March Madness - Final Thoughts - REPORT COMPLETE - Updated May 24. About This Page:

[Colexis Mom]

Wow, how great to meet the characters of the FOLK show More please

[DyanKJ130]

How awesome that they substituted a meet & greet at FOTLK! You must have been able to get some pretty amazing photos! Sounds like you had another wonderful day! Can't wait to hear more

[KandJluvdisney]

that is so awsome to be able to meet the cast - we love that show - lucky girl
glad you had a good meal at spoodles
hurry back with more please

[Joy J]

Today dawned bright, sunny, hot and beautiful, a truly fitting day for our last full day at WDW. Even though this was a Saturday, we still planned to visit the Magic Kingdom with park hopping probably in our future if the MK got as crowded as we expected it might given the building crowds we’d noticed the day before.
Our first stop was a flight on Peter Pan since it had been closed on our last day at MK and we wanted to hit it before the thundering hordes descended. It was a walk-on and we were soon flying over Neverland not suspecting what was awaiting us at the end of the ride. As we disembarked and exited the ride, members of the Dream Squad appeared, this time giving us Dream Fastpasses for the Magic Kingdom for the day. What a perfect day to receive these - we were literally overjoyed. Instantly our plans started to reform as we realized that with these little beauties in our hands we could spend a lot more time here than we’d originally intended.
Since these passes were good for the whole day, we decided to use our early time at the Magic Kingdom to ride those attractions which didn’t have Fastpasses. We started with Snow White and then moved on to It’s a Small World, Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. By this time our tummies were starting to rumble so we stopped for an early lunch at El Pirata Y El Perico. On all my visits to WDW, I’d never before seen this place actually open so we decided to take advantage of it. We had beef tacos with Haagen Daz ice cream bars for dessert. The ice cream was of course delicious but the tacos weren’t very good. As far as I’m concerned in the future I don’t care whether this place is open or not as the food here was on the yucky side.
As we were finishing up lunch, we noticed that they were starting the Captain Jack Pirate Tutorial. Neither of us had ever seen this show before so we decided to give it a gander. We hadn’t expected much but we were delightfully surprised. What an enchanting, entertaining show and not just for the kiddies either. Captain Jack in particular was fantastic and he couldn’t have looked, acted or sounded more like Johnny Depp in that role if they had cloned him.
When we finally managed to stop laughing after Captain Jack’s little show, we headed down the dangerous rivers of adventure on the Jungle Boat cruise. I’ve ridden this attraction dozens and dozens of times and have journeyed with many exceptionally entertaining boat captains but today’s took the cake. He was not only hysterically funny but he was so full of energy that he literally did gymnastic moves at times from his perch at the front of the boat. He also used quite a few jokes that I had never heard before. All in all it was a rare treat.
By now the temperature was really soaring and the crowds were starting to get very thick so we decided it was time to cool down a bit by riding Splash Mountain. We were seated in the front and we definitely got very wet on this occasion so we managed to accomplish our goal of cooling down. Now feeling refreshed , we braved an extremely crowded Fantasyland to ride Peter Pan, watch Mickey’s PhilharMagic and ride Winnie the Pooh. Thank goodness for those Dream Fastpasses as the lineups were now humongous. When we made our way over to Tomorrowland, the crowd situation wasn’t much better. However, a show was just going in for the Laugh Floor Comedy Club so in we went for a nice air-conditioned break. We followed that up with the Stitch attraction, Buzz Lightyear, Carousel of Progress and then a repeat ride on Buzz using Fastpasses we’d picked up earlier in the day. By this time we were starting to feel rather tired from enduring the combination of both the heat and the crowds so we took a quick spin on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority before returning to our resort for our midday break. We were tired but very happy with our full part day. It was not quite three o’clock and we’d managed to ride 16 attractions mostly thanks to the help of those fabulous Dream Fastpasses.
After a short break it was time for our dinner reservation at Wolfgang Puck’s. What a wonderful dinner we enjoyed here. We both had the Macadamia Nut Crusted Breast of Chicken which was magnificent. For dessert, Kirk had the Key Lime Pie (I think he has become addicted to this dessert) and I opted for the white chocolate truffle cheese since I’m addicted to every type of cheesecake on the planet. Thoroughly stuffed and exceptionally satisfied, we waddled out of the restaurant and spent the rest of our evening shopping at Downtown Disney.
When we got back to our resort, we packed up most of our belongings so that we wouldn’t feel rushed in the morning and then both fell exhaustedly into bed.

Joy

[Colexis Mom]

Another great day Joy!! How cool to get Dream FPs And a great dinner More please

[disneydani]

So glad you scored the Dream FPs....lets you tour in a bit more relaxed manner! Dinner sounded wonderful, especially the dessert.

danielle

[B.M.]

Wow, it sounds like yall had a great day at Magic Kingdom; congrats on the dream fastpasses!

[PrincessSharon]

Sounds like a great day. Congrats on those Dream FastPasses!

[Joy J]

We had a big decision to make this morning - what park to visit on this, our last day at WDW. It was also our day to return home so it wouldn’t be a full day at the parks but Magical Express wasn’t picking us up until a little after 4:30 so we had a fair bit of time to play with. Our original idea had been to do the Magic Kingdom this morning since they had an extra magic hour this morning which, coupled with their extended holiday hours, meant they were opening at 7:00 a.m. However, in lieu of how exceptionally crowded the MK had been the day before and what a magical time we’d had there compliments of our Dream Fastpasses, we changed our minds and settled on merely strolling over to Epcot instead. We packed up our few remaining possessions that we hadn’t taken care of the night before, called Bell Services to come pick them up and store them for us until it was time for us to catch our DME bus, then off we went.
We followed our usual Epcot Future World pattern of grab Fastpass for Soarin, ride it in the Standby line, then go look for that ever-elusive Nemo again before riding Soarin one last time using our Fastpasses. This time around, we also spent some time in between enjoying all the exhibits in the Living Seas. We also couldn’t resist one last trip through Figment’s domain before meandering back to the World Showcase. We wanted to focus heavily on all the countries’ shops today but first we decided to fortify ourselves with an early lunch. Although we didn’t have any ADRs, we dropped by the podium at Tutto Italia to see if they had any openings and very soon thereafter found ourselves seated at a comfortable table for two and being waited on by a delightful young woman from Italy. Kirk had never dined at the Italian pavilion before whereas I had eaten here twice before when it was under different management and was known as Alfredo’s. I had been rather underwhelmed with both the food and the service on those two occasions plus I hadn’t liked how packed together the tables were. The new owners seem to have opened up the seating in the restaurant a tad as I no longer felt like a sardine in a can. The service was absolutely impeccable with none of the condescending air I’d detected from the waiters in the past. And the food - out of this world! Both Kirk and I enjoyed every bite of our sumptuous meal. We even enjoyed a rather different beverage with our food - it was an Italian version of orange soda pop and was unlike anything either one of us had ever tasted before - very refreshing.
Now totally stuffed, we headed out to explore the rest of the World Showcase. Our first stop was the American Adventure as we hadn’t managed to fit this show in yet so far on our trip. As luck would have it, the next show was due to commence very shortly so in we went to enjoy a performance of the Voices of Liberty first. They had just started their show and it was as fabulous as ever. These singers are so talented that they never cease to amaze me. When they were done singing, they immediately dispersed and sought out guests to meet and greet. It was great fun talking to one of these talented performers and getting the opportunity to tell him how much we enjoyed their singing.
The rest of our time seemed to zip by faster than you can blink an eye and before we knew it, it was time to head back for our return to the airport. Normally, this is always a sad moment for me but with the hordes of people that had now descended on WDW (Epcot was almost as crowded as the Magic Kingdom had been the day before) and the heat (about 87 degrees on this particular day) and in light of the fact that we’d packed a lot of magic into our seven day sojourn, I was actually ready to return home. Our trip via DME back to the airport was comfortable as was our flight home. Now it was time to start planning our next trip to our favourite place on earth.

Joy

[Colexis Mom]

Great last day Joy What a great meal at Tutto Italia!! I'm sorry the trip is all over

[B.M.]

Great final day!

[PrincessSharon]

Great final day, Joy! I must give Tutto Italia a try. Thanks for sharing your TR with us!

[KandJluvdisney]

great update joy
congrats on the dream fastpasses - how awsomw for you
sorry your trip is ending
hurry back with more please

[DyanKJ130]

Great updates!! How that you were given Dream FPs!! Sounds like you had a fabulous final day!! Can't wait to hear more

[RobDVC]

Great report! Thanks for sharing it.