Today is my final recap from our 2020 Disney trip! It has been so fun to relive the magic by writing these posts!
Part One recapped our arrival day, Disney Springs, and our first park day at Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. Part Two was a recap of our full day at Epcot plus our split day at Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Part Three recapped our full day in Hollywood Studios.
Today I’m recapping our final park day, which we spent at Magic Kingdom, plus our departure day.
For this day, we were at the bus stop shortly after 7 a.m. because Magic Kingdom opened at 8! We were through security and scanned into the park relatively quickly, walking down Main Street at 7:40 a.m.. Since we had a Fastpass for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and had already done most of the Fantasyland and Tomorrowland rides (those were the only sections opened for Extra Magic Hours), we opted to pop into the Town Square Theater to meet Tinkerbell and Mickey!
After the meet-and-greets, we returned to the same spot we had been on our first day, near the entrance of Adventureland but still had a view of the castle so we could watch the opening show!
After we were welcomed to the park by the Fairy Godmother, we made our way to Pirates of the Caribbean for our first ride of the day! From there, my brother and his family explored Swiss Family Treehouse while Chelsea, my parents, and I went to ride Haunted Mansion.
By the time we were off of Haunted Mansion, it was time to make our way to Be Our Guest for our breakfast reservation! We loved this meal and one major reason for loving it so much was that we pre-ordered our food. This is different than mobile ordering – you submit your meals through your My Disney Experience as early as 30 days before your trip. By doing this, we were able to bypass the incredibly long line outside of people who did have reservations but did not pre-order their food.
Be Our Guest is considered a quick-service restaurant in that you find your own seats and it’s a quick service credit, but your food is brought to you through the magic of a rose at your table!
After breakfast, we rode Journey of The Little Mermaid, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (redeeming our first fastpass of the day), Barnstormer, Teacups, and Haunted Mansion (had to ride it twice since it’s my dad’s fave, and this time with our second fast pass!).
Chelsea clarified that she was not bored on the Haunted Mansion. She was getting a notification on her watch – perfect timing – haha!!
After all those rides, it was snack time, which meant Dole Whips!! Chelsea changed it up by getting the Kakamora Float which was coconut soft serve with pineapple juice and Blue Curacao syrup, then topped with a cake pop! It was delicious!
We made our way over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to redeem our third fastpass of the day, and as always, it was so fun! I love that ride!
Next up we took a boat to Tom Sawyer Island to explore. I had never been to the island, and now I’m hooked! It was a nice, quiet spot to get away from the crowds, do some exploring, and let the kids run around. So fun!!
About an hour later, we took the boat back to the “mainland” and made our way to Skipper Canteen for dinner. Everyone loved the meal. I had the steak and Chelsea had the Thai noodles and both were delicious. We also loved our cheese biscuit appetizer with chimichurri!
After dinner we scouted out spots to watch the fireworks, and then took turns going shopping. Shortly before 8:00, we all reunited in our spot and enjoyed the Happily Ever After Fireworks show followed by Once Upon a Time Fireworks. Both were fabulous, but we all agreed we liked Happily Ever After best.
We made our way down Main Street popping in and out of shops, all of us in denial that the trip was coming to an end, and gradually found our way to the bus to head back to the hotel.
Early the next morning, Chelsea and I took a Lyft from Pop Century to the airport, and getting home was uneventful.
The rest of the family took a Minnie Van to the Boardwalk to enjoy breakfast at Trattoria al Forno. They all gave the meal rave reviews, and enjoyed getting to meet different characters than we’d seen all week. We originally had a reservation for them at Chef Mickey’s, but because we’d seen all those characters multiple times, so I thought it’d be fun to change it up for them.
The rest of the family took the Magical Express shortly after noon to the airport to fly home, and their flights were easy and uneventful as well.
So that’s a wrap. It was a wonderful trip, and I’m already planning my next visit to The Happiest Place on Earth, which, fortunately for me is not very far away!!
Party on!
JW
Great recap! Miss it already!
Your WDW posts are SO FUN!!! Makes me want to go back! I can’t remember if I read these when you posted, but even if so, they were so fun to read again and/or for the first time, given our COVID lockdown and being homebound.