March 6 – 13, 2021 – Kathy birthday trip – day 3

Monday 3/8/21

We got to sleep in just a bit with a 9:00 official MK opening instead of 8:00. It was a pretty good night sleep and I was up a few minutes before the alarm. Showered, donuts in the room and we left the room just before 7:00. Everything Pop had hot chocolate! Disney hot chocolate and a bus stop sunrise! Now that’s the way to start the day! the bus arrived at 7:45 and we were one of the first people through the temp check, security, and the touch points. We got to 7DMT at 8:20 and were able to ride in short order, basically a complete walk on! We then rode Peter Pan with no wait, two of the traditional longest waits in MK boom boom! Knowing how the carousel backs up with social distancing, we decided to go to that next. We just had to wait for one test run and then were riding! Three rides done before official park open! Pooh was a walk on, but unfortunately half the features weren’t working. They shut it down shortly after. We took a relaxing spin on the teacups and then up to Buzz with a complete walk on! Buzz was another ride having trouble with a lot of features not working. That would explain my low 143,400 score. Dumbo was a walk on, in fact it wasn’t even full! By this time it was warming up nicely and we shed our jackets before heading over to Under the Sea. Another walk on! And thankfully all of those features were working! We had an early snack of a Mickey bar, oh my, those are always so good! After enjoying our snack we went to Haunted Mansion with just a 5 minute wait. Nothing really. We did get to see the Liberty Belle pull into dock while we were in the queue. Fantasyland and Liberty Square complete! After our trip with the grim grinning ghosts it was almost time for a sailing of the Liberty Belle, one of my things I really wanted to do this trip since it had been under refurb in November. so since we had a few minutes we stopped in Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe. I was able to see the Main Street Philharmonic go by. We enjoyed the boat ride so much! Such a nice relaxing ride! Afterwards we were working our way through Frontierland and saw two cavalcades, Tink and Goofy, Max, and Clarabelle and the dancers. By then it was time for lunch! Delicious tacos at Pecos Bills! We timed it right because we got one of the last tables inside. As we left Pecos Bills the princess cavalcade was passing by. But we were just behind them. Ok, no problem, I knew a shortcut! So we crossed to Adventureland to Main Street and were able to see them as they rounded the hub and down Main Street! We took a few moments to get some photopass shots at the Castle with my Wine & Dine medals. When I explained to the photographer how I had gotten screwed out of the opportunity with the race going virtual, he put me in an amazing magic shot with Mickey! When we saw it in the room later I will admit to getting a little choked up at that. We browsed the Emporium a bit on the way out, and I was able to see the Main Street Philharmonic perform Under the Sea on the way down Main Street and Be Our Guest around the town square hub before they went backstage. We had a little bit of a wait for a bus back, not too bad, but it did work out that an AoA bus was the first available bus for a mid-day break. Not a problem, we took that, filled the mug, and relaxed and stretched out a bit while the park was more crowded.

After a nice foot break we left about a 4:45 and a bus picked us up and delivered us to MK in very short order. We timed it great because the Dapper Dan’s came out on the train platform to perform just as we entered! We watched them and then ordered Cosmic Ray’s for dinner. One of the new treats we wanted to try was the Cheshire cat tail. They were bigger than we thought so we didn’t need two, but it was so good! Very good chocolate with nice flaky pastry. We enjoyed Sonny Eclipse while we ate dinner and dessert. It was so nice to actually be able to hear him since there were less people due to distancing! We checked out Mickey’s Star Traders and then rode CoP with minimal wait, just the time it took for one of the rooms to turn. It was getting darker as we made our way to Fantasyland, so fun to be able to be there at night, all refreshed while all the tired people left. Philharmagic was not too bad of a wait, maybe 15 or 20 minutes. We rode Under the Sea with just a 5 minute listed wait, which is about the time it takes to walk the queue, second of the day! We got some really nice nighttime photopass shots, including at Cinderella’s carriage. Oh that is so neat lit up! I highly recommend that! HM was listed at 10 minutes but was a complete walk on, showing they just didn’t want to change the sign at the end of the night. The Liberty Belle at dock at night and all lit up is gorgeous! I made the “mistake” of saying I could do that again as a walk on to my HM loving wife as we exited…..bloop! Right back in we went! Haha! Kathy wanted to check out the Pirates shop so we did that and made our way out. The characters finished saying goodnight from the train station platform as we made our way out. The buses were rolling in one after another and it didn’t take long at all to get home after an absolutely perfect Magic Kingdom day! About the only things we didn’t do of rides we wanted to in MK were the Adventureland and Frontierland rides, and we planned to go left on Wednesday so that worked out great!

Steps: 26,224
Miles: 11.81
Calories burned: 3695
Spin: 5