We did a decent job with the body clocks. Well, Louise and I did. I think Dougie made a very early appearance so Tom was in the pool at some unreasonable hour. It was 5.45pm for us and we finished unpacking and showered.
It looked like I was being a kind and wonderful husband by making Louise some coffee and toast and taking it upstairs to her while she got ready, but it was really just a selfish attempt to hurry things along and get us out of the house at an hour to benefit from the first day’s early rise.
I dressed in my smallest T-shirt knowing it may never fit again this trip.
At 7 a.m. on the dot, I was on the Disney app securing a virtual queue for Tiana. This was a pleasing start. Three days earlier in the UK, I had secured us Multipasses, hoping to make the first day go smoothly. As we were off-site, there were slim pickings in terms of times for our first of the day, so they pretty much only started from lunchtime.
We left the house at 8 am, which was right around the time I would have liked to have been waiting at the turnstiles to get into Magic Kingdom. It took 25 minutes to get there and we parked in Peter Pan 25. I had passed Rebecca the camera, not needing to explain what was required of her.
It felt a little cool this morning and we were surrounded by folks in several layers of fleece and long pants. The early start may have been catching up with some of us already.
We arrived at the tram stop as one was pulling away but that was because there was another right behind it. Tom, as would happen every day, got pulled for a manual bag check but we were getting closer!
The monorail looked stacked with a queue stretching right down the ramp, so we opted for the ferry. Of course, as we got very close to the entrance they closed the gate and it left. We could see another one coming in over the water.
We boarded after a few minutes and with being close to the front of the waiting guests we got a seat too. I hung over the side taking some more pictures.
These trips are often just a long stream of decisions about which line might move the quickest and typically me getting most of them wrong. Here was the next.
We were behind the usual collection of goons trying to use Blockbuster membership cards to get in, but finally, we made it.
I fired up the app looking for some guidance on which ride to head for first which wouldn’t have a long standby line. Three rides were currently down which was a bit shit and it proved to have a significant knock-on effect until our lightning lanes kicked in later.
Pirates, Jungle Cruise, and one other, which I forget were down. These big crowd soakers not being available meant that other rides were already mobbed. Buzz said it was ten minutes so we headed there and joined the queue which looked suspiciously longer than ten minutes.
The fact that we were queuing outside pointed towards a much longer wait and that we were able to see some local wildlife. Everyone thought this was a frog, but I toad them it wasn’t.
It took 45 minutes to get on the ride which was in danger of squashing the magical joy of that first-day arrival in Magic Kingdom. Still, everyone enjoyed the ride. We exited, immediately needing food. It was 10 am after all.
Options were slim I have to say. We settled on Friar’s Nook after seeing a longer queue at Gaston’s place for the Creme Brulee Croissant than we went through for Buzz. I mobile ordered and we made our way over. Tom and I waited whilst everyone else walked over to Pinocchio Haus to get a table. We waited for what felt like an age, but it was at least 20 minutes.
The boys had Hot Dogs and the adults all had these tot bowl things.
Our first LL was due now over at Barnstormer so we walked that way.
Thinking we might not fit in the same carriage, Louise and I sat this one out and had a tactical wee. Dougie absolutely loved what was his first rollercoaster ride.
Our virtual queue for Tiana was called. Louise volunteered to stay with Dougie and took him off for a walk to get him to have a nap. The rest of us walked up through Frontierland.
The wait in the virtual queue was about 40 minutes. It did feel odd that it wasn’t Splash Mountain, which was laced with so many memories for us, but it’s a good ride and Freddie loved it.
We were behind Go Pro guy….
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As we left the ride, I did what I would do upon leaving and/or entering every attraction. I fired up the app to plan our next move or the move after the next three moves in most cases. I noticed that more rides were down and tried to take a picture of the app to show you all but, well…..
Second time lucky.
Obviously, this meant the wait times for anything still open were getting a bit silly.
We secured some of the Tiana “Beg Nets”, as Freddie called them and met up with Louise and a sleeping Dougie. Next, we used our LL for Big Thunder, with Louise and I riding second after sitting with Dougie.
Coffee was required now so we made our way right over to Tomorrowland and the Joffries there. This sort of summed up our experience today really.
That took half an hour only for me to then spill half of my (thankfully cold) coffee over myself when putting my straw in.
Dougie was back with us…
and Freddie was in heaven.
Because we are not stupid, Louise and I sat out with our coffees whilst everyone else rode Astro Orbiter. I took the chance to “fiddle with my fastpasses” in the app and managed to move some stuff around to better suit us. It is a full-time job these days.
Philharmagic next for everyone.
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Look how fresh and happy Dougie is after a good nap. During this trip I had a couple of “million-dollar ideas” and I hereby copyright them.
The first was Disney adding the concept of “Nap Pods” into their parks. They would be similar to the sleep pods in Japan…
You hire one for a couple of hours. They are air-conditioned and soundproof and allow you to catch some sleep before emerging looking as happy as Dougie did.
The second idea was that Disney should sell (much cheaper) dummy magic bands that kids under 3 wear. They beep when scanned but obviously don’t need to work for real. Dougie felt so left out as we all scanned into parks and rides, constantly lifting up his naked wrist to the scanner.
We were first into the theatre and I can confirm we moved all the way to the end of our row to avoid the cast members having to harass us as they did all the idiots sitting down in the middle with a full theatre trying to get in. Both of the boys really enjoyed the show.
We walked straight over to Small World for our LL there.
It was a big hit with Dougie.
Safe to say Freddie enjoys the faster rides these days.
It was time now to make our way out of the park and over to Wilderness Lodge for our Whispering Canyon ADR. The park was rammed and I think we all were welcoming the prospect of some quiet time.
We caught the boat over….
It didn’t take us as long as I expected to get there and we were pretty early for our 5 pm reservation. So we chilled in the lobby for a bit. There are worse places to be.
The camera once again fell into tiny hands.
Freddie then had a go with impressive results.
Mainly….
I had checked in via the app and as soon as they opened at 5 we were seated. Everyone ordered the unlimited skillet apart from Louise who had the Nachos.
Dougie being told no, he can’t have the camera again….
The food was so delicious and we had far more than we should have, getting our skillet refilled a few times. Beyond the odd shout for ketchup, I have to say there are no signs of any of the “shenanigans” that made this place legendary in years gone by. Go for the food as it is delightful, but from our last few visits don’t expect the fun and interaction there may have been in the past. Tom made the most of the bottomless milkshakes on offer here and all up it was $236 including an already-added 18% tip. This was due to our party size.
We waddled back to the boat and sailed back to Magic Kingdom. Golden hour was upon us.
It was getting a little chilly again, so Ryan was raided for Louise’s cardigan and the boys felt the benefit.
The resort monorail and a tram got us back to the car.
The traffic was horrific trying to join the 192. It does appear to be broken. You know of course that around this time we would make our first visit to CVS for vital things we needed but did not bring. We were home by 8 and all soon very much asleep.
As first days go, not our best. We had fun of course, but with so many rides being down it really buggered up the park today and if this were our first experience of Magic Kingdom it would not have been a favourable one. Even getting food and drinks proved troublesome which we have never really seen before. The Multipass thing did save the day I suppose at vast expense, but it’s pretty poor for off-site guests as by three days out there isn’t much left for the headliners and everything else has very few early slots available. You need your first LL to be as soon as you get in the park so that you can use that to then free up the ability to book another tier 1 ride. It’s complicated, expensive and needs constant attention throughout the day. Disney, please change this.
Till the next time…..
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