They Came With Ma & Pa to Escape Mardi Gras! A February 2020 TR * 7/1 Aulani TR Started & Link Posted

Day 2: Sunday February 23rd

For our first park morning, we were up bright and early! Not only were we excited to get to the parks, but it was also the morning of the Princess Half Marathon. I had read that transportation could take a while due to the race, and we weren’t sure how much that would impact us since we were headed to Magic Kingdom. Yes, there was the boat option which would mean we wouldn’t be dealing with road traffic, but being unfamiliar with everything at this resort and race weekends, we weren’t sure if the boat would be running and we wanted to make sure we gave ourselves plenty of time in case we had to come up with an alternative plan.

We had breakfast in the room and got dressed, then headed down to the boat dock around 7:30 am. The boats were running, which was great, but I did overhear that the only reason they were running this early was because of the race. As soon as we got to the dock, we got right on to the next boat. I didn’t take long for it to fill up enough that we were on our way to MK! We didn’t need to fold up the stroller, so DD stayed in it and I sat in the front bench with her while DH and DS headed to the open back seats.


We went through security as we exited the boat, then headed to the tapstiles. The racers were heading into MK, and we had to wait there at the gates until all of the racers had made it through. We were over on the right hand side, so we had a good view of the runners and of Princess Daisy waving to them as they ran under the train station.


2 of my aunt’s sisters were running the half before getting on their 4 night cruise the next day. I started out looking for them, but there were just SOOOO many runners I started getting distracted.

DS was all Spider-Man’d out for the day.


At one point though, I looked up and spotted one of her sisters and her husband running, and was able to call out her name to get her attention! She said that encouraged her to run a little faster after that since she had no idea who else might spot her. Lol

Eventually, the runners had made it through and we were cleared to enter onto Main Street. The first thing we did was stop at the Minnie & Roy Disney bench for some Photopass photos.


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Then we made our way down Main Street to Cinderella Castle!! The smile on my face was huge as the happiness sunk in. It had been WAY TOO LONG since we had made this walk!


After DH took some photos of the kids, I spotted a mom and daughter and asked if they wanted us to take their photo and then she offered to take one of our whole family together.


DD and I ran over to use the restroom before more people started packing in for the opening castle show, and we stopped for another Photopass photographer on the way.


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When we got back, there still weren’t a lot of people around so we were able to get a few more photos of the kids with the castle and no one around.


DD, of course, requested another back to back pose!


We made our way over towards the left side of the castle so that we could see the opening show and then head up the ramp through the castle to get to Fantasyland once it was over. While we were standing there waiting, a CM ran over and said, “Hey, do you guys want some churros?” She handed one to each kid and hurried off before I even got a good look at her! DH and I laughed that in 2 days, 2 CMs had shoved free stuff at our kids out of nowhere!!


UP NEXT: Welcome Welcome Welcome!
 
I'm sure you'll agree, it's a relief that we were able to go before everything became so uncertain, so we weren't too worried to enjoy our vacation.
i know, we tell ourselves everyday how happy we are that we were able to go before the closing! Can’t believe we were within the last people to get there, and since we were before everything started, it didn’t even put a shadow in our vacation!
I feel very sorry for all of those who had to cancel their vacations, I know I would have been devastated if it were me!

Not only were we excited to get to the parks, but it was also the morning of the Princess Half Marathon. I had read that transportation could take a while due to the race, and we weren’t sure how much that would impact us since we were headed to Magic Kingdom.
We were in MK that day... maybe we crossed paths without knowing!
We were staying at Pop Century so it took us much longer to get there (I certainly wish we could have just hopped on a boat!), but the empty park in the first few hours was totally worth it!

btw, you make me want to go to Copper Creek next time... the room seems AMAZING!
 
Your room looked great!

Always awesome to start a trip at MK! Love the early morning pics!

Free churros?? Nice! Breakfast of champions :)
 
i know, we tell ourselves everyday how happy we are that we were able to go before the closing! Can’t believe we were within the last people to get there, and since we were before everything started, it didn’t even put a shadow in our vacation!
I feel very sorry for all of those who had to cancel their vacations, I know I would have been devastated if it were me!

I had been worried about visiting during the Mardi Gras break and it being too crowded, but it ended up being a nearly perfect week. Without knowing how crazy things were about to get at home, I'm so thankful we had that amazing week to make memories without a black cloud of uncertainty hanging over us.

We were in MK that day... maybe we crossed paths without knowing!
We were staying at Pop Century so it took us much longer to get there (I certainly wish we could have just hopped on a boat!), but the empty park in the first few hours was totally worth it!

btw, you make me want to go to Copper Creek next time... the room seems AMAZING!

That would be so funny! Maybe you'll spot yourself in a photo or two!

I had been really worried about getting to MK that morning with the race going on, so the boat was a Godsend that morning.

It was beautiful!! I have heard people complain about them in DVC circles but we absolutely loved it.

Your room looked great!

Always awesome to start a trip at MK! Love the early morning pics!

Free churros?? Nice! Breakfast of champions :)

It was very nice, and we loved being at WL also.

The kids agreed about it being a great breakfast, and they didn't really want to share with us either!! :rotfl:
 


A great start to your trip! Your room looks awesome - lots of space and storage. The WL is my all time favorite resort. Nice you got into MK without much stress. Love the early morning photos - your DD is so photogenic!
 
A great start to your trip! Your room looks awesome - lots of space and storage. The WL is my all time favorite resort. Nice you got into MK without much stress. Love the early morning photos - your DD is so photogenic!

We were very impressed with all of the storage space available! I loved that we didn't feel like our stuff was out everywhere (besides the kids toys later on in the week). We didn't have stuff all out on the counters and jackets everywhere, etc. It was a lot like the cruise ships, you can tell Disney put a lot of thought into maximizing space for families so that you can easily spend a week and not have all of your counter spaces covered in stuff.

Thank you! She has really mastered the head tilt and other poses when it's time to pose for the camera. :rotfl:
 
I've always enjoyed your trip reports and glad to see you back! The kids are getting so big! I think I started reading your reports before DD was born.

During these uncertain times, it's fun to get a little Disney in my life through the DIS. I had to cancel our June trip and not sure when we'll get there again.

Those villas are just lovely! It's great to have more space when you're there for a week.

On another note, it's nice to hear that your mass was packed. My local parish is dwindling in numbers something terrible.
 


Churros for breakfast sounds amazing to me!

How cool that you were able to see one of your aunt's sisters running. There's so many people in those races!
 
I've always enjoyed your trip reports and glad to see you back! The kids are getting so big! I think I started reading your reports before DD was born.

During these uncertain times, it's fun to get a little Disney in my life through the DIS. I had to cancel our June trip and not sure when we'll get there again.

Those villas are just lovely! It's great to have more space when you're there for a week.

On another note, it's nice to hear that your mass was packed. My local parish is dwindling in numbers something terrible.

Thanks so much! It's fun to be sharing a WDW trip again! It's been way too long.

I'm so sorry you had to cancel. I feel so bad for everyone who has had their trip affected by this pandemic. I know it's small potatoes compared to what some others are going through, but it still sucks!! Hopefully you'll be able to get back soon.

We had stayed at WL in just a regular room a few years ago, so this was a GREAT way to spend a full week there and have so much space!!

Oh no, that's such a shame! It seems like our local parish has really grown since last summer too. I think the secret is out about Corpus Christi in Celebration since it's not as large as the Basilica, and we find the Basilica takes a LONG TIME to get out of the parking lot because of all of the cars, so we liked going to the smaller church.

Churros for breakfast sounds amazing to me!

How cool that you were able to see one of your aunt's sisters running. There's so many people in those races!

It was never a breakfast we had considered, but it was DELICIOUS!!! And nothing tastes better than FREE, right?!

I was so surprised I managed to spot her, because I had really stopped looking since yes there were TONS of people running!!
 
Day 2 Continued: Sunday February 23rd

The snack passed the time until the opening show. It definitely wasn’t as exciting as the old train station show, but again, since it had been so long since we had been inside a Disney park, the tears were welling up in my eyes. Although this was already DD’s 6th trip to WDW, it was the first one where she was old enough to understand and react, so watching her get so excited about it made the feelings even stronger!


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I liked this one a lot because you can see the reflection of the castle in my lens!


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DD was so excited to see all the characters, especially the princesses! DS didn’t want to admit it as much, but he was excited too. He loved all of our Universal trips, but he’s a Disney kid at heart.

We had to wait a few minutes at the rope for the stage to be cleared and the characters to exit the area before they would let us through, but soon enough we were walking through Cinderella Castle! No pictures of it unfortunately because it was a little chaotic. Our plan was to hit some of the Fantasyland attractions that weren’t FP worthy, but we knew would likely have long waits later on, and things that weren’t included in our Early Morning Magic coming up Thursday. So first up, we went over to ride Dumbo.


Next, we went over to Barnstormer since it had no wait either and we knew it was probably the best time to ride it.


After a quick bathroom break and some photos…


…We went back on Barnstormer a second time.

Next, we wanted to go over and do It’s a Small World. Although it would be open during EMM, since it’s a long attraction we didn’t want to spend that much time on one attraction during the event. So we headed over there where there wasn’t much of a wait yet.


UP NEXT: Final Frontier(land)
 
Love the pictures! I agree, it is amazing to see the excitement in our children’s eyes, it makes the whole experience so much better!
looks like a great start to a great day!
 
A great start to your morning - smiling faces all around! Love the ones of you and your DD in front of the castle. Nothing better than a child's excitement.
 
Great start to your trip. I can the excitement in your DD's eyes. She is the perfect age to experience the Magic. My youngest DD was there too working in the MK with the DCP programs. She said the traffic was a nightmare. She had to leave for work 2 hours early. The parks might have been less crowded due to the traffic. Lot's of people missed their ADRs for breakfast due to the traffic.
 
Ah! I somehow missed the start of this report, but I just finished your Universal one and now I'm all caught up here. Your 1 bedroom at WL looked really nice. You can't beat that extra space when two kids are along.
Glad you spotted your aunt's sister and husband running. I can tell you, seeing a familiar face during a race is invaluable!

Dumbo's the perfect first attraction on a first day of a trip. (And a first MK day. :goodvibes )

The back to back poses DD insists on is too adorable. I hope she continues that as they get older.
 
Love the pics of you guys watching the Welcome Show & on Dumbo! You can tell the excitement was real!

Yes, we were all so excited to be back!! And for DD, she was really excited to get to experience it all for the "first" time since she hadn't been since she was a baby.

Love the pictures! I agree, it is amazing to see the excitement in our children’s eyes, it makes the whole experience so much better!
looks like a great start to a great day!

I can remember feeling like we had to go on as many trips as possible before kids because it wouldn't be the same with kids as without. I was right, but boy did I never realize how much more amazing it would be with kids and getting to experience it with them! Not getting to hit the headliners over and over didn't seem like a big deal anymore.

A great start to your morning - smiling faces all around! Love the ones of you and your DD in front of the castle. Nothing better than a child's excitement.

Her excitement was contagious! I loved getting to see her experience that and feeling how excited she was.

The photos of your daughter's excitement are just priceless!

Thank you! I love seeing the Disney Magic through their eyes!

So excited to read another one of your trip reports! Your kids are adorable!

Thanks & welcome along!

Great start to your trip. I can the excitement in your DD's eyes. She is the perfect age to experience the Magic. My youngest DD was there too working in the MK with the DCP programs. She said the traffic was a nightmare. She had to leave for work 2 hours early. The parks might have been less crowded due to the traffic. Lot's of people missed their ADRs for breakfast due to the traffic.

Yes, it was totally the perfect age! I loved getting to experience it with her and feeling the newness with her. It was so different from DS who was an old pro at Disney by that age, but still so fun!

That was what I had heard leaning up to the trip, so I was very anxious about getting to the park that morning, especially since the race was going through MK. Thank goodness for that boat, or I think we would have found it to be a nightmare as well!

Ah! I somehow missed the start of this report, but I just finished your Universal one and now I'm all caught up here. Your 1 bedroom at WL looked really nice. You can't beat that extra space when two kids are along.
Glad you spotted your aunt's sister and husband running. I can tell you, seeing a familiar face during a race is invaluable!

Dumbo's the perfect first attraction on a first day of a trip. (And a first MK day. :goodvibes )

The back to back poses DD insists on is too adorable. I hope she continues that as they get older.

No worries, I am woefully behind on reading TRs myself. So much falling by the wayside with crazy work schedules, kids home all the time, and doing distance learning! I'm ready for some semblance of normalcy!!

The space is incredible! I think we have gotten so spoiled to villas by now between Wyndham and DVC that a weeklong vacation in a hotel room would be rough! What first world problems!!! :rotfl:

I thought the same about Dumbo! What a perfect & iconic ride to start off her "first" Disney World trip as a big girl.

Me too!! I love that she loves it so much!!
 
Sorry for the delays in posting & keeping up with reading and commenting on others' TRs. Although work has been slow (TOO slow!) I have been picking up extra shifts a lot to still get some hours, and when I do come home, we are working on distance learning with the kids. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for things to start getting back to normal!!

Day 2 Continued: Sunday February 23rd

After a fun ride on It's A Small World, we started a bit of criss-crossing the park. We had our first FP reservation for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, so we went over to Frontierland. This was the first time for both kids, and DS was crying in the line because he was so nervous, and I’m sure we looked like awful parents because we were making him do it. However, it was one I knew he would enjoy once he tried it, so we got him on. DD was super excited about it though.


What’s that? A smile? A sign of enjoyment?!


Sure enough, BOTH kids thoroughly enjoyed it!! There was a Photopass photographer near the exit so we stopped for some photos.


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As I mentioned, we were criss-crossing. Splash Mountain was down for refurbishment, so there wasn’t anything else to do in Frontierland, and there were still some things we wanted to do in Fantasyland that hadn’t gotten a long wait yet according to the app. Along the way we spotted some of the Country Bears milling around.


And we stopped for DS to add to his pressed penny collection.


Then we made it back to Fantasyland to go to the Mad Tea Party.


The line was outside of the gates, but they didn’t have a lot of the queue open so even though it looked long, it didn’t take long at all before we were loading into a tea cup.


The kids were enjoying spinning me sick a bit too much.


Once we exited, we saw Alice on the other side of the attraction with a very short line so we went over to meet her next. Only DD wanted to meet her.


After a sweet meet with Alice, it was time for our next FP at Enchanted Tales with Belle, so we didn’t have too far to go for that one.


Neither kid wanted to volunteer for anything, not even for one of the dishes or something. DS thought he was too cool, and DD was too shy.


Our next FP wasn’t for awhile, and we were starting to get hungry, so we decided to stop for some lunch at Columbia Harbour House. The kids and I grabbed a table upstairs while DH got the food. They didn’t have the chicken & fish baskets anymore on the menu, so we got a chicken nugget and a fish & shrimp basket so that we could share both. The kids got nuggets.


After lunch, we went to use our next FP over at Pirates of the Caribbean.


Continued in Next Post...
 
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Day 2 Continued: Sunday February 23rd

As we walked up, we realized it wasn’t looking promising because there were a lot of people milling near the entrance. Sure enough, the attraction was down, so our FP was changed to a Multiple Experience FP instead. We decided to turn around and go to the Enchanted Tiki Room.


Pirates still wasn’t up by the time we finished singing with the Tiki birds, so we asked the kids what they wanted to use the Multiple Experience FP on, and they both voted to use it to ride Big Thunder again. Lots of people had the same idea, because the FP line was winding far outside of the proper queue. But it still moved fairly quickly.

Our plan for the afternoon was to hop over to Epcot, so while I was in the line, I snagged FPs for us for The Seas with Nemo & Friends to use once we hopped.


The lines in MK were pretty long, so our options were limited for what we could do without waiting forever. We decided to go to Mickey’s Philharmagic.


DD loved this just as much as I hoped she would! She has seen all of the movies featured in there, most recently seeing the Lion King, so I was excited for her to get to experience this. It was adorable watching her reach for all of the 3D items coming towards her.

Once we finished there, we decided we were about done with MK for the day and ready to head over to Epcot. We only had a couple days of the Festival of the Arts left, so we had frontloaded our trip with Epcot so we could experience it for the first time.


As we came around the side of the Castle, we could hear Let It Go, and realized there was a Mickey’s Friendship Faire going on, so we stopped to see the end.


Near the entrance, Snow White was meeting with literally no one waiting, so she was trying to entice people to come over to see her. We figured we weren’t in a rush, so why not?


DD decided to start her own pressed penny collection.


Then we took the monorail from MK over to Epcot.


UP NEXT: I'm A Beautiful Butterfly!
 

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