The one I am DEFINITELY planning! Day 3 - Magic Kingdom

Tues 12

This morning we got up and headed to the gym at about 0730 where I did 2 miles on the treadmill and Rob did some weights.

We got showered and headed to breakfast where we had a similar selection to yesterday but had the oddest experience because our server pretty much ignored us for the whole time.

We were brought drinks by Daniel who was one of the assistants (and had helped us and our different server the day before) but the main server just ignored us. So, we gave a tip to Daniel and not the actual server!

We sorted out our bags (which we hadn’t unpacked) and headed to Port Orleans Riverside to collect Jennifer and Tom.

We then all went across to Wilderness Lodge where we checked in and stored our bags with bell services.

We drove to the Ticket and Transportation Center and parked up before taking the monorail to the Polynesian so we could show Tom a few of the resorts.

We looked around and got a drink before moving on to the Grand Floridian where we explored and then saw the gingerbread house.

We were having lunch at the Grand Floridian Café so checked in and took delight in giving over a USA phone number so that we actually got the message about our table being ready.

I had the pomegranate lemonade and Tom had the frozen cappuccino (I think) while Rob and Jennifer had standard sodas I believe.

We were brought some biscuits (scones) there were 4 but we had started before I took the photo.

I had the cobb salad, Rob had the club sandwich and I am pretty sure Jennifer and Tom had the same with some modifications.

None of us had room for dessert – my salad was massive!

By now we had our room ready notification so we took the monorail back to TTC and collected the car.

We located our room which none of us were expecting to be in the main building (we were just on the edge of the lobby).

I don’t know where we thought the Copper Creek rooms were but this wasn’t it!

We got our bags brought up, unpacked and changed for Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party and took the boat across to the Magic Kingdom.

We entered the Magic Kingdom just before 5pm and received our wristbands, I told Tom to take a photo of the entrance but apparently, he can’t find it!

We entered the park and as expected were directed down the bypass where there were some Xmas photo opportunities and we were each given a MVMCP ornament.

We had bought the party ticket as an alternative to a day ticket to the park and so we were not focussed on Xmas activities – this was to hopefully secure lower queues and to maximise the number of rides we could get Tom through in one trip!

We headed across towards Adventureland/Frontierland stopping briefly to take a photo of Jennifer and Tom in front of the castle.

We decided to start off with Pirates as the line was only 20 or 30 minutes. When we joined the line, it looked longer than stated but as we were nearing normal hours closing time we decided to stick with it.

I can’t remember how long we waited but I know it was shorter than stated, so we were off to a good start. Jennifer told Tom about the camera but sadly not the right direction 

I think we planned to ride Big Thunder next but either it broke down or the line was too long.

So, we continued towards Fantasyland and instead selected the classic ride of It’s a Small World, because everyone has to ride that at least once.

Again, the line wasn’t long but appeared longer than the stated time – but we were just coming up to 6pm so we got in line anyway. It ended up being pretty much exactly as per the sign in terms of the wait.

By now, as the park had officially closed wait times were dropping so next up was Haunted Mansion. The line was short and we went through the graveyard for the first time in ages, we did stop outside the doors but it wasn’t long until we were in the stretching room.

There was however a backlog when the doors opened so the scrum was even worse than normal. We were still in our doom buggies quite soon though and when we got off the ride I entertained the group by turning on my shoes for the first time (it’ll make more sense when I post a photo).

Next up, we headed over to have our first ever ride on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.

The line said it was a 30-minute wait, but it definitely wasn’t. Of course, because we hadn’t been on the ride in this theme before we didn’t recognise any of the standby queue from when it was Splash Mountain.

I think we all enjoyed the ride, but I know Jennifer and I were both disappointed by the heavy use of screens. I’m not sure why they needed to remove so many of the more generic animatronics as they could easily have been re-used.

Rob and I also managed to get absolutely soaked at the bottom of the big drop, there may have been some strong words in the log especially when Tom claimed he was wet and I may have disagreed with that….I believe I very loudly asked if he was kidding me! 

Luckily it was a warm night and with a trip around Big Thunder Mountain we both started to dry off a little.

We headed back towards Fantasyland and decided to complete the mine themed rides with Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Another short wait, which is lucky as it’s a short ride!

By now it was around 8.30 and we needed a drink and a snack as a pick me up. We stopped off at cosmic rays where I got a very Christmassy coloured cake and we got a drink. Jennifer also found the ‘free’ cookie and some really awful hot cocoa.

The cake was quite sweet but was not bad, and really helped add some energy for the rest of the night.

In what could be judged a poor decision we then decided to ride Space Mountain, this felt like a slightly longer wait but it definitely wasn’t ‘long’ as from our photos I can see that we managed to get from cake through to Tron (having done Space Mountain in between) by 9.40.

So, 2 rides in an hour maximum with one of those rides being one of the most popular in the park.

We also all enjoyed the ‘rave’ style Christmas music inside Space  And I am still loving Tom's quote that there is "loads of Space left at the top" which you might hear in my video 

Having done Space and Tron we decided to take in another classic – The Peoplemover!

We obviously got to enjoy the music again as we went through and as we returned to disembark the fireworks started so we watched them from the edge of Tomorrowland. They were a little off centre but I don’t think it matters as much now that it isn’t Holiday Wishes.

We didn’t have many rides left to check off our list so straight after the fireworks we headed to Buzz Lightyear – where in a massive twist I managed to get a higher score than Rob for the first time in years.

We then decided to take a spin on the Speedway, Jennifer and Tom in one car, Rob and I in the other. Tom did pretty much as expected for a novice and bounced off the rails for a little while! I also enjoyed the Christmas decorations scattered around 

We skipped Storybook Circus and decided to ride another headliner (not really) in the form of the Little Mermaid. The ride queue was very wet which was odd as it wasn’t raining – we assumed sprinklers in case of firework fallout?

We then picked up a ‘free’ cookie each from Gaston’s tavern, declining the offer of eggnog. These cookies were actually quite good, which was surprising.

I got Jennifer to take a photo of me in my full Christmas outfit – the comment about my shoes should now make sense. I got so many comments and compliments on them over the evening.

We did catch a glimpse of the parade in Frontierland as we waited to cross over on our way to our last ride of the night – which we decided would be Jungle or indeed Jingle cruise, sadly the boat was too loud or our skipper was too quiet.

This meant that Tom didn’t really understand the hilarious jokes that he wasn’t hearing.

We excited the park via Main Street, with Tom getting his first proper view on the way out!

We took a few more photos as we headed out, and left the park just before midnight, catching our boat back to the Wilderness Lodge.

I checked back and we did around 25,000 steps today, we did criss-cross the park a couple of times but achieved our aim of maximising rides.

We mostly missed shows (CoP, Philharmagic etc which closed at 6pm) and some of the smaller rides like Dumbo but we got through all of the headliners and none of our waits were long at all – even Tron.