Our first day at Disney we decided to go to the the Magic Kingdom. I had not been in 15 years and neither my friend Maribeth nor I had seen New Fantasyland. We opted to skip rope drop to sleep in a bit, but managed to get there just a bit after opening anyway. We rented my scooter and got “celebrating” pins from a cast member that was from PA (where Maribeth is from and where a lot of CM seemed to be from that we encountered lol) and headed to Main Street.
We did a Memory Maker share so instead of paying $150 for the Memory Maker package we split it with several other families. So our first photo of the day was between the pumpkins (everything was decorated for Halloween) with the castle in the back. Then we made our way up to the castle, got another photo from a photopass photographer and headed to Buzz’s ride which we had a fast pass for. I had read a cheat online about how to get max points on this ride but apparently did not remember it as I should have because Maribeth kicked my butt! After we got off the ride, Buzz had just come out to do his M&G so he was our first character meet. I had also spotted Stitch, but unfortunately by the time we got through Buzz’s line (which was pretty quick) he was long gone.
Next we did Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor which was a lot of fun because they really get the audience involved. Our first 3 rides / shows we ended up getting one of the red time keeper cards which has to be some sort of a new record! 😉
After our time in Tomorrowland we went back up to the castle and there was a dance party going on in the hub. We got more photos taken by the castle from a different angle and then headed to New Fantasyland. Our other 2 fast passes were Enchanted Tales with Belle (more geared towards little kids who want to be in the show they put on for Belle, but worth it to see the animatronic Lumiere that is incredibly impressive!) and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We also had a fast pass for lunch at Be Our Guest which was so amazingly well done you really feel like you stepped right into the movie!
We tried 4 times to meet Gaston – but the first time he was walking away as we arrived, one time the line was cut and then the weather just was not working in our favor after that. We did stop to meet Ariel in her grotto though because that was pretty high on my must-do list – I really wanted to see her in her fin!
At around 3 we wanted to head to main street for the parade, but it looked like it was going to rain. We stopped and grabbed our rain gear just in time as the skies opened up and we had trouble finding a spot to hide. Finally we did and waited out the rain storm. Then we rode It’s a Small World until it was time for the Mine Train. The ride was very short, but the 7 dwarfs are my favorite so I loved it. The animatronic dwarfs were amazing and the witch at the end made me jump haha.
We also rode DUMBO which sends you through a play area that was obviously geared for those a bit younger than us 😉 Fortunately our ticket to Dumbo buzzed within a few minutes of us hanging around in there. After that ride it seemed like it was going to pour again so we ducked into a store and put on hats to take pictures and kill time and then found a plug in the corner to charge phones. We were discussing maybe riding Pirates when a cast member said he had fast passes and gave them to us! Awesome!
From the store we headed down to Haunted Mansion where we had gotten a 4th fast pass for. The line was long and we considered not even getting on, but then they started letting everyone in again and things moved quickly. Good thing we decided to get on the ride because we ended up being on the ride with Hanson! When we stopped to get photos with the photo pass photographer the whole family walked by us. How cool! (We didn’t bother them as they were with their families and we figured it was not the time or the place!)
After Haunted Mansion we ended up BACK in Fantasyland to ride the teacups and Ariel’s ride. (She told us that it was a good ride except for Ursula’s singing)
After that Maribeth rode Pirates but I sat it out because I wasn’t sure I was up to get in to another boat ride. We had to go around and a head of the parade to get there. Then we grabbed a spot for the 2nd showing of the parade and got to see part of the fireworks (though not from a great angle, but we had to sacrifice a bit if we wanted a good spot for the parade!)
After the parade we made our way to the exit, returned the scooter and headed to our resort bus. It seemed like once midnight hit – our day went downhill. We were a bit exhausted and minding our own business in the bus line when something landed on my head. I turned to Maribeth and asked her to help me and her response was “that’s a big bug!” She hit me on the head with our poncho bag and a FROG was on the ground. Yes, a FROG jumped on my head. We have no idea where he came from and then I was scared to walk past him to get on the bus because I thought that he was going to jump on me again! He ended up jumping off to the side and I heard a little girl shriek – here’s hoping he didn’t actually land on her too!
Next week I will recap our first day at EPCOT!
Katie 