Magic Kingdom
On Friday, we headed to Magic Kingdom - the core of Disney World. Again, we showed up in time to take advantage of the Extra Magic Hour. As soon as we got through the gate, we made a beeline to meet Anna and Elsa. The girls were decked out in the Anna and Elsa tunics Jen had made them, which both Frozen ladies noticed right away.
After meeting them, we noticed that the line for Cinderella and Rapunzel wasn't too long. So, we decided to meet them as well. First up was the very kind Cinderella.
And then was the very fun Rapunzel.
After meeting the princesses, we headed toward Fantasyland, which is where we spent much of our time at the park. Our first stop was the Mad Tea Party teacups. As usual for something so spinny, Jen was happy to let the other three of us go on it without her.
Then we hopped on Dumbo the Flying Elephant for a slower spin.
Then we headed over to The Barnstormer. Leah has never been a fan of roller coasters, but we managed to convince her to give it a try. She sat next to me, and Molly sat next to Jen. And this was her face as we rode the ride.
She loved it, and got off asking if we could go again. There was no line at all, so we headed in for another turn. Then Molly noticed that she was tall enough to ride by herself. Jen was happy to take a break, so Leah, Molly and I hopped on the coaster. Molly was pretty excited to get to ride a roller coaster by herself for the first time.
We then rode it a third time in the same configuration, all three of us still loving it. The girls would have kept going, but we decided that it was time to see a bit more of the park. So, we headed toward Ariel’s place. First, we went into her Grotto (which also had no line) to meet her.
Then we headed over to her ride to see the retelling of her story in a new way.
Next we headed to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (using one of our prebooked FastPasses). After Leah loved The Barnstormer, I figured she’d like this as well. And she definitely did. She hid her face a couple times when it got going fast, but she was still smiling throughout.
Leah wanted to ride it a second time too, but it had an hour long wait already. So, we decided to move on. We headed over to Tomorrowland, which was always my favorite part of the park as a kid. First stop - the PeopleMover for a tour of everything. After that, we headed to a fun comedy show at the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor.
Then we headed back to Fantasyland for Enchanted Tales with Belle (using another FastPass). This is one of the most interactive parts of Magic Kingdom, where kids get to play a role in the retelling of the story of Beauty and the Beast. Leah opted to not participate, but Molly played the wardrobe.
We then headed over to Peter Pan’s Flight (our last prebooked FastPass) before stopping to eat our PB&J sandwiches for lunch. Then we headed to a ride with an earworm I was hoping to avoid - it’s a small world. Fortunately, the song didn’t stay stuck in our heads for long.
At that point, we decided to take a break from rides and shows to shop a bit. We wanted a souvenir Christmas ornament for our tree, and the girls really wanted a toy to bring home. So, we checked out the shops in Liberty Square and on Main Street and made a couple of purchases.
At that point, we left the park and headed to our hotel for a nap. We really wanted to partake in the nighttime activities at Magic Kingdom, and we knew we couldn’t make it all day. So, we took a bit of a rest. This ended up working out great, as the girls lasted late with no problems at all.
We returned to the park ready for our fanciest dinner of all. But that’s enough of a story to warrant its own post, so you’ll have to wait till tomorrow to hear about it.
After dinner, we had some time before the fun evening activities. So, Jen suggested we go to the Haunted Mansion. I wasn’t so sure, but went along with it. As you may have already guessed, the girls were not fans. I rode with Molly, and she totally freaked out. She ended up closing her eyes and covering her ears for almost the entire ride. Jen said Leah did mostly OK with her, though afterward Leah said she did not like it at all.
Then, we headed to my favorite ride as a kid - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The line was really long, but I had thankfully scheduled a FastPass for it earlier in the day (after we’d used our rebooked 3). So, we walked right in. I was worried Leah wouldn’t do as well on it since it’s more serious than the earlier coasters, but she loved it (as did Molly). We got off and the girls were asking to go again. Sadly, the FastPass only got us the one ride, so there was no return trip in our plan.
We then went to Mickey’s PhilharMagic - a 3D movie that was both enjoyable and indoors, giving us time to warm up a bit.
Then it was on to find a place to watch the Electrical Parade, which started at 9:00. We followed the advice of touringplans.com and set up just outside the Sleepy Hollow restaurant. The girls were ready to go with glowing accouterments that Jen had purchased months in advance for deals much cheaper than could ever be found in the park.
And the parade was lots of fun. The girls probably could have watched it for much longer, despite being cold and up late. After the parade, we moved toward Main Street to find a spot to watch the fireworks at 10:00. We didn’t realize that there was going to be another show before the fireworks - Celebrate the Magic. Fortunately, we managed to catch this show as well as the outstanding Wishes Nighttime Spectacular fireworks show.
We had an awesome day at Magic Kingdom. We could have easily spent another day there, as there was just so much to do. Magic Kingdom was generally ranked as either the #1 or #2 park we visited by the members of our family, but it definitely had the most to offer of them all.
The break in the middle of the day worked out perfectly, meaning we could be there early in the morning and late into the night without any grumpiness from the girls. And fortunately, our next morning was not quite as early, but more on that later.
