Trip Report: Park Hopping Before Partying

Day 3 was the halfway point in this trip. It came way too quickly. We had a plan to go to Magic Kingdom in the morning, grab lunch at Epcot, and then take a break before returning to Magic Kingdom to enjoy Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party with the tickets I had bought just before we left for the airport.

I woke up with my alarm and started to get ready. No one else was ready to get out of bed except Diva. She asked if she could ride Tower of Terror. There was no chance the boys were waking up. I tapped my husband on the shoulder and said “We’re going to the park. I’ll meet you on Main Street later.” Then off the two of us went.

Extra, Extra Magic Hours had already started at Hollywood Studios when we arrived just before 8am. We went directly to Tower of Terror to fulfill her request. She was ecstatic. I’m not sure if it was more about the ride or about the mommy and me time.

Less than 20 minutes after we arrived at the park we accomplished the mission and during our short wait decided our next stop would be Toy Story Land. Woody greeted us as we walked in! We picked up our mobile order breakfast before going swirling on Alien Swirling Saucers.

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We were directly next to Galaxy’s Edge, so we placed a video call home to my brother-in-law to give him a first look at the two-week old land with us. After walking him through the area we took a few pictures. It wasn’t crowded at all as I had been expecting. There was incredible detail, but not being a Star Wars fan, it wasn’t overwhelmingly exciting for me. We came, we saw, we left.

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It was time to make our way to Magic Kingdom, but we were distracted by the Citizens of Hollywood for just a moment.

By 10:02 we were at Magic Kingdom.

We beat the boys to the park, so we had a photo shoot at the Train Station, popped in the Confectionery, and stopped at Cinema, a shop on Main Street, too look for an item a friend asked us to pick up.

Finally, the other half of our family arrived and it was time to do our scheduled FastPass+ selections. Enchanted Tales with Belle, some wandering through Frontierland, and stops at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, and lots of picture taking filled the next ninety-minutes before it was time to hop parks again.

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This time it was a Monorail ride over to Epcot. The views along the Monorail let us check out a few resorts and also get a sneak peek at some of the construction at Epcot.

Our only plan for the park was to get lunch at Coral Reef Restaurant. We were cutting our reservation time pretty close but made it exactly on time. After lunch, we came out as it was about to pour rain. We were trying to make it out of the park and to the bus stop but it wasn’t even close. We huddled under the corridor from Future World West that houses the Character Spot. The rain was so heavy that getting ponchos out would have likely been fruitless. Without letting the kids know, I stepped away to check the wait time for Joy and Sadness. It was only about 10-15 minutes so I asked if they wanted to see them while we waited for the rain to pass.

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The timing was great. We had a fun meeting with our Inside Out friends and the raindrops had slowed to a sporadic drizzle. We were able to get out of the park, back to our room, and take a short nap.

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