The Generation Game Tour 2023 – Day Two Wednesday 17th May

There’s a saying or cliche about being a Grandparent, something along the lines of it being great that you can play with the kids but then get to hand them back for all the hard stuff. This of course is true to some extent but the real joy of having grandkids is hearing them being up and about around 3.30am and knowing you can roll over and go back to sleep as that is Rebecca and Tom’s problem!

With the time difference and their age this was to be expected of course and Louise and I only managed to sleep on for another couple of hours or so. Everyone was up and pottering around once 5.30am rolled around. There was breakfasting, showering and playing with toys.

Whilst everyone else had fun I was chained to the Disney app come 7am trying to get a virtual boarding group for Tron, as today, of course, would be spent at Magic Kingdom.

I got group 68 and celebrated, with no clue as to how long we may have to wait for that to roll around. With gritted teeth, I also bought us all Genie+. There would be very limited time in the parks this trip for Louise, Mum and I, so we could take no chances. $115 later, I felt somehow much less happy about the happiest place on earth.

Once preparations were complete…

We left the house around 7.40am. Dougie was, understandably, a bit all over the place and was a tad grumpy. He was no doubt very tired from yesterday and his body clock very broken.

At this time of day of course we parked very close to the entrance…

in Jafar 309. This of course meant a walk-in and no tram.

There’s never time to mess about with the ferry on a first morning, so we headed up the ramp.

I went live on Facebook to record the monorail journey in. Having been so often, it’s nice to capture the moments not seen as the big ones, such as seeing the castle for the first time….

Gratefully, and with a bit of faff for a couple in the party who didn’t have Magic Bands, we were in. Naturally, two people needed the loo, so the rest of us went into the Emporium to resolve the Magic Band issue.

We wandered about, asked three different cast members but still could not find any. All we had seen were the new interactive ones which we didn’t need or want, but after giving up on finding the other kind Tom and my Mum shelled out for a fandangled new one.

It takes something special to stop me dragging everyone to a ride the second we enter the park, and that special thing today was Dougie getting his long-awaited first haircut in Magic Kingdom. Everyone met back up outside the shop just before 9am, waiting for it to open.

Dougie wasn’t really in the mood for the experience. Jet lag and tiredness were kicking his ass, as they say, but he did well considering and got it done.

You will notice me in the mirror expertly undertaking a dual phone recording with both mine and Louise’s phone. I appreciate that isn’t the focus of this video, but I thought I should point it out.

Once he was done, we were privileged to have the Dapper Dans come into the shop and sing a couple of songs to Dougie and the other youngster having their first haircut. It was lovely, although Dougie cried through a good chunk of it.

We left the choice of first ride of the day/holiday to Freddie and he chose the “Buzz shooting one” so we headed there. I had a LL secured for Big Thunder from 10.35 so I allowed it as it slotted in with the plan.

Standby was only five minutes and everyone rode apart from Mum and Dougie who was now asleep. I rode alone and cannot explain why I chose to sit on the left-hand side of the car, meaning I was shooting with my weaker left hand. My score reflected this bad decision. We shall not dwell upon it.

We were making our way in the general direction of Big Thunder but stopped off at the Indy Speedway. I cannot remember the last time I rode this, although now I write that I suspect I did so with Freddie on one of his two trips to date. As we queued (Tom, Rebecca, Freddie and I) I suggested Tom ride with Freddie and I would, like I last did about twenty years ago, ride with Rebecca. At some point in the waiting process, Freddie decided that wasn’t a good idea and he would ride with me. He didn’t want to drive though so I did.

I can report the smell is still as it ever was…..

As we left the ride and glanced at the app, I saw that Big Thunder had been down and as that had happened after our window to ride had opened we now had a “free hit” LL for any ride we liked during the day. I booked another LL for it starting at 11.30.

You can see with the ease of booking that second LL that crowds were not heavy today and we could have probably done without Genie+, but with limited park time and a one year old with jet lag, it did a decent job today of making things very easy. I of course still resent, with every bone in my body, having to pay for it.

As it was now shortly after 10.30, clearly, it was lunchtime. Blame our body clocks, but we were starving.

As it involved no further onward travel we decided upon Cosmic Rays and we all ordered on the app before going in and finding a couple of tables.

Dougie had sensed incoming food and roused himself.

Louise and Mum had a chicken salad thing and the rest of us were normal and had burgers and tenders.

There was poor photography and it cost $115.00.

With calories topped up we walked up to Big Thunder, and as you can see crowds were light.

Because I am superb at the whole planning and LL thing (not) I had somehow got us one for Haunted Mansion at some point during the morning so we all rode that.

We had a good chuckle at Freddie in the buggy ahead of us when the hitchhiker appeared. He was genuinely looking around to see where it was. It’s lovely when the “magic” is real.

As we finally got up close to Big Thunder, I captured the current state of Splash, as was.

Our LL allowed to us bypass a very hot 30-minute standby line.

Freddie and Rebecca were in the front row and Freddie absolutely loved it.

We regrouped with Mum and Louise who did not ride and headed to the recently booked Pirates. We all rode this one.

Freddie persuaded his parents into a sword purchase in the gift shop. We were all shocked to see it was only $10. I know it’s plastic tat, but in Magic Kingdom, I would have predicted a price closer to $20+ for that.

Our time to Tron was approaching so we made our way to the other side of the park, stopping at the castle to take some pictures.

Is it now that I’m supposed to ask if someone can remove the people from the background?

And if someone can remove my paunch too that would be lovely…..

With perfect timing, as we got to the Lunching Pad, the app told us to make our way to Tron. We left Mum and Dougie in the shade and we did the fairly long walk to the queue and waited about 30 minutes.

I have little memory of the ride as it is quite short, but very fast and a great addition to the Magic Kingdom.

We had a handy LL for Space Mountain next door so we rode that, with Louise opting out as she is smarter than I. The ride was pure pain an endless clenching. I will never learn.

Back with the others we found a table and had a bit of rest time. During which, I walked all the way to Columbia House to get a strawberry yoghurt thing that was pretty much the only suitable food item available for Dougie in the park.

With Dougie fed and watered, we moved on to Pooh. With a large group, it is helpful if you can coordinate your restroom breaks!

In the gift shop, Mum bought Dougie an outfit as his birthday gift and his Mum and Dad got him a soft toy just because.

As Freddie had declared it his favourite ride, he Tom and I walked up to Big Thunder again for another ride. Everyone else strolled down to Main Street as we were about ready to head over to Whispering Canyon for our ADR.

We all met up again on some benches by City Hall and had a welcome ten-minute sit down before heading out to find the boat. We were very early for our reservation, but we were all very tired now and decided just to head over and relax there for a bit.

We found some couches in the lobby and I booked in, explaining how early we were but after ten minutes our thing buzzed and we were seated.

We all had the skillet apart from Louise who opted to have the Nachos appetiser as her main. The server was OK, but too rushed and didn’t listen really, as you can hear in this video.

The experience here is still not close to its heyday, pre-pandemic, but it is slowly getting there. The fun and interaction that used to happen just isn’t there now/yet.

Tom was devastated to learn that they couldn’t do milkshakes, but the food was delicious.

It seems I failed to capture the skillet.

The bill, with an already added 18% gratuity due to our party size was $217.00.

We left and walked back to catch the boat and timed it perfectly with just a little last-minute pacey walk to get on one just before it left. The tentative and ambitious plan to go back into MK and watch the fireworks was abandoned as expected due to tiredness.

We monorailed and then walked back to the car, calling, as tradition dictates at a pharmacy for something or other before crashing into bed just after 8pm. That’s a first day for you.

Till the next time……