Disney: Magic Kingdom
Disney Recap: Arrival ♦ Epcot ♦ Animal Kingdom ♦ Magic Kingdom ♦ Hollywood Studios ♦ Epcot Holidays ♦
Wednesday the 27th was the day we finally went to the iconic Magic Kingdom! [Again, we strategically waited until Wednesday - the "quietest" (it was still PACKED, but ;-)) day of the week there.] We were so blessed weather-wise: it began pouring rain as we boarded our hotel bus to the park that morning. I told our driver to feel free to go slowly as he wanted ;-) ...but literally 30 seconds before we had to get off, the rain stopped and the skies turned blue! Thank you, God!!!
Arrival:
My fave pic - Will took it! ♥
Our strategy was to go straight to the back of the park to meet Ariel - Annelise's favorite - first, before crowds got nuts. On the way, Will saw that the Princess Fairytale Hall with Rapunzel (the only other princess they remotely wanted to see) was less than a 10 minute wait, and *he* urged us to stop & meet her before heading to Ariel's Grotto. I was surprised, but pleased! I was all about knocking out our two character visits up front!
JB went for our FastPasses to Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid while I took the kids into Ariel's Grotto. We learned from Rapunzel that the characters won't sign a shirt that's being worn, so in line, I had Annelise pull her arms inside her shirt; I zipped up her jacket & pulled her shirt out the top, so Ariel could really sign it! #brilliant
I can't not document this: as we walked out, Will told me he felt weird when he sat with the princesses, like electricity. :-D I said that was a good thing. ;-) He said, "Ugh!" :-P ♥
JB is stronger than Gaston!
After Under the Sea, we got FastPasses for Space Mountain (return time - 12:30 PM), rode The Barnstormer (for little kids!), and discovered one of Will's ultimate faves: Tomorrowland Speedway
I rode with Sis
We ran over to do "it's a small world", simply b/c it's iconic, there was barely a 5 minute wait, and we needed to do it before we met up with my mom...who hates it. Will thought it was awful, too, and swore he wouldn't make his kids do it one day. We assured him that oh yes, he would, and we'd be sitting in the row right behind them, reminding him of this moment & laughing together. :-D
The Sword in the Stone! Pull, Will!
Disney family!!!
Lunch: hot dogs at Casey's Corner - they were huge! - in the shadow of Cinderella's Castle while watching the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party
LaLa bought Annelise a rainbow weave! :-D (It was so fun! She wore it all week!)
Will, Annelise, & I rode Space Mountain. This was my first time, too - I was too scared to ride when I was a child! :-P Honestly, it was my least favorite coaster. I liked the dark, but it was so jerky. It actually ended up tweaking something in my neck (which is still sore 2 weeks later!) and my lower back was achy later that day. :-/ It was thrilling, though. :-P
At the base of Rapunzel's tower
LaLa rode Splash Mountain with us, b/c the Br’er Rabbit stories are our family favorite. ♥ It was chilly...but sooo worth it!!! :-)
Because our kids are so very obsessed with trains, we used the Walt Disney World Railroad to relax & give our feet a break. We rode it all the way around from Frontierland to Fantasyland to Main Street USA and back to Frontierland. We navigated a parade and headed to Pirates of the Caribbean...but it broke down after we'd waited in line for 20 minutes. :-( (There are very few things I'll wait in line for, but Pirates was one of my two happiest Magic Kingdom memories with my Dad! Worth it.) Because we stayed in line, though, and waited a few more minutes after they announced the initial delay (& after a large portion of people waiting in line exited), we got extra free FastPasses to use elsewhere in the park - yay! This was a huge bonus, b/c there are several attractions that only accept the Disney Magic Bands FastPasses for people staying inside the park, but we could use these for one of those = YAY!!! Aside from Pirates, my other most vivid Magic Kingdom childhood memory was the Haunted Mansion. The line was crazy long, but they *did* accept our bonus FastPasses, so we walked right up! Will kept announcing that this was fake, that was fake, etc. :-P I kept telling him, "Yeah, but doesn't it look so cool?!" He admitted it sure did. ;-)
Under the lanterns in Rapunzel's town
We got FastPasses for the holiday-themed-for-a-limited-time Jingle Jungle Cruise. Snuggle selfie:
And then we *DID* make it back right as Pirates of the Caribbean opened up, again, too! JOY!!! :-D We grabbed some dinner at the Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe and headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We'd gotten FastPasses for this when we did Splash Mountain (right beside each other) to come back around 7 PM...and it was our favorite ride in the Magic Kingdom!!! We would've ridden it, again...except that it sprays a little water mist, and it.was.freezing. It was awesome to ride it at night, though!
We hopped back on Will's beloved Walt Disney World Railroad, got off in Fantasyland, and made our way back over to Tomorrowland for another go on Will's other fave: Tomorrowland Speedway
JB made the brilliant move to buy three light throw blankets at this point, b/c we wanted to stay for the Electrical Parade, but we were SOOO COLD! (It was ~50°F & windy.) We snuggled on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover under those blankets and had a lovely time! :-D
We got nice spots to watch the Main Street Electrical Parade, and we were completely enthralled with the castle changing colors every five minutes or so and the way it looked as if it were frosted in diamonds with sparkling white Christmas lights!
The parade reached us around 9:20 PM...
And Annelise was out like a light around 9:30! :-P
JB carried her out the whole way to the monorail on his shoulders ♥
Wednesday the 27th was the day we finally went to the iconic Magic Kingdom! [Again, we strategically waited until Wednesday - the "quietest" (it was still PACKED, but ;-)) day of the week there.] We were so blessed weather-wise: it began pouring rain as we boarded our hotel bus to the park that morning. I told our driver to feel free to go slowly as he wanted ;-) ...but literally 30 seconds before we had to get off, the rain stopped and the skies turned blue! Thank you, God!!!
Arrival:
My fave pic - Will took it! ♥
Our strategy was to go straight to the back of the park to meet Ariel - Annelise's favorite - first, before crowds got nuts. On the way, Will saw that the Princess Fairytale Hall with Rapunzel (the only other princess they remotely wanted to see) was less than a 10 minute wait, and *he* urged us to stop & meet her before heading to Ariel's Grotto. I was surprised, but pleased! I was all about knocking out our two character visits up front!
JB went for our FastPasses to Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid while I took the kids into Ariel's Grotto. We learned from Rapunzel that the characters won't sign a shirt that's being worn, so in line, I had Annelise pull her arms inside her shirt; I zipped up her jacket & pulled her shirt out the top, so Ariel could really sign it! #brilliant
I can't not document this: as we walked out, Will told me he felt weird when he sat with the princesses, like electricity. :-D I said that was a good thing. ;-) He said, "Ugh!" :-P ♥
JB is stronger than Gaston!
After Under the Sea, we got FastPasses for Space Mountain (return time - 12:30 PM), rode The Barnstormer (for little kids!), and discovered one of Will's ultimate faves: Tomorrowland Speedway
I rode with Sis
We ran over to do "it's a small world", simply b/c it's iconic, there was barely a 5 minute wait, and we needed to do it before we met up with my mom...who hates it. Will thought it was awful, too, and swore he wouldn't make his kids do it one day. We assured him that oh yes, he would, and we'd be sitting in the row right behind them, reminding him of this moment & laughing together. :-D
The Sword in the Stone! Pull, Will!
Disney family!!!
Lunch: hot dogs at Casey's Corner - they were huge! - in the shadow of Cinderella's Castle while watching the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party
LaLa bought Annelise a rainbow weave! :-D (It was so fun! She wore it all week!)
Will, Annelise, & I rode Space Mountain. This was my first time, too - I was too scared to ride when I was a child! :-P Honestly, it was my least favorite coaster. I liked the dark, but it was so jerky. It actually ended up tweaking something in my neck (which is still sore 2 weeks later!) and my lower back was achy later that day. :-/ It was thrilling, though. :-P
At the base of Rapunzel's tower
LaLa rode Splash Mountain with us, b/c the Br’er Rabbit stories are our family favorite. ♥ It was chilly...but sooo worth it!!! :-)
Because our kids are so very obsessed with trains, we used the Walt Disney World Railroad to relax & give our feet a break. We rode it all the way around from Frontierland to Fantasyland to Main Street USA and back to Frontierland. We navigated a parade and headed to Pirates of the Caribbean...but it broke down after we'd waited in line for 20 minutes. :-( (There are very few things I'll wait in line for, but Pirates was one of my two happiest Magic Kingdom memories with my Dad! Worth it.) Because we stayed in line, though, and waited a few more minutes after they announced the initial delay (& after a large portion of people waiting in line exited), we got extra free FastPasses to use elsewhere in the park - yay! This was a huge bonus, b/c there are several attractions that only accept the Disney Magic Bands FastPasses for people staying inside the park, but we could use these for one of those = YAY!!! Aside from Pirates, my other most vivid Magic Kingdom childhood memory was the Haunted Mansion. The line was crazy long, but they *did* accept our bonus FastPasses, so we walked right up! Will kept announcing that this was fake, that was fake, etc. :-P I kept telling him, "Yeah, but doesn't it look so cool?!" He admitted it sure did. ;-)
Under the lanterns in Rapunzel's town
We got FastPasses for the holiday-themed-for-a-limited-time Jingle Jungle Cruise. Snuggle selfie:
And then we *DID* make it back right as Pirates of the Caribbean opened up, again, too! JOY!!! :-D We grabbed some dinner at the Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe and headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We'd gotten FastPasses for this when we did Splash Mountain (right beside each other) to come back around 7 PM...and it was our favorite ride in the Magic Kingdom!!! We would've ridden it, again...except that it sprays a little water mist, and it.was.freezing. It was awesome to ride it at night, though!
We hopped back on Will's beloved Walt Disney World Railroad, got off in Fantasyland, and made our way back over to Tomorrowland for another go on Will's other fave: Tomorrowland Speedway
JB made the brilliant move to buy three light throw blankets at this point, b/c we wanted to stay for the Electrical Parade, but we were SOOO COLD! (It was ~50°F & windy.) We snuggled on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover under those blankets and had a lovely time! :-D
We got nice spots to watch the Main Street Electrical Parade, and we were completely enthralled with the castle changing colors every five minutes or so and the way it looked as if it were frosted in diamonds with sparkling white Christmas lights!
The parade reached us around 9:20 PM...
And Annelise was out like a light around 9:30! :-P
JB carried her out the whole way to the monorail on his shoulders ♥
Wow, it's changed so much since I was last there in 1994, but MONORAIL! THUNDER MT RAILROAD! PIRATES! HAUNTED MANSION!…nice to know some classics are still there. And, yeah, It's a Small World is kitschy, but classic.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't do Swiss Family Robinson? That was one of my favorites as a kid…I loved that movie and book!
You know, we walked past Swiss Family Robinson EIGHT TIMES with NO LINE, and the kids NEVER wanted to walk through! I was so surprised, but honestly, I was chilly, so I was all about the indoor/covered rides, too. ;-) :-P NEXT TIME!!! :-D
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