October 2018 D-Cot Meet 10/12-10/21/18 – day 7

Thursday 10/18/18

After a good night’s sleep we had a delicious breakfast of Mickey waffles and were to the Magic Kingdom just after 8:00. And we didn’t even hurry, just took our time. The somewhat earlier nights were paying dividends as we were able to get our sleep and still be up early enough to not rush around in the mornings. We enjoyed a leisurely stroll into the park and were able to sit just a bit at Casey’s like we did Tuesday. This was our Storm the Castle and Attack Fantasyland day though so we didn’t stay too long there, getting to the rope at Liberty Square early enough to be right at the rope. I know our strategy on Attack Fantasyland day bugs Stephen so much, but we get so much done this way! Then we are able to take it easy the rest of the day. We rope dropped Peter Pan and were heading to Pooh when we saw 7DMT down. We just beat the crowd leaving that queue over to Pooh! Whew! So we had very minimal wait to ride in our hunny pot and then went right over to Dumbo to continue ahead of the crowd. Finally got to fly with that little elephant! We hadn’t met the characters in the Sideshow tent for a while so we headed there next. There was no one in there! We met Daisy and Minnie and then looped right around and saw Goofy and Donald! All with no wait! We rode Under the Sea again, all by 10:00! We wanted to ride the Carrousel so we did that next, and Kathy got Cinderella’s horse! She loves doing that! After that we saw Philharmagic. The theatre wasn’t half full I don’t think. Magic Kingdom was very pleasantly uncrowded! It seems after Monday that’s the way the parks were going, but this was also a party night so that may have factored into it. To demonstrate how low the crowds were, we were able to meet Gaston after Philharmagic with probably a four or six at most person wait! That never happens! We were able to go meet Ariel with FP, where I had a wonderful conversation with my mermaid! We grabbed a quick light lunch of turkey sandwich and chips at Gaston’s before the 11:30 Move it Shake it. Kathy really wanted to see the entire hub sequence of this since it will be changing next year for Mickey’s birthday. We intentionally wanted to eat light knowing we had a big dinner planned at Trail’s End also. We got to the hub just as the parade was rolling in and Kathy had a great time dancing with the characters and especially her Baloo! The Friendship Faire Castle show was going to be starting in a few minutes and I really like that so we grabbed a spot in the shade to wait a few minutes. It was 92 degrees this day! What was with the October temps? After the show we used our Haunted Mansion FP and saw the 7DMT was back up so we used our third FP for that. We had a limited amount of time before heading out but I was able to get a 4th FP for Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. We felt like we wanted a snack so decided to walk over and get a cool, refreshing Dole Whip. While passing Peter Pan’s Flight and the Tangled bathrooms we noticed Peter Pan meeting with a minimal wait. I had gotten a Neverland shirt at Box Lunch before the trip and happened to be wearing it that day. I just had to meet Peter with my Neverland shirt on! It was a great meet! We then went to Adventureland and enjoyed a Dole Whip swirl. While waiting to be served a guest walked up and asked for ice water, which they did not have, not being a true counter service restaurant. The cast member asked the guest to wait there however and went and got two bottled waters and gifted them to the guest. Good on ya, cast member! After enjoying our Dole Whip we went to Laugh Floor where I wound up being three seats away from That Guy! Three seats! Some day hopefully! We then rode Peoplemover for two circuits, this was becoming a theme for this hot trip! After that we made our way out to the boats to Wilderness Lodge for a bit of a break before heading to Ft. Wilderness. I do love the lobby of WL! That is one I could definitely stay at! And we love the boat ride over! We had a nice a/c break before taking the launch over to Ft. Wilderness.

We had thought about taking the trail but it was just too darn hot! We had a little time to explore before our Trail’s End dinner, got to see a couple campsites decorated for Halloween, and man do these people go all out with their golf carts! We checked in at Trail’s End and were seated very quickly. We witnessed another magic moment but this one between guests. A woman two tables down asked the two young ladies at the table next to us if they were on the dining plan. They said no and so she said, “pick up your check, it’s on me!” She had 2 credits to use and was leaving that evening! How awesome of her! Oh my gosh, Trail’s End was so good! We ate SO much! It was a great value for the dollar too, one of the cheaper buffets on property! Oh we were so full! We were barely able to push back from the table and make our way to the rocking chairs on the porch! When we actually could waddle again we worked our way slowly to the stables, meeting the horse who pulled the carriage rides, Paul, named for Paul Bunyan. His driver said he was 18 ½ hands and weighed 2,000 pounds! That’s literally a ton of horse! He can pull up to 6,000 pounds! Wow! What a big, handsome animal! We got to the stables as twilight was falling and we saw no less than nine deer out and grazing! It was so cool! A car and a bus had to both stop as they showed no hurry while crossing the street! We checked in for Return to Sleepy Hollow, got our pictures taken with Photopass, received some candy, our collectible pins, and a big bag of popcorn each! We chose seats toward the back and were actually fortunate that no one wound up sitting in the row directly in front of us. We had a great view of the film Legend of Sleepy Hollow, all while we could hear the horses softly at times. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Legend of Sleepy Hollow but I hadn’t. After it ended I was shocked! I wanted an actual ending! The screen went up and there was the headless horseman on his horse! This is where general admission paid off! They took people up starting with the front, the “premium” seats. We got to stay and watch and were one of the last rows to go up so we had a lot of extra time watching. It was great! If anyone ever does this, I highly recommend general admission, and sitting in one of the very last rows. You get so much more time with the headless horseman that way! They do have photopass but you can also get as many pictures on your own device that you want! It was a great evening for just $22, well worth it! I would totally do it again! And don’t pay for the dessert party. For less than the price of that, we got an incredible dinner at Trail’s End and the Return to Sleepy Hollow event! They have an “events bus” running between Ft. Wilderness and Magic Kingdom since they have so many things happening at Ft. Wilderness, such as Hoop de Doo, Mickey’s Backyard BBQ, the campfire sing-along, and now on select evenings this. That was really handy to catch and didn’t take long to get to MK. We caught a Pop bus just rolling in and were home by 9:30ish. What a great day and wonderful evening and date! I would absolutely without hesitation go to Return to Sleepy Hollow again and now want to try more things at Ft. Wilderness like the campfire and such! If I were a local I could see us doing those types of things so much!

Steps: 20,569
Miles: 9.29
Wheel Spin: 5