Day 5! Magic Kingdom!
We only had one day at MK so we were prepared to make it a long one! Our initial “rope drop Space Mountain” plan was foiled however, when we got there only to learn it was down and they didn’t know when it would be opening. So we decided to make our way over to Fantasyland instead and rope drop Peter Pan. We love the queue for PP so we were happy walking through it for our 5 minute wait. Plus we didn't want to get too far away from Tron. Then a quick ride on Small World (before it gets crowded and the boats take forever to unload!), and the Little Mermaid (still a walk on at this point), and then back over to Tomorrowland for our Tron ILL.
We decided to ILL Tron because we had heard the VQs had long waits, and we only had one day at MK and were worried we would run out of time. After we saw that half of the Tron VQ was OUTSIDE IN NO SHADE we were very happy with that call. A tip – bring an umbrella if you are going to VQ Tron during the day because you’ll be standing outside for a while and there is nothing but a sporadic umbrella here and there in that line. Otherwise pay the money for the ILL or wait till the 1:00 VQ drop.
Tron is amazing! My mom had to ride in the regular seat because her knees would not allow her to get into the lightcycle (if you have bad knees, you may have a problem). She thought the ride was too intense even seated normally, so it was a one and done for her. But my girls and I loved it and decided we’d try to snag another spot in the VQ later in the day.
After that we methodically made our way through the lands, going around the hub in order from Tomorrowland counterclockwise and making strategic stops for AC and cooling off (CoP which is actually our favorite anyway, Mickey’s Philarmagic, HoP, Casey’s splash area, Tiki Room, etc).
Quick pic by the Purple wall because a wall in her bedroom is painted this way
We had one of those serendipitous Disney moments where the afternoon parade was literally JUST passing by the HoP as our show finished and we left the building, so we were in a perfect viewing spot without even trying or waiting at all. I'm not a big parade person so this is the only way I ever want to see them! No waiting!
While on Pirates, it broke down and went completely dark for a bit, until the lights came fully on and then off and on and off and on…we were in the last room (literally the next boat to unload) but were not upset about the extra time in the AC at all! Although hearing Captain Jack's dialogue over and over and over again got a little annoying!
At this point, we were realizing that MK has very limited spots to rest and cool down, and my mom was starting to struggle. So, we made reservations at Tony’s Town Square for dinner so that we would have some time to cool down and recharge, and also visited first aid so my mom could sit in the AC and rehydrate for a bit. Side note – between my daughter’s blisters on her feet and my mom overheating, we visited almost all first aid centers this trip. We were consistently impressed with how nice and helpful they all were. Great to know that they are ready to take care of you if needed!
We went on everything we wanted to do with a mixture of LL and standby. The only “big ticket” ride we skipped was Big Thunder Mountain, but we made the strategic choice not to go over to Frontierland just for that because of the heat and the fact that it’s not our favorite and we’ve done it enough in the past. Also, HM was closed for renovations for three days, and our day just happened to be one of them. Super disappointing for my kids, especially my oldest who had planned her whole MK outfit around that ride!
At 1:00 right as we were stepping onto our Jungle Cruise boat I snagged the Tron VQ for the evening (literally had one foot in the boat as I got it and the CM loading us was super happy for me lol). Our Tron VQ was called before dinner, but when we got there they told us the ride was down and they weren’t sure when it would open, so we should go to dinner and just bring our receipt to prove we were there if the ride reopened and our boarding group was passed while we were eating.
So as we headed over to Tony’s for dinner my mom decided to stay down at that end of main street to watch the fireworks after, and be ready to get on the buses right away once they were done. My girls and I made our way back into Tomorrowland to ride Tron, which was up and running now. Since our morning plans to rope drop SM didn’t work, our plan B was to watch the fireworks from Tomorrowland and then get on Space Mountain at the last minute because my mom didn’t want to ride, so we figured she could go home and we’d finish up our night there. But the Tron VQ threw us for a loop. We got in line and waited for 50 minutes, which had us miss fireworks and get off of the ride 10 minutes before closing. I got front row for this one - Tron at night in the front row is pretty epic!
We grabbed our stuff out of the Tron lockers (of course my bag got stuck and we needed a CM to help us get it out!) and then ran over to SM with 5 minutes to spare. There was only about a 20 minute wait for SM and we were done pretty quickly, which was great because the line had been very long all day.
We had an amazingly fun day but my older daughter was pretty bummed about not seeing the fireworks over the castle, which led to lots of googling on my part (“where to watch magic kingdom fireworks outside of the park”) and a new and fun experience for us the next day (stay tuned!).
After SM, we did a little shopping on Main Street while the crowds cleared, and then made our way home super exhausted and sweaty but happy after a fun day!
