My family went on a trip to Walt Disney World during Thanksgiving break where we stayed at Disney’s Boardwalk Villas. Our room and restaurant reservations were all booked by Hannah Little who is a FABULOUS Disney Vacation Planner. I’ve linked her website here. She’s amazing! We had the best time and were able to do everything we wanted to do and more.
Wednesday November 23, 2022
Dear Adventure Avenue,
I woke up at 7 to book a lightning lane for Space Mountain and then went back to sleep for an hour.
At 8, we woke up and had breakfast. My brother had toast, but everybody else had the ham and cheese croissants we bought last night.
Then we headed to the bus stop. As we neared it, we saw there was a bus there. We sprinted down the pathway to see which bus it was. It was Magic Kingdom, the bus we needed! Luckily today, we didn’t need to chase it as they waited for us as we ran up. It was perfect timing.
Once we got to the park, we walked on People Mover (only a 5 minute wait) since our Lightning Lane wasn’t ready yet.
Then my brother, dad, and I went on Space Mountain. Space Mountain is a double lightning lane scan, so after I had scanned a second time, I booked Haunted Mansion.
On the ride, I lost my water bottle! It must’ve popped out of my backpack as I hugged it between my legs during the ride. My dad thinks he felt it fly by him. Luckily, it wasn’t my reusable metal water bottle, but be sure all your belongings are secure.
Afterwards, the whole family waited in line for Buzz. It said 40 minutes, but it was closer to 15 minutes which was nice. I don’t think that ride is as good here. I think the blasters are better in Disneyland.
Then we went on the Magic Kingdom version of Autopia.
By this time, our Haunted Mansion lightning lane was ready so we headed over and rode that. I booked Pirates for us.
After the Haunted Mansion, we went to wait in line for It’s a Small World.
It was a 20-minute wait which was perfect because our Pirates lightning lane wasn’t quite ready.
There was one girl in front of us who I immediately felt something off about her. It turned out I was right because all of a sudden, the girl started waving to the outside and the people started coming. At first it was 2 other girls, but then more and more kept coming. My mom took the initiative to slip under the chain into the open line space that was left by them, paying more attention to all the people they were letting cut the line than the actual line moving.
I later counted them, and they let 12 people cut the line – with 1 person! That’s just rude. I can get one or two – especially if they’re little kids, but these people ranged from teens to adults with a baby or two.
Our Pirates ride was just about ready (we were 10 minutes early, but they let us in).
Then we went and waited in line for the Jingle Cruise which is just Jungle Cruise but with a few holiday jokes thrown in. The posted wait time said 90 minutes. It took us 80 minutes to go through the line and go on the ride.
Lunch
We were a little late to our 1pm reservation at the Plaza Inn, but my mom had contacted the restaurant and put a note on the reservation that said we’d be a little late. It took a little longer to be seated but otherwise there were no problems.
We had a wonderful server named Jen who was just the sweetest lady. We gave her a compliment using the Disney app.
For lunch, I split the burger with my mom and I had a mint chip milkshake. The Plaza Inn is right next to the ice cream shop, so we were all craving ice cream while we were waiting. My brother got the crispy chicken tenders and my dad had the special which was braised beef. My brother got the Mickeylodeon with his meal which is a scoop of ice cream and a cone. My dad also got a mint chip one of those. My brother’s was chocolate.
After lunch, we went to the Ariel ride because I had booked us that Lightning Lane after the two hours had passed since I’d booked Big Thunder.
After Ariel, we walked over to Big Thunder and waited a couple minutes before it was time to use our lightning lane.
After Big Thunder, we took the monorail to Epcot (with a child who was acting like a monkey climbing on all the bars).
French Dinner
We had dinner reservations at Chefs de France. Here we had another excellent waitress named Mia. She was a hoot and put up with my dad’s humor – and dished it right back at him! She was great. She was from Florida and not a native French speaker, so she understood my dad’s sense of humor.
For dinner, I had the ratatouille which was delicious! My mom and dad both did “le menu” or the pre-fixe menu. To start, my dad had the salad and my mom had the French onion soup. My dad had the beef bourguignon and my mom and brother split a filet. Dessert was also included, so my dad tried Gâteau au agrumes, crème fraise citron vert, fruits rouges tiède which was a delicious light citrus cake with strawberry lime cream and a warm berry compote. My mom had the tarte au chocolat Valrhona, glace à vanille which was a chocolate tart with vanilla ice cream for all the non-French speakers.
My brother wanted a chocolate crepe for dessert, so I took him to the crepes à emporter window in France while my parents finished up their dessert and talked with Mia. Not surprisingly there was a line at the crepe place, so they met back up with us once before we ordered.
Then we walked back to the room because this Wednesday night was very special: it was the Andor season finale!! My dad, brother, and I loved it. My mom watched one of her shows on her phone as she’s not into Star Wars as much as we are.
Until tomorrow,
A
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