. We went back to our hotel to rest for a bit and eat dinner. I think Elisabeth was the only one who actually napped. Samuel was good from his stroller nap, and Nathan insisted on playing with his Legos. It was nice to have a little downtime though.

So, when I booked our trip and planned where we would spend our park days, I remember being disappointed that the new Star Wars Fireworks show was only running during the summer, and then about three weeks before we left (after all our dining and fast passes had been booked), I saw that they had brought it back for the Fall and it was going on while we were there. I freaked out a bit, because I knew how special it would be for Nathan but we had NO plans to be at Hollywood Studios during the nights it was showing. I had us at Magic Kingdom Wednesday night (with fast passes booked). Matt told me to keep our plans the same, and we'd just see how things were going once we were on vacation. We kept it a secret from Nathan, in case it didn't work out. But we changed our plans around and went to Magic Kingdom Wednesday morning, and sacrificed some time at EPCOT, so we could spend Wednesday evening back at Hollywood Studios for the show. We ate dinner at our resort and then hopped on a bus around 7:00 to make it to Hollywood Studios for the 8:00 show. We found a spot for the show, and I sent Matt off to ride Rockin' Rollercoaster while I stayed with the kids. He came back in a much better mood. He said he needed the chance to ride an adult ride, so I'm glad he got a chance to ride it. He wanted me to ride it on Thursday, but it ended up being closed on Thursday, so I'm really glad he got to ride it Wednesday night.

The show was really good (even for a non Star Wars fan). I thought the fireworks were a little better than Magic Kingdom even. They seemed bigger and there were more than the Magic Kingdom show. They projected classic scenes from the movies on the theater and had lasers and all sorts of special effects.

Nathan loved his surprise, and I'm glad we all got a chance to see it.

Hollywood Studios closed after the show, and Wednesday ended up being our earliest night. We tried to do a little shopping since the rides were closed and we knew the lines for buses would be long. Nathan was pretty excited to find this yellow Power Ranger. He's still confused why it was there since Power Rangers aren't made by Disney. I'm a little confused too, but he had to have a picture with it.