We had one more park day on Saturday. We started the day in Magic Kingdom, arriving shortly after it opened.
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Looking through these pictures there's definitely a trend for Luke:
he either (1) refused to be in the picture, (2) participated in the picture
but made a face that indicated he didn't want to be there, or (3) genuinely smiled |
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| (see option 2 above) |
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| We hurried to Space Mountain but still waited for over 20 minutes. |
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| Here we gooooo! |
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Jungle Cruise was one of our longest waits of the day -
but worth it because it's always a favorite! |
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| "The Backside of Water" |
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I didn't feel well after Space Mountain so I didn't do any more roller coasters.
Ben and the kids had a great time on the brand-new Tron roller coaster,
which was so fast the entire ride lasted less than 2 minutes. |
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| No future kings or queens here. |
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Liza really wanted a Disney mini backpack and after much deliberation
decided on this cute one with drawings of different Disney animated animal characters. |
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| Ben and Jack rode on the Riverboat |
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| Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Luke photo option #1) |
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Pirates of the Caribbean!
We were hurrying to go to Hollywood Studios after this ride, and since the kids always
lingered in the gift shops wanting to see and touch everything, I told them they'd get a
gold star if they didn't touch anything. Andy, Amy, and Sydney were doing a different ride
so Ben and I were taking care of Sawyer and he obediently resisted the urge to touch
anything in the gift shop. Then he was very annoyed with me that I wasn't giving him
an actual gold star. Oops. |
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| Heading over to Hollywood Studios |
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| And we're there! |
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| Oh, Liza. |
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Galaxy's Edge was where we spent most of our time.
Jack was SO EXCITED to be there! |
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| (Luke is actually in this picture. Do you see him?) |
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| The Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular is always a favorite. |
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| Tower of Terror |
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| Toy Story Land (Luke photo option #1) |
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| Back to Galaxy's Edge |
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Jack had been looking forward to this afternoon for months -
he'd planned out the things he wanted to do and the order to do them in.
As planned, the first stop was a shop where he could buy credits to use
for future purchases in the Star Wars area (though they're actually just
cool-looking Disney gift cards he can use at any Disney business).
He was so happy in this moment that it made the entire trip worth it. |
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| We finally rode Rise of the Resistance! It was so cool! |
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| The queue was so well done that I actually thought it was part of the ride. |
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| Hoping we can escape from the First Order prison - fingers crossed! |
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| I spy a Wookiee |
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Lightsaber Building at Savi's Workshop - the highlight of the weekend for Jack,
and one of the reasons for the trip in the first place, took place
at the end of the day on Saturday. I think he loved it just as much as
he thought he would, and he's had a blast with his lightsaber ever since.
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Luke didn't save up for a lightsaber but he and Ben
made one together. |
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| Ronto Wraps for dinner |
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Meanwhile, Amy and I took Sydney on "Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway,"
which was very cute and very fun and very much not okay with Sydney. |
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| (Luke photo option #1) |
It was definitely another full and tiring day, but we had lots of fun! We rode many of the rides we'd hoped to ride (notable rides we missed were Haunted Mansion and Slinky Dog). And it felt like a win for all of us that was finally able to spend a few hours in Galaxy's Edge and build a lightsaber!
We (the four adults) had gone back and forth and back and forth about what to include and how to arrange this trip. We were limited by the dates of General Conference and the Cruise, plus Easter was on the back end. We had two flex days after the cruise, and initially planned on only using one of them for parks. We figured that on Friday we'd want to sleep in a little on the ship, make our way to Kissimmee at a leisurely pace, enjoy the non-park activities at WDW, swim in the pool, have a fun dinner, then go to bed early so we could hit it hard at the park(s) the next day. But then we saw the prices of a one-day Parkhopper pass and I couldn't believe it. It was a significantly better value to spend two days at parks instead of one. I don't regret the two days, but part of me wishes we'd stuck with just one. There are lots of cool things to do at WDW that don't include parks and of the 3 times we've been there as a family, we really haven't taken advantage of those other activities. (The things that had caught my eye this time were the Amphicar rides, the Disney Cirque du Soleil show, and the dessert cruise where you can watch fireworks. Disney Springs has fun things to do, and there are a variety of character meals to choose from too. I'll just add here that we had a blast at Blizzard Beach a few years ago, which is not only much cheaper than a day at the park, but it's much shorter, so it's not nearly as tiring.)
We also knew ahead of time that this would be an above-average busy time to go to the parks since it was Spring Break season and Easter weekend, which meant extra-long lines. We tried to manage expectations. And we challenged everyone to only say positive things at WDW, which I think helped. I think we did a good job of not killing ourselves trying to get to every requested ride, but those two days were still really tiring. Thankfully, the kids had a blast.
In the future, I hope we can build in some down time instead of spending consecutive (long) days at parks. I think I'd also prefer to choose one park per day and really enjoy it instead of rushing around and using valuable park time to travel to a different park. Sometimes I have to remind myself that each park has cool things to do and see other than rides (all the cool Main Street USA stuff in Magic Kingdom; all the cultural performances in Epcot's World Showcase; the Lion King performance in Animal Kingdom; the fireworks shows and parades at various parks). Definitely stick to one park a day next time!
