And here I just finished writing something about Disney World being way too busy on Independence Day to visit … so where do you think that I ended up yesterday?!

😯

It ended up being very much a last-minute, impromptu trip – we didn’t even walk into the park until sometime after 7pm, but as Christopher’s auntie is moving away for a while, we thought it would be nice for them to have a little bit of fun in his natural environment!

It was definitely hot, and it was definitely busy, as we parked in one of the farthest lots and it seemed to take forever to walk just about anywhere … which was admittedly to be expected. After an unproductive walk around the park to try and get back to Main Street for fireworks even though Main Street was closed at that point, we ended up just watching instead from Tomorrowland by the Speedway which worked out ok because the 4th of July show has them going off all around the park anyways. It was still kind of a bummer just because I had really wanted to watch them front and center, but realistically we would’ve had to stay at the front of the park as soon as we got there in order to make that happen…

Regardless, it was kind of surprising how much the park cleared out after the show – we went to relax in the Dumbo play area for a while (AC!!!) and by the time we rode Dumbo, a lot of wait times were down below 30 minutes! For only being there a few hours on one of the busiest days of the year, we really hit quite a few attractions that evening:

• it’s a small world
• Disney’s Celebrate America! A Fourth of July Concert in the Sky (fireworks)
• Dumbo Play Area (I don’t care – it features AC and a place to sit … I’m counting it!)
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant
• Journey of the Little Mermaid
• Prince Charming Regal Carousel
• Haunted Mansion
• Splash Mountain
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Magic Carpets of Aladdin

We stayed right up until the very end when the park closed at 1am, barely waiting at all to get on the monorail … which was nice after reading that it broke down the day prior! We all left ridiculously hot and exhausted, and I certainly couldn’t have imagined being there all day when only a few hours of sun was enough to turn my shirt into a wearable cloak of sweat … plus anything that wasn’t sweaty ended up getting soaked with actual water thanks to Splash Mountain anyways … but it was a fun time nonetheless and I was happy that the crowds got ridiculously thin as the evening wore on.

I think by midnight, both Splash and Big Thunder were down to like 5-10 minute waits … can’t argue with that, especially on the 4th of July!!! 😀