I met up with Steph, Lauren and Ryan after they used their third Fastpass for Haunted Mansion, and we set off to see some of Magic Kingdom. I don’t have many pictures from this evening, but we did wave to some Country Bears as they passed by –

We just walked around the park, enjoying each other’s company. I hadn’t seen Steph and Lauren in a few years – they live on the other side of the country of me. They live in different provinces from each other, so they don’t even see each other very often (and actually – at this point Steph and Ryan were living in different provinces from each other). We spent quite awhile just taking in the ambiance of Magic Kingdom, walking around the different lands. At one point, we stopped at Peco’s Bills so they could grab a quick bite to eat – I don’t remember what was ordered, but I think all three of them shared one meal – we had a late reservation coming up and no one wanted to ruin their dinner. Eventually we decided to actually do more than just walk around.

The first Fastpass the three of them had earlier in the day was for Peter Pan’s Flight, but due to a flight delay they had missed their window. However, the ride just so happened to be down during part of their window, so their Fastpass had changed to an unlimited experience pass – which meant they could use it for any ride in MK they wanted to that day. They decided to stick to their original plan, and used it for Peter Pan (which still had a huge standby line). I didn’t have a Fastpass for it, so I told them to enjoy and I’d wait for them by the exit. During this time, my Mom had texted that she had finally arrived at Old Key West – without any luggage. It was lost, and the airline had no idea where it was.

I lost it. Here I was, standing alone by the exit to Peter Pan’s Flight bawling my head off – like I’m talking giant tears streaming down my face, sobbing, the whole nine yards. A concerned cast member came over and asked if I was ok – that poor man. I think he was expecting a generic I’m fine, or I’m just so happy to be here or I’m just overwhelmed. Yeah… that’s not what he got from me. In between sobs I told him my Mom had no luggage, my uncle was in a coma, I was getting married in 3 days, I was happy to see two of my best friends for the first time in 2+ years, and I had realized that morning I didn’t pack enough underwear for the trip (yup, I told this poor cast member that). He just looked at me with wide eyes, gave me a little pat on my shoulder, said “there there” while he backed away slowly haha. It’s been almost 4 years since this happened, but in the moment it was a lot to handle. I definitely needed that cry.

My friends gave me a hug when they got off, which helped a lot. I pulled myself together, and got onto the app. I was able to grab a Buzz Lightyear fastpass, and the window opened in 10 minutes. So off to Tomorrowland!

When we arrived, the ride was a walk-on – so we decided to enter the standby line first, and then circled around and used our Fastpass. We waved to animatronic Buzz, and Lauren and I got on together…and of course my gun didn’t work. I’m not amazing at Buzz, but I’m definitely not this bad! Luckily the gun did work the second time around haha.

Our on-ride photos for this make me laugh so much! I was looking super pleased with my broken gun, and my face was still all blotchy from crying, my hair was all disheveled from a busy day – and Lauren was living her best life haha. We have so many photos together over the years with Lauren giving me bunny ears – always “gettin’ me good!” And Ryan was so intense haha.

The castle was looking very pretty – I love the Christmas lights they put on it –

By this point, it was time for us to head out. We said good night to the park, and headed out to catch the monorail. While we were riding the monorail, we actually saw the Electrical Water Pageant, which was a really unique viewpoint. We exited the monorail at the Polynesian, where we met up with 9 others from our group – and the 13 of us had a great meal at ‘Ohana!

We all Uber’d back to our hotels and crashed – it was almost midnight by this point..

I also need to show this screenshot from Luke’s FitBit haha – he actually took this right after he finished his marathon – he had even more steps by the end of the day haha.

Fitbit Steps: 20,849