Magic Kingdom ~ Day one

With the other three parks and excellent touring experiences behind us we had high hopes as we headed into this day.  Magic Kingdom (MK) has the most attractions, by far.  Trying to fit everything we were interested in into two days was going to be tough, especially with predicted crowd levels of 5/10 on Thursday and 7/10 on Friday.  We’d only had 3/10 and 5/10 thus far.

I was up at 5 AM, and the rest of the family followed. 
We had our three FP+ reserved, as well as PPO ADR at Crystal Palace to have us near the castle for rope drop (RDRD).  I also hoped to hit both the afternoon parade, as well as the evening entertainment today, if we could.

We were in the car by 6:45 A.M. and parked by 7:20 A.M.


Three of the girls were in princess gear today.
We were happy to hear the monorails were ready and were excited to have a Zootopia themed train.  We rode the resort monorail to the third stop.


We were UNhappy to see a huge swell of people waiting to go through bag check and security.  Everyone had to go through both and even as early as we were it was a mess.  Thankfully, that was the worst part of our day.

The Plan for today was to knock off as much of Fantasyland and Tomorrowland as possible. 




Breakfast was at the Crystal Palace.  We had last eaten there in 2007 and had fond memories. 

It was another great experience.

No sooner did we finish our meal and head out of the restaurant did we see the THRONGS of people streaming toward the castle for RDRD.  I grabbed my 4 girls, and took off toward Merida.  My mom came with us, got temporarily separated from us, and found us again.  John, Kelly, and the boys headed toward 7DMT and did a handful of rides before we saw them again.

We were queued for Merida by 9 A.M. for her 9:15 A.M. Meet and Greet.  My mom stayed in line with the girls when I went to secure more FP+ on our borrowed Magic Bands.  I grabbed Dumbo, and Speedway FP+ for everyone for later. I also grabbed 5 for Cinderella and Rapunzel for later in the day for five of us so that we could hopefully eliminate that as a RDRD goal for Friday morning.

We were the second family to meet Merida.


We then deviated from my touring plan as the line to meet Rapunzel and Cinderella was super short.  I would ditch those FP+ and grab others for I do not remember what.

She’s my favorite princess.

 

John met us and Marie changed out of her princess dress.  The boys and Kelly did a few more rides as we knocked out the Carrousel, the Winnie the Pooh ride, Under the Sea, and headed toward Storybook Circus.

We rode Barnstormer as Kelly, Stewart and Nigel caught up with us.  We then enjoyed Dumbo, and met Daisy and Minnie.  Both were HIGHLY interactive. 

 

Although we’d already met Donald and Goofy elsewhere, our Donald Meet and Greet in AK was before Tabitha wanted to collect autographs.  The line was long on their side, so we opted not to do that now and try again later. 

Lines me no likey.

We headed over for our FP+ of 7 Dwarves Mine Train (7DMT).  Despite reading many people saying it wasn’t worth the build up, we sincerely enjoyed it.  Maybe that was because it was a ride that worked for all of us, and the visuals really were pretty.  Our train car got stalled right in front of the dwarves’ cottage so we had a lot of time to inspect it. 


It was just a bit early for our Be Our Guest lunch.  This is a strange restaurant.  It is fast food for lunch and dinner, but it accepts/requires reservations.  You are encouraged to pre-order your meal, and when you arrive you find your own table and they trace your beacon (rose) to your seat and serve you your food. 

It is exceptionally expensive for what it is.  Thankfully, it does have free soda refills… because when you drop a couple of hundred dollars on lunch it is nice to have extra Coke.  (Note** we did not pay for these meals with real money!)

I was pretty unimpressed with this experience.  I’m not sorry we did it, but I wouldn’t do it again.  It was sort of pretty inside, and the food was pretty good, but I didn’t think it was worth the hype. 
We did try the grey stuff.
(It was delicious.)

We saw Gaston as we left.  We never got to meet him.


We headed over to Enchanted Tales with Belle.  This was one of our longest waits of the trip at about 20 minutes.



The little girls got to be a plate and a salt shaker.

We headed to the Hub in front of the castle and found spots for the 3:00 Festival of Fantasy parade. This was new since our trip in 2011 and we all enjoyed it.  I spent $18 on a mister.  Best.  Idea. Ever. 


We headed over to Tomorrowland and did Monster’s Laugh Floor where Johanna and Daddy were the two-headed guy.  Some did Space Mountain (I know, I know, I should have), and we all went onto Tomorrowland Transit Authority, Carousel of Progress, and Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin.    





Then it was time.
Time to meet Anna and Elsa.  Otherwise known as the reason I booked a throwaway campsite.  The reason I got up at midnight 60 days before our trip.

It was over in 6 minutes. 

Anna was great.  Elsa was icy.  No.  Really.

Six minutes. 

BUT – LADIES AND GENTLEMEN… THIS MEET AND GREET EXPERIENCE MARKED A PRINCESS GRAND SLAM!!!!!!!!

yeah.  I think I was more excited than the girls. 

We went and watched Philharmagic, and rode It’s a Small World with FP+ I’d picked up on my phone.  I think I only cut the wait fro 10 minutes to 2 minutes, but they were my 8 minutes…

It was up in the air if we should eat at Columbia Harbour House, a long time favorite; or Pinocchio’s Village Haus, somewhere we’d never eaten before.  We went for Pinocchio’s.  Stewart was really interested in pasta.  My meal looked so good, but was not at all what I was expecting.  It was fun to eat somewhere new, and it wasn’t crowded, either.  Our family has long since LOVED Figaro, so it was sweet to sit amongst wall paintings of him, as well.

We also checked out the upper balcony overlooking Fantasyland to say that we did.

 

It was time for our Speedway FP+.  Tabitha and Kelly got two rides on it as Tab hadn’t lined her car up right as she went to park, so they had them drive through again.

Some went on to Astroorbiter as John, Nan, Katriel and I watched a bit of the Incredibles Dance Party. 

It was then past time to find seats for the parade and night time entertainment.  Kelly and the older four kids went to do Stitch’s Great Escape, the the other five of us went back to the hub.  No sooner did I get to the Hub did I realize we would not be able to adequately reserve those seats alone, so I texted them to abort their mission and head over to the Hub.  As it was, some guy showed up moments before the evening parade and got in Nan’s way.  She spoke up and went so far as to call over a CM.  The CM moved the dude.

We watched the Main Street Electrical Parade


Celebrate the Magic

And Wishes fireworks.

We were moved out of the hub via the alternative exit (behind Main Street shops).
We made it out to the car smoothly and got home right around midnight.  We had another early day ahead of us, and we all fell exhausted into bed.