Disney 2021: Magic Kingdom & Disney Springs (Again!)

The random renewal of our annual passes meant we had the potential for an "extra" park day prior to the arrival of our friends. The third day of our trip was Wednesday and our originally planned arrival day. So, Jason checked the park reservation system and when he saw a Magic Kingdom day available, he snagged it! We were so excited and planned to let Brayden guide us on his wishes!

We attempted to get out of our resort room early and to the bus stop but we definitely did not beat the MK crowd. Although the line seemed long, everyone was social distanced and in reality, it was basically the amount of people they used to shove on one bus! :) 

It took four buses before we were on and seated, but they were very prompt and came one right after the other. I LOVED the efficiency! 

Bonus: We landed the Wanda Vision bus!!

We'd hoped to arrive inside the park early and with enough time to skip a long wait for 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. Although we arrived just at park opening, the line was already at 60 minutes and we decided to skip it. We later discovered that they are actually opening the parks a bit earlier than the posted park opening time, so we remembered this fact and used it to our benefit later in the trip!

Instead of Mine Train, Brayden spotted the Mad Tea Party and told us he wanted it to be the first ride of the trip!

We also practiced our line standing skills while waiting for the Tomorrowland Speedway!

Can you smell this photo? :)

Dumbo was next followed by Pooh! We literally spanned all of these rides in the course of maybe an hour! It was awesome!!

The Carousel is always a favorite, too!

For breakfast, we walked over to Sleepy Hollow for the nutella waffle since it's been on my "to try" list. Well, we got in line around 10:30 a.m. and although we were in line before 11 a.m., we were told that the menu would switch over to the "lunch" menu at 11, no matter if we were already in line before then or not. I'll admit I was a little disappointed but I've also wanted to try the chicken and waffle, so we stayed in line anyway. 

I'm not kidding when I say that my disappointment faded away when I tasted this beauty! Y'all, this thing is so good! If you haven't tried this before, you need to!! I'll definitely be going back. I also knew we had two additional MK days, so I would have another chance to try the breakfast waffle on another day. Problem solved!

Right as we finished eating, we heard the music change and I knew that meant a cavalcade was about to pass by. So, I positioned Brayden and I where we could see the characters. Look at what this little turkey did when Tink passed by! 

He covered his eyes! I thought he was just being shy but no...he then informed me that he "only waves at Mickey and Minnie"! Lord...kids, y'all! They are hilarious!

On the other hand, I didn't care who was passing by, I waved away!

Before leaving MK for the day, we met up with Jason's cousin and her husband who were randomly in the Magic Kingdom that day. Isn't it funny how we weren't even supposed to be there yet but all ended up in the same park on the same day?! Crazy how stuff like that happens some times!

Back to our friends who were traveling that day - we kept tabs on them all morning, from their arrival to the airport, to the crazy security lines, getting on the plane, and actually taking off! I could NOT believe the ice and snow thawed out enough for them to fly and they actually MADE it on time as planned!

YAY they are here!!

Our original plan for the day was to hang out at Disney Springs with an early afternoon/late lunch reservation at Homecomin'. This was my first experience here and I was curious to see what all the hype was about!

I also loved reading about Chef Art Smith's "Disney story"! It's located along the wall on the way to the restrooms and it was neat to read how his early days at Disney began!

We ordered Deviled Eggs to share and I ordered the fried chicken, biscuit, and fries. Brayden had their mac and cheese and YUM! The mac and cheese was amazing!

I'm going to have an incredibly unpopular opinion here, so please don't hate me....

I wasn't a huge fan. The fried chicken tasted funny and to be honest, I've had better fried chicken back home. I was kind of bummed too because I've heard such amazing things about their food! The deviled eggs were good but they were just ok to us (we both agreed that Jason's grandmother's deviled eggs are the best we've ever had). Honestly the best thing I ate there was the biscuit and the mac and cheese. Whomp whomp.... Oh well. I'd be willing to give it another shot and order something different next time!

After lunch, we shopped around for a while and enjoyed catching up with our friends!

Brayden also kept asking for a balloon and I told him he had to "earn" it. He was so good at dinner and we decided that was it! Yay for his first Disney balloon!!

For dessert, I wanted to try Everglazed. The line wasn't long and we really enjoyed being able to watch the donut making process through the window!

I had the Reeses Nitro which was a Peanut Butter Explosion donut on top of a Nitro cold brew with peanut butter and vanilla syrups. 

This. Was. By. Far. The. Best. Thing. I. Had. The. Entire. Trip.

So I still dream about this combo? Yes, yes I do. Do I plan to return to Everlgazed on our next trip? Yep...and if I have the chance to return multiple times, I will! 

Y'all....this is seriously what dreams are made of!!

Another very unpopular opinion - I liked Everglazed better than Gideons! Also, the peanut butter cold brew at Everlgazed was much better than the one at Gideon's. 

I'm just unpopular opinioning it up here! :)

To end the evening, we decided to take a bus from Springs over to Riviera since our friends hadn't visited the resort yet. With staying at Pop, we were able to take the Skyliner back to our resort and it all worked out perfectly in the end! It was truly a fabulous way to end our evening!