The Amazing Flying Solo Trip - Day 1 - MK, AK & Shopping

[Guest]

As suspected I was awake stupidly early! Checked in at home, then it was time to get moving. I'd not seen the resort in daylight yet, and didn't get to this morning as it was still dark when I left the room. I headed to the food court to grab some breakfast, decided on a bacon, cheese and scrambled croissant - yummy!



Filled up my mug and ended up taking it with me most days as my room was about as far away from the food court as you could get! Just attached it to my bag with a hair elastic and it was no bother at all.
Caught the bus to Magic Kingdom - the first sight of the bus gave me goosebumps!



Snapped some pics of the Contemporary as we passed, really looking forward to staying here for our wedding trip in 2 years time. Arrived just in time for the opening ceremony - I love a bit of rope drop.



The ceremony was amazing as usual, and videoed it for my lot at home (I've watched it twice since getting back!). After the ceremony I went straight under the train tracks and towards Main Street. Always have to take a deep breath before rounding the corner and taking my first look at the castle, it was breathtaking as always!



Found a photopass photographer nice and close and had some snaps done.



I turned myself in a circle and decided on Big Thunder Mountain - which was empty! Rode twice, once in the front, which was a bit pants, and once at the back, which was awesome!



You can't go on BTM without going on Splash as they are so close, so headed here next. Only went once but man I got saturated, and it was only 8.30am! Luckily I didn't take too long to dry



I wandered around to Fantasyland and onto Peter Pans Flight - I do love this ride! It was brilliant as always.



Wasn't sure what to do next so started wandering aimlessly, until I saw a sign that said something about a dress rehearsal in the new Fantasyland... I thought to myself no way... it's not suppose to be open for ages yet! But I went to have a look anyway, and sure enough they were letting everyone in! I went and asked a cast member if I could go in and he said I surely could, so I surely did!



First stop was Enchanted Tales with Belle - I'm not going to talk about it much just in case people reading don't want the surprise spoiled but it was the most adorable thing I've ever seen! Maurice's cottage was so detailed and beautiful.



Next up was a preview for the Be Our Guest restaurant - all I can say is WOW! This place is stunning. Need to find room for an ADR here for our wedding planning trip in November, or might try and squeeze in a CS lunch .



Out in the Beauty and the Beast courtyard were Gaston's Tavern is, was no one other than Gaston himself! I'm developing a bit of a Gaston crush, he was fabulous on our trip to DLP in September and was awesome here, love it when you say thank you to him he tells you that the pleasure was all yours, such a star!





There is also a Beauty and the Beast devoted gift shop. My very good friend Sophie (jellybean) and I spent a lot of time on WhatsApp while I was taking pics of everything in the store and sending them to her, if she had her way I would have come home with the whole shop! She decided on a cushion and I got her and her new hubby Lee their wedding gift.



Heading around the corner into the rest of the preview part, I was lucky enough to go on the new Little Mermaid ride - which was awesome! Again I won't elaborate in case of spoilers.



Loved the new meet and greet at the end with Ariel as well, Loved seeing her as a mermaid and not a human princess! We had our picture taken, I did use and abuse this photopass while I was there (big thanks to my beautiful Bride lazy_emz for letting me jump on the photopass bandwagon!)



Continued...

[Guest]

Being done with the preview I headed over to Dumbo. I'd never been on Dumbo before and as I didn't have anyone complaining about going on a kiddie ride it was time for me to play with Dumbo! I was able to go and investigate the new play/queue system, which looks like so much fun for the little ones, and a great sit down for the big ones! I wasn't in there for very long, so went out and enjoyed the ride!





Heading back toward Main Street I got caught in the physco dancing train parade - sorry can't remember what it is actually called but I had great fun - I conga'd with Donald! Completely random event, but so much fun! I took some more pics with the castle (I adore that castle and it's quickly becoming the theme to our wedding!) and went over to investigate Space Mountain.







It had a 35 minute wait and I really didn't have that much patience for it, so headed toward the exit via the shops, grabbing a bottle of water and a bag of popcorn to have during ride over to Animal Kingdom.



I'd been day dreaming about the pulled pork sandwich at Flametree BBQ for months so this was my first stop! It was amazing, so glad it lived up to my expectations hehe.



Wandering through the shops again I found the stand full of animal print ear headbands, how cool are they! One of my bridesmaids is obsessed with animal print so will be picking up a pair for her on our planning trip next year as a little pre-disney present!



I had about an hour and a half to kill before the Lion King show, so headed to Camp Minnie Mickey to get me some characters! Got through the queues for Donald and Minnie, tried for Mickey but ran out of time! Minnie loved my Aloha Primark tshirt I was wearing so we danced the hula together which was really sweet!





Sat down for the Lion King show which was great - I thought I hadn't seen it before but as soon as it started I remembered I had actually seen it on my 2005 trip - still amazing though, love the monkeys!



From here I wanted to head to the outlets, but wanted to catch a cab from DTD rather than my hotel or anywhere else just to keep the costs down as much as I could, so needed to get to DTD via the closest hotel. My bridesmaid Sam is thinking about staying at Wilderness Lodge when she comes over for our wedding, and it was the first bus to come at AK when I was ready to leave so I jumped on to go and have a look around the hotel. I walked in the lobby and my jaw dropped! WOW! It's stunning in there! I took some pics and went outside to the pool area and had a look around, I think she'd really enjoy staying there.





it was time to head to Premium Outlets on Vineland Road, so caught the DTD bus from WL. I got off at Pleasure Island and went to the cab rank. My taxi driver was a bit of a lunatic! I couldn't understand a word she was saying but hey I got there in one piece and it didn't cost me as much as I thought it would. Oh my goodness did I shop! I only stopped because I physically couldn't carry any more. Loved grabbing a starbucks and chatting to people back home on their free wifi, and grabbed subway for dinner. Got some amazing bargains, including merchandise in the disney store that is still full price in the parks at a huge discount, go figure!
I got a cab directly back to All Star Music, unpacked all my new shiny things, then slowly got ready for bed, had a mammoth day and didn't want it to end! Finally got to sleep, looking forward to the next day!

[disney owl]

what a great day

[Alien]

lovely pictures and trip report. thanks for sharing

[christybell]

Gosh you packed a lot in

What a brilliant day, great pics

[Guest]

Thanks everyone

My first day over there is always chockablock christybell, I love my first day!

[happy bunny]

A super duper day and how lucky to get into the fantasyland soft opening

[pandanne]

Thank you for sharing - what a great first day - I was exhausted just reading it.

Looking forward to the next instalment.

[loves_disney]

great day tabs! packed loads it! i would really like to see loads of piccies of your purchases?

so jealous you got to be part of the dress rehearsal!

[Guest]

Here ya to Amy, this was just outlet stuff