Our Day at the Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom is by far my favourite Disney park to visit. The beautiful castle, the delicious dining, the parades, the characters, there is so much to do and see and each visit is special and unique with it’s own set of memories. This year’s vacation included two visits to the Magic Kingdom. The first one was on the fourth day of our trip, on a Tuesday. The reason I selected this day was because there were Magic Hours that evening. Giving us the opportunity to stay at the park until 10pm. 2 hours of park enjoyment after the park had closed to guests who were not staying at a Walt Disney World resort. We had reservations at Be Our Guest for breakfast and Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd Skipper Canteen for dinner. FastPasses included Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train, Tomorrowland Speedway and Peter Pan’s Flight.
We arrived at the park via bus transportation from our resort, Wilderness Lodge, at 7:50am. The day before we had arrived an hour early at Animal Kingdom and were let in at that time. We were curious to see if they would be doing the same at the Magic Kingdom. They were! We were walking down Main Street U.S.A at 7:50am, when the park wasn’t schedule to open until 9am. The shops were open as well as Starbucks. It was incredible! Because of our breakfast reservations at Be Our Guest we were able to get past the castle and wander a little bit around Fantasyland. Our reservation was for 8:50 am but they let us in at 8:15. So we were breakfasted and out of the restaurant at park open. Which gave us the whole area around Ariel’s Grotto to ourselves.
We went directly to a meet and greet with Ariel, where she spent 10 minutes talking to the kids. Remarking on MacKenzie’s beautiful jewels. Linc was in awe because he was able to see her round about. We then immediately went on Under the Sea- Journey of the Little Mermaid with no wait. The next two hours went exactly the same. We dealt with minimal crowds and short wait times. We got 6 attractions done in 2 hours. That was only using one FastPass!
For lunch we grabbed a couple muffins from Starbucks, using some dining plan snack credits, and enjoyed them in the little alcove found off of Main Street U.S.A. Where the windows are dressed in Peter Pan memorabilia and the upstairs windows are open. Entertaining us with sounds of voice lessons and tap practice. It was a beautiful shaded area that gave us a little break from the excitement. It also gave the kids a chance to play and dance around.
The next hour was spent in Tomorrowland, where we started to see the crowds thicken. Lines for the People Mover and Astro Orbiter were 40 minutes long. We chose to spend our time meeting Buzz Lightyear, riding Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger and Tomorrowland Speedway and we just had to fit in one of our family traditions: The Carousel of Progress. If we were smart this is when we would have had the kids nap. But we thought they might be able to handle it. We would learn later that we were wrong.
We found a great place to watch the Festival of Fantasy Parade. Directly in front of Ye Old Christmas Shoppe. This spot gave us shade. The sun was at our back so we were able to see the floats go by without having to squint. With the shop behind us, we didn’t have people trying to squeeze in with us. We always find a place at least a half hour before the parade. Without fail, families try to squeeze in as the parade starts. That didn’t happen this time, because there was no one passing by. It will be our parade viewing spot from this point forward.
This viewing spot was also conveniently across from Sleepy Hollow. Where I checked another Food Goal off my list. Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich.
While we were getting set up to watch the parade, we were pleasantly surprised to see the Muppet Show, Great Moments in American History, begin. For Muppet fans, this is a must do on your Magic Kingdom day. It’s a short little performance that is quirky, humorous in a way only that Muppets can produce.
The afternoon was spent on a few more attractions. Pirates of the Caribbean being one of the them. We were surprised that Lincoln was extremely skittish to ride this one. As we moved along the line he became more and more nervous, saying it was too spooky. We chalked it up to being overtired. He even cried a little on the ride, poor fella. So you can guess which ride we didn’t go on this vacation: Haunted Mansion.
By evening, it was time for our dinner reservations at Jungle Navigation Co Ltd Skipper Canteen before finding a spot to watch Once Upon a Time and Happily Ever After. My meal was delicious and by this time I needed a good meal and a moment to sit down and be in the company of my family. Without the distraction of an attraction, a character or a parade. We sat and ate and drank. Giving us a little boost for the last couple of hours.
We found a spot in the courtyard in front of Cinderella’s Castle to watch the evening entertainment beside a wonderful couple from Chicago. This is one of the things I love about our Disney vacations: the people we meet along the way. Sharing and swapping stories and tales of our adventures at the parks. By this point we realized Lincoln was exhausted. He had no desire to watch the fireworks. All he wanted to do was curl up and go to sleep. Which we let him do until Happily Ever After began. Luckily the show features Tarzan music which perked him up a little bit. Once the fireworks were done, we put the two kids in the stroller and walked around a little while. Waiting for the crowd to die down a bit before grabbing the bus back to our DVC resort, Boulder Ridge at Wilderness Lodge. It had been a long day and we were ready for a non-park day the next day.
I would definitely chalk the day up as a successful one. We met a lot of great characters, ate great food, met some wonderful people. My favourite part of the day was looking back at Lincoln’s face on the Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train. A mixture of fear and excitement. A true reminder that any age is the perfect age for Walt Disney World. He’ll be 3 next month and on this park day he didn’t sit out on anything. He was in it for the whole day, for every attraction. No wonderful he didn’t make it to the fireworks. Happy Planning, Friends.
