Monday, June 16- Magic Kingdom
I had to be sure to stress to my parents that we needed to arrive at Magic Kingdom before the park opened at 9:00. I read a lot about this too and everyone suggested getting there right at 9:00 or a little after (if you can). Supposedly a huge crowd of people get there in the later part of the morning and the wait times for rides and character meetings are pushing 45-60 minutes by then. I took that advice to heart and we were in the parking lot around 8:30. But, by the time you park, walk to the tram, ride the tram to the ticket gate, stand in line to pick up your tickets, then get in line to ride the monorail, ride the monorail to the main entrance into Magic Kingdom,
(Riding the tram!)
and then go through line where they check your bags, that takes a lot of precious time! So if you plan on visiting Magic Kingdom, keep that in mind! By the time we entered through the gates, it was around 9:15. Perfect! It is so very crowded as soon as you get inside due to the fact Minnie Mouse is out and a huge crowd will stop to take pictures and get in line to meet her. Since we had dinner reservations at Chef Mickey's later on in the week, I completely ignored the fact that she was there and went straight to the Town Square Theatre to meet Tinkerbell. As soon as you enter, go to your right and you will see that Tinkerbell and Mickey Mouse meet in that theatre. Because we arrived at a good time, and because just about every single person was on Main Street trying to get a glimpse of Minnie or look in the shops, there was not a wait at all to meet Tinkerbell. The guy who lead us in told us we were the very first people to arrive to meet her for the day. So again, get there right around 9:00 and go straight for Town Square Theatre. I don't believe a lot of people realized that is where Tinkerbell is located. Before entering to meet her, the worker was talking to Adalyn and Landon and two other children about what Tinkerbell says and they had to answer correctly before going in. He said, "Faith, Trust and _____" and Adalyn yelled, "Pixie Dust!" haha. Homegirl knows her fairy stuff!
So in we went and saw Tinkerbell!
Side note: I have to insert this here to say this.... I knew both of my kids would love all the characters and wouldn't be afraid to meet them. I just assumed Adalyn would be the one to do most of the talking, hugging, and high-fiving with them and that Landon would be a little gun shy. But, I was so very wrong! Landon was the one who automatically hugged every character he saw, asked for a high five, and would strike up a conversation with them. Adalyn did great, too, I just think she was a little "star struck" and only knew to smile and giggle. lol
I was able to capture sweet shots of her with the kids. Each character we met really took their time with them and never seemed rushed or in a hurry.
I mean, come on, how sweet is this?
Adalyn comes right up to Tinkerbell's shoulder- at 4 years old! ha!
We jumped in for a picture, too!
After Tinkerbell, we made our way down Main Street!
The kids were so excited when they saw Cinderella's castle.
I had Fastpasses secured for our morning but we had a little bit of time before we were ready to use our first fastpass at a character meeting. We made our way to Fantasyland and saw the carousel ride (Prince Charming Regal Carousel) had a small line so we hopped in! We waited not even 5 minutes to ride it. Adalyn and Landon were so excited!
After this ride, we still had a little bit of time to kill before we met Cinderella and Rapunzel so we headed over to ride Dumbo! They have improved the Dumbo ride recently and instead of waiting in line for what can seem like forever, you let your kids play in this huge play area while you have a pager in hand (like at a restaurant) and it buzzes when it's your turn to ride. We stayed in there maybe 10 minutes until ours went off.
After Dumbo, we were ready to meet some princesses! Due to having an older sister, Landon knows every princess by name and loves whatever movie we put in at home to watch.
Do your research when it comes to Fastpasses. Be very selective with what you choose for your family to do because you only have 3 passes to use for your entire day there. If you happen to have a Fastpass reserved for Dumbo ( as an example) but see the wait is only 10 or 15 minutes, don't waste your Fastpass on that! Stand in line and switch your Fastpass to something else. You most definitely want to use Fastpasses on meeting some of the characters. I tried to secure a Fastpass to meet Anna and Elsa but it wasn't available. I didn't even mention the fact that they were at Magic Kingdom to the kids because there was no way I was going to stand in the 3 hour line to meet them.
We made our way over to Princess Fairytale Hall and stood in the Fastpass line for maybe 5 minutes while everyone else had a 45 minute wait.
First up was Rapunzel!
Next, Cinderella!
After we met them, we sat down behind the castle and ate lunch. You are able to bring a cooler in so we packed sandwiches, waters, chips, and snacks. It's expensive to eat there so if you can keep from it, pack a lunch! I brought a 31 cooler with us that I was able to fold and put in my suitcase on the flight. It fit in the basket of our double stroller so it worked great!
Landon loves deli meat!
After lunch, we had a Fastpass to ride The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The stand-by wait said 45 minutes. With a fastpass, we walked straight in and sat down on the ride.
But before we rode, the kids played in Pooh's house!
After Pooh, we had some time before our next Fastpass so we walked over to Mickey's Philhar Magic. I wasn't really sure what it was but there was only a 10 minute wait and it was air conditioned-score! It ended up being a 3D movie that showcased Donald Duke and lots of clips through other Disney movies throughout the years. It was the neatest thing ever!!! If you visit Magic Kingdom, do this!! We all loved it and laughed the entire time. It was great and a nice thing to do to rest and get cooled off before heading back into the heat and the swarm of people!
After the 3D show, we started towards Adventureland when we spotted Peter Pan! The cast member told us he was about to go on break, but would be back in 15 minutes. So we decided we would pop in a souvenir shop and wait for him. A short 15 minutes later and the kids were able to meet him!
I love this picture of Landon with Peter Pan. So sweet!
Here is Adalyn again, just smiling and giggling away lol
The kids love this movie so I was so glad we accidentally bumped into him!
If you want to try to meet him too, go right past "Peter Pan's Flight" ride and he it right beside it.
We then walked to Adventureland and went to the Swiss Family Treehouse which is huge and so neat to walk through!
After that, we decided we would head back to the resort to swim and take a nice long nap before returning that evening. Our resort is not considered on "Disney Property" but it right beside some of the Disney resorts. We were maybe 5 minutes from the gates of Magic Kingdom so I loved the short car ride. It made going back to the resort to rest not a hassle at all.
We swam for a while and then napped for about 3 hours and woke up at 6:00!
This is how the kids looked after their nap. HA! Landon is cracking me up.
Wow did we all feel refreshed. We cooked breakfast for supper, took showers, then got ready to go back to Magic Kingdom for the night. I think we walked in the gates around 8:30 ish. I believe the first parade started at 9 PM but we skipped it. Side note: The majority of the crowd goes to the 9 PM parade due to the fact that most have been there all day long and that is the last thing they do before they end their day. Let them go to the parade- but you skip out! Trust me. I read about this as well and people were right. Everyone wants to see the parade and watch the fireworks so that leaves all the rides and character meetings open with little to no wait at all!!!!!
Our first ride of the night was Mad Tea Party. I get nauseous on any ride that goes around and around so I skipped out and took pictures. They waited maybe 3-4 minutes in line while during the day it's easily a 30-45 minute wait.
I also want to say that you need to download "My Disney Experience" app on your phone. If you are visiting soon, this was the only way we made it through the park so organized! The app was amazing and would tell you the wait time for each ride, most character meetings, where the characters were located, you choose your fastpasses through this app, and any reservations you had for breakfast/dinner would be on your app as well. You are able to put in everyones name that is in your party and you can select fastpasses for everyone. (If you are going during Fall Break, and want to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train or meet Anna and Elsa, secure a Fastpass as soon as your able to do so. I think if you stay on property you can do so 60 days before your visit and if you are off Disney property, you have 30 days to choose your Fastpasses. If you are wanting to reserve a character meal of some sort, you are able to do that 180 days before your trip. That's just FYI)
We were going back to Magic Kingdom on Thursday and I already had Fastpasses reserved for that day to meet Ariel, ride Under the Sea-Journey of the Little Mermaid, and Enchanted Tales with Belle. Since everyone was watching the parades, Enchanted Tales with Belle had a 10 minute wait! Typically, you will wait in line for 1 hour to do this. We walked right over and walked right into her cottage. We waited in there 10 minutes before it was time to partake in the "play" and to meet Princess Belle.
They do a skit and choose children to help be certain characters from the movie. Adalyn was chosen to be Mrs. Potts! She was a little shy at first but then loosened up :)
You aren't able to use a flash in the "library" of the castle, so most of these pictures are a little dark! They allow around 20 or so people in at a time and you are able to sit down and watch their show. It is so neat! Landon loved it and everytime I looked over at him he was just grinning ear to ear and kept clapping.
He walked to her and said, "Look at my shirt!" hahaha
There he goes hugging again :)
After we were finished with Belle, my app said their was a 5 minute wait to ride The Little Mermaid ride. I had a Fastpass for this already set up for Thursday but there was no need to wait on Thursday to ride it so we went straight over there! This was a neat ride. It took you through most of the scenes of the movie. Everything is so detailed!
Landon talked about Ursla the rest of the week ha! He loves talking about spiders, snakes, jelly fish and octopus's so he kept telling us "Ursla is going to get you!" while we would be swimming. Funny kid!
Next, we headed to meet Ariel in her grotto! I had a fastpass for this too for Thursday but there was no need for it. We didn't wait in line at all to meet her. It was awesome!
While everyone was still watching a parade, light show, and fireworks, guess what we were able to see without standing amongst a huge crowd- fireworks!
It was a nice surprise!
We walked passed It's A Small World and the wait was only 10 minutes so we got in line!
Next up, The Magic Carpets of Aladdin! My app said 5 minutes to wait so we walked over to Adventureland and walked right on to the ride. So fun!
By this time it was close to 11 PM and the Main Street Electrical Parade was getting ready to start. We parked it on the side of the street and grabbed a coke (nothing like a strong, refreshing coke to drink!) and ate some snacks while we waited. The parade was sooo neat and all the lights and detail put in to everything was amazing.
Here are just a few of the shots I took.
After the parade, we were planning on leaving until I noticed Splash Mountain had a 5 minute wait and the wait for that ride during the day is always an hour or more so we high tailed it over there! Adalyn was tall enough to ride so my mom stayed with Landon while we got on. It was SO much fun! You can always get a Fastpass for this ride but I didn't see a point in doing so since I thought Adalyn and Landon would be too short to ride. Adalyn loved Splash Mountain and she loved the fact that we got a little wet!
After this ride, we called it a night! Adam and I stopped in front of the castle to get our picture together.
When did we grow up and get to take kids to Disney World?!
Our first day at Magic Kingdom was a total success in my book! Another thing that made it that much easier?? Landon is 100% potty trained! We did not put a single diaper on him. He told us every.single.time. he needed to go. Having a boy is so easy due to the fact if we weren't close to a bathroom when he told us he needed to go, I just walked him over to the side and found some grass or something and let him go there lol We only brought a few diapers to put on him at night. He is hit or miss with peeing during the night. Some mornings he is dry, some mornings he is wet. But do you know how much easier it was to get through Magic Kingdom with a 2 year old that is potty trained and didn't require diaper changes?!?! AHHH! Prior to our trip, in the early planning stages, I was fully prepared that we would still be changing his diaper but he surprised us by catching on so fast so I was thrilled we didn't have to worry about that.
Two sleepy kiddos at the end of our day! It was a little past midnight by this point and these two were such troopers! They did SO well adjusting to large crowds, minimal wait times in line, and walking(or sitting in the stroller) and for that, I was so thankful!
We all fell fast asleep as soon we were back at the condo and slept until 9:00 Tuesday morning.
I will blog about Day 3 tomorrow!
*My tips for Magic Kingdom* (this worked for us anyway!)
-Arrive as soon as the park opens! Keep in mind parking will take a while.
Immediately head over to Town Square Theatre to meet Tinkerbell. There will be little to no wait if you are there around 9:15.
-Be selective with what you choose for your Fastpass selections.
-Bring a small cooler and pack your lunch and lots of water
-Adam (and my dad) wore a back pack which was great to hold goldfish, sunscreen, suckers to keep the kids occupied, souvenirs, etc.
- If you are able, head back to your resort for afternoon naps to rest up! Doing this kept my kiddos in great moods and we didn't have 1 single melt down.
- Skip the parade and fireworks at 9 PM and ride all the rides and meet all the characters you can! Most people will be on Main Street watching the parade and a lot of people will be leaving the park by that time since most spent the majority of their day there. We caught the 11 PM parade after we rode everything we could!
-Download My Disney Experience App-- in my opinion, you cannot make it through Magic Kingdom (and probably the other parks) without it!
Read about Day 1 of our vacation HERE!
See you tomorrow for Day 3!
No comments:
Post a Comment