Disney World, Spring Break 2021, Part 1

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Our goal was to have the car packed by 10:30am and pull out by 11am and we did it. We had a little bit of time to spare and were able to take our time checking everything. We went to Culver's and had lunch. We got to the airport in plenty of time, parked, checked our bags, and got through security. We boarded the plane easily and the flight was pretty good. The kids were disappointed that there were screens on the seats but they didn’t work. Mostly, everyone played on their phones. Michael and I read a book. We landed half an hour early, so we ended up landing at the same time as Nathaniel. It took a while for us to all meet up and get our bags and the rental car. We all stopped at a Taco Bell and went to the drive-through and brought the food back to the townhouse. Dad had picked up the Walmart order for me and even went in and bought a few things that were out of stock. The townhouse was fantastic!  There were four bedrooms and each one had its own bathroom, plus there was a bathroom off the kitchen. The only bummer was that the AC wasn’t working well, but we managed until they were able to fix it. We ate, got organized for our day at Magic Kingdom tomorrow, and went to bed late. 

Some pictures of the townhouse at Summerville Resort

Thursday, March 18, 2021

We have been planning for weeks that we would leave at 6am this morning. We ended up leaving a little after 6:30am. However, leaving at six wouldn’t have done us any good because we sat there parked at the parking ticket booth for about 15 minutes waiting for them to open. They opened a few minutes after 7am.

Here we are walking from the parking lot to the ticket center. Last chance for a picture with no masks!

We parked and went through security and walked right up to the ticket window. We got our tickets and went on the ferry to Magic Kingdom. We rented a locker and put on some sunscreen and stuck everything in the locker and got going. It was so fun to walk down Main Street! 

Our first goal was Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Unfortunately, the line wrapped almost all the way around the little mountain and there was no way we were going to wait in that line. Even Emily said, no way! So, we decided to head toward Big Thunder Mountain because the wait was only like 20 minutes or something. On the way, we saw that it’s a small world had no wait but we decided to pass that by. When we walked past Haunted Mansion and we saw that the wait was only five minutes, we couldn’t resist. It’s Michael’s favorite ride. We got right on it. You didn’t even have to do the part where you stand in a room because of social distancing. We got right on the ride and it was fun. I was glad we got to see the evil bride because that’s Michael‘s favorite part. Next, we headed to Big Thunder Mountain. Dad didn’t want to ride that one with us because it’s too hard on his back but the rest of us rode it. I felt like a mouse in a maze trying to get through that queue. There was no wait, technically, it was just walking through the maze. Once we stopped walking, we got right on the ride. After the first drop, and before it started going up again, the ride stopped completely. They had to come get us off of the ride and walk us through the ride to get out. It was actually pretty cool. We felt like we were on a behind-the-scenes tour. They were very clear that we were not to take a picture. It was like we were in the underbelly of the ride and it was really cool. I was saying to the kids that at Disneyland if this had happened, they would’ve given us a Fast Pass to make up for it. Or Disney World, pre-Covid. I was shocked when they actually did that! I didn’t think they did any kind of Fast Passes but, apparently, they do. So that was awesome! We were allowed to use it for anything but Peter Pan and Mine Train.

Waiting for them to let us out

From there, we went to Pirates of the Caribbean. The wait was actually fairly long, like 40 minutes or more. We had our first space-shaming incident in that line.  Apparently, Nathaniel was getting too close to the ladies in front of us, and the one lady said, “Can you give us some space, please?” After that, we had a bathroom break and then we headed over to Fantasyland. All of the wait times were suddenly much longer. Everybody seemed to want a snack. I really wanted to go to Gaston‘s Tavern for a grey stuff cupcake, but the line was super long so we just kind of sat and took a little break. Nathaniel went and got himself a Dole whip. We had a hard time agreeing on what to do. Finally, we decided we would go to Space Mountain and use our Fast Pass and then go eat some lunch because everybody was getting really hungry. So, we ordered our food to be ready at 11:35am and walked over to the ride. I’ve got to say, I much prefer the Space Mountain ride at Disneyland. This one was really jerky. It was still fun, though. We went to the Tomorrowland Terrace restaurant and got our mobile order. We had a nice lunch and relaxed and talked about what we wanted to do next. Emily made a list for the rest of the day. The kids and Michael went on the Tomorrowland Speedway and Dad and I sat and relaxed and talked for a little bit. Next, we headed over to the Barnstormer. That line was actually longer than we thought it was going to be but it wasn’t too bad. We all reapplied our sunscreen. It was warm but not unbearable.  The ride was super short. The only bummer about it was the backrest was bumpy and super uncomfortable. I’m glad Dad didn’t go on it. Next, we walked through Cinderella’s castle so we could take some pictures in front of it. 

We were just in time to see a little parade with the Disney princesses. 

Then, we headed over to Peter Pan because the wait was only 35 minutes and we decided that was probably the best we were going to get. Unfortunately, the wait it was more like an hour. I felt so bad because really nobody else cares about that ride but me. At least the line weaved through the Columbia Harbor House restaurant (which is closed) so we were inside in the AC for most of the time. I really like that ride. It feels like you’re flying over London. Next, we got another snack. Everybody wanted a treat so we went to Storybook Treats. Nathaniel got a cherry soft serve, Emily and Andrew each got a root beer float, Michael I got a Dole lime soft serve, and the boys and Dad each got a drink. Jonathan was feeling exhausted and wanted to go back to the condo. I asked him what he would want before he did that and he said he wanted to go on Splash Mountain. So Michael, Nathaniel, Andrew, Daniel, and Jonathan all went to Splash Mountain. Emily, Dad, and I took their bags and headed over to the Ariel ride. On the way, I noticed that Gaston‘s Tavern had no wait so we went in there and I got a gray stuff cupcake and Emily got some chocolate milk. 

We had our little snack and went to the Ariel ride. It was a long queue, but there was no one in it so we walked right on the ride and that was great. Emily wanted to go see Rapunzel‘s tower, so we went over there and took a couple of pictures. 

We also had Dad take pictures of us in the stocks.  

Then, we headed over to Splash Mountain to see if we could watch the boys. Their line was so long. We sat at a table at Pecos Bill‘s Café for quite a while and waited for them. We saw another impromptu parade while we waited.  

They were supposed to text us right before it was their turn. Luckily, I looked up at the top of the ride and I saw them so I was able to be ready to record them when they came down the big drop. 

By the time they got off the ride and got to us, it was about 5:45pm. While we were waiting, Emily was saying that we should just go ahead and have dinner there at Pecos Bill’s Café. That turned out to be an excellent idea. Everyone chose what they wanted and I did the mobile order. It seems to work better when everyone enters their own order on the app on my phone. It didn’t take long for them to get our food ready. We found some tables inside and had a nice meal. While we were sitting there, it started raining. We knew the rain was coming. We had our ponchos ready, but by the time we left the rain had basically stopped and it was only sprinkling a little bit. There were tons of people waiting for tables. We thought about going to Mickey’s PhilharMagic. The wait was only 20 minutes, but we didn’t understand how that could be because when the wait was 40 minutes there was nobody outside and now there were people outside. Just as we started to get in the line, Nathaniel called me because he was checking the line at Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train. He said that they were just opening it back up and the line was super short so we all rushed over there. He was right, and we got on pretty quickly. It was a really fun ride. It reminded me so much of Big Thunder Mountain, but it was smoother. The wait for Mad Hatter Tea Party was short, so we all went on it. The lights are so pretty when it gets dark. 

The next thing we did was go on Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. It is so different from the one at Disneyland, so I was a little disappointed. 

After that, Michael and the kids wanted to ride Space Mountain again so Dad and I sat and waited while they went on it. The line was pretty short. As we were sitting there waiting, however, the line suddenly got very long. Daniel was space-shamed in that line. They said, “Can you give us some space, please?”  Everyone seems to say the same thing. Like they read Dear Abby or something. Once they finished that, Dad decided he wanted to go back to the townhouse. He stopped at Walmart on the way to get some fans for the bedrooms. The AC in the townhouse wasn’t working right (the temperature never got below 78°) and everyone was hot at night. It actually didn’t really bother me at all. Michael and the kids and I all walked over to Big Thunder Mountain so we could ride that again and hopefully get to do the whole ride this time. We did. The ride is not as cool at night as it is in Disneyland. We always used to love going on that ride at night when there were fireworks. We thought about going to Splash Mountain so the boys could ride it again, but the wait was 45 minutes even though it was almost 9 o’clock at night so we scratched that idea. Nathaniel says that when he asked if that was really the correct wait time, the lady looked depressed like she was begging us not to go on it. We went to the lockers and got our stuff and left. We took the Monorail because we promised Andrew that we would since we took the ferry coming in. We easily got to the car and got back to the townhouse. Dad had bought four fans so we each had one in our bedroom. They promised so send a repairman the next day.

 

Friday, March 19, 2021

This morning, the plan was to leave at 7:30am, but it was more like 7:40am. By the time we got into Animal Kingdom, it was about 8:05am so we did pretty well. It opened at 8am. We wanted to start with the Pandora rides, but those waits were already pretty long so we went to Dinosaur first instead. We walked right on. There was literally no wait. Dad didn’t ride on it, and I’m really glad he didn’t because it even hurt my back pretty badly. It was a fun ride, though, but it is almost identical to Indiana Jones. After that, we went to Expedition Everest. That line was really short as well. We basically kept walking until we got to the ride so we barely had to wait. It just takes so long to get through the queues. There’s not a lot of standing and waiting; it’s mostly moving. Anyway, at one point in the ride my head flew off of the back rest and we went forward with so much force I felt like I was going to have whiplash. I was really scared but so far, my neck is OK. I didn’t ride that one again. Dad didn’t ride it either.

 

We decided the wait times for the Na’vi River Journey and the Flight of Passage rides weren’t going to get any better, so we headed over to Pandora. We had to take this photo op, since Nathaniel loves The Lion King! 

Pandora was really beautiful. It kind of felt like you were in the movie. We waited a little more than an hour for the Na’vi River journey ride. It was really cool. It was kind of like a Pirates of the Caribbean-type ride, but there were no drops and there was no chance of getting wet. It was a super cool ride, though. There was an animated character halfway through that looked so realistic. Next, we headed for the line for Flight of Passage. The line was so long! We just kept walking and walking and walking to get to the end of it. The line moved pretty quickly, though. It didn’t feel that long, but it was definitely over an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Part of the line was by this little river, so we got to see some characters.

The queue for Flight of Passage was so cool, both inside and out!

Nathaniel got space-shamed again.  This time it was a couple, and the guy said, “Can you give us some space, please? Those signs (meaning the markings on the ground) are there for a reason.” We used our time wisely on our long wait and made our mobile order for Flame Tree Barbecue. We debated back-and-forth between that restaurant and the Harambe Market restaurant. I also wanted to try the Yak and Yeti restaurant, but they didn’t have mobile ordering so we chose Flame Tree Barbecue.

I think that Flight of Passage might be the coolest ride I’ve ever been on. I mean, it’s no Incredicoaster, but it was super cool. You really felt like you were flying. They have you in this little motorcycle-type ride seat. The only problem was, they put the back rest against your back so tight, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Everyone loved it. We said it was definitely worth the wait but we wouldn’t wait that long again. We actually ended up going again, but more on that later.

Right outside the Flight of Passage ride

After the ride, we went straight to lunch at Flame Tree Barbecue. Once we got there, I had to click to say that we were there for them to start making the order. They wouldn’t let us sit down until we got our food, but, luckily, we were able to find a nice big table for all of us pretty easily. We kind of have a routine going where some of us will carry the food while the rest of us go get a table and get all the condiments and napkins and everything. I had ribs and they were really good. So was the cornbread. Michael and the kids wanted to ride Expedition Everest again, so Dad and I stayed behind and finished cleaning up from lunch and then went over to wait for them on a bench for a little while by the monkeys. When they got off, we all walked over to the Kilimanjaro Safari ride. That wait wasn’t very bad at all. It was a nice safari. We saw all kinds of animals, even a lion. We had to stop briefly for some zebras that were blocking the road. 

After the safari, we walked through the little gorilla path. Michael was pretty excited about that. 

After that, we all went to the Tamu Tamu restaurant so we could take a little break and have some treats. Half of the stuff we wanted to order from Tamu Tamu was already sold out, but we did get Simba Sunsets, which were basically Dole whip with strawberry and coconut. They were pretty good. We sat around for a while debating about what we should do next. Finally, we all agreed we should go on the Flight of Passage again. The wait was going to be a little shorter. It ended up being quite a bit shorter than last time. We had all said we wouldn’t want to wait in that line again, but we did. Daniel wasn’t feeling great and we thought maybe his blood sugar was dropping, so he and I went to the little gift shop and got some chocolate chip cookies and sat and ate them while everyone else got in line. We were just kind of relaxing a bit, and then they told us that they were already up to the ride entrance and they waited for us there. We got there as fast as we could. From there, the line wasn’t too bad at all. That line is really cool because it even has a restroom in it.

Here is some of the scenery and a video of the queue.

That ride was just as cool the second time. Emily had pointed out that the wall behind us moved during the ride, and that was really cool. Afterwards, Michael and the kids decided they wanted to ride Expedition Everest and Dinosaur one more time before we left for the day, so they did that and Dad and I went to find a spot near the entrance to wait for them. We spent a few minutes figuring out where we should go to dinner. By then, it was about 7:20pm and the park closed at 8pm, so we figured we would eat somewhere off Disney property. We went to the car and drove to Cracker Barrel. I was nervous it was going to be a long wait, but we got right in. Unfortunately, it took a while to get our food. It was nice to sit and relax and talk and eat. After dinner, we headed over to the townhouse. Thankfully, the AC was fixed and working properly. We had scriptures and prayer and then Michael and the kids and Papa watched Falcon and Winter Soldier. Once they finished the show, everyone went to bed.

 

Saturday, March 20, 2021

Finally, a day we could sleep in. Epcot didn’t open until 11am. Our plan was to leave by 10:30am, but it was a little bit later than that. Dad had cooked up some eggs and ham and sausage. We hurried everyone up as quickly as we could and got out the door by about 10:45am. We pulled into the parking lot around 11:05am.

Dad snuck this shot of us as we walked to our first ride.

We went straight to Mission Space. We chose the more intense ride, the orange one. As we were standing there listening to the instructions, I realized I had been on this ride before and I hated it. The G forces were awful and made me feel sick. At the last minute, I decided not to get on and I waited for everyone near the exit. Here is everyone else coming off the ride.

Next, we went to Test Track. It said the wait was 70 minutes, but I think it was way less than that, like 45. It kind of reminds me of Radiator Springs Racers, without the Radiator Springs. It kind of jerks you around a little bit in the beginning so Dad was worried about his back but he said he was OK. Then, it whips you around outside at 65 mph and then that’s it. Our lunch reservation was for 2:15pm, so we didn’t want to do anything that would make us late for that so we just headed over to the World Showcase. We walked past Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, and finally Italy where our reservation was.

We couldn’t resist stopping in Norway for a picture with Elsa and Anna.

We also saw a cute miniature village when we walked past Germany. There was a pretty large group of people admiring the cute little town and trains. One of the trains started to fall off the track. It went through a little tunnel, and everyone watched with interest as it went through, hoping the tunnel could straighten it out again.  The entire crowed groaned when it completely fell off its track.  It was pretty comical that we were all so invested in the fate of this little train. Once we got to Italy, I walked into Tutto Italia Ristorante and told them our reservation wasn’t for another half hour but and I wondered if we could check in. They seated us right away. Jonathan ordered the kids pizza and Emily ordered calamari, which was an appetizer but she had that as her entrée. The rest of us all ordered the lasagna. We ate everything! He brought us multiple trays of bread and that all got eaten too. It was delicious! It was just as delicious as I remembered. 

After that, we headed back to Germany so that we could get Daniel a giant pretzel. They were truly enormous, like bigger than a person’s head. We ended up getting a second one to share. Next, we headed over to France because everyone wanted to get treats in there. We passed by the crepes and went to the Patisserie because that sounded really good and it was. Emily went into the ice cream shop and got herself a chocolate ice cream. It was so big she couldn’t finish it. We tried all kinds of treats: macarons, mousse, a parfait, a tart, and a Napoleon.

Beauty and the Beast garden statue in France.  They were having a Flower and Garden Show.

Epcot ball!

Next, we wanted to ride Spaceship Earth. That line was super short and we were glad we hadn’t done it earlier in the day. It said 20 minutes but I think it was even less than that. It’s kind of like the Carousel of Progress meets the People Mover with Judi Dench as the narrator. It was super windy today. It was cold and the wind was blowing really hard as we walked out of Spaceship Earth. Next, we went to the Nemo ride. It’s kind of like The Little Mermaid ride but it was very cute. Then, we walked around the aquarium. It had two levels and they had sharks, dolphins, stingrays, manatees, coral, and all kinds of cool stuff.   

Photo op with The Lion King again

Next, we headed over to Soarin’. We had to go in this big building and they had restaurants and all kinds of cool stuff. The posted wait was 45 minutes but it was much quicker than that, more like 20-30 minutes. It turns out that it’s exactly like the one at California Adventure except instead of ending at Disneyland, it ends at Epcot. Oh well. I still love that ride. After Soarin’, we walked over to the cute little boat ride next-door, Living with the Land. It was really nice and quite interesting. I loved seeing all of the greenhouses that they took you through. 

We went on Mission Space one more time.  I wanted to try the green side.

With the Buzz Lightyear statue outside of the Mission Space ride

After the ride, both Daniel and Jonathan wanted to go back to the townhouse so I took them over to meet Dad and we emptied the few things that were in the locker and left. The rest of them went to Test Track and then to the World Showcase. We stopped at Arby’s for some food. I wanted dad to drop me off at Walmart so I could get some chicken and some salt and pepper. However, when I walked into the store it looked like it was Black Friday because the line for the Scan and Go check out went back halfway to the back of the store. There was no way I was going to wait in that line so I walked right back out and Dad picked me up and we went to the townhouse. Everyone ate their food and Dad and I played a few games of backgammon. Daniel watched TV and then got ready for bed. Jonathan played some Fortnite and then I sent him to bed. Then, I got ready for bed. While we were gone, Michael, Nathaniel, Emily, and Andrew all went on Test Track again. They said the wait was about 30 minutes. Then, they headed over to the World Showcase and went to Mexico and got something to eat. They had empanadas and tacos. Then they went on the Mexico ride and then the Frozen Ever After ride. Then, they walked around the World Showcase for a while and explored. They got turkey legs and pretzels. A lot of the restaurants were closed, unfortunately. It took them a while to get out of the World Showcase and leave the park. By the time they got home, it was about 11:30pm.

 

Sunday, March 21, 2021

Finally, it was our rest day! I set my alarm for 9am thinking there was no way I would sleep that long, but sure enough, I did. Michael made eggs and I heated up the pancakes and sausage and bacon. Andrew helped with the bacon. Dad played cards with the kids while we prepared breakfast. We had a nice meal together. Then we cleaned everything up and played cards. All of us played about five hands of Phase 10 together. Then Dad needed to get on the road. We were sad to say goodbye to Papa but we had a nice time with him here. Michael gave us a very nice lesson from the Book of Mormon. Since I couldn’t buy the chicken yesterday, I made some macaroni and cheese for a late lunch/early dinner.  We had a lot of fruit and lunchmeat and other things to eat as well. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, reading, and playing games.