November 4 – 14, 2020 day 2 – Should have been Wine and Dine races

Thursday 11/5/20

The four of us left the room(s) at 7:00 am, knowing buses were loading limited capacity. There was already a good bit of a line for the bus. Before the buses started running the line was absolutely huge! Wrapping and re-wrapping around the decade numbers in front of Pop. We were even outside the normal chain link queue, but with distancing we really weren’t all that far back. One neat thing about the buses, with few resorts being open and with limited capacity, they just rolled in one after another once they started running. It was staged like race morning buses just one after another after another. So the line moved very quickly. We got to MK about 8:35 where we walked right in, temp check and bag check was very easy. We loved how you don’t have to take your bag off anymore! Just hold your electronics out in front of you and walk right through. The only time you have to stop is if it sets something off. I know Heather and I cried rounding the corner and seeing Cinderella Castle the first time. It had been over a year and a half for us and almost a year for them. It was awesome to see the Christmas tree too!

We headed right back to 7DMT for our first ride of the trip. We were on and off by 9:05! No wait at all! Then the three of us went to Space Mountain for a walk on while Kathy used the opportunity to ride the Speedway. We all rode Buzz with only a 5 to 10 minute wait. I didn’t score so great but that’s okay, it’s always fun! We had already noticed in the first few rides how incredibly long the distanced lines look but they moved so fast! What would normally be a good half hour or 45 minutes was a mere 10 minutes at most! We headed back to Fantasyland for our traditional ride on Pooh with Team Pooh Tigger riding together of course! We hit up Teacups for a walk on. Kathy and I rode in our “gentle” cup since that’s what she can handle and we enjoyed watching Ryan practically spin Heather out of their cup! We laughed so hard! I actually grabbed onto her and helped her make her way off the ride, she almost went down getting out of the cup! By this time we were ready for a snack so we decided on waffles from Sleepy Hollow. I found a spot of picnic tables in the shade behind Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe. A really nice quiet spot and we saw a couple cavalcades go by the front of the shops. After enjoying our snacks we went to Haunted Mansion where it was about 15 minute wait. It was weird seeing the Rivers of America drained for refurb. Kathy was so happy to be back on her ride! It was closing in on noon so we decided to try Pirates. There were more people but it still only wound up being about 30 minutes before our sailing. Not bad at all! We checked the Splash Mountain shop for plush for Chloe, but had no luck. Peter Pan was listed at 20 minutes in the app, so we headed there and took a flight to Neverland. It was actually well less than a 20 minute wait. How often does that happen in the afternoon at MK? We were loving these crowd levels! To round out most of Fantasyland we went back and rode Under the Sea with about a 10 to 15 minute wait. With distancing in the lines we were able to see some of the rooms in the indoor queue that we never get to see. It was really cool to see some stuff new to us! And of course to sing along with my mermaid!

We decided on a late lunch of tacos at Pecos Bill’s. The mobile order seemed to work out well. With full bellies we all went to Philharmagic and sang along. Heather and Ryan wanted some Dole Whips so Kathy and I got some Photopass pictures and checked out Memento Mori. They got in line for Jingle Cruise after their snack and we joined up with them for a really fun cruise! We then stopped in at Memento Mori and bought a couple Haunted Mansion items Kathy had her eye on and then Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe where we bought a blanket we had seen the night before at Downtown Disney Springs. Heather and Ryan used that time to ride Space again. We walked out with them and we got to see characters on the train station platform as leaving! They went to DTD since they hadn’t been and Ryan wanted Pizza Ponte for dinner. We went on to Pop where Stephen met up with Kathy and me. Mega hugs ensued and Stephen and I picked up dinner together to have in our room so we could spend some time together without masks. After eating and chatting for a bit he helped convince Kathy to try out the Skyliner! I think we made him very happy knowing that he was part of her first ride on it! We even got the Haunted Mansion wrap gondola for her first time! She did great, just a bit nervous on the first couple takeoffs. I think it being dark helped for her first time. We rode over to Riveria where we checked out the mosaics. Oh my gosh are those things cool! They did such a great job! We rode back and Heather and Ryan were done at DTD so we all hung out and enjoyed each other’s company in the room for a bit. What a fun evening! All in all it was a great day! We accomplished the vast majority of MK with very low crowd levels. It was a wonderful start to our park days!

Steps: 22,060
Miles: 9.94