Happily ever after at a new resort - part 2

We sat for quite some time, people watching and nibbling on our food and around quarter to two we left the restaurant and strolled towards the exit, waved goodbye to Epcot for the day and slowly walked back to the Beach Club Villas and our car, got in and off we went.

It was sad to already leave the Beach Club again, but we knew that we would spend another 4 nights there, so it was all good. Soon we found ourselves at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom, showed our brand new annual pass and were on our way to the Grand Floridian.

There the security guard scanned our magic bands again and soon welcomed us home. We missed the entrance to self-parking the first time around and that way had a nice sightseeing tour of the resort. Car finally parked we walked over to the front desk, hoping that our room would be ready. There was no line at all and we were greeted by several cast members and led over to be checked in. I had done online check in and used Touringplans to request a room location and we were now excited to see where we would end up.

Check in was done quickly, we were handed our second set of magic bands and they even told us that our luggage had already arrived and a bell man would help us with it and drive us over to our room. We told them that we also had an Owner’s Locker box and the bell man went to look for it. Some time later he came back, shaking his head and asking if it was one of the purple boxes, but he could not find it. Looking for it we got a tour through the luggage hold area and no, the box was nowhere to be found. And then I remembered that John for Owner’s Locker had emailed me the day before if we wanted it to the Villas at the Grand Floridian or the Resort and Spa. I showed the bell man the email and he told us to hop into the golf cart and we were on another tour around the resort over to the Villas.

And low and behold there it was. Having everything on board we went over to our building and it indeed was the one I had picked for my touring plans request.

And then we were even more surprised to find out that we got the exact room I had wanted, just two floors down. And after having a good look around the room

we ventured out on the balcony and we even had a view of the Magic Kingdom. Score.

We relaxed a little while and enjoyed the view before heading out again to do some serious shopping. It didn’t take us long to make it to Publix, where we bought some staple foods and some drinks and some things we wanted to take home. Thankfully we had brought some big shopping bags to transport everything back to our room, where we had an early picnic dinner, then rested a little more before heading to the boat dock, which was just a few steps from our room. We only waited for a few minutes for a boat to arrive, found seats and off we went towards the Polynesian

which was the next stop. People left and other people joined us and soon we arrived at the Magic Kingdom. It was awesome to see that they did bag check right there at the boat dock and very quickly we found ourselves in line for the passholder entrance. It was the first time in a long time that the Magic Kingdom was all decked out for Halloween when we arrived for the first time. We took our sweet time taking it all in and it took us quite some time to make our way up Main Street. The Magic Kingdom was packed, so we headed towards our favourite ride, the People Mover.

It had a bit of a line, but we still got in line, got in and enjoyed the view of the Magic Kingdom while leaning back. Once we got off we headed over towards Fantasyland, watched the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train rush by a few times, then we walked over to Peter Pan, but the line was way too long so we hopped into the line at Small World. Yes, there was a line and it said 15 minutes, but it did not take quite that long. We were assigned a row and a few seconds later we were on our way to sail the happiest cruise that ever sailed. And nothing says Disney vacation more than a ride on Small World.

Didn’t take long and we had to get off again. Since we needed to kill some time we just walked along the Rivers of America and then back to the hub via Adventureland. When we arrived at the hub we decided to check out if people were already getting in line for the Happily Ever After dessert party. (I had been very torn about booking it, as the ones that we had done in the beginning had lots of tables and when the fireworks were about to begin everyone was rushing forward and you had to stand and fight for a spot anyway. But after hearing very positive reviews of the new setup I tried to get us a reservation and needless to say there was none. Another DISfriend then assured me that she had been successful getting a reservation shorter to the actual date and she was so right, as really about a month before we went, a reservation had opened up.) When we got to the area, a line had already formed and they were letting people in.