December 2020 at Disney Part 4

Did you miss part 3? Check it out here first!

Hooray for Magic Kingdom day! Yall, it was SO COLD. It was in the 30’s when we left. So much for the cute coordinated outfits I had for me and Emma Kate. I took a pic of us before we left so you could see out outfits but of course it was backlit.

The park opened at 9, so my plan was for us to walk to the TTC by 8 hoping we would be in and headed to the monorail by 8:15 at the latest. Well, we got reach early and walked over to the med tents and were there by 7:50, only to find out they weren’t letting us in till 8:30. dang it. So we stood there in the cold for 40 minutes. EK was SUCH a trooper! We finally got in and made it on the first monorail over. I was SO happy to be back at Magic Kingdom. The Christmas decorations were gorgeous.

I knew we had just a couple of hours before it would get really packed, so we tried to ride as much as possible in a short time. We started with Peter Pan and It’s a Small World, then headed to Haunted Mansion.

Then it was Ariel and Dumbo, and then the Teacups.

We decided to take a popcorn and hot chocolate break in the hub grass, and got to see one of the cavalcades come by while we were there.

We did my dad’s favorite, the Carousel of Progress, and then rode the racecars.

It was time for our lunch reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern, and we saw another cavalcade on the way!

We have dined at Liberty Tree many times, but this was the first time we had been seated in the Golden Horseshoe Saloon.

It was nice to sit down and warm up, and the food was plentiful and delicious.

The ooey gooey toffee cake is my favorite, however, the larger cake has been replaced by “mini cakes” that don’t taste as good in my opinion. Womp womp.

After lunch Emma Kate and my dad did Magic Carpets of Aladdin, and we did Winnie the Pooh. We (me, EK and Bobby) stood in a 45 minute line for Big Thunder while my parents wandered around.

We tried to do Pirates, but it was broken down, so my parents told EK she could buy something in the shops.

We of course, saw another cavalcade while we were walking. These things go non stop!

We were pretty much done at this point but wanted to stick around for the castle lights. We finally got on Pirates, and decided to grab a snack. I was so sad to learn my fruit/nutella waffle is now only served at breakfast! We did however snag a funnel cake.

After some fuel, (we had a corn dog, too), we decided to check out the line for Buzz Lightyear. The lighting was beautiful this time of day!

It was getting really cold again as we got closer to night time, and the line for Buzz was mostly outside and about 30 minutes. Ek wanted to ride with my mom so I rode with my dad and Bobby rode alone.

It was finally dark, and waiting to see the castle lights was so worth it! It’s so breathtaking in person.

The lights change every few minutes, and they let off one little firework which made me so happy to see!

We were frozen and Emma Kate was just done (so were my parents) so we decided it was time to go. We walked out thinking we were beating the crowds since it was only around 6:00, but boy were we wrong! The monorail line was ABSURD all the way to the exit and looped around. We were so cold and just wanted to be done so I looked around and saw the boats. I told Bobby to run and see if there was a boat to the Poly and there was, with a short line! So we ran over. We didn’t make the first boat but made the seconds one a few minutes later. It was cold out on the water but WAY faster than the monorail!

We had checked out of the Poly that morning and loaded the cars to drive to Saratoga Springs, so we walked from the dock straight out to our cars and headed to the new hotel. We had magic bands and had problems with them at the Poly, so I jumped out of the car when we arrived and went up to the villa at Saratoga to make sure we could get in while everyone else unloaded the car. Guess what…my band didn’t work, Bobby’s band didn’t work, and the scanner on the app to get in your room didn’t work. I was about to burst into tears. We were exhausted and freezing and couldn’t get in the room. I called some phone number on the app nearly crying and the woman was able to fix Bobby’s band to get us in the room finally. No idea what causes all these problems! But whew, we made it in and unloaded the cars.

We had a 2 bedroom villa that had been redone, and while beautiful, I almost felt the rooms were a little too…sterile? Lots of white and just didn’t feel very Disney to me. I miss the whimsy and charm and colors of Disney hotel rooms and hate that they are almost all looking the same now. But it was spacious and very nice. We unloaded into our rooms, watched a little tv, showered, and crawled into bed after a long day. We had one more full day the next day, Hollywood Studios!