Travel diary | Magic Kingdom Day 1

Magic Kingdom (MK) is the star of the show at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida (WDW).

This is the park that you think of as “Disneyland”, and, like its Californian counterpart, Cinderella’s Castle is in the middle, Main Street leads from the entrance to the castle, and five magical lands surround the castle in a circle.

Starting from the entrance and heading around clockwise are –

Adventureland

I’m sure we’ve broken some unwritten rules here, but we didn’t set foot in Adventureland. This is where you’ll find the Jungle Cruise and the Pirates of the Caribbean rides. I know they’re classics, but hubster and I didn’t love them when we did them in Disneyland many years ago, so there were other rides we prioritised for this trip.

Frontierland

This is where you’ll find the Old West, with a couple of brilliant thrill rides – Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain.

Liberty Square

This is a relatively small land themed on the colonial era of America. The buildings are beautiful and the Haunted Mansion and the Liberty Square Riverboat are both here, but mostly we walked through on the way to somewhere else.

Fantasyland

This fairytale-themed land re-opened last year with several new additions, including Enchanted Tales with Belle and Seven Dwarves Mine Ride attractions, and the Be Our Guest restaurant. There was so much that we loved in this land that we spent most of our time here, enjoying both the new rides, as well as many of the fabulous classics, like It’s a Small World and Mad Tea Party.

Tomorrowland

This land is all about the future, with Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and Astro Orbiter located here.

 

Magic Kingdom

We spent a total of two days at Magic Kingdom, but it was in three parts –

• Day 1 was a half day in the evening after the morning at Animal Kingdom

• Day 2 was a half day in the morning with the afternoon at EPCOT, and

• Day 3 was a full day from park opening until around 5pm

Day 1

Our October WDW visit coincided with Halloween, when for over half the month MK closes at 7pm for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) (7pm-midnight). This is a hugely popular ticketed event that many visitors plan their trips around. But it is a considerable additional cost (about US$65 per person), we’re not massive Halloween fans and we figured the kids would be having late enough nights without it!

For the three days that we planned to spend at WDW, day 1 was the only day MNSSHP was not on and so therefore it was the only day MK was open late, with the Main Street Electrical Parade, Celebrate the Magic castle projection show and Wishes fireworks available to us. So we spent the morning at Animal Kingdom to take advantage of their morning Extra Magic Hours, then headed back to the hotel for a swim and rest, before arriving at MK at around 5pm.

This worked out really well, because while hubster and I probably would have done back to back park time and not gone near the hotel pool at all, the kids had been begging to go in the pool ever since we arrived the night before.

It was lovely and relaxing to be able to wander in to Magic Kingdom when it suited us, with no ambitious aims to get on lots of rides.

Our plan was to see the parade, light show and fireworks, use the three FastPasses that we had booked, and explore and soak up the atmosphere of “The Most Magical Place on Earth”.

 

Welcome!

We’re here! At 5pm we were welcomed to MK with blue skies, sunshine and hearts filled with excitement.

 

 

 

Cinderella’s Castle

Main Street is where there is the greatest concentration of Disney photographers.

Everyone wants a pic in front of the castle, including us! Tinkerbell even stopped by to sprinkle us with some Disney magic!

 

One of my first impressions of Magic Kingdom was that there was entertainment everywhere. You couldn’t walk for long without going past a show, a band, a parade or some characters. I’m not sure what this show was, but it had Mickey, Minnie and all the princesses. It looked great, but we only ever saw it from a distance as we were on our way somewhere else.

You really can’t fit everything in!

Rides

We had a FastPass to Splash Mountain in Frontierland, so that was our first stop, but sadly they were having technical difficulties and it was temporarily but indefinitely closed. They were honoring FastPasses at a selection of other rides, so Space Mountain in Tomorrowland ended up being our first ride instead.

Master 6 had been a bit nervous about this dark ride when we’d talked about it at home, but after Expedition Everest that morning we were all up for some thrills.

 

 

 

Food

Pinocchio Village Haus is an adorable building in Fantasyland. Inside you’ll find a quick service restaurant, which means you line up, order at the register, collect your food and find a table. It is huge and very busy. Fortunately there is an abundance of staff standing around waiting to clear and clean tables, so the tables turn over quite efficiently.

If you can get the right table you will find yourself overlooking the It’s a Small World ride, which is great for keeping the kids entertained waving to people in their boats.

At around 6.30pm we grabbed a quick meal here in between attractions.

 

 

Anna & Elsa

This was a highly prized FastPass since I spent a lot of time online to secure it! It is the most difficult FastPass to get and ideally needs to be booked as soon as they become available 60 days in advance. I wasn’t that organised, so had to check repeatedly in the hope some would become available. But it was so worth it!

We walked straight in at around 7.30pm and were made to feel like royalty. I didn’t notice what the standby wait was, but it is often up to 90min. The girls were absolutely lovely and spent so much time with the kids. They are so clever at chatting on and on, asking the kids questions, always staying completely in character, signing their autograph books and having hugs and photos.

More info on FastPasses here.

 

Main Street Electrical Parade

People started reserving prime spots near Cinderella’s Castle long before this parade was due to start.

Fortunately hubster spotted a front row position for us along the road in Liberty Square about half an hour before the 9pm kick-off. Thanks to our BYO glow sticks I avoided spending money on all the glow-in-the-dark gear. And our BYO ponchos kept our bums dry!

The floats are fantastic and the crowds are so well-behaved. No pushing and shoving despite it being wall-to-wall packed.

 

Celebrate the Magic light show and Wishes fireworks

The crowds following the parade are a little bit scary. It takes a very long time to get anywhere and you hold onto your children tightly!

I was so thankful that we had a FastPass for the 10pm light show and fireworks, because it meant we had a perfect view in a much less crowded environment. The FastPass area is an enclosed grassy area with a well-controlled entry.

There are beautiful projections on the castle, some narration and music, followed by a magnificent fireworks display. It is the perfect end to a wonderful first day at Magic Kingdom.

 

Read about the rest of our trip here –

Travel Diary  |  16 hour flight from Sydney to Dallas

Travel Diary  |  2 days in the mountains of North Carolina

Travel Diary  |  Disney’s Animal Kingdom

 

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