(4) Castles and Parades!

Disney 2024, Part 4: Tiana's Bayou and Space Mountain

Our Tuesday started off at Magic Kingdom!

(Castle pic by Chet Lee)

Karli booked us in the virtual queue for Tiana's Bayou, so Bill, Trent, Chet, and I went and rode that before breakfast!  Chet Lee was not a fan of Splash Mountain and argued that you get soaked on it.  I said you don't really get wet and that it's historically my favorite ride in the park... it's not usually on their list, but I'm grateful they rallied and joined me for it!  This was Trent's final day with us, and he said he wanted to do this ride and Space Mountain, both of which were high on my list - so yay!!  This pic is in the line on our way to the ride. lol

Chet videoing and me just loving the drop + Bill and Trent already kinda soaked in the front row. lol

No ragrets! lol  It was fun, and we were dry by the end of our breakfast at Gaston's!

Thanks to Melissa's disinterest and the Rider Swap option, I got to ride that one twice!  And thanks to shorter wait times on our first non-weekend and non-holiday park day, I also got to do Space Mountain (another favorite of mine that Chet has boycotted) that day!  They usually skip it, but Trent wanted to ride it, which made me happy!  Me, Bill, Karli, and Trent did that one!

Post-parade castle pic!

We were thankful to catch most of the parade in Magic Kingdom that afternoon... it was Parker's very favorite thing, bouncing on Chet's shoulders and smiling and waving at the characters (whilst Chet fanned himself with his Chet Wilson fan). lol

Round 2 of Tiana's Bayou (still adjusting to that new ride name).  It's all well done, though, and I like the look of all the flowers better than the briar patch!  I also appreciate the memory of Chet singing along to Almost There... I only saw that movie once, but he's got the lyrics down! =)

Another water ride for the day was the Jungle/Jingle Cruise... fun times!  At that point, I was stressing about rescheduling my CCU role play... a hot mess nightmare thanks to some miscommunication, but I got it done around 10:40 that night!

An adorable Parker Elizabeth ready for the Enchanted Tiki Room... one of Bill's favorites and one of the first things he and Melissa visited on their first Disney trip together!  Animatronic birds and tiki posts sing to you - it was odd, but I was happy to sit down and have AC. lol  Chet and I believe JEM would appreciate it! lol

Chet opted out of the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, and now I know why.  Nothing there I really cared about, and it was so many stairs... up, up, up, down, up, up, down, up... ugh! lol

Catching the monorail over to Epcot in hopes of riding the Ratatouille ride!

Group pic with the "'oana ball!"

Tate was excited to ride Figment again, so that was our first Epcot ride.... then we grabbed a BBQ dinner at the America restaurant in the countries section (Italy required reservations).

A happy ending to "Pretzel Gate."  At that point, it was a little after 8pm and they decided to opt out of the long line for Ratatouille to get the kids to bed (and I had a role play set for 9:30, so I needed to get back, as well... I really wanted to see the Epcot fireworks show, but it didn't start until 9pm).

Epcot ball view from the Skyliner! ❤

The parks being less crowded + getting to do my fun rides I was fully prepared to miss + things feeling a little more familiar on my second visit to both of these parks made this the best day of the trip so far!

❤ ❤ ❤